New cold virus kills – rarely

Health Officials are watching the highly potent strain that killed seven Oregonians in April

A new strain of a rare cold virus has caused 10 deaths in four states, including seven in Oregon, during the past one-and-a-half years, federal health officials said.

Oregon health officials called the new viral strain cause for concern but not cause for public alarm.

"This is not the common cold turning into the plague," said Dr. Gary Oxman, health officer for Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. "That's not what's going on here. (Well, is it not “the cold” or not?)

"It's a virus that's recognized as causing pneumonia, and there appears to be a new strain making some people very sick in small numbers."

The new "bug" is a variant of a rare type of adenovirus, called Ad14, which was identified in 1955 and has been detected only rarely since. More than 50 types of adenoviruses can cause or mimic diseases including the common cold and pneumonia.

Like any new viral strain, the new version of Ad14 is of interest to infectious disease trackers, said Dr. Ann Thomas, an epidemiologist in the public health division of the Oregon Department of Human Services. "But it doesn't change what we do that much. It's not something the average person should be afraid of."

To put the risk in perspective, Thomas said that Ad14 is known to have killed 10 people, but complications from influenza kill more than 30,000 Americans a year. (I didn't know that?)

"If people are really worried," she said, "they should get a flu shot."

The best to way to keep Ad14 from spreading is the same as for flu, Thomas said. "Cover your cough, wash your hands and stay home."

The new variant has sickened at least 140 people in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to the CDC report.

The Oregon outbreak turned up in April, when state health officials learned of a cluster of cases at a Portland hospital and notified the CDC. They ultimately counted 31 cases in Oregon, including seven people who died of severe pneumonia. The next month, Washington state officials reported four hospitalized patients had the same mutated virus. One patient, who also had AIDS, died.

The illness also struck in Texas, where respiratory infections dubbed "boot-camp flu" sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the emerging virus; one 19-year-old trainee died.

The earliest known case of the mutated virus occurred in New York City in an infant girl who died last year when she was 12 days old.

CDC investigators reviewed the medical charts of 30 Oregon patients infected with the new variant of adenovirus. Of those, 22 required hospitalization and seven -- five of whom were men -- died, all from pneumonia. The patients included residents of seven Oregon counties and two Washington counties.

In search of clues about how the adenovirus is transmitted, health investigators studied the Oregon cases for characteristics they had in common. Nothing conclusive turned up.

With cold-and-flu season beginning, health officials expect to see more cases. The CDC warned state and local public health agencies to "be alert to the possibility of outbreaks caused by Ad14."

It really has put my mind at rest – NOT – to know that this virus only rarely kills.

We seem, however, to have a mutation of some virus here, if I am not mistaken, and no one, yet again, is willing to tell the world the truth.

Can we truth the governments and agencies tasked with protecting us?

Now, if Pirbright and the Food & Mouth Disease (Hoof & Mouth to our American cousins) is anything to go by then the governments cannot be trusted with viruses not the protection of the public from them, and I think we all should just make sure to have our own precautions and protections in place. If that means to wear a face mask, when there is a possibility of any such “bugs” being about, then so be it. Rather looking silly than being seriously ill or dead.

M Smith (Veshengro)