流感病毒樣本 急增一倍

【本報訊】冬季流感高峰期殺到，衞生防護中心發現近期流感活躍，本月初驗出的流感病毒樣本達一百四十一個，較去年十一月中急增一倍。有家庭醫學專科醫生指出，天氣持續寒冷，因感冒求診者較往日增近兩成。有呼吸科專家預告流感個案於未來數周逐步增加。

衞生防護中心公共衞生檢測中心最近分離出的流感病毒數目上升，截至去年十一月十二日的一周內錄得六十八樣本，今年一月七日一周急升至一百四十一個樣本。化驗顯示，截至今年一月四日共一百個樣本中，以乙型流感病毒佔多，有六十個，其餘為甲型流感病毒。
衞生防護中心表示，會繼續密切監察海外及本地流感情況，加強與醫院管理局及私家醫院聯繫，監察因流感並需入住深切治療部或死亡的個 案，兒童流感個案亦不會掉以輕心。家庭醫學專科醫生關嘉美指，近月因出現傷風、咳嗽、感冒或頭痛等徵狀的求診人數增加一至兩成，接種流感疫苗的人數亦增 加，但暫未接獲出現嚴重併發症如氣管炎的個案。

料農曆新年後感染人數升

中文大學呼吸內科教授許樹昌指，暫未發現流感入院病人大增：「通常凍咗一段時間先會多個案」，他預料農曆新年過後，感染人數將增加。
http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20120110/00176_033.html

伸延閱讀

日進入冬季流感高峰期

13歲童流感　疑併發腦膜炎

35天無雨無雪 濕度如撒哈拉 乾燥催病氣 東京爆流感

港關注美新流感疑人傳人

"點頭病"入侵穌丹(2003年BC新聞)

'Nodding disease' hits Sudan
Tuesday, 23 September, 2003, 21:46 GMT 22:46 UK

By Andrew Harding BBC, Lui, southern Sudan

Ten-year-old Susannah Jackson is dying of what may be the world's newest and oddest disease - an illness so rare and mysterious that science has not yet come up with an official name for it.
Sitting outside her family's mud hut, near the small town of Lui, Susannah is gripped by a series of brain seizures which force her neck to arch forwards, down, and then up again.

The disease is puzzling doctors and scientists

No wonder people in this isolated corner of southern Sudan call it "nodding disease." "We have no clue as what is causing this. It's like a detective novel and a murder mystery, because it's fatal," says Dr Mickey Richer, a tropical disease specialist from Unicef.
So far, almost 300 children are known to have caught the disease - all in one small region of the country.
Bizarrely, the seizures normally occur when the sufferers start to eat, or when it is particularly cold.
When Dr Richer asks for a bowl of sorghum to be placed in front of Susannah, the "nodding" begins almost immediately, and stop when she has finished eating.
Curiously, Susannah does not react if she eats unfamiliar food - a chocolate bar for instance.
Susannah's eight-year-old brother, Jacob, is now in Lui's crowded hospital with the same disease - at a more developed stage.
He shows signs of being mentally retarded and physically stunted.
During a particularly fierce seizure he threw himself into a fire, and is now being treated for severe burns to his leg.
Two other children in the same ward have almost identical stories.
Epicentre
An hour's drive from Lui along a rutted track lies the village of Amadi - a silent cluster of huts trapped in a forest of thick green grass.
Amadi is now considered to be the epicentre of the disease - 12% of children here are affected.

About 12% of children in Ramadi are affected

Last year, experts from the World Health Organisation did neurological scans on some of the children, enabling them to confirm that this is a specific and unique condition. Twelve-year-old Ruben Nicholas stands in the middle of the village, gripped by a sudden seizure.
It looks as though someone is forcing his chin down onto his chest.
"He is nodding three times a day," says his father, Nicholas Lado.
"The disease stops him from growing. His brother died from the same disease, in August."
Dr Richer gets out her stethoscope and starts examining a dozen children. A small boy called Maika Philip stares dully into the distance. He looks about 11, but his mother confirms that he is 18.
So what could be causing this horrific outbreak? If this had happened in western Europe, it seems likely there would be at least some answers by now.
Here, in poverty-stricken southern Sudan, families still do not know if they should be trying to quarantine their children.
"If one child has nodding, we separate them from the other children, because maybe it's through air we don't know," says Reverend Sosthen Amen Lati, whose son is affected.
River theory
Some villagers say the disease is a curse, others blame the country's long civil war and suspect that government forces have been dropping chemical weapons on Lui and other rebel-held areas.
A toxicology report commissioned last year by the United Nations comes close to ruling out chemical warfare, and also plays down the likelihood of any link to local diets or food production.

Most victims live near Yeri River in southern Sudan

At the same time it cautiously raises a few intriguing theories, including the possibility of infected monkey flesh. International relief aid is also mentioned. Some locals have admitted to eating donated seeds, meant for planting not consumption, which are coated with toxic substances.
But Dr Richer's hunch is more straightforward. She notes that the victims are all concentrated near the Yei River.
She also points out that 93% of those surveyed are infected with a parasitic worm which causes Onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness).
The level of infection among children without "nodding" is 63%. The worm is carried by black flies which breed near fast-flowing rivers like the Yei.
Could it turn out to be the killer in Dr Richer's mystery? 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3133440.stm

有片:美國 疾病控制和預防中心/CDC回應烏干達的"點頭病"

Video: CDC Responds to Nodding Disease in Uganda

A team of CDC experts joined the Ministry of Health and of government, nonprofit, and health officials in Uganda to conduct a multifaceted investigation in Kitgum District, northern Uganda. Listen as Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Dr. Jennifer Foltz, tells the story about Nodding Disease, a neurologic syndrome which is devastating to afflicted children.

 

CDC Global Health

Watch on YouTube | Download PowerPoint with embedded YouTube video 

Who's in This Video

• Jennifer L. Foltz, MD, MPH
  CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Transcript

I'm working as an epidemic intelligence service officer in the United States Public Health Service. We do public-health surveillance and alsooutbreak investigations.

Nodding disease mostly affects 5- to 15-year-old children that we saw when we went and visited them in Uganda. It seems that it starts maybe at 5, 6, 7 years old, and then may progressively get worse. It starts off in children. They can be born healthy. Then they start school and can be top of their class, then they have problems. It's reported that they have problems thinking and concentrating in class, and then this head-nodding starts. Then they can have problems concentrating so much that they drop out of school, become physically disabled. they become mentally disabled. We haven't had any reports that anybody's improved and gotten better from this disease, and we have gotten reports that children have passed away from the disease.

Related Links

• Stories: Coordinated Campaign Against Nodding Syndrome in Uganda
• Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response

Initially, we got the request from the Uganda Ministry of Health back in November 2009. We've put together a team of a pediatric infectious-disease specialist, a pediatrician with nutrition specialty, which is myself, a toxin expert, and a neurologist from CDC U.S. So, we know at least that there's a seizure activity. It looks like a new seizure disorder. So, we have found that out, so that's a major step forward as far as knowing what we're dealing with and looking into treatment and looking into causes.

The thing that impressed me most about the people of Uganda were how receptive they were. People brought their children in for us to examine, to ask questions. When we held focus groups, many people showed up to tell us the stories of what they've lived through and the children they knew that were affected by disease. One mother came up to me and said that it's been a struggle for her, for her children, and her community, because to see her child that was previously healthy turn around and not be able to feed themselves or care for themselves, and this has been quite a struggle for the family, the community, and for everyone involved. But they hope that, through their struggle, that at least it can help us learn about the disease and then carry forward and maybe prevent it in other children.
http://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/video/nodding/nodding.htm

中國反駁美國防部報告指摘

外交部發言人劉為民稱，美國國防部日前發表的新軍事戰略報告中針對中國的指摘毫無根據，不可能取信於人。
劉為民在例行記者會上表示，中國的戰略意圖是明確的、公開的、透明的。中國堅定不移走和平發展道路，奉行獨立自主的和平外交政策和防禦性的國防政策。
他說：「我們的國防現代化建設服務於國家安全和發展的客觀需要，是維護地區和平穩定的積極因素，不對任何國家構成威脅。這份文件中針對中國的指責毫無根據，不可能取信於人。中方將深入研究這份文件的內容。」
劉為民表示，保持亞太和平、穩定、繁榮是本地區各國的共同利益所在。希望美方多為此發揮建設性作用。
美國國防部日前發表報告稱，中國崛起可能影響美國經濟和安全，並稱中國、伊朗等國繼續尋求旨在制衡美國軍事投送能力的非對稱手段，要求中國澄清戰略意圖，並強調美軍將加大在亞太地區的投入。（新華社）
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/中國反駁美國防部報告指摘-110216917.html

福島核電站工人暈倒昏迷

日本福島核電站一名工人暈倒昏迷。東京電力公司表示，這名工人六十多歲，是一名臨時工，中午在儲存放射性物質的設施內工作時，突然暈倒，心肺停止跳動，送到醫院搶救。公司指，工人身上其無沾有放射性物質，他暈倒可能與體力衰退有關。

去年三月福島核洩漏事故發生至今，最少四名核電站工人，工作時暈倒死亡。死者多數是臨時工，日薪相當於二千多港元。
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/福島核電站工人暈倒昏迷-123200280.html