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Today's Headlines: January 17, 2018

Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases

Conflicting Bird Flu Reports from Iraq ( Avian Flu Diary) It isn't uncommon for us to see a wide divergence between press accounts and government admissions about disease outbreaks around the world. With avian flu, we've seen this schism most often in hard-hit places like Egypt, Indonesia, and China. Go to article

Yellow Fever Persists in Brazil; Netherlands Reports Case ( CIDRAP) Both the standard and fractional doses of the yellow fever vaccine will be used across some of Brazil's most populous regions in the upcoming months to prevent further spread of the flavivirus, as the Netherlands reported an illness in a returning traveler. Go to article

See also: Brazil Yellow Fever: WHO Warns Travellers to Sao Paulo ( BBC) The WHO is recommending that travellers to the state and its capital, Sao Paulo, get a yellow fever vaccine before visiting. The warning comes after a significant rise in numbers of suspected and confirmed cases was reported. Local officials say travellers will not be at risk if they stay in cities. Go to article


Domestic Preparedness & Response

What Cities Can Learn from Houston Metro's Hurricane Harvey Experience ( American Prospect) The city's bus and light rail network got through Harvey mostly unscathed because officials improvised--and learned lessons from previous storms. Go to article

House Panel Rolls Out Hurricane Recommendations ( Sun Sentinel: Florida Politics) A major highway project, emergency gas distribution centers, mandatory generator requirements for nursing homes and sales-tax holidays are among more than 70 ideas for improving the state's response to hurricanes. A state House panel put together to look at improving hurricane response following Hurricane Irma unanimously approved its final report Tuesday. That report features 78 recommendations, covering nine categories. Go to article


Medicine & Public Health

Transcription Factors Orchestrate Dynamic Interplay Between Genome Topology and Gene Regulation During Cell Reprogramming ( Nature Genetics) Chromosomal architecture is known to influence gene expression, yet its role in controlling cell fate remains poorly understood. Reprogramming of somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells by the transcription factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC offers an opportunity to address this question but is severely limited by the low proportion of responding cells. We have recently developed a highly efficient reprogramming protocol that synchronously converts somatic into pluripotent stem cells. Go to article

Possible Biomarkers of Deadly Ebola ( JAMA) Molecular analysis of peripheral blood samples from patients with Ebola virus disease identified new mechanisms of pathogenesis and possible biomarkers that may help determine which patients infected with the Ebola virus are most at risk of dying from the disease, according to new research in Cell Host & Microbe. Go to article

Still Not Convinced You Need a Flu Shot? First, It's Not All About You ( New York Times) One of the biggest problems in trying to convince people that they need to immunize against things like the flu is that they don't really feel the pressure. After all, for most people, the flu shot is an inconvenience, and they're unlikely to get the flu in a given year. So why bother? Quite a few readers expressed this view after my article "Why It's Still Worth Getting a Flu Shot" on Thursday, including this one. Go to article

After a Debacle, How California Became a Role Model on Measles ( New York Times) In December 2014 something unusual happened at Disneyland. People came to visit Mickey Mouse, and some of them left with measles. At least 159 people contracted the disease during an outbreak lasting several months. This is more than the typical number in a whole year in the US. Go to article

Assessing Risk Factors for Infection with Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
( American Society for Microbiology) Infections with carbapenem-resistent Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, are a growing concern in the clinic. CRE encompass a wide range of bacterial types, including Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, that frequently cause both superficial and life-threatening disease. Hospital and long-term care patients are particularly susceptible to infections with CRE. Go to article


Science & Technology

MERS-CoV Spillover at the Camel-human Interface ( eLife) Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus is a zoonotic virus from camels causing significant mortality and morbidity in humans in the Arabian Peninsula. The epidemiology of the virus remains poorly understood, and while case-based and seroepidemiological studies have been employed extensively throughout the epidemic, viral sequence data have not been utilised to their full potential. Here we use existing MERS-CoV sequence data to explore its phylodynamics in two of its known major hosts, humans and camels. Go to article

Electronic Nose in the Detection of Wound Infection Bacteria from Bacterial Cultures: A Proof-of-Principle Study ( European Surgical Research) Soft tissue infections, including postoperative wound infections, result in a significant burden for modern society. Rapid diagnosis of wound infections is based on bacterial stains, cultures, and polymerase chain reaction assays, and the results are available earliest after several hours, but more often not until days after. Therefore, antibiotic treatment is often administered empirically without a specific diagnosis. Go to article

MERS-CoV and H5N1 Influenza Virus Antagonize Antigen Presentation by Altering the Epigenetic Landscape ( PNAS) Both highly pathogenic avian influenza virus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infections are characterized by severe disease and high mortality. The continued threat of their emergence from zoonotic populations underscores an important need to understand the dynamics of their infection. By comparing the host responses across other related respiratory virus infections, these studies have identified a common avenue used by MERS-CoV and A/influenza/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1-VN1203) influenza to antagonize antigen presentation through epigenetic modulation. Go to article

A Single Dose of Modified Vaccinia Ankara Expressing Ebola Virus Like Particles Protects Nonhuman Primates from Lethal Ebola Virus Challenge ( Nature Scientific Reports) Ebola virus, isolate Makona, was the causative agent of the West African epidemic devastating predominantly Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2013-2016. While several experimental vaccine and treatment approaches have been accelerated through human clinical trials, there is still no approved countermeasure available against this disease. Go to article

Modelling the Large-scale Yellow Fever Outbreak in Luanda, Angola, and the Impact of Vaccination ( PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases) Yellow fever, transmitted via bites of infected mosquitoes, is a life-threatening viral disease endemic to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and South America. YF has largely been controlled by widespread national vaccination campaigns. Nevertheless, between December 2015 and August 2016, YF resurged in Angola, quickly spread and becoming the largest YF outbreak for the last 30 years. Recently, YF resurged again in Brazil (December 2016). Thus, there is an urgent need to gain better understanding of the transmission pattern of YF. Go to article

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