12/09 H5N1 | China Re-Doubles Efforts Against H5N1/Iraq Under H5N1 Fears

=




<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>5th human bird flu case reported in Liaoning </font>

www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-09 01:36:54
<A href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/09/content_3896783.htm">Xinhua - English</a></center>

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A 31-year old female patient suffering from an unknown pneumonia in northeast China's Liaoning Province has been confirmed to be infected of bird flu virus, H5N1, according to a press release of the Ministry of Health on Thursday. </b>

The patient, surnamed Liu, is a farmer from Heishan County of Liaoning Province. Liu became ill on Oct. 30, with fever and symptom of pneumonia. She recovered and was discharged from hospital on Nov. 29.

The patient was found to have contacted with ill birds before she was ill, while her residential place has been confirmed as an affected area of bird flu.

She was once tested negative by the China Disease Prevention and Control Center, but on Dec. 5, a further test showed she had been infected of bird flu, according to the press release.

Local medical departments have put those who have had close contacts with the patient under medical observation, but no irregularities were found, so far.

The ministry has made timely reports to the World Health Organization, China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and some foreign nations.

=


<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Redoubled Efforts Called to Fight Bird Flu</font>

December 9 2005
<A href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/151389.htm">China.org.cn</a></center>

Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu urged local governments to fight against bird flu by relying on law, science and masses so as to strictly prevent the spreading of the epidemic and human infection.</b>

During a recent inspection tour to some poultry farms and villages in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Hui said the regulation on quick response to major epidemic among animals must be implemented conscientiously.

The Hehua Village of Chuxiong was hit by bird flu last month and quarantine at the region has been removed.

After inquiring about the epidemic prevention and control situation at the Hehua Village, Hui urged local officials and epidemic prevention workers to make redoubled efforts in bird flu control and prevention, while boosting healthy development of local poultry industry.

The epidemic situation in China is still serious and the task of prevention and control is arduous, Hui said.

Hui said that China must not underestimate the risk of bird flu expansion and the possible harm it will take to the poultry industry and people's health.

The related regulations must be fully carried out and quick response plans should be further improved, he said.

The quick response plan on human-infection of bird flu cases must be further improved to prevent the fatal disease from spreading to human beings, he added.

=




<B><center>Bird Flu Fears Hit Iraq

<font size=+1 color=green>While there has been no outbreak of the deadly disease, an import ban is driving up the price of locally-raised poultry.</font>

By Duraid Salman in Baghdad
(ICR No. 155, 07-Dec-05)
<A href="http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=258496&apc_state=henh">institue for War and Peace Reporting</a></center>

Although Iraq has not recorded cases of bird flu, a health scare is already driving up the price of other kinds of meat. </b>

The Iraqi government is attempting to prevent an outbreak of avian flu by banning poultry imports from at least 20 countries, including neighbours such as Kuwait and Turkey which have reported cases over the last few months.

The ministry of agriculture reported that in October, a dead bird in Erbil in northern Iraq proved not to have the deadly H5 strain. Tests run by the World Health Organisation found the carcase was infected with the H9 virus, which cannot be passed to humans.

But that has not eased the fears of many Iraqis, who are increasingly choosing not to eat poultry.

"We refuse to have chicken, even if it means we are forced to eat only bread and onion," said Samar Talib, a 37-year-old housewife in Baghdad who ordered her husband to stop buying poultry because of bird flu fears.

Those who still want to eat chicken are having to pay more for it since the import ban, said Hazim Sultan, 41, who owns a butcher’s shop in the Jamila meat market in eastern Baghdad. Sellers argue that their meat is safer than imports anyway, and have increased prices.

The government no longer controls market prices, and sellers at the Jamila market reported that the average price of chicken has risen from about 2,500 Iraqi dinars (a little under two dollars) per kilogram to 4,000 dinars since the bird flu scare.

Traders also report rising demand – and prices - for lamb and vegetables.

"This disease is adding to the suffering of the Iraqi people," said Saad Younis, a 35-year-old construction worker. "Many people on low incomes have been greatly affected [by the scare] as meat prices are going up and people are afraid to eat chicken."

Sulaimaniyah in northeastern Iraq is ordering live poultry markets to close for fear of a bird flu outbreak, the newspaper Kurdistani Nwe reported last week.

The government's announcement that thousands of birds have been infected with other viruses has not helped build public confidence. The agriculture ministry has reported that approximately 6,300 birds were infected with Exotic Newcastle Disease and another virus in the Nineveh, Baghdad and Babil provinces between August and November 2005. The strains, common in developing nations, are not necessarily fatal for poultry and cannot be passed on to humans, agriculture ministry and veterinary experts maintained.

In addition, 691,000 chickens were infected with the coccidia parasite in Nineveh province, and another 641,500 had chronic respiratory disease in Karbala, the ministry reported.

Isam al-Rubaii, the 41-year-old owner of a poultry farm in Baghdad, said his job was "no longer worth the effort" due to the falling demand for poultry.

Minister of agriculture Ali Hussein al-Bahadli said no poultry or eggs had been infected with bird flu, but encouraged Iraqis to buy only domestically-produced meat. Bahadli promised to slaughter any birds and compensate owners if they tested positive for the deadly virus.

The government has set up a committee of veterinary and health experts to watch for avian flu outbreaks.

Muhammad Sharif, director of the agriculture ministry's veterinary department, cautioned that the disease is difficult to stop because it is transnational.

"It holds no passport and will arrive whenever it likes," he said.

Bahadli also admitted that the government cannot be certain that bird flu will be kept out, since controls on its long national borders are still loose.

"Large-sized troublemakers [i.e. insurgents] cross the border, and the state can't completely control that," commented Rubaii. "How will it stop small birds from scurrying over?"

=




<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Bird flu kills Thai boy</font>

Thu Dec 8, 2005 11:03 PM ET
<A href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-09T040257Z_01_KNE914514_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-THAILAND.xml&archived=False">Internatonal News</a></center>

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed a young Thai boy, Deputy Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakula said on Friday.</b>

"The boy was infected with the H5N1 virus," Anutin told Reuters. He was unable to supply further details immediately.

The death took Thailand's bird flu death toll to 14 since the virus swept through large parts of Asia in late 2003. The H5N1 strain has now killed 70 people in Asia.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Possible Human Transmission Of Bird Flu Investigated</font>

By Kate Walker
UPI Correspondent
Washington (UPI) Dec 06, 2005
<A href="http://www.terradaily.com/news/epidemics-05zzzzo.html">terradaily.com</a></center>

There has been further debate concerning the possible instances of human-to-human avian-influenza transmission suspected by some scientists in Thailand and Indonesia.</b>

The suspected cases of human-to-human transmission are currently being examined by international health authorities, and there has not yet been any confirmation that the disease can be contracted from anything other than infected birds and their mucus and feces.

It is possible that the cases currently under review, that of two young men in Thailand, and three members of the same family and a nurse in Vietnam, do not represent the human transmissible pandemic much forecast in the media, but instead are an interim step in the infectious process.

Scientists and health experts have long discussed the possibility that H5N1 may trade some of its virulence for increased transmission, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of cases reported, but an equal decline in the disease's mortality rates, currently in the vicinity of 50 percent.

Dr. Charoen Chuchottaworn, the Thai avian-flu expert whose fears of human-to-human transmission were reported by United Press International Dec. 2, believed that the cases he observed where the infected reported only mild influenza symptoms yet tested positive for H5N1 were a likely example of the virus exchanging pathogenicity for ease of infection and theorized that the cases he had seen may represent only "the tip of an iceberg."

A report originally published by the Cox News Service said, "Planners believe that some person-to-person transmission has occurred but say limited health care resources in Asia make it difficult to detect clustered cases."

However, Dr. Scott Dowell of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "It is always difficult to be sure if you have a couple of cases in a family, because generally speaking, members of a family have been exposed to the family's chickens as well as to each other."

Although it is presently impossible to ascertain whether any form of human-to-human transmission has ever occurred, either of the high- or low-pathogenic variety, it is human-to-human transmission that health experts most fear, and the results of the investigations currently under way by international health authorities are eagerly awaited.

Meanwhile:

-- China confirmed its fourth human case of avian-influenza infection Tuesday.

A 10-year-old girl from Guangxi, in the south of the country, has been suffering from fever and flu-like symptoms since Nov. 23, although tests only confirmed the presence of H5N1 this week.

The girl, who is in critical condition, was exposed to infected birds before contracting the infection and is not thought to be an example of the possible human-to-human transmission suspected by some scientists in Southeast Asia.

None of her friends or family members has exhibited signs of infection, giving further credence to the belief that she was contaminated by sick poultry.

The Chinese government responded to the confirmation of infection by sending specialized infection-control teams to Ziyuan county, where the girl lives.

-- In response to the outbreaks confirmed over the weekend, and which locals claim have been reported without action since September, the Ukrainian government Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the autonomous region of Crimea.

Mass poultry vaccinations are currently in progress, and Ukraine has banned imports of poultry from the area covered by the state of emergency.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Bird-flu epidemic 'worse' than terrorism</font>

By Marguerite Higgins
<A href="http://www.washtimes.com/business/20051208-100743-5688r.htm">THE WASHINGTON TIMES</a>
December 9, 2005 </center>

Health care researchers and analysts yesterday painted a grim picture of how the United States would respond to a bird-flu pandemic as the government pressed companies to be prepared.</b>

A bird-flu epidemic would be "more difficult and worse than a large terrorist attack, bomb, dirty bomb or airplane slamming into a building," said Tara O'Toole, the chief executive and director of the Center for Biosecurity, a nonprofit health policy group and part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

A bird-flu pandemic in humans could cost the U.S. economy $675 billion, including lost work time and supply-chain disruptions, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released yesterday.

The report estimated 90 million Americans would be infected by avian influenza and 2 million would die.

Ms. O'Toole and other researchers urged business representatives at a bird-flu preparedness conference in Washington yesterday to assess how they would continue operating if a pandemic broke out in the U.S.

The conference came after the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday issued a checklist for businesses on preparing for a pandemic.

Suggestions included: planning for the impact of a pandemic on business, employees and customers; establishing procedures to operate during a pandemic; allocating resources to protect employees during an outbreak; and coordinating plans with state and local officials.

"In the event of a pandemic, planning by business leaders will be critical to protecting employees' health, limiting the negative economic impact and ensuring the continued delivery of essential services like food, medicine and power," said HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt.

Currently, the H5N1 bird-flu strain in Southeast Asia has infected 135 persons, killing 69, according to the World Health Organization. The virus, which has not entered the United States, has spread through bird-to-human contact.
But scientists are concerned the strain could mutate to a form easily transmissible from human to human, which would better allow the virus to become a pandemic.

Michael Osterholm, associate director for the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Food Protection and Defense, said the current virus strain showed clinical similarities to the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed about 40 million people worldwide.

"I do believe we could be on the cusp of a 1918 pandemic," he said.

The key to protecting Americans from an avian-influenza outbreak will be vaccines issued on a large scale, Dr. O'Toole said. "The problem is we don't have any vaccine readily available," she said.

The National Institutes of Health is working with several vaccine manufacturers to develop a bird-flu vaccine, but none is ready for the market.

The NIH also is stockpiling Tamiflu, the antiviral influenza drug by Hoffman-La Roche Inc. that is a viable treatment against avian influenza.

Roche yesterday agreed to license parts of production for Tamiflu to 15 drug manufacturers, according to U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who negotiated the deal with Roche.

Representatives for the Nutley, N.J., pharmaceutical company said the company is still in "advanced discussions" with the companies and no decisions have been made.

=



<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Reports detail bird flu effects on US</font>

Fri Dec 9, 2005 5:14 AM GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
<A href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2005-12-09T051351Z_01_RID567810_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-BIRDFLU-USA-DC.XML">today.rueters.co.uk</a></center>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A pandemic of bird flu could cause a serious recession of the U.S. economy, with immediate costs of between $500 billion and $675 billion, according to two estimates released on Thursday.</b>

Both assume the H5N1 avian influenza now destroying flocks of poultry across Asia and parts of Europe makes the jump into humans and causes serious disease.

So far, H5N1 has killed 69 people and infected 135, but world health experts say it is very close to mutating into a form that easily passes among people.

If it does, it would likely closely resemble the 1918 pandemic strain of flu that killed anywhere between 20 million and 100 million people during World War I, both reports say. This means 30 percent of the population would be infected and more than 2 percent would die, the report from the Congressional Budget Office presumes.

"Further, CBO assumed that those who survived would miss three weeks of work, either because they were sick, because they feared the risk of infection at work, or because they needed to care of family or friends," the report reads.

"In addition to workers' absences, many businesses (such as restaurants and movie theaters) would probably suffer a falloff in demand because people would be afraid to patronize them or because the authorities would close them."

Doctor's offices and hospitals would be overcrowded, the CBO predicts.

"Currently, the United States has approximately 970,000 staffed hospital beds and 100,000 ventilators, with three-quarters of them in use on any given day. As a result, shortages could occur in critical areas such as ventilators, critical care beds, and drugs to treat secondary infections," the report reads.

HOSPITALS SPREADING INFECTION

Hospitals would have difficulty controlling infection and might become sources for spreading the illness, the CBO said -- a fear echoed by another group, the National Center for Policy Analysis .

A second report from New Jersey based WBB Securities LLC estimated 35 percent of the population would become ill and 5 percent would die.

It predicts a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy.

"If the influenza affected humans at the same level of virulence as the current H5N1 strain, practically all patients would require hospitalization, which would result in a shortage of some 6.5 million hospital beds per day during the pandemic," the WBB report reads.

"Police, fire, sanitation and other critical service providers will be strained with short staff and overtime work, which will impact municipal and state budgets," it adds.

"There may even be civil disturbances caused by people who either believe they can take advantage of the situation or who feel they have little chance of survival so they may as well enjoy themselves while they can."

The reports support other predictions that have been made about the potential effect on the U.S. economy. The World Bank has predicted a pandemic could cost the global economy $800 billion a year.

U.S. President George W. Bush released a $7.1 billion bird flu plan in November but Congress has yet to fund it. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he hopes for legislation before the recess this month, but many conservatives are afraid the deficit is already too big and want to make cuts to pay for the spending.

One part of the plan involves building stockpiles of influenza drugs, which would not provide a cure but which might help make the most vulnerable patients less ill.

=



<B><center><font size=+1 color=red>Law firms gear up for bird flu</font>

By Stuart Fagg
December 9 2005
<A href="http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/articles/42/0c039642.asp">lawyersweekly.com</a></center>

Australian corporates and law firms, particularly those with large operations in Asia, are gearing up for a potential avian influenza outbreak, an issue that is pushing business continuity and people management questions to the fore. </b>

Mallesons Stephen Jacques, which has Asian offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Port Moresby, is taking a two-pronged approach to the issue. “We have a twofold approach – we’re looking at the people issues and business continuity planning,” said Carolynne Lepp, security and crisis manager at Mallesons. “In Hong Kong, it’s very high on the agenda, particularly among staff that experienced SARS a few years ago. We are developing protocols for stockpiling and distributing our protection equipment, and developing our policies in relation to travel restrictions and evacuation and isolation policies, and the different triggers and authorisations for all that.”

“In terms of business continuity, we are looking at identifying key people and processes, developing plans for working from home and updating our communication plans,” Lepp said. “We are struggling with the dilution of issues because there are so many other risks being presented for our Australian offices. We are also finding there is a shortage of vaccines in Asia, so we’re thinking this could be a potential issue. Another issue is keeping up to date with rapidly changing information.”

While many corporates in the region have had recent experience of dealing with health-related risks from the SARS outbreak in 2003, the people risk element of planning for any avian flu outbreak is breaking new ground

Experts say an outbreak is inevitable. “There is no doubt that an influenza pandemic will occur,” said Dr Chris Wilkinson, medical director at International SOS. “It will be an extended event of months or perhaps years – very different to other business continuity issues,” he said. “Any planning will have to respond to changing events quickly. Business will be disrupted, but the question is by how much?”

Experts agree that communication is likely to emerge as a key differentiator in how companies deal with any outbreak. “In addition to managing the risks of the disease itself, we also need to manage the outrage that exists within our employees and their families and within the community,” said Dr Chris Darling, manager, safety, health and risk at BlueScope Steel. “Our experience from SARS is that the amount of information out there on the web in newspapers all potentially create issues for our employees about confusion. One of the key pillars of our communication strategy is to make sure we get timely and accurate information through our intranet that our employees can rely on as their prime source of information on the outbreak.”

=


<center>:

Gotta Bump this to
find it, as usual</center>

=



<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Dangerous Unique H5N1 Mutation In Ukraine?</font>

<A href="http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12090501/H5N1_Ukraine_Unique.html">Recombinomics Commentary</a>
December 9, 2005</center>

The mutation of the bird flu virus discovered in the Crimea, an autonomy on the Black Sea, is unlike any other that has been found in the world and is extremely dangerous for humans, Ukraine's ICTV channel reported Friday.</b>

The above comment is cause for concern. More details would be useful. Breaking news via media reports is notoriously unreliable, but the above comments appear to be quite specific. Other reports have indicated the sero-type is H5N1, so it is unlikely that the change is reassortment with an H or N human gene, which has not been described previously for H5N1. The virulence of the H5N1 in the birds also suggests that the H has retained the polybasic cleavage site characteristic of Asian versions of HPAI H5N1.

The change sounds more like a unique polymorphism and is most likely to be on the H or N, which are the two genes most likely to have been sequenced first.

The potential acquisition of S227N on HA exists because H9N2 contains the appropriate donor sequence and H9N2 is endemic in the Middle East. However, that polymorphisms has been detected previously in H5N1 from Hong Kong residents who visited Fujian Province in 2003.

Of greater concern would be acquisition of some or most of the mammalian receptor binding domain. H5N1 wild bird flu sequences have acquired mammalian polymorphism found predominantly in Europe in the past. Since HPAI H5N1 has not been previously reported to have been in Europe before the latest serious of infections beginning in August, the potential for acquiring novel sequences is high.

In the past Russia has been very forthcoming with sequence data, which has been included in the OIE reports. Moreover, the have been prompt in depositing sequences at GenBank, including partial sequences from Novosibirsk as well as more complete sequences from Tula.

More deteail on the unique mutation would be useful.

=




<B><font size=+1 color=blue><center>Bird Flu Shows Up In Ukraine, Spreads Elsewhere</font>
Thailand, Japan, China Dealing With Cases

POSTED: 10:25 am CST December 9, 2005
<A href="http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/health/5500918/detail.html">themilwaukeechannel.com</a></center>

A Russian lab has confirmed a bird flu outbreak in Ukraine is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Ukraine's veterinary service, though, says it hasn't received confirmation. The country recorded its first bird flu case last weekend and immediately quarantined three regions.</b>

Tens of thousands of fowl have been slaughtered.

Meanwhile, a 5-year-old boy in Thailand has become that country's second bird flu fatality. Health officials think he came in contact with chicken droppings.


Meantime, Japan reported signs of the H5 strain in chickens on a farm north of Tokyo.

Authorities said about 19,000 chickens are being culled as a precaution. Further tests will determine if it's the same strain that's dangerous to people.

China's government news agency reported that country's fifth human case of bird flu. The woman reportedly recovered.

=



<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Bird flu could be spreading across Crimea: official </font>

<A href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/09/content_3901596.htm">www.chinaview.cn </a>
2005-12-09 23:47:03</center>

KIEV, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Fears have been expressed that the outbreak of bird flu on the Ukraine's Crimea peninsula could have spread to other parts of the region. </b>

"As of December 8, we had detected the deaths of poultry on new territories in Crimea," said a statement issued on Friday by the Health Ministry.

"As of December 9 the bird flu was confirmed by laboratory tests in nine villages. Dead poultry were detected in 17 villages," it added.

The disease appeared to be spreading north and south along the coastline, said the statement, adding that the main carriers of the disease are wild birds living in marshland on the Crimean east coast.

The new suspected cases were found in two villages near the Black Sea port of Theodossia in the south, in another village in the north of the peninsula and in Simferopol, the capital of the autonomous republic, according to the statement.

Further tests were required to confirm it was bird flu and establish the exact strain, said the statement.

In addition, information from Moscow confirmed on Friday that the bird flu virus detected last weekend in several villages in north-eastern Crimea is the H5N1 strain.

"This is so-called Asian strain H5N1 that poses a potential threat to man," Russian chief agriculture inspector Sergei Dankvert told Itar-Tass, referring to the virus found in the Ukraine and sent to the All-Russia Research Institute of Animal Protection for testing.

The disease has spread rapidly across the Crimea peninsula since last weekend, when around 2,500 birds died in a matter of hours in five villages in the region.

Earlier this week, President Viktor Yushchenko announced a state of emergency in the affected areas and the country's Emergency Situations Ministry seized about 28,000 birds in villages in a sealed-off exclusion zone.

No human case of bird flu was reported in the Ukraine so far, and the country is vaccinating the population in the affected are against regular flu to boost their immunity. Enditem