The Next Pandemic Watch

[easye]

There are a few interesting diseases circling around right now, so I figured we might as well get a thread started up to talk about a few of them.  


A Michigan farmworker is diagnosed with bird flu in 2nd U.S. case tied to dairy cows

www.npr.org/2024/05/22/1252984256/bird-flu-h5n1-virus-human-michigan-cows

NEW YORK — A Michigan dairy worker has been diagnosed with bird flu — the second human case associated with an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows.



The worker had been in contact with cows presumed to be infected, experienced mild eye symptoms and has recovered, U.S. and Michigan health officials said in announcing the case Wednesday. A nasal swab from the person tested negative for the virus, but an eye swab tested positive, "indicating an eye infection," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

The risk to the public remains low, but farmworkers exposed to infected animals are at higher risk, health officials said. They said those workers should be offered protective equipment, especially for their eyes.

The human risk is pretty low, but it does put livestock and associated agriculture infrastructure at high-risk.  We all know the "price of eggs" is a big talking point right now and Bird Flu has a big impact on that. 

[easye]

www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/health/bird-flu-mexico-human-h5n2/index.html

First-ever human case of H5N2 bird flu reported in Mexico, WHO says

Even as the United States grapples with an outbreak of H5N1 flu in dairy cattle, the World Health Organization has announced the first known human infection with a different strain, H5N2, in a person in Mexico who died of complications of their infection.

Both of these strains of the influenza A virus have primarily affected farmed and wild birds, infecting flocks around the world. About 900 human cases of H5N1 have been reported since 1996, and about half of people known to be infected have died. On Wednesday, WHO said it had confirmed the first case of human infection of H5N2 in a 59-year-old resident of Mexico.
The source of the person’s infection is unknown, although WHO noted that H5N2 viruses had been reported in poultry in Mexico.

Because any new influenza A infection in people has the potential for high public health impact, it must be reported to WHO. The organization said that based on current knowledge, the risk to the general public from H5N2 is low, since other H5 subtypes are known to infect humans but none has been shown to cause sustained human-to-human spread.

[easye]

www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/08/14/g-s1-16977/mpox-public-health-emergency-world-health-organization-who

WHO declares 2024 mpox surge a 'public health emergency of international concern

The World Health Organization has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern. Cases of mpox — previously called monkeypox — have been surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In recent weeks, cases have appeared in nearby African countries, including several that have never reported mpox cases before.

"What we're seeing is tip of the iceberg" because of weaknesses in the surveillance system, says Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of the emergency committee convened by WHO and an infectious disease physician at Niger Delta University in Nigeria.

"This is something that should concern us all," says WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

[Disciple of Fate]

Just saw the first case reported in Sweden, lets see how this one goes.

[Haighus]

I'm hoping we don't get our second hundred year pandemic this decade...

I'm quite fed up of the hundred year natural disasters becoming events that happen multiple times per lifetime. -_-

[mdgv2]

It would be nice to be part of the boring “in 1975 no one died, in 1976 no one died. In 1977 no one died. In 1978 no one died” parts of history.

[easye]

Aug 15, 2024 15:57:00 GMT -5 mdgv2 said:

It would be nice to be part of the boring “in 1975 no one died, in 1976 no one died. In 1977 no one died. In 1978 no one died” parts of history.

But did you see their clothes? 

[mdgv2]

I didn’t, as I wasn’t around. But Peter Kaye won’t stop reminding people.

[semipotentwalrus]

The upside is that smallpox vaccines are effective against mpox too meaning there's already solutions ready to go right off the bat (no pun intended) if shit hits the fan.

[easye]

Good news Walrus! Thanks for sharing.

Onto some other diseases....

www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/08/15/nx-s1-5074058/virus-oropouche-brazil-mosquitoes-midges-dengue

Oropouche virus 101: A guide to a little-known virus that's raising concern this year

The medical journal The Lancet calls it a “mysterious” and “emerging” threat.

PAHO, the Pan American Health Organization, has issued an epidemiological alert urging for increased prevention, surveillance and diagnosis.

The subject of these alerts is the Oropouche virus, named after a village in Trinidad where it was first identified in 1955. Like malaria, dengue and Zika, it’s spread by insect bites – mosquitoes as well as midges, biting flies. The symptoms are typical of many viruses and usually last a week: fever, rash, muscle aches, headache.

[A Town Called Malus]

Aug 15, 2024 18:11:18 GMT -5 semipotentwalrus said:

The upside is that smallpox vaccines are effective against mpox too meaning there's already solutions ready to go right off the bat (no pun intended) if shit hits the fan.

A designated Mpox vaccine has been out there and available for quite a while.

It's spreading in the Congo and to nearby areas at the moment due to lack of access to those vaccines.

[Disciple of Fate]

I thought the wider issue was that the vaccine was only available in limited quantities, so if it suddenly started spreading rapidly on a global scale, then it would take months to produce sufficient amounts.

[A Town Called Malus]

Aug 16, 2024 12:04:14 GMT -5 Disciple of Fate said:

I thought the wider issue was that the vaccine was only available in limited quantities, so if it suddenly started spreading rapidly on a global scale, then it would take months to produce sufficient amounts.

As we saw with Covid, that isn't really an issue if there is actual political will to do something about it.

The vaccine is readily available in the west, to the point that Grindr even has a box you can check to say you've got it, like many dating apps brought in with the covid vaccine.

[Disciple of Fate]

Sure, it can speed up the process, but anecdotally I got my Covid vaccination six months after Pfizer started mass production, I think it took 8 months (from the start of mass production) before everyone was able to get it here. While this might be easier to scale, it could still take weeks/months to scale production sufficiently if you would have to vaccinate everyone, instead of just risk groups.

Mpox isn't as easily transmitted, so the risks seem to be much smaller than with Covid.

[skyth]

Aug 16, 2024 14:43:18 GMT -5 Disciple of Fate said:

Sure, it can speed up the process, but anecdotally I got my Covid vaccination six months after Pfizer started mass production, I think it took 8 months (from the start of mass production) before everyone was able to get it here. While this might be easier to scale, it could still take weeks/months to scale production sufficiently if you would have to vaccinate everyone, instead of just risk groups.

Mpox isn't as easily transmitted, so the risks seem to be much smaller than with Covid.

Plus, like Aids, the group most affected by it are seen as sub-human by certain politicians, so the political will to get it addressed might not be there...