9/29/07-10/5/07|Weekly Bird Flu Thread:Bird flu virus can pass from mother to fetus

HEALTH - 9/29/07-10/5/07|Weekly Bird Flu Thread:Bird flu virus can pass from mother to fetus: study

Link to Last Weeks Thread:

HEALTH - 9/22/07-9/28/07|Weekly Bird Flu Thread:Influenza A virus movement is tracked

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=258225

Johns Hopkins on influenza:

http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/33/450/Rashid Chotani.pdf

National Avian Influenza Surveillance Information:

http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/ai/

CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/index.htm

WHO

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/index.html

CIDRAP

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/

Official U.S. Government Web site

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

FAO

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/health/diseases-cards/special_avian.html

Public Health Agency of Canada

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/influenza/avian_qa_e.html

European Union

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/dyna/influenza/country_en.htm

The World Bank

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXT...68427~piPK:64168435~theSitePK:1793593,00.html

Bird flu virus can pass from mother to fetus: study​

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070928/birdflu_fetus_070928/20070928?hub=World

Updated Fri. Sep. 28 2007 9:52 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

An autopsy performed on a pregnant Chinese woman who died from H5N1 avian flu infection showed the virus passed to the fetus, Chinese researchers report in the journal The Lancet.

The researchers, from several institutes and universities in Beijing, found the "transplacental transmission" of the H5N1 virus interesting, since the virus doesn't normally affect the fetus with common flu infections.

The researchers found the fetus' lungs contained many infected cells, but didn't create the severe damage seen in the lungs of the 24-year-old pregnant woman.

The scientists suggest the lack of damage was likely due to the fact that the immune system of the fetus was not developed and therefore its body didn't mount an attack on the virus and didn't release chemicals -- cytokines and chemokines -- that may worsen lung damage.

The report is the first to contain autopsy data for either a pregnant woman or a fetus.

It's also the first to come out of the Infectious Disease Center at Peking University in Beijing, which was created after the epidemic of SARS and that is now intensely studying the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

"The work helps us to understand H5N1's high fatality rate, as well as serving as model for global collaboration in the field of emerging infectious diseases," said Dr. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York, who directed the study.

The researchers also performed an autopsy on a 35-year-old man and found genetic material from the virus in the man's lungs, as expected. But they also found the material in the man's brain, intestines, and in immune system cells in the blood and the liver.

The damage in the lungs was particularly severe, lending weight to the theory of a "cytokine storm" -- the idea that the immune system goes into overdrive against the virus in some cases, and sends out a swarm of chemicals that end up killing the patient.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 60 per cent of the humans it has infected. To date, all pregnant women known to have been infected -- about a half-dozen -- have either died or had a spontaneous abortion.

Although at least 200 people have died from H5N1, there has been a pitiful lack of autopsy data available for scientists to study. Most of the deaths have occurred in countries where autopsies are not performed for cultural reasons.

As posted by Wowser here;

GOV/MIL - Dozens in Mexican city ill with suspected avian flu​

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=259046

This should be watched, but the article has too many holes in it at this point, as others have stated.

North American bird flu found in Canada​

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/115817.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 The United States has banned the import of live birds from Canada after samples from a poultry farm tested positive for a strain of bird flu.

The Canadian Food Inspection Service Agency said it was the the North American H7N3 virus, not the H5N1 virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The virus was detected at a commercial broiler breeder farm in Saskatchewan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a release.

The USDA said that it has barred imports of all live birds, including chickens, turkeys and others, along with unprocessed avian products from the entire province of Saskatchewan. The agency said the United States has not imported poultry products from Saskatchewan since 2005.

2nd Saskatchewan farm under quarantine over avian flu worries​

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/09/29/avian-flu.html

Last Updated: Saturday, September 29, 2007 | 2:43 PM CT
CBC News

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has put another Saskatchewan chicken farm under quarantine, but says the move is only a precautionary measure.

The small farm affected by the decision on Friday is less than three kilometres away from Pedigree Poultry, a much larger operation just north of Regina, where officials confirmed on Thursday they had found a strain of avian influenza.

The CFIA said the quarantine measures are standard given the close proximity of the two farms. It said the 20 chickens tested on what the agency calls a "small backyard operation" have shown no signs of disease.

More than 50,000 chickens at the Pedigree Poultry operation near Regina Beach were to be killed and all equipment thoroughly sanitized.

The H7N3 strain of influenza is fatal to birds, but isn't a danger to human health, and it's not expected to have much of an economic impact, according to Lisa Bishop Spencer of the Chicken Farmers of Canada.

She says much has changed since Canada had its last case of avian flu three years ago in British Columbia, where the virus swept through a number of farms, and that industry and government have developed a system to respond quickly to any future outbreaks.

She says she's confident the virus in Saskatchewan will be contained to the large commercial farm and that there will be little economic fallout, even if other countries close their borders.

"We export roughly 7.5 per cent of what we produce here in Canada," she told CBC News.

Bird Flu Virus Killed in Chlorinated Drinking Water, Study Says ​

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aLQT4OzNGHcE&refer=healthcare

By Jason Gale

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu is killed by chlorine and concentrations of the disinfectant typically used in drinking water make the lethal virus inactive, a new study found.

Scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Cincinnati found chlorinating water at a concentration of 0.52 milligrams to 1.08 milligrams of chlorine per liter lowered levels of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus by more than 1,000 times within 1 minute.

The chlorine concentration is less than recommended by the agency for disinfecting drinking water. Treating water at the recommended level ``would be more than sufficient to inactivate'' the H5N1 virus in the water, the scientists said in a study published in this month's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

The findings may help governments develop risk management procedures regarding the role of water in the transmission of the virus to humans and poultry, the authors said. World health officials say the H5N1 flu virus, which has killed at least 200 people during the past four years, may spark a global outbreak if it mutates to become as infectious to humans as seasonal flu.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu virus has been collected from more than 50 different species of wild birds since 2002. Experiments show waterfowl can shed the virus in feces and respiratory secretions, the study found.

Open bodies of water, including drinking water reservoirs, can become contaminated by birds that are actively spreading the virus or by waterfowl carcasses, the authors said.

``Surface runoff also represents a potential source of contamination for groundwater,'' they said. ``In terms of avian health, drinking water has been implicated in the transmission of avian influenza among domestic poultry.''

Studies by scientists at Cornell University on a low- pathogenic H5N2 avian flu virus found water treatments, including chlorination, ultraviolet radiation and bacterial digesters, killed the microbes.

Jakarta man becomes Indonesia's 86th bird flu victim​

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071001/hl_nm/indonesia_birdflu_dc

Mon Oct 1, 12:54 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 21-year-old Indonesian man from West Jakarta has died of bird flu, taking the death toll from the virus to 86, a health ministry official said on Monday.

Experts are still investigating how the man contracted the virus, which is most commonly spread to humans through contact with sick fowl, Tini Suryanti, spokesman of the Jakarta health office, told Reuters.

"We don't know how he could have come in contact with sick chicken, since backyard poultry has long been banned by the city government," Suryanti said.

The victim, who died in hospital on Sunday, fell ill on September 18 but was only hospitalized a week later, the bird flu centre's Joko Suyono told Reuters.

"He was brought too late to the hospital. He was already suffering from pneumonia, and three days later he died," Suyono said.

Bird flu is endemic in bird populations in nearly all parts of Indonesia, where millions of backyard chicken live in close proximity to people.

The Jakarta government banned backyard poultry in February in a bid to stem a new flare-up in bird flu after four people died in the beginning of the year in the capital.

Indonesia has had 107 confirmed cases from bird flu, of which 86 have been fatal, the highest for any country in the world.

Indonesia investigates 86th bird flu death​

http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/tue/oct2w5.htm

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesia's health ministry investigated Monday how a 21-year-old man who died of bird flu last week contracted the virus, as confirmation he was infected brought the official toll from the H5N1 strain here to 86.

Ningrum, a doctor from Indonesia's bird flu information centre, said that the victim - identified only by his initials "AR" - died on Friday at a hospital in West Jakarta, but it was not known if he had been in contact with poultry.

"On the risk factors, we have nothing yet but a team (from the health ministry) is currently at his home," she told AFP.

While the usual mode of the transmission of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is directly from an infected bird - typically poultry - to humans, scientists fear that the virus will eventually mutate into a form easily spread between people.

Such a development could trigger a global pandemic.

The latest victim tested positive for the virus in two separate tests, the requirement to be reported as a confirmed case in Indonesia, which is the country worst affected by the virus.

More than 100 incidents reported at labs handling deadly germs​

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=7155644

Associated Press - October 2, 2007 4:23 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of accidents and missing shipments at American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have doubled in the last three years.

A review of confidential reports submitted to federal regulators show that mishaps involved anthrax, monkeypox, bird flu virus and plague-causing bacteria. In some cases, labs haven't reported accidents as required by law.

The increase in accidents is raising concerns about the oversight and procedures at high-security labs. No one has died, and regulators say the public has never been at risk in these accidents. But one lawmaker says it may only be a matter of time before the country has major public health incident.

The number of labs approved to handle such deadly substances has doubled in the last three years, after President Bush upgraded the nation's bio-warfare defense program five years ago.

A House panel will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday.

Bird flu outbreak reported in Russia​

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/ind...UPI-1-20071001-10105700-bc-russia-birdflu.xml

MOSCOW, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Hundreds of thousands of birds at a poultry farm in Russia's southern Krasnodar Terroritory are being destroyed following an outbreak of bird flu.

Russia's agricultural watchdog says the lethal HRN1 avian flu virus was discovered after some 500 chickens died on September 4, RIA Novosti reported Monday.

The day after the infection was confirmed, 22,000 birds were slaughtered.

Officials say by the time the operation ends, 248,000 chickens will be culled in an effort to prevent the outbreak from spreading.

So far, no human deaths from bird flu have been reported in Russia.

In 2006, more than a million birds were culled, slightly less than the number recorded in 2005.

Officials consider Russia's Krasnodar Territory at higher risk for bird flu because it is on the route migrating birds take.

However, the World Health Organization says most of the spread of bird flu is through poultry and the poultry trade.

Bird flu scare prompts border agents to take hunters' birds​

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1459331.html

Associated Press

Last update: October 02, 2007 – 8:45 AM

U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan.

Mike Milne of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the birds were confiscated at entry points in Warroad, Minn., and Portal and Pembina, N.D.

On Thursday, the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products and customs agents were told the ban included hunter-killed birds.

Agriculture Department officials rescinded the order on hunter-killed birds late Saturday night after reviewing their protocols. But the move came too late to save the game birds seized from coolers of returning hunters over three days. Milne says the birds were confiscated from hunters in 88 vehicles, each carrying three or four hunters.

The confiscated birds were sent to landfills. Birds also were confiscated at border crossings in Montana and at Canadian airports.

H5N1 'more invasive than thought'​

http://www.scidev.net/gateways/inde...item&rgwid=3&item=News&itemid=3943&language=1

Jia Hepeng
2 October 2007
Source: SciDev.Net

[BEIJING] The post mortems of two people who died after H5N1 infection have revealed that the virus infects more human organs than previously thought.

The study was published in The Lancet last week (28 September).

Lead author Gu Jiang, a professor at the School of Basic Medical Sciences of the Beijing-based Peking University, and colleagues studied post-mortem tissues of one man and one pregnant woman, and also tested the foetus of the woman.

They detected the bird flu virus genetic material and antigens in the lungs, cells of the trachea and the lymph nodes, neurons in the brain and in cells of the placenta.

In the four-month-old foetus, the researchers found both viral genetic material and antigens of H5N1 virus in the lungs, circulating cells of the immune system and in cells of the liver, suggesting the virus can overcome maternal immune protection of the foetus.

As of 10 September, 328 have contracted and 200 people have died from the H5N1 virus, according to the WHO.

Previous studies have indicated the H5N1 could move beyond the lungs but full autopsies of people who have died after H5N1 infection — which would reveal where the virus spreads in the human body — have not been obtained for various reasons, including religious objections.

"The study could change a lot of our previous views," Gu told SciDev.Net.

"For example, the trachea was formerly thought uninfected by H5N1 and this was used to explain that H5N1 could only infect the lower respiratory system, but our studies have clearly shown it is not such a case." (See H5N1 — why it can't spread between people).

The research team also found viral genetic material in the intestinal mucosa, but no viral antigens were found, suggesting the virus does not directly infect intestinal cells. "How they arrive at the place and replicate remains unknown," Gu says.

In an accompanying comment, Wai Fu Ng of Hong Kong's Yan Chai Hospital and Ka Fai To, of Hong Kong's Ki ka Shing Institute of Health Science, say Gu and colleagues' finding of viral parts in the intestinal mucosa could have important implications for infection control because it could represent another route of infection.

But they also suggest that further research should look into how the virus replicates in the organs.

Tamiflu in Urine, Water May Fan Resistant Flu Virus, Study Says ​

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=a1bcT6CU614Q&refer=healthcare

By Jason Gale

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu persists in waste water, which may make the drug a less effective weapon in an influenza pandemic, Swedish researchers said.

The medicine's active ingredient, oseltamivir carboxylate, is excreted in the urine and feces of those taking it. Scientists at Sweden's Umea University found the drug isn't removed or degraded in normal sewage treatment, and its presence in waterways may allow flu-carrying birds to ingest it and incubate resistant viruses.

``That this substance is so difficult to break down means that it goes right through sewage treatment and out into surrounding waters,'' said Jerker Fick, a chemist at Umea University and leader of the study, in a statement yesterday distributed by EurekAlert, a Web-based science news service.

The findings add to concern about the availability of effective medicines in the event of a pandemic sparked by bird flu. Strains either resistant or less sensitive to Tamiflu have been linked to the deaths of at least five people in Vietnam and Egypt. A separate study found Tamiflu may be becoming a weaker weapon against the H5N1 avian flu strain in Indonesia, where the virus has killed the most people.

The spread of H5N1 in late 2003 has put the world closer to a flu pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three major outbreaks occurred, according to the World Health Organization. The virus has killed 201 of the 329 people it's known to have infected, the Geneva-based agency said yesterday.

Use With Care

``Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu must be used with care and only when the medical situation justifies it,'' said Bjorn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University and the University of Kalmar, in the statement. ``Otherwise there is a risk that they will be ineffective when most needed.''

Scientists say waterfowl, including ducks, are the natural hosts of avian flu. These birds often forage for food in water near sewage outlets. It's possible they might encounter oseltamivir in concentrations high enough to develop resistance in the viruses they carry, the Swedish scientists said in their study, which is to be published in the journal PLoS ONE.

``The biggest threat is that resistance will become common among low pathogenic influenza viruses carried by wild ducks,'' Olsen said. These viruses could then recombine with others that make humans sick to create new ones resistant to the drugs currently available, he said.

Excreted Tamiflu

Millions of doses of Tamiflu have been stockpiled by governments and WHO to treat and prevent flu infections caused by a pandemic. WHO recommends that people infected by avian flu who are older than 1 year receive a five-day course of 750 milligrams of the medicine. The same quantity would be needed for a 10-day course aimed at preventing infection, which could be extended for several weeks until there is no further risk.

As much as 80 percent of the Tamiflu taken in each dose is excreted in its active form in urine and feces and the drug could potentially be ``maintained in rivers receiving treated wastewater,'' researchers from the U.K.'s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology said in a January study.

The potential for resistant strains to emerge this way is greatest in Southeast Asia, ``where humans and waterfowl frequently come into close direct or indirect contact, and where significant Tamiflu deployment is envisaged,'' the study's authors said.

They recommended developing methods to minimize the release of the active Tamiflu ingredient into the waste stream, ``such as biological and chemical pre-treatment in toilets, which could eliminate much of the `downstream' risk.''

Area Told It Needs to 'Do More' to Prepare for Flu Epidemic​

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100202038.html

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007; Page B03

Officials from Virginia and the District said yesterday they need better cooperation from federal agencies to ensure that medicine is rushed to key government employees during a pandemic flu outbreak.

Their comments came at a hearing chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) to examine planning in the D.C. area for a flu epidemic. The senator said that he was impressed by the work done so far but added that "it is clear we need to do more."

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Many medical experts consider a worldwide flu outbreak inevitable in coming years. Among the feared scenarios is one in which the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu mutates into a form that could pass easily from person to person, potentially killing millions.

Robert Mauskapf of the Virginia Department of Health testified that state officials have made extensive plans for distributing medication in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak. But federal officials have not indicated what help they might need to treat employees deemed critical to keeping the government going, he said.

"Remember, federal employees live in our neighborhoods and are dependent on our services," Mauskapf said. If the U.S. government has plans to distribute medicine to key employees using Virginia's network, "they have not been shared with us," he said.

Darrell Darnell, the District's homeland security director, added, "We just need more transparency from the federal government."

Chris Geldart, who heads the Washington area office in the federal Department of Homeland Security, said that each federal agency is responsible for getting antiviral medication to employees considered critical. He said guidelines on doing that have been drawn up by Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.

As for coordinating with state and local governments, "those are areas we still need to work on," he said in an interview, noting that a full-time federal health official has just been added to his office.

Virginia has been on a crash program to prepare for the pandemic flu, stockpiling more than 770,000 courses of antiviral medication and establishing a network of 600 pharmacies, health departments, clinics and physicians to distribute it.

"We've made great strides toward preparation," Mauskapf said.

The state is using the annual flu season to test its ability to do mass vaccinations, he said, providing 12,000 doses of flu vaccine to different areas of the state in October and November.

Darnell said the District has 45,000 courses of antiviral medication stockpiled and has conducted numerous pandemic flu exercises.

A representative from Maryland was invited to the session but did not attend, Akaka said.

Mauskapf urged the federal government to allow states into a small program in which the Food and Drug Administration can extend the five-year shelf life of antiviral medication shown to still be effective.

But Kevin Yeskey, who heads the federal Office of Preparedness and Emergency Operations, said that would involve a "significant increase in demand on FDA resources" and would not be possible in the short term.

Asked how already-taxed hospitals might cope with a surge of flu patients, both D.C. and Virginia officials said they could set up medical field units with extra beds. They also could turn to the military and federal government for help, they said.

But Yeskey acknowledged that the strain on hospitals is "one of the tougher issues" in planning for pandemic flu.

Tml swine deaths due to infection, say vets​

http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=39497&typeid=1

Daniel Kamei

TAMENGLONG, Oct 3: Following several instances of deaths of domestically reared pigs in Namtiram village in Tousem subdivision of Tamenglong district, a team of veterinary doctors from the district veterinary office has reached the village and is taking up preventive and control measures.

Veterinary officials have also identified the disease causing the pig deaths as lungworm infection.

The development comes even as the total number of pig deaths has reached 10 till today.

Joint director Ksh Inao Singh, leading the team, said the team has administered Senvendazold to some 40 pigs in the village as a preventive measure, and informed that the entire pig population of the village will be given the drug.

According to Namtiram Youth Club president Arangbou, a total of about 700 pigs are reared in the village.

Dr Dinamani, one of the veterinary doctors on the team, affirmed that the disease causing the pig deaths was lungworm infection. He also noted that since the pigs are not kept in stys but allowed to roam freely, the chances of infection spreading among them was high.

The veterinary team is also taking blood samples from chicken reared in the village to check for occurrence of bird flu.

In the meantime, there are reports of similar pig deaths in Nungba subdivision, although the SDO, Nungba told IFP that there has been no complaints made from the public in this regard so far.

Tamenglong ADC RH Gonmei, also said the district administration has not taken up any steps like banning of transportation of pigs from one place to another since there has been no official complaints.

Community indifference seen hampering fight against bird flu​

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20071003.C02

City News - October 03, 2007

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Within five months, a family from Rawa Buaya subdistrict in West Jakarta lost two children to what was diagnosed as typhoid fever by doctors at the Sumber Waras Hospital.

AR, 22, died last Friday after suffering from high fever, headaches and respiratory problems. His 19-year-old sister died after suffering similar symptoms in April.

However, on Monday the Health Ministry confirmed that the cause of both deaths was avian influenza.

The virus has infected 107 people and killed 86 throughout Indonesia since 2005. Jakarta alone has reported 26 bird flu cases, 23 of which led to deaths.

The family doubted the findings of the Health Ministry, arguing that the siblings had not been exposed to the virus.

"We don't keep poultry in the back yard. My son was never in contact with poultry and he didn't eat chicken before he became ill," the mother said Tuesday.

"He worked at his uncle's kiosk at the Kemiri market. The shop doesn't sell chickens, but it is near a group of kiosks selling chickens," she said.

She also told The Jakarta Post some of her neighbors kept chickens, pigeons and ducks in their yards and in the narrow alleyways in the semi-slum area.

Meanwhile, the head of the neighborhood unit, Mamat, 50, said the two siblings helped sell their uncle's chickens at Kemiri market before their deaths.

"The two of them helped clean up and slaughter chickens," said Mamat.

He said while he could prevent the further spread of the virus at home, he could do nothing about the market.

"I can only ask people in my own neighborhood to kill their poultry, and even that is a very hard job. Although the February floods washed away some of their poultry, they got more animals from their hometowns.

"Many of them hide the birds from me and deny that they keep them," Mamat said.

The ministry confirmed city administration officials had been called in to cull most of the poultry in the area.

"I killed any remaining birds by shooting them with a gun," Mamat said.

The head of West Jakarta's animal husbandry and fisheries office, Chaidir Taufik, said the agency carried out bird flu prevention activities in the area following the February floods.

"We thought there were no more birds in the area and we were quite surprised with the deaths and with our findings in the raid yesterday. We found over 100 chickens," he said.

Chaidir said the administration was yet to do anything to prevent the spread of bird flu in the Kemiri market, saying that West Jakarta had too many markets for the administration's staff.

"The area has a total of 68 large and neighborhood markets and I only have around 40 people," he said.

After inspecting the market Monday, Chaidir concluded that AR could have contracted the virus from there.

He told the Post he had taken blood samples from poultry in the area, but was still waiting for the results. (11)

Fear over bird flu risk increases as festive period nears​

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southeastasia/view/303664/1/.html

By Channel NewsAsia's Indonesian bureau chief Sujadi Siswo | Posted: 03 October 2007 2013 hrs

JAKARTA: Fears over risk of exposure to bird flu virus increase in Indonesia as the country prepares to celebrate Idul Fitri to mark the end of the fasting month, warned the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

A huge number of poultry and people will move across the country during this festive period, and the festivities, which mark the end of the fasting month, will involve a lot of food, with poultry topping the list.

"There's a tremendous amount of movement of people and poultry. And with that movement there's an increased risk for both people and for ducks and chickens to come into contact with avian influenza virus," said Dr Eric Brum, chief technical advisor of FAO.

Indonesia has the world's highest mortality rate from bird flu. Of the 107 infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, 86 have died. The virus has spread to all but two of the country's 33 provinces.

Organisations such as the FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are deeply concerned.

"I think because of this rare disease… we need to take appropriate precautions so that we don't play with fire and this game of chance. We're working very closely with the Indonesian government, the ministry of health especially, in trying to communicate this message to the public," said Dr Vernon Lee, WHO Indonesia’s avian influenza epidemiologist.

Some 1,200 officials will be part of the monitoring and response teams spread across Indonesia.

People will be advised to take precautions, including keeping their chickens in quarantine for two weeks before slaughtering them to minimise the risk of infection.

As commercial poultry farms have to adhere to strict hygiene protocols, it is the free-roaming backyard fowl that authorities are worried about.

There are an estimated 300 million free-roaming chickens in Indonesia.

Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form​

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071005/hl_nm/birdflu_mutations_dc



By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor 20 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.

The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," said Kawaoka, who led the study.

"The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," Kawaoka said.

Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation, Kawaoka and colleagues report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

"I don't like to scare the public, because they cannot do very much. But at the same time it is important to the scientific community to understand what is happening," Kawaoka said in a telephone interview.

The H5N1 avian flu virus, which mostly infects birds, has since 2003 infected 329 people in 12 countries, killing 201 of them. It very rarely passes from one person to another, but if it acquires the ability to do so easily, it likely will cause a global epidemic.

All flu viruses evolve constantly and scientists have some ideas about what mutations are needed to change a virus from one that infects birds easily to one more comfortable in humans.

Birds usually have a body temperature of 106 degrees F, and humans are 98.6 degrees F usually. The human nose and throat, where flu viruses usually enter, is usually around 91.4 degrees F.

"So usually the bird flu doesn't grow well in the nose or throat of humans," Kawaoka said. This particular mutation allows H5N1 to live well in the cooler temperatures of the human upper respiratory tract.

H5N1 caused its first mass die-off among wild waterfowl in 2005 at Qinghai Lake in central China, where hundreds of thousands of migratory birds congregate.

That strain of the virus was carried across Asia to Africa and Europe by migrating birds. Its descendants carry the mutation, Kawaoka said.

"So the viruses circulating in Europe and Africa, they all have this mutation. So they are the ones that are closer to human-like flu," Kawaoka said.

Luckily, they do not carry other mutations, he said.

"Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains."

Feared bird flu death in Indonesia​

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29&ContentID=42575

5th October 2007, 15:45 WST

An Indonesian woman suspected of being infected with bird flu died today on the island of Sumatra, a hospital official there said.

Blood and tissue samples from the 44-year-old victim have been sent for testing in Jakarta, said Azizman Daad, a doctor at the Arifin Achmad Hospital in Riau province said.

Two tests must come back positive for the H5N1 virus before a victim is confirmed as part of the official bird flu death toll in Indonesia, which is the highest in the world at 86.

If confirmed, the latest victim would be the nation’s 87th fatality.

“The woman who died early this morning was showing symptoms of bird flu infection, such high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties,” he told AFP.

Daad said it was unclear whether the woman, who lived in a residential complex run by US oil company Caltex, had been in contact with poultry.

H5N1 is endemic in birds across nearly all of Indonesia.

Scientists worry that the virus will eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

US researchers yesterday said the H5N1 virus had mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, has reported 107 bird flu infections, including the fatalities, since it recorded its first case in July 2005.

JAKARTA

Bird flu shows worrying signs of mutating ​

http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/287978/cs/1/

Scientists in the U.S say the H5N1 bird flu virus is closer to infecting people but has still has not transformed into a pandemic strain.

They say they have identified several mutant strains which are showing worrying signs that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans.

Bird flu doesn't usually grow well in the nose or throat due to humans having cooler temperatures.

A report in the Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens says the viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus.

Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation.

The H5N1 avian flu virus, which mostly infects birds, has since 2003 infected 329 people in 12 countries, killing 201 of them.

Growth of H5N1 Influenza A Viruses in the Upper Respiratory Tracts of Mice​

http://pathogens.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.ppat.0030133

Masato Hatta1, Yasuko Hatta1, Jin Hyun Kim1, Shinji Watanabe1, Kyoko Shinya2, Tung Nguyen3, Phuong Song Lien4, Quynh Mai Le5, Yoshihiro Kawaoka1,6,7*

1 Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America, 2 The Avian Zoonosis Research Centre, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan, 3 National Centre for Veterinary Diagnostics, Hanoi, Vietnam, 4 Vietnam Veterinary Association, Hanoi, Vietnam, 5 National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi, Vietnam, 6 Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 7 Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses have spread throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa, raising serious worldwide concern about their pandemic potential. Although more than 250 people have been infected with these viruses, with a consequent high rate of mortality, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the efficient transmission of H5N1 viruses among humans remain elusive. We used a mouse model to examine the role of the amino acid at position 627 of the PB2 viral protein in efficient replication of H5N1 viruses in the mammalian respiratory tract. Viruses possessing Lys at position 627 of PB2 replicated efficiently in lungs and nasal turbinates, as well as in cells, even at the lower temperature of 33 °C.

Those viruses possessing Glu at this position replicated less well in nasal turbinates than in lungs, and less well in cells at the lower temperature. These results suggest that Lys at PB2–627 confers to avian H5N1 viruses the advantage of efficient growth in the upper and lower respiratory tracts of mammals. Therefore, efficient viral growth in the upper respiratory tract may provide a platform for the adaptation of avian H5N1 influenza viruses to humans and for efficient person-to-person virus transmission, in the context of changes in other viral properties including specificity for human (sialic acid α-2,6-galactose containing) receptors.

Funding. This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; by Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (Japan Science and Technology Agency); by grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan; and by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan.

Competing interests. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Editor: Edward C. Holmes, The Pennsylvania State University, United States of America

Citation: Hatta M, Hatta Y, Kim JH, Watanabe S, Shinya K, et al. (2007) Growth of H5N1 Influenza A Viruses in the Upper Respiratory Tracts of Mice. PLoS Pathog 3(10): e133 doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0030133

Received: May 17, 2007; Accepted: July 26, 2007; Published: October 5, 2007

Copyright: © 2007 Hatta et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abbreviations: HA, haemmaglutinin; MDCK, Mardin-Darby canine kidney; MLD50, the dose required to kill 50% of mice; NHBE, bronchial/tracheal epithelia; PFU, plaque-forming unit; SAα2,3Gal, sialic acid α-2,3-galactose; SAα2,6Gal, sialic acid α-2,6-galactose; SAE, small airway epithelia

BIRD FLU: VIRUS HAS CHANGED INTO MORE DANGEROUS FORM FOR MAN​

http://www.agi.it/world/news/200710051000-cro-ren0005-art.html

(AGI) - Washington, Oct 5 - The H5N1 virus of bird flu, the most lethal, has changed into a form capable of more easily affecting human beings even if it is not yet an imminent cause of epidemics. The new form of H5N1 is getting used to living at lower temperatures in the body of moving hosts of the contagious disease compared to the 41 degrees of birds, temperatures which are closer to the usual 37 degrees of man.

The alarm was launched by doctor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the Wisconsin-Madison university. 'We have identified a specific change that could allow bird flu to develop in the higher part of the human breathing system,' he said. 'The viruses circulating in Africa and Europe are the closest to transform into human viruses.' Some samples taken from birds in the two continents present these mutations, reported the team in an article published on the Public Library of Science Journal PLOS Pathogens.

'I am not intending to scare the public because there is not much they can do, but at the same time it is important that the scientific community comprehends what is happening,' said Kawaoka. In 2003 H5N1 affected 329 people living closely to birds in 12 countries, killing 201. It has been rarely transmitted from man to man but if it acquired the capacity to do so more easily then it could cause a pandemics.

In order to affect man, the virus would have to get used to the basic temperature of man which is lower than the one of birds.

At the moment H5N1 affects birds having a body temperature of 41 Celsius degrees whereas ours is stable at 37 degrees.

For this reason humans' nose and throat, where the air viruses normally penetrate, are a natural barrier because their temperature is of approximately 33 degrees. But the mutation found in the African and European viruses, involving birds migrating from Asia, seems to allow to H5N1 to adapt itself to lower temperatures.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90781/6276694.html

09:12, October 04, 2007
Indonesia, the hardest-hit by bird flu, has been ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines on human, after the country completed its clinical test, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in Jakarta Wednesday.

Minister Fadilah ensured that a priority would be given to the area which had suffered human clusters on avian influenza.

But, she said that a calculation was still needed to determine in detail how to use over 2 million doses vaccines that it has produced in cooperation with the U.S.-based drug maker Baxter.

The minister said that the clinical test of the vaccines was already complete in September.

"The vaccines are valid, (they) can be used now," she told Xinhua at the State Palace here.

Some parameters and rules for the application of the vaccines would be made soon, said Fadilah.

"We still need some approaches. We need to make calculation again," she said.

The health authorities would observe and watch closely which area was proper to be prioritized for using the vaccines, said Fadilah.

She said Karo regency in North Sumatra province would have the priority because it suffered bird flu cluster in April last year, and eight people were killed.

H5N1 virus spread from human-to-human between a small number of people within a family in the province. Indonesia declared the cluster as limited human-to-human transmission.

The cluster also occurred in Tanggerang, an outskirt city of the country's capital of Jakarta.

Indonesia has decided to use its own vaccines directly, ignoring the suggestion of the World Health Organization (WHO) to stockpile the vaccines and be used when a pandemic occur.

So far, the viruses have killed globally 196 out of 324 infected people, most of them in Indonesia with 86 fatalities and 107 cases.

Experts fear that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus could mutate in a certain level that can make them transmittable among humans that can cause a pandemic where millions of people can be killed.

Huge territory, traditional way of rising chickens on back yard and lack of obedience of provincial administration in implementing the Jakarta decision to stop the virus spread, are among the obstacles in fighting the bird flu in the country




I had to put this one in to here..if they use the vacine now before the pandemic, we might never know if it has gone H2H

Bird flu breakthrough at UW​

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/249521

Researchers from the UW-Madison have identified a key step that the avian flu virus would have to take to be able to transmit easily from person to person -- which could result in an international pandemic.

The researchers, led by internationally known virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, have identified a single change in a viral protein that facilitates the virus' ability to infect the cells of the upper respiratory system in mammals.

By adapting to the upper respiratory system, the virus could infect a wider range of cell types and would be more easily spread.

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997. It arises in chickens and other birds, but other animals and humans in close contact with the birds may also be infected. Over time, the virus has begun to adapt to new host animals as small genetic changes accumulate, the university said in a news release.

"The viruses that are in circulation now are much more mammalian-like than the ones circulating in 1997. The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," Kawaoka said in the news release.

Over time, an avian virus may undergo enough genetic change to spread easily. Experts believe that happened with the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed at least 30 million people worldwide.

In the new study, conducted in mice, the University of Wisconsin-led team identified a single change in a viral surface protein that enabled H5N1 to settle into the upper respiratory system. Other currently undetermined changes also would be required for the virus to become a human pathogen of pandemic proportions, but establishment in the upper respiratory system is a key first step because it enables easy transmission through coughing and sneezing.

To date, more than 250 H5N1 human infections worldwide have been reported, and more than 150 of those have been fatal. Most infections have occurred in people who had close contact with poultry that had the virus.

The avian virus can be at home in the lungs of humans and other mammals because temperatures are higher than those in the upper respiratory system, which includes the nose and the trachea. The higher temperatures, as well as avian receptor cells in the lower respiratory system, enable the virus to establish itself, Kawaoka said.

The new study, published Thursday in the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens, involved two viruses from a single patient -- one from the lungs and the other from the upper respiratory system. The virus in the upper system exhibited a single amino acid change in one of the key proteins for amplification of influenza virus genes.

The single change identified in the UW study promotes better virus replication at lower temperatures, such as those found in the upper respiratory system, and in a wider range of cell types, Kawaoka said.

The change is necessary for further progression but is not sufficient to cause a viral pandemic strain of bird flu, he stressed.

Kawaoka and other flu researchers are convinced, however, that it is only a matter of time before H5N1 evolves into a virus capable of causing a worldwide pandemic.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Other authors of the study included Masato Hatta, Yasuko Hatta, Jin Hyun Kim and Shinji Watanabe of the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and several Vietnamese and Japanese researchers.

Link to next weeks thread:

HEALTH - 10/6/07-10/12/07|Weekly Bird Flu Thread:H5N1 mutates, more infectious to humans

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=260043