Egypt has reported its 46th case of bird flu in a human being after an 11-year-old boy tested positive for the H5N1 strain, the UN health agency said Wednesday.
The boy from Menofia governorate was hospitalized with symptoms on February 26, the World Health Organization said on its Web site.
Egypt is one of the countries most affected by the H5N1 strain outside Asia, where the outbreak began in 2003. The country lies on a main route for migratory birds, which are believed to have brought the disease. Experts also link outbreaks in countries such as Egypt to a lack of financial resources and public awareness about the disease.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Showing posts with label Bird Flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bird Flu. Show all posts
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Egyptian Woman Dies from Bird Flu
CAIRO, March 4 (Reuters) - An Egyptian woman aged 25 has died of bird flu, the 20th death in Egypt from the disease since the deadly virus arrived in the country in early 2006, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.
The woman, Suzanne Ali Salah Zaki, was from Fayoum province southwest of Cairo, and entered hospital on Feb. 27, it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the ministry said an 11-year-old boy from the Nile Delta province of Menoufia had tested positive for the virus after entering a local hospital on Feb. 26.
Including the two latest cases, 46 Egyptians have tested positive for bird flu over the past two years. More than half of them recovered.
The woman and the boy, named as Mohamed Rabie Mohamed Abdel Halim, are thought to have come into contact with sick birds, the ministry added.
Four Egyptian women died from bird flu in December. Their deaths ended a 5-month pause in human cases in Egypt and brought to 19 the number of Egyptians who have died of the H5N1 virus.
It is the third winter the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers.
Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated despite a large-scale poultry vaccination programme.
Source: Reuters
Additional Reporting: AFP, VoA.
I wonder if the new flu guidelines recommending flu shots for children and young adults may be a way to prepare us as much as possible just in case a pandemic ever does develop.
The woman, Suzanne Ali Salah Zaki, was from Fayoum province southwest of Cairo, and entered hospital on Feb. 27, it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the ministry said an 11-year-old boy from the Nile Delta province of Menoufia had tested positive for the virus after entering a local hospital on Feb. 26.
Including the two latest cases, 46 Egyptians have tested positive for bird flu over the past two years. More than half of them recovered.
The woman and the boy, named as Mohamed Rabie Mohamed Abdel Halim, are thought to have come into contact with sick birds, the ministry added.
Four Egyptian women died from bird flu in December. Their deaths ended a 5-month pause in human cases in Egypt and brought to 19 the number of Egyptians who have died of the H5N1 virus.
It is the third winter the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers.
Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated despite a large-scale poultry vaccination programme.
Source: Reuters
Additional Reporting: AFP, VoA.
I wonder if the new flu guidelines recommending flu shots for children and young adults may be a way to prepare us as much as possible just in case a pandemic ever does develop.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
GSK Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Broad Cross Protection
HONG KONG, March 2 (Reuters) - A vaccine designed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to protect people against the H5N1 bird flu may be effective in warding off a few different sub-types of the virus, the company said on Sunday.
In an Asian clinical trial involving 1,206 adults in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, the vaccine produced antibodies that not only neutralised the H5N1 virus found in Vietnam, but also the variant now dogging Indonesia.
"The vaccine was made using the Vietnam strain. In principle, there is a very broad antibody reactivity that's being induced. These are neutralising antibodies and they do correlate with protection," Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Reuters when asked for comments about the study.
Osterhaus was not involved in the study, but is familiar with the results and methodology.
An earlier GSK study in Europe showed the vaccine to be effective in protecting against two other H5N1 subtypes, in China's central eastern province of Anhui and Turkey.
For years now, experts have warned a flu pandemic was long overdue and many have held up the H5N1 virus as a prime candidate because people have no immunity against this bird virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it so far.
The virus has infected 368 people in 14 countries since 2003 and killed 234 of them, or 64 percent.
An eventual vaccine to protect people against a flu pandemic can only be made 4-6 months after the start of such a disaster, when the culprit virus strain has been identified.
But human populations still need some form of protection in those initial months of a pandemic and drug companies are in a race to design what are known as "prepandemic" vaccines.
GSK's prepandemic vaccine uses a very low dose, 3.8 micrograms, of antigen. Antigens are substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body.
But they can be difficult to culture and scientists have been trying to fix that by using boosters, or adjuvants.
Volunteers in the GSK trial received two shots of the adjuvanted vaccine 21 days apart, and blood tests done three weeks after the second shot showed the presence of antibodies which neutralised the Vietnam and Indonesian H5N1 strains.
Osterhaus, however, voiced a note of caution -- that the pandemic may be triggered by a completely different virus.
"We are all scared of H5, but we should realise that other (viruses) are also a threat and the thing with flu is we have to expect the unexpected," he said.
"Separate stockpiling of antigen and adjuvant, that is quite an interesting option," he added.
With such a plan, adjuvants will then be mixed with the antigen of whatever virus emerges as the pandemic strain.
Source:
This is very good news about both a possible vaccine for bird flu and a new process that may make vaccine development a bit quicker because millions could die in the 4 to 6 months it takes to develop the proper strain of vaccine.
In an Asian clinical trial involving 1,206 adults in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, the vaccine produced antibodies that not only neutralised the H5N1 virus found in Vietnam, but also the variant now dogging Indonesia.
"The vaccine was made using the Vietnam strain. In principle, there is a very broad antibody reactivity that's being induced. These are neutralising antibodies and they do correlate with protection," Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Reuters when asked for comments about the study.
Osterhaus was not involved in the study, but is familiar with the results and methodology.
An earlier GSK study in Europe showed the vaccine to be effective in protecting against two other H5N1 subtypes, in China's central eastern province of Anhui and Turkey.
For years now, experts have warned a flu pandemic was long overdue and many have held up the H5N1 virus as a prime candidate because people have no immunity against this bird virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it so far.
The virus has infected 368 people in 14 countries since 2003 and killed 234 of them, or 64 percent.
An eventual vaccine to protect people against a flu pandemic can only be made 4-6 months after the start of such a disaster, when the culprit virus strain has been identified.
But human populations still need some form of protection in those initial months of a pandemic and drug companies are in a race to design what are known as "prepandemic" vaccines.
GSK's prepandemic vaccine uses a very low dose, 3.8 micrograms, of antigen. Antigens are substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body.
But they can be difficult to culture and scientists have been trying to fix that by using boosters, or adjuvants.
Volunteers in the GSK trial received two shots of the adjuvanted vaccine 21 days apart, and blood tests done three weeks after the second shot showed the presence of antibodies which neutralised the Vietnam and Indonesian H5N1 strains.
Osterhaus, however, voiced a note of caution -- that the pandemic may be triggered by a completely different virus.
"We are all scared of H5, but we should realise that other (viruses) are also a threat and the thing with flu is we have to expect the unexpected," he said.
"Separate stockpiling of antigen and adjuvant, that is quite an interesting option," he added.
With such a plan, adjuvants will then be mixed with the antigen of whatever virus emerges as the pandemic strain.
Source:
This is very good news about both a possible vaccine for bird flu and a new process that may make vaccine development a bit quicker because millions could die in the 4 to 6 months it takes to develop the proper strain of vaccine.
New Bird Flu Case in Egypt
CAIRO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Saturday confirmed that a 25-year-old woman was infected with bird flu virus, which was the 45th human infection case in the populous Arab country, the official MENA news agency reported.
The woman had been transferred from a local hospital in Fayyum,85 km south to Cairo, to a hospital in the capital after having developed the symptom of high fever and been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted as saying.
This is the second human bird flu case detected in a week in Egypt after a four-year-old girl on Monday was confirmed being infected with bird flu virus in El Minya governorate, Upper Egypt, some 220 km south of Cairo.
The girl is now still under treatment at Manshiat al-Bakri hospital in Cairo with her condition in stable, according to MENA.
The Egyptian government has exerted more efforts to prevent further spread of bird flu since the fatal virus caused four human deaths in less than a week in late December, 2007.
Among a total of 45 human cases in Egypt, 19 deaths have been reported since the country detected the first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year.
Source:
The woman had been transferred from a local hospital in Fayyum,85 km south to Cairo, to a hospital in the capital after having developed the symptom of high fever and been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted as saying.
This is the second human bird flu case detected in a week in Egypt after a four-year-old girl on Monday was confirmed being infected with bird flu virus in El Minya governorate, Upper Egypt, some 220 km south of Cairo.
The girl is now still under treatment at Manshiat al-Bakri hospital in Cairo with her condition in stable, according to MENA.
The Egyptian government has exerted more efforts to prevent further spread of bird flu since the fatal virus caused four human deaths in less than a week in late December, 2007.
Among a total of 45 human cases in Egypt, 19 deaths have been reported since the country detected the first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year.
Source:
Monday, February 18, 2008
Bird Flu Death in China
BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Health on Monday confirmed a human case of H5N1 bird flu in the central Hunan Province. A 22-year-old man surnamed Li in Jianghua County, Yongzhou City, suffered fever and headache on Jan. 16 and was hospitalized on Jan. 22. His symptoms worsened despite treatment.
Li died at 5 p.m. on Jan. 24 after all rescue measures failed.
His specimens tested positive for the bird flu virus strain H5N1, said the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The report didn’t identify how he might have contracted the disease.
The virus is most commonly passed from sick poultry to humans who have close contact with infected birds.
Statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) show there have been 18 human deaths from the H5N1 strain, and 28 confirmed cases of infection in China since 2003.
By Feb. 1, of the total of cases of confirmed human bird flu infections worldwide, 225 have been fatal.
The local government undertook prevention and control measures once the case was reported. Those who had close contact with Li were put under strict medical observation. So far, none have shown signs of the disease, the ministry said.
The case has been reported to the WHO, authorities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and some foreign governments.
The latest confirmed case of human bird flu took place in the worst snow-stricken province of Hunan, where prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow have caused blackouts and traffic chaos.
On Feb. 15, the Ministry of Health said that no cases of infectious epidemic or mass food poisoning were reported in China’s snow-stricken areas by Feb. 14, and that the death toll caused by infectious diseases in the snow-stricken areas showed no year-on-year increase in the past month.
Source: Xinhua
I hope that China’s reassurances are accurate, but I wouldn’t want to place any wagers on that. China has a long history of being less than open about health matters.
Li died at 5 p.m. on Jan. 24 after all rescue measures failed.
His specimens tested positive for the bird flu virus strain H5N1, said the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The report didn’t identify how he might have contracted the disease.
The virus is most commonly passed from sick poultry to humans who have close contact with infected birds.
Statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) show there have been 18 human deaths from the H5N1 strain, and 28 confirmed cases of infection in China since 2003.
By Feb. 1, of the total of cases of confirmed human bird flu infections worldwide, 225 have been fatal.
The local government undertook prevention and control measures once the case was reported. Those who had close contact with Li were put under strict medical observation. So far, none have shown signs of the disease, the ministry said.
The case has been reported to the WHO, authorities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and some foreign governments.
The latest confirmed case of human bird flu took place in the worst snow-stricken province of Hunan, where prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow have caused blackouts and traffic chaos.
On Feb. 15, the Ministry of Health said that no cases of infectious epidemic or mass food poisoning were reported in China’s snow-stricken areas by Feb. 14, and that the death toll caused by infectious diseases in the snow-stricken areas showed no year-on-year increase in the past month.
Source: Xinhua
I hope that China’s reassurances are accurate, but I wouldn’t want to place any wagers on that. China has a long history of being less than open about health matters.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Indonesia's Death Toll from Bird Flu Increases to 105
JAKARTA (AP): Bird flu killed a 3-year-old boy and a teenager in Indonesia, the health ministry announced, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 105.
The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the capital, Jakarta, who died Friday at a hospital in the city, radio El-Shinta reported Saturday.
Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official, confirmed the report but did not provide details.
Laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, Kandun said. It was not clear how he was infected.
Earlier Saturday, the Health Ministry said a 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province died of bird flu. The boy, whose name was not disclosed, became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web site.
He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo, about 450 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like many Indonesians, he goes by one name.
Tests confirmed the teenager had been infected by the H5N1 virus, the ministry's Web site said.
Source: The Jakarta Post.
The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the capital, Jakarta, who died Friday at a hospital in the city, radio El-Shinta reported Saturday.
Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official, confirmed the report but did not provide details.
Laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, Kandun said. It was not clear how he was infected.
Earlier Saturday, the Health Ministry said a 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province died of bird flu. The boy, whose name was not disclosed, became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web site.
He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo, about 450 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like many Indonesians, he goes by one name.
Tests confirmed the teenager had been infected by the H5N1 virus, the ministry's Web site said.
Source: The Jakarta Post.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
7-Year-Old Child with Bird Flu in Vietnam
Vietnam's Health Ministry said a seven-year-old child from northern Hai Duong Province has been infected with H5N1, raising the total number of bird flu patients in Vietnam since 2003 to 105, according to local newspaper Young People on Saturday.
The child is under treatment at the Central Pediatrics Hospital in Hanoi capital. Some suspected human cases of bird flu infections are also under treatment at the city-based Tropical Diseases Hospital. Their specimens are being tested for H5N1 by Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
To date, Vietnam has reported a total of 105 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003.
Since Feb. 13, two local people, a 27-year-old man named Hoang Van Doan from northern Ninh Binh Province and a 40-year-old man named Do Van San from northern Hai Duong Province, have died from bird flu, the newspaper said.
On Jan. 18, a 32-year-old ethnic man named Tran Van Dong from northern Tuyen Quang Province died from the disease.
Last December, after detecting no human cases of bird flu infections for nearly four months, the ministry confirmed that a four-year-old boy from northern Son La Province died on Dec. 16, 2007 from bird flu.
All the recently-detected bird flu patients have had close contacts with fowls, like slaughtering dead chickens for meal, before exhibiting bird flu symptoms. During the Lunar New Year Festival in early February, a large number of poultry were transported and slaughtered for meal across Vietnam.
The World Health Organization on Feb. 15 confirmed 103 cases of bird flu infections, including 49 fatalities in Vietnam. It has yet to confirm the two latest cases, including one fatality.
Vietnam currently has four localities having poultry being hit by bird flu: northern Thai Nguyen, central Quang Binh Province, northern Quang Ninh Province and southern Long An Province, the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday.
Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)
The child is under treatment at the Central Pediatrics Hospital in Hanoi capital. Some suspected human cases of bird flu infections are also under treatment at the city-based Tropical Diseases Hospital. Their specimens are being tested for H5N1 by Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
To date, Vietnam has reported a total of 105 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003.
Since Feb. 13, two local people, a 27-year-old man named Hoang Van Doan from northern Ninh Binh Province and a 40-year-old man named Do Van San from northern Hai Duong Province, have died from bird flu, the newspaper said.
On Jan. 18, a 32-year-old ethnic man named Tran Van Dong from northern Tuyen Quang Province died from the disease.
Last December, after detecting no human cases of bird flu infections for nearly four months, the ministry confirmed that a four-year-old boy from northern Son La Province died on Dec. 16, 2007 from bird flu.
All the recently-detected bird flu patients have had close contacts with fowls, like slaughtering dead chickens for meal, before exhibiting bird flu symptoms. During the Lunar New Year Festival in early February, a large number of poultry were transported and slaughtered for meal across Vietnam.
The World Health Organization on Feb. 15 confirmed 103 cases of bird flu infections, including 49 fatalities in Vietnam. It has yet to confirm the two latest cases, including one fatality.
Vietnam currently has four localities having poultry being hit by bird flu: northern Thai Nguyen, central Quang Binh Province, northern Quang Ninh Province and southern Long An Province, the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday.
Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)
Monday, February 4, 2008
Defenseless Against Influenza
The World Health Organization announced mystifying news last week: The garden-variety influenza virus H1N1 that periodically besets the world, and is doing so this winter, seems to be developing a startling new resistance to Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the first and most important of antiviral drugs for influenza.That such a thing should happen is curious. No one bothers much with Tamiflu as a primary weapon of attack against the regular flu — at least not outside Japan, where aggressive marketing by a subsidiary of the global patent-holder, Hoffman-La Roche, has convinced the populace to more or less pop the stuff like candy. For flu programs in nursing homes and hospitals elsewhere, other antivirals come a lot cheaper and work just as well.
The problem is that the world, Canada included, has been counting on Tamiflu to come through in the event of a global epidemic of the H5N1 avian flu virus. This strategy always carried with it a high amount of uncertainty; the odd, surprising behaviour of H1N1 can only make matters worse.
It would not be such a great shock to see Tamiflu resistance develop in H1N1 because of overprescribing. Public health experts warned against this danger in 2005, when the drug was still scarce and patients panicked by headlines about avian flu were besieging their doctors. It was all too easy to imagine that jittery personal stockpilers of the drug might ransack their medical cabinets the instant they displayed any symptoms of flu or flu-like illness.
Yet according to the latest WHO report, the Tamiflu-resistant strain turns out to be most predominant in Europe, particularly Norway. It hasn’t been spotted at all in Tamiflu-crazy Japan, where one would expect to see it first if human irresponsibility were to blame. The organization cannot be sure that “selective drug pressure” bears no responsibility for this new clinical surprise, but none of the patients who were found to have the Tamiflu-resistant virus had taken the drug or been in contact with a user of it.
The implications for avian flu planning, the WHO says, are “uncertain” at this point. Avian flu has not yet begun to spread efficiently from human to human. Its mechanism of action on human victims is different enough from that of H1N1 that there remains hope that Tamiflu will be useful against H5N1. And in a way, physicians would be glad to have Tamiflu turn out to be useless against less threatening types of influenza, in order to reduce casual users’ price pressure on a drug that governments are only now topping up their stockpiles of. (Hoffman- La Roche actually issued a warning this week that it expects 2008 revenues from Tamiflu to be dramatically lower as the first desperate surge of government stockpiling finally ends.)
But the really frightening story lurking in the background is that no one is too sure whether Tamiflu will do any good at all against pandemic avian flu, which so far has an observed mortality rate of about 50% in humans who get it from working or living with poultry. If H5N1 mutates into a virus that readily jumps from human to human, unforeseeable changes will arise in the virus’ structure and activity. A layman can only be nervous at hearing that the world’s best scientists have apparently underestimated the ability of ordinary flu to outmanoeuvre our best flu drug.
And so far, real-world tests of Tamiflu against H5N1 have been disappointing. Indeed, there are critics who don’t consider its performance all that dazzling against any type of influenza at all. Vietnamese doctors who tried it with bird flu patients there, in the eye of the H5N1 storm, described it as “useless,” and some subvariants of H5N1 are already known to be Tamiflu-resistant. The WHO is now experimenting with tackling H5N1 by means of higher dosages — which, if it appears at all effective, will create another pell-mell stockpiling race amongst governments — and combining it with other drugs. Meanwhile, everyone is wondering what the ultimate shelf life of Tamiflu will turn out to be: It is still a new drug, and the known life span is just five years.
One day, perhaps, we will all be able to sleep easier knowing that the threat of viral pandemic is a thing of the past, thanks to an abundantly equipped arsenal of proven, broad-spectrum antivirals. But there are no magic bullets yet. We are still vulnerable, and our most important defences in the event of a catastrophe will, for now, remain those available to our ancestors: minimizing unnecessary interpersonal contact and practicing good hygiene.
Source:
That IS bad news. Having an emergency supply of food and essential medications on hand just in case is a good idea.
The problem is that the world, Canada included, has been counting on Tamiflu to come through in the event of a global epidemic of the H5N1 avian flu virus. This strategy always carried with it a high amount of uncertainty; the odd, surprising behaviour of H1N1 can only make matters worse.
It would not be such a great shock to see Tamiflu resistance develop in H1N1 because of overprescribing. Public health experts warned against this danger in 2005, when the drug was still scarce and patients panicked by headlines about avian flu were besieging their doctors. It was all too easy to imagine that jittery personal stockpilers of the drug might ransack their medical cabinets the instant they displayed any symptoms of flu or flu-like illness.
Yet according to the latest WHO report, the Tamiflu-resistant strain turns out to be most predominant in Europe, particularly Norway. It hasn’t been spotted at all in Tamiflu-crazy Japan, where one would expect to see it first if human irresponsibility were to blame. The organization cannot be sure that “selective drug pressure” bears no responsibility for this new clinical surprise, but none of the patients who were found to have the Tamiflu-resistant virus had taken the drug or been in contact with a user of it.
The implications for avian flu planning, the WHO says, are “uncertain” at this point. Avian flu has not yet begun to spread efficiently from human to human. Its mechanism of action on human victims is different enough from that of H1N1 that there remains hope that Tamiflu will be useful against H5N1. And in a way, physicians would be glad to have Tamiflu turn out to be useless against less threatening types of influenza, in order to reduce casual users’ price pressure on a drug that governments are only now topping up their stockpiles of. (Hoffman- La Roche actually issued a warning this week that it expects 2008 revenues from Tamiflu to be dramatically lower as the first desperate surge of government stockpiling finally ends.)
But the really frightening story lurking in the background is that no one is too sure whether Tamiflu will do any good at all against pandemic avian flu, which so far has an observed mortality rate of about 50% in humans who get it from working or living with poultry. If H5N1 mutates into a virus that readily jumps from human to human, unforeseeable changes will arise in the virus’ structure and activity. A layman can only be nervous at hearing that the world’s best scientists have apparently underestimated the ability of ordinary flu to outmanoeuvre our best flu drug.
And so far, real-world tests of Tamiflu against H5N1 have been disappointing. Indeed, there are critics who don’t consider its performance all that dazzling against any type of influenza at all. Vietnamese doctors who tried it with bird flu patients there, in the eye of the H5N1 storm, described it as “useless,” and some subvariants of H5N1 are already known to be Tamiflu-resistant. The WHO is now experimenting with tackling H5N1 by means of higher dosages — which, if it appears at all effective, will create another pell-mell stockpiling race amongst governments — and combining it with other drugs. Meanwhile, everyone is wondering what the ultimate shelf life of Tamiflu will turn out to be: It is still a new drug, and the known life span is just five years.
One day, perhaps, we will all be able to sleep easier knowing that the threat of viral pandemic is a thing of the past, thanks to an abundantly equipped arsenal of proven, broad-spectrum antivirals. But there are no magic bullets yet. We are still vulnerable, and our most important defences in the event of a catastrophe will, for now, remain those available to our ancestors: minimizing unnecessary interpersonal contact and practicing good hygiene.
Source:
That IS bad news. Having an emergency supply of food and essential medications on hand just in case is a good idea.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
New England Journal of Medicine--Update on Influenza A (H5N1) Infection in Humans
This is an interesting article, and you do not have to sign in to read the overview. One of the parts that I thought was most interesting was this:
In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible. For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market. Plausible transmission routes include contact with virus-contaminated fomites or with fertilizer containing poultry feces, followed by self-inoculation of the respiratory tract or inhalation of aerosolized infectious excreta. It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract. In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces. Acquisition of influenza A (H5N1) virus infection in the gastrointestinal tract has been implicated in other mammals. Drinking potable water and eating properly cooked foods are not considered to be risk factors, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk. (Please see complete article for footnotes.)
I was aware that in 25% (or more) of the cases the method of exposure was unknown. It took a commentor posting in a previous avian flu article in reference to the likelihood of infection from contaminated water that made me realize that most of the news articles I had read mentioned contact with poultry as a source of infection, limited cluster of infection among closely-related people (one or more of whom had contact with poultry), or that the infected person had no known contact with poultry. Alternative avenues of infection are, in general, not mentioned, although they are surely known.
I’m not sure if this is because the people writing the articles were not sufficiently curious about alternative means of infection to ask questions about other possible means of contraction, or whether the information about other possible means of exposure is not published to allay fears of contracting a virus that has, so far, infected only a few.
In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible. For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market. Plausible transmission routes include contact with virus-contaminated fomites or with fertilizer containing poultry feces, followed by self-inoculation of the respiratory tract or inhalation of aerosolized infectious excreta. It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract. In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces. Acquisition of influenza A (H5N1) virus infection in the gastrointestinal tract has been implicated in other mammals. Drinking potable water and eating properly cooked foods are not considered to be risk factors, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk. (Please see complete article for footnotes.)
I was aware that in 25% (or more) of the cases the method of exposure was unknown. It took a commentor posting in a previous avian flu article in reference to the likelihood of infection from contaminated water that made me realize that most of the news articles I had read mentioned contact with poultry as a source of infection, limited cluster of infection among closely-related people (one or more of whom had contact with poultry), or that the infected person had no known contact with poultry. Alternative avenues of infection are, in general, not mentioned, although they are surely known.
I’m not sure if this is because the people writing the articles were not sufficiently curious about alternative means of infection to ask questions about other possible means of contraction, or whether the information about other possible means of exposure is not published to allay fears of contracting a virus that has, so far, infected only a few.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
8-Year-Old Indonesian Boy Dead from Bird Flu
JAKARTA: An Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 97, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The 8-year-old boy from the town of Tangerang died early on Friday after being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in the capital, Jakarta, said Sunan Raja, an official at the ministry's bird flu center.
He said the boy had been admitted to a local hospital on Wednesday, nine days after he developed symptoms of fever and cough.
Raja said laboratory results confirmed that the boy had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
The boy lived near a poultry slaughterhouse in the Cipondoh neighborhood in the western outskirts of Jakarta, Raja said.
Indonesia has recorded human bird flu deaths regularly since 2003, when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia.
Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.
Source:
The 8-year-old boy from the town of Tangerang died early on Friday after being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in the capital, Jakarta, said Sunan Raja, an official at the ministry's bird flu center.
He said the boy had been admitted to a local hospital on Wednesday, nine days after he developed symptoms of fever and cough.
Raja said laboratory results confirmed that the boy had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
The boy lived near a poultry slaughterhouse in the Cipondoh neighborhood in the western outskirts of Jakarta, Raja said.
Indonesia has recorded human bird flu deaths regularly since 2003, when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia.
Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.
Source:
Monday, January 14, 2008
95th Bird Flu Death in Indonesia
Jakarta - A 32-year-old Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, the health ministry said in a statement Monday, bringing the toll to 95 in the nation worst hit by the H5N1 virus.
"The patient died at home on January 10," the ministry's bird flu information centre said, adding that two laboratory tests had since confirmed that she was infected with the bird flu virus.
Two such positive tests are required before Indonesia officially reports a death from H5N1, which has become endemic in the archipelago nation.
The woman, identified only by her initials TM, came from Tangerang, a satellite city of Jakarta, the centre said. She is the city's sixth bird flu victim since October.
Fear the H5N1 virus may mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans
She had been taken to hospital on January 9 with a fever, difficulty breathing and pneumonia, but her family "ignored the advice of the hospital doctor to continue hospitalisation", the centre said.
The woman's family kept chickens in their backyard, it added.
Humans are typically infected with bird flu by direct contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the H5N1 virus may mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans.
Scientists fear that such a development would likely spark a global pandemic with a potential death toll of millions, and the World Bank has said such a scenario could cost up to two trillion dollars.
The concern stems from past influenza pandemics. A flu pandemic in 1918, just after the end of World War I, killed 20 million people worldwide.
The head of the world's top agency for animal health said last week however in Paris that the virus had so far proved remarkably stable, which minimised the risk of mutation.
Source:
I'm comforted by the remarkably stable status of the virus. I bet the dead lady would be, too. I sure hope somebody was able to inform her of that before her demise.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Man in China Got Bird Flu From Infected Son: Officials
A man in China contracted bird flu because he was in close contact with his infected son, although the virus had not mutated into a form that is highly contagious among humans, authorities said Thursday.
A 52-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lu, was hospitalised with the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of the virus soon after his son died from it on December 2. Lu has since recovered.
Chinese health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said Lu's infection was due to close contact with his son, but that the transmission was not technically "human-to-human".
"It has no biological features for human-to-human transmission," he told journalists.
Like many human cases of bird flu in China, authorities have not been able to identify the source as neither Lu nor his son had close contact with sick or dead poultry prior to infection, he said.
He refused to elaborate on the findings, which was reached by the ministry's expert group on bird flu.
Source: AFP at Breitbart.com.
The initial reports indicated that neither man had any known exposure to poultry, so the mystery remains as to where and from who or what the son got the virus and transmitted it to his father.
Chinese health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said Lu's infection was due to close contact with his son, but that the transmission was not technically "human-to-human".
Not technically human-to-human, although it does appear that this was, in fact, a human-to-human transfer? These technicalities puzzle me.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Scientists Find Key to What Could Make Bird Flu a Human Pandemic
Scientists have identified a key mechanism necessary for bird flu to morph from a rare but deadly infection into a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
MIT scientists reported in Sunday’s issue of Nature Biotechnology that the shape of certain cells in the virus could be key to allowing it to easily pass from human to human. In birds, the shape of cells in the virus match the shape of sugars in the animals’ respiratory tracts, allowing the infection to easily latch onto the animals. In humans, those shapes don’t match up — but if the virus morphed so they did, it could lead to a pandemic.
“We’re like a sitting duck, waiting for an H5N1 virus that can attach to us,” said Richard Cummings, an Emory University biochemist and influenza cell specialist who did not participate in the study. “This research moves us to the point where we can start anticipating what might happen.”
Since its 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong, H5N1 avian influenza has spread rapidly around the world — first in poultry, then in wild birds. It’s killed millions of fowl in 66 countries, most since 2003. But it has yet to become a common human killer. What H5N1 lacks in human infectiousness, however, it makes up for in lethality: of 348 people in 14 countries infected by H5N1 since 2003, 216 died.
The virus is constantly evolving. Each infected bird population is a giant petri dish of potential mutations. If H5N1 learns to spread among people as well as it spreads in birds, the consequences could be catastrophic. A 1918 influenza pandemic killed 50 million people, and outbreaks in 1957 and 1968 killed another three million.
With H5N1, humans have so far benefited from the differences between cells in our noses and throats and those of birds — but that could change. With the MIT scientists’ discovery, doctors can monitor H5N1 strains for early evidence of human virulence. They may also make precisely targeted vaccines and drugs in advance of outbreaks.
Read the rest here:
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As some of you know, I’ve been following this for some time. I’m a poultry enthusiast, and my pastures are filled with ducks and chickens of various breeds and sizes. According to the research, children have more of the receptors that the H5N1 virus prefers in their upper airways than adults, and this may be why they are more susceptible to and less likely to recover from the infection. I continue to follow the increasing spread of the disease among birds and poultry and wonder how concerned I should be because the grandchildren’s first request is always to feed the chickens.
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