02/08 | Death prompts Iraqi officials to suspect bird flu

Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=185624

Death prompts Iraqi officials to suspect bird flu
Third possible victim raises fears that deadly H5N1 virus is spreading​

The Associated Press
Updated: 7:10 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fears that bird flu may have spread to southern Iraq rose Tuesday when authorities announced they were investigating whether a teenage pigeon seller had died of the virus — Iraq’s third suspected case.

In Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, health officials said 14-year-old Muhannad Radhi Zaouri died Sunday. His blood was being tested for bird flu, said Dr. Haider Abdul-Ridha, director of the communicable disease department at Amarah health department.

Iraq’s first confirmed human case of the deadly H5N1 strain was a 15-year-old girl who died Jan. 17 in Kurdistan. The girl’s uncle died Jan. 27, and health authorities are waiting to learn if he also contracted bird flu.

It could take up to 10 days for results from the Baghdad laboratory that is trying to determine whether Zaouri died of the strain. Authorities removed all the pigeons from the boy’s house — including some that later died — and are testing the birds.

A U.S. official in Baghdad said if the Amarah death is confirmed as bird flu, it could indicate that migratory birds unaffected by the virus were still capable of spreading it along their flight path.

“It bodes concern that migratory ducks and geese have carried the virus, not gotten sick and been able to infect other domestic birds, which in turn infected a human,” the official said on condition he not be identified as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.

Migratory birds have carried the disease from East Asia to Turkey and paths followed by ducks and geese do run through Iraq, starting at a northern reservoir near the town where the girl who died came from, and stretching south along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Along the way, birds stop in Iraq’s southern marshlands before heading toward Kuwait and South Africa.

Iraqi health officials have been working to contain the outbreak, slaughtering more than 500,000 birds.

According to the World Health Organization, about 160 cases of the virus have been reported worldwide, and at least 85 people have died. Almost all of those who died were in Asia, and most are believed to have come into contact with infected birds.

Experts fear the strain could mutate into a form easily transmissible from human to human and spark a worldwide pandemic.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11226119/

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>China reports new bird flu outbreak in Shanxi</font>
(Reuters)

Updated: 2006-02-08 09:27
<A href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/08/content_518170.htm">www.chinadaily.com</a></center>
China reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu on Wednesday on a chicken farm in the northern province of Shanxi, and the Agriculture Ministry said it had been brought under control.

By February 3, some 15,000 chickens on the farm in Shanxi's Yijing township, part of Yangquan city, had died and on Tuesday they were confirmed to have the H5N1 strain, the report said. </b>

Teams from the Agriculture Ministry had been sent to Yijing, where more than 187,000 chickens were culled, and the outbreak had been brought under control, it said.

Scientists fear that bird flu, which has killed at least 88 people around the world since it re-emerged in late 2003, could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a deadly pandemic.

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Bird Flu Strain Diversified, May Be Harder to Conquer</font>

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

February 7, 2006
<A href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_060207_bird_flu.html">news.nationalgeographic.com</a></center>
Scientists may need to cast a much wider net to track and curb the spread of bird flu, a new study suggests.

That's because the deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain has several distinct genetic branches, or sublineages, spread across several geographic regions, the research shows. </b>

Robert Webster, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and in the department of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, co-authored the study.

He says the variations may pose a troubling puzzle for scientists hoping to develop effective, strain-specific human vaccines to battle a possible pandemic.

"The virus in Turkey is different from the one in Indonesia, which is different from the one in Vietnam, and so on," Webster said. "We have no idea which might be the one that takes off—if any of them do."

Webster and colleagues report their findings in this week's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Experts warn that if any sublineage of H5N1 mutates into a form that can be easily transferred between people, a global pandemic could be imminent and result in tens of millions of deaths.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that H5N1 has so far infected about 160 people in 7 countries, killing at least 85 worldwide since the first bird-to-human transmission in 2003.

(Read an excerpt from a National Geographic magazine feature about bird flu.)

More Complex Than Thought

While tracking poultry around Southeast Asia, Webster and his team found that different geographical locales feature distinct sublineages of the disease. They have identified at least four branches so far.

"This is the first clear indication that the H5N1 situation is more complicated than we think," said Hon Ip, diagnostic virologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

"[It is] getting more complicated, and any pandemic-vaccination planning had better take some of this complexity into account."

"Webster has shown that the different H5N1 sublineages are starting to diversify," Ip continued.

"And if we choose one particular strain of H5N1 to make a pandemic vaccine with, say the Dk/HN/5806/03, will the vaccine confer protection when the pandemic virus is Vietnam/1194/04?"

No one can be sure, but scientists do hope that despite the newfound diversity, vaccines in development could prove at least partially effective.

Karen Lacourciere is an influenza program officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

"Even a vaccine made using a strain that's not a perfect match for a virus that may emerge, but based on a similar strain, could lessen the impact," she said. "You'd expect some benefit."

Healthy Birds More Dangerous Than Dead Ones

In addition to their diversity findings, the team detected the virus among apparently healthy birds in areas where deadly flu outbreaks have not appeared.

This is an especially troubling development, Webster notes.

"Don't worry about the [birds] that died, it's those that are alive and apparently healthy and hosting this virus [that are of greatest concern]," he said.

Authorities must fight the temptation to conclude that there is no bird flu problem among populations that appear healthy, he said.

"When the birds appear healthy but they are [carrying] this virus, then you've got a serious problem," he said.

"So you have to look at doing sampling of healthy birds, as Thailand has done. … But to do that sort of thing in China would be a huge amount of work."

Infected wild birds further complicate surveillance of the disease. Migratory birds were found to carry the deadly strain when tested prior to their lengthy flights.

"In the past a lot of people have blamed migratory birds for continually reinfecting the domestic poultry," NIAID's Lacourciere said.

"But these data show that H5N1 can be perpetuated by a cycle between domestic and migratory birds. Poultry may sometimes be responsible for reinfecting migratory birds," Ip said.

Most humans afflicted by bird flu likely caught the disease from proximity to domestic animals.

The paper's authors stress the need for surveillance in a broad geographic target area to include as many different genetic variations of the deadly strain as possible.

"This paper points the way that monitoring has to be done," said USGS's Ip.

"We need to look beyond the presence of H5N1, and we have to look at the virus's genetic sequence in detail. It has to be done in different avian populations—terrestrial domestic birds, domestic ducks and geese, and wild migratory birds.

"And more of the kind of analysis like that in this paper is needed in order to assess the ways that the virus is evolving and spreading."

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<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>WHO Criticized for Withholding Information Regarding Human to Human Transmission of Avian Bird Flu </font></b>
<A href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/2/prweb342786.htm">www.prweb.com</a></center>
<i>This new forum has gained a lot attention since Dr. Niman recently released commentaries warning that human to human transmission has now become more efficient and the WHO’s failure to provide important information is cause for concern.</i>

<b>(PRWEB) February 6, 2006 -- Avian Flu Talk recently announced the launch of its highly successful H5N1 bird flu discussion forum. The new forum is growing rapidly each day as it is now approaching 400 members in the last 90 days. </b>

The site recently created a new forum that is dedicated to discussing commentaries issued by leading expert of infectious diseases, Dr. Henry Niman, founder of the website Recombinomics.com. This new forum has gained a lot attention since Dr. Niman recently released commentaries warning that human to human transmission has now become more efficient and the WHO’s failure to provide important information is cause for concern.

“H5N1 is expanding its geographical reach via migratory birds and expanding its host range via acquisition of genetic changes by recombining its genetic information with other flu viruses,” said Dr. Henry Niman of Recombinomics, Inc.

“The outbreaks in Turkey are expanding into neighboring countries, but this region lacks transparency. The WHO is withholding important information regarding onset dates and relationships between infected people. The data indicate H5N1 transmission to humans is becoming more efficient, and these developments are not being covered well in the popular media,” Dr. Henry Niman said.

<b>Dr. Niman fears that the bird flu virus may soon undergo the final genetic mutation which will result in sustained human to human transmission. </b>

“Some of the genetic changes, which allow H5N1 to grow more efficiently at lower temperatures or bind to human receptors more efficiently, are too detailed for many of the media reports”, said Dr. Niman.

Since adding Dr. Niman’s commentaries to the Avian Flu Talk forum, the website has truly become a great source for receiving the latest bird flu news. Forums like Avian Flu Talk allow for discussion of ongoing developments, almost in real time, and provide a useful function for educating the public.

To view this very popular new discussion forum, visit www.AvianFluTalk.com

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<B><center>Monday, Feb 06, 2006
<font size=+1 color=blue>Uncontrolled bird flu in China has seeded outbreaks in Vietnam and beyond: study</font>
<A href="http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=ontario_home&articleID=2163456">www.mytelus.com</a></center>
TORONTO (CP) - Genetic analysis of H5N1 avian flu viruses collected from wild and domestic birds in China suggests the virus has spread in uncontrolled fashion in southern China for the past decade, igniting outbreaks in Vietnam on at least three occasions and triggering spread of the worrisome virus across Russia to eastern Europe, a study released Monday suggests. </b>

The study also provides what could be a smoking gun in the heated dispute about whether migratory birds are actually playing a role in moving the virus across the globe. A number of wildlife experts have insisted migratory birds are not to blame, but this study contends genetic analysis shows there can be no other explanation.

"I've spent most of my life working with wild birds and I'm sympathetic. But you can't hide the facts that wild birds are most probably involved in the spread of this thing now," said leading avian influenza expert Dr. Robert Webster, one of the authors of the paper.

Webster and his co-authors - researchers from institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia - argue the only way to minimize the damage done by the virus and reduce the risk it poses to human health is by addressing the problem at the virus's birthplace, in the poultry flocks of southern China.

"We have shown that H5N1 virus has persisted in its birthplace, southern China, for almost 10 years and has been repeatedly introduced into neighbouring (e.g. Vietnam) and distant (e.g. Indonesia) regions, establishing 'colonies' of H5N1 viruses throughout Asia that directly exacerbate the pandemic threat," they said in the article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Therefore control of this regional epizootic and its attendant pandemic threat requires that the source of virus in southern China be contained."

Doing that won't be easy, especially in light of another finding Webster and his colleagues reported.

They discovered instances where seemingly healthy chickens in Chinese poultry markets were shedding the virus. To date, chickens have been like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine with H5N1, which has killed millions of chickens across Asia.

It's not clear why the chickens didn't succumb to the virus. The authors suggest they may have been vaccinated or protected by previous exposure to a similar but not lethal virus. But one thing is clear: if chickens are able to survive infection but continue to shed the virus, tracing its spread will become much more difficult.

"It's not a case of 'there are dead birds and they are hiding it'. (That) there are no dead birds is the problem," Webster said in an interview from Hong Kong.

"The pernicious thing is that there are these perfectly healthy birds that you walk into the markets day after day after day and the virus is always there."

The researchers collected viruses over several years from wild birds in the Mai Po marshes of Hong Kong and at Poyang Lake in eastern China, and from swabs taken from apparently healthy poultry in markets across southern China.

They generated genetic sequences of the H5N1 viruses, comparing them to each other and to other previously sequenced viruses on what are called phylogenetic trees. These charts, the equivalent of a family tree, can identify where a virus came from by finding viruses to which it is most closely genetically related.


The charts the group generated suggest viruses from domestic poultry in southern China infected wild ducks in early 2005. Ducks took those viruses to Poyang Lake in eastern China and from there to Qinghai Lake in western China, more than 1,700 kilometres away. The viruses were responsible for a large die-off of wild birds at Qinghai Lake - a wild bird reserve - that occurred last May.

"That was the tipping point. The virus really got into the migratory birds at that point," Webster, who is based at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said of the Qinghai Lake incident.

Recent analysis of viruses from the first two human cases of H5N1 infection in Turkey showed they were closely related to viruses isolated at Qinghai Lake.

"Genetic relatedness of gene segments from H5N1 viruses isolated at Poyang and Qinghai Lakes strongly argues that migratory birds can transfer the virus over long distances," the authors said.

"This possibility may provide insight into reported H5N1 outbreaks in Mongolia, Siberian Russia and Europe that have been linked to migratory birds."

Earl Brown, a virologist who specializes in the evolution of influenza virus virulence, said the work done by this group helps scientists figure out what is going on with the H5N1 viruses.

"It puts details on the evolutionary story," said Brown, who is based at the University of Ottawa.

"This links the dots from southern China to this Poyang Lake to Qinghai. And then it sort of gets out from there even broader. But it's very important to know where the virus is coming from, what it's doing in the different places, like what birds (it infects) and what disease (it causes) and that sort of thing."

The study also noted there are a number of distinct clades or families of viruses in birds. Previous genetic analysis of viruses isolated from human cases showed two distinct clades.

That finding has implications for production of vaccines against H5N1, as a vaccine produced using a virus from one clade might offer at best partial protection against a virus from another.

The authors suggest multiple seed strains or vaccine starters should be made and kept at the ready. The World Health Organization actually commissioned that work last October.

A WHO avian flu expert suggested this work is a reminder of how important it is to keep on top of how the virus is evolving.

"It's very important to do this kind surveillance so that we know what's going on. And we're hopeful, since there are some clear differences, that these viruses will be made available to other investigators to do further analysis," said Michael Perdue, who is with WHO's global influenza program.

By Marc Siegel
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, at 1:57 PM ET

To protect the world against bird flu, we need a vaccine for both birds and people that can be made quickly and that immunizes against several different strains of the virus. The current antiquated process for making flu vaccines succeeds on neither front. A new method described in the British journal Lancet this week, however, could. Its preliminary success suggests that vaccine makers should switch over as quickly as possible to modern techniques using reverse genetics.

The new vaccine, the second of its kind to be reported this year, takes a benign human cold virus (adenovirus) and genetically alters it to resemble the dreaded H5N1 bird flu; the results produced in mice 100 percent immunity to several strains of flu. In light of this strong immune response, the adenovirus vaccine is likely to prove useful in humans. It could cut down the lead time for vaccine manufacture significantly and cover a larger number of virus subtypes. President Bush's $7.1 billion plan for preparing for a flu pandemic included $2.7 billion for flu-vaccine research; $3.8 billion of the total was approved by Congress for 2006. This week, the president asked for another $500 million for research for 2007. Some of the money should help us transition to the adenovirus vaccine, or another one like it. But far more government involvement is needed to ensure that the transition is quick and effective.

After clueless unprepared hospitals, vaccine production is the weakest link in the world's flu-preparation chain. Genetic recombinant and cell culture techniques like the ones that were used to make the adenovirus vaccine have been used routinely since the 1980s to make vaccines for other viruses, like chicken pox and hepatitis B. But the United States still produces all influenza vaccines, including potential bird-flu vaccines, using the creaky chicken-egg method created almost 50 years ago.

Why do we still rely on the chicken eggs? Vaccine manufacturers have been leery of making new flu vaccines since 1976, when fear of another pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu led to the rushed production of an imperfect vaccine against a new swine flu. The vaccine manufacturers of the time (there were then 27) refused to make a vaccine for the swine flu until Congress assumed responsibility for all related liability. A political battle ensued. The drug companies won, and vaccine production began with the goal of inoculating more than 200 million Americans. But after 40 million got shots, several hundred cases of a life-threatening neurological paralysis (Guillain-Barré syndrome) occurred. Flu-vaccine production was hastily halted, and thereafter any rush to vaccinate has been labeled risky by the manufacturers. In December 2005, Congress gave companies liability protection for vaccines and drugs that target pandemic flu or bioterrorist attacks. Even so, drug companies, which have been criticized lately on issues of drug safety, are not eager to take on a potentially fallible vaccine that is not very profitable and will clearly be a public-relations nightmare if it fails.

But there are urgent public health reasons to overcome that reluctance. Here's how the state-of-the-art methods work: In reverse genetics, you don't need to work from the original strain of the virus. Instead, you approximate the virus but leave out its deadly properties. In the case of bird flu, for example, scientists can genetically engineer another virus to look like H5N1, by inserting strips of H5N1 genetic material. Averting a killer virus that can kill the cells in which it is growing saves time. Once the virus is engineered, scientists don't need to harvest millions of chicken egg embryos to grow it in. Instead they use mammal cells, which are easier to get.

In the "cell culture" step of the process, the cells are kept alive in big vats of nutrient solution while the newly made virus multiplies. As the cells reproduce, so does the virus. Eventually, the outer wall of the cell is removed, and the viruses are harvested, purified, and then neutralized. Once dead, they can safely be injected into subjects as a vaccine, which induces an animal or person to make the desired antibodies. With this method, the time from identification of a virus to the production of a batch of vaccines is just one month, compared to several months for the chicken-egg method.

Other new approaches are in varying stages of research. One vaccine that's still several years away from clinical trials targets the M2 protein of the influenza molecule. Since that molecule doesn't change, this kind of a vaccine might provide immunity to all flus (including bird flu) for a decade, rather than one flu for only a year. This huge improvement in flu vaccination would be a great return on investment.

And then there's the work of José Galarza. In a tiny lab perched above the Hudson River, Galarza has been experimenting with specks of genetic matter for nearly 10 years without big grants or federal funding. He works with microscopic blobs of genes (called viral-like particles) from which he fashions painless, oral vaccines. Galarza believes he can command his VLPs to knock out any kind of flu in lab animals—and potentially in humans—more quickly and safely than conventional vaccines. His work is in preliminary stages and difficult to evaluate against the current flu risk. But it is certainly worth our tax money to find out if he, and others like him, are right.

Currently, there are only three U.S. manufacturers making flu vaccine. We cannot depend on them alone to make the needed shift to the latest techniques. The solution is more government involvement. We should follow the example of the countries of Western Europe, whose governments take responsibility for the flu-vaccine process from beginning to end and assure the drug makers a certain return every year. Western Europe didn't suffer the yearly flu-vaccine shortage that the United States did in two out of the last three years. The new vaccine in the Lancet study is one of several that could soon add significantly to our arsenal against influenza. We have the technology. Now we need the political muscle to make sure it gets used.

http://www.slate.com/id/2135668/fr/rss/

China confirms new outbreak of bird flu in north, Hong Kong birds tested​

BEIJING (AP) - China confirmed a new outbreak Wednesday of bird flu in birds in the country's north.

Up to 15,000 fowl in Yijing, a town in Shanxi province, were found dead between Feb. 2-3, China's Xinhua News Agency said. It did not give any details on what type of birds they were. They tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of the disease, Xinhua said. So far, more than 187,000 birds have been culled in the area, it said.

It is China's 29th outbreak of the disease since Oct. 19.

A dead chicken and egret found in suburban Hong Kong are suspected victims of bird flu and testing was being conducted Wednesday to confirm whether it was the strain that can be deadly for people, officials said.

The testing could take several days to complete, spokesman Albert Hui of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said.

Five other birds have been found dead from the deadly H5N1 strain in recent weeks.

The two latest bird carcasses, found Tuesday, were collected in the suburban Tuen Mun district, the government said in a statement. No abnormalities were discovered at chicken farms within five kilometres of where the dead birds were found, the statement said.

In the last year, local officials have found birds of various species with bird flu, including crested myna, heron and magpie.

The last bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong occurred in 1997, when the disease killed six people, prompting the government to slaughter the entire poultry population of about 1.5 million birds.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Anyone desiring to read Dr. Niman's commentaries is free to read at www.recombinomics.com, with no need to go to a third site, such as the Avian Talk forum that is being promoted here, to obtain the information I went and took a look at the forum - one of its most frequent posters and a moderator is a science fiction writer named Joe.

Caveat emptor.

Experts warn bird flu more diverse​

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/02/07/birdflu.vaccine/index.html

Wednesday, February 8, 2006 Posted: 0338 GMT (1138 HKT)

(CNN) -- No country is fully prepared for bird flu, which is much more genetically diverse than previously thought, according to a global team of researchers.

One of the bird flu experts, Dr. Malik Peiris, professor of microbiology at Hong Kong University, told CNN Wednesday the deadly disease deserved all the attention it was getting.

Bird flu has claimed at least 86 lives around the world since 2003 and is the major concern this year of Asian populations, according to a December 2005 CNN/TIME survey.

With the disease spreading beyond Asia to the fringes of Europe in recent months, a senior World Health Organization official in Tokyo last month warned that the threat of a pandemic was "growing every day." (Full story)

Peiris is one of a team of 29 scientists who have just published a report on bird flu, in which they claim that there are four types of the deadly H5N1 virus.

The report appears in the online medical journal, "U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The scientists say in their report that the H5N1 virus -- which the World Health Organization says is responsible for more than 160 infections and the deaths of 86 people around the world since 2003 -- is more genetically diverse and can survive in birds showing no signs of illness.

Peiris said the problem of diversity and the disease's circulation in apparently healthy birds was a surprise and meant treatment options had to be looked at much more widely.

He told CNN that regional virus types meant there was a need to look for "broad cross-protection" rather than a single vaccine.

Peiris said that while wild birds may contribute to the introduction and spread of bird flu, the perpetuation of the disease was through stocks of domestic poultry.

He said no country was fully prepared to combat the disease, which needed to be tracked back and tackled at its source.
Defensive push

The diversity claim by the scientists has major implications for pharmaceutical companies and governments seeking to develop defenses against the spread of bird flu.

The scientists warn in their report that no single vaccine is likely to provide protection because the virus has developed into four distinct gene families, known as Z, V, W and the Mekong delta type.

They also say H5N1 has been endemic in southern China for almost 10 years, and can exist in apparently healthy birds.

The report says the best way to avert the bird flu threat is to control the infection at its source -- domestic poultry.

"Control of the regional epizootic (outbreak) and its attendant pandemic threat requires that the source of the virus in southern China be contained," it says.

In the past few days, Hong Kong has put its customs officers on high alert and tightened surveillance to stop people smuggling in birds and poultry.

Last week, a chicken brought illegally into Hong Kong from China was found to have had the H5N1 virus.

Most human deaths have been in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and China, but in recent months the disease has spread beyond Asia to the Middle East and the fringes of eastern Europe.

Iraq reported its first human death from bird flu late last month, while at least 21 human cases -- including four deaths -- have been reported in Turkey since the start of the year. Infected birds have been detected in parts of Croatia, Romania and Russia.

About 200 million birds have died or been culled around the world since the disease first appeared in China's Guangdong province -- which adjoins Hong Kong -- in 1996.

Researchers have been particularly worried that the virus may mutate into a form capable of spreading rapidly from human to human.

Both the European Union and the United States have pledged large amounts of money in recent weeks to combat bird flu. In the U.S., Congress has approved $3.3 billion this year, of the $7.1 billion sought by President George W. Bush.

Romania detects new cases of bird flu​

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/08/content_4151382.htm

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-08 12:37:55


BUCHAREST, Feb. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Romania detected new cases of bird flu in domestic fowls on Tuesday in the southern county of Dolj, the county's health authorities said.

The three dead hens found in Dolj's Cetate village were confirmed to be killed by bird flu virus but the strain is still unknown, Romanian news agency Rompres quoted Andrei Butaru, head of Dolj's Veterinary Bureau, as saying.

The local government has disinfected the village and imposed quarantine there. All domestic fowls in the village have been culled to prevent the spread of the virus.

Earlier on the same day, Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur warned local governments of possible outbreaks of bird flu, saying migratory birds are still flying over the region.

He required every southern county to hand in 600 samples of domestic fowls for tests on a weekly basis and take immediate actions if any bird flu case is detected.

He also said he had asked neighboring Bulgaria to provide information on bird flu cases in the city of Vidin which is only hundreds of meters away from Romania's Calafat port.

Since the first outbreak of bird flu occurred on Oct. 7, 2005, avian flu has been discovered in 26 villages across Romania, including Dolj's Cetate village. Three of the previous 25 villages are still under quarantine.

AFRICA


February 8, 2006 3:13 AM
PARIS (AP) - A ''highly pathogenic'' strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in poultry stocks in Nigeria, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.


Nigeria reported the outbreak in Jaji, a village in the northern Kaduna state, according to the organization known by the acronym OIE. Lab tests have identified ''a highly pathogenic H5N1'' strain, it said in a statement.

AP-WS-02-08-06 0613EST

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564678579242534064

Deadly bird flu detected in Nigerian outbreak​

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6449727&cKey=1139399436000

By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA (Reuters) - An outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Nigeria is the H5N1 strain that can kill people, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said in a statement on Wednesday, the first time the virus has been found in Africa.

The OIE said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua. Suspicions about bird flu were raised after the deaths of thousands of birds in northern Nigeria in recent days.

Further tests were being carried out to establish how similar it was to currently known H5N1 strains, added the statement from the Paris-based OIE.

An outbreak could have devastating consequences in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where millions of people have chickens in their backyards.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had not previously been detected in Africa, though other strains have.

Scientists fear that H5N1, which has killed at least 88 people in seven countries since it re-emerged in late 2003, could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a human influenza pandemic.

So far, victims have contracted the disease through close contact with infected birds.

The Nigerian authorities have taken preventive measures including culling, quarantine, controls on animal movement and disinfection of infected premises.

The outbreak affected birds in battery cages in Jaji village in Kaduna state in the north of the country, the OIE said.

In Kano city, capital of neighbouring Kano state where most of the poultry have died, traders in the market were trying to sell chicken at less than half the normal price as news spread of the unexplained poultry deaths.

Human mortality rates in Nigeria are among the highest in the world and people are often buried without any formal medical check, making it extremely difficult to know whether any new disease has appeared.

A federal Health Ministry official said on Tuesday between 10,000 and 15,000 dead poultry had been destroyed and the standard procedure was to burn the carcasses.

Salihu Jibrin, head of veterinary services at the state's Agriculture Ministry, said teams had been sent to various parts of the state to try and determine how many poultry were dying and what farmers were doing in response. He said the state had issued no statistics so far on the outbreak.

(Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi in Rome and Mike Oboh in Kano)

Vigilant Africa scrambles to limit bird flu spread​

Wed Feb 8, 2006 10:07 AM ET

By Alistair Thomson

DAKAR (Reuters) - African countries scrambled on Wednesday to limit the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu after the continent's first outbreak was confirmed in Nigeria.

The disease can jump to humans from infected birds and has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since 2003.

Experts have expressed fears that an outbreak in Africa, the world's poorest continent, could pose a serious threat given already weak public health systems and the fact that many rural people live close to chickens and other poultry.

"We're on alert," said Cheikh Sadibou Fall, coordinator of the national anti-bird flu committee in Senegal, mainland Africa's most westerly country.

"We will study the cases to see whether migratory birds will spread the virus, and take appropriate measures ... for the time being, we are on alert against any suspect cases of dead birds," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

Earlier, the World Organization for Animal Health confirmed Africa's first case of H5N1 in Nigeria, where several thousands of birds have died.

Scientists have long feared birds migrating from Asia and Europe may carry the virus to the continent, probably the least well equipped in the world, in financial and technical terms, to tackle an epidemic.

Celia Abolnik, a senior researcher at South Africa's Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, said the institute was expecting samples for testing soon from live waterfowl in Malawi, Sudan and Kenya.

Onderstepoort has been designated as the main testing site for Africa by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the African Union, she said.

"We are alert, but we are not panicking," said Mensah Agyen-Frempong, veterinary services director in Ghana, separated from Nigeria only by the thin territories of Togo and Benin.

"We have staff at ports of entry and they are well briefed," he said. "We are doing random surveys ... keeping an eye on wild birds that flock to the wetlands."

INCREASED SURVEILLANCE

Many regional governments have already taken action, including bans on poultry imports from infected countries.

Gabon, south of Nigeria on Africa's west coast, unveiled an action plan to deal with the disease, including tougher import restrictions, just hours before the Nigerian case was confirmed.

Import bans will be harder to enforce on some of Africa's porous land borders, where people and goods cross relatively freely and local laboratory testing capacity is limited or non-existent.

Ivory Coast has already put in place an epidemiological monitoring programme to detect any signs of the deadly virus among humans or animals, Dr Nikaise Lepri Aka, a member of the national anti-bird flu committee, told Reuters.

"We must increase surveillance," following confirmation of H5N1 in Nigeria, he added.

Ghana's Agyen-Frempong said education should be a major part of the effort to counter the spread of the disease.

"We have contacted our regional and district (veterinary) offices and have given them guidelines for ... educating our farmers ... What is important is for the general public to know what the disease is and what its symptoms are like," he said.

H5N1 bird flu causes persistent fever, cough, shortness of breath and acute respiratory distress in humans. It can lead to multiple organ failure in a matter of days, especially in the lungs and kidneys, and death in up to 80 percent of cases.

There is no certain cure but the anti-viral drug Tamiflu can be effective if used within 48 hours of symptoms starting.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA..._01_L08310050_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-AFRICA.xml

Immediate Control Interventions Crucial for Stopping the Spread of the Virus​

WASHINGTON and ROME, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The outbreak of the deadly
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus (H5N1) in Nigeria confirms the fears
expressed by FAO for quite some time that African countries are facing a high
risk of becoming infected by the virus, FAO said today.
"The outbreak in Kaduna state in Northern Nigeria proves that no country
is risk-free and that we are facing a serious international crisis," said
Samuel Jutzi, Director of FAO's Animal Production and Health Division.
"If the situation in Nigeria gets out of control, it will have a
devastating impact on the poultry population in the region, it will seriously
damage the livelihoods of millions of people and it will increase the exposure
of humans to the virus," Jutzi said.
"It is important that local and national authorities within other
countries in the region remain vigilant for possible outbreaks of suspected
avian influenza in poultry and other birds. It is vital that all instances of
multiple bird deaths are reported to authorities and investigated promptly,"
Jutzi added.
FAO said that people should avoid any contact with obviously diseased or
dead birds, maintain personal hygiene (handwashing) after handling poultry or
poultry meat and should cook chicken meat and eggs properly.
"It remains unclear if the outbreak has been triggered by migratory birds
or by the trade and movement of poultry or poultry products," said Joseph
Domenech, FAO Chief Veterinary Officer.
FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will send
veterinary experts to Nigeria to assess the situation and examine how the
virus has been introduced.
FAO urged veterinary services in Nigeria to eliminate the outbreaks
through immediate humane culling and to strictly control the movement of
people and animals from and to bird flu infected spots. FAO will also send
two local experts to the affected region to advise local authorities on
control measures.
Transparency, rapid interventions and close collaboration with the
international community are crucial to stop the spread of the virus, FAO said.
"We are aware that veterinary services in Nigeria are in need of
international support. The animal health infrastructure in the country is
facing a big challenge and will require outside assistance," Domenech said.
Laboratory materials for diagnosis and protective equipment for veterinarians
undertaking investigation are urgently required.
Nigeria is member of the West African network on avian influenza
surveillance and diagnostics. The recently launched network is managed by FAO
in close collaboration with the Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources of
the African Union.
Nigeria has an important commercial poultry sector and millions of
backyard poultry farmers. The poultry population is estimated at 140 million.

For more information on the work of FAO please visit http://www.fao.org



SOURCE Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Web Site: http://www.fao.org

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...06/0004277516&EDATE=WED+Feb+08+2006,+10:47+AM

China: reported H5N1 mortality... 63.6%

China announces new human bird flu case​

(AFP)

8 February 2006

BEIJING - A 26-year-old woman from China’s eastern province of Fujian has contracted bird flu but is in a stable condition, state media reported on Wednesday.

The woman, surnamed Lin, showed signs of fever and pneumonia on January 10 and was hospitalized. She tested positive for the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the health ministry.

No outbreak among animals has been detected in the area where Lin lives in Fujian’s Zhangpu county and those who have had close contact with her have been placed under observation by local health authorities, it said.

It is the 11th human case of bird flu in China, seven of whom have died.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Display...heworld_February256.xml&section=theworld&col=

The statement of "bird flu found (place)" needs to specify if the cases are in the birds or humans.

The Iraqi bird flu is a human case. In the past it was affecting only the birds mostly the domesticated varieties.

Now we are getting more and more reports of human bird flu.

Yesterday I posted this info with little notice. In that thread I a question.

We have over 140,000 military and many other personnel in Iraq. With the conditions existing in the country such as lack of sanitation, water, medical care, and energy the chances of this flu spreading faster there than elsewhere exists.

Given this. What are the specific plans in effect to minimize the spread of the flu to US or other countries by military personnel? There has been a lot said about commercial flights and regular travel. Military flights are going back and forth frequently without same type of intervention. Remember that the pandemic in 1918 was brought home by the military returning from WWI.

Has anyone read or heard anything about any restrictions that would be placed on the military travel or personnel? Do not just suppose it has been taken care of. Hard facts/plans.

If we refuse to let flights land in US from foreign countries because of fear of the flu will this also apply to US military flights?

Virginia

One Virginia farmer questions need for avian flu legislation​

By MAC McLEAN
Danville Register & Bee
February 8, 2006

RICHMOND, Va. -- Danville-area farmer Nancy Keel keeps six chickens on her farm to demonstrate the chicken coops she makes and sells out of her home.

She is worried about avian flu, but not because it is spreading across Asia. She is worried about a bill that is designed to control the disease if it should ever hit Virginia.

Sponsored by Del. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, House Bill 982 would establish a statewide protocol for dealing with avian flu prevention and control measures. The Lewis bill, which passed in the House on Tuesday, is modeled on an existing federal policy dealing with avian (or bird) flu.

"It gives the commissioner of agriculture over-reaching power over small farmers and their hens," Keel said.

The bill empowers the state veterinarian to enter any farm and inspect chickens for the presence of bird flu and to possibly even seize and kill the animals if the commissioner of agriculture allows it.

The bill would also require any chicken producer to register with the state veterinarians office. Failure to register would be punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 per day.

Though she thinks HB 982 is rather extensive, Keel said her problem is with something the bill doesn't do.

"It blurred the distinction between the farmer and the live bird market system," she said, describing the live bird market system as a series of ethnic community markets where chickens are kept in one large pen and are slaughtered on site.

These live bird markets--which Keel said provide a serious potential threat for bird flu contaminations--exist in larger cities with high ethnic populations such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

In October 2004, the USDA issued a series of guidelines that spell out how these live bird markets should be properly controlled. Lewis bill was designed to make Virginia laws comply with those guidelines.

HB 982 applies to every facet of the live bird marketing system, including the markets themselves, any business involved in transporting or selling chickens to a live bird market, and any farmer who raises chickens that are eventually sold at a live bird market.

Hoping to give farmers some help, Evans changed his bill to exempt any producer or grower who slaughters or processes their own birds at their farms from the rules governing the live bird marketing system.

"That was nice," Keel said. "But it didn't do anything to the farmers who buy and sell their chickens."

Keel fears the new powers--along with a state of emergency clause allowing the new regulations to become effective once the legislation passes--could be abused.

"We've got hope," she said, adding the bill is now on its way to the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Charles Hawkins, R-Pittsylvania. "I look forward to working with the Ag Committee to see what we can do."


Information from: Danville Register & Bee, http://www.registerbee.com

http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...08,0,7805885.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia

Here's a real 'kicker'......now that avian flu is found in poultry in Africa:




http://www.aegis.org/news/wsj/2005/WJ051103.html

Avian Flu Meets HIV/AIDS

Wall Street Journal - November 22, 2005
Frederick Kempe, Thinkingglobal@wsj.com

Just when you thought you had heard all the worst-case scenarios about a bird-flu pandemic spreading among humans, the germ expert elites are conjuring up one that trumps them all.

Call it H5N1 meets HIV/AIDS, the collision of the virus world's King Kong and Godzilla.

The horror scenario, outlined below, reinforces the need to go beyond current efforts to bolster domestic defenses against pandemic influenza that are the overwhelming majority of the $7.1 billion Bush administration plan. More important for now are efforts to help front-line public-health systems in Asia and beyond, particularly in Africa, the most likely place for the two viruses to meet.

What the experts are watching with dread is the current winter bird migration. Bird flu is almost certainly in flight to Africa along a major flyway that began in Siberia and made stops at the Black Sea, Romania and even Iran - areas that have reported a sizable number of confirmed and unconfirmed bird deaths. Hundreds of thousands of birds will land in nature havens like East Africa's Serengeti and Lake Victoria that also happen to be within easy reach of the world's largest concentrations of HIV/AIDS.

Robert G. Webster, who at age 73 is the godfather of animal flu science, says "the great worry we all have" is what happens from there. The scenario that causes the greatest concern: Bird-flu infections may linger in HIV-positive people without causing death, giving the virus time to mutate into a form that can spread between humans.

Because an overreaction of the immune system is what kills bird flu patients, it is precisely immuno-suppression among AIDS carriers that could allow them to host the virus longer. "It gives the virus the chance to accumulate the mutations of adaptation to humans," says Dr. Webster.

Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations, during testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee on Nov. 9, said spotting movement of the virus in Africa will be harder than it has proven in China. Differentiating between killer H5N1 in its early stages and common flu is hard enough in controlled environments and may prove even more difficult in regions with such poor public-health surveillance that are already replete with the nausea and fever of not only HIV but also malaria and tuberculosis.

Yesterday the United Nations in its annual report on AIDS said the number of people infected with the virus has doubled over the past decade to 40 million. The difficulty of controlling that pandemic, which has hit sub-Saharan Africa hardest, is a sobering lesson for continued complacency now as Africa confronts an even more contagious and deadly disease. (The U.N. press release)

No one has confirmed a single human-to-human transmission of avian flu; nonetheless, concerns have spread across the planet like a plague. That's partly because public officials have concluded a human-to-human outbreak has grown more probable. It's also because they know a present-day pandemic could be far harder to contain and more devastating because of globalization.

Higher sanitary standards, faster communication and improved medicine provide more weapons to quickly combat an outbreak. At the same time, globalization's giant chicken farms serving world markets have provided a place for the virus to breed and spread. Ubiquitous travel could make containment impossible. Continuous news cycles will make panic harder to avoid.

The world has also grown more economically vulnerable. The first instinct of some countries after a confirmed human-human transmission will be to shut borders. One only need think of China to imagine the economic crisis that could set off in Asia and elsewhere in a world that has grown more dependent on Chinese growth and manufacturing. A pandemic could hit at the heart of a just-in-time global economy, cutting off delivery of everything from foodstuffs to pharmaceuticals.

"We don't have sustained and committed resources to go to what could be, I think, the single greatest threat to ...the economic security of the world," says Michael T. Osterholm of the University of Minnesota's infectious disease center.

It is just that sort of language that has set off a bird-flu fight between those who continue to sound the alarm and those who fear we've crossed into panic-inducing hype.

The first camp was represented by Ms. Garrett, Dr. Webster and a host of other experts gathered at daylong conference last week at the Council on Foreign Relations. They consider a pandemic to be inevitable and only question the timing.. They are lobbying hard for more and better vaccine production and such measures as improved surveillance and quick tests for avian flu to allow for faster responses to new outbreak dangers in places like Africa.

The second camp is represented by last week's cover story of the U.S. Weekly Standard, which depicted a hen-house full of Chicken Littles running about in a frenzy beside a screaming headline: "The Flu Is Coming! The Flu is Coming!" Wrote author Michael Fumento: "àThe line between informing the public and starting a panic is being crossed every day now by politicians, public health officials and journalists."

Hype is certainly a peril to avoid, but history teaches the greater danger is complacency about a pandemic's power to shape the world.

It was the Justinian Plague of the 6th Century that brought the Byzantine Empire to collapse and the Black Death in the 14th Century that undermined the Mongolian Empire. Smallpox killed the emperors of Japan and Burma as well as European kings and queens in the 16th and 17th Century. The conquistadores, having been exposed to small pox and measles epidemics in Europe, conquered the stricken Aztecs. Disease was perhaps their most powerful weapon allowing the spread of Spanish culture and religion, as droves of Indians converted to a god who had been demonstrably more protective.

"Entire countries have been changed geographically, economically and religiously as a result of sweeping virus infections that were impervious to known cures," wrote Michael B. A. Oldstone in his book "Viruses, Plagues & History.

Indeed, diseases change the world, but they never do it in the same way. In our age, for example, one danger is of failing states producing terrorists, and a pandemic could cause some states to fail even faster. Yet that also could open up opportunities for Western policy to intervene and stabilize key countries, particularly if an all-powerful dictator is one of the disease's victims. Globally intertwined economies make it impossible to contain the flu's impact even if it improbably remains behind borders.

The world has gone from almost complete denial a few months ago to a situation now where 60% of the world's nations have some sort of anti-pandemic plan. A meeting in Geneva of 600 representatives of 100 countries concluded that a pandemic would cost the global economy some $1.35 trillion, and it also produced the first UN response plan.

Estimates of deaths from a pandemic in our globalized age range from 7.5 million, based on a 1968 flu that killed less than 1% of the infected, to 360 million (including 1.7 million Americans), using calculations closer to the 55% human fatality rate of this flu.

The globalized world might get lucky this time around, or it may face its most demanding litmus test yet.

More on the Nigerian Outbreak

Found this on the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4692916.stm

Deadly bird flu found in Africa

The deadly strain of bird flu has been found in poultry in northern Nigeria, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has said in statement.
The Paris-based organisation said this was the first time the disease had been detected in Africa.

The body said it was the "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which can kill humans.

It was detected on a farm in the northern state of Kaduna, where a team of experts have been sent.

Authorities there said they had taken measures to stamp out the outbreak by disinfecting the affected premises, imposing a quarantine and putting restrictions on animal movements.

It is not clear if the case on a commercial chicken farm in Jaji, near the city of Kaduna, has any relation to the deaths of thousands of chickens in neighbouring Kano state.

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture say they are still investigating whether the poultry there died of a more common avian disease.

Emergency meeting

The BBC's Alex Last in Lagos says an outbreak of bird flu could have devastating consequences in Nigeria where millions of people rear chickens as a basic source of income.

The OIE said that an Italian laboratory for avian flu had detected the strain from samples from the infected farm which had some 46,000 birds.

"We are really not dealing with a backyard operation," OIE expert Alex Thiermann told Associated Press news agency.

Farmers are preparing to hold an emergency meeting in Kano, where the price of chickens has halved, with a bird now fetching not more than $2.

Nigerian Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello said the government would cull all infected birds and has announced a multi-million dollar compensation programme for farmers.

But a northern Nigerian farmer told the BBC News website that people fear they will not be compensated.

"The dead birds are being sent to market to be sold as meat... because people are not sure if the government will assist them," said Auwalu Haruna from Kano.

Mutation fears

Mr Bello said the bird flu might have been carried by migrating birds or the smuggling of infected chickens from abroad.



For two years Nigeria has banned poultry imports from countries which have experienced cases of bird flu.

There are fears that the disease could easily spread in Africa because of a lack of safeguards.

"What is most important now is not how it got into Nigeria, but how it can be prevented from leaving Nigeria," Cape Town ornithologist Phil Hockey told Reuters.

Mr Haruna said affected farmers from Kano were still waiting to be quarantined.

More than 80 people have died of H5N1 bird flu since the disease's resurgence in December 2003 - most in Asia.

Experts point out that cross-infection to humans is still relatively rare, and usually occurs where people have been in close contact with infected birds.

But they say if the H5N1 strain mutates so it can be passed between humans some 150m people could die.

And yet another warning from WHO:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4604406.stm



Scientists fear Asia will bear the brunt of future outbreaks
A senior director of the World Health Organization has warned that a failure to respond quickly to bird flu could have immeasurable global consequences.
Dr Shigeru Omi told a conference in Tokyo that despite the best efforts of many governments, the threat of a pandemic was continuing to grow.

The conference is seeking ways to prevent the spread of the virus.

The warning came as the UN said $1.5bn (£850m) was needed to help fight the disease and prepare for a pandemic.

The UN bird flu co-ordinator, Dr David Nabarro, said he hoped the funds would be pledged at an international donors summit to be held in Beijing on 17 and 18 January.

He said the $1.5bn would be used for bird vaccination programmes, getting enough vets trained, and to prepare for the possibility of a human pandemic in which bird flu is passed from human to human.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation earlier warned that bird flu could become endemic in Turkey and pose a serious risk to nearby and neighbouring countries - many of which are now taking preventative action.

Two people have died of the disease in Turkey, and more than 70 have died worldwide since the latest outbreak started in late 2003.

Meanwhile initial tests suggest that a 29-year-old woman from Indonesia has also died of the disease, which could bring the number of deaths there to 13.

East Asia focus

Public health officials and ministers from across Asia are attending the Tokyo conference, which aims to put in place a rapid response strategy to contain an outbreak of avian flu.

CONFIRMED TURKISH H5N1 CASES

Van: 7, including 2 deaths. A third death treated as a "probable case"
Ankara: 3
Kastamonu: 2
Corum: 1
Samsun: 1
Sivas: 1

Anguish in rural Turkey

Dr Omi said that despite recent deaths in Turkey, the main risk of a serious outbreak was focused on East Asia.

He said health officials should respond "with all the weapons at our disposal" should there be a pandemic.

"If we can achieve this rapid response, we may have a good chance of halting the spread of the virus before the situation becomes uncontrollable, or at least of slowing it down.

"But if we fail, the consequences for societies, economies and global public health could be immeasurable."

Meanwhile WHO officials in Turkey are examining how bird flu moved so quickly across the country since two people died in the eastern province of Van last week, and why there have been so many cases.

Victims appeared to have contracted the virus from close contact with infected poultry. But the WHO admits it may be too soon to confirm any changes in the virus and its spread.

So far there has been no evidence of the virus being passed from human to human.

The WHO thinks the world is now closer to another flu pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the 20th Century's three pandemics occurred.

PCViking, just thought I would throw those last two posts in, as well. Another continent, another confirmed outbreak. Just a matter of time before it hits here...just a matter of short time.


Nigeria, of all places! I would have thought that if there were an outbreak, it would have occured in the northeast part of the continent, not the west central area of Africa. It seems rather odd that it would have occured where it did...I wonder what the migratory routes of fowl are like over Africa and what paths they take...I know I saw a map, somewhere. If I find it, I'll post a link to it.

This isn't what I was thinking of, but it works: http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/health/diseases-cards/migrationmap.html Looks like Nigeria was in the cross hairs for awhile, judging by the routes. Also notice that the "green route" (East Atlantic Flyway) is transcontinental to northern Canada, as well as the blue East Asian/Australian Flyway extending into Alaska...interesting.

View attachment 28182

Bird flu in Nigeria causes anxiety in Ghana​

http://www.accra-mail.com/mailnews.asp?id=15506

Maame Efua Moses | Posted: Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The news of the outbreak of the bird flu in Nigeria has created fear and panic among Ghanaians. A number of people ADM spoke to were very worried especially when one of the major sources of protein in Ghanaian is chicken. In fact, chicken is the favourite at parties, in restaurants and just for ordinary consumption.

"In fact we need to be very careful. If this thing gets into the country, we will really suffer", said a petty trader to ADM.

A chicken seller said: "The fact that the disease is in Nigeria means we are not safe. For me a chicken seller, if the disease breaks out then it means my source of livelihood will be over".

ADM spoke to the Ghana Health Service and the Veterinary Service on the close proximity of Ghana and Nigeria and what threat there is to Ghana.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) assured the public that despite the reported outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria in West Africa, health personnel in Ghana are poised to handle it should there be a possible break out in the country.

Allaying the fears of Ghanaians a source who wanted to remain anonymous said GHS and the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture have in place a special committee keeping surveillance on bird flu. He said Ghana has a technical group comprising the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, Veterinary Department and the Ghana Wildlife Division which meets once a week to discuss how Ghana is preparing in case of an outbreak of bird flu.

Dr. Frimpong of the Veterinary Department told ADM that the department has been educating the public on the disease. He said specialists in the department had contacted colleagues in Nigeria but so far it is not clear how the disease got to the country.

"We have made some contacts in Nigeria but they even don't know how the disease got there. They were caught unawares, however investigations are down way", he added.

He appealed to the general public to inform the department of any unusual bird they come across or see any unusual behaviour in their birds.

"The best way we can protect ourselves against any out break is for the public to help us by reporting any usual behaviour in their birds and must also heed to the message we are spreading about how the disease is", he said.

Mr. Frimpong explained that bird flu can't be prevented because the avian influenza is an infection caused by a viruse. These influenza viruses he said occur naturally among birds.

Vigilant Africa scrambles to limit bird flu​

http://www.swisspolitics.org/en/news/index.php?section=int&page=news_inhalt&news_id=6451073

08.02.2006 - 15:32
By Alistair Thomson

DAKAR (Reuters) - African countries scrambled on Wednesday to limit the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu after the continent's first outbreak was confirmed in Nigeria.

The disease can jump to humans from infected birds and has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since 2003.

Experts have expressed fears that an outbreak in Africa, the world's poorest continent, could pose a serious threat given already weak public health systems and the fact that many rural people live close to chickens and other poultry.

"We're on alert," said Cheikh Sadibou Fall, coordinator of the national anti-bird flu committee in Senegal, mainland Africa's most westerly country.

"We will study the cases to see whether migratory birds will spread the virus, and take appropriate measures ... for the time being, we are on alert against any suspect cases of dead birds," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

Earlier, the World Organisation for Animal Health confirmed Africa's first case of H5N1 in Nigeria, where several thousands of birds have died.

Scientists have long feared birds migrating from Asia and Europe may carry the virus to the continent, probably the least well equipped in the world, in financial and technical terms, to tackle an epidemic.

Celia Abolnik, a senior researcher at South Africa's Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, said the institute was expecting samples for testing soon from live waterfowl in Malawi, Sudan and Kenya.

Onderstepoort has been designated as the main testing site for Africa by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation and the African Union, she said.

"We are alert, but we are not panicking," said Mensah Agyen-Frempong, veterinary services director in Ghana, separated from Nigeria only by the thin territories of Togo and Benin.

"We have staff at ports of entry and they are well briefed," he said. "We are doing random surveys ... keeping an eye on wild birds that flock to the wetlands."

INCREASED SURVEILLANCE

Many regional governments have already taken action, including bans on poultry imports from infected countries.

Gabon, south of Nigeria on Africa's west coast, unveiled an action plan to deal with the disease, including tougher import restrictions, just hours before the Nigerian case was confirmed.

Import bans will be harder to enforce on some of Africa's porous land borders, where people and goods cross relatively freely and local laboratory testing capacity is limited or non-existent.

Ivory Coast has already put in place an epidemiological monitoring programme to detect any signs of the deadly virus among humans or animals, Dr Nikaise Lepri Aka, a member of the national anti-bird flu committee, told Reuters.

"We must increase surveillance," following confirmation of H5N1 in Nigeria, he added.

Ghana's Agyen-Frempong said education should be a major part of the effort to counter the spread of the disease.

"We have contacted our regional and district (veterinary) offices and have given them guidelines for ... educating our farmers ... What is important is for the general public to know what the disease is and what its symptoms are like," he said.

H5N1 bird flu causes persistent fever, cough, shortness of breath and acute respiratory distress in humans. It can lead to multiple organ failure in a matter of days, especially in the lungs and kidneys, and death in up to 80 percent of cases.

There is no certain cure but the anti-viral drug Tamiflu can be effective if used within 48 hours of symptoms starting.

(Additional reporting by Diadie Ba in Dakar, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo in Accra, Loucoumane Coulibaly in Abidjan, Antoine Lawson in Libreville, Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg)

Pandemic fears push gov to file anti-flu bill-Massachusetts​

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=124990

By Jessica Fargen
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - Updated: 12:25 AM EST

The state is girding for battle against a global flu outbreak that health officials say could strike at any time, leave thousands dead and cripple commerce, government and public safety as workers grow too sick to do their jobs.

Gov. Mitt Romney, who spoke at a summit in Boston yesterday on the potential flu pandemic, also filed legislation asking for $36.5 million for 5,000 extra hospital beds, 44,000 doses of anti-viral medication for health workers and first responders, lab upgrades and overall outbreak preparedness.

That’s just a first step, he said.

“If we have a pandemic that strikes in five years, we will still wish we had more time,” Romney said. “This should have been done 10 years ago.”

The state would buy 1,200 backup ventilators, crucial in keeping patients from succumbing to pneumonia. The money would nearly double hospital beds that can be used or converted in an emergency, from 13,000 to 24,000.

Public health and safety officials planned for more than a year to create a global flu response. The last flu pandemic, in 1968, killed 34,000 people in the United States and 700,000 worldwide.

Alfred DeMaria, director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control for the state, said it’s an “overwhelming threat that will happen everywhere at once.

“Many people are going to be very ill. There will be absenteeism. There will be no vaccine for months,” he said. “We are going to have to sustain a lot.”

The global outbreak could strike in the form of the avian flu strain H5N1 that has swept through Asia and Europe or some other strain that leaps from human to human.

Romney in October told state public health officials to come up with a plan to deal with a global flu epidemic, including recommendations on how much anti-viral medication to keep on hand.

Birds migrating from Africa 'could bring H5N1 to UK by spring'​

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=204432006

LOUISE GRAY

BIRD flu could spread to Britain by the spring, experts warned last night after the first case was detected in Africa.

Some 46,000 birds were killed after the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 70 people worldwide, was discovered at a poultry farm in the north of Nigeria. The farm lies close to the migratory route of small birds wintering in Africa before flying to Europe in the spring.




Ornithologists said that although it was unlikely such small birds could carry the virus far, finding H5N1 in Africa increased the risk of wild birds bringing it to Britain.

Dr Paul Walton, the species and habitats officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, said small birds such as swallows, martins, warblers, wheatears and others that winter in Africa would return to Britain in April.

"There is a migration in spring from Africa into Europe and Britain of birds that breed here and then winter down in Africa," he said. "There is a slightly increased risk wild birds will bring H5N1 into Britain, although it is a theoretical risk. It was low and now it is slightly higher."

Dr Walton said the outbreak in Nigeria was quite far inland, so migrating birds were unlikely to come into direct contact, but if it spread to bird populations on the country's coast, it could infect birds which travel to Britain.

He said: "Potentially, it is significant because there is to be a big migration, but there are factors which counter the risk."

For example, he said, the small birds were likely to die before they could carry the virus far.

H5N1 can jump from birds to humans. Although it has not yet jumped from human to human, it is thought the more the virus spreads, the greater will be the opportunity for it to mutate into a strain that could kill millions in a global pandemic.

Dr Walton said the emphasis should remain on preventing the spread of the virus among birds. He said H5N1 had spread mainly by movement of poultry across the world, and he called for an end to the trade in exotic wild species

He said the latest outbreak was probably through poultry movement, as the area was not on any migratory routes already affected by bird flu.

Dr Walton said the latest outbreak was "bad news" for Africa, where many people live close to their animals and public health services are weak.

The Nigerian outbreak, on a farm in Jaji, in the northern state of Kaduna, was first reported by the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health. The agriculture minister, Adamu Bello, confirmed bird flu had been detected in samples taken on 16 January from birds on the farm. An Italian laboratory then identified it as the H5N1 strain.