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2014. aastal leiti ühe USA labori külmikust juhuslikult kuus rõugeviirust sisaldavat viaali, mis pärinesid aastast 1954. Neist kahes sisalduv viirus oli endiselt võimeline nakatama. Järelikult võib rõugeviiruse nakatamisvõime säilida heades tingimustes aastakümneid.

CDC says 1 person has tested positive for monkeypox after flying to the U.S. from Nigeria. The patient has been hospitalized in Dallas

A group of scientists studying glacier ice have discovered 28 new viruses in two ice cores that are nearly 15,000 years old, according to findings published in the journal Microbiome on Wednesday.

“These glaciers were formed gradually, and along with dust and gases, many, many viruses were also deposited in that ice,” said Zhi-Ping Zhong, lead author of the study who developed a decontamination process to study the ice. “The glaciers in western China are not well-studied, and our goal is to use this information to reflect past environments. And viruses are a part of those environments.”

Researchers analyzed ice cores removed from the Guliya ice cap — which lies around 22,000 feet above sea level — discovering 33 viruses in the samples. Twenty-eight are novel, and researchers note that they appear to have survived because they were trapped in ice.

“These are viruses that would have thrived in extreme environments,” study co-author Matthew Sullivan said in a statement. “These viruses have signatures of genes that help them infect cells in cold environments – just surreal genetic signatures for how a virus is able to survive in extreme conditions.”

Two more people in mainland China, including a man who died, have tested positive for H5N6 bird flu, health officials announced on late Thursday. A rise in isolated cases has worried some researchers who have called for increased surveillance.

The Hong Kong Health Department said in a statement on Thursday that it was notified about two additional cases of H5N6 bird flu in mainland China, one of which occurred in the same city as the fatal case reported on Wednesday. There was no word from local officials.

The first of the two new cases involved a 55-year-old man from Guilin, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who visited a live poultry market before developing symptoms on August 23. He was hospitalized on August 30 and remains in serious condition.

Another case was reported in the same city on Wednesday, when health officials confirmed the death of a 26-year-old woman who reported having contact with live poultry. She developed symptoms on August 14 but the case was not publicly reported until this week.

The second case on Thursday involved a 72-year-old man from Chongqing who developed symptoms on September 16 after contact with sick poultry, according to officials in Hong Kong, who are monitoring cases on the mainland. The man was hospitalized after three days and has since died.

Only 48 people have been infected with H5N6 bird flu since the first confirmed case in 2014, but a third of those have been reported during the last 2.5 months. Half of all cases were reported during the last year.

H5N6 bird flu is known to cause severe illness in humans of all ages and has killed more than half of those infected, according to WHO. There are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission but a 61-year-old woman who tested positive in July denied having contact with live poultry.

Earlier this month, a study published by China’s Center for Disease Control identified several mutations in two recent H5N6 cases.

Erinevates Aafrika riikides elavad šimpansid on haigestunud leeprasse. See on esmakordne juhus, kui niisugune haigus leitakse loomadelt.

Grupp teadlasi leidis šimpansite nägudelt ville ja haavandeid ega suuda leida vastust küsimusele, kuidas loomad nakatusid. Kuna inimeste hulgas on haigestumine madal, tekib küsimus, kas tõbi võib levida teiste loomade kaudu. Varem ei ole loomadel leeprat diagnoositud.

Üllatavaim on aga asjaolu, et haigus ei esine vaid ühe koldena, vaid nakatunud on isegi üksteisest 1000 kilomeetri kaugusel elavad šimpansid.
Sümptomid on sarnased inimsoost patsientide omadele: haavandid, villid ja laigud näol. Ühelt emaselt šimpansilt lahkamisel võetud proov kinnitas teadlaste hirmu: tegu on pidalitõvega. Sama tulemus saadi ka ühe isase ahvi väljaheiteid analüüsides.

Inimeste puhul saab leeprat medikamentidega ravida, kui ahvide puhul ei ole raviprognoos veel selge. Kuna šimpansid on väljasuremise ohus, on iga isendi surm märkimisväärne kaotus.

Worrisome—Several outbreaks of severe bird flu in Europe and Asia have been reported in recent days, in a sign the virus is spreading quickly again. Previous #birdflu outbreaks have led to culling tens of millions of birds. It can infect humans.

It is attracting the attention too of epidemiologists as the virus can be transmitted to humans. China has reported 21 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza so far this year, more than in the whole of 2020.

South Korea reported an outbreak at a farm of around 770,000 poultry in Chungcheongbuk-do, the OIE said on Monday, citing a report from the South Korean authorities. All animals were slaughtered.

Also in Asia, Japan reported its first outbreak of the 2021 winter season, at a poultry farm in the northeast of the country, the OIE said, confirming a statement last week by Japan's agriculture ministry. The serotype in this outbreak was H5N8.

In Europe, Norway reported an H5N1 bird flu outbreak in the Rogaland region in a flock of 7,000 birds, the OIE said.

The Belgian government put on increased risk for bird flu, ordering poultry to be kept indoors as of Monday, after a highly pathogenic variant of bird flu was identified in a wild goose near Antwerp.

Bird flu cannot be transmitted through the eating of poultry products.

In South Sudan, 89 people have died of an unknown illness, South African radio station SABC reported.

Baya said the team of scientists had to reach Fangak via a helicopter due to severe flooding in the area, adding that the group are waiting for transport to return them to the capital Juba on Wednesday.

In the bordering state of Unity, severe floods have increased the spread of diseases such as malaria and caused malnutrition in children due to food shortages, Lam Tungwar Kueigwong, the state's minister of land, housing and public utilities, said.

Oil from the fields in the region had contaminated the water, he said, leading to the death of domestic animals.