Sunday 11 August 2013

Human H7N9 case in Guangdong province: Update [Updated!]

Hat tip to crofblogs for alerting me to this news article.

The Guangdong case was confirmed by Chinese CDCP.

A story on Xinhuanet describes that most (54/96) of the contacts of the 51-year old positive woman have been released - it is not clear whether they were lab tested or only under observation for signs or symptoms of respiratory disease. The patients son had a mild fever (now
resolved), but has so far tested negative for H7N9.

I wonder if the child was positive for any other virus, or if H7N9 is/was just not at sufficient viral load yet in the site of sampling (upper/lower respiratory tract).

The consulting clinician who devised the treatment plan, Prof  Zhong Nanshan noted that the current practice is to use twice the amount of Tamiflu with intravenous peramivir to be used sparingly if warranted.

Samples from 69 chickens, 8 ducks, a goose (no partridges?) and 25 environmental samples - all collected from the marketplace where the woman worked - tested negative of any H7-type influenza A viruses.

The mother remains in critical condition.

The H7N9 tally now stands at 136 cases (which includes an asymptomatic boy and Taiwan case not added to the mainland tally) with 44 (according to the Xinhuanet report) deaths. This makes the proportion of fatal case (PFC) is at 32.3%; rising by 1 from the last WHO H7N9 update here [New update just out confirms 44, will be on this list soon).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.