巴西黄热病毒变异 

    据新华社里约热内卢5月15日电 （记者赵焱 陈威华）巴西研究人员近日绘制出目前巴西流行的黄热病毒完整基因序列，由此分析出一些基因序列出现了变异。不过研究人员指出，黄热病疫苗对抵御这类变异病毒依然有效。巴西卫生部所属奥斯瓦尔多·克鲁斯基金会的研究人员说，科学界此前还没有记录过这类变异，但黄热病疫苗对抵御这类变异病毒依然有效。参与研究的巴西奥斯瓦尔多·克鲁斯基金会的米尔纳·博纳尔多说：“疫苗肯定还有保护作用，一剂疫苗可以保证到世界任何地方遇到任何种类的黄热病都有效。”从去年12月开始在巴西暴发的黄热病疫情是近几十年来最严重的一次，疫情集中在丛林和农村地区，城市中并未发现疫情。巴西卫生部最近的一次报告说，全国共确诊756例黄热病病例，259人死亡。疫情暴发以来，巴西奥斯瓦尔多·克鲁斯基金会研究人员就开始绘制病毒的基因组序列，首先使用的两份样品来自圣埃斯皮里图州今年2月死于黄热病的猴子。在全面分析后，研究人员发现一些蛋白参与病毒复制，导致病毒基因变异。研究成果刊登在该机构专业医学杂志《奥斯瓦尔多·克鲁斯研究所纪要》上。

http://www.jkb.com.cn/news/overseas/2017/0518/410265.html

中新社圣保罗5月12日电 (记者 莫成雄)当地时间5月12日，巴西卫生部发布新一期通报说，自从去年12月该国爆发黄热病疫情以来至今年5月10日，已确诊756例黄热病病例，其中259人因病死亡。报告说，巴西卫生部共收到各级卫生部门通报的疑似黄热病病例3175例，已经排除1797例，确诊756例，还有622例待查。目前，巴西全国共有116个市镇发现有黄热病病例。东南部的米纳斯吉拉斯州是黄热病疫情重灾区，已确诊488例。其次是圣埃斯皮里图州，已确诊234例。这两个州死于黄热病的人数是全国最多的。圣保罗州、里约热内卢州和帕拉州也有死亡病例。巴西卫生部表示，目前所有的黄热病确诊病例均发生在农村地区以及部分内陆城镇，特别是森林等植被较密集的地区，大城市还未发现黄热病病例。黄热病是一种由黄热病毒引起的急性传染病，由蚊子叮咬传播，主要在非洲和拉丁美洲热带地区流行。其临床表现包括高热、头痛、黄疸、出血等，严重时可致死亡。黄热病目前尚无特效疗法，但接种疫苗可有效预防感染。(完)

http://news.163.com/17/0513/13/CKAQAIG200018AOQ.html

巴西最近的黄热病疫情或与地磁场减弱和宇宙射线增强有关，具体分析见论文：

IJCSMB.MS.ID.555636.pdf

Weakened geomagnetic field, Cosmic rays and the Resurgence of Yellow Fever

Jiangwen Qu¹, N.Chandra Wickramasinghe2,3*

1 Department of Infectious Disease Control, Tianjin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China；2 Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, University of Buckingham, UK; 3 Sri Lanka Centre for Astrobiology,  University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

*Corresponding:  N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, E-Mail:ncwick@gmail.com, Tel: +44 (0)2920752146 / +44 (0)7778389243

Abstract

The yellow fever outbreak in Brazil pose a serious public health threat. Research on the environmental factors underlying yellow fever virus outbreak epidemiology may provide useful insights into the occurrence of yellow fever outbreak. This study suggested that the lowering of the geomagnetic field strength and a sudden increase of cosmic rays in Mexico in 2015 were associated with the emergence of the yellow fever outbreak in Brazil. Potential mechanisms by which weakened geomagnetic field and cosmic ray activity may influence yellow fever outbreak in humans are discussed. Current and future surveillance efforts should be supported to construct a comprehensive early warning system involving weakened geomagnetic field and cosmic ray activity for detecting future yellow fever outbreaks as early as possible.

Whist Brazil is still recovering from the Zika virus outbreak, the south-east of this country has recently been struck by the largest outbreak of Yellow Fever (YF) in Latin Americain many decades. The outbreak, which began in 2016, has rapidly and alarmingly spread eastward, reaching the most populated regions of Brazil where vaccine coverage is inadequate, so raising public health concern about high rates of urban transmission and the spread of YF beyond Brazil’s national borders.  Other viral diseases that appeared to flare up in South America roughly at the same time include the arboviruses dengue and chikungunya.  Although climate change, and poor hygiene are cited as causes for this sudden resurgence of viral disease, it is possible that a more fundamental reason exists, and its discovery could have a profound effect in determining public health strategy.

It is generally known that the Earth's magnetic field acts like a giant invisible bubble that shields the planet from the various mutagens such as solar particles and cosmic rays.   Severe disruption of the magnetic field barrier would permit the ingress of damaging cosmic ray particles and also charged viral sized particles from outside the Earth.  In the absence of other plausible causes is to such externally induced processes that we may be forced to turn in order to explain the unusual patterns of viral incidence we have witnessed in recent years. 

The role of cosmic rays in causing genetic changes is well known.  It is also known at times of low sunspot activity the Earth’s magnetic field is less able to protect the Earth from energetic cosmic rays, including galactic cosmic rays.  One particularly strong effect that has recently come to light is the decrease in the Earth’s magnetic field in the Southern Hemisphere, straddling land masses in South America and Africa.  The geomagnetic map shown in Fig. 1 was obtained in 2015 at a time when many of the new pandemics of viral disease which we have discussed actually started sweeping across South America and Africa.  We think this is unlikely to be a coincidence. 

Fig. 1 Intensity geomagnetic field map at 2015.0. Red represents areas where the magnetic field is stronger, while blues show areas where it is weaker.

New data released by the European Space Agency (ESA) reveals that our geomagnetic field is weakening by around 5% a year, which is nearly ten times faster than previous estimates¹. Furthermore, the field is weakening faster in some places than others. For example, the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is a large depression of the Earth's magnetic field strength characterized by values of geomagnetic field intensity around 30% lower than expected for those latitudes and covers a large area in the South Atlantic Ocean and South America. According to the monitoring data of ESA's Swarm satellite, Earth's magnetic poles may be getting ready to flip, and the South Atlantic Anomaly where the field is particularly weak has moved steadily westward and weakened further by about 2%². Previous studies have suggested that the mosquito is a sensitive animal to the magnetic field, and the weakening of the magnetic field can increase the mosquito's reproductive speed and density³. YF is mostly transmitted to humans by bites from infected Aedes spp, especially Aedes aegypti. The rapid weakening of Earth's magnetic field in the SAA probable speeds up the rapid increase of mosquitoes and promotes the rapid spread of the yellow fever virus.

A sharp change of the magnetic field in this region (which includes South America and Brazil) allows cosmic rays, and charged particles to reach lower into the atmosphere. At present, solar activity is now at its most inactive stage in recent 100 years. The sunspot cycle (No.24) that peaked in 2014 showed the lowest sunspot number recorded since 1906 with many consecutive days of very low sunspot numbers in 2016/17⁴. Cosmic rays reach amaximum intensity when the earth's magnetic field is weakening dramatically and the sun is least active. According to the World Data Center for Cosmic Rays (WDCCR), there was a sudden increase of cosmic rays in Mexico in January 2015 and continued throughout the year⁵. The sudden increase of cosmic ray intensity in Mexico (North/South American region) is probably the cause of the ZIKV and YF outbreak. A new study revealed that solar radiation and cosmic rays are physical mutagens of natural genetic mutation/recombination, and can lead to the emergence of some emerging viruses like pandemic influenza⁶. Zika virus outbreak may have been linked to a systematic increase in the flux of cosmic rays and a general decline of sunspot activity⁷. Phylogenetic analysis of two yellow fever virus (YFV) samples collected during the current Brazilian epidemic revealed the 2016/17 epidemic virus is a new genetic lineage⁸. The weakened magnetic field and enhanced cosmic rays both contributed to the severe YFV outbreak.

Thus, we make the bold suggestion that a surveillance of both magnetic field, sunspot numbers and cosmic ray activity may serve as a potential warning of future pandemics. Together with other epidemiological data such information might prove to be a useful factor for strategic disease control planning of YFV as well as other pandemic-causing viruses.  

References

1.Christopher F,NilsO,StavrosK,NicolasG,LarsT. Recent geomagnetic secular variation from Swarm and ground observatoriesas estimated in the CHAOS‑6geomagneticfieldmodel.Earth, Planets and Space.2016;68:112

2.Pavón-Carrasco, F. Javier; De Santis, Angelo. The South Atlantic Anomaly: The Key for a Possible Geomagnetic Reversal".Frontiers in Earth Science. 2016;4:40. 

3.Pan,H, Liu,X. Apparent Biological Effect of Strong Magnetic Field on Mosquito Egg Hatching. Bioelectromagnetics,2004;25:84–91

4.Wickramasinghe NC, Steele E, Wainwright M, Tokoro G, Fernando M, Qu J. Sunspot Cycle Minima and Pandemics: The Casefor Vigilance? Astrobiol Outreach2017；5: 159.

5.World Data Center for Cosmic Rays (WDCCR) http://center.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/WDCCR/allplot1sta.php?st=MEXICO

6.Qu J. Is sunspot activity a factor in influenza pandemics? Rev Med Virol. 2016;26(5):309-313.

7.Qu J, Wickramasinghe C. Was the Zika virus Outbreak in 2015 Triggered by Cosmic Events?.VirolCurr Res2017;1:102.

8. Myrna C Bonaldo, MarielaMartínez Gómez, Alexandre AC dos SantosFilipe Vieira Santos de Abreu, Anielly Ferreira-de-Brito, RafaellaMoraes de Miranda, Marcia Gonçalves de Castro, Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira. Genome analysis of yellow fever virus of the ongoing outbreak in Brazil reveals polymorphisms. Memórias do InstitutoOswaldo Cruz.2017;112(6):447-451

Weakened geomagnetic field, Cosmic rays & the Resurgence of Yellow Fever

https://juniperpublishers.com/ijcsmb/IJCSMB.MS.ID.555636.php