H7N9

[Beet]

Large vaccine dose still ineffective

But studies with previous H7 vaccines have shown poor responses in healthy adults who get a total of 180 micrograms of vaccine divided into two 90 microgram doses, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

That means that even with 12 times the dose people get for seasonal flu, healthy adults don't get a great response to the vaccine. And given that the immune system wanes later in life, one would assume the challenge would be uphill from there.

"If you add all those together, it doesn't paint a really very optimistic picture about influenza vaccine being a really significant weapon against this, should a pandemic emerge quickly," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/04/12/flu-vaccine-h7n9-china.html

10 dead, 44 sick as of today. I expect this to go up.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Russian Flu?

[dead0man]

are the ports of Madagascar closed yet?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I wouldn't be too worried about the poor vaccine response.  It is quite likely that the same factors that cause H7 viruses to be poor in their ability to cause human-to-human transmission are also affecting the vaccine response.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oh goody, another overblown scare campaign about some strand of flu that's going to wipe us all out, and pick off where the Swine Flu...and Bird Flu...and West Nile failed. We were overdue for one.

[Cory]

Oh goody, another overblown scare campaign about some strand of flu that's going to wipe us all out, and pick off where the Swine Flu...and Bird Flu...and West Nile failed. We were overdue for one.

A major influenza outbreak is inevitable and a very real thing. It's a fallacy to use West Nile and Swine Flu as examples.

[dead0man]

Sure, just like the Yellowstone Caldera going boom, a large thing from space going boom and all the other things that will give the human race a run for it's money are inevitable, but not really something one should worry about (much less freak out about) all the damn time.

[Beet]

A fascinating map of livestock densities in East and South Asia. This gives us a pretty good idea of why H5N1, SARS, and H7N9 all broke out in China. This is a country that deeply loves its animal meat.

"H7N9 cases to 16 April 2013 (red circles), and population densities of humans (A; density in 2010), pigs (B), chickens (C) and ducks (D) in China and Asia in general. (Livestock densities are modelled numbers of animals per square kilometre standardized to 2006 national totals. Note different scale for pigs.) "

http://www.nature.com/news/mapping-the-h7n9-avian-flu-outbreaks-1.12863

[Beet]

It's Back.

New cases put H7N9 pace near last year's peak

The pace of new H7N9 avian flu cases in China over the past week is rivaling the daily crush of infections that occurred during the first peak of activity last spring after the virus first emerged, with reports today of seven new illnesses, one of them fatal.

What began as a trickle of reports in October that signaled H7N9's resurgence in humans, primarily from poultry exposure, has expanded over the past few weeks to several cases reported each day. Thirty-one have been confirmed from Jan 10 through today, a number below but approaching the 38 cases reported during the peak week of disease activity, which began on Apr 8, 2013.

The spike in activity comes as China enters a heavy travel and shopping period for its Spring Festival season, marked by the Lunar New Year celebration on Jan 31. China estimates that its citizens will make about 3.62 billion trips during the 40-day holiday travel rush, according to a report today from Xinhua, China's state news agency.