Latest news with #Marburg
New Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Kerala intensifies Nipah hunt; forest department joins NIV to trace bat source
KOZHIKODE: Forest department has joined hands with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in a mission to identify the source of the deadly Nipah virus in the state. The move comes as Kerala is grappling with another Nipah outbreak in the Palakkad and Malappuram districts. The plan is to conduct extensive tests and collect samples from bats, which have long been suspected as the primary reservoir for the virus. Forest Minister A K Saseendran has pledged the department's support, ensuring NIV officials access to the forest areas. Forest personnel will actively assist in the meticulous collection of bat samples, a critical step in understanding the virus's prevalence and transmission pathways. The chief wildlife warden has already issued directives to all circle chief conservators and DFOs across the department in this regard. Despite recurrent Nipah outbreaks in Kerala since 2018, which have often resulted in high fatality rates, the precise point of spillover from bats to humans has frequently remained unclear. The confirmed Nipah cases in Palakkad and Malappuram, with samples dispatched to NIV Pune for validation, have amplified the need for this comprehensive investigation. Previous surveillance efforts have detected Nipah virus RNA and antibodies in Pteropus medius bats (fruit bats) in affected regions. Experts from NIV highlight that bats are known reservoirs of numerous highly-infectious viruses, including Nipah, Ebola, and Marburg. The transmission of Nipah from bats to humans typically occurs through the ingestion of fresh date palm sap contaminated with Nipah virus (NiV), consumption of partially eaten fruits, or contact with infected domestic animals.
Metro
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
All BBC Casualty spoilers for next week as contamination ordeal is confirmed
Medical drama Casualty was off air last week due to sport, but our weekly trips to Holby ED will resume this Saturday, as episode 4 of the show's latest boxset Supply and Demand is broadcasted. Characters in the spotlight this time are Iain Dean (Michael Stevenson), Rash Masum (Neet Mohan), Jacob Masters (Charles Venn) and Ngozi Okoye (Adesuwa Oni). Iain's venture into the world of Hart continues, Ngozi battles her addiction, Rash takes a brave step and Jacob makes a discovery when his son arrives in the ED. The drama isn't stopping, so here's everything you need to know about what's ahead in the episode. Iain and Teddy's (Milo Clarke) first day on Hart requires moving a patient called Rhys from a grounded airplane into an EpiShuttle. There's been an outbreak of contagious Marburg, so Rhys needs moving from the plane and into an ambulance. It's a race against time though, as the team hit traffic and Rhys starts to panic. He claims that he has discomfort in his stomach and in his worried state, he tells Iain and Teddy that he doesn't want to die alone. Iain, still trying to ignore the phone call he received in the last episode, cannot help but be reminded of his mum in this moment. Rhys then suffers a seizure and goes into VT. Teddy and Iain know they are at risk of exposure if they treat him, but they don't have any choice. During this moment, Teddy grows convinced that Rhys does not have Marburg. As the cover of the EpiShuttle is lifted, it becomes apparent that Rhys is choking on a balloon of drugs. Tim, Iain and Teddy's boss, then radio's in and confirms Rhys definitely has Marburg. Feeling worried, Teddy reveals to Tim that PPE protocol has also been breached. Meanwhile, at the ED, Rhys' wife Pippa is cornered by the police and she reveals her partner was forced into smuggling drugs. Later, with Teddy decontaminated and Iain next, Dylan Keogh (William Beck) and the team are getting the other balloons of drugs out of Rhys. Suddenly, one splits, and Iain – who has been exposed – jumps in to start compressions. Faith Cadogan (Kirsty Mitchell) then takes blood from Iain in full PPE. She tells him that she's glad he's quite reckless, otherwise he wouldn't have taken a risk with her. Aw, romance. The stress of his day triggers an episode of AVNRT for Teddy. It's a complication of his heart condition and it causes his chest to feel tight. In the back of the ambulance, Teddy is faced with Tim. Teddy isn't keen on facing the fallout of the breach, given how he's feeling, but it makes Tim wonder if he's really got what it takes to be on Hart. In haste, and wanting to get rid of Tim, Teddy quits Hart. Just as Tim leaves, Teddy clutches his chest again but this time, things are much worse. Jacob's son Blake rushes into the ED with little Carter in tow, but focus appears to be more on Blake, who is very agitated. Rash queries whether he's had any changes in medication recently, leaving Jacob to admit that some drugs were recently purchased online. Jacob and Rash head to see Sunny (Jamie Marie Leary) in the pharmacy for answers, but she reveals that Blake's drugs won't be in stock for another 6 months. She says that unless Jacob pays for a private prescription, Blake won't get what he needs. Jacob's left deep in thought – what will he do next? As Dylan continues to support Ngozi in her addiction battle, he offers to be her sponsor. Abel and mum Dee then arrive. Abel has a tension pneumothorax but instead of supporting him, Dee insists that he needs to be more resilient. More Trending As Abel wakes up, Ngozi learns that he was given conversion therapy in an attempt to please Dee. The difficult dynamic between mother and son leaves Ngozi feeling triggered so she moves away, unable to control her emotions. Desperate for a drink, Ngozi later faces Dee again, which leaves her very close to giving into temptation. After the shift, Ngozi heads to another meeting and she finally opens up. Eventually, with the encouragement of the room and Dylan as well, Ngozi feels ready to commit to sobriety. View More » Indie's (Naomi Wakszlak) crush on Cam (Barney Walsh) intensifies as he supports her with an upcoming interview, while Rash agrees to a date with Sunny! MORE: Why is Casualty not on tonight and when will it return? MORE: All BBC Casualty spoilers for this week as Flynn makes a move MORE: 'He's not coming back': Casualty confirms death tragedies as BBC drops new trailer
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Moderna developing first mRNA vaccine for Marburg
The pharmaceutical giant Moderna is developing the first mRNA vaccine to protect against Marburg, a close but even deadlier cousin of Ebola. The haemorrhagic fever, which transmits to humans via fruit bats before rapidly spreading person to person, has caused several lethal outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa – most recently killing 10 people in Tanzania earlier this year. While Marburg kills more than half of those it infects, there are currently no licenced vaccines or treatments available to tackle it, posing a significant challenge to outbreak response. Researchers at the University of Texas and Moderna say a new vaccine developed using mRNA technology (used during the pandemic to quickly deliver Covid vaccines) provided full protection against Marburg in a pre-clinical trial carried out on rodents. The new immunisation produced 'strong neutralising antibodies' and 'importantly, no virus was detectable in the blood of vaccinated animals after exposure – suggesting sterilising immunity,' the study said. 'The fact that we achieved complete protection in all vaccinated animals is a major leap,' said Dr Alexander Bukreyev, an author of the study. 'Moderna's mRNA platform is proving to be very potent when targeting highly lethal pathogens,' added Dr Andrea Carfi, a researcher at the pharmaceutical company. The jabs will still need to go through rigorous human trials before being licenced for use. Marburg disease belongs to the Filovirus family, a group of viruses which includes Ebola. It is naturally carried by fruit bats, and can 'jump' to humans via the animals' bites or contact with the animals' urine or saliva. Once a person is infected, the virus tends to spread rapidly, mainly through contact with the bodily fluids of a sickened person. Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin and from the eyes. The virus was first recognised after simultaneous outbreaks occurred in laboratories in Marburg, Frankfurt, and Belgrade, in 1967. A group of at least 30 lab workers all came into contact with the bodily fluids of a batch of imported African green monkeys from Uganda and became severely unwell. Seven of the lab workers subsequently died, before the virus's origins were traced back to the monkeys. Since, outbreaks have occurred sporadically and have all occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in countries including Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Uganda. However, the frequency of outbreaks has been increasing in recent years with at least one cluster of cases occurring every year since 2021. Scientists suggest that part of the reason for the uptick in cases is related to human encroachment on previously undisturbed habitats which gives more of an opportunity for the virus to spillover from animals to humans. In January of this year, 10 people in Tanzania were reported to be infected with Marburg virus – all of which died. Biharamulo district, the area in which the virus spread, is home to several large gold mines and it was suspected that the index case was infected by a bat while working in a mine. Rwanda also experienced an outbreak of Marburg in September last year – the first ever to be reported in the country – in which 16 people died, mostly healthcare workers in the capital city, Kigali. US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr quietly announced last month that the Department of Health and Human Services would develop two new vaccines – one for use against Marburg virus and one against Sudan virus, a type of Ebola. The two jabs are in the early stages of development but, unlike Moderna's vaccine, they do not use mRNA technology – which has come under fire from Mr Kennedy and his vaccine sceptic allies since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Boston Globe
07-07-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Video from a bat cave in Africa offers clues on how viruses leap between species
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Through a mixture of what he called 'curiosity and luck,' he filmed far more than leopards. Hundreds of nights of footage revealed a steady procession of 13 additional predator species, among them large-spotted genets, African civets, African fish eagles, African rock pythons, L'Hoest's monkeys and baboons. Python Cave is home to as many as 50,000 Egyptian fruit bats, and the predators emerged from the cave with a winged snack, which they either hunted or scavenged, in their mouths. Advertisement 'It was amazing how many animals come to eat bats at that specific spot,' Atukwatse said. He added, 'It's basically a free meal for everybody in the area.' That is significant in part because the fruit bats, including in the area's caves, are known to be a natural reservoir for infectious diseases, including the deadly Marburg virus. Advertisement 'It's a really important observation, because we think speculatively about how wildlife comes into contact with each other, but we rarely ever observe it,' said Jonathan Epstein, a public health researcher with expertise in viral zoonoses and founder of One Health Science who was not involved in the study. 'It helps us paint the picture.' While the Marburg virus does not need an intermediate host en route to infecting humans, other novel viruses could follow such a path of first passing from bat to predator where it mutates into a form that infects humans. Although Atukwatse observed 'how these predators timed themselves in a way that they didn't encounter and disturb each other,' they were, he said, 'actively taking pieces of the bat and dispersing them.' He continued, 'These animals interact with other animals elsewhere in the park.' In a forest full of wildlife, 'there are hundreds of thousands of viruses in there being shared all across the animal spectrum, and they're shedding, eating each other, pooping on each other, sharing saliva,' said Chris Walzer, executive director of health at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. 'The interface that is shown here contributes, like thousands of other interfaces in the forest, to a viral exchange or pathogen exchange.' He added, 'It's a cool example of what's happening all the time and has been for eons.' Epstein said that 'spillover requires a lot of things to line up.' Seeing the direct contact between bats and other predators is valuable because 'that's often something we don't understand very well.' Advertisement 'It is important to understand what other wildlife get exposed,' he continued, 'and the baboons are probably the most interesting here because we know that primates are susceptible to viruses.' He described a scenario in which perhaps a significant baboon die-off in the forest was linked to Marburg virus. 'This observation becomes important because we can look back and see that these baboons are hunting these bats and that explains how they would be infected,' he said. Alex Braczkowski, scientific director of the Kyambura Lion Project and a co-author with Atukwatse, compared it to stumbling upon a crime scene. 'We know we've found something,' he said. 'We are not claiming to know what it means. We just know that it's a portal to somewhere.' This article originally appeared in
Scottish Sun
24-06-2025
- Health
- Scottish Sun
‘Urgent concerns' as 20 NEW ‘brain-inflaming' bat viruses discovered in China that risk ‘highly fatal' spillover humans
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SCIENTISTS have raised "urgent concerns" over new viruses discovered in bats which have the potential to spill over into humans and could be "highly fatal". Testing bats in China, experts found 22 viruses - 20 of which have never been seen before. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Two of the new viruses were close relatives of Nipah and Hendra viruses Credit: Getty Two of these new bugs were of particular concern, as they were closely related to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses. Both viruses can cause brain inflammation and dangerous respiratory disease in humans. Nipah is a bat-bourne virus that's been flagged as a "priority pathogen" by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. It can kill up to 70 per cent of its victims, with outbreaks reported in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Meanwhile, Hendra is a rare virus that can spread to humans from horses that have been infected by disease-carrying bats. Only seven cases have been reported in people, in Australia. Scientists at the Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention detected two worrying viruses - described as the "evolutionary cousins" of Nipah and Hendra - while testing the kidneys of bats in the Yunnan province of China. The bats lived in orchards close to villages, sparking concerns that fruit eaten by inhabitants and livestock may get contaminated and risk wider transmission. "Bats have been implicated in a number of major emerging disease outbreaks, including Hendra, Nipah, Marburg and Ebola virus disease, severe and acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Covid-19," researchers wrote in the journal PLOS Pathogens. "Bat-borne viruses are transmitted to humans either through direct contact with bats or via the ingestion of food or water contaminated with bat saliva, faeces, or urine." World leaders gather over chilling 'Disease X' threat amid fears hypothetical outbreak could kill 20x more than Covid The study team - led by Dr Yun Feng - pointed out that previous research looking at the disease spreading potential of bats has only focused on their faeces. But they said bugs living in bats' kidneys also "present potential transmission risks" as they may be excreted through urine. "The kidney can harbour important zoonotic pathogens, including the highly pathogenic Hendra and Nipah viruses," scientists said. They looked inside the kidneys of 142 bats from ten species, which were collected over four years in five areas of the Yunnan province. Using advanced genetic sequencing, the team found 22 viruses, 20 of them never seen before. Two of the most concerning were new henipaviruses, which are in the same group as Nipah and Hendra bugs. The henipaviruses were found in fruit bats living near orchards close to villages. Scientists said their study "rais[ed] urgent concerns about the potential for these viruses to spill over into humans or livestock.' What is Nipah virus? Nipah is a serious, and sometimes deadly, viral disease. It's carried by fruit bats which can be passed onto people. Some patients present no symptoms while others present with severe inflammation of the brain. Symptoms include fever, and headache followed by drowsiness and mental confusion. About half of patients with neurological symptoms also experienced respiratory difficulty. Progression of symptoms People with Nipah usually start getting sick between four and 14 days after they were infected with the virus. They are typically sick for three to 14 days with fever, headache, cough, sore throat, and difficulty breathing. Later in the infection, some people may experience brain swelling, or encephalitis, where severe symptoms can include confusion, drowsiness, and seizures. People with these symptoms can fall into a coma within 24 to 48 hours. How it spreads Nipah virus can be transmitted from bats to humans through contact with infected bat secretions – for example by consuming raw date palm sap The virus can also spread to domestic animals, notably pigs, and cause disease in these populations NiV can also be transmitted through close contact with infected patients How to prevent it If you travel to or live in an area where Nipah virus outbreaks have occurred, you should: Wash your hands regularly with soap and water Avoid contact with flying fox bats or sick pigs Avoid areas where bats roost or Avoid touching anything that could be soiled by bats Avoid eating raw date palm sap or fruit that could be soiled by bats Avoid contact with the blood or body fluids of someone with Nipah How it is treated Treatment is currently limited to supportive care. A vaccine has been developed to protect horses and this holds promise for future henipavirus protection for humans Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr Alison Peel, a veterinarian and wildlife disease ecologist from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at The University of Sydney, said: "The main significance of this work lies in the discovery of viruses in bats in China that are 'evolutionary cousins' to two of the most concerning pathogens in humans – Hendra virus and Nipah virus – which circulate in bats and are highly fatal if they spill over into people." But she said the viruses require further study before we can definitively state that they can pass on from bats to people. "While one of the new viruses in this study appears to be the closest known relative to these highly fatal viruses, there are some genetic differences in the regions of the virus responsible for binding to and entering cells, so we can't automatically assume that it can cross over to new species. "We have other examples of close evolutionary cousins to Hendra and Nipah that appear not to be of any concern for spillover, so there will need to be some more laboratory studies on these new viruses to determine the actual risk. Dr Peel went on: "Importantly, the bats infected with the Hendra-like virus were captured in fruit orchards, highlighting potential opportunities for contact with humans and domestic species. "Our research on Hendra virus spillover in Australia has demonstrated clear links between habitat destruction, loss of natural food, and increased spillover risk – so this may also be the case in China. "Rather than focusing on bats as the problem, we've also shown evidence that protecting and restoring bat food sources is an effective and sustainable solution."
