By Aaron Hermann
For the last two weeks the official reports coming out of China, the WHO, and the CDC have all maintained there is no human-to-human transmission and that birds are the likely source of the disease. Articles are coming out today that seemingly refute those reports and suggest that human-to-human transmission is occurring in close contact cases, but that no one is really sure exactly how the virus is spreading. Further undermining the initial reports is the fact that only a handful out of thousands of birds have tested positive for the H7N9 virus.
The continued underlying message has been, "there is nothing to worry about here, folks", but the actions being taken by the CDC contradict the "all is well" message as the CDC announced today that it is issuing strict guidelines for containing the virus as well as making the announcement that they are beginning to look for the H7N9 virus in the United States.
On top of all that a recent report announced that Ron Fouchier, and others, will be working with the H7N9 virus. I have written so much about the man I felt it was time to put a face to the name. The picture to the left is of Ron Fouchier who is one of the men responsible for the brilliant work of turning the H5N1 avian flu into a lethal airborne virus of which the chairman of the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity Paul Kleim had this to say, “I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.” Excellent work, Ron.
One would think with that kind of achievement already on his resume he would be content to not create any more lethal pathogens that threaten the lives of millions of people, but apparently that is not the case. Humanity's dear friend Mr. Fouchier is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his portion of the H7N9 virus that is sweeping through China. This is what Fouchier had to say in a recent article.
“Across the North Sea, virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, says that he will also put the virus in ferrets as soon as his H7N9 shipment from NIMR arrives. One of the first things to study, besides pathogenicity, is whether the virus is "airborne," Fouchier says—that is, transmissible through aerosols or tiny droplets between ferrets in adjoining cages. If it's not, Fouchier says that he's interested in finding out which mutations might make it easily transmissible between ferrets, the kind of experiments that raised a huge controversy when his lab reported them in H5N1. "It's clearly a critical question," Fouchier says, adding that the studies would first require extensive discussion.
Fouchier says that his group will also try to infect cynomolgus macaques, "because having two animal models is better than one." Labs at the U.S. National Institutes of Health with which Erasmus MC collaborates may use other monkey models, such as rhesus macaques and African green monkeys, Fouchier says. "We usually coordinate in a situation like this."”
Updated: Chinese H7N9 Virus Making Its Way to Labs Around the World
Fouchier says that his group will also try to infect cynomolgus macaques, "because having two animal models is better than one." Labs at the U.S. National Institutes of Health with which Erasmus MC collaborates may use other monkey models, such as rhesus macaques and African green monkeys, Fouchier says. "We usually coordinate in a situation like this."”
Updated: Chinese H7N9 Virus Making Its Way to Labs Around the World
The first thing on Fouchier's list is to determine if the H7N9 virus is indeed humanly transmissible, or "airborne." Secondly, if it's not he wants to find out what mutations are necessary so that it is! He doesn't come out and say it, but I am quite convinced that if the virus is not yet passing between humans at an acceptable rate Fouchier will do whatever he can to speed up the process. This is EXACTLY what was done with the H5N1 study and here he is doing it yet again, but this time he is doing it with a form of the virus that is currently causing an outbreak in China and killing people.
Of course this will all be passed off as necessary work in an effort to create a vaccine, save lives, protect humanity, etc. That entire shtick is nothing more than the sweet-sounding lies of the "white coat collective" that have been maximizing the pain, suffering, and death of people in the name of modern medicine for hundreds of years.
While the official reports all claim that no one knows how this disease started, where it came from, exactly how it's spreading, where it's been, where it's going, or anything else of any real value I am willing to go on record and state that I believe that this is the result of a concentrated effort to bring about a viral outbreak on a large scale using a manmade bioweapon.
Whether or not this is the beginning of that outbreak, or yet another round of live field testing in order to gain more information and refine the disease I cannot say. However, I do not believe for one second that this is simply a random act of nature and that all of these national and international agencies are swooping in and working for our benefit and protection.
I started my last post in this series with this piece of advice, and I would like to include it again here.
“When you read or hear the official reports of outbreaks and there's a nagging sense that there's something they're not telling us, that's probably the holy spirit. The big picture evidence suggests that the official stories are bogus, contrived, that we are being lied to. Strings are being pulled behind the scenes directing the outcome of events. There really is a conspiracy against us. In the face of the onslaught of lies and deceit hold fast to what the Lord has given you and what the Holy Spirit has revealed to you as true.”
Series Links: A Bioforming Pandemic
Series Links: A Bioforming Pandemic
The rest of the article which detailed Fouchier's plans for his H7N9 samples is equally as disturbing as it informs us that various labs around the world will be working with the deadly virus, mutating it, creating mass amounts of the deadly pathogen, and then shipping it off to other labs.
“The new H7N9 avian influenza strain that surfaced in China recently is now making its way around the world—not in humans, as far as anyone knows, but in carefully labeled, small packages sent from country to country and from lab to lab. Researchers at many institutes are still awaiting their own sample, eager to develop diagnostics and vaccines, gauge the virus's potential to sicken animals and spread between them, and better understand its molecular makeup.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO)—which now updates epidemiological info about H7N9 on Twitter first—reported three new infections with the virus and one death, bringing the total to 63 cases and 14 deaths.
On Friday, WHO reported that the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing had sent samples of the virus to all five of the so-called collaborating centers for influenza—a network of top influenza labs that work together with WHO—outside mainland China. These labs (in Tokyo, Melbourne, London, Atlanta, and Memphis) will carry out experiments themselves but are also responsible for distributing the virus further to other research labs and companies.
John McCauley, head of the collaborating center at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Mill Hill, a suburb of London, says that he received the virus sample, named A/Anhui/1/2013, on Thursday, "packaged in multiple containers, all with secured screw tops." It was contained in about half a milliliter of amniotic fluid, the liquid that surrounds an embryo in a hen's egg.
In order to coax the virus into producing billions of copies, scientists use embryonated hen's eggs that are 9 or 10 days old. The available eggs at Mill Hill were only 8 days old on Thursday and could have been difficult to infect, so scientists waited a day before seeding the virus. "Now we have 100 times the amount we were sent," McCauley told ScienceInsider on Monday. Some of the produced virus was divided into small portions and labeled Monday evening; it will probably be sent out on Wednesday to the "more than 10 and fewer than 20" labs that have requested it, McCauley says.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, home to another WHO collaborating center, also received the virus on Thursday. Over the weekend, the virus was inoculated into hundreds of eggs, a CDC spokesperson says, in which it grew "very well." On Monday, CDC began packaging virus samples in vials and sending them to other laboratories. Masato Tashiro, who heads a collaborating center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, says he hasn't yet sent out any H7N9 samples.
One of the first experiments that the United Kingdom's NIMR will conduct with the coveted virus is to put it in ferrets. Researchers will observe whether and how the virus sickens the animals, but the main point of the exercise is for the ferrets to develop antibodies, which can be harvested 2 weeks later, McCauley says. (If the virus causes very serious disease, scientists will give the animals antiviral medication to keep them alive.) The antiserum can be used to develop diagnostic tools; McCauley also wants to check whether the antibodies recognize candidate vaccine viruses against H7 flu strains that have been produced in the past...
Establishing how serious a disease the virus causes in ferrets will be vital in later efforts to produce a vaccine, says Richard Webby, who heads the WHO collaborating center at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where the virus also arrived on Thursday. Vaccine manufacturers commonly use a virus constructed from the backbone of a less infectious flu strain together with the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes of the strain they want to make a vaccine against. "There will be a requirement to show that [vaccine strains] are attenuated compared to the wild-type virus," Webby says. The early ferret experiments will help to show that.
The different WHO collaborating centers are duplicating some of the work on purpose, McCauley says. Unlike lab mice, ferrets are not inbred, genetically identical animals, and just like humans, different ferrets might react differently to the virus. "We do not want to rely on one or two animals in the whole world," McCauley says.
Even without the real virus in hand, researchers have been able to experiment with a synthetic look-alike. Two days before he got the H7N9 sample, Webby had received a package in the mail from a company that produces genes on demand; they contained the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes, synthesized using the H7N9 sequences made available online by Chinese scientists. Stitching these genes into a standard lab strain called PR8 gives researchers an approximation of the actual virus and allows preliminary experiments, for instance to test if existing antibodies bind to the virus. Fouchier's lab ordered the same two genes from what he calls a "phone and clone company." But for pathogenesis and transmission studies, he says, "you really need the full virus."
*Update, 10:40 a.m. on 17 April: A list sent to ScienceInsider by Yuelong Shu, director of the China CDC, shows that his agency has sent H7N9 not just to the WHO collaborating centers, but also to the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in the United Kingdom, the Centre for Health Protection in Hong Kong, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan. "Any other institutes interested in the virus, please send a request to China CDC," Shu adds in the e-mail.”
Updated: Chinese H7N9 Virus Making Its Way to Labs Around the World
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO)—which now updates epidemiological info about H7N9 on Twitter first—reported three new infections with the virus and one death, bringing the total to 63 cases and 14 deaths.
On Friday, WHO reported that the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing had sent samples of the virus to all five of the so-called collaborating centers for influenza—a network of top influenza labs that work together with WHO—outside mainland China. These labs (in Tokyo, Melbourne, London, Atlanta, and Memphis) will carry out experiments themselves but are also responsible for distributing the virus further to other research labs and companies.
John McCauley, head of the collaborating center at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Mill Hill, a suburb of London, says that he received the virus sample, named A/Anhui/1/2013, on Thursday, "packaged in multiple containers, all with secured screw tops." It was contained in about half a milliliter of amniotic fluid, the liquid that surrounds an embryo in a hen's egg.
In order to coax the virus into producing billions of copies, scientists use embryonated hen's eggs that are 9 or 10 days old. The available eggs at Mill Hill were only 8 days old on Thursday and could have been difficult to infect, so scientists waited a day before seeding the virus. "Now we have 100 times the amount we were sent," McCauley told ScienceInsider on Monday. Some of the produced virus was divided into small portions and labeled Monday evening; it will probably be sent out on Wednesday to the "more than 10 and fewer than 20" labs that have requested it, McCauley says.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, home to another WHO collaborating center, also received the virus on Thursday. Over the weekend, the virus was inoculated into hundreds of eggs, a CDC spokesperson says, in which it grew "very well." On Monday, CDC began packaging virus samples in vials and sending them to other laboratories. Masato Tashiro, who heads a collaborating center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, says he hasn't yet sent out any H7N9 samples.
One of the first experiments that the United Kingdom's NIMR will conduct with the coveted virus is to put it in ferrets. Researchers will observe whether and how the virus sickens the animals, but the main point of the exercise is for the ferrets to develop antibodies, which can be harvested 2 weeks later, McCauley says. (If the virus causes very serious disease, scientists will give the animals antiviral medication to keep them alive.) The antiserum can be used to develop diagnostic tools; McCauley also wants to check whether the antibodies recognize candidate vaccine viruses against H7 flu strains that have been produced in the past...
Establishing how serious a disease the virus causes in ferrets will be vital in later efforts to produce a vaccine, says Richard Webby, who heads the WHO collaborating center at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where the virus also arrived on Thursday. Vaccine manufacturers commonly use a virus constructed from the backbone of a less infectious flu strain together with the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes of the strain they want to make a vaccine against. "There will be a requirement to show that [vaccine strains] are attenuated compared to the wild-type virus," Webby says. The early ferret experiments will help to show that.
The different WHO collaborating centers are duplicating some of the work on purpose, McCauley says. Unlike lab mice, ferrets are not inbred, genetically identical animals, and just like humans, different ferrets might react differently to the virus. "We do not want to rely on one or two animals in the whole world," McCauley says.
Even without the real virus in hand, researchers have been able to experiment with a synthetic look-alike. Two days before he got the H7N9 sample, Webby had received a package in the mail from a company that produces genes on demand; they contained the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes, synthesized using the H7N9 sequences made available online by Chinese scientists. Stitching these genes into a standard lab strain called PR8 gives researchers an approximation of the actual virus and allows preliminary experiments, for instance to test if existing antibodies bind to the virus. Fouchier's lab ordered the same two genes from what he calls a "phone and clone company." But for pathogenesis and transmission studies, he says, "you really need the full virus."
*Update, 10:40 a.m. on 17 April: A list sent to ScienceInsider by Yuelong Shu, director of the China CDC, shows that his agency has sent H7N9 not just to the WHO collaborating centers, but also to the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in the United Kingdom, the Centre for Health Protection in Hong Kong, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan. "Any other institutes interested in the virus, please send a request to China CDC," Shu adds in the e-mail.”
Updated: Chinese H7N9 Virus Making Its Way to Labs Around the World
Reports today confirm that there have been cases of human-to-human transmission.
“Since the first cases of the deadly H7N9 bird flu strain appeared in Shanghai earlier this month, Chinese health officials told the world not to panic because they couldn't find solid evidence of human-to-human transmission in any of what have grown into 82 reported infections. They maintained that until, well, guess what China's health experts are saying for the first time today? "Human-to-human transmission, in theory, is possible, but is highly sporadic," Feng Zijian, director of the health emergency center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in China on Thursday. "Further investigations are still under way to figure out whether the family cluster involved human-to-human transmission," Feng added.
The "family cluster" he's talking about is a case in which two sons may have contracted bird flu from their father, an 87-year-old man thought to be the first reported case of China's H7N9 virus, according to China Daily. Perhaps even more worrisome: The World Health Organization said Wednesday that there are other humans, aside from the two brothers being investigated, who appear to have contracted the deadly virus without any contact with poultry. (Even though it's called bird flu, that's how the Contagion thing was supposed to work with the spread of H729.) "It might be because of dust at the wet markets, it could be another animal source beside poultry, it could also be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters. So, to be clear, officials aren't quite sure how people who aren't handling poultry are getting this strain of bird flu. And, to be sure, that's pretty scary.
Based on their experience with other strains of bird flu, Chinese health officials maintain that if H729 is, indeed, in the human-to-human transmission phase, it's only on a very small scale. "Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with China CDC, said people infected with H7N9 can transmit the virus within a period of time, in which they could possibly infect others," reported China Daily. But, Feng added, "that's highly rare and could be limited to within a family" ... "people don't need to panic, because such limited human-to-human transmission won't prompt a pandemic." As of Thursday 17 of the 82 infected people have died.”
China Thinks Its Bird Flu Might Be Spreading from Human to Human
“BEIJING (AP) -- Almost three weeks after China reported finding a new strain of bird flu in humans, experts are still stumped by how people are becoming infected when many appear to have had no recent contact with live fowl and the virus isn't supposed to pass from person to person.
The uncertainty adds to challenges the Chinese government is facing in trying to control the spread of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has already killed 17 people and infected 70 others in the country, mostly along the eastern seaboard.
"To me, the biggest question is the link between the virus in birds and how it gets to humans. This is not clear," said Dr. Bai Chunxue, a prominent respiratory expert in Shanghai who treated one of the first cases of the virus, a family cluster involving an 87-year-old man and his two sons. Bai said other family members he talked to said the patients had no contact with birds or poultry.
"So this is indeed a mystery," Bai said in a telephone interview.
Theories among experts about how the virus may be spreading run from the ways poultry is slaughtered in markets to infected droppings from migratory birds.
Understanding how the H7N9 bird flu virus is spreading is a goal of international and Chinese experts assembled by the World Health Organization as they begin a weeklong investigation Friday.
Helen Yu, the World Health Organization's spokeswoman in China, said the experts, who started arriving Thursday, will visit laboratories and affected areas in Beijing and Shanghai.
China announced the first known cases on March 31, sparking concern among experts worldwide because it was the first time the H7N9 strain of bird flu has been known to infect humans. They fear the virus could mutate in a way that allows it to spread easily among people, but so far there has been no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission.
Chinese health officials have said people may be getting sick from direct contact with infected live birds, pointing to cases of patients who have been working in the poultry trade. The virus has been detected in live poultry, leading to mass slaughters and closures of live fowl markets.
However, as China continues to report new cases, about 40 percent of patients have no apparent history of exposure to poultry or other birds, making the virus "very difficult to understand," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of WHO's influenza research center in Tokyo.
Tashiro noted that proof of the assertion that contact with birds is causing the cases is missing. "They didn't show any direct evidence. That's only speculation still. It's possible, likely, but there's no evidence," he said.
A leading Chinese official in the government's bird flu emergency response effort, Feng Zijian, said there are difficulties in gathering reliable evidence of how much contact, if any, patients have had with birds. Patients don't always have clear recollections of their recent activities, he said, while in some cases, doctors have had to rely on secondhand accounts from relatives when patients were too severely ill to answer questions.
Authorities believe that patients who live in cities are most likely to have been exposed to the virus at live poultry markets where birds are slaughtered upon purchase, said Feng, director of the emergency response center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a briefing with Chinese reporters Wednesday, Feng cited as an example of a potential infection source the machines Chinese poultry sellers commonly use to remove feathers from chickens. The birds are dipped into hot water in tubs that spin at high speeds, and liquid particles containing the virus could be dispersed in a spray, he said.
"If there is a virus, it can be easily inhaled this way," Feng said. "This is what we suspect to be a major environmental exposure that causes human infections."
Migratory birds flying north over people's homes and gardens could also be spreading the virus through their droppings, said David Hui, an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People can still get exposed to the fecal material with viruses without noticing it or without direct contact with poultry or wild birds themselves," Hui said”
EXPERTS UNCLEAR HOW CHINA BIRD FLU INFECTS HUMANS
The "family cluster" he's talking about is a case in which two sons may have contracted bird flu from their father, an 87-year-old man thought to be the first reported case of China's H7N9 virus, according to China Daily. Perhaps even more worrisome: The World Health Organization said Wednesday that there are other humans, aside from the two brothers being investigated, who appear to have contracted the deadly virus without any contact with poultry. (Even though it's called bird flu, that's how the Contagion thing was supposed to work with the spread of H729.) "It might be because of dust at the wet markets, it could be another animal source beside poultry, it could also be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters. So, to be clear, officials aren't quite sure how people who aren't handling poultry are getting this strain of bird flu. And, to be sure, that's pretty scary.
Based on their experience with other strains of bird flu, Chinese health officials maintain that if H729 is, indeed, in the human-to-human transmission phase, it's only on a very small scale. "Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with China CDC, said people infected with H7N9 can transmit the virus within a period of time, in which they could possibly infect others," reported China Daily. But, Feng added, "that's highly rare and could be limited to within a family" ... "people don't need to panic, because such limited human-to-human transmission won't prompt a pandemic." As of Thursday 17 of the 82 infected people have died.”
China Thinks Its Bird Flu Might Be Spreading from Human to Human
“BEIJING (AP) -- Almost three weeks after China reported finding a new strain of bird flu in humans, experts are still stumped by how people are becoming infected when many appear to have had no recent contact with live fowl and the virus isn't supposed to pass from person to person.
The uncertainty adds to challenges the Chinese government is facing in trying to control the spread of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has already killed 17 people and infected 70 others in the country, mostly along the eastern seaboard.
"To me, the biggest question is the link between the virus in birds and how it gets to humans. This is not clear," said Dr. Bai Chunxue, a prominent respiratory expert in Shanghai who treated one of the first cases of the virus, a family cluster involving an 87-year-old man and his two sons. Bai said other family members he talked to said the patients had no contact with birds or poultry.
"So this is indeed a mystery," Bai said in a telephone interview.
Theories among experts about how the virus may be spreading run from the ways poultry is slaughtered in markets to infected droppings from migratory birds.
Understanding how the H7N9 bird flu virus is spreading is a goal of international and Chinese experts assembled by the World Health Organization as they begin a weeklong investigation Friday.
Helen Yu, the World Health Organization's spokeswoman in China, said the experts, who started arriving Thursday, will visit laboratories and affected areas in Beijing and Shanghai.
China announced the first known cases on March 31, sparking concern among experts worldwide because it was the first time the H7N9 strain of bird flu has been known to infect humans. They fear the virus could mutate in a way that allows it to spread easily among people, but so far there has been no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission.
Chinese health officials have said people may be getting sick from direct contact with infected live birds, pointing to cases of patients who have been working in the poultry trade. The virus has been detected in live poultry, leading to mass slaughters and closures of live fowl markets.
However, as China continues to report new cases, about 40 percent of patients have no apparent history of exposure to poultry or other birds, making the virus "very difficult to understand," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of WHO's influenza research center in Tokyo.
Tashiro noted that proof of the assertion that contact with birds is causing the cases is missing. "They didn't show any direct evidence. That's only speculation still. It's possible, likely, but there's no evidence," he said.
A leading Chinese official in the government's bird flu emergency response effort, Feng Zijian, said there are difficulties in gathering reliable evidence of how much contact, if any, patients have had with birds. Patients don't always have clear recollections of their recent activities, he said, while in some cases, doctors have had to rely on secondhand accounts from relatives when patients were too severely ill to answer questions.
Authorities believe that patients who live in cities are most likely to have been exposed to the virus at live poultry markets where birds are slaughtered upon purchase, said Feng, director of the emergency response center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a briefing with Chinese reporters Wednesday, Feng cited as an example of a potential infection source the machines Chinese poultry sellers commonly use to remove feathers from chickens. The birds are dipped into hot water in tubs that spin at high speeds, and liquid particles containing the virus could be dispersed in a spray, he said.
"If there is a virus, it can be easily inhaled this way," Feng said. "This is what we suspect to be a major environmental exposure that causes human infections."
Migratory birds flying north over people's homes and gardens could also be spreading the virus through their droppings, said David Hui, an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People can still get exposed to the fecal material with viruses without noticing it or without direct contact with poultry or wild birds themselves," Hui said”
EXPERTS UNCLEAR HOW CHINA BIRD FLU INFECTS HUMANS
Even in the face of growing evidence that there is human-to-human transmission of this virus, albeit limited at this stage, the official reports still want to blame the inexplicable spread of the disease on birds. That would be a lot more believable if over 40% of the cases had not reported that they had had no contact with poultry of any kind. If these folks had no contact with any poultry, how is it that they became infected with the H7N9 virus?
“Dr. Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the China CDC, told the Beijing News that about 40% of the H7N9 patients had no clear history of exposure to poultry, Reuters reported today. Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the WHO, said on Twitter today that there are some lab-confirmed cases that had no history of contact with poultry, which builds the case for a wide investigation net.
Meanwhile, influenza experts suspect that poultry or contact with poultry environments, such as live-bird markets, is a likely source of the virus, but the exact source or sources remains a puzzling aspect of the outbreak. Because the virus has low pathogenicity in birds, birds and poultry aren't visibly ill or dead, which often provides a vital clue in H5N1 avian flu outbreaks.”
H7N9 sickens 5 more in China; family cluster suspected
Meanwhile, influenza experts suspect that poultry or contact with poultry environments, such as live-bird markets, is a likely source of the virus, but the exact source or sources remains a puzzling aspect of the outbreak. Because the virus has low pathogenicity in birds, birds and poultry aren't visibly ill or dead, which often provides a vital clue in H5N1 avian flu outbreaks.”
H7N9 sickens 5 more in China; family cluster suspected
Also of particular interest is the fact that out of thousands of birds tested for the H7N9 virus, only 38 of them were positive for the virus. According to Michael Coston of the Avian Flu Diary blog :
“Yesterday, in Chinese MOA: No H7N9 Positive Birds Found On Farms, we looked a statement from China’s Ministry of Agriculture that indicated that out of thousands of samples tested, only a handful (n=38) of live-market birds (and 1 wild pigeon) have actually tested positive for the H7N9 virus.
You may recall that earlier reports (see Shanghai: Testing Reveals No Widespread H7N9 In Market Poultry) failed to find more than a few infected live-market birds, and to date, the H7N9 virus has not been found on any farms in poultry or in pigs.
And while infected poultry continue as the number one suspect in vectoring the virus to humans, more questions were raised yesterday in the wake of report that 40% Of H7N9 Cases Have `No Clear History Of Poultry Exposure’.
All of which leaves us with a whole lot of questions, and very few satisfactory answers.
Helen Branswell has more on this epidemiological enigma, including reaction from Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, and Michael T. Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP in: Few positives tests in poultry and pigs beg the question: Where is H7N9 flu?”
Branswell On The Paucity Of H7N9 Positive Poultry
You may recall that earlier reports (see Shanghai: Testing Reveals No Widespread H7N9 In Market Poultry) failed to find more than a few infected live-market birds, and to date, the H7N9 virus has not been found on any farms in poultry or in pigs.
And while infected poultry continue as the number one suspect in vectoring the virus to humans, more questions were raised yesterday in the wake of report that 40% Of H7N9 Cases Have `No Clear History Of Poultry Exposure’.
All of which leaves us with a whole lot of questions, and very few satisfactory answers.
Helen Branswell has more on this epidemiological enigma, including reaction from Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, and Michael T. Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP in: Few positives tests in poultry and pigs beg the question: Where is H7N9 flu?”
Branswell On The Paucity Of H7N9 Positive Poultry
In regards to the confirmation of the report of the close-contact infections, Michael Coston of Avian Flu Diary had this to say.
“Given the suspicious circumstances, the revelation that the man and his two sons are now accepted as being part of a cluster is hardly a game changer.
While not proven in this case, we’ve seen limited human-to-human transmission of other avian viruses in the past, and so it would not be unexpected that we could see it with H7N9 as well.
The good news is that, what officials say they’ve not seen are any signs of ongoing, efficient, or sustained human transmission of this virus.
But at the same time, exactly how more than 80 people - across several provinces - have come to be infected by this emerging avian virus over the past month or so remains a mystery.
Stay tuned.”
China Confirms H7N9 Shanghai Family Cluster
While not proven in this case, we’ve seen limited human-to-human transmission of other avian viruses in the past, and so it would not be unexpected that we could see it with H7N9 as well.
The good news is that, what officials say they’ve not seen are any signs of ongoing, efficient, or sustained human transmission of this virus.
But at the same time, exactly how more than 80 people - across several provinces - have come to be infected by this emerging avian virus over the past month or so remains a mystery.
Stay tuned.”
China Confirms H7N9 Shanghai Family Cluster
It is important to note that close contact infections do not confirm the type of sustained human-to-human transmission seen in pandemics, but it is a cause for concern as no one yet has been able to confidently ascertain exactly how the virus is spreading, or how it has managed to travel several hundred miles infecting over 80 people across several different provinces in China.
It is important to keep in mind that Ron Fouchier and men of his ilk are actively working to determine what mutations are necessary for the virus to spread in water droplets and become a full-fledged airborne virus. It stands to reason that if the current form of the H7N9 virus is not yet demonstrating the characteristics of a global pandemic causing pathogen, they will work on it until it does. Whether or not that will come about during this current outbreak I cannot say, but I do believe with every fiber of my being that it will happen sooner or later and at the current rate of things I would say sooner as opposed to later.
I documented in Part 11 - A Bioforming Pandemic - Is the Mutating H7N9 Outbreak an American Bioweapon? how the H7N9 virus is not killing off large numbers of birds, and people may be sick with the virus for quite some time before they are even aware they have it. The disease seems to not manifest symptoms until the carrier has been infecting for quite some time, and the latest reports seemingly confirm that as the virus continues to spread throughout China.
“About two weeks ago, the news that a novel strain of bird flu had made two victims in China made headlines. Recent information on this topic says that the H7N9 avian flu virus is now spreading across the country.
More precisely, it appears that the virus is moving from China's eastern regions towards the country's central and northern ones.
These claims that the virus is no longer confined to the eastern parts of China are based on the fact that several new human cases have thus far been pinned down in other parts of the country.
Two of these new human cases have been reported in Beijing, whereas other two others have been reported in China's Henan province.
All these four new reports concerning human victims of the H7N9 avian flu virus were issued over the course of this past weekend.
Nature reports us that, since March 31, when the first case of H7N9 caught the attention of both local media and health officials, until this past Monday, a total of 63 infections and 14 deaths linked to this avian flu virus were reported in China.
For the time being, the specialists investigating this novel strain of avian flu virus have no reasons to believe that the virus can spread from one human to another.
Still, several researchers have stressed the fact that the virus is quite prolific in terms of making new human victims.
“This looks very different from H5N1. We never saw this number of presumed avian/animal to human transmissions in such a short space of time,” argued Jeremy Farrar, currently working as the director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
“I think we need to be very, very concerned,” said specialist went on to argue.
What concerns specialists is the fact that neither poultry nor other birds appear to become seriously ill because of this virus. Therefore, tracking and controlling it is bound to be a rather difficult task.
Commenting on the threats that this virus poses to public health both in China and in other parts of the world, epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch stated as follows:
“It's too soon to say how big a threat H7N9 poses because we don't know how many animals of which species have it, how genetically diverse it is, or what the geographic extent is. It looks as though it will be at least as challenging as H5N1.”
H7N9 Bird Flu Virus Is Spreading Across China
More precisely, it appears that the virus is moving from China's eastern regions towards the country's central and northern ones.
These claims that the virus is no longer confined to the eastern parts of China are based on the fact that several new human cases have thus far been pinned down in other parts of the country.
Two of these new human cases have been reported in Beijing, whereas other two others have been reported in China's Henan province.
All these four new reports concerning human victims of the H7N9 avian flu virus were issued over the course of this past weekend.
Nature reports us that, since March 31, when the first case of H7N9 caught the attention of both local media and health officials, until this past Monday, a total of 63 infections and 14 deaths linked to this avian flu virus were reported in China.
For the time being, the specialists investigating this novel strain of avian flu virus have no reasons to believe that the virus can spread from one human to another.
Still, several researchers have stressed the fact that the virus is quite prolific in terms of making new human victims.
“This looks very different from H5N1. We never saw this number of presumed avian/animal to human transmissions in such a short space of time,” argued Jeremy Farrar, currently working as the director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
“I think we need to be very, very concerned,” said specialist went on to argue.
What concerns specialists is the fact that neither poultry nor other birds appear to become seriously ill because of this virus. Therefore, tracking and controlling it is bound to be a rather difficult task.
Commenting on the threats that this virus poses to public health both in China and in other parts of the world, epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch stated as follows:
“It's too soon to say how big a threat H7N9 poses because we don't know how many animals of which species have it, how genetically diverse it is, or what the geographic extent is. It looks as though it will be at least as challenging as H5N1.”
H7N9 Bird Flu Virus Is Spreading Across China
A Pro Med report on April, 17th detailed a report from EpiVax classifying the H7N9 virus as a "Stealth Virus."
“Scientists at EpiVax performed an extremely rapid bioinformatics analysis on the genome sequences of H7N9 influenza and predict that it will be difficult to make effective vaccines and low cost diagnostics for the newly emerging virus (also called H7N9/A/Shanghai/1/2013),meaning that the new H7N9 may be a "stealth" virus that is able to fly under the immune system's radar. And, they predict, should the H7N9 "stealth virus" adapt itself for human-to-human transmission, it has serious potential for rapid expansion on a global scale.
What makes the new flu invisible to the immune system? The protein that is usually incorporated in vaccines known as HA (hemagglutinin) has fewer immune-stimulating "T cell epitopes" than many previously circulating strains of flu (see image here)...
Low T cell epitope content generally means that it is harder to make high-affinity antibodies, the type that protect against flu and that are used to make low-cost diagnostic tests like ELISAs. While one rapid test for flu (based on PCR) is available, lacking a low cost rapid test, it could be harder to screen the expanding numbers of individuals that have already been exposed to active H7N9 cases. More than 1000 such cases are being "followed" by Chinese health authorities.
The EpiVax scientists did a similar analysis of pandemic H1N1 in 2009 [1] and correctly predicted that pandemic H1N1 would not cause severe disease in most individuals, a prediction that was subsequently validated in vitro and in vivo by many others. Unfortunately, the immunogenicity news is not so good for H7N9.
Detailed information with references/publications can be found at http://bit.ly/H7N9EpiVax”
Is H7N9 influenza a ‘Stealth’ virus?
What makes the new flu invisible to the immune system? The protein that is usually incorporated in vaccines known as HA (hemagglutinin) has fewer immune-stimulating "T cell epitopes" than many previously circulating strains of flu (see image here)...
Low T cell epitope content generally means that it is harder to make high-affinity antibodies, the type that protect against flu and that are used to make low-cost diagnostic tests like ELISAs. While one rapid test for flu (based on PCR) is available, lacking a low cost rapid test, it could be harder to screen the expanding numbers of individuals that have already been exposed to active H7N9 cases. More than 1000 such cases are being "followed" by Chinese health authorities.
The EpiVax scientists did a similar analysis of pandemic H1N1 in 2009 [1] and correctly predicted that pandemic H1N1 would not cause severe disease in most individuals, a prediction that was subsequently validated in vitro and in vivo by many others. Unfortunately, the immunogenicity news is not so good for H7N9.
Detailed information with references/publications can be found at http://bit.ly/H7N9EpiVax”
Is H7N9 influenza a ‘Stealth’ virus?
As it currently stands, we are being told that a "stealth virus" of unknown origin is spreading throughout China in an unknown manner. No one seems to know where this virus came from, where it is going, or how it is getting there. They have confirmed that human-to-human transmission has been seen in the outbreak, but that it is nothing to worry about.
Nothing to worry about? Right.
Perhaps we would be more inclined to believe that if the CDC was not issuing strict guidelines on how to deal with the disease and infected patients, and were not starting to actively look for the H7N9 virus in the United States.
“In a conference call this afternoon with clinicians, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has officially asked hospitals and doctors to begin looking for signs of human infection with H7N9 avian flu.
Some takeaways from the 2PM EDT conference call:
Persons exhibiting influenza-like illness and/or severe respiratory distress, and who have either traveled to China or have had close contact with someone who has traveled to China, need to be considered in a separate category and closely monitored.
Any Influenza-Like Illness within this subset that cannot be conclusively diagnosed as seasonal influenza needs to be considered suspected H7N9, and samples are to be sent to the CDC immediately.
Suspected patients should be put into isolation, preferably in an appropriate environment, negative-air-pressure room (AIIR).
It is unknown whether rapid office tests could detect avian influenza. Therefore, all commercially available influenza tests should be disregarded when testing for H7N9. It should be assumed they are inaccurate.
The CDC is currently the only testing facility in the United States that can test reliably for H7N9. This will change as the CDC certifies states with the ability to detect H7N9.
The CDC is advising organizations to review and revise their pandemic plans.
International airports with frequent travel to and from China have begun listing H7N9 information on their electronic signs, particularly in Customs areas.
Limited human-to-human transmission has occurred in China. Which is a) not surprising and b) probably expected.
Put people on Tamiflu immediately upon suspicion of H7N9, even if they have presented symptoms for more than 48-hours.
CDC can have test results within hours of receipt of the samples.
Clinicians need to collect specimens and notify their state health department for instructions.
There have been cases, as recently as March, where people tried to illegally smuggle Chinese poultry into the United States.
Of course, this was a concern back in 2007. Recalal than in July, 2006, a Troy, Michigan warehouse was raided for suspicion of illegally-imported goose parts. The boxes were later stolen from the Government-sealed warehouse. )
This is getting real interesting real fast.”
CDC begins actively looking for H7N9 in the United States
Some takeaways from the 2PM EDT conference call:
Persons exhibiting influenza-like illness and/or severe respiratory distress, and who have either traveled to China or have had close contact with someone who has traveled to China, need to be considered in a separate category and closely monitored.
Any Influenza-Like Illness within this subset that cannot be conclusively diagnosed as seasonal influenza needs to be considered suspected H7N9, and samples are to be sent to the CDC immediately.
Suspected patients should be put into isolation, preferably in an appropriate environment, negative-air-pressure room (AIIR).
It is unknown whether rapid office tests could detect avian influenza. Therefore, all commercially available influenza tests should be disregarded when testing for H7N9. It should be assumed they are inaccurate.
The CDC is currently the only testing facility in the United States that can test reliably for H7N9. This will change as the CDC certifies states with the ability to detect H7N9.
The CDC is advising organizations to review and revise their pandemic plans.
International airports with frequent travel to and from China have begun listing H7N9 information on their electronic signs, particularly in Customs areas.
Limited human-to-human transmission has occurred in China. Which is a) not surprising and b) probably expected.
Put people on Tamiflu immediately upon suspicion of H7N9, even if they have presented symptoms for more than 48-hours.
CDC can have test results within hours of receipt of the samples.
Clinicians need to collect specimens and notify their state health department for instructions.
There have been cases, as recently as March, where people tried to illegally smuggle Chinese poultry into the United States.
Of course, this was a concern back in 2007. Recalal than in July, 2006, a Troy, Michigan warehouse was raided for suspicion of illegally-imported goose parts. The boxes were later stolen from the Government-sealed warehouse. )
This is getting real interesting real fast.”
CDC begins actively looking for H7N9 in the United States
This is indeed getting really interesting really fast, well said Mr. Mchpherson!
In regards to today's CDC announcement, Michael Coston from the Avian Flu Diary had this to add.
“From the contents of the interim guidance, and the tone of the presentation, the CDC isn’t taking this threat lightly. They are basing their – admittedly stringent – recommendations on limited data, and adjustments to this guidance may be released as more is learned.
The big news here, is the specifying of fitted N95 respirators, gowns, gloves, and eye protection as a minimum level of PPEs (personal protective equipment) for all HCWs who may have contact with potential or confirmed H7N9 patients.
Ideally, confirmed or suspected patients should be placed in an Airborne Infection Isolation Room (AIIR). When such facilities are not available, they recommend:
If an AIIR is not available, the patient should be transferred as soon as is feasible to a facility where an AIIR is available. Pending transfer, place a facemask on the patient and isolate him/her in an examination room with the door closed. The patient should not be placed in any room where room exhaust is recirculated without high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.”
CDC Interim H7N9 Infection Control Guidelines
The big news here, is the specifying of fitted N95 respirators, gowns, gloves, and eye protection as a minimum level of PPEs (personal protective equipment) for all HCWs who may have contact with potential or confirmed H7N9 patients.
Ideally, confirmed or suspected patients should be placed in an Airborne Infection Isolation Room (AIIR). When such facilities are not available, they recommend:
If an AIIR is not available, the patient should be transferred as soon as is feasible to a facility where an AIIR is available. Pending transfer, place a facemask on the patient and isolate him/her in an examination room with the door closed. The patient should not be placed in any room where room exhaust is recirculated without high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.”
CDC Interim H7N9 Infection Control Guidelines
If the current from of the H7N9 virus is not exhibiting sustained human-to-human transmission, then why is the CDC establishing the guidelines to include fitted N95 respirator masks, and the recommendation that patients should be held in Airborne Infection Isolation rooms, or at the very least rooms where exhaust is not recirculated without high-effeciency HEPA filters?
Is it me, or does it appear that there is something "they" aren't telling us?
The powers that be who are in charge of releasing the official statements are saying a great deal; however, their actions are speaking so loudly it is impossible to hear a word they are saying. If after reading the latest CDC statement you still find yourself tempted to believe the official reports I would like to direct your attention to what else the CDC has been up to recently.
“Less than two weeks after Chinese officials released the genetic sequence of a new type of bird flu, U.S. vaccine experts are well on the way to making a vaccine to protect people against it...
Scientists said Wednesday that the virus seems to have been the result of genetic reassortment of wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China, Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency reported. Still, it doesn’t seem to be making birds sick -- which means authorities don’t have tell-tale die-offs of poultry to warn them when it’s circulating. And it takes months to make influenza vaccines, so every day may count.
“It puts flu back on people’s minds,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an emergency physician at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
It’s just the kind of situation that flu experts have been been rehearsing for. They hope to do better than in 2009, when it took until October to deliver the first vaccines against the pandemic of H1N1 swine flu. ”
US races to make vaccine against new bird flu – just in case
“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Atlanta yesterday to support the response to the H7N9 influenza outbreak in China, CDC officials said in an e-mailed statement today.
The EOC was activated at level 2, the second of three levels. Level 1, the highest, signals an agency-wide response. "This is a limited activation that allows for the use of additional resources and staff to meet the technical needs of a public health response," the agency said.
Activation was prompted because the novel H7N9 avian influenza virus has never been seen before in animals or humans and because reports from China have linked it to severe human disease, the agency said.
"Since this is an international outbreak, activation of the EOC provides resources, logistical support, and avenues of communication with international partners that make management of the situation easier," the CDC said, adding that it is collaborating closely with authorities in China and other countries.
"Additionally, in this stage of investigation and intense planning, activation of the EOC is intended to ensure that internal connections are developed and maintained and that CDC staff are kept informed and up to date with regard to the changing situation," the statement said.
Information on the number of personnel involved in the CDC response was not available at this writing.
Information on the CDC Web site says the last EOC response was for Japan's severe earthquake and tsunami in 2011. ”
CDC activates emergency center over H7N9
“US health officials said today they are working on a potential vaccine and diagnostic tests for the novel H7N9 influenza strain in China and are warning clinicians to be alert, but they emphasized that they see no signs that the virus is spreading from person to person.
At a news teleconference this afternoon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials said the agency and vaccine manufacturers are developing a vaccine seed strain for the virus in case it starts spreading widely. The CDC also sent an advisory to clinicians today urging them to watch for possible cases in travelers returning from China. ”
CDC working on vaccine, tests for novel H7N9 virus
“CDC officials said on Apr 5 that they had already developed a diagnostic test for their own use and were working on a diagnostic test kit for use by the states and other countries.
Today Shaw said the CDC is already far along in developing a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kit for the virus, using the DNA sequence information provided earlier by the Chinese government. The sequence data made it possible to synthesize primers and probes.
"As soon as we get the actual virus this week, we'll test against that," he said.
"We should be able to ship [diagnostic test kits] possibly next week to the noncommercial state labs and the WHO [World Health Organization] system."
State public health labs will have priority for the test kits, but the CDC also will send them to WHO collaborating centers and to national influenza labs in more than 100 countries, Shaw said.
The H7N9 isolate will also be used to see if commercially available flu tests detect the virus, Shaw said. "We're fairly certain that if it [a test] can pick up influenza A, it'll be able to pick this up," though it wouldn't distinguish the subtype, he said. The evaluation will include commercial rapid tests...
In other developments, a Chinese health official said China is starting to develop a vaccine for H7N9, but it will be produced in quantity only if the virus starts to spread from person to person, according to Xinhua, the national news service.”
CDC waiting for H7N9 sample to speed test kits
“Four international flu experts will arrive in China within days to help authorities respond to the country’s widening bird-flu emergency, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Nancy Cox, director of the flu division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Anne Kelso, director of a World Health Organization flu research center in Melbourne, Malik Peiris from the University of Hong Kong, and Angus Nicoll, head of the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s flu program, will arrive on about April 17 to offer technical advice, said the people, who declined to be identified because the Chinese government hasn’t announced that the experts are being invited.
The group will seek to assist Chinese authorities grappling to identify the source and mode of transmission of the H7N9 avian influenza that has infected at least 60 people and killed 13. Beijing yesterday said that a 7-year-old girl has the virus, and Henan province reported its first two cases, opening a new front in the spread of the new pathogen in the world’s most populous nation.
“There’s no way to predict how this will spread,” Michael O’Leary, the WHO’s China representative, told reporters in Beijing yesterday. “The good news is we have no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. That’s a key factor in this situation.”
China Said to Invite Four Flu Experts as Disease Outbreak Widens
Scientists said Wednesday that the virus seems to have been the result of genetic reassortment of wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China, Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency reported. Still, it doesn’t seem to be making birds sick -- which means authorities don’t have tell-tale die-offs of poultry to warn them when it’s circulating. And it takes months to make influenza vaccines, so every day may count.
“It puts flu back on people’s minds,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an emergency physician at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
It’s just the kind of situation that flu experts have been been rehearsing for. They hope to do better than in 2009, when it took until October to deliver the first vaccines against the pandemic of H1N1 swine flu. ”
US races to make vaccine against new bird flu – just in case
“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Atlanta yesterday to support the response to the H7N9 influenza outbreak in China, CDC officials said in an e-mailed statement today.
The EOC was activated at level 2, the second of three levels. Level 1, the highest, signals an agency-wide response. "This is a limited activation that allows for the use of additional resources and staff to meet the technical needs of a public health response," the agency said.
Activation was prompted because the novel H7N9 avian influenza virus has never been seen before in animals or humans and because reports from China have linked it to severe human disease, the agency said.
"Since this is an international outbreak, activation of the EOC provides resources, logistical support, and avenues of communication with international partners that make management of the situation easier," the CDC said, adding that it is collaborating closely with authorities in China and other countries.
"Additionally, in this stage of investigation and intense planning, activation of the EOC is intended to ensure that internal connections are developed and maintained and that CDC staff are kept informed and up to date with regard to the changing situation," the statement said.
Information on the number of personnel involved in the CDC response was not available at this writing.
Information on the CDC Web site says the last EOC response was for Japan's severe earthquake and tsunami in 2011. ”
CDC activates emergency center over H7N9
“US health officials said today they are working on a potential vaccine and diagnostic tests for the novel H7N9 influenza strain in China and are warning clinicians to be alert, but they emphasized that they see no signs that the virus is spreading from person to person.
At a news teleconference this afternoon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials said the agency and vaccine manufacturers are developing a vaccine seed strain for the virus in case it starts spreading widely. The CDC also sent an advisory to clinicians today urging them to watch for possible cases in travelers returning from China. ”
CDC working on vaccine, tests for novel H7N9 virus
“CDC officials said on Apr 5 that they had already developed a diagnostic test for their own use and were working on a diagnostic test kit for use by the states and other countries.
Today Shaw said the CDC is already far along in developing a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kit for the virus, using the DNA sequence information provided earlier by the Chinese government. The sequence data made it possible to synthesize primers and probes.
"As soon as we get the actual virus this week, we'll test against that," he said.
"We should be able to ship [diagnostic test kits] possibly next week to the noncommercial state labs and the WHO [World Health Organization] system."
State public health labs will have priority for the test kits, but the CDC also will send them to WHO collaborating centers and to national influenza labs in more than 100 countries, Shaw said.
The H7N9 isolate will also be used to see if commercially available flu tests detect the virus, Shaw said. "We're fairly certain that if it [a test] can pick up influenza A, it'll be able to pick this up," though it wouldn't distinguish the subtype, he said. The evaluation will include commercial rapid tests...
In other developments, a Chinese health official said China is starting to develop a vaccine for H7N9, but it will be produced in quantity only if the virus starts to spread from person to person, according to Xinhua, the national news service.”
CDC waiting for H7N9 sample to speed test kits
“Four international flu experts will arrive in China within days to help authorities respond to the country’s widening bird-flu emergency, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Nancy Cox, director of the flu division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Anne Kelso, director of a World Health Organization flu research center in Melbourne, Malik Peiris from the University of Hong Kong, and Angus Nicoll, head of the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s flu program, will arrive on about April 17 to offer technical advice, said the people, who declined to be identified because the Chinese government hasn’t announced that the experts are being invited.
The group will seek to assist Chinese authorities grappling to identify the source and mode of transmission of the H7N9 avian influenza that has infected at least 60 people and killed 13. Beijing yesterday said that a 7-year-old girl has the virus, and Henan province reported its first two cases, opening a new front in the spread of the new pathogen in the world’s most populous nation.
“There’s no way to predict how this will spread,” Michael O’Leary, the WHO’s China representative, told reporters in Beijing yesterday. “The good news is we have no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. That’s a key factor in this situation.”
China Said to Invite Four Flu Experts as Disease Outbreak Widens
So once again the reports claim no sustained human-to-human transmission, classify the risk of a pandemic as "very low," and continue their mantra that no one should be overly worried. However, with all of that in mind the CDC is rushing to make a vaccine - just in case, they activated their emergency center that has not been activated since the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, four experts are being sent to China, strict guidelines were announced, and they are beginning to look for the H7N9 virus in the United States.
Call me crazy, but that is a lot of high-level activity for something that none of us should be worried about, isn't it?
In 2011 Steven Soderbergh directed the movie "Contagion," which provided a rather stark look at how a global pandemic could come about and what it may look like. The following article was written by a consultant for the film.“Here's how it would happen. Children playing along an urban river bank would spot hundreds of grotesque, bloated pig carcasses bobbing downstream. Hundreds of miles away, angry citizens would protest the rising stench from piles of dead ducks and swans, their rotting bodies collecting by the thousands along river banks. And three unrelated individuals would stagger into three different hospitals, gasping for air.
Two would quickly die of severe pneumonia and the third would lay in critical condition in an intensive care unit for many days. Government officials would announce that a previously unknown virus had sickened three people, at least, and killed two of them. And while the world was left to wonder how the pigs, ducks, swans, and people might be connected, the World Health Organization would release deliberately terse statements, offering little insight.
It reads like a movie plot -- I should know, as I was a consultant for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. But the facts delineated are all true, and have transpired over the last six weeks in China. The events could, indeed, be unrelated, and the new virus, a form of influenza denoted as H7N9, may have already run its course, infecting just three people and killing two.
Or this could be how pandemics begin...
The mystery is deep, the clock is ticking, and the world wants answers.
If we were imagining how a terrible pandemic would unfold, this could certainly serve as an excellent script.”
Is This a Pandemic Being Born? China's mysterious pig, duck, and people deaths could be connected. And that should worry us.
Two would quickly die of severe pneumonia and the third would lay in critical condition in an intensive care unit for many days. Government officials would announce that a previously unknown virus had sickened three people, at least, and killed two of them. And while the world was left to wonder how the pigs, ducks, swans, and people might be connected, the World Health Organization would release deliberately terse statements, offering little insight.
It reads like a movie plot -- I should know, as I was a consultant for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. But the facts delineated are all true, and have transpired over the last six weeks in China. The events could, indeed, be unrelated, and the new virus, a form of influenza denoted as H7N9, may have already run its course, infecting just three people and killing two.
Or this could be how pandemics begin...
The mystery is deep, the clock is ticking, and the world wants answers.
If we were imagining how a terrible pandemic would unfold, this could certainly serve as an excellent script.”
Is This a Pandemic Being Born? China's mysterious pig, duck, and people deaths could be connected. And that should worry us.
The information pertaining to this outbreak is coming at a frenetic pace and is nearly impossible to keep up with. With that being said, it is important that we keep a close watch on what is transpiring and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as we sift through the voluminous reports attempting to ascertain what is true, what is not, what is not being said that should be, and how it all plays into the bigger picture of the satanic end-game aimed at hijacking Adamic mankind.
“I believe that in the not-too-distant future we will experience a global pandemic event that will serve as a significant escalation of Satan's continued effort to bioform humanity. I believe that the pandemic will be caused by a governnment-funded, man-made bio-weapon superbug that will be engineered to selectively target people with specific DNA profiles in an effort to identify, isolate, and enhance those whose ancestry traces back to the Serpent-Seed bloodlines. For those meeting this specific DNA profile, the superbug will initiate a "viral loading" process that will act as a foundational layering, or enhancement process serving as a precursor to the Mark of the Beast. It is important to note that "Chosen ones," trauma-based mind control victims, Satanic Super Soliders, and/or psi-warriors will also be included in this enhancement process.
Once this is completed the survivors will be softened up a great deal more for the implementation of the Mark of the Beast, which will be the last in a long line of tactical moves made by Satan to permanently alter their DNA and transform them into hybrids that are able to be used as avatars for the disembodied Nephilim spirits that will wage war against God at Armageddon. Bob wrote about this likely scenario in his post The Avatar Stratagem.”
Part 1 - A Bioforming Pandemic: Killing Some and Enhancing Others
Once this is completed the survivors will be softened up a great deal more for the implementation of the Mark of the Beast, which will be the last in a long line of tactical moves made by Satan to permanently alter their DNA and transform them into hybrids that are able to be used as avatars for the disembodied Nephilim spirits that will wage war against God at Armageddon. Bob wrote about this likely scenario in his post The Avatar Stratagem.”
Part 1 - A Bioforming Pandemic: Killing Some and Enhancing Others
Lord, please help us.
More to come, Lord willing!
*****Update*****
I came across this information after I posted this, and felt it was important enough to serve as an addendum to the post. An official report coming out of China admits to "open speculation" regarding the probable human-to-human transmission of H7N9.
“As the Chinese government openly begins to speculate about the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 bird flu strain, an international team of experts, including some from the World Health Organization, have been deployed to investigate the disease in the country...
"The Spanish flu which killed millions only had a couple percent mortality rate," he says. "If this virus mutates to be transmissible from human-to-human it will be a major issue. You have the perfect storm of pandemic flu virus in that it's highly pathogenic and could potentially be spread easily.”
Chinese Government Suspects Human-to-Human Transmission of H7N9 Bird Flu
"The Spanish flu which killed millions only had a couple percent mortality rate," he says. "If this virus mutates to be transmissible from human-to-human it will be a major issue. You have the perfect storm of pandemic flu virus in that it's highly pathogenic and could potentially be spread easily.”
Chinese Government Suspects Human-to-Human Transmission of H7N9 Bird Flu
This report from the site Virology Down Under confirms certain mutations have occurred in the H7N9 virus which are associated with the binding and replicating of viruses in the upper respiratory tract, which is what makes a disease contagious.
“A collaborative report (by Dutch and Chinese contributor) published yesterday from Eurosurveillance shows that 5/7 H7N9 strains from humans, birds and the environment have an amino acid change in the HA gene called Q226L (the normal" glutamine [Q] found at amino acid position 226 has "mutated" to a Leucine[L]). In the past, this change has been associated with binding of influenzavirus to a receptor molecule called alpha(2,6,)-linked sialic acid, which is found in the human upper respiratory tract. A virus that is happy to replicate in the upper airways, one of the first ports of call for inspired virus-laded droplets, is going to have a good ability to spread by the aerosol route. [I include the eyes in here - but they may considered anatomically separate and the true first point of contact with virus-laden aerosols as they are probably open more than the mouth. Other influenza viruses have been shown, by testing of eye swabs, to cause conjunctivitis at this site and common cold viruses can enter the airways through the tear duct. More info on Q226L can be found here and here.”
Virology Down Under
Virology Down Under
By Aaron Hermann
Please feel free to contact me through my Gmail account. (theultimateplan@)
How about a short story written a 100 years ago about a virus that wipes out civilization in 2013, called the Scarlet Plague?
ReplyDeletehttp://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/adventofdeception?url=http%3A%2F%2Fadventofdeception.com%2Fthe-scarlet-plague-jack-london%2F#2808
Scary
Scary
Thanks Heath. Here's a better link.
ReplyDeletehttp://adventofdeception.com/the-scarlet-plague-jack-london/
Hey Heath,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I read the Scarlet Plague quite some time ago and had forgotten about it. I will give it another look. Thanks again!
Blessings,
Aaron