Recent emerging / expanding zoonoses

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an outbreak of Nipah in India -
What Is Nipah Virus? Outbreak in India Kills at Least 10

Nipah is up to 75% fatal - but it's also largely AVOIDABLE, as eating fruit-bats or drinking raw palm-sap are the most-likely direct exposures. // Fruit-bats, just like humans, love the sweet sap - & the open pottery jugs traditionally used to capture the dripping sap from slashed trees are pots of nectar, for the bats.
After or even while drinking, they pee - often into the pots, not deliberately but they're used to simply going, when- & wherever. // When the pot is collected, even previously uncontaminated palm-sap is now a nasty cocktail when they pour the entire lot together.

once a human has Nipah, they can pass the virus to other humans - increasing its spread rapidly.

COVERING the pots so that only the sap can enter & EXCLUDING the bats from the direct area on the tree, shouldn't be that doggone hard - fruit-bats aren't rodents, they don't gnaw thru hard materials. Lightweight, effective barriers shouldn't be hard to design & produce, inexpensively, & preventing so many deaths would surely make it worthwhile.
As for eating fruit-bats, anyone with a serious addiction to fruit-bats as cuisine needs to rear them in captivity, & produce a sellable surplus to provide their own fix - NIPAH-FREE. :lol: S/he would do the wild bats a huge favor, reducing human predation & filling a [completely-needless] food niche in the consumer market.
Win - win!

- terry

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Nasty.. but in a country where even basic hygiene is a luxury expecting anyone to take measures to prevent contamination is a big ask..

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update:
At least 10 people have now died, in Kerala state, India; 2 more tested positive, & are critically ill; another 40 people are quarantined, after contact with those who've died.

Nipah virus is an emerging disease, 1st identified in 1999 - when there was an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia & Singapore.

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Infection with Rare Virus Traced to Teen's Pet Rats

there was an outbreak of Seoul virus, from the Hanta-virus family, in Illinois - among rodent-breeders, who raised & sold pet rats; a Tennessee teenager who'd bought her rats at a retail store, had been sick with an unidentified illness.

Her rats came from those breeders, & testing a sample of her blood, luckily kept by the hospital, revealed Seoul virus. // The teen had recovered, & refused to allow health officials to euth her pets - so they quarantined the rats: they were not allowed to leave her house, for their lifespan.
Rat saliva, urine, feces, & their bedding can all transmit Seoul; the family was instructed in how to avoid exposure by the health authorities.
Months later, her mother became much-more seriously ill with Seoul - & was hospitalized. She'd cleaned-up rat droppings a few weeks B4 she got sick; she did recover, but it was far-more worrying than her dotter's mild case.

Seoul has a low death-rate of 2% or less, but it can cause internal bleeding & kidney damage.
The Hanta virus endemic to the US-southwest is far-more lethal than Seoul - nearly 4 in every 10 of Sin Nombre Hanta patients die; it causes a severe respiratory syndrome. [The SW Hanta is spread by deer mice, & Navaho have banned deer mice from their homes for centuries - they are regarded as evil, invading the home. Outside, they're fine; they are not hated or persecuted, but they are evicted quickly if they enter Navaho homes.]

- terry

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Jan-2017, an Arizona woman who thought she had the flu, wasn't getting better - in March, having eliminated many other illnesses, they finally tested for Hanta, & she had Sin Nombre. Despite heroic treatments & a 3-mo struggle, she died in April.

Arizona Woman Dies from Rare Rodent-Borne Virus

No one knows how or when she was exposed, but a common route of Hanta exposure is inhaling dust particles contaminated by rodent urine; or less often, U might eat or drink something contaminated by rodents, & touching contaminated surfaces, then one's mouth, eyes, or nose, is another route of transmission.

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currently, there's another Ebola outbreak in Africa, the 10th since the virus was discovered.
So far, it's killed about half those who've been infected [over 10-years ago, that could easily reach 9 out of 10 - Dx & Tx have vastly improved, & speed is of the essence; getting the sick person into care quickly is life-saving].

How Bats Could Help Scientists Stop Ebola Outbreaks Before They Start

By mapping the movements of bats to new food sources or new roosts, scientists can predict the likely location of an Ebola hotspot, a helpful warning to assemble needed resources in that area B4 an outbreak.

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Nov-2017, there was an outbreak of Marburg in Uganda - this is a very-deadly version of hemorrhagic fever, related to Ebola, Dengue, et al.

Outbreak in Uganda: What Is the Marburg Virus?

I predicted about 5 or 6 years ago that Dengue would become endemic in Texas, S Calif, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, & other Gulf Coast states - I'm sorry to say i was right, in 2 states so far.

Second Local Case of Dengue Fever Diagnosed in Florida This Year

Rare Disease Linked to Dengue Virus Caused Texas Woman's Death

Hawai'i has also had Dengue outbreaks - they hope to prevent it becoming endemic.

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Middle East respiratory syndrome - Wikipedia

a respiratory-syndrome transmitted to ppl by camels, MERS can then pass human-to-human; it has a 36% death rate in diagnosed cases, but no-one knows how many mild cases go undiagnosed, & the patient recovers without seeking medical help. // Such unreported cases would markedly lower the known-risk.
West-Nile Virus is also a new & now-endemic infection in the USA, which causes many cases so mild as to go unremarked - but elderly ppl, children, immune-compromised humans, & birds, particularly corvids & raptors, are hit far-harder by WNV.

The first known case of MERS was in Saudi Arabia, 2012 - most cases are seen on the Arabian Peninsula.

A strain of MERS-CoV, labeled "HCoV-EMC/2012", identified in the first infected person found in London, UK, had a 100% match to Egyptian tomb bats.
The Republic of Korea had a large outbreak, in 2015. That resulted in scanners deployed at international airports to find passengers with fevers.

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turns out a mosquito isn't just a living hypodermic - their saliva itself causes "serious & complex immune responses" all by itself, & intensifies whatever illness they transmit to the bitee.

Even a Mosquito's Spit May Help Make You Sick

Being infected via sterile hypodermic vs being bitten by a skeeter caused quite-different outcomes in the patients.
The mozzie-bite caused more inflammation, higher fever, etc - whatever the symptoms, getting it via mosquito made it measurably worse than the self-same strain given from a syringe.

This is significant, as Aedes aegypti transmits a whole buncha nasties, & that spp feeds virtually-exclusively on human blood - if it were up to me, i'd release irradiated M A. aegypti & wipe out that species in all the regions where they aren't native [which is most of the world, outside of N Africa]. The A-a mozzie is the beast that carries Dengue, among other potent infectious agents.

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Congo Ebola Outbreak Death Toll at 27, Vaccination Campaign Begins

the current Ebola outbreak has spread to an urban center - vaccinations are beginning.
49 cases have been Dx'ed, & 27 ppl have died.

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Nipah is now confirmed to have killed 14;
2 more tested positive & are in care,
14 contacts are under observation.

Man of 26 dies of Nipah infection

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