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Without an approved vaccine or treatments, Ebola outbreak management has been limited to palliative care and barrier methods to prevent transmission. These approaches, however, have yet to end the 2014 outbreak of Ebola after its prolonged presence in West Africa. Here we show that a combination of monoclonal antibodies (ZMapp), optimized from two previous antibody cocktails, is able to rescue 100% of rhesus macaques when treatment is initiated up to 5 days post-challenge. High fever, viraemia and abnormalities in blood count and blood chemistry were evident in many animals before ZMapp intervention. Advanced disease, as indicated by elevated liver enzymes, mucosal haemorrhages and generalized petechia could be reversed, leading to full recovery. ELISA and neutralizing antibody assays indicate that ZMapp is cross-reactive with the Guinean variant of Ebola. ZMapp exceeds the efficacy of any other therapeutics described so far, and results warrant further development of this cocktail for clinical use., Ebola virus (EBOV) infections cause severe illness in humans, and after an incubation period of 3 to 21 days, patients initially present with general flu-like symptoms before a rapid progression [...]

Background: Henan Province has been in the malaria elimination stage, with all reports of the disease being imported since 2012 and over 90% coming from Africa. Surveillance and population studies are essential for the early detection and subsequent prevention of the spread of drug resistance. The K13-propeller gene was recently identified as a proposed molecular marker of artemisinin (ART) resistance. In this study, we detected mutations of the K13-propeller gene in samples taken from imported malaria cases in Henan Province from 2012 to 2015.Methods: There were 483 samples that were obtained from Plasmodium falciparum-infected malaria migrant workers who returned to Henan Province from Africa between 2012 and 2015. The single nucleotide polymorphisms in the K13-propeller gene were assessed by nested PCR with DNA sequencing. Frequency and geographic difference of K13-propeller gene mutant types were analyzed.Results: Of 483 patients, 476 were cured and 7 died. There were no K13-propeller mutations in the blood samples from the 7 patients who died, but there were 23 different genotypes of the K13-propeller that were observed in 24 (4.97%) of the samples. C580Y, which was the predominant one in the resistance of ART, was not detected in the samples, but R539T and P574L which have also been associated with ART resistance, were observed in two samples from Angola and Equatorial Guinea. No mutations were detected in 11 samples from North Africa. The frequency of the K13-propeller was 6.50% (8/123) in Central Africa, followed by East Africa (1/19, 5.26%), West Africa (9/198, 4.55%) and South Africa (6/132, 4.55%). There was no significant difference among these four areas (P = 0.795).Conclusion: R539T and P574L were found in migrant workers who traveled from Africa to Henan Province, although the frequency of the K13-propeller mutants was low. These data may enrich the molecular surveillance of antimalarial resistance and will be helpful for developing and updating the antimalarial policy in Henan Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficacious antimalarial drugs are important for malaria control and elimination, and continuous monitoring of their efficacy is essential. The prevalence and distribution of Pfmdr1 were evaluated in African migrant workers in Henan Province. Among 632 isolates, 13 haplotypes were identified, NYSND (39.87%, 252/632), YYSND (2.85%, 18/632), NFSND (31.01%, 196/632), NYSNY (0.47%, 3/632), YFSND (13.77%, 87/632), NFSNY (0.32%, 2/632), YYSNY (2.06%, 13/632), YFSNY (0.16%, 1/632), N/Y YSND (1.90%, 12/632), N Y/F SND (6.17%, 39/632), N/Y Y/F SND (0.47%, 3/632), YYSN D/Y (0.16%, 1/632) and N/Y FSND (0.79%, 5/632). The highest frequency of NYSND was observed in individuals from North Africa (63.64%, 7/11), followed by South Africa (61.33%, 111/181), Central Africa (33.33%, 56/168), West Africa (28.94%, 68/235) and East Africa (27.03%, 10/37) (χ2 = 54.605, P < 0.05). The highest frequency of NFSND was observed in East Africa (48.65%, 18/37), followed by West Africa (39.14%, 92/235), Central Africa (26.79%, 45/168), South Africa (22.65%, 41/181) and North Africa (9.09%, 1/11) (χ2 = 22.368 P < 0.05). The mutant prevalence of codons 86 and 184 decreased. These data may provide complementary information on antimalarial resistance that may be utilized in the development of a treatment regimen for Henan Province.

Objective: To investigate the etiology of severe hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in children in Henan province., Methods: A total of 244 HFMD cases admitted to a hospital in Zhengzhou from April to June of 2014 were recruited for research sampling, Real-time RT-PCR, virus isolation, VP1 sequencing and alignment methods were used to test the enterovirus-related etiology. SPSS 17.0 was used in performing statistical analysis., Results: There were 109 severe and 135 mild cases among all the 244 HFMD cases. The number of enterovirus positive stool samples was 229, with positive rate as 93.85%. EV71, Cox A16 and Cox A10 made up 83.84%, 5.68% and 8.30% of the enterovirus etiologicy, strains, respectively. EV71 infection caused 8 HFMD cases with heart-lung failure and 2 death, Cox A10 infection led to 1 HFMD case with heart-lung failure and death. There were statistically differences seen regarding the enterovirus infection rates between severe and the mild HFMD cases (χ(2)=5.312,P=0.021). Statistically significant difference was seen in the constituent ratio of EV71, Cox A16 and the others by Fisher' s exact test (P=0.048). There was statistically significant difference seen between the cardiorespiratory failure rate and the fatality rate by EV71 and Cox A10 infection (χ(2)=0.051,P=0.821; χ(2)=2.198,P=0.138). Cox A10 strains idenfied in Henan in 2014 belonged to genotype 6. The rates on homology of nucleotide and amino acid among the Cox A10 strains in Henan in 2014 were 94.3%-99.7% and 96.3%-100.0% respectively., Conclusions: EV71 still remained the most common pathogen that causing severe HFMD in children, with the increasing Cox A10 percentage in the pathogens spectrum of HFMD infection. Cox A10 strains in Henan in 2014 belonged to genotype 6. Genotype 6 Cox A10 had appeared and widely distributed in Henan for long time, but not yet variated or reconstructed. Cox A10 infection could lead to cardio-respiratory failure thus called for the monitoring program on non-EV71 and non-Cox A16 enterovirus, especially Cox A10 to be strenthened.

Objective: To detect and analyze the distribution of virulence factors, antimicrobial resistance and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns of Shigella sonnei, isolated in Henan province from 2011 to 2014., Methods: Samples of diarrhea patients were collected and isolated with SS selective culture medium in 37 ℃ for 18-24 hours. All strains were identified under the Kligler iron agar/motility-indol-urea biochemical action and API20E biochemical system. Serological typing and prepared DNA template were carried out with thermal cracking method and multiplex PCR, to detect the virulence genes of Shigella sonnei. According to the molecular typing method and K-B drug susceptibility testing method published by the international PulseNet bacterial infectious disease monitoring network and USA clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, antimicrobial susceptibility tests and PFGE molecular characteristics of these positive strains isolated from sentinel hospitals patients stool samples were analyzed., Results: Among the 98 strains of Sonnei type Ⅰ and 118 strains of Sonnei type Ⅱ, all the strains carried carry different virulence genes including SHET-1B, SHET-2, ial, ipaH genes, with 4 kinds of virulence gene combination types. All the 216 strains of Shigella sonnei belonged to the multi-drug resistant strains, including 34 isolates resistant to 2-4 kinds of antibiotics(15.7%), 147 isolates to 5-8 kinds of antibiotics (68.1%), 24 to 9-10 kinds of antibiotics (11.1%), 7 to 11 kinds of antibiotics (3.2%), and 4 to 13 kinds of antibiotics (1.9%). A total of 100 strains of Shigella sonnei were divided into 31 molecular patterns, digested by XbaⅠ and PFGE. Each pattern contained 1-13 strains with similarities ranged from 68.6%-100.0%., Conclusions: All the Shigella sonnei strains carried virulence pathogenic factors, presenting serious status on drug resistance. PFGE fingerprinting patterns showed high polymorphism and dominant characteristics. PFGE patterns of partial strains and corresponding antidrug spectrum presented certain relevance and with same aggregation relationship.

Objective: To investigate the antibiotic resistance and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns of clinical isolates of Salmonella (S.) typhi and S. paratyphi in Henan province during 2009-2011., Methods: According to molecular typing and Salmonella K-B drug susceptibility test method published by international PulseNet bacterial infectious disease monitoring network and USA Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), the drug susceptibility and PFGE molecule characteristics of 78 S. typhi and S. paratyphi strains isolated from sentinel hospitals in Henan were analyzed., Results: The 78 strains of S. typhi and S. paratyphi were resistant to 13 kinds of antibiotics, in which 62 were multidrug resistant (79.5%), 4 were resistant to 2-3 kinds of antibiotics (5.1%), 41 were resistant to 5-8 kinds of antibiotics (52.6%), 14 were resistant to 9-10 kinds of antibiotics (17.9%), 3 were resistant to 11-12 kinds of antibiotics (3.8%). The resistant rate to cephalosporins, quinolones and other 3 kinds of antibiotic showed an increase trends. Seventy two strains of S. typhi and S. paratyphi could be divided 14 molecular patterns by digestion with XbaⅠ and PFGE, each pattern contains 1-47 strains which shared the similarity of 66.03%-100.00%., Conclusions: The drug resistance of clinical isolates of S. typhi and S. paratyphi was serious in Henan. The PFGE patterns showed diversity, but the predominant patterns could be still found. The PFGE patterns of some strains were associated with their drug resistance.

Objective: To diagnose imported dengue fever case from Henan province, and to sequence and analyze the characteristics of whole genome sequence, and to explore the possible viral origin source., Methods: A suspected dengue fever case was reported in Yuzhou city, Henan province. The patient returned from foshan, Guangdong province on September 19, 2014, after the epidemiological investigation and serum specimen collected, which dengue fever case was diagnosed in the laboratory, then it was inoculated on Vero cells. Whole genome sequence was amplified by several pairs primers and characterized using biologic software., Results: The imported case was diagnosed as dengue virus 1 serotype infection. Dengue 1 strain was isolated using Vero cells successfully. Whole genome was 10,670 nt, which belonged to dengue virus 1 serotype V genotype and didn't found any recombination event. The phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the strain was closed to Indian starins isolated in 2008-2011, and the homology of nucleotide sequence was between 98.2%-99.4%., Conclusion: It was the first time to discover imported dengue 1 serotype case in Henan province. However, according to the patient has been to Guangdong province before onset, it inferred that the Indian strain had been imported to Guangdong province before this case in Henan province.