From the ECDC Weekly Communicable Disease Threats Report, the US CDC, the Africa CDC, and the WHO:
- Global outbreak of mpox:
- Overall, more than 24,000 confirmed or suspected mpox cases due to both clades I and II have been reported from 14 African Union Member States since the beginning of the year. Similarly to previous weeks, although there is an increasing trend in cases of MPXV clade I reported by the DRC and Burundi, the epidemiological profile of the cases remains the same.
- No new countries have reported confirmed mpox cases due to clade I.
- No secondary transmission has been reported from the two clade I cases imported to Sweden and Thailand.
- The WHO has not changed its recommendation against implementing travel-related health measures specific for mpox. No international travel or trade restriction measures are recommended.
- Until now this year, a total of 14 human cases of avian influenza A(H5) have been reported in the US. Most of the cases involved individuals who had had direct contact with infected poultry or dairy cattle. The most recent case, from earlier this month, which was reported in the state of Missouri and detected through that state’s seasonal flu surveillance system, is the first instance without any documented exposure to infected animals, and it is still under investigation – it is not yet known whether the implicated virus is H5N1. The patient, who had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized and treated with influenza antiviral medications, was later discharged from hospital and has recovered.
- The US CDC continues to assess the risk to the general public as low due to the absence of sustained human-to-human transmission. CDC updates here: https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
- COVID-19: WHO global COVID-19 dashboard with cases from the last 7 and the last 28 days here: https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/cases
- Oropouche virus (OROV) disease: This year and until 31 August, 9,852 cumulative confirmed cases of OROV disease have been reported in Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. Over 30 cases have been confirmed in the US - most in Florida and all linked to travellers returning from Cuba. Another 19 exported cases have also been reported in Spain, Italy and Germany. The risk of OROV disease for persons travelling to countries in the Americas where transmission is ongoing or has been reported is assessed by the ECDC as moderate. When travelling to regions where the virus is present, the use of insect repellent and other insect bite prevention measures are recommended. The US CDC also recommends that travellers returning from affected regions use insect repellent for three weeks after returning to prevent possible transmission to others via midges or mosquitoes.
- Autochthonous dengue cases in Spain and Italy. Non-travel-associated dengue cases have been reported in Spain since 2018. A total of 21 such cases have been reported this year from the regions of Catalonia, Murcia and Ibiza. Two locally acquired dengue cases have been reported in Italy in August in the regions of Reggio Emilia and Lombardy.
- In Europe, the dengue virus is transmitted by the mosquito vector Aedes albopictus, which is established in a large part of the continent. The ECDC/EFSA map below, dated 22 May 2024, shows the distribution of Aedes albopictus in Europe:
A selection of other articles of interest:
Cost-effectiveness of influenza vaccination of frontline workers
In this Airfinity study, historical influenza data from the CDC and the WHO was utilised to model the effects of varying vaccination coverage levels on infections, sick days, and associated costs within a typical workplace. Higher vaccination coverage was associated with a significantly lower peak in sickness, mitigating periods of high absenteeism and operational disruptions. The authors stress the importance of targeting frontline workers, who have higher contact rates and contribute more significantly to influenza transmission. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.27.24312639v1
Researchers are calling for stricter biosafety measures in fur animal farms
Animals such as raccoon dogs, mink and muskrats are farmed for fur and are sometimes used as food or medicinal products. Researchers analysed tissues from 461 individual fur animals that were found dead due to disease. They found three subtypes of influenza A virus—H1N2, H5N6 and H6N2— in the lungs of guinea pig, mink and muskrat. They also found in mink a type of coronavirus related to viruses that have so far been identified only in bats, which suggests that fur farms can act as hubs for pathogens to cross species barriers, potentially transmitting to humans. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07901-3
WELV: a new virus associated with human febrile illness
A patient presented with persistent fever and multiorgan dysfunction after a tick bite at a wetland park in Inner Mongolia, China. The infection was revealed to be caused by a previously unknown tick-borne orthonairovirus, which the authors of this article published in the New England Journal of Medicine designated as Wetland virus (WELV). Active hospital-based surveillance was conducted in febrile patients and a total of 17 WELV cases was found from regions in northeastern China. WELV RNA was detected in five tick species and in sheep, horses, pigs, and the mole-like rodents known as Transbaikal zokors. https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMoa2313722
Orthonairoviruses belong to the Nairoviridae family of viruses with a specific configuration of circular RNA. This family of almost exclusively tick-borne viruses got its name from the so-called Nairobi sheep disease that affects small ruminants in Africa.
Vaping: heating liquids to produce hundreds of potentially hazardous substances
Vaping involves the heating of chemical solutions (e-liquids) to high temperatures prior to lung inhalation. Those chemicals may undergo thermal decomposition (pyrolysis) to new chemical substances, the composition and health implications of which are largely unknown. These researchers used a machine learning model to predict pyrolysis reactivity of 180 e-liquid chemical flavours. The model predicted 127 acute toxic, 153 health hazard and 225 irritant compounds. Chronic, long-term exposure to chemicals in e-cigarettes “makes it plausible that we are standing at the starting line of a new wave of chronic diseases that will only emerge in 15 to 20 years from now”. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-59619-x
Can fighting misinformation backfire?
Current interventions to combat misinformation include fact-checking, media literacy tips and media coverage and correction of misinformation. However, these interventions may have unintended consequences, The authors of this article published in Nature conducted surveys in three diverse countries - USA, Poland and Hong Kong. While all the above types of interventions successfully reduced belief in false information, they simultaneously increased scepticism in the credibility of factual (true) information, i.e., individuals can be inadvertently primed to approach all information, whether false or true, with heightened suspicion and scepticism. The authors advise caution when attempting to combat misinformation and suggest that existing mitigation approaches need to be redesigned. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01884-x?utm_source=nathumbehav_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_41562_8_8&utm_content=20240824
Media literacy tips for misinformation immunization, early diagnosis and treatment
So here is another recent study addressing the growing concern that while media literacy interventions are effective in safeguarding against misinformation, they may accidentally increase scepticism towards factual news. This experiment on 3,919 US subjects was published in Nature and showed that trust-inducing tips boosted true news sharing and acceptance, scepticism-enhancing tips hindered false news sharing and acceptance, while mixed tips did both.
Unlike past research designs testing the effectiveness of interventions against misinformation without including any true news items or by using unrealistic proportions of true and false news (50/50), in this study participants were either exposed to 75% of true news (and 25% of false news), 50% of true news, or 25% of true news.
Examples of trust-inducing media literacy tips: Is the source trustworthy? Do other prominent news sources report on the story? Some sources can be trusted because they have been accurate in the past. If the claims in the headline sound informative and balanced, the information is probably credible.
Examples of scepticism-enhancing media literacy tips: Scrutinise the source and the story. When only a few sources cover what sounds like an important story, it’s likely exaggerated or false. False news stories often have surprising and emotional headlines.
The authors conclude that to be most effective, media literacy tips should aim both to foster scepticism towards false news and to promote trust in true news. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-024-00121-5
Dr Rui Pombal
IATA Medical Advisor