Villeneuve-sur-Lot -Wikipedia
# 7352
On an otherwise quiet Sunday morning, we’ve several unusual virus-and-or-disease-related stories crossing the transom. With a heightened media interest in MERS and H7N9, I believe we can expect to see more these types of news reports over the coming months.
Caveat: Most are carried by non-English language media sources and we are forced to make do with somewhat murky machine translations.
Our first stop is France, where about a week ago – eight middle-aged women – all of whom helped prepare raw poultry for a catered affair, were hospitalized with an unknown respiratory infection.
Two reports, first this one from May 31st, followed by an update from late yesterday.
Villeneuve-sur-Lot (47): eight cases monitored in hospital
Eight women of fifty years were hospitalized with the same symptoms after preparing poultry.
Published on 31/05/2013 at 16:36
Since last week, eight women of fifty years are admitted and monitored at Saint-Cyr hospital with symptoms of fever and cough. Working for a caterer they all prepared poultry for two weddings last weekend.
"In a time of emerging viruses, it is probably best to learn," explains Patrick Rolland, the regional branch of the Institute of Health Surveillance (IVS). IVS continues his research, although none of the patients show evidence conclusive coronavirus, H5N1 and H7N9. Further results are expected before making different assumptions.
Fast forward to last night, and we learn that MERS and H7N9 have apparently been excluded and the focus now seems to be on determining a bacterial cause.
Villeneuve-sur-Lot (47): eight women always kept under observation in hospital
We still do not know what the eight admitted to suffering from last Friday with fever and cough patients.
If influenza H5N1 and H7N9 type virus and corona are now apart, we still do not know what's with the eight women of fifty years under observation in the pulmonology department of the hospital in Saint-Cyr-sur Villeneuve -Lot.
Recall that is all knowing and working for a caterer, they had participated in the evisceration of nearly 150 birds in the previous days, for the preparation of two marriages.
Although their status has improved thanks to venous antibiotics, the first samples have failed to establish a diagnosis. It was not until the following samples for antibodies can be detected and thus identify bacteria. The eight women are still pending, hospitalized.
This is a curious enough report that I’ll try to follow up on it when a cause is determined.
Next stop, a genuine MERS-related story out of Saudi Arabia, where a public health official appears to have tried to board a plane carrying a sample of the novel coronavirus (in exactly what kind of container is not stated), to fly to Jeddah.
Apparently the plane was not BSL-3 certified, and airport security thought better of the idea.
My thanks to Sharon Sanders of FluTrackers for finding this report from Alwafd.org.
King Fahd International Airport ..
Saudi prevent carries sample "Corona" of travel
King Fahd Airport
Gateway delegation - rebounds: Saturday, June 1, 2013 11:50Saudi security authorities prevented in the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam employees in the Ministry of Health of the rise of the plane that he planned to travel to Jeddah on board, because of him pulled from the sample is infected with "Corona".
The general director of the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam Khaled المزعل, in a statement published Saturday, that the traveler was forced to transfer the sample via the shipping company, and did not allow him to carry on the plane, his trip was postponed so check it and boarded the plane without "Corona."
And we finish our morning tour with report out of the island nation of Bahrain (which is connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway), that tells of a Pakistani – who was being tested for the MERS virus – escaping from a local hospital.
Once again, Sharon Sanders has the original Arabic story here, which suggests the patient initially tested positive for the virus. But in short order, Bahrain’s MOH came out with a flat denial (h/t Tetano).
Bahrain denies coronavirus case report
Health ministry says test results were negative
By Habib Toumi Bureau Chief
Published: 16:23 June 2, 2013
Manama: Bahrain’s health ministry has denied reports that a Pakistani national who had the coronavirus had fled the country’s main public hospital.
The report said that the Pakistani driver was taken to Salmaniya Medical Complex after officials at the King Fahd Causeway linking Bahrain with Saudi Arabia suspected he had the respiratory virus. However, the report added, he managed to leave the hospital while the medics were waiting for the test results.
The health ministry on Sunday issued a statement in which it said that exhaustive tests proved that the driver had not contracted the coronavirus and that he left the hospital normally.
If nothing else, today’s stories will give you an idea of the kind of stories that the combined volunteer newshounds of flublogia wade through (in English, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, French, etc) each and every day.
Not every report is `breaking news’, of course. But each must be identified, translated, and analyzed before they can be cataloged on the flu forums, and put into some kind of context.
Often we don’t know until days, or weeks later, the true significance of these reports. But having the library of these reports can be invaluable.
For more on the work done by the newshounds on the Flu Forums, you may wish to revisit:
