Latest death from the novel coronavirus

Astute folks on Twitter have noticed a German-language newspaper article reporting the latest -- and now eleventh -- death from the novel coronavirus, or nCoV.

According to TZ Online, the latest victim is reportedly a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who fell sick in Abu Dhabi and was flown by private jet to Munich for treatment. Fifty people who came in contact with this patient are now being monitored for any symptoms of the disease.

German newspaper Bild reports that the victim was from a "ruling family" in Dubai and caught the infection at a camel race. There is strong evidence to suggest the virus comes from bats, which may be infecting another animal that more frequently comes into contact with humans.

This is Germany's second imported case of the novel coronavirus -- the first was a patient who fell sick in Qatar and recovered in November after being treated at a specialty clinic in Germany.

This latest fatality comes on the heels of another death from the novel coronavirus, this one in the United Kingdom. The Birmingham Mail reported on Saturday that Abid Hussain -- a 60-something father of two who recently visited Saudi Arabia with his daughter -- succumbed to the virus on March 19. He fell sick in late January shortly after returning from his trip, according to the newspaper.

Hussain's wife and daughter were not by his side when he died because they were in Pakistan burying Hussain's son, Khalid, who was also infected with the novel coronavirus and died February 17. According to the Birmingham Mail, Khalid, a father of two, was undergoing chemotherapy when his father returned from Saudi Arabia and, in all likelihood, infected him with the virus.

A third person, reportedly a 30-year-old woman who visited Hussain in the hospital, was also mildly infected but has now recovered.

Update: here is a Google-translated German-language press release from the Munich hospital announcing the latest death.

Update 2: the World Health Organization has now posted an official statement on the latest coronavirus developments.

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Five things I learned from inside a biosafety 'space suit'

Last week, I took a quick trip to Winnipeg to visit the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory (my weekend story can be read here). A few days before getting there, my contact at the lab emailed me to ask: did I want to try on a BSL-4 suit during my visit?

Um, yes.

I'm sure anyone who has ever watched a pandemic thriller — like this movie or this movie — has wondered about what it's like to wear one of these space suits. They are the daily uniform of scientists who work inside biosafety level four, or BSL-4, labs — maximum containment facilities where people like Dr. Gary Kobinger (the NML's head of special pathogens, pictured on the left) work with the world's deadliest pathogens, such as Ebola or Lassa fever.

My wardrobe coordinator for the day was lab technician Jason Gren, who hooked me up with one of the lab's yellow suits. At the NML, the suits come in three colours — white (which come from France), blue (American-made) and yellow (made in Germany) — each with their own particular features and quirks. Dr. Kobinger likes the white ones: they are quieter, lighter. Jason prefers blue, which are sturdier but also far louder, because of the way the air flows through.

As a BSL-4 lab tech, Jason both manages the house-cleaning issues (scheduling, dealing with maintenance issues, etc) and works directly with specimens. He is also an NML old hand, having worked there since it first opened in 1999. An animal nurse by trade, Jason still remembers driving past the lab back when it was under construction. "I honestly said to myself I wanna work there," he recalls. "I remember thinking, 'I wanna work with Ebola.'"

(Side note: the day I met Jason was actually his last day as a BSL-4 lab tech. After more than a decade, "it was time for a change," he said. He is now doing a different job, although still working at the NML).

So now that I've spend a few minutes inside a BSL-4 suit, here's what I can tell you:

1. According to Jason, this is the order for which your body parts enter the suit: left foot, right foot, left hand, head, right hand. Then the zipper goes up and voila, you're Ebola-proof (sorta).

2. Your hair will get super staticky and make you itchy and you will not be able to scratch your face. So, a hair tie is advised — and also maybe a headband, suggests Jason (who was less than impressed with my out-of-control hair situation and at one point muttered "holy crap" as he tried for the third or fourth time to zip me up without catching any strands).

3. It's loud. You are hooked up to valves that continuously fill your suit with air. This is for two reasons: 1) to give you oxygen 2) to increase the air pressure inside the suit -- BSL-4 suits are maintained at a positive pressure so that if someone accidentally punctures a hole in the fabric, air will whoosh out of the suit instead of in. 

4. When wearing a BSL-4 suit, everything is harder and takes longer. At one point, Jason had me put a screw into a nut (which I'm attempting in the top photo). Wearing two latex gloves, in addition to the rubbery glove attached to the suit, it took me 30 seconds to simply line the screw up with the nut. I can't imagine the dexterity required of scientists who wear these suits on a daily basis and work not only with needles, but also, you know, vials of things that can kill them and also maybe the rest of Canada.

5. Once you've been wearing it for a while, getting out of the suit is just as exciting as getting into it. "It's like being reborn," I think I said, when I finally took off the suit.

Actually, I felt quite fine inside the suit — just slightly awkward, hard of hearing and fully aware of my resemblance to a blimp. But not everyone feels comfortable inside the suit, says Dr. Kobinger —  wearing one is Lesson #1 for BSL-4 trainees and "some people, who are uncomfortable in the elevator, they don't feel good in the suit," Dr. Kobinger says. "So that's the end of their training."

I leave you now with a picture of BSL-me and Jason, who had the misfortune of spending his very last day on the job stuffing a journalist and her hair into a biosafety suit. Thanks Jason.

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

When more people have cellphones than access to toilets

Well, this is depressing: the United Nations announced yesterday that more people on earth have mobile phones than access to toilets.

Let's break down the numbers:

* there are seven billion people on earth

* six billion of them have mobile phones

* 4.5 billion of them have access to toilets or latrines

In other words:

The number of people who can text their friends > the number of people with toilets and access to basic sanitation 

Yeah, depressing.

In the U.N. news release ahead of World Water Day (which is today), Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson announced yesterday that he is launching a call to action to bring access to basic sanitation to everyone. Around the world, 1.1 billion people still openly defecate in public and Eliasson hopes to eliminate this practice -- which "perpetuates the vicious cycle of disease and entrenched poverty" -- by 2025.

Another statistic from the news release, this one shared by UNICEF's deputy executive director, Martin Mogwanja: 

Ending open defecation will help achieve a 36 per cent reduction in diarrhoea -- which is now killing 750,000 children under five every year.

“I am determined to energize action that will lead to results,” Eliasson said in the statement. “I am calling on all actors – government, civil society, business and international organizations – to commit to measurable action and to mobilize the resources to rapidly increase access to basic sanitation."

On a lighter note: you've likely seen this already but Matt Damon, co-founder of water.org, also wants everybody to have access to toilets -- and he's going on a toilet strike until they do.

 

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Why the Gates Foundation wants better condoms

Keith Beaty/Toronto Star

Imagine there was a dirt-cheap, widely-available medical device that could effectively prevent HIV, STDs and unwanted pregnancies.

Well, such a device exists -- it's called a condom.

But -- as pointed out by this post on Impatient Optimists, a blog hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- condoms are woefully underutilized. According to a report by the United Nations Population Fund, between 8 and 10 billion condoms are being used in low and middle-income countries -- but that's only half of the condoms needed to protect the world's population from HIV and other STDs.

The reality is this: most people prefer sex without condoms. The authors of the blog post, Papa Salif Sow and Stephen Ward, write this:

"It may seem obvious, but the success and impact of any public health tool hinges on that tool being used consistently and correctly by those who need it.  Vaccines sitting on shelves don’t prevent disease.  New tuberculosis drug regimens won’t help if patients stop taking them halfway through the necessary days.  Likewise, the potential value of condoms is limited by inconsistent use."

That's why the Gates Foundation is looking for bright ideas for better condoms in their latest round of Grand Challenges Explorations, which provides funding towards innovative research in global health. And their challenge is, well, challenging to say the least: build a condom that men will prefer to no condom.

As the authors write, the Gates Foundation is already funding groups doing innovative work on condoms. Researchers at the University of Washington are developing a condom of sci-fi proportions made of "electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers." The condom can dissolve (!), either within minutes or over several days, while also releasing spermicidal agents and antivirals.

The authors also point out a company called Origami Condoms, which has designed some funky-shaped silicone condoms -- for men, women, and anal sex -- that easily slip on in 2.8 seconds and simulate sans-condom sex. The company began clinical trials in 2011. (New Scientist has helpfully provided a demo video of the Origami condom in action).

Think you can come up with something better? The Grand Challenges Explorations application form is here.

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

New details about the rabies-infected organ donor

Some fresh details are now emerging about the dead man whose donated kidney fatally infected another person with rabies.

The Associated Press reports that William Edward Small, 20, was a North Carolina airman training to become an aviation mechanic at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. In August 2011, he began vomiting and suffering abdominal pain, prompting him to visit a base clinic; four days later he was transferred to a civilian hospital, where he died.

Small's family was told he had died of food poisoning or a stomach virus; the Defense Department said his death was caused by "severe stomach and intestinal inflammation with complications including dehydration and seizure," according to the AP report. The Florida health department said he died of encephalitis, or a brain inflammation.

Last week, a spokesperson with LifeQuest, the company that facilitated the organ donations, told the Toronto Star that rabies was not suspected or tested for, largely because it is so rare in the U.S. -- instead, doctors deemed Small's cause of death to be ciguatera fish poisoning, which is diagnosed based on a patient's symptoms and recent activities. The AP report says that shortly before his death, Small had called his father to say he had recently gotten sick after eating a puppy drum fish he'd caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

LifeQuest spokesperson Kathy Giery said Small was an avid hunter who reportedly had contact with raccoons and other wildlife. Investigations have determined that Small and the Maryland man who received his kidney were both infected with a raccoon-type rabies -- a rare form that has only ever killed one other person in the United States.

As one might expect, Small's family has been hard hit by the news -- more than 16 months after his death -- that their loved one's final act of giving has inadvertently cost another man his life.

"The bad part for me is knowing that someone actually died because of it — thinking that he thought he was doing everything right," said Small's father, also named William.

A tearful Small also spoke of his son's generosity.

"If he had it, he would give it to you," he told AP. "Anything that somebody wanted, all they had to do was ask. And that's just the type of person he was."

But his son also donated organs -- another kidney, his heart and liver -- to three other recipients, who are reportedly alive and well. They are now being treated for rabies, just in case.

The elder William Small said that he feels terribly for the family of the man who died because of his son's donated organ. But at the same time, "there are three people still alive because of him."

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Manifesto: demanding better treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis

 

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières

With World TB Day just around the corner, Médecins Sans Frontières is releasing a manifesto demanding better treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis -- which, as the World Health Organization and Global Fund warned yesterday, is spreading around the globe and requires an annual investment of $1.6 billion if the infectious disease is to be contained.

MSF has been a vocal advocate for the scaling up of improved treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis, which currently affects an estimated 630,000 people worldwide, according to WHO estimates.

Dr. Erkin Chinasylova, an MSF doctor in Swaziland, has this to say in a press release:

 “We have been waiting for half a century for new drugs that are effective against tuberculosis. Must we wait another fifty years to seize this historic opportunity to improve and roll out treatment for drug-resistant TB? Getting better treatment is beyond urgent, but we are not seeing anything like the level of prioritisation required to make this a reality.”

At the top of this post is an infographic made by MSF, illustrating the staggering amount of pills that drug-resistant TB patients currently have to take to treat their illness. I'm a big fan of MSF's infographics, which are both informative and visually arresting, so I've posted a few more here that really hammer the point home:

 

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Denmark produces enough energy from wind power to satisfy the entire nation’s electricity demand

In the wee hours of Monday morning, when most of Denmark was still sleeping, the country created a record: it produced enough energy from wind power to satisfy the entire nation’s electricity demand.

The statistics were revealed on Energinet, the company that runs Denmark’s grid and tracks how much energy is being produced, consumed, exported and imported.

How did it happen?

Denmark’s total electricity demand was at 3.5 gigawatts (GW), its wind turbines produced a mind-blowing 3.8 GW.

It exported 2.2 GW worth of electricity to Norway, Sweden and Germany.

This feat, though, comes in the midst of a powerful snowstorm affecting most of the country that would have been a factor behind the increased wind power generation.

But it still provides ammunition to environmentalists who have argued that wind power works and is viable.

While on records, on May 26 2012, Germany set the world record for solar power generation when it met half of the country’s electricity demand.

Raveena Aulakh is the Toronto Star's environment reporter. She is intrigued by climate change and its impact, now and long-term. Follow her on Twitter @raveenaaulakh

Urgently needed: $1.6 billion per year to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading around the world and will require $1.6 billion U.S. per year to stamp out, the World Health Organization and Global Fund announced today.

The announcement comes in advance of World TB Day on March 24, which commemorates Dr. Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis -- a major killer in the early 20th century (remember "consumption"?) that became curable with the discovery of antibiotics.

But today, the world is seeing a resurgence of the disease -- now in the form of drug-resistant strains. And multidrug-resistant strains. And even extensively drug-resistant strains.

Médecins Sans Frontières has a slick graphic illustrating the scope of the TB crisis:

The WHO estimates there are about 630,000 people worldwide currently suffering from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis -- and the problem will only spread further if action isn't taken.

Says Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, in a press release:

“We are treading water at a time when we desperately need to scale up our response to MDR-TB. We have gained a lot of ground in TB control through international collaboration, but it can easily be lost if we do not act now.”

So what is it like to have drug-resistant TB? You can find out at TB & Me, an MSF website where patients around the world are blogging their personal stories about living with the disease.

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Wind turbine sickness may be all in your head: study

Wind turbines are pictured in front of the coal power plant 'Scholven of German utility giant E.ON in Gelsenkirchen March 11. (Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

They emit no pollution and require no fuel.

As gas prices and pollution levels spiral upwards, it’s understandable why supporters of wind power are trying to persuade lawmakers to invest in wind turbines.

Last fall, two studies by U.S. research groups suggested wind power has the potential to power the world's energy demands. The studies, led by professors from the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University, suggest existing wind turbine technology could produce hundreds of trillions of watts of power. That's more than 10 times what the world now consumes.

Yet even as some lawmakers champion the renewable energy source — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has talked of putting wind turbines atop office towers and bridges — people who live near the turbines offer cautionary tales.

Besides changing local sceneries, some local residents complain that wind turbine farms actually have given them rapid heartbeats, nausea and blurred vision. They say the side effects have been caused by the ultra-low-frequency sound and vibrations from the turbines.

A new study out of Australia suggests that sickness and side effects may be all in the mind.

Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at Sydney University, reports 63 per cent of Australia's 49 wind farms have not been the subject of any health complaints by local residents. Some 68 per cent of 120 complaints came from those living near wind farms in an area where the anti-wind farm lobby is most vocal.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, which reported on Chapman’s study, ''wind turbine sickness'' is a ''communicated disease',” spread by the claim that something is likely to make a person sick.

Closer to home, Star columnist Tyler Hamilton reported in January that Health Canada is studying the relationship between wind turbine noise and health effects.

The investigation comes after Ontario's Ministry of the Environment is logging hundreds of health complaints over the province's 900 wind turbines. In 2011, the CBC reported the ministry had has downplayed the problem.

Rick Westhead is a foreign affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

 

 

Getting paid to get the flu

(Credit: Dreamstime)

Call it Big Brother gone viral.

In the United Kingdom, 41 strangers are each getting paid more than $1,500 (Cdn) to live together in isolation for nearly two weeks, the BBC reports. They will be constantly monitored, forced to spend 15 hours together, and banned from drinking, smoking and strenuous exercise.

Half of them will also be infected with the flu -- on purpose.

The group is participating in a more than $11 million study to research flu transmission. Half of the volunteers are willingly infected with a mild seasonal strain of the flu called A(H3N2) and the other half is divided into two sub-groups: those with face shields (meaning they can't be infected by aerosol droplets) and those with no protection at all.

According to Jonathan Van-Tam with Nottingham University's School of Community Health Sciences, "it's extraordinary" that this type of research has never been done before.

"To put it crudely, we're interested in whether it's the big bits that fly out when you cough and sneeze - we call those large droplets - or the tiny bits - which are referred to as aerosols - which are important in transmission," he told World Update on the BBC World Service.

"The only way we could do this was to actually have people with real flu and put them in a position where they can infect others and we can then study how that happens."

One of the volunteers -- a 31-year-old firefighter named "Chloe" -- told the BBC the experience "was a bit like Big Brother" aside from the fact that everyone got along well. Volunteers also had to be accompanied to the bathroom and she was banned from touching her face -- itches were scratched with lollipop sticks.

The volunteers, who began their cough-and-sniffle-filled vacation on March 4, will be closely monitored until they go home on March 17. Researchers will then compare the different groups and see how they both fared.

Van-Tam said the study results could be applied to more dangerous flu strains, such as avian or swine flu, and lead to better health care practices -- deciding, for example, whether health workers should wear inexpensive surgical face masks or costly respirators when they treat sick patients.

He also said there will be two more trials coming up in collaboration with international partners, including the U.S., Australia and Canada.

Jennifer Yang is the Toronto Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar