07/01-07 | Weekly BF: WHO warns of more easily spreadable birdflu form

Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=201972

Here is an important link...
Johns Hopkins on influenza: http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/33/450/Rashid Chotani.pdf

WHO warns of more easily spreadable birdflu form​

Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:34 PM BST

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - The risk of bird flu mutating into an form more easily spread between people is still high and there could be an upswing in human infections at the end of the year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on Friday.

In a report analysing more than 200 known bird flu cases, the United Nations agency identified three peaks in human infections since 2003, all concentrated during the winter and spring seasons in the northern hemisphere.

"If this pattern continues, an upsurge in cases could be anticipated starting in late 2006 or early 2007," the WHO said, adding that further analysis was needed.

"Moreover, the widespread distribution of the H5N1 virus in poultry and the continued exposure of humans suggest that the risk of virus evolving into a more transmissible agent in humans remains high," it said.

While it remains mostly a disease of birds, experts fear the avian influenza virus could mutate into a more transmissible form and spark a pandemic killing millions of people.

The WHO study of human cases of H5N1 between December 2003 and April 2006 -- during which 203 people caught the disease, causing 113 deaths -- concluded that children and young adults were most vulnerable to dying after exposure to the strain.

It said the pattern of infections was "reminiscent" of that seen during the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic which killed 40 million to 50 million people worldwide.

Confirmed human cases in the recent bird flu outbreak ranged in age from three months to 75 years.

But the highest proportion of bird flu cases occurred among those aged 10 to 29, with the typical victim being hospitalised four days after falling ill, the WHO said.

Some 56 percent of patients died five days later -- nine days after onset of symptoms, according to the study. People aged 50 and older had the lowest fatality rate.

"The differences in the age-related case-fatality distribution among H5N1 cases are reminiscent of those observed during previous influenza pandemics, particularly in 1918, where case-fatality rates were higher among young adults," it said.

Sharing such data could be a useful part of an "early warning system that will collectively defend all countries against a common threat," it added.

Standardising collection of epidemiological and clinical data should help improve experts' ability to detect exposure patterns and identify risk groups, it said. This in turn would help researchers to adapt and target preventive measures.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...30904230_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BIRDFLU-WHO.xml&src=rss

East Nigeria records fresh outbreak of bird flu​

http://english.people.com.cn/200607/01/eng20060701_279037.html

Bird flu has broken out in three local government areas in Nigeria's east state of Taraba, the official News Agency of Nigeria reported on Friday.

Yusuf Joseph, field officer in charge of Livestock and Pest Control Services in the state, was quoted as saying "bird flu outbreak has been recorded in Wukari, Ibi and Gassol local government areas."

The first case in the state was reported in early June, Joseph said, adding that "when the outbreak was reported, officials of the Federal Diagnosis Laboratory, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the state Ministry of Agriculture met and came out with a plan of action."

The field officer also said the team had drawn up a memorandum for the Taraba state government on how to tackle the problem.

However, he added, "the problem needs the most urgent attention, but the state government is not giving it the required attention which is very disappointing."

Joseph called on the state government "to urgently come up with a solution to combat the disease."

According to Taraba State Agriculture Commissioner Stephen Omar, the government has sent experts to the affected areas and is making efforts to control the situation.

The outbreak of bird flu was first confirmed in the most populous African country with a population of over 138 million on February 7, 2006. But so far no human being has been infected.

Source: Xinhua

China reports new bird flu case in poultry;
re-examines 2003 human death(updated 02:18 p.m.)​

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=39393

2006/7/1
BEIJING (AP)


China has suffered a new outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry, a news report said Saturday, as experts were trying to determine whether a Chinese man died of the disease in 2003, two years before the country reported any human cases.

The new outbreak was found near Zhongwei, a city in the Ningxia region, the government's Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Agriculture Ministry. It didn't say how many or what type of birds were affected.

Ministry experts were sent to the area "to control any possible outbreak" and local authorities were disinfecting vehicles and people traveling into and out of the area, Xinhua said.

China has reported more than 30 bird flu outbreaks in poultry since October.

Bird flu has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. The highest death toll is in Vietnam, where 42 people have died.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry was investigating whether a man who died in 2003 had bird flu instead of severe acute respiratory syndrome as initially thought, according to the World Health Organization.

That fatality came two years before China reported its first human cases of bird flu in 2005. The country has suffered 12 human fatalities from the disease since then.

The case raised questions about China's ability to detect emerging diseases and keep international health bodies informed about them.

The 24-year-old man died at a Beijing military hospital, according to Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in the Chinese capital.

Military hospitals, which answer to the secretive People's Liberation Army, figured prominently in the government's failure to disclose the true scale of the spread of SARS in 2003.

The case was brought to public attention by a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine by a group of eight Chinese scientists.

It "does raise the question of why the Ministry of Health was not told of this case," Wadia said Friday.

China's failure to release timely information about SARS, which appeared in the country's south in late 2002, has been cited by health experts as contributing to the disease's spread.

SARS, which has very similar symptoms to bird flu, eventually killed 774 people worldwide.

In the 2003 case, initial tests failed to find the SARS virus but further testing on the man's lung tissue yielded fragments of a flu virus, the scientists' letter said. It said genetic sequencing revealed it to be a mixed virus, with genes similar to two distinct types of bird flu seen in northern and southern China.

The death raised the possibility that other cases attributed to SARS may have actually been H5N1 infections.

Wadia said WHO has asked the ministry whether other suspect cases are being tested and hasn't received a response.

Bird flu most deadly in teens and young adults​

http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_hea...id=17988&news_channel_id=1020&channel_id=1020

Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: HELEN BRANSWELL
Jun. 30, 2006

(CP) - The H5N1 avian flu virus has exacted an alarmingly high death toll among adolescents and young adults, - an eerie echo of the infamous Spanish flu, a new analysis of cumulative cases by the World Health Organization confirms.

"The differences in the age-related case-fatality distribution among H5N1 cases are reminiscent of those observed during previous pandemics, particularly in 1918, where case-fatality rates were higher among young adults," the review said.

The report, published Friday in the WHO's publication the Weekly Epidemiolgical Record, also urges countries to share data on avian flu cases, saying doing so "will collectively defend all countries against a common threat."

One of very few reviews drawing together details of accumulated H5N1 cases, the report looked at the trends evident in the 203 confirmed cases in nine countries that occurred between December 2003 and the end of April 2006. Of that number, 113 people or 56 per cent died.

A number of infections have occurred since, bringing the global total to 228 cases and 130 deaths in 10 countries.

The age group with the highest fatality rate was 10-to-19-years olds; 73 per cent of cases in that age range who contracted the virus died from it, noted the authors. (As is the practice of the Weekly Epidemiological Record, authors are not listed by name.)

Sixty-two per cent of 20-to-29-year olds and 61 per cent of 30-to-39-year olds who tested positive for the virus succumbed to the infection, said the report.

By age 50 and older, the fatality rate dropped to 18 per cent, though the overall number of infections in older adults is low in comparison with younger age groups. In the very young - under age five, and five to nine years of age - the fatality rates were 43 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

Adolescents and young adults weren't just more likely to die from the virus; they were also more likely to become infected in the first place, the review confirmed. The highest proportion of cases occurred in people aged 10 to 29 years.

In part, that might relate to the fact that many of the countries which have seen human cases have young populations, the authors said.

Exposure patterns in adolescents and young adults could also help explain the spike in infections in those aged 10 to 29, the report said, noting that young girls and women might be more at risk because they are often involved in culling, defeathering and preparing chickens for consumption. There were slightly more female cases than male, 106 to 97.

The report cautioned against drawing too many conclusions on spotty evidence.

"The incomplete nature of the data on exposure make it difficult to infer a link between age and exposure, and further studies are needed, especially to assess whether younger people or other groups (such as pregnant women) have an increased risk of contracting the infection," the report said.

British influenza expert Dr. Angus Nicoll recently bemoaned the lack of detailed data on the human cases and disease outbreaks, calling it "a collective failure . . . that must be overcome."

Nicoll, who co-ordinates influenza activities at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm, complained that the number of analytical reports of outbreaks is "embarrassingly small."

"Consequently little more is known now than in 1997 about an infection that seemingly remains hard for humans to acquire, but is highly lethal when they do," he wrote in an editorial in the May issue of Eurosurveillance, an online publication on European communicable disease surveillance and control.

The lack of good follow-up studies after outbreaks are contained means the world still isn't clear if some people are getting the disease but only experiencing mild or virtually no symptoms, for instance. Asymptomatic infections, as they are called, occur with many infectious diseases, though not all.

This piece of information is crucial as it would indicate whether calculating the fatality rate based on recorded cases overestimates the lethality of the disease.

If studies testing the blood of exposed people showed many had antibodies to the virus - signalling they had been infected and survived - it would be proof the fatality rate was actually much lower.

Few such studies have been done and fewer still have been published in the scientific literature. Those that are in the public domain suggest mild, missed cases are not occurring.

The many knowledge gaps about H5N1 and its infection and fatality pattern highlight the need for countries which have human cases to share information with the global community, the report said.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Bird flu like 1918 Spanish flu epidemic tends to kill younger people, says WHO </font>

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday July 1, 2006
<A href="http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Bird_flu_like_1918_Spanish_flu_0701.html">LINK</a></center>
"Avian flu tends to kill younger people, much as the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic did, the World Health Organization said Friday as it released an analysis of more than 200 cases," begins a story set for the Sunday edition of the New York Times.

"Deaths from the disease surged in the winter for the last three years, the report said, so another upswing in fatal cases can be expected late this year even if the virus does not mutate into a form more easily transmitted," writes Donald G. McNeil Jr.</b>

"Moreover, the report warned, the risk of the virus becoming more transmissible remains high 'because of the widespread distribution of the H5N1 virus in poultry and the continued exposure of humans,'" the Times story continues.

"The median age of confirmed cases of the H5N1 avian flu strain was 20 years, the WHO said in a report published today in the Weekly Epidemiological Record," Bloomberg News reports. "The death rate among patients aged 10 to 19 years was 73 percent, the highest of any age group, it said. Overall, the fatality rate was 56 percent."

World Health Organization report excerpts:

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The number of new countries reporting human cases increased from 4 to 9 after October 2005, following the geographical extension of outbreaks among avian populations.

Half of the cases occurred in people under the age of 20 years; 90% of cases occurred in people under the age of 40 years.

The overall case-fatality rate was 56%. Case fatality was high in all age groups but was highest in persons aged 10 to 39 years.

The case-fatality profile by age group differs from that seen in seasonal influenza, where mortality is highest in the elderly.

The overall case-fatality rate was highest in 2004 (73%), followed by 63% to date in 2006, and 43% in 2005.

Assessment of mortality rates and the time intervals between symptom onset and hospitalization and between symptom onset and death suggests that the illness pattern has not changed substantially during the three years.

Cases have occurred all year round. However, the incidence of human cases peaked, in each of the three years in which cases have occurred, during the period roughly corresponding to winter and spring in the northern hemisphere. If this pattern continues, an upsurge in cases could be anticipated starting in late 2006 or early 2007.

#
DEVELOPING...

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Bird Flu Spreads to New Nigerian State </font>

By VOA News
01 July 2006
<A href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-01-voa14.cfm">LINK</a></center>
Nigeria
Officials in Nigeria say the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to another state, bringing the total number of states now affected by the virus to 14.

Health authorities say the strain has appeared in northeastern Taraba state. The new outbreak means the virus is now present in more than one third of Nigerian states. </b>

Nigeria was the first African country to be hit by bird flu. Several other West African countries are also grappling with outbreaks of the disease, including Nigeria's neighbors, Niger and Cameroon.

No human cases have been detected in the region, although the disease is believed to have killed more than 120 people around the world since 2003.

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>States’ priorities seen in newly enacted laws
Bird flu
bullying among issues tackled.</font>

The Associated Press
Published Saturday, July 1, 2006
<A href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Jul/20060701News016.asp">LINK</a></center>
Bird flu worries are roiling states up North, school bullies are being targeted out West, and tax breaks are coming from West Virginia to Wyoming.</b>

New laws taking effect today offer a glimpse at the domestic challenges facing the nation and the answers its state lawmakers offer in response. July 1 is the effective date in many states for laws crafted during this year’s legislative sessions. In others, laws take effect Jan. 1 or 90 days after passage.

Some laws aim to encourage, such as South Carolina’s $300 sales tax rebates for hybrid, biodiesel and ethanol blend-driven cars.

Others hope to teach a certain point of view: Sex education teachers in Wisconsin now must present abstinence as the best way for unmarried people to prevent pregnancy and disease, though they can still mention contraception.

Others measures reflect widespread concerns, with at least a half-dozen states passing tougher laws to punish or track sex offenders. Idaho can pass along offenders’ names and addresses to radio stations; South Carolina can now execute twice-convicted rapists of children younger than 11; Nevada will put offenders’ addresses, work and school locations on the Web.

Nevada needs tougher laws, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus said, because it has become a "haven for perverts," created by the combination of a transient population, weak penalties and poorly funded law enforcement.

Fears of a possible bird flu pandemic have spurred some states to action. Minnesota health officials got an extra $5 million to prepare, while Nebraska set up a testing and surveillance program.

Alaska, full of pathways for migrating birds that are considered likely to carry the disease, gave more power to state officials to quarantine and test animals.

In education, bullies continued to get a hard look. Nevada ordered its schools to create a uniform system of reporting bullying, with the state ACLU lobbyist warning that it is a critical problem for immigrant children, particularly Muslim girls who wear head scarves.

Idaho gave school superintendents, principals and teachers more power to suspend bullies.

Taxes remained, as always, a top concern.

Tax breaks won support this year, including a change in Nevada that sharply reduces the property taxes for golf courses.

The new law drops the value to about $1,000 an acre, as much as one-tenth of what some of the fancier courses had paid.

West Virginia cut taxes for farm equipment, vehicles, crops and livestock that’s estimated to save farmers overall about $850,000 a year. And in Wyoming, lawmakers agreed to a two-year repeal of the state sales tax on groceries, though supporters hope to get a permanent repeal.

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<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Americans Stash Tamiflu in Asia</font>

Web Editor: Suzanne Lawler
Originally Created: 7/1/2006 5:11:47 AM
Last Update: 7/1/2006 8:38:22 AM
<A href="http://www.13wmaz.com/news/national_headlines.aspx?storyid=27556">LINK</a></center>
The U.S. has stashed flu medicine in Asia just in case it's needed to help contain a potential worldwide flu pandemic. </b>

A government report says Washington has sent an undisclosed amount of the antiviral medicine Tamiflu to a secure location.

The report explains what the U.S. has done to prepare in the event the H5N1 virus mutates into a form easily passed from person to person.

The virus has been found in 53 countries, and more than half of 228 people who've caught it have died.

Paris meeting airs avian flu impacts, possible treatment​

Jun 30, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – The First International Conference on Avian Influenza in Humans in Paris this week brought reports on a possible new treatment for avian flu symptoms, the potential global economic impact of a pandemic, and plans for a task force to coordinate Europe's response to the disease.

Experts at the 2-day meeting at the Pasteur Institute said the world is doing a better job of preparing for the threat of a flu pandemic stemming from avian flu than it has done in the face of previous health threats, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report yesterday.

But the experts said there are too many gaps in science's understanding of how wild birds spread the virus and how it might become contagious among humans, among other questions, AFP reported. The conference began yesterday and ended today.

Could statins reduce avian flu deaths?
David Fedson, MD, an internationally known vaccine expert, said cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may have the potential to mitigate symptoms of avian influenza. He called for research on the drugs' effects on people and animals infected flu.

Fedson's hypothesis, which he shared at the conference yesterday, was reported in a Bloomberg news article today. Based in France, Fedson is a former professor of medicine at the University of Virginia and former director of European medical affairs for Sanofi-Aventis.

The anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of statin drugs could decrease respiratory distress and the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have avian flu, Fedson told the audience. He said observational studies suggest that statin drugs may reduce death rates in patients who have sepsis or pneumonia. Fedson also published his hypothesis in the July issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Given the wide distribution of statin drugs, the treatment may offer hope for patients in countries with scant supplies of antiviral medications or vaccines, wrote Fedson in CID. "If epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical studies confirm the benefits of statins for treatment of influenza, physicians everywhere will have something to offer their patients for the pandemic," he wrote.

Treatment with statin drugs would also offer a cost advantage over antiviral agents, Fedson noted. A 5-day course of the antiviral drug oseltamivir costs about $60 to $90, while a 5-day course of generic simvastatin costs as little as $1.75, he said.

"The scientific rationale for considering statins for treatment and prophylaxis of pandemic influenza is persuasive, but the public health rationale is overwhelmingly compelling," Fedson wrote.

World Bank weighs in on economic impact
Milan Brahmbhatt, lead economist for the World Bank's East Asia sector, addressing the conference yesterday, outlined the projected economic impact of an avian flu pandemic. World Bank modeling suggests that a severe pandemic—with a 1% mortality rate, or about 70 million deaths—would shrink the world's gross domestic product by about 3.1%, or about $1.25 to $2 trillion, he said.

Economic losses developing countries would be double those in developed countries, because of higher mortality rates, Brahmbhatt said. The text of his speech was posted on the World Bank's Web site.

So far, the economic impact of avian flu has been limited because poultry production is a relatively small portion of the world's economy, he said. However, the impact on the poultry industry in outbreak areas has been severe.

Brahmbhatt said the strong recovery of Thailand's poultry industry underscores the benefits of good policy responses. The country experienced a 40% drop in poultry exports because of foreign import restrictions on uncooked poultry products in resonse to avian flu. "Together with Vietnam, strong control measures have resulted in no new outbreaks of the virus for the past 6 months," he said. Producers quickly switched to cooked export products, which didn't face trade restrictions, and exports rebounded, along with domestic consumer confidence.

The funding component of policy actions to combat avian influenza is producing results, Brahmbhatt said. Of $1.9 billion pledged at last January's International Pledging Conference in Beijing, $1.15 billion has been committed and $331 million has been disbursed.

Task force to guide European response
Europe is setting up a task force to coordinate the continent's efforts against avian flu, a European virologist reported at the conference. According to an AFP report, Albert Osterhaus, a professor at the National Influenza Centre and Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, said the task force will be established in September or October and will likely include scientists, doctors, and animal health experts who would monitor the latest information and advise governments.

He said the task force would be located at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm.

Osterhaus called for setting up a global equivalent of the task force, saying the world's response has featured much talk, little action, and a disturbing lack of coordination among scientists, governments, and international agencies, according to AFP.

"There's not a pandemic of flu, there's a pandemic of flu meetings," he was quoted as saying.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/jun3006paris.html

Medical Community Stockpiles Bird Flu Supplies​

Wed Jun 28, 11:50 PM ET

Hawaii's medical community has been quietly stockpiling huge caches of medical and emergency supplies in case there is an outbreak of bird flu or a bioterrorism event.

The emergency supplies and medicines are stacked in warehouses, stashed at every hospital in the state and put away in other locations that aren't being disclosed.

The federal government has been giving the state millions of dollars to stock up. Officials said that they have bought more than just medicine.

"Personal protective equipment, suits, masks, swabs, communication equipment, handheld radios, sat radios, computers, pharmaceuticals, nerve agent antidotes, even shelter," said Toby Clairmont of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii.

The ABC fictional movie "Fatal Contact" depicted tents and trailers being turned into hospital wards. Health officials said the movie was accurate.

"The general consensus was it's pretty much on the mark," Clairmont said.

Much of the equipment, supplies and emergency gear seen in the movie is exactly what the state has been stockpiling, Clairmont said. Officials said they had to have it on hand before any outbreak.

"Right now, we're able to get what we need. You order. It arrives. But once bird flu starts going from person-to-person, we believe international demand for this material will overwhelm. If we don't have it at that point, we won't have it when we need it," Clairmont said.

All of the medical supplies are not just in the event of a bird flu outbreak. Officials said the supplies could be used in bio-terror events, hurricanes, plane crashes and other disasters.

Officials told KITV that they will conduct a mock disaster drill to test the equipment and response times. For the first time it will all be set up and tested in public. Officials said the drill is scheduled for Saturday in the downtown area.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/kitv/20060629/lo_kitv/9443559

Bird flu detected again in China
Posted on : Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:02:00 GMT | Author : Alan Cross
News Category : Health


The bird flu scare has revisited China with the Agriculture Ministry announcing an outbreak of avian influenza in the city of Zhongwei in Ningxia. A confirmation was posted on the net that reports of the dead birds revealed them to have the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

It is yet unclear as to how many birds have died or whether they were from farm poultry or wild birds. The presence of the virus however, is established and operations of quarantine and disinfection have begun. A case of emergency has been declared with local veterinary departments setting up provisions for examining people and disinfecting vehicles.


This development is regrettable, particularly when one considers that 36 outbreaks of avian flu have been detected in China in less than nine months. There are 19 cases of the virus affecting people of which 12 cases have resulted in death. The World Health Organization has recorded a total of 228 people worldwide who were affected with bird flu, of which 130 cases have proved fatal.

However, experts estimate that the numbers are several more since in many instances the virus has gone undetected or unreported. China's ability to identify the disease and report it to world health bodies has been questioned repeatedly. The People's Liberation Army which controls military hospitals has been reproached for failing to convey the magnitude of SARS in 2003.

China, has nevertheless, developed guidelines to expose the virus and notified people about its symptoms of sore throat, cough and fever. The procedure states that any place with over 30 flu-resembling cases in a week or with five people hospitalized or one death must report immediately to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The country aims at strict and precise action to combat this growing hazard.

http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/...://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/7436.html

H5N1 Bird Flu Migrates to Ningxia China

Recombinomics Commentary
July 1, 2006

China has found the H5N1 avian influenza virus in birds in the northwestern region of Ningxia, the Agriculture Ministry said, suggesting a fresh outbreak.

The National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory identified the virus on Thursday in samples taken from the town of Xuanhe in Ningxia's Zhongwei city, the ministry said late on Friday on its Web site (www.agri.gov.cn).


The above confirmed H5N1 bird flu outbreak in China provides additional evidence of an expanded H5N1 presence. The Qinghai strain of H5N1 was first noted at Qinghai Lake in May, 2005. This outbreak was followed by outbreaks on farms in northwest Xinjiang province in June, and outbreaks in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia that were initially reported in mid-July in the region around Chany Lake.

This year there are more reports at the locations from 2005 as well as nearby regions. H5N1 appeared at Qinghai Lake almost exactly on year after the initial outbreak. However, much large outbreaks were reported in southern Qinghai Province as well as the adjacent area in northern Tibet. These locations are about 300 miles southwest of Qinghai Lake. The Ningxia outbreak above is near the Inner Mongolian board and about 200 miles northeast of Qinghai Lake. This outbreak was preceded by an outbreak in Shanxi, about 500 miles east of Qinghai Lake as well as Xinjiang Province again..

In addition to the outbreaks in China, Russia has reported outbreaks near Chany Lake again as well as adjacent Tomsk, but there is also a major die-off to the east in Tuva and across the southern border in northern Mongolia. A recent presentation on bird flu in Qinghai showed that the 2006 isolates were most closely related to isolates in Novosibirsk and Mongolia. As this H5N1 migrates further north, new H5N1 from earlier infections in China, southeast Asia, India, Africa, Middle East, and Europe, will converge in southern Siberia, which additional recombination will generate new gene sequences.

Thus, the widespread reports of H5N1 in the spring suggest movement of H5N1 in the fall will generate significant problems


http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07010601/H5N1_Ningxia.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/30/new.laws.ap/index.html


New laws target bird flu, bullies and taxes

Friday, June 30, 2006; Posted: 3:47 p.m. EDT (19:47 GMT)


(AP) -- Bird flu worries are roiling states up North, school bullies are being targeted out West, and tax breaks are coming from West Virginia to Wyoming.

New laws taking effect Saturday offer a glimpse at the domestic challenges facing the nation, and the answers its state lawmakers offer in response. July 1 is the effective date in many states for laws crafted during this year's legislative sessions. In others, laws take effect January 1, or 90 days after passage.

Some laws aim to encourage, like South Carolina's $300 sales tax rebates for hybrid, biodiesel and ethanol blend-driven cars.

Others hope to teach a certain point of view: Sex education teachers in Wisconsin now must present abstinence as the best way for unmarried people to prevent pregnancy and disease, though they can still mention contraception.

Others measures reflect widespread concerns, with at least a half-dozen states passing tougher laws to punish or track sex offenders. Idaho can pass along offenders' names and addresses to radio stations; South Carolina can now execute twice-convicted rapists of children younger than 11; Nevada will put offenders' addresses, work and school locations on the Web.

Nevada needs tougher laws, said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, because it has become a "haven for perverts," created by the combination of a transient population, weak penalties and poorly funded law enforcement.

Fears of a possible bird flu pandemic have spurred some states to action. Minnesota health officials got an extra $5 million to prepare, while Nebraska set up a testing and surveillance program. Alaska, full of pathways for migrating birds who are considered likely to carry the disease, gave more power to state officials to quarantine and test animals.

"We know today's diseases cross the boundaries between wild animals, domesticated animals and people," Alaska State Veterinarian Bob Gerlach said.

In education, bullies continued to get a hard look. Nevada ordered its schools to create a uniform system of reporting bullying, with the state ACLU lobbyist warning that it is a critical problem for immigrant children, particularly Muslim girls who wear headscarves.

Idaho gave school superintendents, principals and teachers more power to suspend bullies. "There are studies that indicate that bullying is the leading cause of teenage suicide," said Republican state Sen. Mike Jorgenson.

Taxes remained, as always, a top concern.

Tax breaks won support this year, including a change in Nevada that sharply reduces the property taxes for golf courses. The new law drops the value to about $1,000 an acre, as much as one-tenth of what some of the fancier courses had paid.

West Virginia cut taxes for farm equipment, vehicles, crops and livestock that's estimated to save farmers overall about $850,000 a year. And in Wyoming, lawmakers agreed to a two-year repeal of the state sales tax on groceries, though supporters hope to get a permanent repeal.

The biggest challenge, said Wyoming tax administrator Dan Noble, was trying to figure out the tax on ice. The compromise was to consider crushed and cubed ice as groceries and make it tax-free, but continue to tax block ice and dry ice, since that's not so likely to be a personal use, he said.

Elsewhere, states gave their employees raises (in North Dakota and West Virginia) and boosted their pensions (in Maryland).

In Oregon, popular allergy medicines containing the decongestant pseudoephedrine will now require a prescription -- a step aimed at limiting the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Hawaii started a pilot project to provide health insurance for all the state's roughly 6,000 children who don't have any. The cost of $3 million will be split by the state and the Hawaii Medical Service Association.

One of this year's hot issues -- immigration -- got emotional in Nebraska, when legislators overrode Republican Gov. Dave Heineman's veto, now allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition at state schools, if they lived in Nebraska for three years and graduated from a state high school.

"It's about treating these students just like other students who graduate high school in Nebraska," said Sen. DiAnna Schimek, who had spent five years working to get the law passed.

Florida jumped into another of today's top stories, banning public colleges from sponsoring travel to federally designated terrorist states -- Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. The law has already been challenged in court.

Several states reached out to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wisconsin gave free state college tuition to dependents of veterans who died of a service-related disability. Veterans, come 2007, will get free tuition too. New Hampshire state employees in the National Guard get state benefits while on active duty, and the state will cover the difference between their state and military salaries.

And now in Florida, dogs can eat with their owners at restaurants under the new "Doggie Dining" law (but only in designated outdoor areas and if approved by local authorities).

Gov. Jeb Bush -- whose own dog, a black lab named Marvin, had died just two days before -- gladly signed the bill into law, saying dog lovers and their pets should "have a brewski together, have a hot dog together or whatever they want outdoors. ... It just seems like it's a small thing but it's going to be an important thing."

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060701_flu1.1767b0b.html


Health officials wrap up first pandemic flu summit

Among the issues decided: Closing schools to slow the spread of disease; stockpiling masks for health-care workers; and using antiviral medicines to treat the sick, rather than to prevent illness.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 1, 2006

BY FELICE J. FREYER
Journal Medical Writer

Bodies will be piled, respectfully, in ice-skating rinks and refrigerated trucks. Relatives will be asked to identify them by photo rather than direct sight. Trained laypeople will determine that death occurred naturally, filling in for overburdened medical examiners.

Those are among the plans that health officials from seven states agreed on this week, as they considered how state governments would respond to a worldwide flu pandemic. The worst-case scenarios call for such a flu pandemic to kill 2 million Americans and 6,700 Rhode Islanders. That's more bodies than hospital morgues can handle.

Officials from the six New England states and New York met in Boston Thursday and yesterday to begin coordinating their planning for such a calamity.

"It was a very good way for the states to begin communicating about these issues," Dr. L. Anthony Cirillo, the Rhode Island emergency doctor who organized the meeting, said in an phone interview as he was returning yesterday evening.

Cirillo said consensus was also reached on these issues:

Closing schools will be an important strategy to slow the spread of disease, but when they close will depend on where the virus first shows up and how quickly it spreads.

People will not be advised to wear masks in public, because other methods such as covering coughs and hand-washing are more effective. But masks will be stockpiled for health-care workers.

Antiviral medicines will be used to treat the sick, rather than to prevent illness in the well, because there won't be enough for everyone.

Cirillo said that about 180 people, including a number of federal officials and the top health officials of three states, attended the two-day workshop. Eight working groups are examining such issues as laboratory policies and risk communication, and those groups will continue to stay in touch by phone.

The state officials will next gather in late August at the Naval War College in Newport for an exercise. After that, Cirillo said, the focus will be on communicating just as officials would if a flu pandemic struck -- not by traipsing to Boston for a "summit" but by picking up the phone. Working out the details of who will talk to whom when is part of the planning process.

Many experts consider a flu pandemic inevitable. There were three such pandemics in the 20th century, and there is no reason to think this century will be different. When a lethal strain of bird flu recently passed from birds to people in Asia, scientists became concerned that the next pandemic would soon reach our doorstep.

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Planners consider pandemic problems </font>

BIRD FLU: Seminar explores steps people, businesses should take.

By BECKY STOPPA
Anchorage Daily News
July 2, 2006 at 05:32 AM
<A href="http://www.adn.com/life/health/birdflu/story/7925128p-7818596c.html">LINK</a></center>
WASILLA -- Consider this: It's April 2007. The World Health Organization has confirmed 25 cases of human-to-human transmission of H5N1, the deadly strain of avian flu, in a village of 120 people in Hunan province, China. World Health officials call the virus a pandemic. The village is quarantined. </b>

Do we have the resources to respond should the pandemic reach Alaska? What messages should be communicated to the public? How can people protect themselves? Should schools close? How about businesses? Are we prepared?

Those were just some of the questions tossed around Thursday at a Wasilla fire station in a "tabletop exercise" on pandemic flu. The exercise, more of an idea session than a test of tactics, was the culminating event in a three-day seminar on bird flu and pandemic planning, sponsored jointly by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the State of Alaska.

"In terms of the Mat-Su Borough, we understand that we don't have all the answers. That's why we're here," said Dennis Brodigan, Mat-Su director of emergency services.

Brodigan said the seminar was a kickoff for a series of discussions that will take place across the community over the next three to six months. Since November, he said, the borough, along with the Municipality of Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the state Division of Public Health, has been working to create a plan for dealing with avian flu and a possible pandemic.

"Our number one strategic objective that was agreed on by everyone is community awareness," Brodigan said.

That's an important objective in any disaster, but it's especially important when planning for a pandemic, said William Petram, an emergency management consultant with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Petram, along with Kerre Fisher, a training and exercise officer for the state's public health division, led Thursday's exercise.

"The public is going to be your greatest asset," Petram said. "The frontline soldier is going to be the individual and the head of a household."

That's because the regular supply chain would break down in a pandemic, said Jim Mackin, state public health preparedness program manager and one of the seminar speakers. If a quarantine forced roads, ports and airports to close, Alaska would quickly run out of vital supplies such as food, medicine and medical supplies.

"We are going to be much more autonomous for this kind of event than for any other disaster," Mackin said.

In preparing for typical Alaska disasters like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, individuals are advised to stockpile three days worth of food and water, Petram said. A pandemic emergency kit, however, should include enough for a month, he said.

Businesses should plan for a pandemic as well. As much as 40 percent of the work force could be out sick or quarantined, Brodigan said.

Having a plan in place that allows people to work from home and allows the public to conduct business from home would be key to the survival of many companies, he said.

A business plan should also include an up-to-date phone list and identify the line of succession in an emergency. And disaster kits in both homes and businesses should include battery-operated radios and plenty of batteries, Petram said.

"What we're trying to stress is that ... you can't count on the government to come to your aid right away. You can't count on the state government right away," he said. "And you can't count on the borough right away. You have to be ready."

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<B><font size==1 color=brown><center>Bird flu fear pares National Zoo petting farm </font>

July 2, 2006
<A href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-zoo02.html">LINK</a></center>
WASHINGTON -- The National Zoo has removed the chickens and ducks from its children's petting farm to prevent the possible spread of bird flu from the animals to humans.

None of the birds is infected with the avian flu virus, and there have been no bird or human infections reported in North America. </b>

'Extra cautious' on bird flu



Still, the zoo is moving them to its research center in Front Royal, Va., as a precaution, said director John Berry.

''This is the only place in the zoo where children are actively encouraged to pet and touch the animals,'' Berry said Thursday. ''We want to be extra cautious.''

The 18 ducks and 27 chickens are part of the Kids' Farm exhibit, a two-acre area that opened in 2004.

None of the other bird exhibits is affected because the birds and visitors don't have close contact, Berry said. He said the zoo was working with the Agriculture Department on vaccines for its birds, particularly the ones considered endangered species, to prevent them from becoming infected.

The virus has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Most human cases of bird flu have been traced to contact with sick birds.

AP

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<B><center>Sun, Jul. 02, 2006
<font size=+1 color=purple>Uniting against a pandemic</font>

<A href="http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/14942781.htm">LINK</a></center>
When you consider that the word "pandemic" was one of the most frequently looked-up words last year on the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, you have to believe that it's on a lot of people's minds. There's been much speculation that an avian flu outbreak could spread across the continents and test the limits of governments, business and health care systems.

So what can be done to prepare for the possibility?</b>

The folks at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton have some suggestions for how collaborations could be developed between government, business, individuals, the media and nongovernmental organizations, perhaps minimizing the impact of a pandemic. The firm offers a detailed report at www.strategy-business.com/resiliencereport/resilience/rr00033.

The lengthy article avoids an alarmist tone, but could increase your anxiety level nonetheless as it uses simulations and lessons learned from past traumas such as the 1918 flu epidemic to support its points.

— Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press

Cultural revolution: getting rich

What would Chairman Mao think? China's rapid economic growth and cultural changes have produced about 300,000 millionaires, 400 entrepreneurs with fortunes of at least $60 million and seven billionaires.

That last number might seem small, Bloomberg Markets (July) writes, "but less than a decade ago there were none." Like just about everything else in the world's fastest-growing major economy, the magazine says, "The ranks of the wealthy are expanding at a breathless pace."

Bloomberg Markets sees China's billionaires as the progeny of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who proclaimed 25 years ago that, "To get rich is glorious." China has not yet produced a Bill Gates or a Warren Buffett, but the magazine writes, "You can't help but pay attention to the drive of its entrepreneurs."

— Cox Newspapers

VERSE TAKES EDGE OFF OFFICE FRUSTRATIONS

James Rogauskas (Thomas Dunne Books)

I had just finished moving into a new cubicle at work — stashing files in drawers, recording a new voice mail greeting, rearranging the Windows desktop. I was feeling self-satisfied, in a territorial kind of way, until I happened to pick up a copy of "Office Haiku" and saw this untitled composition:

Sitting at my desk

As proudly as any serf

On his scrap of dirt.

Talk about deflation. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, traditionally related to nature or changing seasons. As adapted in modern America, though, haiku is pretty much any non-rhyming poem of three lines containing, respectively, five, seven and five syllables. It lends itself to wry or deadpan humor. That's the direction James Rogauskas takes in this paperback. Rogauskas, who lives in Staunton, Va., explains that he "just started writing haiku to vent frustration at work." We second that emotion, as expressed in:

If you'd read my note

You would know the answers to

These stupid questions.

Great literature it ain't. But it's not bad as poetry for Dilbert-san.

— Nancy Szokan, Washington Post

keeping a finger on consumers' pulse

Michael J. Silverstein (Portfolio)

Boston Consulting Group analyst Michael J. Silverstein dissects the consumer mind and the trends driving the popularity of a variety of retailers ranging from eBay to Dollar General to Bath & Body Works in his new book, "Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer."

Written as a follow-up to "Trading Up," which Silverstein co-authored, "Treasure Hunt" also examines how and why shoppers trade down to cheaper goods — and cautions companies about getting stuck in the quagmire in the middle. Consumers are savvier than ever in applying a complex value calculus to their purchases, he argues. Silverstein is persuasive — and entertaining — as he argues that retailers must decide whether they are high-end, low-end or both to stay afloat in a deeply divided market.

— Washington Post

executive read

Who: Dee Thibodeau, CEO, Charter Solutions Inc., Plymouth.

What: "She Wins, You Win: The Most Important Rules Every Woman Needs to Know," by Gail Evans

Why: "Evans is a person after my own passion. Her book is about assisting women in becoming more successful and how all women must play on the women's team. She reminds us that the responsibility of top executive women is to get another female there, too....

"According to Evans, women have believed that speaking too loudly for other women may hurt them. She points out, as I believe, that when your general ideals are greater than your personal ambition, you gain — not lose — admiration and by pulling together we exert more power. Mentoring is an obligation. Women's willingness to do this helps produce a new well-prepared generation of women. We all need to nurture our relationships; they are absolutely invaluable.

"Evans illustrates that it is our own responsibility to hire women and think about women in business as well as in our personal lives. Creating 'webs' that interlock across every facet of our lives is a great idea all of us need to work on every day. This book got me going to even 'make more things happen.' "

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<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Bird flu vaccine may take 10 years </font>

Posted: Sunday, July 02, 2006
Paris
<A href="http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snHEAL_article107529_cnt.html">LINK</a></center>
Avian flu experts meeting in Paris have been told that a viable vaccine against the human form of the disease could take 10 years to develop.

Dr David Fedson, a retired professor of medicine, told the conference that there were well-documented problems with the H5N1 virus when it came to making a vaccine.</b>

Scientists normally grow such a vaccine from an inert form of a virus, using chicken eggs as their favourite growing medium.

According to Dr Fedson, who also worked for a number of years in the vaccine manufacturing industry, the vaccine produced from H5N1 was proving particularly difficult to grow up.

It was also proving ineffective at stimulating an immune response that would give a person a good defence against bird flu.

He told BBC News: 'Right now, worldwide, we can produce 300 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine, but it turns out that the H5N1 vaccine is so poorly immunogenic and replicates so poorly that we could immunise globally, with six months of production, about 100 million people.

'From a public health point of view this is catastrophic,' the former professor of medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, US, said.

'We have had reverse genetics H5N1 viruses available to work with for three years and after three years this is all we can say: 'We could produce enough vaccine worldwide, for 100 million people'. Is that good enough? I don't think so.'

Dr Fedson's views were echoed by Professor Albert Osterhaus, a leading European virologist based at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam.

He was involved in decoding the virus behind the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic.

He told the meeting that a global influenza task force was needed to get to grips with the situation.

Governments were in denial about the potential danger and this was the root of the problem, according to Dr Fedson.

The First International Conference on Avian Influenza in Humans has been taking place this week at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

=

<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Your Pets and Avian Flu and Policy</font>

, 02 Jul 2006 01:55:54 PDT Science
<A href="http://technocrat.net/d/2006/7/2/5111">LINK</a></center></b>
Around the world, people are *really* attached to their pets. So what happens if we have a disease outbreak, some epidemic, <b>and it turns out that the disease can be spready by common household pets?</b>

<B><font size=+0 color=purple> this is a poicy discussion going on at top levels now, part fueled by a poll that showed that over 60% of people would refuse an evacuation order if it meant abandoning their pets. And even more troubling, what would happen if a "cull them all" official order came down? </b></font>

"As medical research links house pets to SARS and bird flu, public health officials have something new to worry about: the risk that poodles and parakeets will need to be quarantined during an outbreak. <b>The worst-case scenario? A runaway epidemic that can only be stopped by dispatching pets to that big animal shelter in the sky."</b>.....more NO, not my princess jackal!!...there

Bird flu most deadly in teens and young adults

Click to expand...

Thus explaining why the military is most interested in us old farts re-upping for desk jobs and the such.

Hmmmm....notice a disturbing pattern developing here boys and girls?

Thus explaining why the military is most interested in us old farts re-upping for desk jobs and the such.

Hmmmm....notice a disturbing pattern developing here boys and girls?
__________________

Click to expand...

You know, you could be right about this, John. I've seen the USDA Forest Service Pandemic Flu plans (continuity of business plans) and they are advising each agency to provide three-deep personnel replacements for key positions AND to create and maintain a list of potential retirees that could be re-employed to fill in absences created by a pandemic.

And, just as an aside, USDA FS is directing each agency to purchase and maintain
a *3-month* supply of essential items.

garnetgirl

New Freedom said:

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060701_flu1.1767b0b.html


Health officials wrap up first pandemic flu summit

Bodies will be piled, respectfully, in ice-skating rinks and refrigerated trucks. Relatives will be asked to identify them by photo rather than direct sight. Trained laypeople will determine that death occurred naturally, filling in for overburdened medical examiners.

Click to expand...

Big Dot....

Body ID by photo, not by direct sight...

Laypeople determining cause of death...

OK, I can see the logic, but this kind of stuff scares the crap out of me!

Bird Flu Measures in Iran due to Critical Neighbors Conditions​

http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-745075&Lang=E

ISNA - Tehran
Service: Health and Care

TEHRAN, July 02 (ISNA)-Iran's Veterinary Organization chief announced that this organization's harsh taken measures within the country were due to critical bird flu conditions in neighboring countries.

"The exterminations are mostly because we have not received adequate information from our neighbors who according to international reports are currently fighting against bird flu," said Hussein Hassani.

Hassani also assured that there had been no sign of this flu witnessed in Iran and that this organization was ready to take any necessary action against suspected cases.

End Item

Bird flu kills 40th human in Indonesia​

Mon Jul 3, 2006 1:11 PM BST

By Telly Nathalia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A World Health Organisation laboratory test has confirmed a 5-year-old Indonesian boy who died last month was infected with bird flu, a health ministry official said on Monday.

His death takes the total number of confirmed bird flu fatalities in the country to 40.

The victim died on June 16 in Tulungagung in East Java province after being admitted to hospital on June 8, I Nyoman Kandun, director general for communicable disease control at the health ministry, told Reuters.

The infection was confirmed to be from the H5N1 avian virus by a WHO laboratory in Hong Kong, he said.

An official at the health ministry's bird flu centre who declined to be identified said: "There was a dead chicken near his house."

The chicken cage was 15 metres (49 ft) from the boy's home, the official added.

Indonesia has seen a steady rise in human bird flu infections and deaths since its first known outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in late 2003, and has registered more deaths this year than any other country.

Indonesia has 220 million people and an estimated 1.2 billion chickens, some 30 percent of them in the yards of homes in both rural and urban areas.

The bird flu virus is endemic in poultry in nearly all of the 33 provinces in Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands sprawling across some 5,000 km (3,100 miles).

Despite the climbing death toll, the government has resisted mass culling of birds, saying it is too costly and impractical.

Vaccination has been preferred to culling, which has been done only sporadically at selective farms and their immediate surroundings.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease but many countries around the world are on alert over fears it may mutate into a disease that could pass easily among people and trigger a pandemic, killing millions.

Indonesia drew international attention in May when the virus killed members of a single family in North Sumatra. Experts said there could have been limited human-to-human transmission in this cluster case.

But they stressed genetic analyses of the virus have not shown all of the traits that are known so far to allow it to spread easily among people.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...18_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BIRDFLU-INDONESIA.xml&src=rss

Thailand: BIRD FLU SCARE

Tuesday July 04, 2006

Girl taken to hospital​

A seven-year-old girl with a high fever yesterday was taken to a hospital in Phichit for blood tests for avian flu infection. More than 2,000 poultry have died in four tambons in Wang Sai Phun district in the past few days. The district has been declared as an animal disease infection area.

Local livestock officials warned local residents not to eat the meat of poultry that died suddenly. They were running laboratory tests on samples from the dead poultry.

The girl, who is from tambon Nong Son, was being treated at Sam Ngam Hospital. She had contact with dead chickens before developing flu-like symtoms.

Her blood samples were sent to Region 9 Medical Science Centre in Phitsanulok province for examination.

Pracha Aswametha, a livestock officer, said initially he suspected E. coli infection was the cause of the mass poultry death.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/04Jul2006_news09.php

Indonesia confirms 40th bird flu death​

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=131798

07-04-2006, 07h54
JAKARTA (AFP)

Indonesia has confirmed its 40th death from bird flu after tests by a WHO-affiliated laboratory showed a five-year-old boy had died of the virus, a health ministry official said.

"Results from tests on a five-year-old boy from Tulungagung, East Java, have been confirmed by the WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong," senior health ministry official Hariyadi Wibisono told AFP.

The boy died after being treated for eight days at a local hospital in East Java, Wibisono said.

"Reports suggest that he had been in contact with dead chickens," he told AFP.

The death means Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is on track to record the highest number of deaths from the H5N1 virus since 2003. Vietnam has reported 42 deaths, but none of them have occurred this year.

The archipelago nation, which has been accused of acting too slowly to curb the virus, has also reported the world's first lab-confirmed cluster of human-to-human transmission of bird flu.

The viral strain that caused the cluster of seven deaths in May however was a genetic "dead end" that could not have caused a pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Indonesian H5N1 Swine and Bird Sequences Are Similar​

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07040601/H5N1_Indonesia_Swine_Similar.html

Recombinomics Commentary
July 4, 2006

The recent meeting on human H5N1 bird flu in Indonesia included phylogenetic trees of HA and M genes. The HA tree identified two separate groupings of the human isolated, color coded in green. The Karo cluster was related to avian isolates. This group is shaded in pink. Another human isolate, IDN/06/05 is the second confirmed Indonesian human case and it is located on a nearby branch. However, the remaining human cases formed a separate branch, located at the bottom of the tree. The only non-human isolate on this branch is an H5N1 isolate from a cat, feline/IDN.CDC1/06. Like the other isolates on the branch, it had a novel cleavage site, RESRRKKR.

The presence of the novel cleavage site in human and cat isolates raised the possibility that the source of the human infections was mammalian rater than human. This first human isolate in Indonesia was in Banten in July 2005. At the time H5N1 was found in swine in Banten and a recent presentation included two H5N1 swine isolates from Banten, as well as 19 chicken isolates from locations throughout Indonesia. These are listed in a phologenetic tree and show that the swine sequences are similar to bird sequences in Indonesia. Moreover, the swine sequences have the common HA cleavage site RERRRKKR, which is in all but two 2003 isolates on the phylogenetic tree. Similarly, most of the Indonesian bird isolates in Indonesia are RERRKKR.

These data indicate the H5N1 in the swine in Banten are not the source of the H5N1 in humans in and around the Jakarta area. In the past year, the human isolates continue to point away from an avian source. There are now over 50 avian isolates collected between 2003 and 2005 in Indonesia. There are a few isolates with novel cleavage sites of RERRRIKR, RERRRIKK, RERRRK_R, and GERRRKKR. However, the vast majority of the bird sequences are RERRRKKR. In contrast, other than the Karo cluster and the second human isolate in Indonesia, all other human isolates form a separate branch on the tree and virtually all have an RESRRKKR cleavage site.

The failure to find a matching source for these sequences, other than one cat isolate, is cause for concern. This failure raises serious surveillance issues in Indonesia and raises doubts concerning transparency in WHO updates, which continue to point toward bird interactions, but fail to identify H5N1 in contact poultry and fail to find matching sequences in a growing number of bird isolates.

The human sequences continue to evolve, yet the sequences of the isolates remain sequestered in a WHO private database. The only HA sequence made public is the sequence from the first human case confirmed in Indonesia. That sequence was placed in the WHO database on August 1, 2005. The phylogenetic tree lists human sequences from over 25 individuals.

The time for release of these data has past.

As posted originally by Chronicles:

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=202840

Indonesian H5N1 Bird and Human Sequences Do Not Match​

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07030601/H5N1_Indonesia_No_Match.html

Recombinomics Commentary
July 3, 2006

The recent meeting in Jakarta on human H5N1 in Indonesia raised additional question on the origin of the human H5N1. The meeting included a phylogenetic tree of HA sequences from human, cat, and bird isolates. The human and cat sequences formed a separate branch which did not include avian sequences. The names of those isolates are listed below and are on lower branch of the phylogenetic tree.

The report in Jakarta also listed those bird flu isolates with their novel cleavage site RESRRRKKA. All such isolates are on the lower branch of the tree which has all human isolates in Indonesia other than the Karo cluster and the second reported case. Included in the lower branch is a cat sequence, feline/IDN/CDC1/06.

The slide that listed the amantadine resistant isolates included the age, gender, date, and location of the human case. These cases extend from the first reported case in July of 2005, IND/05/05, through cases in May 2006, IDN/554H/06 and IDN/557H/06. The cases include isolates in and around Jakarta as well as a case in East Java. Thus; although the human cases have been isolated for almost a year and throughout the island of Java, none of the human isolates match a bird isolate.

A recent phylogenetic tree has 19 bird and two swine H5N1 isolates from isolates across Indonesia. Thus, the number of non-human isolates in Indonesia now exceeds fifty and only the cat isolate falls on the human branch which has 20 H5N1's isolated in Hong Kong (in addition to corresponding isolates by the CDC).

The failure of the twenty human isolates to match the 50 avian isolates suggests birds are not the source of H5N1 in most of the human cases in Indonesia. In spite of this failure to match, WHO updates continue to cite bird deaths in some sort of association with the human cases. However, H5N1 is widespread in birds in Indonesia, and the sequences indicate that the correlation between human and avian H5N1 does not exist, based on the sequences described in the Jakarta meeting and released in the form of phylogenetic trees.

The failure to match human and avian sequences raise serious credibility issues regarding WHO updates. The two cased listed above were described in the Who update of May 29

One newly confirmed case is an 18-year-old man from East Java Province. He developed symptoms on 6 May and was hospitalized on 17 May. He is now recovering. The investigation found a history of exposure to dead chickens in his home within the week prior to symptom onset. No further cases of influenza-like illness have been identified during the investigation and monitoring of his close contacts.

An additional case occurred in a 39-year-old man from West Jakarta. He developed symptoms on 9 May, was hospitalized on 16 May, and died on 19 May. The investigation determined that the man cleaned pigeon faeces from blocked roof gutters at his home shortly before symptom onset. No further potential source of exposure was identified.

The isolate from the 18M, IDN/554H/06, and 39M, IDN/557H/06.were both similar to the first human Indonesian isolate IDN/05/05 and have the same RESRRKKR cleavage site. No reported avian isolates from 2003 to 2005 have this cleavage site or sufficient similarity to be placed on the same branch of the phylogenetic tree, yet the updates continue to use dead or wild birds as a likely cause of the human infections. WHO is well aware of the failure to find match bird isolates, yet bird contacts are used in updates and Indonesia uses history of contact with dead or dying birds as a criteria for H5N1 testing.

These approaches fail to address the true origins of H5N1 infections in Indonesia and create a climate of deception. The WHO and Indonesian approaches for surveillance and containment of H5N1 in humans in Indonesia are increasing causes for concern.

Indonesian human isolates on lower branch of HA phylogenetic tree

IDN/175H/05
IDN/07/05
IDN/160H/05
IDN/557H/06
IDN/177H/06
IDN/554H/06
IDN/05/05
IDN/195H/05
IDN/298H/06
IDN/542H/06
IDN/567H/06
IDN/321H/06
IDN/341H/06
IDN/245H/06
IDN/304H/06
IDN/239H/05
IDN/292H/06
IDN/286H/06
IDN/283H/06
IDN/282H/06

Lab test shows Phichit girl not infected by avian flu​

http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=23073

PHICHIT, July 4 (TNA) - The blood test of a seven-year-old girl with flu symptoms taken to hospital in Phichit showed that she had not caught bird flu, Dr. Prachak Watanakool, head of the Phichit provincial public health office said Tuesday.

The unidentified girl, who lives in Nong-Sano sub-district, was taken Monday to Sam Ngam district Hospital for treatment after developing a high fever and other flu-like symptoms.

She was reported to have had contact with dead chickens before that.

Dr. Prachak said the test results from a sample of her blood undertaken by the Region 9 Medical Science Centre in nearby Phitsanulok province indicated the child had fallen ill with an ordinary flu, not the more worrisome bird flu, and she accordingly had been taken out of quarantine.

Provincial public health officials led by Dr. Prachak visited Mab Krapao village in Sano sub-district Tuesday morning following reports of hundreds of poultry there having died in the past few days.

The sub-district has been declared as an animal disease infection area. Officials warned local residents not to eat the meat of poultry that died mysteriously. (TNA)-E009

Avian Flu hits South African Ostriches​

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/7455.html

Posted on : Tue, 04 Jul 2006 07:24:00 GMT | Author : Helen Steele
News Category : World

The South African government, Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs officials have confirmed that a strain of bird flu has been found on a western cape farm in South Africa.The South African government, Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs officials have confirmed that a strain of bird flu has been found on a western cape farm in South Africa. The outbreak occurred on a farm roughly 30 km west of the coastal town of Mossel Bay and the farm has been quarantined with all 60 of its ostriches killed in an attempt to contain the outbreak, department officials stated.

The Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute situated near Pretoria confirmed that tests on the ostriches had revealed the presence of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza. This is considered less dangerous compared to the H5N1 strain that was responsible for many bird flu cases across Asia, Africa and Europe. The H5N2 strain of avian flu cannot be contracted by humans unlike the H5N1 strain which is extremely pathogenic and has been the cause of human as well as extensive poultry fatalities.

How this development will influence South Africa's export status for ostrich and poultry has yet to be seen. Approximately 90% of local ostrich meat is exported and the agriculture department has already started negotiations with South Africa's trade partners like the European Union to reassure them that the outbreak has been curtailed.

Steve Galane, departmental spokesperson said that the problem was limited to a single area only and they were not considering any ban.

"It is hoped that, with the support of all role-players, the outbreak can be curtailed rapidly and that South Africa's export status for ostriches and poultry will not be affected," . "South African ostrich and poultry meat remains safe for consumption," the department said in a news release.

In 2004-2005 a similar outbreak hit the eastern and western Cape provinces and the country's ostrich export was stopped. The outbreak was successfully eradicated after 37 farms killed more than 26,400 birds and imposed quarantine and the European Union recommenced its ostrich imports late last year.

Indonesian boy dies from bird flu; more fatalities predicted​

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20060704p2g00m0in028000c.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia warned more human bird flu deaths were inevitable after a 5-year-old boy succumbed to the virus, raising the sprawling country's death toll to 41, the health minister said Tuesday.

"We will continue to have bird flu patients because we have infected chickens in 27 provinces," Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters. "It is only logical that there will be new cases."

The latest victim died June 16 in Tulungagung, a town in East Java, she said, citing World Health Organization-sanctioned test results.

She said the boy was suspected of catching the virus from chickens that died close to his home. Other family members have been tested for the virus, she said, but gave no more details.

Supari said Indonesia's current death toll stood at 41. The WHO lists 39 fatalities, though the U.N. agency often takes a few days to update its database.

Indonesia has been criticized for not routinely culling fowl in infected areas, something experts agree is the best way to stop it spreading. The government says it does not have enough money to compensate farmers.

Vietnam's death toll is the world's highest at 42, but it has not recorded any cases this year amid an aggressive culling policy.

Bird flu has killed at least 130 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the WHO figures.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that makes it more easily transmissible among humans. (AP)

July 4, 2006

Even the rich in the Hamptons (New York) can't escape the bird flu concerns;

East End residents concerned over dead birds

(07/03/06) EAST HAMPTON - Many East End residents are alarmed after rare birds washed up on the shore of several communities in the Hamptons.

About 20 Shear Water birds have been found on the beaches of Montauk, Amagansett, East Hampton, Wainscott and Georgica Pond Beach. Experts say Shear Waters are rare for the area and usually travel the Atlantic Ocean between Europe, Africa and North America.

Three of the dead birds are being tested by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for bird flu and West Nile. Test results are expected by the end of the week. Dead Shear Water birds washed up in parts of New Jersey and Maryland last year. Experts say those birds died of malnutrition.

Tue, July 4, 2006 : Last updated 9:29 am (Thai local time)

Human spread of bird flu ominous​

Recent evidence of H5N1 virus being passed among humans has potentially devastating implications

Last month's chilling announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that seven members of an Indonesian family who died of bird flu the month before may have been the first cases of human-to-human transmission of the deadly virus made headlines around the world. WHO experts were quick to point out that the spread of the disease within the family on Sumatra was not the result of a virus mutation and that there was no evidence to indicate this was the first step towards a global pandemic.

However, the world's top bird-flu experts, who convened a consultative meeting at the request of the Indonesian government last month, have yet to explain why only blood relatives - not spouses - became infected after one contracted the virus after living and working in close proximity to infected poultry. Some experts contend the blood relatives had a common genetic predisposition that made them susceptible to the H5N1 virus, but there is no evidence to support that claim.

Obviously, the WHO is doing its best to strike a delicate balance between not causing a worldwide panic and the need to prompt the international community to prepare for if and when the now-sporadic human bird-flu cases become a pandemic.

Indonesia has been among the countries hardest hit by the virus, with 51 confirmed human infections and 39 deaths. In Vietnam, 93 cases of human infection have been reported, and 42 have died, while in Thailand 14 out of 22 people infected have died. The WHO's latest statistics show a total of 228 human bird-flu cases with 130 deaths reported in several countries around the world since the first human infections were first detected in Vietnam in 2003.

The spread of the virus has raised fears that a flu pandemic could break out and kill millions worldwide.

The international response has been dramatic and robust. Wealthy industrial nations, including the US and those in Europe, have started to discuss plans for fast-track development of flu vaccines, in order to ensure that their citizens are better protected in the event of a flu pandemic.

Healthcare experts have warned that if and when the bird flu starts mutating and spreading easily among humans, the time it takes for governments and public-health authorities to react will be the most crucial factor. It cannot be emphasised strongly enough that it could take up to six months to make and market a vaccine. The best defence is for governments around the world to come up with a common plan of action backed by financial and health resources.

Rich countries can do a lot more to help developing countries - where outbreaks of human bird-flu strains would likely originate - step up their preparedness to contain a flu pandemic at its source.

Although Thailand has reported no new human cases of bird flu this year, the possibility of a renewed outbreak remains a constant threat. Compared with other developing countries, Thailand has done a decent job of getting ready for the possibility of an outbreak of the human form of bird flu.

The Thai government has stockpiled 200,000 doses of anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu that can be used to treat people infected with bird flu and is administering flu vaccines to vulnerable people like children and the elderly. These measures were implemented along with a nationwide monitoring system, the designation of outbreak areas, strict quarantines, mandatory culling of affected birds and a standard procedure to screen and diagnose suspected cases of human bird-flu infection.

What remains to be done is to develop a contingency plan for use in the event a sudden pandemic threatens to paralyse the country's economic activity, exhaust public-health resources and disrupt key public services like transport systems. Not to mention residual effects like a global economic slowdown. All of this the government and private sector must discuss, in order to ensure effective crisis management if and when worse comes to worst.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/07/04/opinion/opinion_30007926.php

Indonesia: 77% mortality

Avian influenza – situation in Indonesia – update 21​

4 July 2006

The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed the country's 52nd case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

The case, which was fatal, occurred in a 5-year-old boy from Tulungagung district, East Java Province. The boy became ill on 8 June, was hospitalized on 14 June and died two days later on 16 June.

An investigation found a history of chicken deaths in the boy's household two weeks before symptom onset. Laboratory testing of poultry in the sub-district confirmed the presence of H5N1 in chickens. Monitoring of close contacts has detected no further cases.

Of the 52 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia, 40 have been fatal.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2006_07_04/en/index.html

http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/....net/stories/?newsID=96157&section=editorials


Gaps in bird flu watch



The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now reworking the system of voluntary reporting by states and private industry monitoring the incidence of avian flu in commercial poultry flocks. A June report by the department's inspector general says the present system is unreliable and keeps the department in the dark. According to The Associated Press, the inspector general found the department does not know the extent of avian flu surveillance being done in each state and is not gathering consistent data that would indicate whether the deadly Asian strain of bird flu is present, and if so, how widespread it is.

These gaps raise public health and economic risks. While there have thankfully been no recorded outbreaks in the United States of the Asian bird flu strain that has created havoc among Asian commercial flocks in the past two years and caused 128 deaths, it is more likely than not to arrive on these shores, carried by migratory birds. Catching and quarantining any outbreaks at the earliest stage is the best way to prevent the virus from spreading and exposing Americans to the fatal disease. It is also the best way to forestall having to destroy large numbers of commercial fowl.

The economic impact of Asian avian flu on the U.S. economy could be significant. The U.S. is the world's biggest producer and exporter of poultry meat, the AP reports. The inspector general at the Agriculture Department said disparities in state testing procedures and coverage worry foreign trading partners. Flaws in the department's handling of mad cow disease exposed by isolated outbreaks and detailed in previous inspector general reports, have already caused losses among meat exporters. Prompt action is needed to upgrade the avian flu reporting system if similar or larger export losses in poultry are to be avoided.

According to the AP, the report also raised concerns with how the Agriculture Department tracks potential instances of bird flu. It found that employees didn't complete investigations within a week, as the department requires. The inspector general's recommendations "have only furthered our plans to prepare and respond to any avian influenza outbreak," said department spokeswoman Karen Eggert, noting that the inspector general agreed with department plans for fixing the problems identified in the report. That should be verified in a follow-up report by the IG as soon as possible

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...6&m=July&x=20060703120956cmretrop2.269924e-03


Human Avian Influenza Follows Seasonal Patterns, U.N. Finds

New study suggests Northern Hemisphere winter could bring more cases

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – A new study of the incidence of avian influenza in humans suggests that the disease follows the same patterns as seasonal human influenza with an increase in cases during the winter months of the Northern Hemisphere.

That tentative conclusion was issued in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER), published June 30 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study also suggested “an upsurge in cases could be anticipated starting in late 2006 or early 2007.”

In addition, researchers are cautious in qualifying their analysis of the 203 human cases studied, noting those cases represent only those confirmed and reconfirmed in laboratories with samples provided only by patients who presented symptoms of illness. There is no way of knowing, the WER said, whether these cases accurately represent all human cases of infection.

“Some patients may have died before being tested or diagnosed, mildly symptomatic people may not have sought medical care, and false-positive or false-negative test results may have occurred,” according to the article, which recommended further studies of at-risk populations.

This epidemiological study focused on human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza that occurred between December 2003 and April 2006. Other human cases caused by the dangerous H5N1 viral strain have been confirmed through May and June, bringing the current tally of human cases to 228, resulting in 130 deaths.

Humans have virtually no immunity to this viral strain, which appeared only in animals prior to 1997. So far, most infections have occurred after a person has had direct contact with diseased birds or their environment, with minimal transmission occurring from human-to-human. If the virus mutates to become contagious among people, international health officials warn that it could trigger a pandemic influenza with the possibility of millions of deaths and widespread social and economic consequences.

The analysis found that the mortality rate in the cases studied was 56 percent overall, but different patterns emerged when the cases were examined by age group. Young people are more likely to die from H5N1 infection, according to the findings, with a 73 percent fatality rate among those 10 years to 19 years of age. The lowest rate of death – 18 percent -- came in those over 50.

A similar pattern emerged in analysis of the patterns of infection. The median age of confirmed cases was 20 years, and 90 percent of cases occurred among people younger than 40. This finding contrasts with the predictable patterns of seasonal influenza, which takes its highest toll among elderly people.

The vulnerability of younger people has been noted over the months as human infections have grown. The pattern is consistent with the demographic patterns of the Spanish Flu epidemic of the early 20th century in which young adults disproportionately were affected.

The article cautions against inferring a link between age and disease exposure. The cases are occurring in countries where the average age of the populations is low, with a large proportion under 15. Therefore, the occurrence of the disease in the young might say more about population demographics than about the characteristics of the disease.

The activities of the young previously have been cited as a possible explanation for their apparent vulnerability to infection. Children play in yards where chickens are kept, and children often are assigned the role of catching, killing or defeathering the chickens as they are prepared for a family meal.

The contrast between the demographic patterns seen in H5N1 infection and those seen in seasonal influenza has been noted before and is echoed in this latest analysis. It is another aspect of the disease that demands further study.

The disease’s appearance in growing numbers of countries in 2006, increasing the opportunity for human exposure, suggests “that the risk of virus evolving into a more transmissible agent in humans remains high,” according to the report.

The full text of the article is available on the WHO Web site.

For additional information about the disease and efforts to combat it, see Bird Flu (Avian Influenza).

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.geese05jul05,0,3400951.story?track=rss


DNR takes a gander at wild geese
Crews test flocks for avian influenza
By Candus Thomson
sun reporter
Originally published July 5, 2006

Leonardtown // These days, Maryland's front line of defense against an invasion of the deadly bird flu looks, quite literally, like a wild goose chase.

On foot, in trucks and by boat, a team of biologists from the Department of Natural Resources is swooping down on flocks of geese to test them for avian influenza, specifically Asian H5N1, a strain that has caused the death of more than 100 people and millions of birds overseas.

Wildlife experts suspect that if the deadly form of the virus enters this country, it will most likely be through birds that mingle in the arctic during the breeding season before returning to their wintering grounds.

Maryland has been designated a "Tier One" state by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are at the heart of the Atlantic goose migratory route, which runs from Canada's Hudson Bay to North Carolina.

"The single most important effort we can make in the classic canary-in-the-coal-mine monitoring is testing wild migratory birds," says Paul Peditto, director of DNR's Wildfire and Heritage Service. "We are creating a scientific dragnet to be able to detect the wildlife carrier of H5N1."

Avian influenza has not been transmitted from wild animals to people, according to government health officials. Rather, captive waterfowl and poultry are believed responsible for transmitting the disease to humans in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The window of opportunity to test live geese is small - about two weeks - when the birds are grounded because they have molted their flight feathers.

So last week and this week, the DNR team is targeting farm ponds, wetlands and watery gravel pits from the Eastern Shore to Western Maryland's Washington County for the 800 birds that will be part of a federal database of 115,000 samples.

The task might seem easy, given the flightless birds' rather limited means of escape.

But these birds of a feather flocking together - especially in groups of 100 or more - are as unpredictable as the cartoon Road Runner and nearly as fast.

At a gravel pit in southern St. Mary's County, 150 geese paddling in water shimmering with the late-morning heat bolt as biologists arrive and launch their skiff. Before anyone can react, the birds reach the far shore, cross a gravel road and glide into a smaller pond.

"They're faster than a pickup truck," says waterfowl project leader Larry Hindman, with a degree of admiration in his voice.

Like a cowboy on a roundup, Brent Evans pushes his kayak into the pond and gets ahead of the birds to cut off their escape, while Dave Heilmeier circles the shoreline, clapping his hands to keep them from waddling into the tall marsh grass.

Honking in protest, the geese stream back across the gravel road, and re-enter the first pond, where Donald Webster waits in the skiff to herd them toward waiting colleagues.

The birds waddle ashore again and make a break for yet another small pond.

"Get in front of them! Make yourself large! Hiss! Clap your hands!" shouts Hindman, as biologists act out his orders.

Holding large frames of plastic netting that look like safety gates for babies, they move in until the birds have no where to go. The frames are tied together to make a small pen.

Team members grab the muscular birds, flip them over, tuck their necks under their backs and hold tight, while technicians from Cooperative Oxford Laboratory swab for fecal matter.

"Avian influenza is common in wild birds," says Hindman as he works. "We found a handful of positive samples here last year in ducks and geese."

But in 2003, a virulent strain of H5N1 attacked poultry in Southeast Asia and spread to China, Korea and Siberia. In response, Maryland conducted a limited sampling last summer with the help of Ohio State University; tests were negative.

When federal money became available this year, DNR officials expanded the sampling effort. To save money and manpower, the agency combined the project with its annual goose banding, which is used to track the population and the effect of the hunting season.

Dr. Cindy Driscoll, the state veterinarian, says DNR staff will be going to checking stations and butcher shops during hunting season this fall and winter to collect additional samples.

"It's too early to tell if H5N1 will come here," she says. "But by conducting preliminary sampling and coordinating with the Agriculture Department, we're doing as much as we can to be on guard and be ready."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3721468a11,00.html



Bird flu plans may force churches to axe communion
05 July 2006
By ANNA CHALMERS

Communion wafers, drinking wine from the chalice, and even public services in the Catholic Church could face the chop in the latest response to the threat of a flu pandemic.

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference has written to parishes this week outlining both immediate changes to holy communion and wider plans if a pandemic hits.

Practices effective immediately include priests using only chalices and bowls made of precious metals for the distribution of holy communion. "Research has shown that metal chalices are less likely to contribute to the spread of diseases," church bird flu epidemic protocols state.

Communion from the chalice and on the tongue would cease if the Health Ministry upgrades New Zealand's pandemic status from a code white (existing planning state) to code yellow (standby state). Catholics would be issued guidelines for worshipping in private.

Should New Zealand reach a code red status, or epidemic, then all public worship, including funerals, will cease.

"Of course we all pray that such an epidemic will not come about in New Zealand, but it is important for us to be prepared in the eventuality of such a happening," President Bishop Denis Browne said in his letter.

Signs are being sent to parishes demonstrating good hand-washing practices along with cleaning instructions, which include washing chalice cloth in hot soapy water and drying it in the sun, reportedly a more hygienic method.