104-01-Week Three

WHO calls MERS outbreak a 'wakeup call'

South Korean officials announced one more death in the country's MERS outbreak Friday, raising the total death toll to 24.

One new case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was also announced, bringing the total number to 166, according to South Korea's Ministry of Health.

The number of people under quarantine in South Korea, both in their own homes or in quarantine facilities, declined from 6,729 to 5,930

The World Health Organization described the MERS outbreak as a "wakeup call," showing that outbreaks can happen anywhere.

The WHO has said that the number of new cases "appears to be declining" -- indicating that the outbreak could be slowing down. But it also warned that "all outbreaks are unpredictable" -- especially for new diseases that are not well understood.

This week, there had been a sign of a possible return to normalcy, as thousands of schools across South Korea re-opened after closures due to the deadly outbreak. But it came with heightened awareness; children's temperatures were monitored in classrooms and teachers warned students to practice personal hygiene and frequently wash their hands.

The WHO had recommended re-opening institutions last week because transmission of the virus had not been linked to schools. The MERS outbreak remains largely confined to health care settings.

Efforts on MERS antibody

Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and China's Fudan University have been working on an antibody treatment that could fight MERS. An antibody is a protein that combats pathogens like viruses and bacteria.

The antibody treatment has only been through lab and animal tests so far and requires trials on humans before it could be available to MERS patients.

While the antibody, named m336, has been effective in animals, it has yet to be tested on MERS patients, said Professor Jiang Shibo from Fudan University. All U.S. drugs are required to have human trials, as there are treatments that work in animals but turn out to be ineffective in people.

The human trial process could take three to four years, but experimental treatments can be used if patients and the local government consent.

So far, m336 has been considered the most potent of several antibodies that could be used to fight MERS, according to a scientific summary published in the Journals Center for Cancer Research.

Saudi Arabia connection

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has recorded five cases of MERS in the past week, the official state-run Saudi press agency said Sunday, citing a weekly Ministry of Health statement. It included one death of a 73-year-old man who died in the city of Turaba and had a pre-existing condition.

The strain of coronavirus that causes MERS was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, according to the WHO.

The man believed to be "patient zero" in the current outbreak in South Korea visited Saudi Arabia in May, along with three other Middle Eastern countries. That 68-year-old patient went from facility-to-facility near or around Seoul before getting properly diagnosed. It triggered the hospital-based transmission of MERS in South Korea.

The South Korean outbreak is the largest outside of Saudi Arabia -- nearly 6,000 people remain in quarantine.

Gangnam hospital focal point in MERS outbreak

In Seoul, Samsung Medical Center -- one of the city's hospitals that has counted many of the nation's MERS cases among its patients and visitors -- announced Sunday that it will suspend all surgical procedures except for emergency surgery "to fully focus on responding to MERS."

More than 50 confirmed MERS cases have been traced back to the medical center, according to the center's website.

The medical center, located in Seoul's glitzy Gangnam district and considered one of the most prominent hospitals in the capital, issued an apology for its handling of MERS.

"We sincerely apologize with our heads bent to the people for causing great concern as Samsung Medical Center became the center (of) the spread of MERS," hospital President Song Jae-hoon said.

Structure of the Lead：

who-South Korean

when-not given

what-MERS outbreak

why-not given

where-South Korea

how-not given

Keywords:

1. outbreak:爆發

2. quarantine:檢疫

3. unpredictable:不可預知的

4. monitor:監控 

5. state-run:國營

6. facility:設施

7. pathogen:病原

8. suspend:暫停

9. prominent:傑出的

104-01-Week Two

  Central Nepal Earthquake - April 25th, 2015

A large earthquake of magnitude Mw7.8 occurred in central Nepal on April 25th, 2015. This earthquake is responsible for more than 5000 deaths and massive destructions in the city of Kathmandu and the surrounding areas.

       The April 25 earthquake has been followed by many aftershocks, as for example a Mw6.7 event on the day that followed the main shock. Most of the aftershocks are close to edges of the ruptured zone as it may be approximately delineated from seismological and geodetic observations. They are more particularly concentrated near its eastern edge. On May 12, a new earthquake of magnitude Mw7.3 occurred in this eastern zone with the same mechanism as the main shock (shallow dipping thrust). For its characteristics and location, that earthquake appears to belong to the same sequence than the main shock and should be considered as strong aftershock.

Based on geological cross-sections, crustal structure model, and the preliminary seismological data available few days after the main shock, it appears that the earthquake has ruptured a piece of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). The rupture started at the epicenter, about 80km to the northwest of Kathmandu and propagated eastward for about 130 km, rupturing the area directly located under the capital city of Nepal. Preliminary models of co-seismic slip actually suggest that the largest amount of slip (2 m to 5 m) on the fault would be located just below the city. The focal mechanism derived from the analyses of seismological data shows a fault plane striking N143°E, with a very shallow dip of 7° towards the North.

Numerous aftershocks continue to happen since the occurrence of the main shock. Some of these aftershocks have a magnitude way above 6 with two events with magnitude respectively of 6.6 and 6.7. The first one was located in the epicentral area and the later one occurred to the North East of Kathmandu. Many more aftershocks with smaller magnitude continue to occur every day. The aftershocks are distributed in an area roughly 150 km long and 50 km wide, with the majority of the aftershocks located in the eastern part of the ruptured area. At first order, the area defined by the bulk of aftershocks corresponds to the ruptured area on the fault plane. The location of the ruptured area, together with the shallow dip of the focal mechanism, suggest that it is most probably the sub-horizontal part of the MHT that has ruptured, mostly the deeper part of it. The possible spatial extent of the ruptured area is shown in red on the cross-section of the Himalaya front at the crustal scale. The quasi absence of aftershocks to the south of the valley of Kathmandu suggests that the rupture has not propagated southward to reach the surface along the Main Frontal Thrust. This, however, will have to be further assessed in the weeks to come.

The Himalayan front has been the location of many large earthquakes in the past. Although they are not all well documented, recent paleoseismological investigations provided a better idea of the past seismicity of the area, and more precisely of the lateral extent of the Mw8.2 event that devastated Kathmandu in 1934. In the same study, the penultimate event has also been identified, in 1255AD, and the series of previous events, yielding a return time close to 700 – 800 yrs (Sapkota et al., 2013, Bollinger et al., 2014). The most recent work by the international team formed of French researchers (L. Bollinger and Y. Klinger for CEA and IPGP respectively), Singaporian researchers (P. Tapponnier and his team, EOS) and Nepalese researchers (S. Sapkota and his team, DMG) has shown, based on the balance between the energy dissipated by past earthquakes and the long term tectonic loading, that the area located between the earthquake of 1934, to the east, and the event of 1505, to the west, that did rupture last in 1344AD, was very close to rupture, as proved by the event of April 25th, 2015.

Structure of the Lead:

Who-not given

Where- Nepal

When- April 25th, 2015

What- A large earthquake of magnitude Mw7.8

Why-not given

How-not given

Keywords:

1.magnitude:大小

2.ruptured:破裂
3.seismological:地震學上的
4.preliminary:初步
5.epicenter:震中
6.propagate:傳播
7.seismicity:地震
8.penultimate:倒數第二
9.tectonic:構造