Norovirus closes over 1,000 Scottish hospital wards

Much about animal illness is pretty sad. This is worse, much worse: real people, Scots here, have died in squalor and it has been going on for years.

Much worse, England, Ireland, Canada and the USA have had similar problems. The death toll is enormous, the distress of the relatives refused admittance to see their often dying, relatives, unbearable.

Pigs get norovirus and even the ultra-clean Swedes have found it in the water supply.

Two years ago this was published,  but nothing was done at sea or ashore

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2010/06/articles/norovirus/cruise-ship-norovirus-something-in-the-water/

Scotland's pigs are sick and that has been covered up by their government veterinarians for at least 11 years.

They have shipped sick pigs south to England with one of their national newspapers proclaiming proudly "Let the English eat them if they like."

Not nice and something that will shame most decent Scots.

The very corrupt vetocracy in Edinburgh has massive problems: more than enough to influence elections.

It is Scots that are sick in hospital now, as well as English Irish Welsh Canadians and Americans, and it was all preventable.

75 per cent of British oysters, from the estuaries, are contaminated with Norovirus, but they are still on sale.

It is about time the government started sacking their veterinarians and bringing them before the Courts.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-17798211


22 April 2012

Norovirus caused more than 1,000 Scottish ward closures

Winter vomiting bug has been the cause of more than 1,000 hospital ward closures since 2009, according to Scottish government figures.

The Liberal Democrats obtained the statistics to draw attention to the strain put on the NHS by norovirus.

The party's health spokeswoman Alison McInnes called for the bug to be given the same attention as MRSA and C.diff.

The Scottish government said the number of cases has been falling over the last three years.

Norovirus causes winter vomiting disease.

The virus lives in the gut and is passed from person to person by poor hygiene after going to the toilet. It can also be spread when someone is sick.

Patients with the bug are treated in wards closed to new admissions until the sickness passes.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recorded the most occasions when wards had to be closed, at 333 since 2009.

There were 231 in Lothian, 108 in Grampian, 91 in Ayrshire and Arran, 66 in Tayside, 64 in Fife and 56 in Highland.

Forth Valley recorded 45 closures, while there were 52 in Lanarkshire and 18 each in Borders and in Dumfries and Galloway.

There were no closures in Shetland and three closures in Orkney and in the Western Isles.

'Highly infectious'

Ms McInnes said: said: "The closure of wards is the right response to contain an outbreak of norovirus, but with non-urgent surgeries being cancelled because of closures the knock-on effects have a real impact
on patients and the efficient running of our health service.

"It is vital that we reduce the number of outbreaks of the infection, which can be life-threatening to the vulnerable groups like our growing elderly population."

She added: "The Scottish government should ensure that people understand the highly infectious nature of the norovirus and give it the same attention as MRSA or C.diff.

"Only then will we be able to reduce ward closures across Scotland."

A government spokeswoman said significant work had been done to reduce cases as part of its Ready for Winter campaign. She added: "However, norovirus is a highly contagious virus which can be challenging to control in even the cleanest of environments and closing wards to new admissions is one of the most effective ways of preventing spread further within a hospital."

MRSA st398 - Long Silence Broken

Nothing really new that I can see, but interesting to see this paper comes from within the UK - Scotland in fact.

Britain is finally doing something, even if it is only consolidating and publishing existing knowledge. More will follow now.

Defra the agricultural ministry, still deny the presence of MRSA st398 in Britain's pigs although it has been present for years. Only comparatively recently have they admitted to it in cows' milk.

The final part of the full paper is interesting. It has long been quite clear, although repeatedly ignored and covered up by Defra, that live imports and exports plus germplasm are responsible for most of the recent animal disease outbreaks, epidemics and the carriage of disease both in, out and around Britain.

Vets and other farm visitors also carry some diseases, in, out and from farm to farm.

We know vets carry MRSA st398.

Anyway, The writer is delighted that the subject now being discussed in Britain.  The long silence is broken.

There will be much in the this blog's archive and the archives of the newsgroup uk.business.agriculture to assist in tracing the evolution of MRSA st398 and its chilling implications.

Extract from full paper:

"The ST398 genome sequence-based analysis has provided a remarkable insight into the likely ancestral host state of the ST398 clone. It will now be exciting to mine the data for additional insights relating to the evolutionary In particular, it will be important to know if livestock trade routes have contributed to the spread of ST398 on a regional basis between farms and on an international level. Finally, it is worth commenting that the large number of countries represented by the authors of the paper highlights the critical importance of international cooperation in examining infectious disease issues of global importance."

The abstract and access to the full paper can be found here


Human Origin for Livestock-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

J. Ross Fitzgerald
+ Author Affiliations

The Roslin Institute and Edinburgh Infectious Diseases, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Address correspondence to J. Ross Fitzgerald, Ross.Fitzgerald@.......uk.
ABSTRACT

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of human morbidity and mortality worldwide. The emergence in the last decade of a livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA) clone which also has the capacity to cause zoonotic infections in humans has raised important questions regarding its origin and its potential to cause human epidemics. An important study by L. B. Price et al. [mBio 3(1):e00305-11, 2012] provides evidence for a human ancestral origin for LA-MRSA, raising concerns about agricultural practices that may have contributed to its emergence and expansion. The study highlights the potential for comparative whole-genome sequencing of closely related strains to provide valuable insights into the evolutionary history of bacterial pathogens.

FOOTNOTES

Citation Fitzgerald JR. 2012. Human origin for livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. mBio 3(2):e00082-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00082-12.
Copyright © 2012 Fitzgerald

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Porcine Circovirus in Humans

The writer has long worried about the possibility that, the disastrous pig disease, porcine circovirus could infect humans.


It seems that the Chinese veterinarians share those concerns. 


Not only do circovirus co-infections demand heavy antibiotic use and help create antibiotic resistance in humans, we are not sure of the direct  risks to humans.


Circovirus and its potential risks have been the subject of many cover-ups, and much playing down, in Britain and the western world by the veterinary authorities and industries.


The abstract can be found here, the full report here

Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances

Year: 2012 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 9 | Page No.: 1281-1286

DOI: 10.3923/javaa.2012.1281.1286         

Dissection of the Possible Routes on Porcine Circoviruses Infecting Human

Shao-Lun Zhai , Sheng-Nan Chen , Jian-Wu Zhang , Zu-Zhang Wei , Jin-Xue Long , Shi-Shan Yuan , Wen-Kang Wei , Qin-Ling Chen , Hua Xuan and Da-Cheng Wu

Abstract: In 10 years recently whether porcine circoviruses infect human is in dispute. Previous studies reported DNAs of porcine circovirus type 1 and porcine circovirus type 2 were detected in pigs, cattle, pepsin and rodents. However, the latest published article in the well-known journals also showed that porcine circovirus type 2 existed in the human stools, human vaccines and beef. This review dissected of the possible routes on porcine circoviruses infecting human such as foodborne infection, vaccination infection, xenotransplantation infection, airborne infection and vector infection based on some published literatures in order to cause some concerns in public health and cross-species transmission. Moreover, to better understand phylogenetic analysis of porcine circoviruses isolated from different origins (swine, bovine, human and pepsin), researchers constructed the phylogenetic tree based on its complete genome. This study systematically reviewed the possible routes on porcine circoviruses infecting human.

How to cite this article:

Shao-Lun Zhai, Sheng-Nan Chen , Jian-Wu Zhang , Zu-Zhang Wei , Jin-Xue Long , Shi-Shan Yuan , Wen-Kang Wei, Qin-Ling Chen , Hua Xuan and Da-Cheng Wu , 2012. Dissection of the Possible Routes on Porcine Circoviruses Infecting Human. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 1281-1286.

DOI: 10.3923/javaa.2012.1281.1286

URL: http://medwelljournals.com/abstract/?doi=javaa.2012.1281.1286