1 in 2,000 British people may carry 'mad cow' disease

Posted by Neill Abayon

Around 1 in every 2,000 people in the UK may carry variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) proteins, more commonly known as "mad cow" disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This is according to a study published in the BMJ.

 Variant CJD is a fatal degenerative brain disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the median duration of illness from vCJD is 14 months, while the median age at death from the disease is 28-years-old.

The illness was first described in the UK in 1996 and is thought to have resulted from transmission of infection from BSE in cattle to humans through meat products.

According to the team of UK researchers, there have been 177 clinical cases of vCJD to date in the UK.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been only three cases of vCJD reported in the US between 1996 and March 2011. However, previous studies have estimated that around 1 in 4,000 people may carry vCJD prions.

There is uncertainty surrounding the number of people who will eventually develop the disease, and it is unclear whether carriers risk transmitting the disease through blood transfusion or surgery.

Because of these cloudy areas, the researchers wanted to conduct a survey in order to more accurately determine how many people in the UK could be carriers of vCJD, and to identify the genotype of the carriers.

The research team analyzed more than 32,000 appendix samples over 41 hospitals from people who had their appendix removed between 2000 and 2012. 

More here.


 

WHO says swine flu pandemic is over

Posted by Neill Abayon

GENEVA — The World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic officially over Tuesday, months after many national authorities started canceling vaccine orders and shutting down hot lines as the disease ebbed from the headlines.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the organization's emergency committee of top flu experts advised her that the pandemic had "largely run its course" and the world is no longer in phase six — the highest influenza alert level.

"I fully agree with the committee's advice," Chan told reporters in a telephone briefing from her native Hong Kong.

The virus has now entered the "post-pandemic" phase, meaning disease activity around the world has returned to levels usually seen for seasonal influenza, she said.

But Chan cautioned against complacency, saying that even though hospitalizations and deaths have dropped sharply, countries should still keep a watchful eye for unusual patterns of infection and mutations that might render existing vaccines and antiviral drugs ineffective.

"It is likely that the virus will continue to cause serious disease in younger age groups," she said, urging high-risk groups such as pregnant women to continue seeking vaccination.

Unusually, swine flu hits young adults harder than the over-65s, who are believed to have some immunity to the A(H1N1) strain.

At least 18,449 people have died worldwide since the outbreak began in April 2009. WHO said last week that the true figure is likely to be higher, but the organization's flu chief, Keiji Fukuda, said a final number won't be known for some months.

Read the original article here.