World TB Day

WHO/TBP/Arnold

The 2004 Global TB Control report — launched at the second Stop TB Partners' Forum on World TB Day, March 24th — contained encouraging news on the progress that has been made in TB detection and treatment over the past 2 years. However, WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook cautioned that there was still a lot of work to do to meet the targets set for 2005. If current trends continue, the case detection rate in 2005 is expected to be 50%, some way short of the target of 70%. The 2005 targets are an important milestone towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving the global burden of TB by 2015. Progress is being made however — 3 million individuals are now enrolled in DOTS (directly observed treatment, short course) programmes worldwide, an increase of 1 million compared with 2001. WHO

Outbreak news

Since 20th December 2003, >15,000 cases of cholera have been recorded in Mozambique and at least 90 people have died.

An emergency mass vaccination campaign is under way in Liberia in an attempt to stop an outbreak of yellow fever before the rainy season starts in April.

The latest cycle of dengue fever in Indonesia has so far caused >400 deaths and led to >23,000 people being hospitalized since January. All four of the viral serotypes have been detected. Intensive insecticide spraying is being used in an effort to control the mosquitoes that transmit this disease.

A nipah-like virus has been detected in association with an outbreak of encephalitis in Bangladesh, which so far has caused 17 deaths.

The origins of SARS

Credit: CDC/Dr Fred Murphy

In a paper published in the February issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a special issue of this CDC journal focusing on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a team of researchers from China report that a SARS-like virus was circulating in Hong Kong 2 years before the start of the 2003 outbreak. Circulating antibodies to human SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and/or animal SARS CoV-like virus were detected in 17 serum samples collected from 938 healthy adults in 2001. The authors speculate that the viruses circulating in 2001 are antigenically closer to the animal SARS CoV-like virus than the human SARS Co-V and failed to adapt successfully to a human host. CDC

Infectious risk from bushmeat

A report in The Lancet has provided the first confirmation of the transmission of a retrovirus from non-human primates to humans in a natural setting. Nathan Wolfe and colleagues investigated the transmission of simian foamy virus (SFV) from animals to humans in rural villages in Cameroon. Of the 1,800 participants in the study, 1,099 (61%) were regularly exposed to the blood and body fluids of non-human primates through the hunting and butchering of these animals. SFV antibodies were detected in 1% of this group. This study demonstrates that retroviruses are actively being transmitted to humans in natural settings and has lent weight to calls for a ban on the trading of bushmeat. The Lancet

Fluoroquinolone ban upheld

A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) judge has upheld a ban on the use of the fluoroquinolone Baytril in poultry. Baytril, which is manufactured by Bayer, was banned as part of the October 2000 FDA ruling that outlawed the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry feed, in response to growing concern that the intensive use of antibiotics in livestock contributes to the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The judge cited 'serious questions about the safety of Baytril use in poultry'. Bayer plan to lodge a final appeal with the FDA commissioner. If the commissioner also backs the decision, Baytril could be banned by June.