Pestilence/ disease ~

U.S. government stockpiles new, safer smallpox vaccine

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY

The U.S. government has begun bolstering its smallpox vaccine stockpile with a new version designed to close a gap that left millions vulnerable to a bioterror attack.

The vaccine, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic's Imvamune, is made with modified vaccinia ankara, a safer alternative to the cowpox vaccines used for generations. Company officials say the first shipments arrived in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile last week, within hours of a World Health Organization ceremony marking eradication of the disease, widely regarded as one of the great public health achievements of all time.

For thousands of years, smallpox was one of the world's most prolific killers. In the last century of its existence, smallpox is estimated to have killed at least half a billion people. All the wars on the planet during that time killed perhaps 150 million. In the contest of Smallpox vs. War, war lost, Hot Zone author Richard Preston wrote in his forward for the book Smallpox —The Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer by D.A. Henderson, leader of the eradication effort.

The virus still lives

The threat has not entirely faded, however. Though natural transmission has ceased, the virus lives in freezers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and possibly in Russia, where Soviet scientists are believed to have created tons of weaponized smallpox. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the rise of global terrorism led the USA a decade ago to begin stockpiling vaccine.

"In June 2001, we had 12 million doses of smallpox vaccine for a population of 280 million," says Randall Larsen, CEO of the non-profit Weapons of Mass Destruction Center. Today, he says, the national stockpile contains 300 million doses of standard smallpox vaccine. "In effect, we have eliminated smallpox from the category of weapons of mass destruction," at least in the U.S., Larsen says.

Vaccination can protect against smallpox even after infection.

But standard smallpox vaccine can cause severe complications. Made with weakened cowpox — a cousin of smallpox— the vaccine's live viruses reproduce in humans, who can infect those around them. People with weakened immune systems and those with a skin condition called eczema are vulnerable to potentially deadly vaccine-related infections. People with those complications, and those in close contact with them, make up as much as 25% of the U.S. population, experts say.

2003 effort was shunned

A 2002-03 government campaign to vaccinate health care workers against smallpox ended when many workers, concerned about the side effects, shunned the vaccine.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped to fund development of the new vaccine, says its safety was the "most compelling" reason that he decided to back it. ?The major stumbling block, when we tried to vaccinate people several years ago, was safety,? he says.

The new MVA vaccine is essentially a virus that has lost the genes that allow it to replicate in humans, but keeps the genes needed to induce an immune response. Over the past five years, Bavarian Nordic has carried out trials in hundreds of patients, many of them with eczema and HIV, and many more who are elderly. "In none of these have we seen the side effects that we've seen with the old vaccine," says CEO Anders Hedegaard.

Hedegaard says. And because it?s injected, not scratched into the skin, it doesn?t cause the scarring that occurs with classic smallpox vaccine.

Bavarian Nordic's initial contract calls for the company to supply the U.S. with 20 million doses, enough to protect 10 million people, with an option to buy 40 million doses more.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for stockpiling based on its safety profile and tests showing that the vaccine generates an immune response like that of the old vaccine. Bavarian Nordic now plans to carry out a new round of safety and consistency trial in 3,000 more patients. Testing its effectiveness will be a bigger challenge, because no one would consider exposing human volunteers to smallpox. Monkeys will stand in for humans, monkeypox for smallpox, Hedegaard says. ?If we succeed, it?ll be the first vaccine approved through the animal route.?

Smallpox may not be the only bug MVA is poised to battle. The company is now testing MVA-based anthrax, HIV and measles vaccines, made by packing components of those bugs into MVA. The company is now testing five prototype anthrax vaccines in rabbits to see whether any of them generates a big enough immune response to protect them against anthrax. Anthrax is much easier to test because the spores are found widely in soil. Prostate and breast cancer vaccines are also in the works, says Paul Chaplin, the company?s chief scientist.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-05-25-smallpox25_ST_N.htm?csp=34news
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Postal workers may become part of plan to fight anthrax attacks
by Tina Redlup on May 24, 2010

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Postal Worker

Mail carriers in Minnesota may soon play a part in the war on terror, according to a news report by kstp.com.

The plan, which will be funded by a $6 million grant through the federal government for anthrax emergency preparedness, will coordinate efforts of the state's mail carriers, lab technicians and law enforcement officers.

The state's Department of Health will be responsible for testing material for anthrax. Another part of the plan, according to the news report, could involve the distribution of antibiotic pill packs that would be supplied by the federal government.

Those pill packs would be sent to the state's Office of Emergency Preparedness within 12 hours of  possible exposure and then distributed by mail carriers with state trooper escorts, according to the report.

Pam Donate is a Minnesota mail carrier who was one of 400 volunteers to be trained to deliver medications via mail during an anthrax attack.

"Letter carriers are very attached to the people they serve in the neighborhoods," Donate told kstp.com.

The report noted that approximately 50 state troopers would escort postal workers, offering protection, specifically in densely populated areas around the Twin Cities.

"We don't know when something will happen, if it will happen or what it'll be, but the last thing we want to do is get flat-footed," Minnesota State Patrol Captain Matt Langer told kstp.com.
 

http://www.bioprepwatch.com/news/213148-postal-workers-may-become-part-of-plan-to-fight-anthrax-attacks
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Deadly Fungal Disease Sprouts on North Texas Trees

By SUSY SOLIS

Updated 9:00 PM CDT, Mon, May 24, 2010

NBCDFW.com

Oak wilt, a deadly fungal disease, has been discovered in patches across North Texas.

The disease plugs the vascular system of red oak and live oak trees and essentially starves the trees of vital nutrients. It can kill a red oak in a just two weeks.

"It's almost impossible to treat a red oak," said Doug Andrews, the Dallas County extension director for the Texas AgriLife Extension. "By the time you notice you've got a problem with a red oak, you've got a dead tree or one that way beyond the ability to treat."

Live oaks can be saved if the disease is caught early enough. The telltale sign of oak wilt on a live oak tree is veinal necrosis, when the veins of a leaf turn yellow. The other symptom is "flagging," when a branch of leaves in the tree will show a different type of color pattern.

Tree Trouble in Texas

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Tree Trouble in Texas

There is no cure for oak wilt, but it can be treated in live oaks to stop the spread of the disease. Arborists inject Alamo fungicide into the root system of the infected tree. Treatment is costly and complicated and has to be done a continual basis to save the tree.

If not treated, the disease can spread easily from tree to tree.

"You'll have a tree here and a tree here, and the roots will grow together and they transfer that disease from one tree to another," Andrews said.

If there is no intervention, the result can be an entire neighborhood of dead trees overcome by oak wilt.

"It can devastate real estate values as well as aesthetic value of a neighborhood and an individual home," Andrews said.

The disease is also spread by nitidulid beetles, which are attracted to the sap of a fresh wound on a tree. Experts advise residents to prune during only the coldest days in winter and during the hottest months of the summer, when the beetles are not a threat.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Deadly-Fungal-Disease-Sprouts-on-North-Texas-Trees-94784824.html
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are cat disease making inroads in the Triangle

By Jay Price - Staff writer

A rare, malaria-like disease that is often fatal to cats is on the upswing in the Triangle and other parts of North Carolina, according to veterinarians at N.C. State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Two cats from Pittsboro with Cytauxzoonosis (pronounced sight-O-zO-un-Osis) have been brought to the university's veterinary hospital for treatment in the past three weeks, as well as two others from Virginia.

The disease is caused by a parasite carried by bobcats and spread by ticks. It pops up in the warm months, often in "hot spots" of several cases, and has now been diagnosed among cats in eastern Raleigh, Wake Forest and Rolesville, as well as Southern Pines and coastal North Carolina from Morehead City to Southport.

It was first diagnosed in Missouri it the 1970s and not found in North Carolina until the late 1990s, but now the veterinary hospital treats one to two cases a week during the warm months and fields calls about many other cases that go untreated, said Dr. Adam Birkenheuer, associate professor of internal medicine at N.C. State's vet school.

Some cat owners decide to let them die rather than opt for the treatment, which runs between $2,500 and $3,500 and involves a minimum of five days in the animal hospital.

Usually the cats that are infected are those that spend much of their lives outside where they can be exposed to the ticks. Still, some that live completely indoors have also been infected, presumably by ticks that ride in on other pets or humans' clothing, Birkenheuer said.

The first symptoms are lack of energy and appetite, and a fever, he said. The victims suffer terribly, and don't want to be touched and have no interest in food or water.

Only a few years ago, the disease was viewed as almost invariably fatal, and it's likely that some cats that contract it are still being euthanized that might otherwise survive because word is only beginning to spread among veterinarians that it can be treated with anti-malarial drugs. With the new treatments, though, about 60 percent of cats that contract the disease survive, and those that are brought to major animal hospitals such at NCSU's have even better chances, Birkenheuer said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/24/498711/rare-cat-disease-making-inroads.html#ixzz0ov54WDlw

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Powder found at Federal Building being tested
14WFIE.com
One of the tests will be for anthrax. FBI investigators won't divulge details of their investigation, saying only that the powder was inside an envelope
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Livestock producers warned of anthrax danger

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 4:08 PM CDT

North Dakota's state veterinarian is urging livestock producers in areas with a past history of anthrax to take action to protect their animals from the disease.

"We have just received confirmation of a case of anthrax in eastern Sioux County, the first reported in that area in many years and the first confirmed case in the state this year," said Dr. Susan Keller. "Producers should consult with their veterinarians to make sure the vaccination schedule for their animals is up to date."

Keller said effective anthrax vaccines are readily available, but that it takes about a week for immunity to be established, and it must administered annually. She also said producers should monitor their herds for unexpected deaths and report them to their veterinarians.

"Anthrax has been most frequently reported in northeast, southeast and south central North Dakota, but it has been found in almost every part of the state," she said. "With the precipitation we have had, conditions are right for the disease to occur."

North Dakota often records a few anthrax cases every year. In 2005, however, the disease resulted in more than 500 confirmed deaths from anthrax with total losses estimated at more than 1,000 head. The dead animals included cattle, bison, horses, sheep, llamas and farmed deer and elk.

"A dramatic reduction in livestock deaths was recorded the following year, thanks to an extensive educational effort by veterinarians and extension agents to encourage producers to vaccinate their animals," Keller said.

An anthrax factsheet is available on the home page of the North Dakota Department of Agriculture website at www.agdepartment.com.

Anthrax is caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis. Spores of the bacteria can lie dormant in the ground for decades and becomes active under ideal conditions, such as heavy rainfall, flooding and drought. When animals graze or consume forage or water contaminated with the spores, they are exposed to the disease.

 

http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2010/05/25/ag_news/livestock_news/live13.txt