Tag: outbreak

New COVID variant considered ‘worse than’ Delta is ‘spreading rapidly’ in South Africa and worrying health experts across the globe

Phil Shiver – November 26, 2021

A new COVID-19 variant recently identified in South Africa is causing concern from public health experts across the globe due to its high number of mutations and increased transmissibility among young people. Some are even warning the new strain could prove to be more dangerous than the Delta variant.

What are the details?

It’s unclear where exactly the new strain, formerly known as B.1.1.529, initially arose but it was first detected in South Africa and has since been detected among South African travelers in neighboring Botswana as well as Hong Kong, the Associated Press reported. On Friday, Israel also said it had detected cases.

South Africa’s minister of health, Joe Phaahla, announced this week that the variant has been linked to a rapid increase in the number of cases in the country’s Gauteng province over the last few days.

“Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise,” Phaahla said, according to Time. The magazine noted that South African scientists are presently working to determine the percentage of new cases that were caused by the new variant, but they suspect it to be high.

Over the past several weeks, COVID-19 transmission in the country had settled to a relatively low rate at just over 200 new confirmed cases per day. But in the past week, the daily new cases suddenly shot up to more than 1,200. And then on Thursday, the number of new cases skyrocketed to 2,465.

One of the most worrying elements about the new variant is its “constellation” of more than 30 new mutations, said Tulio de Oliveira of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa.

“We can see that the variant is potentially spreading very fast,” de Oliveira added. “We do expect to start seeing pressure in the healthcare system in the next few days and weeks.”

“[The] very high number of mutations is a concern for predicted immune evasion and transmissibility,” he explained.

https://www.theblaze.com

U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Hit Record High

Human Events Staff  |  November 17, 2021

The U.S. recorded its highest number of drug-overdose deaths in a one year period, according to the CDC.

There were an estimated 100,306 drug deaths in the 12 months running through April, the latest data shows. This marks a nearly 29% rise from the deaths recorded in the same period the previous year, per the Wall Street Journal. 

“It’s telling us that 2021 looks like it will be worse than 2020,” Robert Anderson, chief of the CDC mortality statistics branch, said.

Opioid-related deaths, mainly caused by fentanyl, accounted for about 75 percent of the deaths through April.

Indeed, the pandemic worsened opioid overdoses due to isolation. The number of overdoses in 2020 surged to a record of about 93,330.

https://humanevents.com

DEVELOPING: A bird flu outbreak is now spreading across Europe and Asia

ETH – November 15, 2021

Several outbreaks of severe bird flu in Europe and Asia have been reported in recent days to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), in a sign the virus is spreading quickly again.

According to Reuters, The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has put the poultry industry on alert after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds. Outbreaks also often lead to trade restrictions.

According to the Daily Sabah, It is also attracting the attention of epidemiologists as the virus can be transmitted to humans. China has reported 21 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza so far this year, more than in the whole of 2020.

South Korea reported an outbreak at a farm of around 770,000 poultry in Chungcheongbuk-do, the OIE said on Monday, citing a report from the South Korean authorities.

All animals were slaughtered. Also in Asia, Japan reported its first outbreak of the 2021 winter season, at a poultry farm in the northeast of the country, the OIE said, confirming a statement last week by Japan’s agriculture ministry. The serotype in this outbreak was H5N8. In Europe, Norway reported an H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the Rogaland region in a flock of 7,000 birds, the OIE said.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Fresh outbreaks of highly contagious bird flu confirmed in Europe

RT – November 8, 2021

Several outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N1 avian flu have cropped up across Poland’s poultry farms, affecting over half a million birds, animal health officials have said. An outbreak was also confirmed in England on Monday.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) revealed the Polish outbreaks on Monday, saying that five were documented in the eastern part of the country alone. Four of the instances were at turkey-fattening facilities, and one at a chicken broiler farm. Meanwhile in western Poland, another outbreak was discovered at a turkey and geese farm.

Nearly 650,000 fowl at the country’s farms have been contaminated with the highly pathogenic bird flu, the OIE said.

In a statement released by Poland’s Chief Inspectorate Veterinary on Saturday, the body said that it implements disease control measures at farms which suffer bird flu outbreaks. These actions can include killing infected animals, deep cleaning and disinfecting contaminated areas, and establishing designated infectious zones.

Warsaw is not alone in facing a bird flu outbreak. A 3km protection zone, as well as a 10km radius for surveillance purposes, was established on Monday in the UK county of Warwickshire, following an outbreak of the deadly influenza strain at a small poultry unit.

Poultry owners in this zone will be required to record the details of any visitors, to stop the spread of the highly contagious strain. Meanwhile, any owners in the 3km sphere will have to isolate their birds.

H5N1 is estimated to have a mortality rate of around 53% in humans who contract the disease following contact with infected fowl. Between 2003 and October 2021, 863 human infections with H5N1 have been recorded globally, according to World Health Organization data, with 456 of these proving fatal.

https://www.rt.com

France orders lockdown… for domestic fowl over bird-flu threat

RT – November 5, 2021

The French Agriculture Ministry has ordered the country’s poultry farmers to keep their fowl indoors to prevent the potential spread of a highly contagious bird-flu strain via migratory birds.

The ministry published the order in the French official journal on Thursday, citing the “rising infection rate in migratory corridors” as a sufficient reason to consider the potential infection risk “high” across the country.

The measure is aimed at protecting farms, as no cases in humans have been reported so far. The ministry announced the move after a highly contagious H5 strain of bird flu was discovered at a farm in the neighboring Netherlands. The discovery prompted a cull of 36,000 birds as part of the Dutch authorities’ precautionary measures. The Netherlands then also introduced a “lockdown” for poultry on its territory

The UK declared a nationwide Avian Influenza Prevention Zone on Wednesday, demanding farmers toughen their infection prevention measures, but stopping short of ordering them to keep fowl indoors. The move followed the discovery of several bird-flu cases in wild birds in the UK.

“Since the beginning of August, 130 bird-flu cases or clusters have been detected in wild animals or on farms in Europe,” the French ministry said on Thursday, adding that the list included at least three cases among domestic birds in northeastern France. The three bird flu outbreaks detected in France were related to the H5N8 strain.

The avian flu strain, H5N1, is notorious for its high mortality rate of around 60% in humans, and is contracted via contact with the excretions of infected birds. The World Health Organization still considers the risk of its human-to-human transmission to be “low.”

https://www.newsmax.com

Lancet study: Vaccinated as likely as unvaccinated to spread delta variant

Art Moore – October 28, 2021

A yearlong, peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious British science journal The Lancet found people vaccinated against COVID-19 are as likely to spread the delta variant to contacts in their household as those who have not been vaccinated.Scientists, including researchers at the Imperial College of London, studied 621 people in the United Kingdom who had mild COVID-19 and found that the peak viral load of the vaccinated was similar to the unvaccinated.

The analysis, published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal, covered the period of Sept. 13, 2020, to Sept. 15, 2021.

It found that vaccinated people transmitted a delta variant infection to others at a rate of 25% . For the unvaccinated, the rate was 23%.

The delta variant is by far the most common source of COVID-19 disease around the world. In the United States, it comprises 99% of novel coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A co-leader of the new study, Ajit Lalvani, a professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said the findings “show that vaccination alone is not enough to prevent people from being infected with the delta variant and spreading it in household settings.”

https://www.wnd.com

First case of new Delta mutation AY4.2 diagnosed in Israel

TOI staff and AFP – October 19, 2021

A subvariant of the Delta coronavirus mutation raising alarm bells in the United Kingdom has been found in a child who entered Israel from Moldova, health officials said Tuesday.

The AY4.2 is being closely monitored by officials in the UK, and others have called for urgent research into the subvariant, though health officials say there is no evidence yet that it is driving an uptick in coronavirus cases in some places.

According to reports in Hebrew media, the subvariant was found for the first time in Israel in an 11-year-old boy who entered the country from Moldova. He was flagged at the airport and sent into isolation, Channel 12 news reported.

Health Ministry officials plan to hold a meeting on the worrying new strain, Walla news reported, amid fears that a new strain of the virus in Israel could reverse fading infection numbers after months of being pummeled by the fast-spreading Delta variant.

There were 1,486 new infections on Monday, the Health Ministry said, with another 701 Tuesday as of late afternoon. There were 354 people hospitalized in serious condition and the death toll reached 8,021, a day after crossing 8,000 deaths.

https://www.timesofisrael.com

New virus poses ‘an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet’

Art Moore – October 10, 2021

The Biden administration’s apparent unwillingness to conduct a serious official investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 that holds China accountable for its actions and lack of cooperation could result in a pandemic much more lethal that the current one, warns a leading researcher.

Dr. Steven Quay, whose research became part of a State Department probe of the origin of COVID-19 under President Trump, told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Friday that “all of the evidence points toward the lab theory.”

“There’s no evidence that supports a natural origin at this point,” he said. “So I think we’re done, at this point, with the investigation.”

But it’s more vital than ever to stop the dangerous “gain-of-function” research – engineering viruses to make them more transmissible and lethal – going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said.

Raw data from patient specimens posted in the National Institutes of Health’s gene bank showed researchers at the Wuhan lab in December 2019 were manipulating genes from the highly lethal Nipah virus, Quay said.

The Nipah virus, which causes severe inflammation of the brain or encephalitis, has a death rate of about 80%, Quay warned.

“If you didn’t like the pandemic that was just 1% lethal, this thing they were working on in December 2019 has an 80% lethality,” he told MacCallum. “It needs to be stopped.”

Quay told “Fox Business Tonight” on Thursday that virus research at the Wuhan lab poses “an existential threat to life as we know it on this planet.”

https://www.wnd.com

Pfizer Asks FDA to Allow COVID Shots for Kids Ages 5 to 11

Newsmax – October 8, 2021

Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.

Many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, today’s age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Not only can youngsters sometimes get seriously ill, but keeping them in school can be a challenge with the coronavirus still raging in poorly vaccinated communities.

Pfizer announced in a tweet that it had formally filed its application with the Food and Drug Administration.

Now the FDA will have to decide if there’s enough evidence that the shots are safe and will work for younger children like they do for teens and adults. An independent expert panel will publicly debate the evidence on Oct. 26.

One big change: Pfizer says its research shows the younger kids should get a third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots.

https://www.newsmax.com

Mice plague spreading across new Australian states as summer sparks surge in pest numbers

Anton Nilsson – September 23, 2021

Despite a lull over the winter, Australia’s mouse plague never ended – and now it’s threatening new areas of the country.

Large numbers of mice continue to plague rural Australian communities as farmers fear yet another crop will be ruined.

After dwindling in the winter cold, mouse populations have begun growing rapidly again, CSIRO mouse expert Steve Henry said.

“We’re quite concerned, given them the numbers that have been reported at the moment,” Mr Henry said.

NSW Farmers vice president Xavier Martin, who operates a farm in Gunnedah, said the new wave of mice would be a hard blow for farmers still reeling from the plague earlier in the year.

“A lot of farmers are on edge because they’re still trying to deal with contaminated hay and crops,” he said.

“Some contaminated produce had to be buried or burnt. So they’re very wary about this upcoming harvest and hay making.”

The mice are multiplying fast across a wide area that stretches from northern NSW to southern Queensland.

The worst-hit areas in recent weeks appear to be around Walgett and Moree in NSW, and in the Darling Downs in Queensland.

But there is also an area in Western Australia where mice are breeding fast, according to Mr Henry.

https://www.news.com.au