Influenza aviar H5N1. ¿Debemos preocuparnos? / Avian influenza H5N1. Should we worry?

Desde la segunda mitad de 2022 se ha reportado un aumento de casos de influenza en aves migratorias en Latinoamérica. Los virus influenza A y B son los principales agentes asociados a influenza estacional epidémica en humanos. Los virus influenza A circulan no solo en humanos sino también en animales, incluyendo aves migratorias. El intercambio de segmentos de ARN genómico entre dos virus del mismo tipo aumenta la diversidad de los subtipos circulantes e incluso puede facilitar la generación de progenie viral potencialmente pandémica. La naturaleza zoonótica del virus influenza A puede generar infecciones en humanos con virus de origen animal. El virus influenza A de origen aviar ha ocasionado transmisiones en humanos, incluyendo casos graves y muertes, siendo la influenza A H5N1 la más destacada. Es importante tomar medidas de prevención y control en caso de aumento de casos de influenza en aves migratorias para prevenir posibles pandemias en Chile y el mundo.

Since the second half of 2022, an increase in influenza cases in migratory birds has been reported in Latin America. Influenza A and B viruses are the main agents associated with seasonal epidemic influenza in humans. Influenza A viruses circulate not only in humans but also in animals, including migratory birds. The exchange of genomic RNA segments among two viruses increases the diversity of circulating subtypes and may even facilitate the generation of potentially pandemic viral progeny. The zoonotic nature of influenza A virus can generate infections in humans with animal-origin viruses. Avian-origin influenza A virus has caused transmissions in humans, including severe cases and deaths, with influenza A H5N1 being the most prominent. It is important to take preventive and control measures in case of an increase in influenza cases in migratory birds to prevent possible pandemics in Chile and the world.

High expression and immunogenicity analysis of HA globular head domain of H5 subtype avian influenza virus produced in Pichia pastoris / 生物工程学报

To evaluate the immunogenicity of HA globular head domain of H5 subtype influenza virus (H5HA), the gene of H5HA was optimized and the recombinant pPICZaA-H5HA expressing vector was constructed and transfected into Pichia pastoris. The expression of the recombinant H5HA was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting and the results demonstrated that the recombinant H5HA (37 kDa) was highly expressed in Pichia pastoris with concentration of 0.2 mg/mL in medium. The recombinant H5HA was concentrated and purified using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The immunogenicity of H5HA was evaluated by immunizing eight groups of chicken through intranasal or intramuscular injection with different doses of purified H5HA combined with different adjuvants, respectively. The results showed that the recombinant H5HA could induce high level IgG (HI titer was 1:64 and neutralizing antibody titer was 1:218) and the optimal dosage of the recombinant H5HA was 50 μg combined with oil. In addition, intramuscular injection was better than nasal immunization. This study provided a theoretical support for subunit vaccine development.

Emergency risk communication in outbreaks

To provide WHO Member States, partners and stakeholders involved in emergency preparedness and response with the most up-to-date best practices on Emergency Risk Communication, this year WHO published "Communicating risk in public health emer-gencies - A WHO guideline for emergency risk communication (ERC) policy and prac-tice"

HLIP I in EMR countries

From 2014 to 2017, seven countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO benefited from the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness [PIP] Framework - Partnership Contribution [PC] to enhance their surveillance and laboratory capacities using the High-level Partnership Contribution Implementation Plan I [HLIP I] 2013-2016

GOARN and outbreak response in EMR

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network [GOARN] convened its 23rd steering committee meeting in New York, 20-21 June 2018. The aim of the meeting was to review recent deployments, activities and overall achievements of the network since it was established

Global strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics [EYE]

On 10 April 2018, WHO and partners launched the Global Strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics [EYE]. At a meeting in Abuja Nigeria, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and health officials across the African continent reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate Yellow fever

EMFLU and improved influenza data sharing

Eastern Mediterranean Flu [EMFLU] Network is a web-based platform that is used to enter and analyze the influenza surveillance data at country level in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR]. It provides useful information for decision makers at country and regional levels regarding the trend of influenza and circulating viruses. Up to August 2018, 16 Member States in the EMR have shared their severe acute respiratory infections [SARI] data regularly through the platform

Influenza: Burden of disease estimation in Saudi Arabia

On July 2018, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia conducted a three-day workshop on the estimation of the influenza burden using Severe Acute Respiratory Infections [SARI] surveillance data. During the workshop, 12 participants from different regions of the country were trained by influenza experts from Infection Hazard Management unit [IHM] of WHO Regional office for Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMRO]

National Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans [NPIPP] in the EMR

WHO EMRO in collaboration with the Global Influenza Programme [GIP] of WHO headquarters conducted a 3-day participatory workshop on National Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan [NPIPP] in Tunis, Tunisia, from 13 to 15 August 2018. This workshop was attended by 35 participants from five countries. Three of these countries were from the Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR] and two were from the WHO African region [AFR]

Biosafety in laboratories working with influenza in EMR

WHO and partners conducted a regional biosafety training course for containment of influenza and other infectious diseases of international concern from 16 –20 April, 2018 in Morocco. The training workshop was attended by participants from 21 countries in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR]

Chikungunya in Sudan

The Federal Ministry of Health, in recent time, has informed WHO of an outbreak of Chikungunya which has affected its eastern states. Till date, a total of 13,430 suspected cases were reported from the country, primarily from Kassala and Red Sea state. Samples have been tested both by PCR and by serology. A number of samples have also been tested posi-tive for dengue fever

Imported case of MERS

The Ministry of Health of Kuwait received a notification from IHR national focal point [NFP] of Republic of Korea [RoK] on a Korean male aged 61 years, who visited Kuwait during the period from 16 August to 6 September 2018 and was laboratory confirmed as MERS on 8 September 2018 upon his return to RoK

West Nile fever in Tunisia

As of 8 October 2018, the Ministry of Health of Tunisia reported 177 sus-pected cases of West Nile fever [WNF]. Out of these, 22 are probable and 17 are laboratory confirmed cases. One death has also been reported in a 27 year male who was hospitalized for meningo-encephalitis in September 2018

EWARN in humanitarian emergencies

As many as seven countries– Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region have established an early warning system for disease outbreaks with a view to early detecting and rapidly investigating any public health event of potential concern. Such a system, in the absence of a routine disease surveillance system, needs continuous monitoring and assessment using a set of performance benchmarks

Rapid Response Team train-ing for MERS

Since the emergence of Middle East res-piratory syndrome coronavirus [MERS-Cov] in September 2013, Saudi Arabia has reported over 80% of the cases. Cur-rent scientific evidence suggests that dromedary camels are a major reservoir for MERS-Cov and an animal source of infection in humans has been implicated. Although there is no evidence of sus-tained human-to-human transmission, sporadic outbreaks and clusters of cases have been reported mainly in health care settings. This signifies the need for having a trained Rapid Response Team [RRT] on stand by for investigation of any sus-pected cluster in the community or in healthcare settings. Recently, the ministry of health of Saudi Arabia and WHO jointly organized two rounds of training for its RRTs specially focussing on inves-tigation of cluster of Middle East respira-tory syndrome [MERS]

Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment [PISA] in EMR

The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of WHO, in collaboration with the Global Influenza Programme [GIP] of WHO/HQ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [US-CDC], conducted a 4 day regional training workshop on determining influenza baselines and thresholds for Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment [PISA] in Tunis, Tunisia, from 1 to 4 October 2018. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from 15 countries in the region

MERS in healthcare workers

Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS] is an emerging viral respirato-ry disease caused by the MERS coro-navirus [MERS-Cov] that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Human-to-human transmission has been observed to a limited extent from MERS-Cov and have primarily occurred in health care settings

Chikungunya update: Sudan

Sudan has had a major outbreak of Chikungunya since July 2018. A total of 20,110 cases have been reported since the outbreak began. No new cases of the disease were reported during the week ending 11th November 2018

Transition from EWARN to routine surveillance

A three days workshop was conducted in Damascus, Syria from 8-10 August 2018 to disseminate findings of Early Warning Alert and Response Network [EWARN] evaluation in Syria. Partici-pants included Ministry of Health [MOH] staff and technical EWARN officers. During this workshop the question of how and when to transition from EWARN to routine surveillance was examined

Influenza cases increase in recent weeks

The seasonal influenza [flu] viruses are detected year-round, however influenza activity, in the northern hemisphere, often begins to increase by the end of autumn. During the winter months, influ-enza may infect up to one fifth of the population and cause substantial mortality.