Garut Siblings Test Negative For H5N1

 

# 2948

 

 

 

For the past 4 or 5 days the Indonesian media has been following two siblings (see Suspect Cases In Indonesia) from Garut who were hospitalized, suspected of having the H5N1 bird flu virus.

 

Since the symptoms of bird flu are practically indistinguishable from many other viral infections (particularly early in the course of the illness)  we often see people isolated in Hot-zone countries when they have certain symptoms and a history of exposure to poultry.

 

As often happens, after several days, test results come back to show that they did not have the bird flu virus.

 

While the tests for the H5N1 virus are not 100% reliable, when patients show rapid improvement and test negative, the assumption is generally made that they never had the virus in the first place.

 

 

This report, via Dutchy at Flutrackers, from Antara.

 

 

Two Suspect Bird Flu Patients stated Negative

Garut (Antara) - Two patients suspect bird flu (Avian Influenza/AI) in the Garut Regency, that beforehand was treated intensive to RSU isolation space Dr Slamet since last Monday (23/3) currently were stated by the negative from this illness.

The RSU head local Dr Widjayanti Utoyo, SPM to Antara in his office on Saturday said results of the laboratory research and the development of the health (Litbangkes) the Department of Health menunjukan the two older brother-sibling the sufferer suspect this bird flu berkondisi serelogis (-), as well as wiped off the nose/the throat (-).

 

Moreover the inspection "real time Gel base" also (-), so as both of them consisted NY. Aning (30) and Eka (35) was stated berkondisi H5N1 the negative (-), he said.

Both of them, the resident of the Pabrik Lebak Cintamaya Kecamatan Cigedug Village, at once was accompanied came home after results of bird flu of the negative were received from this Litbangkes laboratory.

 

 

Another case, one that has received less attention, that of a 2 year-old from Ngawi, has also tested negative according to a translated report via the Bird Flu Information Corner.

 

 

Bird flu suspect from Ngawi tested negative.

March 28, 2009

Bird flu suspect from Ngawi tested negative.

Ngawi – Tadi Riyanto (2) resident of Desa Sidokerto Karangjati was tested negative bird flu infection. Laboratory result to the boy’s blood sample showed negative bird flu infection.

 

Flu symptoms and fever accompanying was confirmed as bronchitis. The result also supported with chest x-ray by Kabupaten Ngawi hospital. “X-ray showed that Tadi is in a good condition. His trombosit level also good, “said Siska the nurse who was taking care of Tadi.

 

The hospital has allowed Tadi to return home. According to the hospital he was no longer developing fever and the flu signs had disappeared. His appetite had recovered and he was able to return into activity. His coughing was still observed although it was reduced.

 

Now Tadi is taking medicine from the doctor to diminish his bronchitis. He also should do check up and routine control at local public health center

Referral: Soapacabana Video

 

# 2947

 

 

It’s Friday . . . bird flu news is thankfully slow . . .  and we all could use a good laugh now and then.  

 

That makes this the perfect time to visit Maryn McKenna’s always excellent Superbug Blog to watch a video she has posted today:

 

 

Germs: All-singing, all-dancing, all urging you to wash your hands

 

 

Watch the video to the end.  The `outtakes’ are hilarious!

 

And while you’re there, if you haven’t already discovered the more serious side to the Superbug blog, look around. 

 

It is one of the best, and most informative health related blogs on the internet.

Fed Agencies Embracing `New Media’

 

# 2946

 

 

A couple of years ago, the HHS undertook what was then a bold experiment.  They created a Pandemic Leadership Blog – invited a dozen or so people to contribute articles – and allowed the public to comment freely.

 

What followed was a sometimes rambunctious, but nonetheless enlightening discourse between the bloggers, Federal Officials, and the public.

 

The contributors were not told what they could or could not say in their blogs, nor were the blogs edited or `pre-screened’ by the HHS.    I know, because I was one of the contributors.

 

That took a good deal of courage on the part of the HHS.

 

But in the end, despite some bumps along the way, the project turned out to be a very positive one.  It even helped inspire former Secretary of the HHS, Michael Leavitt, to blog regularly on the Internet.  

 

He became the first Cabinet Level Agency head to do so.

 

From that humble beginning, the HHS and other Federal Agencies have begun to move more towards using the Internet to get their message out to the public – and just as importantly – to listen to the public’s concerns and suggestions.

 

Over the past few months I’ve blogged about Twitter, and I have a list of government twitter feeds in my sidebar.    I use Twitter every day, although I don’t tend to `tweet’ much myself.   It is another source of information, streaming to my desktop as I work.

 

Here are just a few of the more than 40 Twitter feeds I follow:

 

Twitter Feeds

• APHA GetReady
• FEMA
• HHS Social Media
• Pandemicflu.gov
• Ready.gov
• Red Cross
• WHO News

 

 

In fact, the next article from MSNBC came to me via a tweeted link this morning.

 

 

 

Federal government: Star of YouTube, Flickr?

 

Agencies will step up use of videos and photos on social networking sites

 

The Centers for Disease Control and other federal agencies are already using Twitter to relay information, and will soon be on YouTube and Flickr.

By Suzanne Choney

msnbc.com

updated 9:09 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 26, 2009

The federal government, keeping in line with President Barack Obama’s directive for a more “transparent" and open government, will soon be a staple on YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and blip.tv, with similar plans in the works for social networking sites Facebook, MySpace and Ning.com, officials said Wednesday.

 

“We know that about every minute, 15 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, and there’s about 50 million people that use Facebook,” said Martha Dorris, associate administrator of the General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Communications. “That’s where the public is going to get their information, and they don’t necessarily always go to government Web sites.”

 

The timing of the announcement coincides with Thursday's first White House online town hall about the economy, where the president will answer some questions from the public, and the event will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov.

(Continue . . . )

 

 

 

 

The HHS is currently building their New Media site, and they are looking for your input on how it should look, and what information it should contain.  The conversation is ongoing, and you are invited to join in.

 

 

 

Help us build our Web site!

 

This site will be the public face and primary teaching and communications tool for the HHS Center for New Media.

 

We want to use the tools of social and new media to shape both the Center and its Web site. Everything you see here is draft, in development, presented for you to react to, discuss, pick-apart or build on.

 

We have some high-level navigation (horizontal tabs). We’ve hinted at what some pages might contain. We are compiling information on new media tools onto our tool page. We have a wire frame presenting possible content topics.

 

And we have several discussion threads underway (right sidebar). Jump in. What do you like? Dislike? How do we grow this? What’s totally missing? How can we connect people (and projects)? How can we involve the larger community (across and outside government)? How can we push the envelope?

 

If you have other suggestions for discussion topics, let us know. It’s your site to build!

 

Thanks for being here. Bookmark us. We hope you check in often.

 

 

 

FEMA has a Youtube Channel with (as of today) 70 videos available.  That number will continue to  expand over time.

 

 

Other agencies are making plans to establish a presence on sites like Youtube, Blip.tv, and Vimeo.   

 

A little more than 85 years ago commercial radio changed the way the world received information.   For the first time, information could be transmitted instantaneously across vast distances.

Less than thirty years later Television revolutionized communications again. 

 

Today, a third – and, perhaps even more powerful wave of technology is catching hold.  

 

Some call it Social Media, others call it New Media.  

 

But by any name,  it is the wave of the future.

TED Talks And Dr. Nathan Wolfe

 

# 2945

 

 

I am an unabashed fan of the online TED Talks.

 

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design.  Each year they hold a 4 day long event at Long Beach, California where 50 people are urged to give the 18-minute talk of their lives.

 

And what talks they are!   

 

I was first turned onto the TED Talks when a friend sent me a link to the winner of 2006’s TED Prize, Dr. Larry Brilliant's presentation on his dream of a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.

 

If you’ve never seen this speech, I urge you to watch it now.

 

(Click Image to view video)

 

Ted calls these talks Ideas Worth Spreading.  And that they certainly are.

 

With more than 200 videos now online, and that number growing each year, the TED archive is an inspiring wellspring of new and important ideas by the best and brightest minds in the world.

 

This week’s entry on the TED website is a talk by Nathan Wolfe, the world famous virus hunter and founder of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI).   I wrote about Dr. Wolfe just recently (see Nathan Wolfe: Virus Hunter) in this blog. 

 

The work he is doing is both important, and fascinating.   Here is how the TED website describes his talk:

 

 

About this talk

Virus hunter Nathan Wolfe is outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- before they claim millions of lives

About Nathan Wolfe

Armed with blood samples, high-tech tools and a small army of fieldworkers, Nathan Wolfe hopes to re-invent pandemic control -- and reveal hidden secrets of the planet's dominant lifeform: the virus. Full bio and more links

 

 

 

(Click Image to view video)

 

 

TED Talks are as varied (and interesting) as the world that surround us.  You could spend a lot of time exploring this website.

 

While not every talk will be everyone's cup of tea, the TED website gets my highest recommendation.

Egypt Announces 60th Human Bird Flu Infection

 

# 2944

 

 

 

For the 5th time during this month of March, and for the 9th time thus far in 2009, Egypt has announced another human H5N1 infection.  

 

This time of  a 2 1/2 year-old girl from Qina named Israa Abdel Shafi.  She is reportedly in stable condition.

 

This from the Kuwait News Agency.

 

 

 

 

Egypt declares 60th Bird Flu case

Health    3/26/2009 9:28:00 PM

CAIRO, March 26 (KUNA) -- An Egyptian girl has been infected with the Bird Flu virus, bringing the number of these cases in the country to 60.

A spokesman of the Health Ministry said on Thursday Israa Abdel Shafi, aged two years and six months, was hospitalized in the province of Qina in southern Egypt.

The girl suffered from high fever and coughing after she mingled with dead birds suspected of bearing the virus. Her condition was described as stable after she given the required medications.

Egypt declared flare-up of the disease in February 2006. Up to 22 people had died as a result of the disease. (end) bna.rk KUNA 262128 Mar 09NNNN

You’ve Seen The News Reports, Now Read The Book

 

 

# 2943

 

 

The past couple of days have brought a number of news reports about the dangers of Severe Space Weather Events.  

 

Several of the cable news stations have run reports, and The New Scientist published an article this week which opens with the following scenario:

 

 

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe

• 23 March 2009 by Michael Brooks

IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

 

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.

(Continue . . .)

 

 

While solar storms might seem far afield from this blog’s normal territory (and a  remote threat), they can be viewed as another reason for people to get prepared to deal with any disaster.  

 

Perhaps another `Carrington Event’, like the one that occurred in 1859, won’t happen again in our lifetimes.

 

But there are no guarantees of that.

 

Besides, we will always have hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and pandemics to deal with – which are good enough reasons to be get prepared, and stay prepared.  

 

Preparations for most disasters; having an adequate emergency kit, and an emergency plan – means you will be better able to deal with any emergency.  

 

Up to and including a solar storm.

 

 

 

The report (Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts Workshop Report), funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is available online via the National Academies Press.  

 

You may view the 132 report for free.

 

If you are pressed for time, you can choose to `skim’ each chapter, reading just selected excerpts, or you can download the executive summary.

 

This is a fascinating report, and it reminds us just how fragile our modern infrastructure really is. 

 

 

If you are unfamiliar with the National Academies Press, here is how they describe themselves:

 

The National Academies Press

The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. The institutions represented by the NAP are unique in that they attract the nation's leading experts in every field to serve on their award-winning panels and committees. This is the right place for definitive information on everything from space science to animal nutrition.

 

 

Many of these titles are available for free, online.   A great resource, particularly for those with an interest in scientific research.

 

 

For more information on how to prepare for emergencies of all types,  please visit the following sites.

 

FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm

READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/

AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/

 

For Pandemic Preparedness Information: HHS Individual Planning Page

 

For more in-depth emergency preparedness information I can think of no better resource than  GetPandemicReady.Org.