04/11 | Daily Bird Flu Thread: Influenza patients in US tested for H5N1

PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=192922

Human Cases

Since January, 2004 WHO has reported human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) in the following countries:

* East Asia and the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Indonesia
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Azerbaijan
(see update)
o Turkey

* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq

For additional information about these reports, visit the
World Health Organization Web Site.

Updated April 3, 2006

Animal Cases

Since December 2003, avian influenza A (H5N1) infections in poultry or wild birds have been reported in the following countries:

* Africa:
o Burkina Faso
o Cameroon
o Niger
o Nigeria

* East Asia & the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Hong Kong (SARPRC)
o Indonesia
o Japan
o Laos
o Malaysia
o Mongolia
o Myanmar (Burma)
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* South Asia:
o Afghanistan
o India
o Kazakhstan
o Pakistan

* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq (H5)
o Iran
o Israel
o Jordan

* Europe & Eurasia:
o
* Albania
* Austria
* Azerbaijan
* Bosnia & Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Czech Republic (H5)
* Denmark
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Italy
* Poland
* Romania
* Russia
* Serbia & Montenegro
* Slovak Republic
* Slovenia
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom


For additional information about these reports, visit the
World Organization for Animal Health Web Site: http://www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm

Updated April 7, 2006

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/current.htm

WHO, Avian Flu Timeline in .pdf: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/timeline.pdf

:vik:
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Yesterday was a milestone in the Bird Flu Saga...

2 articles were posted (in the Daily BF) of human testing reported in the US.

The significance of these 2 articles merits, them being the headliner for today's Daily BF.

Post #12: testing in California

New Freedom said:
Whoa! I think this may be the first article I've seen where they HAVE BEEN TESTING FOR H5N1 in the U.S. ----- Heads-up everyone!


http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/...l/article?AID=/20060410/NEWS10/604100310/1024


California lab gearing up for bird-flu cases
Birds' migratory paths, human travel patterns make state hot spot for virus




RICHMOND - The middle-aged man with severe respiratory illness told his doctor he had just returned to Northern California from a chicken farm in Vietnam.

That rang the first alarm bell.

Then came the initial tests from a local public-health laboratory: a positive result for influenza A, the virus family that includes bird flu. A swab from the man's throat was rushed to the state lab in Richmond, where sophisticated testing yielded even more alarming findings - a strong likelihood he carried the deadly H5N1 strain.

"I need to talk to you," microbiologist Hugo Guevara told Dr. Carol Glaser, chief of the virus lab. Glaser, on pins and needles, swung into action.

The California Department of Health Services' Richmond Campus has seen several adrenaline-pumping moments in recent months when it appeared bird flu had reached American shores.

The man was one of about three dozen Californians strongly suspected to be infected with bird flu who were tested here in recent months. About a dozen were "very worrisome" cases because of the patients' travel histories and symptoms, Glaser said.

All tested negative in the end. Yet each case served as a practice run of sorts for the disease's feared arrival in California.

"Because there are so many travelers into California, we could very well see a case tomorrow," said Janice Louie, a medical officer at the lab.

A handful of other states have conducted the same tests as the Richmond lab on suspected cases of bird flu. Iowa has run about a half-dozen and Virginia has done two, officials in those states say.

But California, the nation's most populous state, is uniquely vulnerable to the germ arriving via bird or people. Glaser and the lab's assistant deputy director, Paul B. Kimsey, have bet a cup of coffee on which they think it will be.

Kimsey's wager is with the birds. California has a $2.5 billion poultry industry, and sees millions of birds migrate along its flyways. Many experts, including the state's top veterinarian, Richard Breitmeyer, believe those migratory routes could intersect with Asian bird migrations and bring the disease to California as early as this spring or summer.

Glaser is betting on the human path. Some 11,000 people fly into California each day from Southeast Asia alone, officials say. Shaking her head at a map of the 54 countries and territories afflicted with bird flu, Glaser said: "I don't even want to know the numbers" of people entering California from other regions.

At least 109 people worldwide have died from bird flu since a wave of outbreaks of H5N1 swept through Asian poultry populations in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Health experts fear the H5N1 virus will eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a global pandemic. So far, the bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch and spread among each other. Most cases have been traced to close contact with infected birds.

Doctors in California have received urgent pleas from health officials to be vigilant about asking patients with certain symptoms about their recent travels. Did the patient visit a country with reported bird flu cases? Did he or she have exposure to sick poultry, or butcher a chicken?

"Quick testing and getting results back from people who may be ill are critical," said state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, chairwoman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Services and Homeland Security. "Experts tell us the response has to be as quick and overwhelming as possible. We can't let the flu get out in front of us."


Public health microbiologist Larry Penning demonstrates the extraction of genetic material from respiratory samples in the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory at the California Department of Health Services in Richmond, Calif., April 5, 2006. (Picture below)
Click to expand...

...and Post #22: of testing in Virginia

JPD said:
This article deals primarily with other types of avian flu and old cases of those.

But read the last line in bold....

Virginia has first case of flu​
​


http://www.manassasjm.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MJM%2FMGArticle%2FWPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835244469&path=!news

By A.J. HOSTETLER
Media General News Service
Sunday, April 9, 2006

Virginia is the site of the first of only two known U.S. cases of avian flu infecting a human.

In 2002, a government worker helping to control an outbreak of avian flu among flocks in the Shenandoah Valley became ill, suffering fever, cough, sore throat and a headache before recovering. The infection was confirmed to be influenza H7N2, a much different strain from what is now spreading through Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Although highly infectious among birds, H7N2 flu is considered a low risk to human health. Its transmission to a human, however, prompted an investigation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The employee's blood was tested 10 days after falling ill, and again seven months later. The results were confirmed by several different tests but were not made public until 2004, when reported by The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The nation's second case of avian flu in a human was confirmed when a patient hospitalized in New York with respiratory illness in 2003 was later found to be infected with avian flu. It was also the H7N2 strain.

So far, Virginia health officials have tested two people for the H5N1 avian flu but have found no cases.
Click to expand...

Thanks New Freedom and JPD for breaking these significant stories.

For all the he-said, she-said stories of weither they are or are not testing for H5N1... in the news... now we know that YES, they are testing suspicious cases here in the US; or at least in California and Virginia.

:vik:
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Scotland

Bird flu tests delay decision on poultry restrictions​
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND AURA SABADUS

A DECISION on whether to impose restrictions on the movement of poultry and poultry products around the suspected source of the Scottish bird flu outbreak will not be taken until further tests have been carried out, the Scottish Executive said yesterday. Ross Finnie, the rural affairs minister, has said experts believe the swan that tested positive for the H5N1 strain probably came from a flock in the Montrose area.

But yesterday an Executive spokeswoman said no further restrictions would be imposed until confirmation of the theory had been received from scientists.

However, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which part-owns and manages the Montrose Basin nature reserve in the South Esk estuary, played down suggestions that the dead bird originated in the area.

About 50,000 migratory birds visit the reserve every year, but the SWT's chief executive, Simon Milne, said there was no proof that the dead, infected swan had been there.

"There's nothing to say it did or it didn't," he said. "I don't think there's any particular evidence it's come from there. It could have come from a number of places.

"Obviously it would be nice to know where it originated from, but I don't think it's going to be possible to tell in the short term."

Five dead birds from the Montrose Basin have already been sent for tests.

Meanwhile, farmers and food-safety watchdogs accused animal rights' campaigners of stirring up panic by urging consumers to avoid chicken meat "like the plague". In Edinburgh yesterday, demonstrators from the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed that there was a risk of catching deadly diseases from eating chicken.

But John Kinnaird, the president of the NFU Scotland, said that the action was "totally irresponsible, misleading and an insult to consumers".

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=551552006

:vik:
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
California: 36 People tested for H5N1

Apr 10, 2006 5:21 pm US/Pacific

Calif. Could Be Ground Zero For Bird Flu Outbreak?​

(CBS 5) RICHMOND, Calif. There is growing concern about when the bird flu may land on California shores, but a Bay Area lab on the front lines of the battle is gearing up to fight the potentially deadly pandemic.

Dr. Carol Glaser and Dr. Janice Louie are with the California Department of Health Services. The pair work at the state lab in Richmond and specialize in viruses. One of their top goals is to immediately identify anyone in California infected with H5N1, a strain of the virus that causes bird flu.

H5N1 has caused lethal outbreaks in poultry and waterfowl in Southeast Asia, China, Africa and Europe. Since 2003, the bird flu has infected nearly 200 people. More than half had died.

"This may be our biggest public health issue that any of us will ever address in our lifetime," said Glaser. "Every week we have another country that is experiencing chicken flu. I think the odds are that eventually this virus will mutate enough that it will be transmitted easily from person to person."

Glaser and Louie are now waiting for its next move.

"We've tested in the past year approximately three dozen people," Louie said.

Fortunately, none of the three dozen people tested positive for bird flu.

But the tests proved a good exercise for the lab.

"I think lab testing is one of the key components to surveillance and surveillance is one of the key components to ultimately containing any pandemic," Louie said.

With millions of travelers flying into local airports each year, the Bay Area could be Ground Zero.

"The Bay Area, just given the frequency of our travelers to different areas of the world, would be potential hotspot," Glaser said.

http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/...bs5.com/topstories/local_story_100202522.html

:vik:
 
Fuzzychick

Fuzzychick

Membership Revoked
A good exercise for the lab? When it trapes it's way to the west coast, the boys in the lab are gonna be wishing it was just a dream/exercise. Sorry under the weather here and not loving respiratory illness.:rolleyes:
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Engineers could aid bird flu vaccine effort​
Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:18 PM ET

By Lisa Richwine

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Avian flu experts appealed on Monday to engineers -- a group largely left out of flu preparedness efforts -- to come up with potential breakthroughs for speeding vaccine production in case of a deadly pandemic.

The hope is that engineers could use their expertise in areas such as assembly lines and production techniques to help vaccine developers jump hurdles.

The matter has gained urgency as the H5N1 flu strain moves quickly among birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. Experts worry it could change to a form that spreads easily among people and kills millions.

An effective flu vaccine would be key to slowing the movement of the virus, but producing sufficient quantities would take time.

"We have so far a situation that is not satisfactory ... it's very difficult for many people to predict how much (vaccine) is going to be available two, three or even five months after a pandemic has emerged," said Klaus Stohr, head of the World Health Organization's influenza team.

It could take at least nine months to have 1 billion doses available for the world's 6.4 billion people, he said. "By this point in time, the virus may have gone around the world already twice," he said.

Stohr spoke to a meeting sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. It was held on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

The idea of turning to engineers emerged when some Case faculty heard Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warn that a vaccine could not be produced fast enough during a flu pandemic.

"As engineers we sat there ... and said, 'Why can't we do that?'" said Dr. John Anderson, a chemical engineering professor at Case Western.

"Research from the engineering community needs to look at processes that have been entrenched, in a rut, for decades," said Patrick Scannon, chief scientific and medical officer for biotechnology company Xoma Ltd., a small biotechnology company.

In the meantime, governments have been urging companies to step up production capacity. Existing vaccine factories can make only 900 million doses of influenza vaccine globally -- far short of what would be needed in a pandemic when billions of people would need to be vaccinated.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...1_N10221690_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-VACCINES.xml

:vik:
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Croatia

Another H5N1 case confirmed in Croatia​

Tests have confirmed that a dead swan, found last week on the shores of the Sava River in southeast Zagreb, capital of Croatia, had been infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, according to Croatia's state news agency Hina on Monday.

It was the third H5N1 case confirmed in wild swans in the country.

The Croatian Agriculture Ministry spokesman, Mladen Pavic, said that sufficient precautionary measures had been taken to curb the spread of the disease, and there was no need for additional ones.

But he stressed the importance of keeping domestic birds indoors, particularly when the migration of birds was at its most intensive stage.

Pavic added quarantine officers would continue to monitor the situation closely, though they had found no other evidence of possible infection after combing a three km area around the location where the swan was found.

Croatia, which lies under one of the main flight paths for migratory birds, reported its first H5N1 case last October in the eastern part of the country.

In late February this year, the disease hit the country's southern coastal region, where two dead swans were tested positive for H5N1.

Croatian authorities immediately adopted a series of measures, including ordering farmers to keep their poultry indoors so as to prevent them from contracting the virus from wild birds.

The authorities have also halted poultry imports from bird flu-hit nations, including Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Slovenia.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200604/11/eng20060411_257425.html

:vik:
 
J

JPD

Inactive
WHO confirms another bird flu case in Indonesia​
​


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/202610/1/.html

JAKARTA : The World Health Organisation has confirmed Indonesia's 33rd case of bird flu case in a 23-year-old poultry worker, the health ministry said Tuesday.

The patient was being treated at the M Djamil hospital in Padang, West Sumatra province, said Hariyadi Wibisono, director general of animal borne disease control.

Results arrived Tuesday morning from the WHO-affiliated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States which confirmed earlier local tests, Wibisono told AFP.

"He had been in contact with sick chickens at his work place in the Bekasi suburb," he said.

Local tests for the virus, which are usually accurate, are routinely sent to WHO-affiliated laboratories in Hong Kong or the United States for confirmation.

Indonesia has so far 23 confirmed fatality cases while 10 other confirmed infection cases, including the poultry farm worker, are still alive. - AFP/ch
 
J

JPD

Inactive
Woman in southern China being tested for bird flu​
​


http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Display.../April/theworld_April388.xml&section=theworld

11 April 2006


BEIJING - A 41-year-old woman in southern China was being tested to see if she has the H5N1 bird flu virus after falling sick with pneumonia-like symptoms, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The case was reported March 30 to the WHO’s Beijing office, spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said.

The woman, a vegetable-seller at a market in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, was hospitalized with a cough, fever and headache, Bhatiasevi said.

The woman worked in an area close to where live poultry were sold so “she’s being treated with caution,” she said.

“She has been given a preliminary diagnosis of pneumonia,” Bhatiasevi said. “The symptoms of bird flu are similar to pneumonia so they are testing her for that as well.”

The woman was in stable condition and tests results could be released up to five weeks later, she said.

The H5N1 virus has killed 109 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, according to WHO, and has killed or prompted authorities to destroy 200 million birds.

In mainland China, there have been 16 reported cases of bird flu since November and 11 have died.

A number of people around the Guangzhou woman were being monitored, but so far none have been sickened, Bhatiasevi said.
 
J

JPD

Inactive
Egypt finds 12th human bird flu case​
​


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-EGYPT.xml&archived=False

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has found its 12th case of human bird flu, Health and Population Minister Hatem el-Gabali said in comments published late on Monday.

The latest case was an 18-year-old woman from a province north of Cairo who caught the virus after handling infected birds, the state MENA news agency quoted Gabali and ministry officials saying.

The ministry said the woman was in a stable condition and members of her family were being tested for infection.

"She is being given Tamiflu, the necessary treatment for battling bird flu," a ministry official said, referring to the anti-viral medication thought to be the best method of fighting bird flu in humans.

The deadly H5N1 strain has so far killed three people in Egypt, according to the government. A further five have made full recoveries and four remain in hospital.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which carries out additional tests after initial government testing, has confirmed four of Egypt's total cases including two of the deaths.

The disease, which has killed at least 109 people worldwide, has spread rapidly since 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. While mainly affecting animals, scientists fear the disease could mutate into a form that can pass between humans, sparking a pandemic.

Bird flu was detected in birds in Egypt in February and the first human infection was reported in mid-March. The WHO has said it is concerned about the disease's human toll in a relatively short period of time.

Women, who make up all three of Egypt's fatalities, are often responsible for slaughtering and cooking domestic poultry, and the government has called for more awareness about bird flu among women to protect themselves and their families.
 
J

JPD

Inactive
A little more info....

New human bird flu case confirmed in Indonesia​
​


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP307395.htm

JAKARTA, April 11 (Reuters) - A 23-year-old man undergoing treatment in Sumatra has been confirmed to have bird flu, an Indonesian Health Ministry official said on Tuesday, citing results from a World Health Organisation-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong.

Indonesia has had 23 internationally confirmed deaths from avian influenza since 2003, the second highest of any country.

"This morning we got a confirmation that the result from the Hong Kong laboratory was positive for a 23-year-old male. He is still hospitalised at Jamil hospital in Padang, West Sumatra," Hariadi Wibisono, director-general of animal-borne disease control at the health ministry, told Reuters.

The man had been working at a chicken farm in West Java before he became sick. Most human cases of the virus stem from contact with birds that have it.

Indonesia has had the most human bird flu deaths of any country so far this year, killing at least 12 people.

The highly pathogenic strain has affected birds in about two-thirds of the country's provinces.

Stamping out the virus is a huge, if not impossible, task in the sprawling archipelago of about 17,000 islands and 220 million people.

The government has resisted the mass culling of fowl seen in some other nations, citing the expense and the impracticality in a country where the keeping of a few chickens or ducks in the backyards of homes is common in cities and on farms.

Agencies have concentrated instead on selective culling and on public education and hygiene measures aimed at prevention.

A sweeping door-to-door campaign to try to control the disease in the capital Jakarta, the country's biggest city which along with its suburbs is home to about 12 million people, only got underway at the end of February.

Agriculture officials estimate that Jakarta alone has some 500,000 fowl.

Efforts elsewhere in the country have hit shortages of needed equipment, funds and infrastructure.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread in birds at an alarming rate in recent months, sweeping through parts of Europe, into Africa and flaring anew in Asia.

The virus has killed at least 109 people worldwide since 2003, a fraction of the deaths feared if the virus mutates and spreads easily from person to person.
 
J

JPD

Inactive
Brazil publicizes new anti-bird flu measures​
​


http://english.people.com.cn/200604/11/eng20060411_257543.html

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva told national radio on Monday that the country was preparing for a possible bird flu outbreak, as an awareness campaign about the disease launched on Friday got into full swing.

On his weekly radio show "Coffee with the President," Lula encouraged listeners to keep consuming poultry during a discussion on his decision to publicly eat chicken last week. His comments echoed the key messages of the National Bird Flu Prevention Plan.

"What we did was to send a signal to Brazilian society that we do not have bird flu here," Lula said, adding that because of Brazil's geographical position, it would be difficult for the disease to reach the country.

"Often a topic causes alarm before people have taken the trouble to inform themselves correctly of the risks," Lula said, adding that he was doing what he could to reduce fear in society.

He added that the ministries of health and agriculture had adequate capacity for vaccine production and that the nation had begun a strict air and sea port inspection regime.

Under the bird flu prevention plan, Brazil will also modernize its network of laboratories.

Brazil is the world's third largest poultry producer and biggest exporter. The industry accounts for around 4 million jobs there.

The deadly form of bird flu, the H5N1 strain, has killed more than 100 people since it reappeared in 2003, most of whom had worked closely with farm birds.

The disease has killed birds in Africa, Asia and Europe, and infected people in Africa and Asia.

While it can be spread from bird to human and is highly contagious in birds, so far there is no evidence that the disease can spread from person to person.

Source: Xinhua
 
N

Nuthatch

Inactive
Well, I am flummoxed. All information about the 400 Chinese University students and the 2000 schoolchildren with the flu there has ceased. Not a footnote anywhere that I can find. If any of you follow another board that has info, would you please post it here? Thanks.
 
New Freedom

New Freedom

Veteran Member
Oh pleeze.......give me a break!!!!! They will do anything to deny that: H5N1 is in the UK!!! :shk:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4898398.stm



Swan 'may have died outside UK'

A dead swan found in Fife which tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu may not have died in the UK, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.

The "working hypothesis" is the bird could have died in another country and been washed up on the Scottish coast.

Ministers are considering bringing in targets to regulate the time between reporting a dead bird and tests being completed, according to the sources.

No birds have tested positive for H5N1 since the swan was found last week.

Early test results suggested the swan found at Cellardyke had an almost identical virus to birds found in Germany.

The RSPB is hopeful that this, combined with the lack of any further cases, means the swan could be a "one-off".

The society's spokesman Andre Farrar said: "If this individual bird washed up from outside the UK... that does favour the theory that this is a one-off.

"It does build on the fact that we've seen no more positive results in the few days after the discovery of the first swan."

The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily from one person to another and therefore currently does not pose a large-scale threat to humans.


But experts fear the virus could gain this ability if it mutates. They say it could trigger a flu pandemic in its new form, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

Microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said it was "always a possibility" the bird was infected near the German island of Ruegen, which saw an outbreak of the disease last month.

"The optimists would like it to have been infected in Ruegen and then washed by currents to Britain," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

He said the pessimistic view was that the swan caught the virus locally, meaning birds would still have the disease but not been detected.

He added that bird flu would not be "a foot-and-mouth situation - the virus is not going to go on the rampage".

Experts are still testing birds found near Cellardyke, and a UK helpline has had thousands of reports of dead birds.


BIRD FLU FACTFILE
Bird flu viruses have 16 H subtypes and nine N subtypes.
Four types of the virus are known to infect humans - H5N1, H7N3, H7N7 and H9N2
Most lead to minor symptoms, apart from H5N1
H5N1 has caused more than 100 deaths in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam
The World Health Organization says not all H5 or H7 strains are severe, but their ability to mutate means their presence is "always a cause for concern"

A six-mile (10km) surveillance zone and 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone in place around Cellardyke will remain for at least 30 days from the day the swan was found.

A wild bird risk area has also been established which includes 175 registered poultry premises, containing 3.1 million birds, 260,000 of which are free-range.

Over 8,000 calls have been made to the authorities in the last week by members of the public reporting dead birds.

Officials say 1,100 birds have been tested since February.

If you find a dead swan, goose or duck; or three or more dead wild or garden birds in the same place, you should call the Defra helpline on 08459 335577.
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
Nuthatch said:
Well, I am flummoxed. All information about the 400 Chinese University students and the 2000 schoolchildren with the flu there has ceased. Not a footnote anywhere that I can find. If any of you follow another board that has info, would you please post it here? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yea Nuthatch... there is something amiss... there was an article this weekend I omited to post: China clear of new bird flu cases for 44 days: official (Xinhua)Updated: 2006-04-10 20:46 (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-04/10/content_564574.htm) They may say they have no BF, but they do have a mysterious flulike illness.... Hmmmm

IMHO, it's about economics... Even WHO came out last week saying that countries need to be more forthcoming about BF cases...

Now, my questions is: If most of the countries in Europe have had confirmed cases of H5N1 in birds... is it a miracle that there have been no human cases, or is there a coverup? At least we know of 2 states in the US that are actively testing suspected people for H5N1.

:vik:
 
B

bobfall2005

Veteran Member
I just wanted to say thank you,

PCViking.

Your posts take alot of researching time.

I enjoy reading them.

Thank you,
again,

Bob
 
Kim99

Kim99

Veteran Member
Nuthatch said:
Well, I am flummoxed. All information about the 400 Chinese University students and the 2000 schoolchildren with the flu there has ceased. Not a footnote anywhere that I can find. If any of you follow another board that has info, would you please post it here? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Nuthatch, this is the latest I could find( 2 articles) :

China Isolates Henan Fever Students As Bird Flu Fears Spread

HONG KONG, April 9 2006

2006.04.04

HONG KONG—Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan are holding more than 400 university students in isolation after they contracted a mystery fever. Meanwhile, authorities in Shanghai have called for better preparedness as the highly pathogenic avian influenza spreads.

The students, from the Henan University of Science and Technology in the city of Luoyang, were being held at an undisclosed location other than the university hospital, a local employee said, confirming earlier official media reports.

“The students with high fever symptoms are quarantined...at a specific place,” an employee at the No. 1 University Hospital told RFA’s Cantonese service. “But we don’t know how many students are there now.”

Official media reports were also confirmed by an official on duty at the university.

WHO asks for details

“We have more than a dozen students with high fever symptoms,” the official said, after initially denying the story that was reported by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

“Most of them are out of hospital already. We don’t know the details,” the official said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested further information on the outbreak from Chinese authorities.

Meanwhile, Shanghai mayor Chen Liangyu has warned municipal officials of a disastrous impact on the city of any epidemic among humans caused by the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

A 29-year-old woman migrant worker died of a suspected bird flu infection in the city last month, prompting the city to step up inspections of poultry shipments from out of town.

“We should fully understand the grimness and the arduousness of our work of preventing and controlling highly pathogenic avian influenza,” Chen told a municipal Communist Party committee meeting.

Burma clamps down on poultry markets

“Shanghai is a modern international metropolis, and any epidemic outbreak due to our failure in taking strong and effective preventive, control, and monitoring measures would probably produce great negative impacts,” Chen said.

Burma’s secretive junta has announced bans on the sale and movement of poultry in a number of townships in its Sagaing and Mandalay divisions, official media reported.

“Altogether 3,427 fowls and 200 quails were killed in 37 poultry farms and two quail farms from the first week of February to second week of March 2006 and 5,122 were destroyed,” the Rangoon-based New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported in March.

Bird flu has spread rapidly since late 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The United States fears it will arrive on its shores before year's end.

Since the virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003, outbreaks have been confirmed in more than 45 countries and territories, according to data from the World Organization for Animal Health.

In total, the virus is known to have infected 190 people since 2003, according to the WHO.

Many of those who have died are children and young adults. Vietnam and Indonesia have reported the highest number of cases, accounting for 64 of the total deaths.

Original reporting in Cantonese by Lei King-man. RFA Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Sarah Jackson-Han (jacksonhans@rfa.org)
Director of Communications
Radio Free Asia
2025 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone : 202-530-7774
Fax : 202-530-7794

Radio Free Asia
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRele...Detail&ID=12202

Henan officials refuse to reveal cause of flu; it's not A or B

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http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/busin...0bu038000c.html

Henan authorities refuse to reveal cause of university flu outbreak SHANGHAI, China (Interfax-China) -- Henan Department of Health has refused to reveal the cause of a flu-like outbreak that has infected 400 students at a university in the province. Students at Henan University of Science and Technology, in Luoyang city, started to become ill on March 26 which resulted in many needing hospital treatment -- as many as 400, according to state media. Henan Department of Health said laboratory tests showed the infection is not type A or type B influenza. Interfax asked vice director of the disease control and prevention division of Henan Department of Health, Shan Xinguo, why so many students contracted the disease at the same time, but he declined to give any details. He said, "What I can say is the infection is now under control, and we can't give any further information," Shan Xinguo said the students had contracted upper respiratory tract infections. He said, "It's normal for students to have upper respiratory tract infections, especially in spring. And at colleges, students are concentrated, so it's easy for many students to become infected with the disease at the same period of time." Another official from Henan Department of Health, who declined to be named, said the situation is now under control, and the fever was starting to pass. "The reason why so many students developed fever continuously still remains unclear," she said, "We are still investigating the matter, but we are sure the students are not victims of an epidemic influenza infection." She said the main symptoms of the sick students were fever and joint pains, and that most recovered one or two days after medical treatment. Shan Xinguo said the ill students had been quarantined and treated, and that some TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine preparations have been sent to students to prevent the disease. Over 2000 dormitories as well as 130 classrooms are now being sanitized twice a day. As of April 2, ten students were still in hospital for clinical observation.
 
J

JPD

Inactive
Bird flu drives men to suicide​
​


http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Bird_flu/0,,2-10-1959_1914886,00.html

11/04/2006 12:37 - (SA)
Mumbai - Seven Indian poultry farmers have committed suicide after their businesses were destroyed by tumbling prices due to the bird flu scare, reports a farmer's organisation on Tuesday.

The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), which represented 25 000 farmers in India, said seven people had killed themselves after the drop in prices since the first outbreak of H5N1 in western India in February.

The group said that chicken prices had fallen from 30 rupees ($0.67) a kilo to a low-point of two rupees. Rates had risen slightly since then, but still were well below normal at 6.5 rupees.

Poultry farming future 'not known'

It said: "Small farmers are wiped out due to the unprecedented fall in the farm gate price of chicken and eggs and large farmers - unsure of the industry's future do no know whether to continue in poultry farming or not."

The group said that the crisis had cost the industry 80 billion rupees ($1.8bn) in just one month and a half. None of the farmers, from five different states, had chickens infected with bird flu.

The western state of Maharashtra, which included India's economic hub, Mumbai, was a key poultry-producing area. No human cases had yet been reported.

Farmers 'not being listened to'

The state government announced last week plans to provide 20 rupees per bird outside of bird flu affected areas because of the falling prices.

It said that it would also ask hospitals, hotels and prisons to put eggs on their menus to help the farmers.

OP Singh, chief executive of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, one of Asia's largest poultry groups, said: "Poultry farmers are not being listened to. They have financial burdens and pressure from the banks."

According to reports, the suicides came against a backdrop of general farming suicides in India with nearly 9 000 people in four states killing themselves for the last five years owing to rising costs, debt and repeated crop failures.
 
J

JPD

Inactive
IMF frets about bird flu​
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http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=90341

Washington (dpa) - Despite an upbeat report card on the workings of the world's financial systems, the International Monetary Fund Tuesday saw a few dark clouds on the horizon - including worries about the impact of a potential bird-flu pandemic.

The organisation also warned that there were risks in the rapid growth of private credit in "a number of Southeast Asian countries" and in the dominance of state-owned banks in India and China.

A global avian flu outbreak in humans could cause high absenteeism in the financial industry, interfering with payments, clearing, settlements, trading and communications, the IMF warned in its periodic evaluation of the international finance systems, the Global Financial Stability Report.

In addition, the IMF noted that rising interest rates and tighter credit for the corporate and private sectors may have have "somewhat" increased medium-term risks to financial stability in the last six months.

Elsewhere on the financial scene, the good news seemed to counterbalance concerns, and any cyclical uncertainties for financial markets in 2006 could be defined as "not bad, but not as good as the stellar year 2005," the IMF said.

Concerns over bird flu - which has killed 109 people over the last few years but not made the feared leap to a human epidemic - prompted the IMF to urge large financial institutions to plan "for work from home, heavy demand for cash by the public and transport of key personnel whose functions cannot be done from home."

"The outbreak of avian flu could threaten global financial markets," the IMF warned. It could also lead to a "significant but temporary reduction" in net capital flows to emerging economies, the IMF said.

The IMF urged countries that do not yet have bird-flu plans for their financial systems to establish emergency committees that include central bank officials.

The report was based in part on informal discussions with commercial and investment banks, securities firms, asset management companies and other elements of the world financial system.

In other conclusions from the report, the IMF said:

- Financial systems have strengthened in emerging markets, attracting a 41 per cent increase in direct investments last year over 2003, the report said. That increase applied to emerging Europe, Central Asia, Asia and Latin America. In 2004 alone, $180 billion flowed to emerging markets.

- Credit risk has been dispersed in the ever diversifying international banking sector, though the trend carries "brave new world" worries, such as a lower level of information about how the risk is distributed, the report said.

- Low interest rates have "supported a solid global economic recovery" while "corporate balance sheets have strengthened beyond expectations", especially in the United States, European countries and Japan compared to 2001, the report said. Global property insurance and reinsurance firms have adequately absorbed losses related to the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in the US.

- "The centre of gravity of growth in financial services continues to shift toward the large and rapidly growing economies of India and China," the IMF said.

Further hikes in oil prices could "create headwinds in financial markets" by pushing up interest rates, slowing growth and putting downward pressure on equity markets, the IMF warned.

- The report warned that global imbalances continued to widen, not only in the US with a current-account deficit now at 6.5 per cent of GDP, but also among emerging markets, which have a total current- account surplus of $500 billion in 2005 and 2006.

"At present, there seems to be a willingness in the rest of the world to accumulate US assets - without any visible risk premium attached," the IMF wrote.

The US attracts so much capital because of its "large, deep, flexible, sophisticated and ... well-regulated financial markets," and because its growth rate is so much stronger than the euro area and Japan, the IMF said.

Much of the oil export windfall in the last year flowed into "offshore bank deposits, predominantly in US dollars," or through US treasury and agency securities bought from British dealers. In 2005 alone, such officially managed assets of large oil-exporting nations may have risen by $300 to $450 billion - at a rate the IMF compared to the annual accumulation by Japan through early 2004, and the accumulation by China through mid-2005.

China, the IMF said, has an estimated total of $600 billion in officially managed assets in the global finance system in 2005.
 
PCViking

PCViking

Lutefisk Survivor
UK

TOURIST SITE WARNS OF BIRD FLU DANGER ​
Date : 08.04.06

Warning signs have gone up at one of the area's biggest tourist attractions as fears of a bird flu outbreak increase.

Visitors to Rutland Water have been told not to touch any dead birds and report any they find immediately.

Nature wardens said they were being extra cautious since tests on a dead swan in Scotland confirmed it had the H5N1 bird flu virus. Tests are being carried out on a further 14.

Senior warden Martyn Aspinall said: "We are remaining vigilant, especially in the light of this recent discovery in Scotland.

"Notices have been put up telling people not to touch dead birds and to report any dead ones they find."

Birds at Rutland Water are being monitored for signs of lethal bird flu every month. The Government has ordered that samples are taken from both live and dead birds.

Poultry farmers in Leicestershire said they were concerned about the impact on their businesses.

Bird keepers and vets across the UK will be braced to put contingency plans in place in an attempt to stem the spread of bird flu.

Pat Taylor, who keeps a flock of 2,000 birds at Ketton, in Rutland, with her husband, Henry, said: "We are concerned about the situation since the swan was found in Scotland. There is a worry we could lose our free-range organic status if we have to house our birds indoors."

Another poultry farmer, who declined to be named, said: "We are only a small business and this has virtually finished us because people are scared about it."

A spokesman for the National Farmers' Union said it would be issuing advice to farmers. He said: "It includes ways to avoid attracting wild birds which could then mix with commercial poultry."

The RSPCA's Woodside animal shelter in Leicester has not had any worried bird owners leaving their pets.

Spokeswoman Sophie Wilkinson said: "The message to people who keep pet birds inside and which are not in contact with wild birds is don't panic. They are in no danger."

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: "Extra measures may be introduced if the situation changes but, for now, bird shows are perfectly free to go ahead and no new guidelines are being issued to poultry farmers."

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co....Node=133130&contentPK=14308963&folderPk=77458

:vik:
 
J

JPD

Inactive
Britain's bird flu testing method questioned​
​


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...01_L11119995_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-BRITAIN.xml

LONDON (Reuters) - Tests done in Britain to determine the extent of avian flu after the H5N1 virus was found in a dead swan may have been flawed, a science magazine said on Tuesday.

Britain's Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said tests on wild birds were negative for flu which suggests the lethal bird virus was not widespread in the country.

But New Scientist magazine said there could be a problem with how the samples were collected.

"An investigation by New Scientist suggests that all those tests were flawed, meaning no one really knows just how widespread infection among British wild birds might be," the magazine said.

DEFRA defended its methods, saying the most up-to-date testing technologies for avian flu viruses are being used.

"The findings of the DEFRA survey of wild birds are valid," a spokesman said.

Britain reported its first case of the H5N1 strain last week, in a wild bird, when a swan was found dead in Cellardyke harbor in eastern Scotland.

The weekly magazine said its suspicions were raised because samples of droppings from more than 3,000 wild birds taken for DEFRA last December by the conservation group The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) showed only 0.06 percent had the ordinary flu that ducks and geese normally carry.

Ruth Crommie of the WWT told the magazine that the group thought the low figures occur in some bird populations.

But experts contacted by the magazine said normally about 10 percent of ducks and 1 percent of geese have signs of ordinary avian flu in Europe in December.

"The problem may have been DEFRA's method of collecting samples," according to the magazine.

Crommie said DEFRA told the WWT samplers to take fecal samples on a sterile moistened swab and to put them in dry plastic tubes before freezing. But the independent experts said the samples would need to be immersed in a saline or preservative solution before being frozen.

"If you left a swab in the refrigerator in its sheath like that, it could dry out and your would lose all your virus," said Bjorn Olsen, of the University of Kalmar in Sweden, who tests 10,000 birds each year for avian flu.

But the DEFRA spokesman added: "Simply because previous surveys have revealed different results, does not invalidate the present survey, which should be regarded as the most up-to-date source of data on the prevalence of Influenza A viruses in wild birds in the UK."

Scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into a strain that could become highly infectious in humans, capable of causing a pandemic that could kill millions of people. So far the virus has not shown it can be spread easily from person to person.
 
New Freedom

New Freedom

Veteran Member
http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/...ttp://voanews.com/english/2006-04-10-voa9.cfm

UN Officials Say Bird Flu Threat Remains High Despite International Efforts
By Scott Bobb
Bangkok
10 April 2006



United Nations officials say the bird flu virus that has killed more than 100 people and millions of fowl in various parts of the world continues to pose a major threat, despite successes by some countries in combating it. But they say the recent outbreak in Burma is more serious than previously thought, causing new concerns.

The United Nations coordinator on avian influenza, David Nabarro, says although international efforts to combat bird flu have been largely successful to date, the world community cannot become complacent.


"Great progress in some places, still a lot to do in others," he said, " but overall, don't let any of us think that the problem has somehow gone away. It's not. It's there. And the current situation we're in of control in some countries is good, but it's fragile."

Nabarro made the remarks in Bangkok during a five-nation trip to Asia, where the virus reappeared more than two years ago. Since then, the disease has killed 109 people in nine nations and has spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It has also led to the culling of millions of fowl.

Nabarro praised the response by Thailand and Vietnam, two of the countries hit hardest by the bird flu, and he noted a strengthening commitment by the Chinese government to combat the disease. But he added that greater efforts are needed to fight the virus in nations such as Indonesia and Cambodia, where new outbreaks continue.

Another expert, the regional representative for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, He Changchui, said Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a new and significant concern, in part because of public ignorance of the disease. He said, although bird flu only was reported there last month, it has spread to 100 districts, mainly in the central and northern parts of the country.
i
"The issue there (in Burma) is that the awareness is rather poor. The information is not that comprehensive," he said.

He said that Burma, one of Asia's poorest countries, does not have the personnel or facilities to deal with the outbreak but added that U.N. teams will focus on it in the coming weeks.

The military government in Burma has culled half a million birds and has requested U.N. assistance. It has also begun a public awareness campaign. But tight government controls on the news media and foreign aid groups has limited the development of systems that could be used to combat the disease.

Officials note that so far bird flu almost exclusively has infected humans who come into close contact with sick birds.

However, they worry that if the mutating virus gains the ability to spread from human to human, it could cause a global pandemic that could kill millions of people.

Nabarro says that the spread of the virus to Africa and Europe increases this possibility.

"Therefore increases the potential for that virus to lead to sporadic infection in humans. It also increases the chance of a very dangerous mutation occurring," he said.

The U.N. experts said that unless a human vaccine against bird flu is developed, the best way to avoid a pandemic is through surveillance and prevention. In other words, outbreaks at farms and live poultry markets must be found and isolated quickly.
 
New Freedom

New Freedom

Veteran Member
For those who are interested.......here is the CDC table of weekly mortalities in all the major cities for influenza. I think it would be a good idea to start checking your city on a weekly basis, that is, if you are worried that we won't really hear in MSM what is going on until it is too late.....

I'm definately going to be checking this on a weekly basis until this threat has passed ....... I'm going to keep an eye on my state, as well as other possible 'hot spots,' such as California, Alaska and Florida.


http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/distrnds.html
 
J

JPD

Inactive
H5N1 Bird Flu Familial Cluster in Azerbaijan Grows Again​
​


http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04110601/H5N1_Azerbaijan_Cluster_Grows_Again.html

Recombinomics Commentary
April 11, 2006

Today WHO disclosed that another person (17F) related to several H5N1 positive patients in Azerbaijan, has also tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. The latest disclosure raises the number of relatives or close friend who were H5N1 positive to 7, representing 5 families.

The index case (17F) died on February 23. Initially she was thought to have died from respiratory complications associated with lung cancer. However, the initial WHO report failed to indicate that she was a first cousin of the second confirmed H5N1 fatality (20F) who died March 3. Her close friend (17F) died March 8 and her brother (16M) died March 10. Thus, the first 4 H5N1 positive cases in the community died, and all were related or neighbors.

The latest report indicates that two more relatives developed symptoms on March 11, after the first four had died. In addition, a sister (16F) of one of the discharged patients (15F) also was H5N1 positive in local tests.

Thus, there were 7 patients who were H5N1 positive and closely linked, although the disease onset dates were spread over a period of more than a month. The extended time frame makes a common source unlikely, although WHO initially speculated that the cases were linked to feather plucking of dead wild birds.

These cases are similar to the large and extended clusters in nearby eastern Turkey and raise questions about genetic alterations such as S227N in the receptor binding domain. S227N was detected in the index case in Turkey, and some reports suggest that H5N1 from the sister also had S227N.

Although the latest WHO update indicated additional cases in Azerbaijan were not found, H5N1 migrating back north from Africa could bring or create more H5N1 with S227N, resulting in more large clusters and more efficient human-to-human transmissions,
 
J

JPD

Inactive
UN warns of bird flu complacency​
​


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1486627.cms

JAKARTA: A dangerous complacency about bird flu is spreading in Asia because it has not killed as many people as initially feared, the senior United Nations official in Asia said on Tuesday.

Bird flu is known to have infected 192 people world-wide since ‘03, killing 109 of them. Some people in parts of Asia, such as Indonesia, say there are bigger threats to their lives such as poverty, militancy and other illnesses and are not taking precautions against avian flu.

But this was a short-sighted way to think, Kim Hak-Su, Bangkok-based Under-Secretary-General of the UN and executive secretary of UNESCAP, said.

People were confused, he said. “Only birds and very limited numbers of people are affected, and (a) very small number of people died” despite bird flu’s presence for several years, he said, adding “People now start to think (of bird flu) as not a major threat. That is a concern, so we must be vigilant.”
Health experts fear it could be only a matter of time before the H5N1 avian flu virus mutates and starts spreading easily from person to person, triggering a global pandemic. Millions could die and economies crippled.

The virus has spread from Asia, deep into Europe, to the Middle East and Africa, infecting humans in at least nine nations, including Indonesia were it has killed 23 people, 12 of them this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

Kim, speaking on the sidelines of a UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific meeting, said UNESCAP had identified bird flu as a ‘looming threat’ to the region, which has already caused about $10bn in losses to the poultry industry. But complacency was hard to fight.

He said many people were initially very worried by the disease but that fear has largely worn off. Even UNESCAP staff, including himself, did not always take precautions such as carrying Tamiflu tablets that can fight the disease. He said a crucial task for Asian countries was developing comprehensive rapid warning systems, since Tamiflu, among the most effective known drugs to fight the virus, needs to be taken within 72 hours of flu symptoms emerging.
 
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