In Venezuela, doctor flees after being accused of terrorism amid fever outbreak
THIS NEWS IS FROM SEPTEMBER 23RD, but it might become significant. (It's probably nothing.)
Eleven days after news broke that an unknown disease had killed eight people in the city of Maracay, Venezuela, doctors have concluded that the deaths were caused by chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus. Meanwhile, Ángel Sarmiento, the doctor who first announced the deaths, has fled the country after being accused of terrorism by President Nicolás Maduro.
Although officials initially speculated that the deaths were caused by an unknown hemorrhagic fever, six of the eight original fatalities tested positive for chikungunya when samples were analyzed in nongovernmental labs, says Julio Castro, the health minister of the municipality of Sucre and a professor in the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). “We don’t think these deaths are due to an unknown or rare disease,” he told ScienceInsider, adding that “I have no doubt” that chikungunya is responsible.
After arriving in the Caribbean late last year, chikungunya has been sweeping the Americas. As of 19 September, the Pan-American Health Organization reported 729,178 suspected and 9537 confirmed cases in the region. There is no vaccine or cure for the disease, which is similar to dengue fever and causes joint pain. It is fatal in about one in 1000 cases.
Maracay’s cluster of nine fatalities, reported between 30 August and 15 September, has raised questions about exactly how many people are infected. The deadly cases are “the tip of the iceberg,” Castro believes. In a press conference on Monday, Castro and two other health professionals—Gustavo Villasmil, health minister of the state of Miranda, and Manuel Olivares, a doctor at UCV’s hospital—estimated that between 65,000 and 117,000 people in Venezuela are infected with chikungunya. They reached that figure by using World Health Organization standards for calculating the spread of epidemics. But it is dramatically higher than the official tallies released by Venezuela’s federal health ministry, which recognizes just 398 cases of chikungunya and three deaths.
Many infectious diseases, including malaria and dengue, are on the rise in Venezuela, where the public health system has been crippled by a lack of funds and medicine (including antifever drugs that can help treat the symptoms of chikungunya). Sarmiento’s comments about the deaths in Maracay appear to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to criticism of the government’s public health record, Villasmil says. Now facing prosecution, Sarmiento fled to an undisclosed location in Central America. Villasmil and Castro remain in Venezuela but have left their homes after participating in the press conference, as a precaution against retaliation.
Posted in Health, Latin America
Mysterious outbreak of hemorrhagic fever syndrome in Venezuela kills ten
"An outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever syndrome in the Venezuelan state of Aragua and the country’s capital Caracas has left ten people dead in the last three weeks."
Similar to Ebola, this syndrome causes patients to experience high fever, skin rashes and bleeding. It has been described as an aggressive disease that leads to a fatal deterioration of health within 72 hours.
Doctors have urged government authorities to declare a state of emergency in Aragua state; however they have received resistance from a surprising source.
The state Governor, Tareck El Aissami, has not only denied medical reports of the disease, but has accused the president of the Aragua state Medical Association, Angel Sarmiento, of “creating anxiety.”
More on dear Governor: Tarek Al-Aissami, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice, one of the key figures of the Chavez's government, is accused by the media of having used this position to issue passports to members of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Born in Lebanon of Syrian descent in 1980; his father, Carlos Al-Aissami, was the head of the Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi Baath political party. According to reports, before the invasion of Iraq his father held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, "the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden."[1] The Minister's great-uncle Shibli Al-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and assistant to the secretary general of the Baath party in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein regime.[2]
UPDATED ---
There are two interesting comments to this point posted to the story ...
Chikungunya? Early reports said epidemiologists ruled that out in the first eight cases... Another report said autopsy revealed multiple complications in victims:
hepatomegaly, strong steatosis, congestive spleen, pale kidneys,
hemorrhagic enterocolitis, erosive pleuritis and petechiae in the upper
limbs… (they didn't die from a fever). All had same symptoms [hemorrhagic fever] all died within 72 hours... seems they've got more of a problem if chikungunya now causes such a virulent form of hemorrhagic fever... (US too since it's now in Florida) The government was too quick to go after the doctors, they suppress information and I don't trust them at all...chikungunya? I don't know but I think not.
Kathy Stuart no2msmBS • 7 days ago
I do have to agree with you that the information that this Chikungunya does seem a bit specious as it was one of the first diseases that the medical spokesperson said had been ruled out. It is also, as far as I have read not known to cause the terrible symptoms from which these patients died. There is a Dengue varient that does cause hemorrhagic symptoms.
As for the US having a problem with Chikungunya it is all over the country, initially brought home by travelers and is now spreading through mosquitoes. There are at this time around 600 known cases in the US. Most so far imported but some locally acquired.
WHAT IF THIS IS BIO-TERROR, NOT SIMPLE EBOLA?
ON the Sean Hannity Radio Show a caller named “Mike” who claimed to be a scientist and CEO of a large corporation during which he claimed that the government is in fact lying and that the disease currently causing problems in Dallas, TX and throughout West Africa is not Ebola but in fact the Marburg Virus (listen at this link towards the 24:50 mark).
The caller was indeed verified by Hannity’s staff so the conversation was quite disturbing not just because of his conclusions, but the other drastic paths his information could lead anyone with a brain into concluding.
The Soviet Union had an extensive biological warfare division and unfortunately for the United States, much of what was created by their labs might be intact or worse, in the hands of other nations or powers more willing to use these weapons to achieve their goals of weakening the U.S. and its allies.
This extract from the transcripts of Nova Online from the program is beyond chilling:
Horrors of the Soviet program NOVA:
What happened to the Soviet program in 1972? They signed the same international treaty the U.S. signed, ostensibly banning offensive BW research, didn’t they?
Patrick:
In 1972, just as they signed the Biological Convention, the Soviet Union expanded their program. Since they didn’t have the United States to follow, they went out on their own. And at that point they started concentrating on lethal agents.
They weaponized anthrax. They weaponized smallpox. They weaponized Yersinia pestis or plague. They weaponized Marburg virus. They grew it to high concentrations in guinea pigs. Now, it takes a lot of guinea pigs to produce the amount of dry powder they had on hand when supposedly their program came to an end.
They produced a very, very effective, scary product with Marburg virus.
NOVA: Why is that so scary?
Patrick: Because Marburg virus is lethal. It only takes one to two virus particles to cause an infection of the respiratory tract. There is no vaccine. And once you contract the disease, there is only one way to go, and that’s death. So it is very scary.
Journal of the American Medical Association report by Luciana Borio, MD issued on May 8, 2002 (PDF here).
HISTORY AND POTENTIAL AS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Hemorrhagic fever viruses have been weaponized by the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the United States. There are reports that yellow fever may have been weaponized by North Korea. The former Soviet Union and Russia produced large quantities of Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses (specifically, Junin and Machupo) until 1992.
Soviet Union researchers quantified the aerosol infectivity of Marburg virus for monkeys, determining that no more than a few virions are required to cause infection. Yellow fever and Rift Valley fever viruses were developed as weapons by the US offensive biological weapons program prior to its termination in 1969.
The Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ebola virus as part of an effort to create biological weapons.
Several studies have demonstrated successful infection of nonhuman primates by aerosol preparations of Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and New World arena-viruses.
Arguments asserting that the absence of effective antiviral therapy and vaccines would make these viruses too dangerous to develop as weapons are not supported by the historical record.
In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified the HFVs as category A bioweapon agents, based on the potential to cause widespread illness and death, ease of dissemination or person-to-person transmission, potential for major public health impact, and requirement of special action for public health preparedness.
AND THEN THERE'S THIS:
BREAKING: DHS Search of Mobile Home Park Linked to Missing Liberian Muslims?
Gotnews.com reported earlier this week about two Muslim men who were missing from a Liberian freighter’s passenger manifest.
Our law enforcement source confirms that this search by DHS of a mobile home park in the Cheasepeake, VA area is related to the missing Muslim men.
WAVY.COM reports:
Department of Homeland Security executed search warrants in a Chesapeake trailer park Friday morning.
DHS investigators searched the Edmonds Corner mobile home community on Ike Street, according to DHS spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell. Cutrell confirmed officials were on the scene around 9 a.m. on Oct. 3.
Man treated for Ebola-like symptoms in Sarasota
AND THEN, BACK IN VENEZUELA:
Autopsy reveals multiple complications in victims of fever syndrome
The Medical Association of Aragua state is still waiting for the test results of the samples taken from the dead patients
Tuesday September 16, 2014 05:52 PM
Pictures, medical reports and autopsy data are being gathered by members of the Medical Association of Aragua state, central north Venezuela, where nine people have died in the last few days reportedly from a hemorrhagic fever syndrome. Another person died in Caracas on Sunday from the same condition.
To date, doctors do not know whether the disease is caused by a virus or bacteria. This will be determined by the test results of the samples sent last week to the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) in Caracas, the only place in Venezuela that has the adequate reagents.
[snip]
The doctors attending the meeting insisted that government authorities must declare a health emergency in Aragua state. They reported on 10 deaths from hemorrhagic fever syndrome, including one patient who died in Caracas on Sunday. Sources said that some culture samples were sent to a private laboratory to determine the causes of the disease.
For professional ethics, doctors would not disclose the names of the patients involved, but they provided details of the autopsy of one of the deceased that reveal the aggressiveness of the disease.
The autopsy report shows hepatomegaly, strong steatosis, congestive spleen, pale kidneys, hemorrhagic enterocolitis, erosive pleuritis and petechiae in the upper limbs.
Representatives of the Medical Association of Aragua state remarked that all the deceased had the same symptoms (high fever, skin rashes and bleeding).
