Tag: mers
This Week In Health: The War On Viruses

This Week In Health: The War On Viruses

“This Week In Health” offers some highlights from the world of health news and wellness tips that you may have missed this week:

  • According to a study published in Cancer Research, a compound found in avocados may be useful in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML). According to Medical News Today,`it is “estimated that more than 20,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with AML this year, and more than 10,000 will die from the cancer.” But the compound avocatin B “selectively targets and destroys” leukemia stem cells “while leaving healthy blood cells unscathed.”
  • Influenza viruses are nasty, adaptable pathogens. A promising new drug takes an unconventional approach to fighting it, and is showing early results. Rather than attacking the virus itself or providing a boost to the immune system, Vasculotide treats the symptoms that are most life threatening by reinforcing cellular barriers in the lungs, which is precisely what the virus attacks, causing its victims to drown in their own fluids. This bolstering of the lungs gives the body more time to rid itself of the virus.
  • The World Health Organization issued a statement Wednesday on the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory System (MERS) which is currently affecting South Korea. Among the main factors contributing to the outbreak, according to the WHO, are lack of public awareness about MERS, suboptimal containment practices in hospitals; and patients’ habits of “doctor shopping,” that is, going from hospital to hospital looking for the best treatment and spreading the virus as a result. The statement called the outbreak a “wakeup call” and said that “in a highly mobile world, all countries should always be prepared for the unanticipated possibility of outbreaks of this, and other serious infectious diseases.”

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CDC Says Illinois Man Who Met With MERS Patient Was Not Infected After All

CDC Says Illinois Man Who Met With MERS Patient Was Not Infected After All

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

Health officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday an Illinois man did not contract MERS from an infected business associate after all.

The case, announced May 17, was believed to have been the first instance of human-to-human transmission of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus on U.S. soil. But upon further analysis, it wasn’t, said Dr. David Swerdlow, the epidemiologist who is leading the CDC’s response to MERS.

Initial blood tests “indicated the possibility that the unidentified Illinois resident had been previously infected with MERS-CoV,” Swerdlow said in a statement. But now that the results of a more definitive test are in, the CDC has concluded the man was never infected.

Public health officials investigated the Illinois man after a health care worker from Saudi Arabia was diagnosed with MERS in Munster, Indiana. The Indiana patient was the first person with a confirmed case of MERS in the U.S.

The Illinois man aroused suspicion because he had two business meetings with the Indiana patient in the days before he was hospitalized. The two men shook hands and sat face-to-face for more than half an hour during their first meeting, Swerdlow told reporters May 17. The second meeting was shorter.

The Illinois man never felt sick and never sought medical care. But public health officials decided his contact with the Indiana patient was close enough to warrant testing for MERS antibodies, which are made by the immune system to fight off an infection.

Officials performed three types of blood tests. Two of them — an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and an immunofluorescent assay (IFA) — seemed to indicate the presence of MERS antibodies. Those preliminary results prompted Swerdlow to announce the Illinois case May 17, which appeared to be the first homegrown case of MERS in the United States.

In the days since then, officials completed a more time-consuming blood test called a neutralizing antibody assay. With all of the results in and carefully interpreted, CDC officials now say the Illinois man was never infected with MERS.

“It is our job to move quickly when there is a potential public health threat,” Swerdlow said Wednesday. “Because there is still much we don’t know about this virus, we will continue to err on the side of caution when responding to and investigating cases of MERS in this country.”

The Indiana patient has been released from the hospital and is doing well. A second patient in Florida has also fully recovered and was discharged from the hospital this month. That man is also a health care worker who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. The two cases are not linked, according to the CDC.

MERS is a respiratory disease that is thought to have originated in camels before spreading to people. It was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Humans have no natural defense against the virus, which has killed about 30 percent of the people known to be infected with it.

As of Wednesday, the World Health Organization has announced 635 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS. Among those patients, 193 have died.

So far, there is no evidence that MERS spreads easily from person to person. There have been some cases of transmission between close contacts, such as patients and the health care providers who care for them.

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Illinois Man Found To Carry Antibodies To Counter MERS

Illinois Man Found To Carry Antibodies To Counter MERS

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified an Illinois man who appears to be the first homegrown case of MERS in the United States.

The man does not have an active case of Middle East respiratory syndrome, CDC officials said Saturday. But blood tests show that his immune system has made antibodies to fight the MERS coronavirus — an indication that he has been infected.

Unlike the two other U.S. residents who have been diagnosed with MERS — one in Indiana and one in Florida — the Illinois man has not traveled to the Middle East, where the virus first appeared in 2012. However, he met with the Indiana patient twice and had close contact with him during those visits, according to the CDC.

The Illinois man, whose identity was not released, was never sick enough to seek medical care. Health officials tested him as part of their investigation into all the known contacts of the Indiana patient, a health-care worker who returned from Saudi Arabia four days before he was admitted to Community Hospital in Munster, Ind., on April 28.

Health officials will reach out to people who have been in close contact with the Illinois man to “notify, test and monitor” them, according to the CDC.

“It’s possible that as the investigation continues others may also test positive for MERS-CoV infection but not get sick,” Dr. David Swerdlow, the epidemiologist in charge of the CDC’s MERS response, said in a statement.

Local health officials have been keeping tabs on the Illinois man since May 3. His blood test results showing MERS antibodies were reported to the CDC on Friday night.

As of Saturday, the Illinois man was “feeling well,” the CDC said.

So was the Indiana patient, who was identified May 2 as the first case of MERS in the U.S. He has been discharged from the Munster hospital and is “fully recovered,” according to the CDC.

The Florida patient is also a health-care worker who traveled from Saudi Arabia to Orlando to visit relatives there. He began to experience flulike symptoms on a plane from Jidda to London on May 1. He was admitted to a hospital May 8, where he is isolated and “doing well,” the CDC says.

There is no link between the Indiana and Florida patients.

At this time, there is no need for Americans wishing to visit the Arabian Peninsula to cancel their plans, the CDC says. Travelers should monitor their health while overseas and once they return, according to the agency.

“This latest development does not change CDC’s current recommendations to prevent the spread of MERS,” Swerdlow said. “If new information is learned that requires us to change our prevention recommendations, we can do so.”

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U.S. Reports Third Case Of MERS Virus

U.S. Reports Third Case Of MERS Virus

Washington (AFP) – An Illinois man has contracted the MERS respiratory virus after coming into contact with the first case of the mysterious Middle East pathogen in the United States, become the third infected person.

It was during an ongoing investigation on the first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in the United States that officials identified the new case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday.

“CDC officials explained that these laboratory test results are preliminary and suggest that the Illinois resident probably got the virus from the Indiana patient and the person’s body developed antibodies to fight the virus,” the agency said in a statement.

It said the Illinois resident, who has not recently traveled outside the United States, met twice with the Indiana patient before he was identified as the first known case of MERS in the United States.

As part of the investigation, health officials have tested people who came into contact with the Indiana resident.

The identities of the MERS patients have not been released.

The Illinois resident was first tested for MERS on May 5, and those test results were negative. But a blood sample tested positive on Friday, showing he has antibodies to MERS.

“This latest development does not change CDC’s current recommendations to prevent the spread of MERS-CoV,” said David Swerdlow, who is leading the agency’s MERS response.

“It’s possible that as the investigation continues, others may also test positive for MERS-CoV infection but not get sick.”

The United States has previously announced two confirmed cases of MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which originated in Saudi Arabia and has since spread to more than a dozen countries.

The first patient, who fell ill in April, has been discharged from a hospital in Indiana.

Symptoms of MERS can include fever, chills, cough and in serious cases, kidney failure. Health authorities say it is transmissible mainly through close person-to-person contact and in health care settings.

Meanwhile, health authorities in Saudi Arabia reported three more fatalities from the MERS respiratory virus, taking the death toll in the world’s worst-hit country to 163.

The health ministry website also revealed that 520 cases have been recorded in the country since MERS first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have also recorded cases, mostly in people who had been to the desert kingdom.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Like SARS, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and a temperature. But MERS differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure.

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