Category: Pandora Report

Highlights include BioWatch’s murky future, MERS in hospitals, norovirus at Yellowstone, the WHO simplifying its alert mechanisms, and ricin in Spokane. Happy Friday!

BioWatch Gen-3 may be too costly, CDC official says

The beleaguered BioWatch program faced congressional hearings this week. Congress has refused to authorize the $40 million President Obama requested for the program, citing ongoing concerns over rising costs and program efficacy. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations chairman Murphy expressed skepticism on the program’s ability to detect pathogens, claiming that the United States is  less prepared to handle a bioterrorist attack today than it was five years ago (we disagree, but to each their own we suppose). We do agree, however, that cutting funding for public heath departments is definitely not helping preparedness.

Fierce Markets – “Once the technology is rolled out, it’s unclear what the burden would be on public health agencies at all levels of government, Merlin said during the hearing, held by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the subcommittee chairman, said he was concerned about the cost of BioWatch, especially considering the cuts to public health agencies in recent years. At the state and local level, more than 46,000 health department jobs have been lost since 2008.”

Investigation Follows Trail of a Virus in Hospitals 

The mechanism of infection with the Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus is being carefully examined, with useful and interesting results. According to a recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine, it takes approximately 5.2 days for prodromal symptoms to appear in the average person following infection with MERS. The study also revealed that one person was able to infect seven others. While some scientists believe the virus may be less pathogenic than originally believed, public health officials continue to monitor it closely.

New York Times – “A detailed investigation of the viral illness first detected last year in Saudi Arabia has revealed the chilling ease with which the virus can spread to ill patients in the hospital — and its ability to infect some close contacts like hospital staff and family members who were in good health…The apparently high death rate from the disease has worried health experts. More than half of the confirmed cases have been fatal. However, it is possible that milder cases have gone undetected and that the disease is not as deadly as it may initially appear, said Dr. Trish M. Perl, an author of the new report, and a senior hospital epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, who traveled to Saudi Arabia to investigate the outbreak.”

Virus sickens 200 at Yellowstone, Grand Teton parks

Summer is finally here (almost) which naturally means norovirus is busy ruining all sorts of vacation plans. This time it’s campers at Yosemite and Grand Teton parks, with almost 200 campers and park employees. Norovirus is notoriously  contagious, and is able to remain infectious as a fomite for months on door handles and common spaces.

Reuters – “The rare health advisory, tied to a suspected outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus, comes in the early weeks of a season that drew about 6 million people to the parks last year. A tour group visiting Yellowstone, home to the Old Faithful geyser, first complained June 7 of symptoms linked to norovirus, the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

WHO simplifies pandemic alert system

After receiving severe criticism for its management of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the World Health Organization has revised its pandemic alert system. Within the new systems, the focus of the alert has shifted from raw numbers to potential risk. The new system uses just four phases, ranging from interpandemic to transition (post pandemic) to describe pandemic progression in place of the prior seven.

Courier Mail – The WHO announced H1N1 swine flu had reached pandemic proportions on June 11, 2009, first sparking panic-buying of vaccines and then anger when it turned out the virus was not nearly as dangerous as first thought. Swine flu killed more than 18,449 people and affected some 214 countries and territories, but the world had been bracing for far worse, and governments stuck with millions of unused vaccine doses were especially upset. In March 2011, a WHO evaluation committee called on the organisation to simplify its description of a pandemic to make it more precise and consistent and to assess the risks and severity of a pandemic.

Spokane man charged with sending ricin-laced letters

Matthew Ryan Buquet of Spokane, Washington has been charged with “developing and sending poison-laced letters”  (ricin is a toxin, but moving along) to President Obama, the CIA and others. Rather than have us wax lyrical about the nature of the ricin threat, check out Charles Blair of FAS and GMU  excellent piece on the subject here.

The Spokesman Review – “Federal prosecutors Wednesday charged a 38-year-old Spokane man with developing and sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and a federal judge in Spokane.The court documents say Matthew Ryan Buquet produced ricin, an illegal biological toxin, and mailed the substance in threatening letters between April 29 and May 14. He was arrested May 22 after agents raided his Browne’s Addition apartment. He is jailed without bond on the charges as the case unfolds.”

It’s been a slower week for biodefense news – highlights include ricin – barely lethal?, MERS update, the Australia Group and Syria, stopping bacterial cell division, and the ongoing H1N1 outbreak in Venezuela. Happy Friday!

Ricin: Barely Lethal?

GMU Adjunct Faculty member and FAS Senior Fellow for State and Non State Threat Charles Blair comments on the true nature of the ricin threat in his thought-provoking column with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – “The June 7th arrest of actress Shannon Richardson for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama comes after two other ricin-related incidents earlier this year. In May, five letters testing positive for the toxin were mailed from Spokane, Washington, with one each bound for an Air Force base, a local judge, and the Central Intelligence Agency, and two addressed to the White House. All were intercepted and authorities arrested a suspect. In April, another alleged perpetrator PDF mailed letters containing ricin to a US senator, a Mississippi judge and, once again, the White House. In short, more individuals have used ricin in the past three months than in any three-month period ever before. So what explains ricin’s growing use? The answer is two-fold.First, though the toxin is difficult to weaponize for mass casualty attacks, it is relatively easy to produce on a small scale. The ease of acquisition and manufacture strengthens the allure of the poison for those seeking revenge or public attention. Second, ricin exerts a strong cultural pull on its users.”

MERS has potential to cause pandemic, WHO says

The WHO has issued health alerts for MERS, H7N9, and H5N1 in recently released guidance based on lessons learned from the H1N1 2009 pandemic. The case number for MERS continues to grow, with another two fatalities in the last day. The source of the virus is still unknown.

NBC News – “The United Nations agency, which issued new, long-awaited guidance to countries on influenza pandemics, said the world was also in the same “alert phase” for two human strains of bird flu – H5N1, which emerged a decade ago, and H7N9, first detected in China in March. ‘International concern about these infections is high, because it is possible for this virus to move around the world. There have been now several examples where the virus has moved from one country to another through travelers,’ the WHO said of MERS, which causes coughing, fever and pneumonia.”

Chair of Australia Group Comments on Syrian Chemical Weapons Use

The Australia group is a informal consortium of states participating in voluntary export controls of materials which may be used to develop biological or chemical weapons. In a statement released following the conclusion of the Group’s annual Plenary meeting, the Group called on all states to participate in similar voluntary export control to prevent the further or future proliferation of weapons materials.

Press Release – “Australia Group members are gravely concerned by the growing body of evidence pointing to the use of chemical weapons and by the danger of more and larger-scale use. The threat of chemical weapon use on the people of Syria underlines the necessity for the complete eradication of chemical weapons for all time and for the universalisation of the CWC…The Australia Group underlined that the use of chemical weapons under any circumstances is unacceptable and against the legal norms of the international community. The Group urged support for the UN mission to investigate all allegations of chemical weapon use in Syria”.

Compound Freezes Bacteria Mid-Division

Developing antibiotics is unsurprisingly a pretty trick affair, with the complexity of bacterial cell division being a big part of the difficulty. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have found a molecule capable of throwing a figurative wrench in bacterial division. The discovery of the molecule, an enzyme inhibitor named divin, may help develop more effective antibiotics.

Chemical and Engineering News – “When a bacterium divides in two, it enlists a cast of more than a dozen proteins to help. The proteins assemble at the dividing line, arriving either in an early phase or a late one. And basically, that’s where biologists’ understanding stops…To help solve the mystery, Weibel and colleagues searched for small molecules that could gum up the works of these division proteins. Using a high-throughput screening process, they found divin, a weak inhibitor of an enzyme called MipZ that coordinates where the cell splits in two. The researchers tested divin’s effect on cell division by treating Caulobacter crescentus bacteria with the molecule. They saw something they’d never seen before: The cell starts to divide, but the two daughter cells never separate.”

H1N1 flu cases rise sharply in Venezuela

Venezuela’s H1N1 outbreak continues apace, with a sixty percent increase in case numbers in the last week.  The total numbers of laboratory confirmed cases is now at 1,138.  However, throughout May Venezuelan health authorities vaccinated nearly three million people, leading local health authorities to describe the situation as “under control”.

China Daily – “The report covering the week of May 26 to June 1 showed an increase of 414 cases, with the most affected states located along the northern coast and western Venezuela. The H1N1 virus first appeared in 2009 in Venezuela, infecting about 900 people and causing eight deaths. In Venezuela, test methods now are short of quickly determining whether a patient has been infected by the virus, but the country reportedly has a good reserve of medicine needed to combat the disease.”

Highlights include funding for detecting bioterror, how pandemics come to be, MERS: overblown?, antibiotics funding, and not Ebola. Happy Friday!

Funding shortfall could shut down bioterrorism lab

The ability of the Seattle area to detect its recent ricin letters was due entirely to a regional bioterrorism lab, the same lab which is now at risk of closure. Local officials were quick to point out that without the local lab, the suspicious substance would have had to be shipped to a different lab nearly 10 hours away. “If you have an instance where you have possible exposure minutes and hours count,”  said the local Sheriff, Ozzie Knezovich. Bioterrorism labs are critical points of first response.

KXLY – “With just one full time employee the lab costs $170,000 to operate each year. It serves not only Spokane but bioterrorism services for all of Eastern Washington and North Idaho. In the last seven years its tested more than 70 samples including the suspicious backpack found at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity March in 2011. State Representative Marcus Riccelli from Spokane said its not just the high profile cases we hear about, but the tests that come back negative that justify keeping the lab. However the most recent work done at the lab in the Ricin investigation is the perfect example of why these local officials keeping the lab open is worth fighting for.”

How Nature Builds A Pandemic Flu Virus

Why isn’t H7N9 ravaging across the planet? Or MERS, for that matter? Not for want of capability. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, conducted a study examining the genomes of past pandemic flu strains. The results? It turns out that since 1957, all our most virulent pandemic strains have evolved from the 1918 Spanish ( H1N1) strain.  Which isn’t to say the H7N9 can’t still mutate.

NPR – “Here’s a sobering thought: Wild birds — including city pigeons and ubiquitous Canada geese — carry 170 different types of bird flu. You know, all those viruses with the Hs and Ns in their names, like H1N1 and H5N1. Only a dozen of these viruses have infected humans so far, but many of those have been deadly, and three of them have caused global flu pandemics.Does every bird flu that leaps into people have the potential to turn into the next “big one” that spreads rapidly around the world?”

MERS Virus May Never Become Big Threat in U.S., Experts Say

The WHO recently reported another death from the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total number of case fatalities to 31. With just 55 total cases, there is no question of the virus’ virulence. In fact, the Obama Administration has declared the virus a public health emergency – not due to fears of a significant outbreak, but so as to speed up testing and diagnostic capabilities.  However, there has been significant recent debate surrounding the virus’ pandemic potential. While significant mutations leading to easier transmission remain possible, MERS in its current form does not seem to pose a significant pandemic threat.

USNWR – “‘Anytime there is a new virus that has the potential to kill people, we ought to take it seriously,’ said Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. But while Siegel believes the virus’s spread should be tracked and studied, he doubts it will ever become a real threat. ‘Fear is the biggest virus going,’ he said. ‘The amount of concern is already outweighing the risk. People have seen Contagion too many times.'”

Obama Administration Seeks To Ease Approvals For Antibiotics

While not as attention-grabbing as MERS or H7N9 (bacteria always get the shaft), the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is a growing concern. One of the ongoing difficulties in developing new drugs is lack of sufficient financial incentives – antibiotics tend to be less profitable than drugs for more common concerns (high blood pressure, etc).

NPR – “[The Obama Administration is] investing tens of millions in private drug companies to foster new germ-killing drugs. It’s setting up a new research network to develop new antibiotics. And, most controversially, federal health officials are pushing to loosen up the approval process for new antibiotics targeted at patients with life-threatening infections and dwindling treatment options. ‘Where we’re talking about life-threatening illnesses, you can do much less study and get those drugs out there — if in fact they’ll be limited to those kinds of uses,’ Dr. Janet Woodcock, the chief drug official at the Food and Drug Administration, tells Shots.”

Health officials rule out Ebola outbreak in DR Congo

News because it’s not Ebola. Last week, the UN announced six suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC, with three fatalities. However, following testing at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, Ebola was ruled out, despite symptoms including severe hemorrhaging.  Possibly yellow fever?

Channel News Asia – “A senior health ministry official in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday ruled out an Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the country, after possible cases were reported by United Nations staff. OCHA  [UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] had announced suspect cases recorded between May 1 and May 12 at Mongo in the Bas-Uele district of the northeastern Orientale province, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) from Isiro, where the last Ebola outbreak killed 34 people out of 62 confirmed cases between May and November 2012.”

Highlights include a possible bioterrorist threat to US water supplies, novel coronavirus in France, EUA authorization for H7N9 diagnostic kits, using bacteria to stop malaria, and money for the NBAF. Happy Friday!

Tunisian Is Accused of Proposing Contamination of Water or Air in U.S.

Mr. Ahmed Abassi has been charged with falsifying visa applicant information in order to facilitate terrorism. In recorded conversations with an undercover FBI agent, Abassi describes intentions to use a bacterial pathogen to contaminate air or water supplies. It is unknown whether Abassi possesses the necessary training to do so. Abassi has denied all charges brought against him.

The New York Times – “A Tunisian man has been accused of seeking to develop a terrorist network in the United States and of proposing to poison the water or air to kill up to 100,000 people, federal prosecutors said in court papers unsealed on Thursday. The man, Ahmed Abassi, 26, who came to the United States from Canada in March and was arrested last month at Kennedy International Airport, told the authorities that he may also have ‘radicalized’ one of two men arrested recently in Canada in an alleged Qaeda-linked plot to derail a passenger train.”

France Probes 3 Suspected Cases of SARS-Like Virus

In what seems indicative of  limited person-to-person spread, two people in close contact with France’s first case of the novel coronavirus are believed to be infected with the virus themselves. The first French case become symptomatic following an excursion in Dubai. The hcov-EMC virus, a cousin of SARS, emerged in the Middle East last September,  and caused 18 fatalities out of 30 confirmed cases. Cases of the virus have been seen across the Middle East, as well as the United Kingdom and Germany.

ABC News –  “Since the virus emerged last year, European authorities have put in place monitoring measures. In France, 20 people have already been examined for suspected cases of the virus, but the other 19 turned up negative, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said. Beatrice Degrugillers, a spokeswoman for the regional health agency in France’s Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, said a nurse at the hospital where the man was hospitalized in late April has herself been under watch at the hospital in Douai since Thursday night….A doctor and a former hospital roommate who had each been in contact with the first patient also remain hospitalized. Test results are expected later Friday.”

US invokes emergency act to keep H7N9 flu at bay

Following a declaration that the H7N9 strain of influenza poses a “significant potential for a public health emergency”, the US government has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for certain portable diagnostic detection kits for the virus. EUA authorization enables the kits to be used immediately in the field without securing prior FDA approval. Clearly we’re all keep a very close eye on the strain’s spread.

New Scientist – “”They are right to be concerned. H7N9 could be a tough adversary: New Scientist has learned that it provokes a weaker immune response than most flu, making vaccines hard to produce. Although H7N9 is not, so far, transmissible between humans, it does cause severe disease in people, is easier to catch than other bird flu strains, and may need only a few mutations to go pandemic. The UK has already given doctors instructions on when to test people for H7N9, and how to manage any with the virus.”

Using Bacteria To Swat Malaria Inside Mosquitoes

Well, it’s definitely innovative. Scientists have shown that infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia renders them temporarily resistant to malaria. But before we all start throwing our malaria pills by the wayside, there are a couple little problems with this fix. The first is rounding all the mosquites up to infect them with the bacteria in the first place. The second is the inability of Wolbachia to confer lasting resistance. Scientists have managed to mitigate both concerns be engineering a mosquito capable of maintaining and spreading Wolbachia throughout it’s lifetime. Very cool, and possibly very useful.

NPR – “‘Groups have been trying to do this for more than 10 years,’ microbiologist George Dimopoulos, from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute, tells Shots. ‘So it’s a landmark achievement.’ The findings, reported Thursday in the journal Science, raise the possibility of one day controlling malaria with the bacteria.’You could just release large number of infected females and establish Wolbachia in a mosquito population…Gradually it would convert a malaria-spreading population to a non-spreading one.’ Specifically, Dimopoulos and his colleagues got Wolbachia to take up permanent residency inside Anopheles stephensi mosquito, the major malaria transmitter in South Asia and the Middle East.”

After hesitating, Kan. House panel OKs NBAF bonds

The Kansas state legislature has approved bonds supporting the construction of the National Bio- and Agr0-Defense Facility at Kansas State University. The new lab would replace the current agricultural  lab located on Plum Island, off New York. The primary goal of the NBAF would be to research highly infectious animal pathogen like foot-and-mouth, in the hopes of further ensuring our nation’s agricultural security.

SF Gate – “Kansas has already authorized $105 million in bonds to help finance the project. State officials expect the lab to create more than 300 new jobs averaging more than $75,000 in salary and benefits.President Barack Obama’s latest proposed federal budget includes $714 million for the new lab. Both the Senate’s bill and the House committee’s plan would prevent the state from issuing the new bonds until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has signed its contract with the construction company that will build the lab. Also, the federal government would be on the hook for construction cost overruns.”

Highlights include the dangerous mixing of H5N1 and H1N1 in a vet lab,  developments in the ricin case, the novel coronvirus kills five more, the NYPD’s upcoming bioterror drill, and combating MDR bacteria by giving doctors forms. Happy Friday!                                                                                                                         

‘Appalling irresponsibility’: Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus in veterinary laboratory

There has been widespread outcry in the scientific community following publication of a Chinese research study in which the scientists recombined H5N1 with the highly infectious H1N1, in a veterinary laboratory. Look, there is gain-of-function research which contributes to vaccine development or a better understanding of the strain’s possible pathogenicity, and then there’s gain-of-function research which is just tempting fate. Even amongst those scientists who admired the difficulty of the experiment, there was criticism –  “It’s a fabulous piece of virology by the Chinese group and it’s very impressive,” said Professor Wain-Hobson, a renowned virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, “but they haven’t been thinking clearly about what they are doing. It’s very worrying.”  It would be tremendously ironic  to be  wiped out by a strain of flu created with the purported intention of helping stop us being wiped out by the very same strain of flu.

The Independent – “Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.”

“Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published today in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.’They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,’ Lord May told The Independent.”

Miss. ricin-letters case headed to grand jury

Following the exoneration of Kevin Paul Curtis, the new suspect in the ricin letters is James Everett Dutschke. Dutschke will face a grand jury in the coming weeks. Investigators linked Dutschke to the case after discovering a dust mask containing traces of  ricin and Dutschke’s DNA. For a full analysis of the ricin case, as well as the Boston bombings, and other “WMD” terrorism, check out the GMU Biodefense Brown Bag Event  next Thursday.

USA Today – “Agents also revealed that the FBI was granted a search warrant for a location outside Dutschke’s home where he may have stored some of his possessions. Officials said they think a printer tied to the letters is at that location. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander ruled that authorities had enough probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. It’s not clear when one would hear evidence in this case.”

Five die of SARS-like virus in Saudi Arabia

The novel coronavirus hCoV-EMC killed another 5 people in Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number of fatalities to sixteen out of 23 total cases. Although similar to SARS, hCoV-EMC targets the kidney, causing rapid failure. However, unlike SARS, the virus does not appear to transmit well person-to-person.

Al Jazeera – “In a statement cited by the Saudi SPA agency late on Wednesday, the ministry said that all the deaths occurred in the Ahsaa province in the oil-rich eastern region of the kingdom, according to the AFP news agency. Known as novel coronavirus or hCoV-EMC, the virus was first detected in mid-2012 and is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts…the ministry gave no figures for how many people have been examined to see if they have the lethal disease”

NYPD will release harmless gas into subway in bio/chem terror response drill

The NYPD, in coordination with the Brookhaven National Laboratory, will conduct experiments involving “tracer gases” this summer to monitor their dissipation speed. It is hoped the experiments will lead to better bio- and chemical detection systems. Don’t ask us why the Russian news has the most detailed coverage of this story (joke, little joke).

RT– “The police will use roughly 200 detectors to monitor the gas. Dubbed the Subway-Surface Air Flow Exchange, the test will be the largest of its kind and organized in cooperation with the energy department’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. They’ll use perfluorocarbon tracer gases (PFTs), which are frequently used to measure potential sites for underground construction…’The NYPD works for the best but plans for the worst when it comes to potentially catastrophic attacks such as ones employing radiological contaminants or weaponized anthrax,’ police commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement”

Programs to reduce antibiotic use often work

Apparently introducing extra paperwork is enough to deter doctors from prescribing antibiotics, resulting in a measurable  decrease in drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals in just six months. However, by continues education and persuasion, the same decrease in drug-resistant bacteria can be seen within a year. Questions of suggesting extra paperwork as a viable reform measure aside, it makes some sense that the best the way to combat antibiotic resistance would be to start with the doctors.

Reuters – “For the new review, Davey and his colleagues searched medical research databases for high-quality studies that evaluated whether hospital programs to curb the number of antibiotics doctors prescribed worked, didn’t harm patients and reduced the number of drug-resistant bacteria detected or the number of antibiotic-related infections. In the 89 studies from 19 different countries the researchers found, three types of programs were evaluated…Overall, programs that restricted a doctor’s ability to prescribe antibiotics were 32 percent more effective in the first month than those that tried to persuade and educate…After six months, restrictive programs also did a better job at reducing drug-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-related infections, compared to the persuasive programs.”

Highlights include the ricin letters case developments, a slew of H7N9 updates (chickens are the reservoirs, it’s popping up in Tawain, and it’s more lethal than previous strains), and we’re mutating H5N1 (again). Happy Friday!

Developments in the Ricin Letters Case

All charges have been dropped against Paul Kevin Curtis due to lack of evidence. A second person of interest, Everett Dutschke, has been identified and continues to cooperate with authorities. No charges have been brought against Dutschke, who maintains his  innocence.  Investigators have not disclosed any new information in the case.

USA Today – “A Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has dropped out of sight in order to escape the news media spotlight, but is cooperating with authorities, a friend and his attorney said. Everett Dutschke, 45, had his home and former business in Tupelo, Miss., searched in connection with the letters, which allegedly contained ricin. They were sent last week to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.”

(H7N9) Bird Flu Seen Beyond Mainland, in Taiwan

The first case of H7N9 outside mainland China was recorded this week, with a 53-year old Taiwanese man testing positive for the virus Wednesday. Three healthcare attendants treating the man have also developed “undiagnosed respiratory symptoms” fueling concerns about human-to-human transmission. However, with all evidence currently ruling out human-to-human transmission, it seems more plausible the workers are (understandably) more likely “worried well”. To date, the virus has caused 108 cases with 22 fatalities.

Wall Street Journal – “Taiwan reported the first case of a new form of avian flu found outside China’s mainland on Wednesday and said that three health-care workers who treated the patient had developed undiagnosed respiratory symptoms, raising concerns over the virus’s potential for spreading by human-to-human contact. At a news conference earlier in the day in Beijing, global health officials stressed that there had been no confirmed cases of transmission of the virus, called H7N9, between humans. However, they said, researchers were still struggling to understand how the virus was spread and hadn’t ruled out the possibility of human-to-human transmission.”

WHO: New flu passes more easily from bird to human

In his testimony before the WHO, one of the world’s top H7N9 experts has praised China’s response to the emergent flu strain while simultaneously cautioning against it’s lethality.

Post Bulletin – “A new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month is one of the ‘most lethal’ flu viruses so far, worrying health officials because it can jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. Scientists are watching the virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic but say there is little evidence so far that it can spread easily from human to human.”

Scientists confirm new H7N9 bird flu has come from chickens

Chickens have been identified as the reservoir of the new H7N9 strain of flu. China’s closing of its open-air poultry markets soon after the strain’s emergence has been accredited with the decrease in case numbers.  However, scientists remain uncertain as to the strain’s exact mechanism of spread, as a number of cases have had no contact with poultry.

Reuters – “Chinese scientists have confirmed for the first time that a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people in China has been transmitted to humans from chickens. In a study published online in the Lancet medical journal, the scientists echoed previous statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese officials that there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus. The H7N9 strain has infected 109 people in China since it was first detected in March. The WHO warned on Wednesday that this strain is ‘one of the most lethal’ flu viruses and is transmitted more easily than the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed hundreds around the world since 2003.”

Mutant version of H5N1 flu virus found to be more preferential to human infection

In a study that will no doubt reignite the gain-of-function research debate, scientists have determined that a laboratory-mutated strain of H5N1 has a much stronger human-cell binding affinity than the wild-type virus. Should we be doing this research in the first place? Do the benefits of being more prepared for a pandemic outweigh the costs of potentially causing the pandemic?

Medical Express – “An international team of bio-researchers has found that a mutant strain of the H5N1 influenza virus (created in a lab) has a 200-fold preference for binding with receptors in human cells, over those found in birds. In describing their research and conclusions in their paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers suggest that the mutant variant is much more like the strains of viruses that caused pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 2009, than it was in its native state.”