SARS in Russia ?

[doc_jake]

Has any one caught this one or got more upto date information ?

Copied from the site...............
MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) - A Chinese woman has died from what may be Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) while traveling on a train from the Far East Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to Moscow, a medical source said on Wednesday.

The train was stopped at the Zuyevka station in central Russia's Kirov Region, and 51 Chinese passengers and two Russian train stewards were sent to a local hospital.

The Kirov Region administration said on its website that the Chinese nationals had been quarantined as "the cause of the death of the young woman has not yet been established."

It also said that "all necessary measures" had been taken to prevent the spread of "possible infection."

"The deceased woman, her husband, mother and father, who were all traveling together for [migrant] work, all had a slight temperature," Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, told Vesti-24 during a live television interview in Moscow.

Onishchenko also noted that it was impossible to give a cause for the slight fever that could be down to a number of factors, including a change in climate to being in the train so long. The train left Blagoveshchensk on April 11.

The carriage in which the 23-year-old woman was travelling was disconnected from the rest of the train, which then continued on its way to the capital. It is due to arrive in north Moscow's Yaroslavl train terminal early on Thursday.

A spokesman for Russia's sanitary watchdog was unable to confirm that the woman had died from SARS.

"Doctors are currently establishing a preliminary diagnosis," he said.

[andy]

(there is a duplicate and lengthy thread in "News", however, this has also become a H5N1 possibility)


Suspect Fatal H5N1 in Russia ex-China
Recombinomics Commentary 21:22
April 16, 2009


WHO authorities are working with Russian authorities to track the case and ensure it did not represent an international public health threat, Setiogi said.

The above comments on the train passengers quarantined in Russia raise concerns that the atypical bilateral pneumonia in the fatal case was caused by H5N1. China had issued an alert in January for atypical pneumonia cases because of the spate of H5N1 infections. These human infections were not linked to H5N1 confirmed poultry outbreaks and the reported cases ceased in February. Prior to the outbreaks in patients, there were poultry outbreaks in Jiangsu which were cause by clade 7 H5N1.

The first reported case was in Beijing, A/Beijing/01/2009, which was also likely caused by clade 7. The first confirmed H5N1 cases in China was a patient with atypical pneumonia who was misdiagnosed as SARS, but was subsequently found to be infected with clade 7 H5N1, A/Beijing/01/2003.

The victim on the train was a Chinese citizen who boarded the train at the Russian border with northeastern China (see map). The patient was symptomatic for four days on the train before dying, raising concerns of spread to the relatives on the train, who have a temperature.

Passengers in other cars, who were released, were given Ribavarin, signaling a suspected viral etiology.

The involvement of WHO in the investigation increases concerns that the virus is H5N1.

More information of the symptoms of the relatives / contacts, who were initially said to have high fever and were subsequently said to have low fever, would be useful


http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04160901/H5N1_Russia_China.html

[Kassy]

ProMed has this:

Dead Chinese woman on train to Moscow did not have SARS
-------------------------------------------------------
The Chinese woman who died on the
Blagoveshchensk-Moscow train did not have SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome - atypical
pneumonia) or dangerous types of influenza stated
Gennady Onishchenk, Head of the Federal
Supervision Agency for Customer Protection and
Human Welfare of the Russian Federation
(Rospotrebnadzor), on Friday [17 Apr 2009].

"Biopsies of lungs, intestines, and brain of the
deceased woman have shown no evidence of
infection by SARS virus, [influenza] viruses of
the H1, H3 and B flu types, nor the highly
pathogenic H5, H7 and H9 strains [of influenza
virus]," stated the Chief Public Health Physician
the Vesti news television channel. According to
him, tests are still being conducted and data
from other laboratories will be received
[probably] at between 11:00 * 13:00 hrs, Moscow time, on Friday [17 Apr 2009].

The 24-year-old Chinese citizen died suddenly on
Wednesday [15 Apr 2009]. By the decision of local
public health officials, the carriage in which
she was travelling was [disconnected] from the
train at the Zuyevka station [Kirov Region] on
the same day. The train car was sent for
disinfection and the 51 passengers and 2
conductors of the train's [2nd] car were taken to
the local infectious [diseases] hospital.

The Russian Federation Chief Public Health
Physician also said that quarantine measures are
being applied to the passengers of the train's
1st and 3rd cars which were also detached from
the Blagoveshchensk-Moscow train and sent to a
siding [as a temporary quarantine measure].
Passengers of the 2nd carriage of the train have
been hospitalised are under full medical supervision.

--
Communicated by:
HealthMap Alerts via ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Further information is awaited. It is not yet
certain the the deceased passenger was suffering
from an infectious disease. So far no other
passenger or train attendant is known to be affected.

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:2986634353162213::NO::F2400_P1001_BA CK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,77080

[Kassy]

Doctors to confirm exact cause of suspected avian flu death

17.04.2009, 03.04





MOSCOW, April 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Doctors are planning to confirm on Friday that the death of a Chinese woman in a Russian train on Wednesday was pneumonia rather than initially suspected avian flu.

Cui Cinian died in Blagoveshchensk-Moscow train in a car with Chinese labor migrants and her body was taken off the train at the Zuyevka railway station in central Russia’s Kirov region.

“The autopsy provided a preliminary conclusion that she died of double pneumonia,” Russia’s sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

“The girl was sick for some five days, the illness was grave, but she received no treatment,” it said.

“The exact cause of the death cannot be determined earlier than Friday when the first test results arrive,” it said.

Russia's chief sanitary officer Gennady Onishchenko said the condition of the passengers from the Blagoveshchensk-Moscow train did not cause concern.

“The condition of all those currently staying at an in-patient hospital of the town of Kirov does not cause concern,” Onishchenko said on Thursday.

Russian Railways officials said the passengers who arrived in Moscow by the Blagoveshchensk-Moscow train have no health complaints.

“The passengers have been under medical supervision during the entire travel time: doctors took their temperatures and carried out examinations,” a company official said, adding “medics have not found any symptoms of diseases.”

Russian sanitary authorities however ordered to uncouple the first three cars before allowing the train to travel further to Moscow. All the cars that arrived in Moscow were decontaminated.

In the meantime, Russian regions bordering on China tightened health controls of arrivals from the neighboring country.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13845223&PageNum=0