Latest Updates on Ebola Outbreaks & Other Health Information

EBOLA OUTBREAKS – LATEST UPDATES

Japan – A man with suspected Ebola: A man in his 60s who has recently been in Liberia was sent to a medical institution designated for Ebola treatment in Tokyo on Friday due to his suspected infection with the deadly virus. The man visited a hospital in Machida, Tokyo, on Friday afternoon. He was then transferred to the designated institution later in the day as he had a fever of over 38 degrees Celsius. The health ministry sent his blood samples to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases' facility in Musashimurayama, also Tokyo, for genetic tests for Ebola. The man had stayed in Liberia within the last three weeks, considered the maximum incubation period for the disease. He did not show symptoms such as fever when he arrived at an airport in Japan. Under the quarantine law, the man has since been obliged to report his health conditions twice a day for three weeks. There is no information that the man had contact with Ebola patients during his stay in Liberia, one of the West African countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, informed sources said. At a news conference on Friday afternoon, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the possibility is low that the man has Ebola.

United States - Officials unveil plan to test Ebola drugs: The quest for an Ebola treatment is picking up speed. Federal officials have unveiled a plan to test multiple drugs at once, in an umbrella study with a single comparison group to give fast answers on what works.  "This is novel for us" and is an approach pioneered by cancer researchers, said Dr. Luciana Borio, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Ebola response. "We need to learn what helps and what hurts" and speed treatments to patients, she said. She outlined the plan Wednesday at an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference in New Orleans. Thousands of scientists have crowded into day and late-night sessions on Ebola, which has killed 5,000 West Africans this year. There is no treatment for Ebola, but several experimental ones such as ZMapp have been tried on a few patients, and scientists are eyeing some others that were developed for different conditions but may also fight Ebola. "There's this tremendous urge to want to give people these experimental therapies" but it's crucial to make sure they don't do harm, said the FDA's Dr. Edward Cox. Everyone in the umbrella study would get supportive care, such as intravenous fluids, then be assigned to receive one of several drugs or be in a comparison group. That's needed because without one, there's no way to know if any problems or deaths are from the drug or the disease, Cox said. Instead of waiting until a certain number of patients are treated to look at results, as is usually done, researchers will monitor results as they come in, pairing each person on a drug with someone from the comparison group to see if a pattern can be detected. The National Institutes of Health developed this "learn as you go" plan "to allow a winner to be declared very early," Cox said. He said the FDA could not name the drugs being considered, but said a meeting next week with various companies should crystallize the plans.

United States - CDC increasing supply of Ebola-Specific Personal Protective Equipment for U.S. hospitals: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ordered $2.7 million in personal protective equipment (PPE) to increase Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) supplies to assist U.S. hospitals caring for Ebola patients. Products are being configured into 50 kits that can be rapidly delivered to hospitals. Each kit can provide the PPE needed by clinical teams to manage the care of one Ebola patient for up to five days. Purchases are based on PPE guidance for caring for Ebola patients that was issued by CDC on October 20. As product is delivered to SNS facilities, it is assembled into kits by SNS personnel. The kits can be rapidly delivered from the SNS as requested to those hospitals that receive suspected or confirmed Ebola cases but may need additional PPE supplies that otherwise are not immediately available. Although the number of kits is limited, they will help address short-term PPE needs. Purchases include impermeable gowns, coveralls, and aprons; boot covers; gloves; face shields and hoods; N95 respirators; powered-air purifying respirator systems and ancillaries; and disinfecting wipes. Since the issuance of the CDC guidance, there has been a sudden increase in demand for PPE. Across the United States, availability for these products varies by product type and model, requested quantity, manufacturer, distributor, and geographic region. "We are making certain to not disrupt the orders submitted by states and hospitals, but we are building our stocks so that we can assist when needed. Some of these products are not normally used by hospitals for regular patient care," said Greg Burel, director of CDC's Division of Strategic National Stockpile. There are alternatives that can be used in the event certain products are unavailable, and those alternatives are included in CDC's guidance. CDC continues to coordinate with manufacturers, distributors and health care facilities to monitor the availability of products in the supply chain. No products are being held by manufacturers or distributors specifically for SNS orders and SNS orders are not being prioritized ahead of orders placed by hospitals.

Other Health Related Information & Updates

Canada - Alberta EV-D68 confirmed cases rise to 111: The number of confirmed Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) cases in the Canadian province of Alberta have risen to 111, as of Oct. 31, up from 93 cases two weeks ago. Of the 111 lab-confirmed cases, 60 are in Calgary, 19 are in Edmonton, and 10 are in the province’s south zone. EV-D68 is a strain of enteroviruses — a common group of viruses that can cause various types of illness including respiratory illness and the common cold. In early October, lab results confirmed two patients at Alberta Children’s Hospital who were suffering from symptoms of paralysis including weakened limbs or faces had EV-D68. On Monday, Alberta Health Services said no more patients who have confirmed cases of EV-D68 have reported similar neurological syndrome symptoms. Patients with D68 can suffer from runny noses and fevers and they can also have trouble breathing, especially if they have asthma or some other respiratory illness. At this time, officials do not know if the cases of EV-D68 confirmed in Alberta are the same strain as the EV-D68 circulating across the United States. Albertans are encouraged to wash their hands, cough into their sleeves and stay home when they are sick to protect themselves and those around them from illnesses caused by enteroviruses

Germany - A new avian flu strain: A new strain of avian flu, christened H5N8, was detected in a farm of turkeys in the north of Germany, the first time the disease appears in Europe. The virus until now was "located in Asia, particularly in South Korea", and the new strain was identified in a farm of Germany. This strain is different from outbreak A(H5N6), also new, that appeared in September and that is causing numerous deaths.

Pakistan - Polio cases hit 15-year high: The incidence of polio in Pakistan hit a 15-year high on Wednesday, as the prime minister vowed to rid the country of the crippling disease in the next six months, despite a Taliban campaign to kill workers distributing vaccines. Dr. Elias Durry, who heads the World Health Organization’s polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, said authorities have already registered 235 polio cases since January. WHO data showed the last time numbers were higher was in 1999, when 558 cases were documented. Pakistan is one of three countries where polio, which can cause paralysis and death, remains endemic. Militants regularly target vaccination teams in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and elsewhere, accusing workers of acting as spies for Washington and saying the vaccines make boys sterile. The disease, which mainly affects children, struck thousands of Pakistanis in the 1980s, but after a long-running vaccination drive it fell to its lowest point yet — 28 cases — in 2005, the figures show.After that, Taliban threats and attacks caused infection rates to rise. “We refuse to see our children getting disabled for life,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement during a high-level meeting on the subject in the capital, Islamabad. “We will make Pakistan a polio-free country in the next six months.” Local militants in the country’s North Waziristan tribal region banned polio prevention teams from the area in 2012. Since then, militants across the country have killed about 60 workers and police escorts.

From Around the World – Latest Health Researches:

Ageing well must be global priority', warns UN health agency in new study: The United Nations health agency warned today that as the world population aged 60 or older will jump from some 800 million to 2 billion in the next four decades, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge. 'By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than 5 years,' the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said reporting its findings in a series on health and ageing in the medical journal The Lancet. And 'by 2050, the world's population aged 60 years and older is expected to total 2 billion, up from 841 million today,' WHO said, noting that 80 percent of these older persons will be living in low-income and middle-income countries. WHO attributed the increase in longevity, especially in high-income countries, largely to the decline in deaths from cardiovascular disease (stroke and ischaemic heart disease), mainly because of simple, cost-effective strategies to reduce tobacco use and high blood pressure, and improved coverage and effectiveness of health interventions. However, it said, 'although people are living longer, they are not necessarily healthier than before.' 'Unless health systems find effective strategies to address the problems faced by an ageing world population, the growing burden of chronic disease will greatly affect the quality of life of older people,' WHO said. 'As people across the world live longer, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge,' the health agency warned. 'Deep and fundamental reforms of health and social care systems will be required,' said Dr. John Beard, Director of the Department of Ageing and Life Course at the WHO, and co-leader of the Series with Dr. Ties Boerma and Dr. Somnath Chatterji, also from WHO. The long-term burden of illness and diminished wellbeing affects patients, their families, health systems, and economies, and is forecast to accelerate. 'For example, latest estimates indicate that the number of people with dementia is expected to rise from 44 million now, to 135 million by 2050,' according to WHO. The responsibility for improving quality of life for the world's older people goes far beyond the health sector, the doctors noted. 'Strategies are needed that better prevent and manage chronic conditions by extending affordable health care to all older adults and take into consideration the physical and social environment,' WHO said. The health agency said examples include changing policies to encourage older adults to remain part of the workforce for longer, emphasising low-cost disease prevention and early detection rather than treatment, making better use of technology (and training health-care staff in the management of multiple chronic conditions. 'Collectively, we need to look beyond the costs commonly associated with ageing to think about the benefits that an older, healthier, happier, and more productive older population can bring to society as a whole,' said Dr. Chatterji from WHO's Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems.

Scientists find a possible key in order to repair damaged hearts:  Research carried out by scientists of the Salk Institute de California headed by the Spanish Juan Carlos Izpisúa found the key in order to repair damaged hearts, at the moment in mice. The scientists, who today published their work in the journal Cell Stem Cell, have succeeded in repairing the hearts blocking four molecules that are capable of inhibiting the programs for the organ regeneration, which opens the door to new treatments for heart diseases. The Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, that it participated in this international project through Dr. Josep M. Campistol, is proposed the translation of these results to patients with severe and irreversible heart diseases. Research suggests that, although by guideline the adult mammals are not capable of regenerating the damaged tissues; these can hold a latent capability that is present during the embryonic development. 

The group of Izpisúa, in which Campistol collaborates, it takes a long time trying to discover the elements that control and implement the regeneration in agencies that are capable of carrying it out. "We know that this type of studies require time and of many phases, but these results locate to us in an unprecedented scenario. It is necessary to continue to work", they say. The laboratory of Izpisúa was pioneering in identifying many essential molecules that define the development of the vertebrates. In 2003 the group identified the signs responsible for the regeneration of the heart of fish zebra and in 2010 described in an article published in the journal Nature how was carried out that process. That study revealed that the cardiac cells have capability to become more immature cells, similar to the precursor cells of the heart, which makes it possible for them to multiply and regenerate the damaged tissue.
"For this work we have focused on the results obtained with the fish zebra and we have thought that if they know how to regenerate tissues, should be something that can teach to us", says Aitor Aguirre, another one of the scientists of the project. The following step that now are proposed the scientists is to pass to another type of animals and to verify if the regenerative reprogramming can function in them.

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