01/14 | Indonesia's confirmed H5N1 deaths rise to 12

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Indonesia's confirmed bird flu deaths rise to 12</font>

14 Jan 2006 03:41:10 GMT
<A href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP237235.htm">sourse reuter - www.alertnet.org</a></center>
JAKARTA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A laboratory in Hong Kong has confirmed Indonesia's 12th human death from bird flu, a senior Health Ministry official said on Saturday.

Hariadi Wibisono said the latest results from the laboratory, which is recognised by the World Health Organisation, showed the H5N1 virus had killed a 29-year-old Indonesian woman who died this week in a Jakarta hospital.</b>

She had been in contact with dead chickens before falling ill, hospital officials have said.

"We are still waiting on the other pending result, that of the 39-year-old man," Wibisono told Reuters.

Local tests have shown that man also died of bird flu earlier this month.

WHO-recognised laboratories have now confirmed 12 deaths and five other cases in Indonesia where patients survived.

The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily between humans at the moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability and set off a global pandemic which might kill millions of people.

It has killed more than 70 people in Southeast Asia and China since 2003. Cases have also emerged in Turkey, the first human infections outside East Asia.

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Bird flu spreads as Iran ruffles EU feathers</font>

Saturday January 14, 2006
The Guardian
<A href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1686210,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk</a></center>
The advance of Bird flu into Turkey and the resumption of Iranian nuclear fuel operations made for an unsettling week for Europe's south-east flank. At least three people died and 15 others were stricken in Turkey in the first human infections outside south-east Asia.</b>

Efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions proved no less fraught, as Tehran revived activities at its flagship nuclear fuel complex. The move abruptly punctured EU attempts to negotiate a solution to the dispute, and set Iran on course for a referral to the UN security council, and possibly sanctions.

The country most at risk from an Iranian atomic arsenal, Israel, was debating if it should get its retaliation in first if its arch-adversary does go nuclear; Ariel Sharon's condition remained critical following last week's stroke. Elsewhere in the region a US journalist, Jill Carroll, was kidnapped in Baghdad and two Britons were among more than 300 killed at the hajj pilgrimage - the worst incident at the Mecca event for 16 years.
In Asia two Thai fishermen pleaded guilty to the murder of Briton Katherine Horton and the continent from Bangladesh to Japan shivered in record temperatures: the mercury in Delhi fell as low as 0.2C, the lowest for 70 years.

On the way up were Samuel Alito, the controversial US supreme court nominee on course for Senate confirmation despite Democratic misgivings, and Nicolas Sarkozy, France's would-be president who rediscovered his poise after a reunion with his estranged wife. On the way out were Spanish general Jose Mena Aguado, sacked for suggesting the military might not sit by if Catalonia grabbed greater autonomy, and ageing French rock idol Johnny Hallyday, who said he was going to do the unthinkable - apply for Belgian citizenship.

01/14 | Bird Flu Confirmed in 12 Turkish Provinces; Suspected in 19 More

Bird Flu Confirmed in 12 Turkish Provinces; Suspected in 19 More​

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=127&newsid=80660&ch=0&datte=2006-01-14

Ankara. Turkish Minister of Agriculture Mehmet Mehdi Eker said two new cases of bird flu were registered in the Aydin province – in the central district and in the district of Kusadasi, the Anatolian Agency reported. This brings the number of confirmed bird flu cases to 19 in 12 provinces, and of unconfirmed case to 32 in 19 other provinces.

The provinces, where 19 cases of bird flu were confirmed, are the following: Igdir, Erzurum, Urfa, Agri, Bitlis, Yozgat, Ankara, Bursa, Istanbul, Van and Aydin.

Belgium


A suspected bird flu is being investigated in Belgium, a news agency has claimed.

A person has been taken to a hospital in the country after returning from the region in Turkey hit by the killer virus.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,15410-1209087,00.html

Influenza Deaths in Nepal Raise Concerns

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/09140503/Flu_Nepal.html

Recombinomics Commentary
September 14, 2005

Assistance Minister for MoHP Nikshya Shumsher Rana said that ministry attention was drawn to the published news, and cross checks found that 60 percent of the deaths were due to other reasons, like viral influenza and other diseases.

According to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit (EDCU), only 204 deaths out of the 1249 reported by the 2nd week of September 2005 were due to JE.

The above comments on influenza deaths are cause for concern. After the H5N1 wild bird flu outbreak at Qinghai Lake was reported, third party reports indicated that there were significant numbers of human cases in China in Tibet and adjacent regions like Nepal. India has reported a Japanese Encephalitis (JE) outbreak and media reports have indicated a high percentage of those cases were laboratory confirmed with IGM antibodies in serum or cerebral spinal fluid.

The above report from Nepal indicates that the majority of deaths there were not due to JE and that many were due to viral influenza.

Nepal was the origin of the dangerous California strain that swept across the world last season and is the H3N2 vaccine target for the upcoming season. The H3N2 virus is also evolving via recombination and acquisition a avian sequences, so an outbreak of fatal flu in the region is cause for concern, which is significantly increased by over 1000 deaths that include influenza

Sero-type data on the fatal flu cases is urgently needed. Prior studies indicated that containment of efficiently transmitted pandemic influenza had a small window of opportunity. Nepal is somewhat isolated, and that may extend the window for intervention, so sero-type data should have a very high priority.

24 killed by viral influenza in Humla

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=62583

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 14 - Twenty-four people have died and several others are affected by viral influenza in the remote hilly areas of Humla district in the past few days, the state-owned Radio Nepal reported Saturday.

Ten people died in Barai, 7 in Lali, 4 in Thehe and 3 in Kharpunath villages in the district.

Reports said severe cold has gripped the villages and the district is also facing the shortage of medicines.

ADMIN NOTE:

Merged PCViking's thread with this one so the Bird Flu info is in one convenient spot...

Belgium is testing a man for bird flu after he felt ill when he returned from the Turkish province worst hit by the disease, the health ministry has said.

Karim Ibourki, a ministry spokesman, said on Saturday that the man was undergoing tests to determine whether he had contracted H5N1 avian flu. He said results were expected later in the day.

There was confusion over the man's identity, with some officials saying he may be a journalist who had worked in Turkey covering the bird flu story and others saying he was a holidaymaker.

Ibourki said the man had done some work in the eastern province of Van.

"It probably is a journalist who had gone to Turkey to cover the spread of the virus," he said.

Meanwhile, Inge Jooris, spokeswoman for the committee in charge of monitoring for any trace of bird flu arriving in the country, was also unable to confirm his identity, saying it could be someone who had been a tourist in the province.

The hospital in Brussels where he was being treated declined comment.

Culled

The man checked himself into the hospital on Friday after returning from Turkey on Thursday, Ibourki said.

He said the man was not a Belgian citizen but was unable to provide more details.

Three children have died from bird flu and 15 others have been infected since the outbreak began in Turkey two weeks ago.

Hundreds of thousands of wild birds and poultry have been culled and producers say that demand has fallen significantly.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31A42D76-5766-4230-992B-FD763BC074AB.htm

(CNN) -- A person has been admitted to a Brussels hospital with flu symptoms after returning from areas in Turkey affected by bird flu, according to a Belgian government official.

Inge Jorris, Belgium Health Ministry spokeswoman, said Saturday the hospital had followed normal procedures and sent samples from the patient to The Scientific Institute of Public Health in Brussels.

Lab results are expected to be announced later Saturday.

The person's gender and nationality were not released.

On Thursday, the Turkish Health Ministry said laboratory tests had detected two more patients infected with the H5 subtype of bird flu, bringing the total to 18. Three of those cases have been fatal. (Full story)

Human bird flu cases have also been reported in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Roughly half of the patients have died.

The U.S. State Department said Friday the United States is sending a team of influenza experts to Turkey to assess how to help its ally battle avian flu.

Earlier Friday, the European Union said it had pledge $100 million (83 million euros) towards fighting the spread of avian flu at a conference on the virus next week in Beijing. (Full story)

The EU is co-hosting the Beijing conference, along with China and the World Bank, EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Brussels.

Eighty countries and 20 organizations are scheduled to attend the meeting.

The EU funding will be used to support developing countries in their fight against bird flu and the risk of the virus, she said. It also will be used to assist countries who need help, particularly in eastern Europe, north Africa and the Middle East, to strengthen their military and health services and reform some animal husbandry practices.

"A global threat needs a global response," Ferrero-Waldner said.

Meanwhile, members of the U.S. team are scheduled to arrive in Ankara on Monday to meet with representatives of international organizations there -- such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

They will then travel to Turkish regions affected by the virus to see efforts already under way.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent two experts to Turkey this week to work with the World Health Organization at its request, McCormack said.

After avian flu began to spread through Asia this past summer, U.S. President George W. Bush in September announced a world partnership with dozens of countries and experts to combat the disease.

In October, the State Department hosted officials from more than 80 countries to persuade governments to focus on planning for a possible pandemic.

In addition to Turkey, human bird flu cases have also been reported in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. So far, the virus is reported to have infected about 150 people, killing at least 78.

The number of people killed in Indonesia climbed to 12 on Friday after a WHO-approved laboratory confirmed the death of a woman, officials told The Associated Press. (Full story)

Avian flu has spread rapidly across Asia and into eastern Europe. World health officials fear the disease may spread through migratory birds flocking to the region or from the transport of domestic birds.

Experts say the deadly H5N1 virus poses the biggest threat in the colder months in affected regions, and could also spread in east Asia as people slaughtered chickens for Lunar New Year celebrations.

Most cases have been spread from bird-to-human contact, not human-to-human, although there are a few cases in which the virus is believed to have spread from human to human.

Health officials have said they fear the virus could eventually mutate and spread rapidly from human to human, causing a worldwide pandemic.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/14/birdflu.wrap/index.html

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/6-1-13/36781.html

An Expert Suddenly Goes Silent
By Li Zhenxiang
The Epoch Times Hong Kong Staff
Jan 13, 2006


On January 3, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced that a highly pathogenic bird flu epidemic situation occurred in Liuyan Village, Yang town, Dazhu County, Sichuan province. The photo shows workers getting lime to spread on the ground to disinfect on January 4. (China Photos/Getty Images)
High-res image (3000 x 2000 px, 300 dpi)

Hong Kong — On the evening of January 9, the Chinese Ministry of Health confirmed that a boy from Hunan Province, China, was infected with the bird flu virus H5N1. This news comes amid reports of delays by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in reporting the actual situation of the epidemic that have caused alarm in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, a leading Hong Kong scientist has recanted an earlier statement that the CCP has been concealing the bird flu epidemic in China.

The patient is a six-year-old boy in Guiyang County, Hunan Province. Before the boy became ill, some poultry in the boy's home had already died of the illness. According to a report, when the boy went to a clinic on December 24, he had symptoms of fever and respiratory infection. There has been no previous outbreak of bird flu in Guiyang County.

Different Standards Said To Cause Delays

An expert in chemical analysis from the Hong Kong Health Department, Mr. Lin Weiling, traveled to Beijing last month and subsequently gave an interview to the "Hong Kong Economic Times." He claimed that China delays in reporting bird flu cases because China's standard for a definite diagnosis is "much stricter" than the World Health Organization's (WHO), so that a confirmed diagnosis can take as much as three to four weeks. Furthermore, a case of illness diagnosed in Hong Kong may not be regarded as such in mainland China.

The WHO declares a definite diagnosis when the rapid PCR (Polmyerase Chain Reaction) test of two separate laboratories shows a positive bird flu virus response in the patient. But the CCP, in addition, requires a positive response from a virus isolation, or antibody test, a requirement that delays the diagnosis from three to up to 14 days.

Yesterday, in the Hong Kong Legislative Council's Health Services Committee meeting, many Members expressed their concern that the delay due to the differing standards may harm Hong Kong residents. The Committee therefore requested that suspected cases of illness be included in the notification.

Expert Who Revealed CCP's Cover-up Goes Silent

In addition to the government's own experts, the Health Services Committee invited several other medical experts and clinical physicians to attend. An associate professor from Hong Kong University's Department of Microbiology, Dr.Guan Yi, did not attend, but submitted an important scientific paper for the record. In his paper, he mentioned that there is room for improvement in China's supervision of infected areas, but he claimed that "he did not allege that the relevant government department had concealed the bird flu epidemic on purpose."

However, in an earlier interview with Hong Kong and overseas media, Guan Yi had repeatedly criticized the CCP for concealing the extent of the bird flu epidemic. His laboratory in Shantou, Guangdong Province, was closed because of his statement. When interviewed by Canada's The Globe and Mail, Guan Yi even indicated that he has direct evidence proving that the CCP had covered up the true situation, and that "actually, the bird flu virus is everywhere in China."

Chairman Kwok Ka-Ki of the Legislative Council's Health Services Committee is bewildered by Guan Yi's sudden disavowal of his former statements, saying, "I do not know whether he has any undisclosed problems; I hope not."

pixmo said:

ADMIN NOTE:

Merged PCViking's thread with this one so the Bird Flu info is in one convenient spot...

Click to expand...

Piximo... if you're going to merge threads... you might want to do better with the title.

Can you please correct the title? This thread has nothing to do with IRAN ruffling EU feathers... unless the Belgian is an Iranian?

Please use either Shakey's title: "Indonesia's confirmed bird flu deaths rise to 12" or
my thread's title: "Bird Flu Confirmed in 12 Turkish Provinces; Suspected in 19 More".

Thanx

UK awaits Belgium bird flu test
British health officials have said they are "closely monitoring" a suspected case of human bird flu in Belgium.

The Department of Health said the suspected case had not altered the level of risk to UK residents but its plans are constantly being reviewed.

Officials are testing a man for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain after he returned ill from Turkey on Thursday.

Three people have died and 18 have been infected in Turkey by the virus, first detected in poultry there last year.

Test results on the man, thought to be a journalist or a tourist, are due later on Saturday.

The virus has killed almost 80 people and thousands of poultry in south-east Asia and China since 2003.

Robust plans

All human deaths so far are said to have been caused by contact with infected animals and the Department of Health said it considers there to be a low risk of the H5N1 being spread to the UK by migratory birds.

But experts have warn that a mutant form of the virus that transmits between humans could lead to a pandemic.

"We have robust plans in place should the virus mutate further and pass easily from human to human - which could lead to a flu pandemic," a spokeswoman added.

"The World Health Organisation has said that the UK is at the forefront of preparations internationally for an influenza pandemic.

"Preparing for a pandemic is ongoing and we are constantly reviewing and developing our plans as new information emerges."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4612758.stm

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,15410-1209087,00.html

Bird Flu Fears Unfounded

Updated: 14:52, Saturday January 14, 2006

Tests have proven a case of suspected bird flu in Belgium was a false alarm.

Fears the deadly H5N1 strain had spread to Western Europe for the first time were sparked when a man returned to the country with symptoms of the disease.

The sick man had returned from Turkey on Thursday, where authorities are battling to control an outbreak of the virus.

The patient, who started suffering flu symptoms soon after his return, was treated at a hospital in capital city Brussels.

However, he subsequently tested negative for the disease, Belgian Health Minister Rudy Demotte said.

The H5N1 strain of the virus has already killed three people in Turkey.

Fifteen other Turks have been infected since the outbreak began two weeks ago.

Hundreds of thousands of wild birds and poultry have been culled and producers have seen demand plummet.

Rich donors have pledged to increase cash for fighting the flu and a team of US experts have flown to Turkey.

The deaths were the first human casualties of the H5N1 virus outside Southeast Asia and China, where it has killed nearly 80 people since 2003.

Bird flu battle steps up, Turkey patients discharged
14 Jan 2006 14:18:26 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Paul de Bendern

ANKARA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Saturday that three people who caught the deadly bird flu virus have been discharged from hospital in Turkey as the government steps up efforts to fight the outbreak.

Belgium's Health Ministry said it was testing a man for the H5N1 strain after he fell ill on returning from the Turkish province worst hit by the disease.

Turkey's government met on Saturday to discuss measures to help the country's $3 billion poultry industry, which is at risk of collapse after a sudden bird flu outbreak swept across large parts of the country, worrying neighbours.

The Agriculture Ministry announced that more than 590,000 wild birds and poultry had been culled, with efforts ongoing. Farmers are being offered around 5 lira ($3) per chicken, 15 ($9) lira per goose and duck and 20 lira ($12) per turkey as compensation.

The WHO, in Turkey to help authorities fight the outbreak, said three H5N1 infected people -- aged eight to 17 -- had been discharged from hospital.

"We have a total of 18 human bird flu cases -- three dead, and three discharged. This is good news," said WHO spokeswoman Cristiana Salvi.

"We still don't know if more confirmed cases will come because bird flu is still among the poultry population and humans, particularly children, are still at risk from contact with sick birds."

Rich donors promised to step up contributions for fighting bird flu, with the European Union pledging $100 million. The United States will send a team of experts to help Turkey fight the growing outbreak.

Roche AG <ROG.VX>, maker of Tamiflu, the best known drug defence against flu, said it would donate more antiviral pills to Asia, the epicentre of the health threat. Turkish doctors expressed hope that early use of the drug was helping save some of the young victims of the virus.

"What we have observed is that when cases are brought to hospital early and given Tamiflu, the treatment has proved to be effective, but it is too soon be certain," Salvi said.

The World Bank said the cost globally of preparing for and responding to outbreaks of bird flu will be between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, with needed for animal and human health alike, as well as the building of drug stockpiles to treat victims.

The virus still mostly affects birds but has infected about 150 people and killed at least 78.

The human victims of the disease had all been in East Asia until the recent outbreak in Turkey brought the virus to the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Three infected children died last week in eastern Turkey. The WHO said a four-year-old girl who died on Friday in the eastern province Van had pneumonia, not bird flu.

"Twelve (people) are still in hospital, but none of them are in severe condition," Salvi said.

WARY NEIGHBOURS

European Commission spokesman Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said the EU's executive body was closely monitoring the Belgian case. If the tests were positive, it would be the first confirmed human case in the EU since the bird flu re-emerged in late 2003.

Iran started culling thousands of birds along its border with Turkey to try to stop the disease from spreading.

France said it was extending its poultry confinement measures to 58 departments from an original 26 as fears grow over the virus, believed to be carried by migratory birds.

Romania, just across the Black Sea from Turkey, boosted disinfection measures on major roads and introduced luggage checks at airports, train stations and sea ports.

The H5N1 virus has been found in poultry in 26 Romanian villages since October but there have been no human cases of the disease.

The United States said it was sending a team of animal and human health experts to Turkey to assess the avian flu situation there.

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<i> I had thought not to post any H5N1 news artilces today - but events are occuring, and H5N1 is way too volitile (and growing more so).

That I find I must post those more informative/important news articles - despite my personal reservations..... Dutch</i>


<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>Mutation may make bird flu deadlier for humans</font>

London | January 14, 2006 4:39:17 PM IST
<A href="http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=219565&&cat=World">news.webindia123.com</a></center>
Researchers from the WHO, who have sequenced the bird flu viruses that killed two people in Turkey recently, are worried over their findings that a mutated strain of one such virus has genetic make up that increases its chance of transferring to people.</b>

According to them, this can make the H5N1 virus more adapted to humans than to birds, and more adapted to the nose and throat than to the lungs, thereby increasing the chances of bird flu being transmitted between people.

They however say, that it would take a sequence of mutations to spark a full-blown pandemic, in which disease spreads like wild fire from person to person.

"Adaptation to humans is a polygenic trait. It requires mutations in each of the eight segments of the virus's genome. Every one has to be correctly optimized to ensure human-to-human transmission,"

"You are talking multiple mutations across the entire genome," Nature magazine quoted Edward Holmes, who is studying virus evolution at Pennsylvania State University in Philadelphia, as saying. (ANI).

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<B><center>Turkey epicentre of war on avian flu

<font size=+0 color=green>Specialist has 32 patients hospitalized in eastern city</font>

<font size=+1 color=purple>`We are the experts now' in battle to limit sickness, he says</font>

Jan. 14, 2006. 01:00 AM
OAKLAND ROSS
FEATURE WRITER
<A href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&&c=Article&&cid=1137193811970&&call_pageid=968332188854&&col=968350060724">www.thestar.com</a></center>
VAN, Turkey—Three children are dead, and this snowbound mountain town high in eastern Turkey has suddenly become the new epicentre for international concern about a disease called avian flu.</b>

"We are the experts now," says Dr. Ahmet Faik Oner, chief of pediatric hematology at the Hascanesu Hospital, a rambling complex of four-storey, rose-coloured blocks on Maras St. in downtown Van.

For the past fortnight, the 47-year-old, Turkish-trained medical specialist has been in charge of caring for most of the patients in these rugged highlands who have been stricken by a bird-borne disease.

Previously, the H5N1 strain of avian flu had passed from birds to humans only in China and in several parts of Southeast Asia, infecting more than 140 people since late 2003. Seventy-six of them have died.

Now the same virus has come to Turkey, presumably borne by wild birds that passed the deadly micro-organism to domestic fowl, which then infected humans — 18 of them so far.

"Most of the patients are children," says Oner. "We think they all had close contact with chickens."

Despite the global attention now focused on this mountainous region of eastern Turkey, and despite the avian flu cases being treated here, there is still no sign of the kind of communal alarm that seized Toronto during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Among the throngs of pedestrians enjoying the winter sunshine on Cumhiriyet St. yesterday, nobody was wearing a surgical mask to guard against air-borne infection.

The main hospital here seems to be going about its business normally, with no shortage of visitors crowding through the steel gates at the dank, ill-lit entrance. But SARS was a disease that could be passed between humans, and that is not true — or not true yet — of this bird-borne virus now apparently winging its way westward from Asia toward Europe.

Currently, few people know more about the malady in its human form than does Oner, a slender, soft-spoken Turkish doctor.

Wearing a white lab coat over a dress shirt and a striped red tie, the physician perches on the edge of his chair in a downtown clinic and peers out through a pair of silver-framed eyeglasses, as he proceeds to outline the local dimensions of what many experts fear could soon become a global scourge.

So far at the hospital in Van, three youngsters are dead of avian flu; a child and a young adult have recovered from the disease and have gone home; three more infected children remain in hospital; two others are in intensive care and seem about to join the list of confirmed human cases.

Oner expects to know the official status of these last two in a couple of days, when the test results come back from a laboratory in Ankara, 1,200 kilometres to the west.

That makes eight confirmed cases so far — with two more on the cusp — representing nearly half of the 18 confirmed human infections that have turned up in Turkey in recent days.

So far, the only Turkish fatalities from the disease are the three children who died in the Van hospital early this month, all siblings from the mountain town of Dogubayazit, 185 kilometres to the northeast.

Health officials here stress that all human cases in this country to date have resulted from direct physical contact with dead or sickly domestic fowl.

But many fear that the virus may yet mutate into a form that could be passed directly between humans, producing a disease that could kill millions.

Here in this ramshackle but bustling town on the frigid shores of Lake Van, Oner is chiefly concerned with the fate of 32 patients at the hospital here, including 25 children and seven adults, who either are being treated for avian flu or are under observation for signs of the disease.

The sick are being treated with a combination of antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and Tamiflu, one of the few drugs that seems to be effective against the virus. Some patients also require cardiac-management medication.

With a population of about 450,000, Van is a bustling but less than beautiful modern city set beside a volcanic lake and surrounded by a stunning landscape of cathedral mountains and barren plateaus, all blanketed now in snow.

Previously, the city was probably best known abroad for a strange breed of felines called Van cats — fluffy white creatures each with one blue eye and one yellow. But notoriety has come now in the form of a lethal disease, one that may prove to be merely a harbinger of an even more deadly plague to come.

Turkish authorities are taking few chances and have ordered that all backyard poultry in the land be culled — an aggressive tactic that people here seem to be accepting with stoic resignation.

BREWER

PCViking and Dutch: Many thanks for the eternal vigiliance on the developing situation. If true[see underline snipet below] we can reliably assume that the standard line of 70+ deaths since 2003 which I seem to see 'thrown in' in virtually every MSM article is rubbish. Anybody have any idea as to even some rough numbers for H5N1 mortality figures so far to date?

Snip: However, in an earlier interview with Hong Kong and overseas media, Guan Yi had repeatedly criticized the CCP for concealing the extent of the bird flu epidemic. His laboratory in Shantou, Guangdong Province, was closed because of his statement. When interviewed by Canada's The Globe and Mail, Guan Yi even indicated that he has direct evidence proving that the CCP had covered up the true situation, and that "actually, the bird flu virus is everywhere in China."
Bump

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<b><center>[January 14, 2006]
<A href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/jan/1286120.htm">www.tmcnet.com</a>

<font size=+1 color=red>Avian flu 'may be spread by humans' Sick mother and child could be victims of first transmission</font></center>
(The Herald Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)HEALTH authorities are studying whether the latest fatal outbreak of bird flu in Turkey has been spread by human-tohuman contact for the first time.</b>

The World Health Organisation is examining a mother and her child who were infected with the virus to determine whether a mutation of the H5N1 strain has occurred which could trigger a global pandemic.

The 78 people who have died from bird flu to date are thought to have caught the disease from direct contact with infected poultry. However, Guenael Rodier, the WHO's head of communicable diseases and response, said yesterday questions had been raised by the latest outbreak.



He said: "When you have a mother and a child, and both get sick, you don't know if they both were exposed to the chickens, or if the mother got sick because she was caring for the child. It leaves room for some question marks. We have not documented every transmission story."

Preliminary tests have confirmed H5N1 in 18 Turks, including three children who died last week.

The Medical Research Council in Britain announced on Thursday that the H5N1 virus detected in Turkey had mutated into a form that could bind more easily to human cells than those of birds. A similar mutation occurred during the flu outbreaks in Hong Kong in 2003 and Vietnam in 2005.

However, there is no evidence that the virus has undergone the further changes needed before it can be transmitted between humans. The WHO stressed that, even if this was the case, the outbreak could still be contained and would not necessarily start a pandemic which could kill millions of people. Mr Rodier added: "The virus could spread like Sars and still be contained."

In Britain, health authorities have begun stockpiling Tamif lu, the antiviral drug which has proved effective against the symptoms of bird f lu, but there has been criticism from microbiologists that not enough is being done to develop an effective vaccine.

Despite reassurances by the Scottish Executive that a robust pandemic contingency plan has been in place since 1997, GPs appear not to have been informed of what measures are in place.

Mary Church, joint chair of the British Medical Association's Scottish GP committee, said emergency measures were being drawn up by the chief medical officer, but doctors had not yet been informed of them.

She said: "At the moment, the number of beds we have may not be sufficient to cope with the number of very ill people who may have to be treated. People who would normally be treated in hospital may have to be treated in the community. That would involve training non-medical staff."

As reports of more deaths emerged from Turkey this week, British vets warned that measures should be taken to keep domestic birds away from lakes and waterways where they could come into contact with wild carriers of avian f lu.

Bob McCracken, a former president of the British Veterinary Association, said the bird flu danger would be greatest during the wild duck migratory season.

The WHO has asked Turkey's health ministry for permission to conduct more intensive screening and tests in areas where outbreaks have occurred.

Patients seemed to be responding well to Tamiflu, Mr Rodier said.

Some experts have expressed concern that H5N1 could become entrenched in Turkey, and that a permanent presence of the strain on the rim of Europe would pose a serious threat to the rest of the continent, as well as to Africa, since the country lies on a major migratory route for wild birds.

Mr Rodier said he could not say whether H5N1 would become endemic to Turkey, but conceded: "We are expecting this constant threat for months to come."

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Two suspected bird flu cases 'critical' in Turkey</font>

Jan 14, 2006, 18:35 GMT
monstersandcritics.com</a></center>
Ankara - Two children suspected of having contracted the bird flu virus and being treated at a hospital in the eastern Turkish city of Van were described as being in a critical condition, the Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.

Doctors are awaiting test results to determine whether Fatma Ozcan (12) and her five year-old brother Muhammet Ozcan have actually contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. </b>

Dr. Huseyin Avni Sahin from Van's Yuzuncu Yil Hospital told Anadolu that the two children had been late in receiving treatment and this was the reason for them being in a critical condition.

According to the World Health Organization anti-bird flu drugs work best if given in the first 48 hours after the onset of symptoms.

The two children are from the Dogubeyazit region of eastern Turkey, the same region where the three children who died last week from the bird flu virus were from.

In that case all three siblings caught the virus after playing with the heads of dead chickens.

Hospitals across the country were treating dozens of people suspected of having caught the virus but so far only 18 cases have been confirmed, including the three dead children.

A woman who had tested positive to the bird flu virus was released from hospital on Saturday, bring the number of patients who have made a successful recovery to four.

Gulsen Yesiltirmak was released from a hospital in the town of Sivas after undergoing successful drug treatment after testing positive to the H5N1 strain of the virus.

The 11 others who have tested positive to the virus are still being treated at hospitals around the country. None of the 11 are considered to be in a life-threatening condition.

In each of the 18 cases the patients had come into contact with sick or dead fowl, Turkish Health Ministry experts have said. There have been no reports of any human-to-human transmission of the virus, a development which would lead to a pandemic and the possible deaths of millions of people across the globe.

Turkish media reported that a fourth child who died on Friday was suspected of having caught the bird flu virus but officials immediately claimed the two-year old had died of bacterial pneumonia.

Government spokesman Abdullattif Sener on Saturday announced that the government would be discussing ways to compensate the poultry sector after a massive fall in consumption of poultry products.

Speaking after an emergency government meeting with representatives from the industry that employs almost 100,000 people, Sener said the government would look at a wide range of requests ranging from loans, postponement of payments into state pension funds and the annulment of electricity debts.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Ministry workers continued to cull poultry in various provinces across the country where there have been confirmed and suspected cases of the virus. Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker on Friday said more than 450,000 birds had been killed in the last two weeks.

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<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Countries step up bird flu battle</font>

January 15 2006
Reuters, Van
<A href="http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/01/15/d601151302101.htm">www.thedailystar.net</a></center>
Rich donors promised to step up the cash flow for fighting bird flu on Friday, with the World Bank saying $1.4 billion is needed, the European Union pledging $100 million, and the US sending a team of experts to Turkey to fight a growing outbreak there.

Turkey culled more birds to try to stop the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus from spreading further, as did some worried neighbours.</b>

Roche AG, maker of Tamiflu, the best known drug defence against flu, said it would donate more antiviral pills to Asia, the epicenter of the health threat. Turkish doctors expressed hope that early use of the drug was helping save some of the young victims of the virus.

The World Bank said global financial costs to prepare for and respond to outbreaks of bird flu will be between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, with most money needed in East Asia and the Pacific region, followed by Europe and Central Asia and then Africa.

Cash will be needed for animal and human health alike, as well as the building of drug stockpiles to treat victims of the virus, which still mostly affects birds but which has infected about 150 people and killed at least 78.

The human victims of the disease had all been in East Asia until the recent outbreak in Turkey brought the virus to the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Three infected children died last week in eastern Turkey and 15 more people have tested positive. Authorities are testing whether a four-year-old girl who died Friday was infected.

At least two children, including eight-year-old Sumeyye Mamuk, were discharged from a hospital in Van, eastern Turkey, on Thursday after being treated with Tamiflu.

"She has completely recovered. This is a success for us," Van hospital Dr. Ahmed Faik Oner told Reuters.

Like so many other children, Sumeyye apparently became infected while trying to comfort a sick chicken.

Two people were admitted to hospital in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir for tests after showing "suspicious" symptoms. The disease has struck poultry in the area.

Turkey's Agriculture Ministry said almost 600,000 poultry had been culled across the country over the past two weeks.

Newspapers say the authorities may offer 5 lira ($3) per chicken, 15 ($9) lira per goose and duck and 20 lira ($12) per turkey as compensation.

"Our sales of white meat have plunged 80 percent in the last couple of days. People are avoiding chicken. They choose other dishes instead," said Van egg producer Resat Baytar.

Iran started culling thousands of birds along its border with Turkey to try to stop the disease from spreading.

France said it was extending its poultry confinement measures to 58 departments from an original 26 as fears grow over a virus believed to be carried by migratory birds.

Romania, just across the Black Sea from Turkey, boosted disinfection measures on major roads and introduced luggage checks at airports, train stations and sea ports.

Yep, Mr. Aerial Dutchman, a great title by the way, the comments about China are probably totally accurate. Anyone want to take a guess at how many thousands are really dead there? I thought not.

Indonesia just keeps dying in drips. LIke I said before, a global pandemic is a process and not an event. We will be in a pandemic before TPTB officially announce it. The mutation stories are hinting, beating around the bush, on human to human transmission. They just don't have the cajones to admit it openly for panic suppression reasons.

So Flyer, do you think Turkey will go critical or do we have several more months before it begins to impact the west directly? I vote it will cruise along the rest of the year, explode in Indonesia in their winter, our spring and summer, and then cream us this October.


boy am I getting optimistic in my old age.

BREWER said:

PCViking and Dutch: Many thanks for the eternal vigiliance on the developing situation. If true[see underline snipet below] we can reliably assume that the standard line of 70+ deaths since 2003 which I seem to see 'thrown in' in virtually every MSM article is rubbish. Anybody have any idea as to even some rough numbers for H5N1 mortality figures so far to date?

Snip: However, in an earlier interview with Hong Kong and overseas media, Guan Yi had repeatedly criticized the CCP for concealing the extent of the bird flu epidemic. His laboratory in Shantou, Guangdong Province, was closed because of his statement. When interviewed by Canada's The Globe and Mail, Guan Yi even indicated that he has direct evidence proving that the CCP had covered up the true situation, and that "actually, the bird flu virus is everywhere in China."
Bump

Click to expand...

2 months ago a story leaked out of China, by Boxun (a Chinese overseas news service), that there were thousands of people sick and hundreds of people dead... You can find the story in http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=176252 Post #3. Within days, the Chinese government clamped down and news died...

When SARS was the rage or virtual epidemic 2 years ago, the Asian economies took a severe hit. With AF, it appears that the MSM, WHO, CDC are more interested in comforting the populace, so as not to disrupt commerce... We are told to prep but not to worry...

Some predicted last fall that when AF arrived, it would be misdiagnosed as anything but Avian Flu... such as NewCastle Flu or California Flu (could it be a milder AF?)...

How many people are sick/dead??? We just need to read between the lines. As for the MSM & WHO & CDC... follow the money... Watch the leaks, like the Belgian guy today... then see how, and how quickly they're plugged... At some point they're not going to be able to quash the news any longer.

The best case is if AF becomes very strong and burns itself out...
The worst case if if AF is weak and gains strength (what might be happening in Turkey?). In 1918, the Spanish Flu sputtered a bit before it took hold... it was even mild on the first round, but then terrible the next time it came back... SF went in waves.