Thursday 26th January 2017- UNICEF UK: 4.7 Million Children In Vaccination Campaign Against Measles In Northeast Nigeria

‘In a major vaccination campaign concluding this week, 4.7 million children are being vaccinated in response to a measles outbreak in northeast Nigeria. The campaign is covering the three states most affected by the Boko Haram conflict – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – where insecurity has limited vaccination efforts. In 2016, there were approximately 25,000 cases of measles among children in Nigeria; 97 per cent of the cases were in children under the age of ten and at least a hundred children died.

“Security has improved in some areas so we have acted quickly to access places we could not previously reach and protect children from the spread of a very dangerous disease”, said Mohamed Fall, Unicef Representative in Nigeria. “We are still extremely concerned about children living in large areas of Borno state that are not yet accessible.”

Measles infections tend to increase during the first half of the year because of higher temperatures. Measles vaccination coverage across Nigeria remains low, with a little over 50 per cent of children reached, but in areas affected by conflict, children are particularly vulnerable. The risks for malnourished children who have weakened immunity are further heightened. The conflict and resulting displacement have left more than 4.4 million children in Nigeria in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 450,000 children likely to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition in 2017.

The vaccination campaign, conducted in partnership with the Nigerian government, WHO, and several non-governmental organizations, also includes a vitamin A supplement for children under five to boost their immunity as well as de-worming tablets. Most of the funding for the campaign was provided by the Measles and Rubella Initiative.’

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4.7 MILLION CHILDREN IN VACCINATION CAMPAIGN AGAINST MEASLES IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA

Millions of children to receive measles vaccine in north-eastern Nigeria- World Health Organisation

Tuesday 24th January 2017- World Health Organisation: 10 things you should know about the Syrian crisis

‘More than 10 million medical treatments were delivered throughout Syria in 2016, through both cross-line deliveries from Damascus and cross-border deliveries from Gaziantep (Turkey) and Amman (Jordan). More than one third of the supplies required for these treatments were delivered to hard-to-reach, opposition-controlled, and besieged areas.

Wounded and critically ill patients were successfully evacuated from besieged areas including east Aleppo, Foah and Madaya. WHO played a key role in the negotiations and in planning and overseeing the evacuations to parts of Syria and Turkey. During evacuations from east Aleppo, for example, the Organization ensured that 811 people safely reached hospitals. A further 31 500 health care consultations were provided to people fleeing east Aleppo through WHO-supported mobile clinics.

More than 16 000 health workers received training on a range of topics including health assessments, trauma care, case management for specific diseases, mental health, nutrition, immunization and other topics. When WHO could not enter besieged east Aleppo to provide training to first responders (eg. nurses and paramedics), the Organization instead delivered training via telephone and video conferencing. More than 300 Syrian doctors and nurses were also trained in Turkey to provide health care to Syrian refugees in Turkish camps.

Life-saving care was provided to people suffering from non-communicable diseases – like diabetes, kidney failure and mental illness. Thirteen-year- old Luma, for example, received haemodialysis treatment at a WHO-supported health centre in northern Aleppo. In just the third quarter of 2016 alone, WHO supported more than 11 500 dialysis sessions.

Millions of children across the country were vaccinated against deadly diseases including hepatitis B, measles, rubella and the flu. WHO trained over 6 000 people on immunization and, together with UNICEF, worked to vaccinate 2.6 million children against polio.’

See:

10 Things You Should Know About the Syrian Crisis

Friday 23rd December 2016- The World Health Organisation: Final trial results confirm Ebola vaccine provides high protection against disease

‘An experimental Ebola vaccine was highly protective against the deadly virus in a major trial in Guinea, according to results published today in The Lancet[*]. The vaccine is the first to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens, and the findings add weight to early trial results published last year.

The vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, was studied in a trial involving 11 841 people in Guinea during 2015. Among the 5837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination. In comparison, there were 23 cases 10 days or more after vaccination among those who did not receive the vaccine.

The trial was led by WHO, together with Guinea’s Ministry of Health, Medecins sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with other international partners.

“While these compelling results come too late for those who lost their lives during West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, they show that when the next Ebola outbreak hits, we will not be defenceless,” said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation, and the study’s lead author.’

*The final interpretation from the referenced Lancet article:

‘The results add weight to the interim assessment that rVSV-ZEBOV offers substantial protection against Ebola virus disease, with no cases among vaccinated individuals from day 10 after vaccination in both randomised and non-randomised clusters.’

Related Articles:

Final trial results confirm Ebola vaccine provides high protection against disease

Efficacy and effectiveness of an rVSV-vectored vaccine in preventing Ebola virus disease: final results from the Guinea ring vaccination, open-label, cluster-randomised trial (Ebola Ça Suffit!)- The Lancet

Ebola vaccine is safe and effective, scientists declare after trials- The Guardian

Successful Ebola vaccine will be fast-tracked for use- BBC News

The new ‘100% effective’ Ebola vaccine owes a debt to the scientists who beat smallpox- The Independent

Saturday 19th November 2016- Al Jazeera: Battle for Aleppo: ‘All hospitals are destroyed’

 

‘All medical facilities in Syria’s rebel-held Aleppo have been destroyed, health officials and opposition activists have told Al Jazeera, as another day of ferocious government bombardment on the besieged city left dozens of people dead.

Air raids, barrel bombs and artillery fire killed at least 56 people on Saturday, volunteers with the White Helmets group told Al Jazeera. The rescuers, who operate in rebel-held parts of Syria, said they had been pulling bodies, including those of children, out of the rubble.’

‘The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the war, reported a lower death toll of 27 civilians.

The latest deaths came as health officials said that every hospital in the rebel-held east is now out of service – a statement also confirmed by the World Health Organisation, according to Reuters news agency.

“They [health officials] say that they are specifically being targeted to make people give up. In the last few hours, two remaining hospitals have come under intense shelling by the regime,” Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Gaziantep, on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border, said.’

Related Articles:

Battle for Aleppo: ‘All hospitals are destroyed’

East Aleppo’s last hospital destroyed by airstrikes- The Guardian

Syria conflict: Aleppo hospitals ‘knocked out by bombardment’- BBC News

Saturday 19th November 2016- Al Jazeera: Syria war: Air raid hits children’s hospital in Aleppo

(This is video is a similar one from Al Jazeera (AIR RAID HITS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL IN ALEPPO) but not the same as the video from this article. Please see the link below)

‘An air raid has hit a children’s hospital in Syria’s rebel-held east Aleppo, forcing medical staff to evacuate patients, including several newborn babies still in incubators.

The moment of the attack on Friday was captured by an Al Jazeera crew, including journalist Amro Halabi, who was reporting on survivors of previous Syrian and Russian bombing raids on rebel-held parts of the city.

Halabi was filming a man and his two children, who were suffered breathing problems from an earlier attack, when the room suddenly went dark immediately after a loud explosion.

Nurses and other medical staff were seen scrambling through the blackness, trying to rush the patients out of the badly damaged hospital as children cried out for help.

In another room, nurses grabbed babies from damaged incubators, with one staff member using a cloth to protect a visibly undernourished child before trying to console a weeping colleague, who was also carrying a newborn.

The nurses later moved the babies to another room, putting them on the floor next to each other and covering them with blankets. At least one of the infants still had medical tubes attached.

Staff told Al Jazeera that all of the babies survived the attack.’

Related Articles:

Syria war: Air raid hits children’s hospital in Aleppo

Aleppo’s children’s hospital bombed as it treats chlorine gas victims- The Guardian

Syria conflict: Children’s hospital hit in deadly Aleppo strikes- BBC News

Premature babies in Aleppo removed from incubators after air strikes hit city’s only children’s hospital- The Independent

Thursday 12th May 2016- The World Health Organisation:Rapid diagnostic test and shorter, cheaper treatment signal new hope for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients

‘New WHO recommendations aim to speed up detection and improve treatment outcomes for multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) through use of a novel rapid diagnostic test and a shorter, cheaper treatment regimen.

“This is a critical step forward in tackling the MDR-TB public health crisis,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme. “The new WHO recommendations offer hope to hundreds of thousands of MDR-TB patients who can now benefit from a test that quickly identifies eligibility for the shorter regimen, and then complete treatment in half the time and at nearly half the cost.”’

‘At less than US$ 1000 per patient, the new treatment regimen can be completed in 9–12 months. Not only is it less expensive than current regimens, but it is also expected to improve outcomes and potentially decrease deaths due to better adherence to treatment and reduced loss to follow-up.

The conventional treatment regimens, which take 18–24 months to complete, yield low cure rates: just 50% on average globally. This is largely because patients find it very hard to keep taking second-line drugs, which can be quite toxic, for prolonged periods of time. They therefore often interrupt treatment or are lost to follow-up in health services.’

‘WHO’s recommendations on the shorter regimens are based on initial programmatic studies involving 1200 patients with uncomplicated MDR-TB in 10 countries . WHO is urging researchers to complete ongoing randomised controlled clinical trials in order to strengthen the evidence base for use of this regimen.’

‘The most reliable way to rule out resistance to second-line drugs is a newly recommended diagnostic test for use in national TB reference laboratories. The novel diagnostic test – called MTBDRsl – is a DNA-based test that identifies genetic mutations in MDR-TB strains, making them resistant to fluoroquinolones and injectable second-line TB drugs.’

‘This test yields results in just 24-48 hours, down from the 3 months or longer currently required. The much faster turnaround time means that MDR-TB patients with additional resistance are not only diagnosed more quickly, but can quickly be placed on appropriate second-line regimens. WHO reports that fewer than 20% of the estimated 480 000 MDR-TB patients globally are currently being properly treated.’

See:

Rapid diagnostic test and shorter, cheaper treatment signal new hope for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients

Tuesday 10th May 2016- World Health Organisation: Human infection with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus – China

‘On 4 May 2016, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of China notified WHO of an additional laboratory-confirmed case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus.’

’65-year-old female living in Xuancheng City, Anhui province developed symptoms on 24 April. On 27 April, her condition worsened and she was admitted to a local hospital for treatment and is currently in critical condition. The patient’s clinical sample was confirmed to be A(H5N6) virus nucleic acid positive by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) on 2 May. She had exposure to live poultry before symptom onset. This is the first A(H5N6) case reported from Anhui province, China.’

This makes 20 cases of avian influenze A in China reported by the World Health Organisation in May 2016, 5 of which are now deceased.

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The following details are regarding the first 17 cases (which includes 5 deaths):

‘Onset dates range from 21 February to 20 March. Cases range in age from 26 to 86 years, with a median age of 60 years. Of these 17 cases, 11 (65%) are male. The majority (15 cases, 88%) reported exposure to live poultry, slaughtered poultry, or live poultry markets. The exposure history of one (1) case is unknown. One (1) case is linked to a cluster of two (2) cases reported earlier to WHO (see below).

Cases were reported from 6 provinces and municipalities: Anhui (4), Jiangsu (4), Fujian (3), Guangdong (3), Zhejiang (2) and Hubei (1).’

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The following details are regarding 2 additional cases discovered in April 2016:

‘Between 21 and 26 April 2016, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of China notified WHO of 2 additional laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus.’

• ‘A 35-year-old male living in [the]… Hubei Province… was admitted to hospital for treatment on 12 April and is currently in critical condition. The patient’s clinical sample was confirmed to be A(H5N6) virus nucleic acid positive by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) on 21 April. He had exposure to a live poultry market before symptom onset.’
• ‘An 11-year-old female living in Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province developed fever and cough on 11 April. As her symptoms worsened on 12 April, the patient was admitted to hospital for treatment. She is currently in stable condition. The patient’s clinical sample was confirmed to be A(H5N6) virus nucleic acid positive by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) on 24 April. She was exposed to live poultry before onset of the disease.’

Related Articles:

Human infection with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus – China

Human infection with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus – China [6th May 2016]

Human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus – China [3rd May 2016]

Monday 9th May 2016- The Independent: Hundreds of passengers on UK cruise ship fall ill with norovirus

‘Hundreds of passengers on board a British cruise ship have fallen in with norovirus, health officials have confirmed.

At least 252 [of 919] passengers and eight [out of 502] members of staff on board the Balmoral’s “Old England to New England” cruise have fallen ill with the stomach virus since leaving Southampton last month.

Now on its way to the Canadian province of New Brunswick, the ship has undergone inspections by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to the ship’s owners, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

The company said in a statement: “Balmoral has now left the US and is due to arrive in Saint John, New Brunswick later today [9th May 2016]. At no point has Balmoral been quarantined in any port on this cruise, and is continuing as planned.”

“Fred. Olsen has been undertaking extensive sanitisation measures and cleaning of the ship, following the company’s strict illness containment and prevention plan.”’

‘Evidence of the norovirus was confirmed on board while the ship was docked in Baltimore last week, where experts from the CDC carried out an environmental health assessment to evaluate the outbreak.

Despite the CDC proposing action including increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, the number of incidences later soared to more than a quarter of those on board.’

 

‘On Monday [May 9], a Fred Olsen spokesperson said the number of guests who have been confined to their cabins with the virus had reduced to just 15 out of a total of 1,434 guests and crew members on board, but the figure is yet to be confirmed by health experts.’

‘In 2010, at least 310 people on board the Balmoral were reported to be suffering from a vomiting virus when the ship docked in Los Angeles.

A confirmed outbreak of the winter vomiting virus hit more than 100 people on the same ship during a cruise of Scotland in 2009.

The..[CDC]… has reported 10 outbreaks on ships docked in the US so far this year, compared with 12 for the entirety of 2015.

Fred. Olsen said it was “co-operating fully with all the necessary maritime agencies and authorities, and will continue to make every effort possible to ensure the safety and well-being of all its guests and crew on board, which is of paramount ‎importance”.’

Related Articles:

Hundreds of passengers on UK cruise ship fall ill with norovirus

Balmoral cruise ship: Hundreds on board come down with norovirus- BBC News

Hundreds of UK cruise passengers fall ill in possible norovirus outbreak- The Guardian

Sunday 28th February 2016- BBC News: Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey discharged from hospital

‘Scots nurse Pauline Cafferkey has been discharged from a London hospital after being treated there for a third time since contracting Ebola.

The 40-year-old from South Lanarkshire was flown to the Royal Free Hospital on Tuesday after being admitted to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The Royal Free said she had been discharged and was “not infectious”.

Ms Cafferkey was treated there twice in 2015 after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone the previous year.

A spokesman for the Royal Free Hospital said: “Pauline Cafferkey has today been discharged from the care of the Royal Free Hospital following her admission due to a complication related to her previous infection by the Ebola virus.

“We can confirm that Pauline is not infectious. The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt later tweeted: “It’s fantastic news that Pauline Cafferkey has been discharged from hospital. Outstanding care again from @RoyalFreeNHS #NHSheroes.”

The nurse, from Halfway, Cambuslang, contracted the virus while working as part of a British team at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre.

She spent almost a month in isolation at the Royal Free at the beginning of 2015 after the virus was detected when she arrived back in the UK.

Ms Cafferkey was later discharged after apparently making a full recovery, and in March 2015 returned to work as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire.

In October last year it was discovered that Ebola was still present in her body, with health officials later confirming she had been diagnosed with meningitis caused by the virus.’

Related Articles:

Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey discharged from hospital

Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey discharged from hospital- The Telegraph

Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey discharged from hospital- The Guardian

Saturday 6th February 2016- The Independent: Zika: Colombia links virus with three Guillain-Barre nerve disorder deaths

‘Colombian health officials have suggested there is a connection between the Zika virus, a rare nerve disorder and the deaths of three Colombians, as the disease continues to spread rapidly throughout the Americas.

The announcement, made on Friday, is the first time government health officials have directly blamed the mosquito-borne virus for causing deaths.’

‘Colombian Health Minister, Alejandro Gaviria, said: “There is a causal connection between Zika, Guillain-Barre and the death of three Colombians, one in San Andres and another two in Turbo, Antioquia.”

The three patients died last week after being treated at a clinic in Medellin, said the minister, Reuters reports.

The head of Colombia’s National Heath Institute, Martha Lucia Ospina, said. “We have confirmed and attributed three deaths to Zika.”’

‘“In this case, the three deaths were preceded by Guillain-Barre syndrome.”

Guillain-Barre is a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system. It is not usually fatal but can cause paralysis and muscle weakness.

Cases of the syndrome have increased in tandem with the Zika outbreak, sparking suspicions it is a complication of the virus, also blamed for causing microcephaly or brain damage in babies born to infected mothers.

However, scientists have not proven Zika causes either condition.’

Related Articles:

Zika: Colombia links virus with three Guillain-Barre nerve disorder deaths

Colombia links Zika to rare nerve disorder deaths- BBC News

Colombia confirms first three deaths of patients infected with Zika virus- The Guardian