Sars again?

[Handy Harry]

Singapore detects new case of SARS

September 9, 2003

Singapore health officials have confirmed that a local patient had tested positive for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

Ministry of Health spokeswoman Bey Mui Leng told The Associated Press that initial tests of a local man "proved positive for the SARS virus".

"We are repeating the test again tonight," Bey said.

Singapore's last reported case of the deadly respiratory illness occurred in early May.

The city-state has been on alert against a possible second outbreak of SARS, which killed 33 people and sickened 328 in Singapore earlier this year.

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia which aired Friday, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew played down the threat of a second SARS wave, saying the local health care system was well-prepared.

"The second time around, if it comes around, we should know what to do to protect ourselves," he said.

AP


This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/08/1062902004638.html

[cheesebeast]

From SCMP

Herbal soup as good as drugs in Sars fight: study


MARY ANN BENITEZ

Herbal soup given to patients on the mainland during the Sars outbreak could work just as well as western antiviral medicines in combating Sars, a symposium was told yesterday.

The herb skullcap root contains the chemical compound baicalin, which has been shown in a Hong Kong study to have the same antiviral properties as interferon and Ribavirin, which was used to treat Sars, according to University of Hong Kong chair professor of microbiology Yuen Kwok-yung.

The soup, called qing fei jiy du tang or soup for clearing the lungs, was given to Sars patients on the mainland. Doctors there believe it was a major factor for the low death rate among mainland Sars patients.

The Sars mortality rate on the mainland was 7 per cent, compared with 11 per cent globally and 17 per cent in Hong Kong, where 299 people died.

Professor Yuen said yesterday that his team analysed the soup, whose composition was released by the state administration of traditional Chinese medicine.

Four of the herbs in the soup were found to have "pure chemical compounds", which the Hong Kong scientists tested, along with five antiviral drugs, to determine how effective they were against the coronavirus that causes Sars.

Of four compounds, only baicalin was active against the virus, Professor Yuen told the symposium on Sars held by the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre.

Professor Yuen cautioned the results were preliminary but offered a possible cheap treatment. "In places where they cannot afford interferon and Ribavirin they can consider using baicalin," he said.

[imaufo]

The bird flu virus which has caused an Asian-wide health scare has the potential to be far more serious than SARS, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

Peter Cordingley, a spokesman at the WHO regional office in Manila, said: "If the H5N1 (avian influenza) virus attaches itself to the common human flu virus and if it is then effectively transmitted, it has the potential to cause widespread damage."

The H5N1 virus killed six of 18 people who fell sick in Hong Kong in 1997 and at least three - possibly 12 - deaths in Vietnam since October have been linked to the virus.

Mr Cordingley says the WHO expects more deaths in Vietnam to be due to the H5N1 virus.

He says that one of two young children with the flu symptoms is in a critical condition in hospital.

"This mortality rate is far higher than that of the SARS virus," Mr Cordingley said.

"The common human flu virus is far more infectious than the SARS virus and can be spread by aerosol and not just through droplets as in the case of SARS virus."

He cited two factors for the bird flu virus to be potentially more dangerous than the SARS virus.

"One is if it attaches itself to the common flu virus and the second is that if this new virus is then effectively transmitted like the common flu virus, we have the potential for widespread damage," he said.

Current evidence indicates the H5N1 virus can spread from poultry to people but not easily from person to person.

Vietnam is currently battling to contain an outbreak of bird flu that has infected between one and two million chickens.

Japan and South Korea are dealing with much smaller outbreaks of the disease.

--AFP




New strain

Chinese health officials have reported one confirmed case of SARS and two suspected cases in the Chinese province of Guangdong since the SARS was said to be contained last July.

The three patients were "nowhere near as sick as many of the patients were last year", said Robert Breiman, head of a WHO team probing SARS in Guangzhou.

"It's also possible that the SARS virus that is causing the infections, at least so far, is different somehow in its ability to transmit easily and also in its virulence, the level of severity of illness that it causes," he told Reuters.

He cautioned against letting one's guard down.

"It's possible that the same sorts of super spreading events that occurred last year could occur at some point this year."

A leading SARS expert at the University of Hong Kong said the present strain of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome was not a descendant of last year's virus.

"The virus this year is a new virus strain. It behaves like a virus in an animal and is not well adapted to humans, so its transmission ability is low," said microbiologist Guan Yi.

"That is why contacts of these victims (in China) have not been infected," said the expert.

The SARS scare was overshadowed this week as Asia faced a new health threat in bird flu, with WHO confirming that the disease had killed three people in Vietnam.

[imaufo]

Civet is off the main course, but it's still in the coffee

ASSOCIATED PRESS and STAFF REPORTER


Fears over Sars may have pushed civet cat off restaurant menus in southern China, but the scare has not deterred others from coffee made with beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the animals.

Civets live in plantations across Southeast Asia. Fussy foragers, they pick the best and ripest coffee berries.

Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean.

Workers collect beans from the plantation floor, wash away the dung and roast them to produce a unique drink.

Sceptics dismiss it all as an unverifiable marketing gimmick. Still, in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, the owner of three fashionable cafés, Agus Susanto, sells what he claims is a mix of regular beans and those that have passed through civets. The blend and the cafes are both called kopi luwak — in English, civet coffee.

"Our [civet] coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma," he said from his factory in central Java.

In Hong Kong, the Great food hall in Pacific Place started selling the beans 18 months ago - marketing them as the most expensive coffee in the world at $750 for 113 grams. They have not been stocked for months, staff said yesterday.

In Vietnam, now the world's second-largest regular coffee grower, a blend supposedly containing some civet beans is produced by the Trung Nguyen company under the Weasel Coffee brand.

In the Philippines, the Old Manila Coffee House used to sell a civet brew, but supplies have dwindled over the years, said Ellen Tuason, its finance officer.

"Some of our guests said it was an aphrodisiac. It has a strong coffee smell, but different. There is a distinct odour and flavour," she said. The beans are also marketed internationally.

Several US internet-based coffee traders claim to offer civet beans for up to US$325 a kg, making it one of the world's most expensive beverages.

However, many in Asia's coffee trade doubt whether the beans are truly produced in significant quantities, if at all.

"There are maybe a few bags here, a few bags there, but mostly its just a myth," said Victor Mah, a Singaporean who has been selling coffee from Southeast Asia for more than 25 years.

"I think it's a big scam," said Mark Hanusz, who has spent eight months travelling Indonesia researching his book about coffee.

In the past few weeks, authorities in Guangdong have killed thousands of civet cats over fears that they carry and spread the Sars virus.

The World Health Organisation also sees a potential relationship between the furry black and white animals and the disease that killed 774 people worldwide last year. If that link is confirmed, consumer interest in civet coffee could plummet.

But in Jakarta, Agus Susanto is not worried.

He expects to keep selling what he claims is 100 tonnes of civet coffee a month.

"There are many different kinds of civets in this world. The Indonesian ones are different from those in China," he said.

Henry Harmon, an American who owns a chain of coffee shops in Indonesia, said he believed the drink was genuine but had no plans to introduce it in his stores.

"It has a nice romantic twist to it, but I'd be worried about product liability lawsuits," Mr Harmon said.

[imaufo]

By Richard Yallop

June 07, 2004

A NEW antibiotic-resistant superbug has emerged in Australia causing the death of one man and the infection of 50 others.

The deadly new disease has alarmed infectious diseases experts because it is acquired in the community rather than in hospital.

A young Queensland man, who died in Royal Brisbane Hospital's intensive care unit last winter, has been identified as the first to die from the infection, which is a strain of golden staph.

The man was admitted suffering from septicemia but failed to respond to flucloxicillin, a penicillin-type antibiotic.

Forty-eight hours later, blood tests showed he had the new, virulent "Queensland" strain of golden staph. Although his antibiotics were changed, it was too late to save him.


Specialists contacted by The Australian said the emergence of the new disease, which has been diagnosed in about 50 people in southeast Queensland and northern NSW, had provided alarming new evidence of growing antibiotic resistance.

Wendy Munckhof, an infectious diseases specialist at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, has led the study of the new disease, which is thought to be contracted through a breach in the skin.

Dr Munckhof said it represented a "wake-up call" on antibiotic resistance. Ronan Murray, an infectious diseases specialist at Royal Perth Hospital, said the "Armageddon scenario" of infections not responding to a whole range of antibiotics was "still a way off", but he described the growth of drug-resistant bacteria as "very worrying".

He confirmed two cases of the new disease had been diagnosed in WA, although it was not known if they had been brought by a Queenslander, or emerged spontaneously.

He said of the new strain: "We will see more and more of this, and first-line antibiotics won't be any use, and more and more expensive ones will have to be used."

Two new antibiotics were recently introduced to counter bacteria resistance: linezolid costs more than $100 a day and Synercid costs more than $700 a day.

There is wide concern among specialists and health officials that inappropriate prescription of antibiotics has accelerated bacteria resistance. Last year, doctors wrote 10.9 million scripts for antibiotics costing $130 million.

Anton Peleg, a former Brisbane infectious diseases doctor, last month presented a research paper on the Queensland strain.

Co-written with Dr Munckhof and researchers from the Queensland University of Technology, the paper says the disease is "highly virulent and can cause fatal infections in healthy young people".

Dr Peleg, who now works at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, told The Australian most golden staph infections presented with a skin or soft-tissue infection, but the new strain was producing blood infections that in some cases could lead to death.

It is a major problem in hospitals, particularly after operations, and its spread has been associated with issues of hospital healthcare.

But the emergence of the community-acquired strain alarms doctors because the infection has now spread outside a hospital setting.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9767767%255E2702,00.html
Federal and state governments are already struggling with the challenge of hospital-acquired MRSA, and initiatives have been introduced to record infection data, and establish new guidelines on antibiotic use.

[gifare]

Hello friends
The H5N1 virus killed six of 20 people who fell sick in Hong Kong and at least three possibly 5 deaths in Vietnam since October have been linked to the virus. so use tamiflu drug regularly for more information see here-
http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3353-s-tamiflu.aspx (http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3353-s-tamiflu.aspx) my friend tell me that the WHO it may be more deaths in Vietnam to be due to the H5N1 virus. He says that one of two young children with the flu symptoms is in a critical condition in hospital. so use tamiflu drug properly.