Avian Flu Diary

Photo Credit NIAID   # 7916     A report from AFP this morning indicates that the Saudis have collected, and will now ship to labs in the United States, samples collected from a variety of animals that might be carriers of the emerging MERS Coronavirus. First a link to the report, then I’ll be back with more.   Friday, 24 May 2013 KSA 16:23 - GMT 13:23 Saudi to send animal samples to U.S. in coronavirus probe AFP, Geneva - Saudi Arabia said […]

NOAA National Hurricane Preparedness Week    # 7316     As a native Floridian who has spent roughly 50 of his nearly 60 years living in the Sunshine state (with 15 of those years living aboard a variety of boats) – I have an understandable interest (read: `morbid fascination’) with hurricanes.   During much of my youth the Atlantic basin was in an active hurricane cycle, which provided me with an early education on these storms.   Here […]

All graphics credit World Health Organization   # 7315   The 66th annual World Health Assembly is in session this week in Geneva, and delegations from all WHO Member States are meeting to discuss and decide upon ongoing WHO policies, the focus of future work, and budgetary issues.   This year the world faces potential threats from two new emerging viruses; MERS-CoV in the Middle East, and H7N9 in Asia.   Rapid and effective global response to these types of […]

Credit NIAID   # 7314   Helen Branswell has the details today on a new study which appears in the Journal Science, that looks at the ability of the avian H7N9 virus – recently emerged in China – to infect and transmit among ferrets.   Ferrets are considered a reasonable mammalian substitute for humans when testing respiratory viruses because their lung physiology is similar, and because they cough and sneeze when infected, very much as humans do.   […]

  Dothan, Ala Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection # 7313   A story we’ve been following for a couple of days now (see here, here, and here) is an outbreak of an unknown respiratory illness in the Dothan, Alabama area that has resulted in at least two deaths.   Today, during a webcast press conference held by the Alabama Department of Public Health, public health officials announced that test results are back on 7 of the cases, and no unusual pathogens were […]