Biological Agents & Infectious Diseases
WHO H7N9 Risk Assessment - Feb 2017 (
Avian Flu Diary) Yesterday the WHO released a new Influenza at the human-animal interface report - one that reflects information provided by the Chinese government through February 14th of this year. As new cases continue to be announced - and others are presumably in the 'pipeline' - case totals increase almost daily.
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When Nature is a Terrorist (
Washington Post) Bill Gates, the world's richest man, who has devoted much of his philanthropy to improving global public health, gave a speech the other day at the Munich Security Conference that should have caught everyone's attention. Mr. Gates insisted that world leaders think differently about public health and national security. They should listen.
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Global Health Security
Continued Endemic Wild Poliovirus Transmission in Security-Compromised Areas - Nigeria, 2016 (
MMWR) On August 10, 2016, 2 years after the most recent wild poliovirus case was reported in Nigeria (in July 2014), two WPV cases were reported in the northeastern state of Borno, which has been severely affected by insurgency-related insecurity since 2013. On September 9 and 26, 2016, two additional WPV cases were reported in Borno in children whose families migrated from security-compromised, inaccessible areas of the state.
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Medicine & Public Health
Number of Pregnant Women Caught in DC's Botched Zika Testing Rises to Nine (
Washington Post) The number of pregnant women in the District who may have been infected with the Zika virus last year - but who were told they were not because of botched tests at a city lab - has reached nine, DC officials said Thursday. That's a jump from the two women who DC officials initially said had been incorrectly given a clean bill of health. And the number appears likely to rise further.
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Combining Contact Tracing with Targeted Indoor Residual Spraying Significantly Reduces Dengue Transmission (
Science Advances) The widespread transmission of dengue viruses, coupled with the alarming increase of birth defects and neurological disorders associated with Zika virus, has put the world in dire need of more efficacious tools for
Aedes aegypti-borne disease mitigation. We quantitatively investigated the epidemiological value of location-based contact tracing (identifying potential out-of-home exposure locations by phone interviews) to infer transmission foci where high-quality insecticide applications can be targeted.
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Science & Technology
Other 21st Century Threats
Kim Jong-nam Killed by VX Nerve Agent, Say Malaysian Police (
The Guardian) Kim Jong-nam was killed using the highly toxic liquid nerve agent VX, Malaysian police have said. One of the two women suspected of involvement in the poisoning vomited in police custody and was also suffering the effects of VX, which is only usually used in chemical warfare, the inspector general, Khalid Abu Bakar, said.
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