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      ‘We’re in a golden age for microbes’: the man rewriting history from the perspective of germs

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 2 April, 2023 - 10:00 · 1 minute

    Forget ‘great men’ – infection and disease are the really important forces in the development of humankind, believes public health specialist Jonathan Kennedy

    Barts pathology museum is usually open to the public only by special appointment. But today, I’m in luck. I find myself with an unexpected open sesame in the form of Dr Jonathan Kennedy, the director of the MSc and iBSc global public health programmes at Barts and the London Medical School, and while he has his photograph taken up on one of its mezzanine floors, I’m free to wander around alone. (At least, I think I’m alone; the museum is nothing if not ghostly.)

    On the same site as the hospital in the City of London, this purpose-built, glass-roofed Victorian building is home to about 4,000 medical specimens, the majority of them displayed on open shelves. Every part of the body is represented and every kind of illness and injury – though tracking down a particular condition can be tricky for the non-medical. When I finally find the gnarled, yellow spine of a patient who suffered from tuberculosis – I was after something that speaks to Kennedy’s new book, which is about infectious disease and its effect on human civilisation – it’s largely down to luck. The vertebrae in question just happen to be next to the museum’s most famous exhibit: the skull of John Bellingham, who assassinated the British prime minister, Spencer Perceval , in 1812.

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      Marburg outbreak grows with concerning geographic spread in Equatorial Guinea

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 30 March, 2023 - 18:28

    An electron micrograph of a number of Marburg virions responsible for causing Marburg virus disease.

    Enlarge / An electron micrograph of a number of Marburg virions responsible for causing Marburg virus disease. (credit: Getty | BSIP )

    Equatorial Guinea's first-ever outbreak of Marburg virus —a relative of Ebola virus that causes similarly deadly hemorrhagic fever—is continuing to grow, spreading over a wide geographic area with potentially undetected chains of transmission, officials for the World Health Organization said.

    As of Wednesday morning, officials in Equatorial Guinea had reported nine confirmed cases, with seven confirmed deaths across three provinces since early February.

    "However, these three provinces are 150 kilometers apart, suggesting wider transmission of the virus," WHO's Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference Wednesday .

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      Outbreak of Marburg, Ebola’s similarly deadly relative, spurs response race

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 15 February, 2023 - 18:16

    A World Health Organisation (WHO) alert team takes out a body in Nganakamana village near Uige on April 26, 2005. In outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers, including Marburg, unprotected exposure to dead bodies is a significant cause of further spread.

    Enlarge / A World Health Organisation (WHO) alert team takes out a body in Nganakamana village near Uige on April 26, 2005. In outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers, including Marburg, unprotected exposure to dead bodies is a significant cause of further spread. (credit: Getty | Christopher Black )

    Health officials are racing to stamp out a rare and concerning outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

    The outbreak, first confirmed Monday , is the country's first ever from Marburg. The virus is a relative of Ebola and has similar transmission (via direct contact and bodily fluids), hemorrhagic disease symptoms, and alarmingly high fatality rates.

    So far, there have been nine deaths linked to the outbreak, which stretches back to January. One of the deaths has been confirmed as being from Marburg virus disease, while eight others are considered suspected. They appear to be in the same transmission chain, but officials were unable to obtain samples to confirm the infections.

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      Six children among latest Ebola cases in Uganda’s capital as outbreak grows

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 27 October, 2022 - 22:14

    Red Cross workers don PPE prior to burying a 3-year-old boy suspected of dying from Ebola in 2022 in Mubende, Uganda.

    Enlarge / Red Cross workers don PPE prior to burying a 3-year-old boy suspected of dying from Ebola in 2022 in Mubende, Uganda. (credit: Getty | Luke Dray )

    Concern is rising over the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda that is now swiftly spreading in the densely populated capital city of Kampala. The outbreak is caused by a lesser-seen species of Ebolavirus, the Sudan virus, for which there is no proven vaccine or treatment.

    Uganda's Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on September 20, a day after a 24-year-old man from a rural area in central Uganda died of the disease . Since then, the virus has spread to seven districts in the country, with the ministry reporting a total of 109 confirmed cases and 30 deaths. Health workers accounted for 15 of the confirmed cases and six of the confirmed deaths. There are also unofficial reports of probable cases and deaths.

    Health experts are particularly concerned about the spread into Kampala, which government officials reported only Sunday. As of Wednesday, the city of more than 1.6 million has seen at least 15 confirmed cases. Of the 15 cases, six are school-aged children from the same family.

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      Unusual Ebola strain kills 23 in Uganda; no vaccines, treatments available

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 27 September, 2022 - 22:51

    Health measures are taken at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital after an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda.

    Enlarge / Health measures are taken at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital after an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. (credit: Getty | Anadolu Agency )

    Health officials in Uganda are scrambling to catch up to a burgeoning Ebola outbreak caused by a lesser-seen Ebolavirus species called Sudan virus (SUDV), for which there is no vaccine or treatment.

    Information so far suggests that the outbreak response efforts may be three weeks behind the initial spread of SUDV, which has an incubation period of up to 21 days and a case fatality rate between 41 percent and 100 percent. So far, 36 cases (18 confirmed, 18 probable) have been identified, with 23 deaths. Health officials have listed a total of 223 contacts.

    But that number is likely an undercount. Several transmission chains have not been tracked, and some health facilities that saw Ebola patients did not follow optimal infection control measures, the World Health Organization warned . Further, because of the delayed recognition of the outbreak, some patients were buried in traditional ceremonies with large gatherings that could have allowed the virus to transmit further.

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