Europe fights against imported viruses

Development of new diagnostic possibilities - researchers from Berlin are to coordinate European network

By Sina Bartfeld

Berlin - viruses do not know boundaries. They arrive to door and gate again and again in other of countries and nowadays are open to them thereby far. A traveler or an animal from the vacation brought along is sufficient, in order to transport a virus and release anepidemic disease. "such sudden attacks of imported viruses occur again and again ", acknowledge Matthias Niedrig, Virologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. The frightening thing is: "in Europe we are still far from a competent defense in relation to these attacks."

So far each country " works "with his laboratories for itself, some countries do not even have the possibility of testing even its patients on some virale diseases. Niedrig therefore developes a network for Virologen in Europe . Its vision: " if an unusual illness occurs, the physician must know immediately, where to sends the samples, so that the pathogen can be determined fast. Then we can warn the physicians in the region and the European neighbours. "

Up to then it is however a far way. There is not even a test in Europe for each virus. That has every now and then strange consequences. Niedrig tells of a cat, which should be imported to Germany. The domestic animal had occurred in a TV-show à la "Big Brother", which was located close to Malaysia on an island ". With the entry the officials stopped the animal to Frankfurt airport however. Because since 1999 a European regulation determines, that all cats introduced from Malaysia must be tested on also the Nipah virus dangerous for humans. " but there is not one institute in Europe, which can prove this virus ", says Niedrig . The cat sat at the airport in quarantine, until after long search a laboratory in Australia was finally found, which executed the test. Only after weeks the cat could finally from its cage.

This case ran smoothly, but there are other examples, where imported viruses cost human lives. Thus 1999 in New York seven humans died from an encephalitis, which is caused by the west Nile virus. This pathogen had not occurred before ever in America, and after it spread passed year over the east coast, experts are afraid that it will enter America completely. Mosquitoes transfer it between birds, horses and humans, and particularly the birds provide for the reliable spreading across all national boundaries.

Also the Canadians have fear of this virus: There chickens patrol at the boundary. "they are held by epidemiologists, in order to be able to check regularly whether the virus already came, across the boundary" acknowledges Heinz Feldmann, director of the department for special pathogens at the Canadian Science center for human and Animal Health in Winnipeg. Additionally here dead birds are examined exactly whether perhaps they carry the dangerous pathogen.

"this case makes clear, how important it is the fact that neighboring countries are informed by such infections and in case of an epidemic disease the neighbours can supporte each other and act together ", stresses Niedrig. "also in Europe we must learn finally to react in the fight against diseases as a unit." But how does co-operation look?

Also in the Czech republic there was 1997 an outbreak of the west Nile Enzephalitis, but differently than in America the outbreak remained here as far as possible unconsidered. Czech public health authorities tried to fight the epidemic disease were however only moderately successful with it: Over 500 humans got sick and 39 died.

"it is quite possible that humans also here get sick by Enzephalitis. But the physicians are not prepared for such unusual viruses and do not consider them with a diagnosis usually ", says Niedrig. But even with so easily portable infections plays the correct diagnosis and a fast reaction a crucial role, since the pathogens can spread otherwise uncontrolled.

A good model for its network sees Niedrig in the taut organization in the USA there a physician turns directly to Centers the of Disease Control (CDC) if he has a patient with unusual clinical picture. There he meets the competent medical doctors, virologists and bacteriologists, who test the blood of the patient. Immediately, before they have the result, a message goes to the other centers and to the World Health Organization, the WHO.

In the Internet Niedrig and other virologists can see at any time by the current "outbreak verification list", where in the world patients with which symptoms were noticeable and often on which pathogens the there physicians suspect. As soon as it is proven, the centers inform their colleagues by the "outbreak verification list", where how many cases of which pathogen occurred. This can be seen by everyone in the internet. In the middle of October 2000 was to be read that in the north of Uganda humans at Ebola died. In the "outbreak verification list" one week before was already reported on deaths, which were caused by a hemorrhagic fever in the district Gulu.

Also European institutes report to the WHO, but within Europe only few exchange takes place. With the new European network for the Diagnosis of Imported Viral Diseases (ENIVD) things shall change. The EU decided expressly against a new health head office after model of the DCCs, it wants instead the existing laboratories to connect better. Apart from the exchange of experiences and methods in the fight against these rare viruses pathogens authority centers are to develop, which are been versed with some virus families particularly well. From Berlin they are linked together and woven to an effective network.

The only problem: "The finances of the project are not secured on a long-term basis at present ", like that Niedrig. His colleague Feldmann in Canada considers this just like Niedrig very short-sighted: "Surely everywhere in the world imported viruses will occur at times. In Europe good, competent laboratories are available, they only lie too far apart. A network is a good solution for this lack, but this network must be also sufficiently supported."