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Tag: outbreaks

CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people

Genetic sequences of H5N1 bird flu viruses collected from a person in Louisiana who became severely ill show signs of development of several mutations thought to affect the virus’ ability to attach to cells in the upper airways of humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

One of the mutations was also seen in a virus sample taken from a teenager in British Columbia who was in critical condition in a Vancouver hospital for weeks after contracting H5N1.

The mutation seen in both viruses is believed to help H5N1 adapt to be able to bind to cell receptors found in the upper respiratory tracts of people. Bird flu viruses normally attach to a type of cell receptor that is rare in human upper airways, which is believed to be one of the reasons why H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people and does not spread from person-to-person when it does.

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How America Lost Control of the Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.

But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus.

“It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said.

Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 875 herds across 16 states have tested positive.

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Avian flu detected in Manitoba for the 1st time this year

Manitoba has confirmed its first case of avian influenza in domestic birds for 2024 at a commercial poultry operation in Portage la Prairie.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the viral infection was detected on Nov. 26. Similar cases have previously been detected in the province in 2022 and 2023.

CFIA has set a primary control zone in the area where the disease was detected.

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Gov. Newsom declares state of emergency over bird flu to boost California’s response

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency to boost the state’s response to the avian flu, which has infected more than 600 dairy herds and 34 people in the state amid a national outbreak that began in the spring.

The proclamation gives state and local agencies additional flexibility on staffing, contracting and other rules to support the H5N1 response, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

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Ottawa Public Health warns of very low risk of hepatitis A exposure at south-end Tim Hortons

Ottawa Public Health is warning residents about a possible risk of exposure to hepatitis A at a local Tim Hortons in the city’s south end.

OPH says it is investigating a confirmed case of hepatitis A in an employee at the Tim Hortons at 372 Hunt Club Rd.

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Over 300 COVID outbreaks hit Alberta acute care facilities last year

The reality is that people are dying from COVID in our hospitals, and we really are doing very little to prevent them getting ill and getting infected. And we wouldn’t do the same for any other infectious disease.

— Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency physician in Calgary and co-founder of the Canadian Covid Society
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Hundreds may have been exposed to measles during November NATO conference in Montreal

Montreal Public Health says hundreds of people may have been exposed to measles during a recent NATO conference in the city.

The agency says one of the participants in the military alliance’s parliamentary assembly, which took place in Montreal last month, received a measles diagnosis after returning to their home country and would have been contagious while they were in the city.

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Single bird flu mutation could let it latch easily to human cells, study finds

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute are reporting that it would take just a single mutation in the version of bird flu that has swept through U.S. dairy herds to produce a virus adept at latching on to human cells, a much simpler step than previously imagined.

To date, there have been no documented cases of one human passing avian influenza to another, the Scripps scientists wrote in their paper, which was published Thursday in the journal Science. The mutation they identified would allow the virus to attach to our cells by hitching itself to a protein on their surface, known as the receptor.

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BC Closes Bird Flu Investigation After No Further Cases Found

A British Columbia teenager who got sick with bird flu two weeks ago did not infect any people or animals they were in contact with while infectious, according to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The B.C. teenager was admitted to BC Children’s Hospital on Nov. 8 and remains in critical condition, although they have made some progress over the last few days and their care team is “hopeful that they will recover,” Henry said at a press conference Tuesday.

Because there have been no new cases and there are no new leads, the public health investigation will be closed for now, Henry said.

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B.C. teen with avian flu remains in critical care, no other cases identified

The teenager who is infected with the first human case of H5N1 avian influenza acquired in Canada remains in critical care at BC Children’s Hospital, officials said Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Victoria, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the young person is stable, but still very sick and on a respirator.

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Manitoba reports first case of mpox, province says risk to public is low

The Manitoba government is reporting the first confirmed case of mpox in the province, noting it is also a strain that has not been seen in Canada before.

The province said a confirmed case of clade Ib mpox has been identified in Manitoba and is related to travel in central and eastern Africa.

“The individual was assessed and diagnosed shortly after returning to Manitoba and is currently isolating,” the province said in a news release. “Based on travel history and symptoms, specimens were tested and confirmed by the National Microbiology Laboratory for clade Ib mpox virus.”

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California reveals suspected avian flu case in child with mild symptoms

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today said tests have identified a suspected avian flu infection in a child from Alameda County who had mild upper respiratory symptoms and no known contact with infected animals.

If confirmed, the case would mark the second avian flu infection in a child in North America from a yet undetermined source. Last week, health officials in Canada reported an H5N1 infection in a previously healthy British Columbia teen who is hospitalized in critical condition.

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Bird flu in Canada may have mutated to become more transmissible to humans

The teenager hospitalized with bird flu in British Columbia, Canada, may have a variation of the virus that has a mutation making it more transmissible among people, early data shows – a warning of what the virus can do that is especially worrisome in countries such as the US where some H5N1 cases are not being detected.

The US “absolutely” is not testing and monitoring bird flu cases enough, which means scientists could miss mutated cases like these, said Richard Webby, a virologist at St Jude children’s research hospital’s department of infectious diseases.

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H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teenager displays mutations demonstrating virus’ risk

The genetic sequence of the H5N1 bird flu virus that infected a teenager in British Columbia shows that the virus had undergone mutational changes that would make it easier for that version of H5N1 to infect people, scientists who have studied the data say.

There’s currently no evidence the teenager, who remains in critical condition in hospital, infected anyone else. If that’s the case, it is likely this mutated version of the virus would die out when the teen’s illness resolves. The source of the teen’s infection has not been determined, so it’s impossible to know for sure if the mutations were in the virus that infected him or her. But scientists think it is more likely that the mutations developed during the course of his or her infection.

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First clade 1 mpox case detected in US, in California

Over the weekend California reported the first known clade 1 mpox case in the United States, which involves someone who recently returned from an affected African country and sought care in San Mateo County.

Health officials from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) have not confirmed if the infection is cause by clade 1b, a more transmissible and severe mpox virus causing a widespread outbreak that started in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

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Sick days skyrocketed as Treasury Board employees returned to the office

The number of sick days employees working for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat took during the month of September skyrocketed as the department urged public servants to make their way back to their offices at least three days a week.

According to departmental data, TBS employees took a total of 2,191 sick days between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30.

That was up significantly from previous years. During the same period in 2023, employees took 1,708.9 sick days. In 2022, they took 1,477.9 sick days and in 2021 they had 1,075.4 sick days. In 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, TBS employees’ sick days totalled a mere 827.6 days.

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High rates of COVID are causing outbreaks, rising hospitalizations and deaths heading into the school year

If it seems like many of your friends and neighbours have been sick with COVID this summer, you are not wrong.

Ottawa is experiencing a COVID-19 wave that is sending people to hospital, causing outbreaks in long-term care homes, retirement homes and hospital wards, and even causing deaths among some of the most vulnerable. At least one local hospital has tightened masking requirements following outbreaks there, and Ottawa Public Health is advising students to take precautions when they head back to school, including staying home when sick and wearing masks for their own protection and the protection of others.

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Mpox vaccination program sees brisk uptake in Ottawa

Public health officials in Ottawa are ramping up a vaccination program to limit the spread of the mpox virus, and there are signs that early uptake has been brisk.

After announcing on Saturday that it was opening 36 spots for vaccination against the virus that causes the infectious disease formerly known as monkeypox, Centretown health clinic MAX Ottawa said Monday it’s fully booked and exploring ways to expand the program.

Ottawa Public Health’s (OPH) Sexual Health Clinic on Clarence Street is also offering vaccination against mpox. Eligibility criteria can be found on the OPH website.

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