Worldwide Alert For Hantavirus Outbreak Following Us Deaths

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OUTBREAK

Worldwide alert for hantavirus following US deaths

Thai News Agency

Health officials are on alert for an outbreak of hantavirus

BANGKOK: -- Suwanchai Wattanyingchaorenchai, deputy director general of the Communicable Disease Control Department, said alerts were also issued by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following last week's report by officials at a California park who said up to 10,000 campers could have been exposed to the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from sleeping in its cabins since June 10.

Though Thailand has seen only a few hantavirus cases, none of them fatal, in Kanchanaburi and Bangkok in 1985 and one case in Bangkok in 1998, health authorities have been instructed to work closely with officials of the Livestock Department and National Park and Wildlife Department to avoid exposure to rodents.

According to the American warning, deer mice are the principal carrier of the hantavirus.

US health officials say the disease does not spread from person to person. There is no cure for the virus, which can affect people of any age. The disease is carried in the faeces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne particles and dust.

People can be infected by inhaling the virus or by handling infected rodents. Infected people usually have flulike symptoms including fever, shortness of breath, chills and muscle and body aches. The illness can take six weeks to incubate before rapid acute respiratory and organ failure.

-- The Nation 2012-09-11

[bkkjames]

So a crackdown on Rats is next? or just an alert?

[Woodcaulk]

Since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of deer mice around perhaps Thai authorities should concentrate a on Leptospirosis which is far more common in Thailand

[GentlemanJim]

So the way that I read it, this is a virus that is not passed from Human to Human so will only have had the opportunity to infect anyone staying in the Californian campsite. It is therefore, not a communicable disease that the Deputy Director General of the Communicable Disease Control Department is warning us about.

Is it appraisal time at the CDCD or are there some promotions up for grabs? Does newspaper time help in either scenario?

[bkkjames]

The key thing is this I guess

There is no cure for the virus, which can affect people of any age. The disease is carried in the faeces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne particles and dust.

[SiamRose]

The key thing is this I guess

There is no cure for the virus, which can affect people of any age. The disease is carried in the faeces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents and carried on airborne particles and dust.

Yes, but those rodents have been in Thailand for a long time, and apparently so has the virus. There has recently been an outbreak in the US and people who visited a particular US park are at risk, but the disease does not spread from person to person, so why is there any more threat in Thailand now than there was last month or last year?

[Lingba]

Give me a heads up on this when we become "The Hub" of Hantavirus

[JoeLing]

Give me a heads up on this when we become "The Hub" of Hantavirus

Maybe "Hub" of rats but "Hub" of hanta virus?

Unless elephants carry the virus. They make a lot of poo so might infect a lot of people.

Edited September 11, 2012 by JoeLing

[geriatrickid]

Since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of deer mice around perhaps Thai authorities should concentrate a on Leptospirosis which is far more common in Thailand

Ahh, but did you know that the illness you reference is sometimes misdiagnosed? Patients can be infected with Hantavirus but physicians assume it it is Leptosprosis. Hantavirus is present in Thailand and it does make people sick. A misdiagnosis is rare, but one doesn't want to be the poor patient that is misadiagnosed.

American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2006 Nov;75(5):994-1002.

Geographical distribution of hantaviruses in Thailand and potential human health significance of Thailand virus.

Source: National Institute of Health, Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand.

Abstract

Phylogenetic investigations, sequence comparisons, and antigenic cross-reactivity studies confirmed the classification of Thailand virus (THAIV) as a distinct hantavirus species. The examination of sera from 402 rodents trapped in 19 provinces of Thailand revealed that five greater bandicoot rats (Bandicota indica) and one lesser bandicoot rat (B. savilei) from four provinces were focus reduction neutralization test (FRNT) antibody-positive for THAIV. One of 260 patients from Surin province in Thailand (initially suspected of having contracted leptospirosis, but found to be negative) showed symptoms compatible with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The serum of this patient showed high titers of hantavirus-reactive IgM and IgG. FRNT investigations confirmed virus-neutralizing antibodies against THAIV. These observations suggest that THAIV or THAI-like viruses occur throughout Indochina and may represent an additional causative agent of HFRS.

The other reason for the "alert" is that it is standard protocol. Memos and alerts like this have become the norm after SARS and the various deadly flu viruses caused concern. In the world of air travel, it is not unusual for someone to be infected in another country and to show up elsewhere and start to present symptoms. This is more of a heads up warning. There are Europeans and Americans that may have visited the US national park and then traveled elsewhere. The memo will remind diagnosticians to keep that in mind and to consider all possible causes for a puzzling ailment.

Nothing sinister or stupid in the alert. There was however no need to make this a public spectacle with a big announcement. It is shop talk and should have stayed inside the shop.

[kennalder]

World wide alert following US deaths, Up to 10,000 exposed...Sounds pretty serious, but no real details in the article. The real facts according to the NY Times-8 cases and 3 deaths. But let's get everyone worked up and perhaps they wont notice almost 40,000 a year die in the US from prescription drugs. And that's what they tell us about. Good to know the CDC is on the ball, and other organizations around the world are listening to their warnings. Just as well we have people like this to keep us safe.