Treyfish's multiple zoonotics during COVID-19 pandemic thread

[Treyfish]

New Ebola outbreak likely sparked by a person infected 5 years ago


By Kai Kupferschmidt
Mar. 12, 2021 , 1:15 PM

An Ebola outbreak in Guinea that has so far sickened at least 18 people and killed nine has stirred difficult memories of the devastating epidemic that struck the West African country between 2013 and 2016, along with neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, leaving more than 11,000 people dead.

But it may not just be the trauma that has persisted. The virus causing the new outbreak barely differs from the strain seen 5 to 6 years ago, genomic analyses by three independent research groups have shown, suggesting the virus lay dormant in a survivor of the epidemic all that time. ?This is pretty shocking,? says virologist Angela Rasmussen of Georgetown University. ?Ebolaviruses aren?t herpesviruses??which are known to cause long-lasting infections??and generally RNA viruses don?t just hang around not replicating at all.?

Scientists knew the Ebola virus can persist for a long time in the human body; a resurgence in Guinea in 2016 originated from a survivor who shed the virus in his semen more than 500 days after his infection and infected a partner through sexual intercourse. ?But to have a new outbreak start from latent infection 5 years after the end of an epidemic is scary and new,? .....:tiphat:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ak-likely-sparked-person-infected-5-years-ago

 

[sharon sanders]

bump this

 

[Pathfinder]

Guinea can become center of Ebola outbreak by summer if nothing changes - Russian official
...
MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. Guinea can come to be a cluster of the Ebola virus outbreak by summer unless the situation there changes cardinally, Russia?s consumer watchdog head Anna Popova told TASS.

"It is a hotspot for us there because our forecasts show that unless the situation changes dramatically <?> we can get an epicenter of the Ebola fever outbreak. Now everything necessary is being done, our colleagues are working there to avert that," she said.
...
https://tass.com/society/1265115

 

[Treyfish]

Trove of new coronaviruses detected among bats in China, study finds


By 9News Staff
5:35pm Mar 16, 2021

A trove of new coronaviruses have been detected among bats in southern China, a study has found.
Researchers have sequenced 24 coronavirus genomes, four of which were found to be new viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2.
Experts from Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences in Taian, China, studied 302 samples of faeces and urine, and took 109 mouth swabs from 342 live bats between May 2019 and November 2020.
The researchers trapped and released nearly two dozen species of bats in an area spanning about 1100 hectares.
One of the viruses researchers found in a Rhinolophus pusillus bat shared 94.5 per cent of its genome with the COVID-19 pandemic virus - the second-closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2.

The closest known relative is currently RATG13, a coronavirus which was found in a Rhinolophus affinis bat in Yunnan in 2013, which shares 96 per cent of its genome with SARS-CoV-2...

.:tiphat:https://www.9news.com.au/national/n...dy-finds/a76cc28f-0ed9-4e8d-9eb5-6c0727201dbb

 

[Treyfish]

• Published: 15 March 2021

Tomorrow?s biggest microbial threats

• Mike May

Nature Medicine volume 27, pages358?359(2021)Cite this article

• Metricsdetails

Although many health experts around the world must stay focused on the ongoing viral pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, similar viruses and microbial organisms such as bacteria could create the next global killer. Experts discuss the most likely culprits.

......

The unknown?in this case, novel and maybe even unimaginable diseases?creates the most fear for some people, but there are plenty of known types of diseases to worry about, and some experts see those as the most dangerous. For instance, Amesh Adalja, an expert in preparing for pandemics and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says, ?The biggest threats are still going to come from ones that we?ve already characterized.? For a top global threat, Adalja picks influenza virus, noting that it ?has proven time and time again that it?s capable of causing pandemics and based on its genetic structure it?s really only a matter of time before new strains emerge that have the capacity for efficient human-to-human transmission.?

There is a list of deadly influenza outbreaks. The 1918?1919 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, which was more than one third of the world?s population. About 1 million people died in the 1957?1958 influenza pandemic, and there have been others. However, influenza is not the only known threat.

......

In 2018, Adalja wrote: ?The most probable naturally occurring [global catastrophic biological risk]-level threat that humans face is from a respiratory-borne RNA virus, and so this class of microbes should be a preparedness priority.? He was right, because SARS-CoV-2 is just such a virus. Thinking even more broadly, he now says that ?any kind of efficiently spreading respiratory virus, whether or not it comes from influenza or coronavirus families, should also be thought of as potentially having pandemic potential because they all have these similar characteristics in that they spread efficiently from human to human.?
Reacting to resistance


In addition to defending against coronaviruses, public-health experts must also defend against other known microbial threats, such as antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria. Even now, these microbes cause about 700,000 deaths a year around the world, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis accounts for about one third of those. Experts already forecast far more AMR-related deaths ahead, with the United Nations Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance warning that drug-resistant disease could kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

According to Linfa Wang, a professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke?National University of Singapore Medical School, AMR bacteria remain a key concern, but he says, ?at least we can do systematic and targeted surveillance and monitoring, which will provide some early warning.?

....
Inter-species interactions


Infectious agents that jump from non-human species to humans?even ones beyond coronaviruses?also appear to be increasingly dangerous. ?There are millions of animal viruses for which a jump to humans becomes increasingly likely as our populations and those of our livestock grow and expand into new territories and niches,? says Iruka Okeke, a professor of pharmaceutical microbiology at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. ?However, between now and when that happens, millions of people will be sickened and/or killed by existing pathogen threats.?

.......

Keeping track of zoonotic diseases also poses a problem. For emerging zoonotic diseases, Wang says, ?We don?t have a reliable and affordable monitoring system yet, so the responses will always be reactive rather than proactive.?

Plus, there is so much to monitor. Over than a decade ago, scientists reported that more than 70% of new pathogens come from animals. It will be difficult to stay ahead of these potential threats.
Working with the unknown


In many ways, healthcare systems will remain reactive to deadly infections. For example, Kevin Marsh, the senior advisor for the African Academy of Sciences, says, ?It is in the nature of such threats that we can?t predict the next one either in timing or pathogen, but we can be pretty sure that there will be new ones.? So, he says, ?The key is active surveillance and having mechanisms for rapid identification and response to new outbreaks.?

A sophisticated surveillance system might even prevent another disease from spreading around the world so fast. ?The world needs to build proper microbial surveillance networks to monitor any developments in infections within regions?essentially have a pathogen genetic surveillance group that concentrates on these activities,? Alobo states. ?Early warning systems are needed.?

Warning systems would help. In the face of so much uncertainty, however, healthcare systems cannot afford to wait on outbreaks before reacting.
.....


.....? Despite the rapid success in detecting SARS-CoV-2 and developing several effective vaccines, Okeke says, ?it has been impossible to make people stay home or masked to avoid transmission in most countries.? She adds, ?When given the choice between skipping a holiday and posing mortal risk to another?s life, sufficient numbers of people have chosen the latter and we have to presume that they will do it again.? So, preparation goes beyond science and deep into societies around the world.
....


:tiphat:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01264-2

 

[Treyfish]

The next pandemic: Ebola?


19 March 2021 ? by Priya Joi

Ebola has so far only affected African countries and occasional cases outside of the continent have been rapidly contained. But the virus could mutate to spread more easily between people, making it more of a pandemic threat.

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A town square dedicated to Isaac Newton in Reston, Virginia seems like an unlikely place for an Ebola outbreak, but that?s exactly what happened around 30 years ago. In 1989, the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit looked after monkeys imported for scientific research and educational purposes. When dozens of macaques brought in from the Philippines suddenly died, testing seemed to show that they had died from the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus that can kill as many as nine out of ten people it infects. With homes and shopping centres very close to the ?monkey house?, the army was called in to contain what had the potential to be a devastating public health outbreak. But one never came. Monkey handlers appeared to develop antibodies and did not get sick. That?s when scientists realised they had discovered a new strain of Ebola that they called Reston, that causes disease in animals but not people.

Since the monkeys didn?t have contact with each other, some scientists believe the virus could be airborne, though others suggest that the virus could have spread through the animals throwing faeces or handlers using the same gloves and equipment on several animals.

The prospect of Ebola becoming airborne is contentious ? senior infectious disease specialists say it?s a likelihood, whereas others argue that, even with frequent mutations, no virus that affects humans has ever changed its mode of transmission. What may be more likely is that, given the pattern of previous Ebola infections, in which people have infected others that they have not had close physical contact with, Ebola is sometimes spread by respiratory droplets even if this is not the main method of transmission.
DISEASE: EBOLA


Where is it circulating? Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democ.....

Pandemic threat: There are four Ebola viruses that cause disease in people, all of which are endemic to Africa. While these are mainly spread through a direct exchange of bodily fluids, it could be spread through respiratory droplets, such as when people produce bodily secretions such as sneezes or coughs (or as often happens with Ebola, vomit).

Scientists have also wondered if the virus could in some cases be transmitted through smaller, aerosolised particles, although this does not seem likely to be a major mode of transmission. Since Ebola is such a ferocious killer and it doesn?t spread very easily, it often kills people before they have had a chance to spread the virus. However, if the virus mutates in ways that allow it to spread via respiratory droplets, as COVID-19 does, that would increase the potential for it to spread more easily and become a pandemic threat.

Reston so far only affects animals, but it is so similar to the other four Ebola viruses, there is a concern that it could mutate to become pathogenic in humans and then spread easily around the world through imported livestock or other animal production.

How is it spread? Like many z.....:tiphat:https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/next-pandemic/ebola-virus

 

[Treyfish]

16 diseases from eyebleeding fever to explosive diarrhoea that could be the next Covid


The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an organisation founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and several nations, has published the list of diseases

• By

Milo Boyd
Reporter

• 23:04, 22 MAR 2021

Diseases which could "shatter" civilisation if they were to begin spreading have been identified in a new report.

The 16 illnesses have emerged in countries across the world and have the potential to trigger a new pandemic, it has been claimed.

While some are well known to those in the West, such as E. coli and HIV, others are less known but just as deadly, with one causing bleeding from orifices and another brain swelling.

The diseases have been highlighted in a report published by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an organisation founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and several nations.....

"And any of these could be the next Covid, or worse."

Highlighted in the report are coronaviruses other than Covid-19, which could rip through the world's populations with even deadlier consequences.

It warns: "The emergence of a coronavirus combining the transmissibility of Covid-19 with the lethality of SARS or MERS would be civilisation-shattering."....

16 diseases which could cause the next pandemic

• E.coli 0157:H7 - A bacteria found in food, often in milk and ground beef
• Cyclosporiasis - An intestinal illness caused by eating food contaminated with parasite
• Whitewater arroyo virus - Viral infection found in wood rats that can cause liver failure
• Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome - A respiratory disease carried by rats which kills a third of patients
• HIV - A virus attacking the body's immune system which can lead to AIDS, an auto-immune disease
• Nipah - This disease causes severe brain swelling, seizures and vomiting
• Hendra virus - Passed from flying-foxes to horses and then to humans, it has a 70% fatality rate
• Ebola - A viral fever which can lead to red eyes and unexplained bleeding
• Marburg - A viral hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola
• Hepatitis C - A blood borne illness which can cause liver cancer
• Lassa fever - A potentially fatal condition which causes facial swelling, bleeding from the mouth, nose and vagina
• SARS - An airborne coronavirus which spreads in a similar way to flu that has been eradicated in humans, but could be passed back through animals again
• Cryptosporidiosis - A diarrheal disease that can live in the intestines of humans and animals as well as in warm water
• vCJD - A brain disease passed on through eating infected beef which can cause psychiatric problems, behavioural changes, and painful sensations.
• H5NI Influenza - A highly infectious strain of bird flu which attacks the respiratory system
• Enterovirus 71 - A neurological disease which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease in children

....:tiphat:https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/16-diseases-eyebleeding-fever-explosive-23776174

 

[Treyfish]

PHAC president given until Friday to explain why two scientists were let go

Joan Bryden
Published Monday,March 22, 2021 9:08PM EDT

OTTAWA -- The president of the Public Health Agency of Canada has been given until the end of the week to explain why two Canadian government scientists were let go 18 months after being escorted from Canada's only Level 4 laboratory.

Iain Stewart came under fire Monday from opposition MPs after he repeatedly refused to explain why PHAC terminated the employment of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, in January.

Stewart told the special committee on Canada-China relations that he could not provide details due to privacy issues and "security with respect to the investigation" still being conducted by the RCMP....

....The pair were escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 over what was described as a possible policy breach and administrative matter.

The Winnipeg lab is Canada's highest-security laboratory, designed to deal safely with deadly contagious germs such as Ebola....

..PHAC has said their escorted exit had nothing to do with the fact that four months earlier, Qiu had been responsible for a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology....:tiphat:https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pha...lain-why-two-scientists-were-let-go-1.5358099