sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
[h=1]News Scan for Dec 02, 2016[/h] [FONT="] More Saudi MERS cases
; Ebola media messages
; Cholera in Yemen
Filed Under:
MERS-CoV
; Ebola
; Cholera
[h=3]Saudi officials report 3 more MERS cases[/h] Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported three more MERS-CoV cases, involving a woman and two men from three different locations. All of them had primary exposure to the virus, meaning investigations revealed that they didn't contract MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) from another person.
Before they got sick the two men both had direct contact with camels, a well-known source of the virus. The patients were a 90-year-old Saudi from the western city of Mahd adh Dhahab who is listed in stable condition and a 68-year-old Saudi from the northwestern town of Khaybar who is hospitalized in critical condition.
The third patient is a 60-year-old female expatriate from Al Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia who is in stable condition. None of the three patients are healthcare workers.
The trio of cases lifts Saudi Arabia's total from the disease to 1,494 since the first human infections were detected in 2012. So far 618 people have died from MERS. Thirteen people are still being treated for their recently announced illnesses.
Dec 2 Saudi MOH statement
In other MERS developments, an official from Oman's health ministry yesterday posted new details on ProMED Mail, the online e-mail list of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, about a recently announced case involving a 67-year-old man.
Seif Al-Abri, MD, the ministry's director-general for disease surveillance and control, said the man didn't travel in the 2 weeks before he became ill but did care for animals, including camels, cattle, and goats. His symptoms began on Nov 18, and he was hospitalized 2 days later. A respiratory swab obtained on Nov 22 revealed MERS-CoV. The man's condition is stable, and he was discharged from the hospital on Nov 26.
Health officials are monitoring the man's contacts, including ones in the healthcare setting. Two of the patient's family members have minor respiratory symptoms, and authorities are awaiting test results on them.
Dec 1 ProMED Mail post
[h=3]US media used some 'risk-elevating' messaging during Ebola crisis[/h] A new report in Emerging Infectious Diseases shows that the US media used "risk-elevating" language when reporting about the 2013-2015 Ebola outbreak, contributing to increased public concern.
Many media outlets have been accused of sensationalizing the outbreak and causing unnecessary public panic. To study this, researchers looked at 9 print and 3 television new sources for stories covering Ebola published from Jul 1 to Nov 30, 2014. There were 1,262 stories or editorials available for content analysis.
The vast majority (96%) of print and television news stories that covered US Ebola events included more than one risk-elevating message. The most common such message?seen in 72% of stories?concerned foreigners bringing Ebola into the United States. About 55% of stories contained one or more risk-minimizing messages, which included scientific facts on the transmissibility of Ebola.
"Although many factors can alter a message's effectiveness, frequency of exposure to risk-related messages can alter public perception and contribute to social amplification of risk; even when coverage is balanced, reassuring messages may be less able to counter messages that increase perception of risk," the authors wrote.
Dec 1 Emerg Infect Dis study
[h=3]WHO reports 1,600 new cholera cases in Yemen[/h] Yemen now has 7,730 suspected cases of cholera and 82 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, which is 1,611 more cases since the last WHO update on Nov 24.
The WHO said Yemen has set up 26 cholera treatment centers in the 11 governorates experiencing an outbreak of the disease, which causes severe, watery diarrhea and can be especially dangerous for children.
The WHO said it strengthened its capacity of local health workers and increased essential supplies such as rapid diagnostic test kits, intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solutions, and water chlorination tablets in affected communities.
Cholera is endemic to Yemen, but the recent outbreak has stretched the country's ability to handles all the cases. According to the WHO update, "More than 7.6 million people, and more than 3 million internally displaced persons currently live in areas affected by the outbreak. Since the start of the outbreak, the population group most affected by cholera are children below 15 years of age (63%)."
Dec 1 WHO report
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/12/news-scan-dec-02-2016
[/FONT]
; Ebola media messages
; Cholera in Yemen
Filed Under:
MERS-CoV
; Ebola
; Cholera
[h=3]Saudi officials report 3 more MERS cases[/h] Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported three more MERS-CoV cases, involving a woman and two men from three different locations. All of them had primary exposure to the virus, meaning investigations revealed that they didn't contract MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) from another person.
Before they got sick the two men both had direct contact with camels, a well-known source of the virus. The patients were a 90-year-old Saudi from the western city of Mahd adh Dhahab who is listed in stable condition and a 68-year-old Saudi from the northwestern town of Khaybar who is hospitalized in critical condition.
The third patient is a 60-year-old female expatriate from Al Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia who is in stable condition. None of the three patients are healthcare workers.
The trio of cases lifts Saudi Arabia's total from the disease to 1,494 since the first human infections were detected in 2012. So far 618 people have died from MERS. Thirteen people are still being treated for their recently announced illnesses.
Dec 2 Saudi MOH statement
In other MERS developments, an official from Oman's health ministry yesterday posted new details on ProMED Mail, the online e-mail list of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, about a recently announced case involving a 67-year-old man.
Seif Al-Abri, MD, the ministry's director-general for disease surveillance and control, said the man didn't travel in the 2 weeks before he became ill but did care for animals, including camels, cattle, and goats. His symptoms began on Nov 18, and he was hospitalized 2 days later. A respiratory swab obtained on Nov 22 revealed MERS-CoV. The man's condition is stable, and he was discharged from the hospital on Nov 26.
Health officials are monitoring the man's contacts, including ones in the healthcare setting. Two of the patient's family members have minor respiratory symptoms, and authorities are awaiting test results on them.
Dec 1 ProMED Mail post
[h=3]US media used some 'risk-elevating' messaging during Ebola crisis[/h] A new report in Emerging Infectious Diseases shows that the US media used "risk-elevating" language when reporting about the 2013-2015 Ebola outbreak, contributing to increased public concern.
Many media outlets have been accused of sensationalizing the outbreak and causing unnecessary public panic. To study this, researchers looked at 9 print and 3 television new sources for stories covering Ebola published from Jul 1 to Nov 30, 2014. There were 1,262 stories or editorials available for content analysis.
The vast majority (96%) of print and television news stories that covered US Ebola events included more than one risk-elevating message. The most common such message?seen in 72% of stories?concerned foreigners bringing Ebola into the United States. About 55% of stories contained one or more risk-minimizing messages, which included scientific facts on the transmissibility of Ebola.
"Although many factors can alter a message's effectiveness, frequency of exposure to risk-related messages can alter public perception and contribute to social amplification of risk; even when coverage is balanced, reassuring messages may be less able to counter messages that increase perception of risk," the authors wrote.
Dec 1 Emerg Infect Dis study
[h=3]WHO reports 1,600 new cholera cases in Yemen[/h] Yemen now has 7,730 suspected cases of cholera and 82 deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, which is 1,611 more cases since the last WHO update on Nov 24.
The WHO said Yemen has set up 26 cholera treatment centers in the 11 governorates experiencing an outbreak of the disease, which causes severe, watery diarrhea and can be especially dangerous for children.
The WHO said it strengthened its capacity of local health workers and increased essential supplies such as rapid diagnostic test kits, intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solutions, and water chlorination tablets in affected communities.
Cholera is endemic to Yemen, but the recent outbreak has stretched the country's ability to handles all the cases. According to the WHO update, "More than 7.6 million people, and more than 3 million internally displaced persons currently live in areas affected by the outbreak. Since the start of the outbreak, the population group most affected by cholera are children below 15 years of age (63%)."
Dec 1 WHO report
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/12/news-scan-dec-02-2016
[/FONT]