H5N1 Bird Flu: First Case Found In Canada

[cHeroKee]

Is H1N1 Vaccine Mismatch Driving Tamiflu Resistance?
Recombinomics Commentary 16:49
February 17, 2008

H3N2 strains are treatable by Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs, but the other, H1N1 Type A strains are more resistant. Of all flu samples tested this year, 4.6 percent have been resistant to antiviral medications. That's up from fewer than 1 percent last year.

The above comments on the jump in seasonal flu infections miss the main point on the Tamiflu resistance. Although 4.6 percent Tamiflu resistance on all flu cases in the United States is accurate, all of the reported resistance has been H274Y in H1N1, so the level of resistance in H1N1 is 8.2%. However, this number is trailing the actual number, because many of the more recent cases have not been serotyped, and many of the H1N1 isolates have not been sequenced. Last week the State of Illinois issued a health alert (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02160804/Illinois_Alert.html) because ten isolates from Chicago were Tamiflu resistant, and 8 of the 10 were from a single health care facility (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02160803/Tamiflu_Chicago.html). Since the 8.2% represent only 16 cases, the 10 new cases could dramatically increase the percent positive.

Similarly, the percent positive in Europe for H274Y is above 20%, with frequencies as high as 66.3% in Norway (63 of 95 isolates). These high levels in Europe and in countries where Tamiflu use is not common suggest that the H1N1 containing H274Y is evolutionarily fit, and initial data indicate it is present in the Brisbane/59 strain ,which is not a good match for the H1N1 component (Solomon Island) in the current northern hemisphere vaccine.

Thus, the current vaccine mismatch (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02160805/Vaccine_Virulence.html) may enhance the spread of H1N1 with H274Y in cases where H274Y is in the Brisbane/59 strain.

The sudden appearance of H274Y has startled influenza experts (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02170801/Startled_Experts_H274Y.html), who previously had viewed H274Y as an adoptive mutation that would spread in populations under treatment with Tamiflu. The spread of H274Y in the absence of Tamiflu may in fact be facilitated by the poorly matched vaccine which kills Solomon Island H1N1, eliminating the competition of Brisbane/59 with H274Y, which has been noted in Hawaii, France, and Norway (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02150801/H274Y_Concurrent.html). Thus, the poor recognition of Brisbane/59 allows it to become the dominant strain, and the presence of H274Y on the Brisbane strain in countries with high levels of resistance may not be a

[cHeroKee]

Not rocket science: Stop avian influenza 'at all costs' A string of avian influenza outbreaks in Indonesia has brought the country's death toll from the disease to a global high of 103, as scientists here deal with a lack of infrastructure and funding to fight the virus. Udayana University-based virologist and microbiologist I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika spoke to The Jakarta Post's Emmy Fitri about the necessary steps to spare the country from a pandemic.

Question: H5N1 mutated from a flu initially confined to birds, but can now infect humans. Is it possible to roughly predict how long it would take for this virus to mutate into a "pandemic" strain?

Answer: H5N1 itself is a product of natural evolution; an assortment of viruses from quails, geese, teal birds and wild birds found in Hong Kong. They meet at bird markets -- the perfect place for avian viruses to meet and mingle.
What we know is that it's still not easy for the virus to be transmitted from human-to-human, although it has proven that it can.
At present, human-to-human infections remain unusual, meaning that the flu has yet to acquire the full ability to be transmitted in this way. Perhaps it is still in the "trial and error" phase.

Are you saying there have been cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu?
Yes, there have, but only a limited number of cases, like in early cases in Hong Kong (in 1997). What has made the avian influenza able to infect humans was mainly the presence of a genetic susceptibility in the human recipient.
We never can tell how long it will take for a virus to mutate into a pandemic strain, able to be passed from human-to-human. It could take a very long time or could come sooner than we thought.

We are also in the dark on whether the current H5N1 will be able to trigger a pandemic, or if it could happen with a mixture of H5N1 and other viruses -- we just don't know.
At least we can still hope, and buy time, while we brace ourselves for a pandemic.
What I see nowadays while we're buying time, instead of preparing ourselves for a worst-case scenario, people are making much ado about a (bird flu) vaccine (for humans) and a material transfer agreement for virus sharing.
These are really not necessary and ill-timed. We are wasting time over unimportant issues.
If bird flu is to be considered a natural disaster, perhaps it will be the only natural disaster humans have had time to prepare themselves for.

Could the virus become more virulent in a re-emerging outbreak?
Yes and no -- because it too could also become less virulent. It takes a genetic change for that to happen -- not necessarily a mutation.
Who is responsible for the close monitoring of the virus dynamics?
Virologists should do -- I should also but we don't have the facilities. We have the brains, knowledge and know-how -- all the things we need for that job, but again the limited funding and infrastructure hampers our work.
Actually we don't need a high-end laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment. What we have here (at Udayana University) is humble. Thank God there have been no infections so far, since I regularly check my staff and students who use the laboratory.
Of course, it would be great to have a bio-safety level 3 (bsl-3) laboratory to do all the research. With our limited facilities, we can't even do genetic sequencing for the avian virus, which is imperative for us to check if there is a cross-generation process going on or not.
For a virologist ... there is nothing new in this world, only change is eternal.
If there is an agent, it doesn't have to be a new form. It could be a combination of two agents that already exist. So-called "new viruses" or "new diseases" are born from two things; a variation of the old virus in which there are genetically mutated strains, or a habitat change of the virus host.
The classic example for the second cause is AIDS. The habitat of the original host of HIV (the chimpanzee) was damaged and found humans were susceptible to infection.
SARS (Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was originally found in civet cats and did not make the animal sick until people disrupted its ecological habitat. Viruses want to survive on this planet. They have a biological task to accomplish.

As you once said, weather plays an important role in the emergence and re-emergence of outbreaks. Do we have weather-related studies to support prevention measures enforced here?
There are no studies specifically targeting bird flu but general knowledge is applicable not only for the bird flu virus but also other zoonotic viruses which thrive in highly humid conditions.
I don't think we need to put too much emphasis on this to justify what we already know -- I also believe that officials here, both at the agriculture and health ministries, must realize this also; they have data on the increase of outbreaks around this time. But unfortunately, we are not accustomed to being prepared, before trouble hits home.
We don't need rocket science for that. We need innovations and investment. Public campaigns must be intensified with the same warnings, and let people know what will happen if they don't heed the warnings.

Agricultural lifestyles, seen in densely populated urban settings like Tangerang, have a high risk of harboring diseases transmitted by animals. What is your comment?
I believe people know about bird flu -- at least they've heard of it. But we're talking about the Kampung Tengah livelihood. Why would people dare to sell a sick chicken or eat a sick chicken?
Our poverty and backwardness get in the way of us seeing better managed poultry and a clean and healthy environment.
It should be easier done than said, now, with more and more fatalities. The government must be ready, at all cost, to remove poultry from housing areas, especially in crowded cities like Tangerang and Jakarta. At all cost -- otherwise it will be too late.

[cHeroKee]

Dhaka - The spread of deadly bird flu in Bangladesh has forced the closure of 40 percent of the nation's poultry farms and left half a million poultry workers jobless, industry officials said on Monday.

Government authorities said the virus was still "under control", although it has spread to 43 out of the country's 64 districts, forcing authorities to slaughter some 800 000 birds.

"It's a natural disaster like cyclone or floods. The poor farmers who raise chickens in their backyards are particularly hard hit by the bird flu," said Abdul Baki, principal scientific officer of the livestock department.

"But we still think things are under control," Baki said, adding the government was launching a massive plan to compensate affected farmers.

Baki's comments came as the authorities struggled to slaughter another 160 000 birds in one of the largest farms in the capital Dhaka. Officials said it would take another day to complete the slaughter.

The outbreak at Omega farm showed the disease was out of control, industry officials said.

"Omega is one of the top farms which rigorously maintained international bio-safety regulations but it was not spared by the deadly flu," said M.M Khan, a senior official of the Bangladesh Poultry Association.

"The situation is so bad nobody is buying any poultry these days. They're panicking. The crows and migrant birds are spreading the flu everywhere, leaving authorities simply hopeless," Khan said.

Already some supermarkets in the capital have suspended poultry sales, he said,

The flu has forced closure of at least 40 percent of the country's estimated 150 000 commercial farms, leaving at least half a million people jobless, Khan said.

The government has repeatedly urged people not to be frightened and begun a major drive to assure people that eating cooked poultry poses no health dangers.

It is also giving farmers 1.50 dollars compensation for each chicken slaughtered because of the virus.

Bangladesh was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 but the disease became dormant. Officials said outbreak resurfaced in January when 20 new districts were hit. So far in February another 11 have been hit.

Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu claims unrelated victims


Updated: 02/17/08 6:50 AM


JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) ? A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, a health official said Saturday, announcing the country?s second death from the illness in one day.
The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia?s bird flu death toll to 105.
The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the southern part of the capital, Jakarta, radio El- Shinta reported.
It said he died Friday at a hospital in the city.
Senior Health Ministry official Nyoman Kandun confirmed the report and said laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
It was not clear how he was infected, and Kandun gave no further details.
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 site.
The 16-year-old victim?s neighbors had sick chickens on their property and the boy apparently slaughtered some of them before he became ill, the ministry said.
Indonesia has regularly recorded human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.

[cHeroKee]

4 years later, bird flu continues march across Asia

http://images.townnews.com/nctimes.com/art/spacer.gif
By: MARGIE MASON - Associated Press
100 dead in Indonesia; India at risk HANOI, Vietnam ---- Fears of a global bird flu pandemic that once dominated headlines have largely vanished in the West, but four years after the virus began ravaging Asian poultry, it continues to quietly spread.

Most global health officials continue to warn that the virus could morph into a disease as threatening to people as it is to chickens. Although a few are now calling the risk "overestimated," recent developments raise new concerns:
- The end of January marked the 100th death in Indonesia since the virus was first reported in humans there in 2005.

- India is battling its worst-ever poultry outbreak. No human cases have been reported, but experts are scrambling to keep the disease from reaching crowded Calcutta and its 14 million people.

- Pakistan and Myanmar both reported their first human infections in December. That brings to 14 the number of countries where the virus has jumped from poultry to people.

The H5N1 bird flu virus still has killed relatively few people since it began destroying Asian chickens and ducks in late 2003. More than 220 people have died, nearly all from close contact with infected birds. About 60 percent who catch the virus die.

The most recent death in Vietnam ---- one of the countries most successful at quashing the virus ---- offers a typical illustration of how people get infected. A man died after butchering and cooking geese and chickens that had died at his backyard farm. Tests showed they had the H5N1 virus. The victim was Vietnam's 48th since 2003.

Still, the virus' inability to more easily infect and spread among people has led some experts to distance themselves from the idea it could someday gain the power to kill millions like the world's worst flu pandemic nearly 100 years ago.

A few weeks ago, Bernard Vallat, director general of the Paris-based animal health organization, known as OIE, said "the risk was overestimated" and fear of an imminent pandemic was "just nonscientific supposition."

Officials with the World Health Organization maintain that the threat has not lessened, but acknowledge increasing bird flu fatigue.

"It's not an issue which is always going to remain on the front pages of newspapers," said Gregory Hartl, WHO spokesman in Geneva. "But that doesn't change the public health assessment of the situation."

Bird flu has already caused a pandemic in poultry. Hundreds of millions of birds in more than 60 countries ---- from Vietnam and Egypt to Britain and Nigeria ---- have died or been slaughtered to halt its spread.

"A normal pattern in many countries has been that where there are widespread poultry outbreaks, you do get human cases," Hartl said. "The virus is out there and is still a threat."

Indonesia remains a constant concern. Health experts are unsure why it continues to post cases year-round when most other nations typically only experience sporadic bumps.

It may be because people wait too long to seek treatment. Or it could be connected to the type of virus circulating there, which differs genetically from H5N1 elsewhere. Indonesia's sheer volume of poultry combined with the amount of disease present in flocks may also be playing a major role.

The ongoing poultry outbreaks in India illustrate how hard it is to control. Nearly 2.5 million birds have been slaughtered since mid-January, and farmers angry about low compensation for their chickens have been hiding or smuggling birds out of the area, said Anisur Rahaman, animal husbandry minister in West Bengal state.

Initially, there were reports of dead birds being tossed in ponds or buried in shallow pits. Officials were forced to conduct nighttime raids to round up backyard poultry under the cover of darkness, he added.

A number of other countries, including Thailand and Bangladesh, have also recently detected poultry outbreaks during the winter months when the virus typically flares.

Experts believe the spread is largely related to the trade of birds and their products, including cross-border smuggling. Wild birds are believed to play a role, but a recent WHO review published in the New England Journal of Medicine said the risk of the H5N1 virus reaching North America through migrating birds remains low.

Now a recurring annual challenge faces health officials: the Lunar New Year, a festival that rivals Christmas in the West. Throngs of Asians will be traveling, carrying their chickens and ducks with them.

[cHeroKee]

Researchers explain spread of 1918 flu

MIT researchers have explained why two mutations in the H1N1 avian flu virus were critical for viral transmission in humans during the 1918 pandemic outbreak that killed at least 50 million people.

The team showed that the 1918 influenza strain developed two mutations in a surface molecule called hemagglutinin (HA), which allowed it to bind tightly to receptors in the human upper respiratory tract.

“Two mutations dramatically change the HA binding affinity to receptors found in the human upper airways,” said Ram Sasisekharan, the Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology.

Sasisekharan is the senior author of a paper on the work to be published in the Feb. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In January, Sasisekharan and colleagues reported in Nature Biotechnology that flu viruses can only bind to human respiratory cells if they match the shape of sugar (or glycan) receptors found on those cells.

The glycan receptors found in the human respiratory tract are known as alpha 2-6 receptors, and they come in two shapes-one resembling an open umbrella, and another resembling a cone. To infect humans the MIT team found that avian flu viruses must gain the ability to bind to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptor.

In the current study, the team discovered that two mutations in HA allow flu viruses to bind tightly or with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped glycan receptors.

“The affinity between the influenza virus HA and the glycan receptors appears to be a critical determinant for viral transmission,” said Sasisekharan.

The researchers used the 1918 influenza virus as a model system to investigate the biochemical basis for hemagglutinin binding to glycans, which leads to viral transmission. They compared the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic (known as SC18) with a strain called NY18 that differs from SC18 by only one amino acid, and also the AV18 strain, which differs from SC18 by two amino acids.


Using ferrets (which are susceptible to human flu strains), researchers had earlier found that, while SC18 transmitted efficiently between ferrets, NY18 is only slightly infectious and AV18 not at all infectious.

These earlier findings correlate with the viruses' ability to bind umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 glycan receptors, demonstrated in the current PNAS study.

NY18, which is only slightly infectious, binds to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors but not as well as SC18, which is highly infectious.

AV18, which does not infect humans, does not have any affinity for the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors and binds only to alpha 2-3 receptors.

Another strain, TX18, binds to alpha 2-6 and alpha 2-3 but is much more infectious than NY18, because it binds with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the varying infectiousness of these strains last year, but the PNAS study is the first that explains the exact biochemical reason underlying these differences.

This new work could aid researchers in monitoring the HA mutations in the H5N1 avian flu strains currently circulating in Asia. These mutations could enable the virus to jump from birds to humans, as many epidemiologists fear will occur.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[mrs_thermocouple]

Woo hoo! I'm excited to be able to get my news form you again! I was having Cherokee News Broadcasts withdrawals!

[cHeroKee]

LOL!!!!:D


(Error message says I need 2o characters, so here they are)

[cHeroKee]

Indonesia accuses US of bird flu plot



Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
February 20, 2008

THE Indonesian Health Minister has said the United States and the World Health Organisation are part of a global conspiracy to profit from the spread of bird flu and the US may use samples to produce biological weapons.

The views of Dr Siti Fadilah Supari, outlined in her new book, threaten to undermine efforts to control the spread of avian influenza. With 104 deaths, nearly half the world total, Indonesia is the new hotspot for the virus.

Despite claims by the minister that she has agreed to share virus samples and allow all nations access to resulting vaccines, Indonesia is still blocking sharing samples from human victims.

Applications to send more than 200 samples from chickens to an Australian laboratory had also been refused, inquiries by the Herald have revealed.

In the book, Dr Supari writes that WHO laboratories forwarded influenza viruses to Western companies so they could profit by selling vaccines back to developing countries: "The system of world health management has been very exploitative. It has been controlled by inhumanly desires, based on the greediness to raise capital and to control the world."

Some Indonesian samples had been sent to a US Defence Department laboratory, Dr Supari says, adding that "some of our seed viruses had been in a laboratory known as a facility developing biological weapons in a superpower country".

Privately, officials said Dr Supari's belief that she was engaged on a God-driven crusade against an evil and "neo-colonialist" world health system - on the book's cover she describes herself as the "divine hand behind avian influenza" - had caused her to lose touch with reality.

The President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, appears to have endorsed the book, having written its introduction.

Dr Yudhoyono supports Dr Supari's claim that the virus is under control in Indonesia, stating the "occurrence rate and the number of affected areas are decreasing".

The WHO declined to comment and no US officials were available.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesia...3190823829.html (http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesia-accuses-us-of-bird-flu-plot/2008/02/19/1203190823829.html)

[cHeroKee]

New bird flu cases: reading the tea leaves


Posted on: February 19, 2008 7:07 AM


There's bird flu in poultry all over Bangladesh (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080218/wl_sthasia_afp/healthflubangladeshagricultureemployment) and new human cases reported in China (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/258950478?-13907http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/258950478?-13907), Vietnam (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/258800594?-13907) and Indonesia (http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/258948969?-13907). Is this the sound of the other shoe dropping? Or is it just this:


http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/barchart.jpg



This barchart is from February 5 so it doesn't include all the new cases. But it clearly shows that when we get to flu season we also get to bird flu season. How will we know if something different is happening? It's a good question and I don't have an easy answer. Here are four signals and what I would make of them.
Sudden increase in number of cases that are not connected or are connected by a common source (as evidenced, say, by a number of cases appearing simultaneously or within a day or two of each other). This could signal that the virus has become more easily transmissible from birds to humans. Depending upon what the mechanism is, this might or might not mean it is also more easily transmitted between humans because the mode of transmission and the amount and nature of viral shedding is different for poultry and humans; it could also mean the appearance of another vector or reservoir.
Many more small clusters. This could be the same situation as above, that is, increased bird to human transmission. I would be more alarmed if there instead . . . .
More larger clusters, say a dozen or more epidemiologically related people each. This would be a signal that the disease has become more easily transmissible from person to person and a sign that a widespread outbreak or even sentinel wave of a pandemic was imminent. WHO has identified infection of health care workers as another ominous sign, but I would be much more worried about large clusters appearing.So far we aren't seeing these things and therefore I am interpreting the increased number of new cases as the typical manifestation of "bird flu season." I hope I'm right. I'm guessing, like everyone else. But it's still my best guess.

[cHeroKee]

MIT explains spread of 1918 flu pandemic

WEBWIRE ? Tuesday, February 19, 2008
MIT researchers have explained why two mutations in the H1N1 avian flu virus allowed the disease to spread during the 1918 pandemic that killed at least 50 million people. The work could help scientists detect and contain a future bird flu outbreak among humans.

The team showed that the 1918 influenza strain developed two mutations in a surface molecule called hemagglutinin (HA). This, in turn, allowed it to bind tightly to receptors in the human upper respiratory tract.

This new work could aid researchers in monitoring the HA mutations in the H5N1 avian flu strains currently circulating in Asia. Epidemiologists fear these mutations could enable the virus to jump from birds and spread between humans--a possibility that could trigger millions more deaths than the 1918 pandemic.

Ram Sasisekharan, the Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology, is the senior author of a paper on the work published in the Feb. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In January, Sasisekharan and colleagues reported in Nature Biotechnology that flu viruses can only bind to human respiratory cells if they match the shape of sugar (or glycan) receptors found on those cells.

The glycan receptors found in the human respiratory tract are known as alpha 2-6 receptors, and they come in two shapes--one resembling an open umbrella, and another resembling a cone. To infect humans, the MIT team found that avian flu viruses must gain the ability to bind to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptor.

In the current study, the team discovered that two mutations in HA allow flu viruses to bind tightly or with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped glycan receptors.

"The affinity between the influenza virus HA and the glycan receptors appears to be a critical determinant for viral transmission" said Sasisekharan.

The researchers used the 1918 influenza virus as a model system to investigate the biochemical basis for hemagglutinin binding to glycans, which leads to viral transmission. They compared the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic (known as SC18) with a strain called NY18, which differs from SC18 by only one amino acid, and also the AV18 strain, which differs from SC18 by two amino acids.

Using ferrets (which are susceptible to human flu strains), researchers had earlier found that, while SC18 transmitted efficiently between ferrets, NY18 is only slightly infectious and AV18 not at all infectious.

These earlier findings correlate with the viruses? ability to bind to umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 glycan receptors, demonstrated in the current PNAS study.

NY18, which is only slightly infectious, binds to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors, but not as well as SC18, which is highly infectious.

AV18, which does not infect humans, does not have any affinity for the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors and binds only to alpha 2-3 receptors.

Another strain, TX18, binds to alpha 2-6 and alpha 2-3 but, because it binds with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptors, is much more infectious than NY18.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the varying infectiousness of these strains last year, but the PNAS study is the first that explains the exact biochemical reason underlying these differences.

Other authors of the PNAS paper are Aravind Srinivasan and Karthik Viswanathan, postdoctoral associates in MIT?s Department of Biological Engineering (BE); Rahul Raman, research scientist in BE; Aarthi Chandrasekaran, graduate student in BE; S. Raguram, visiting scientist in BE; Viswanathan Sasisekharan, visiting scientist in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; and Terrence Tumpey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).

[cHeroKee]

Virus preference for humans and birds in the 1918 virus (http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/02/virus_preference_for_humans_an.php)


Posted on: February 20, 2008 7:35 AM,



A paper published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0711963105v1) extends the work of a group of glycobiologists at MIT on unravelling why some flu virus likes bird cells and others like human cells. Glycobiology is the science that investigates the sugar studded proteins on the outside of cells. Like a suit of clothes, a cell's glycoprotein cover plays important functions in protecting the cell, identifying it and as a signal to interact with things outside of itself, such as hormones or immune cells. But other organisms have learned to use the same signals and can use glycoproteins as docking locaitons ("receptors") to gain access to the cell. The influenza virus does this with a specific kind of glycan (sugar) tip on the protein hairs that stick up from the cell membrane. For a long time we believed that the difference between a bird virus and a human virus was that the bird version looked for a specific sugar connected in one way while the human version looked for the same sugar connected in a slightly different way. But there were always some things that didn't quite fit this picture. It appeared that human cells had plenty of the bird linkages in the upper respiratory tract but still weren't often infected by bird viruses and vice versa. It seemed that something besides the linkage of the sugar itself was involved.
Within the last several months a new idea emerged from the MIT group. It was not just the linkage. The paper couched what else was required in terms of the "topology" of the sugar receptor, calling the bird version cone shaped and the human version umbrella shaped and that is how it has been reported. Reading the papers, however, it is clear these descriptions should not be taken too literally. The main difference resides in the length of the sugar chain. The MIT group has identified long chain and short chain glycans. The key hypothesis is that the short chain version binds well to bird flu viruses and the long chain ones to human adapted viruses. The new PNAS paper takes another couple of steps to confirm this by showing that the protein on the surface of the influenza virus that docks to the cell (the hemagglutinin or HA protein) can be analyzed in terms of why the human ones like long chains and the bird ones short chains.
Specifically these researchers showed that the HA from a fatal case of 1918 flu that occurred in October 1918 in South Carolina binds strongly to cells with long sugar chains, cells that are found in the human upper respiratory tract. In particular these cells are mucus secreting cells called goblet cells. A single mutation in the South Carolina virus HA can alter the binding behavior, making it sufficiently weaker that the virus no longer transmits well in one of the main animal models for human influenza, the ferret model. While this virus still binds to long chain sugars, it does not do so as well because it has lost one of its contact points. Because there are many binding sites arrayed on the surface of the virus, this apparently makes the net binding considerably weaker. By making still one more mutation the binding to long chain sugars can be abolished and the virus now becomes more like a bird virus, binding preferentially the the short chain versions found in birds.
Exactly what is the clinical significance of all this is unclear. The resulting mutated South Carolina virus is identical to one isolated in almost the same week in 1918 from a rapidly fatal influenza case in New York. Other experiments have shown that the binding may have only to do with transmissibility, not virulence, but clearly the New York patient got the virus from someone else. So at the very least, viruses with variable binding to the virus were circulating simultaneously and killing people simultaneously.
We are learning, slowly, about the components of transmissibility but not enough to know how to spot a genetic change that signals increased transmissibility. The kinds and locations of changes in H1 HA that switch the binding from bird to human are not the same as those for the H3 HA which in turn are not the same as for the H5 HA (see Pappas et al. (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0711815105v1)). Thus we can't yet say that this work will tell us when a mutation in H5N1 indicates that it has become more transmissible. That signal, alas, will almost certainly be epidemiological, not genetic.
Even though I am an epidemiologist, I regret that.

[cHeroKee]

2 Mutations Were Critical to Spread of 1918 Flu


TUESDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- New research on the spread of the 1918 influenza virus, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide, may aid research into today's potentially dangerous bird flu strain, scientists say.
MIT researchers found that the 1918 avian flu virus strain developed two mutations in a surface molecule called hemagglutinin (HA), which allowed it to bind tightly to receptors in the human upper respiratory tract. This ability to "lock in" was critical for viral transmission in humans, according to the findings, published in Feb. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Two mutations dramatically change the HA binding affinity to receptors found in the human upper airways," said the paper's senior author Ram Sasisekharan, the Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology, in a prepared statement.
Sasisekharan and colleagues previously reported in January's Nature Biotechnology that flu viruses can only bind to human respiratory cells if they match the shape of sugar (or glycan) receptors found on those cells. The receptors, known as alpha 2-6 in humans, come in two shapes -- one resembling a cone; the other an open umbrella.
In the new study, the team discovered that for avian flu viruses to transmit from birds to humans, they must gain the ability to bind tightly or with a high affinity to the umbrella-shaped receptors.
"The affinity between the influenza virus HA and the glycan receptors appears to be a critical determinant for viral transmission," Sasisekharan said.
The researchers compared the influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic with two similar strains (called NY18 and AV18) that differ from it by only one or two amino acids.
Using ferrets (which are susceptible to human flu strains), researchers had earlier found that the pandemic virus transmitted efficiently between ferrets, while the NY18 strain proved only slightly infectious and AV18 not at all infectious.
While slightly infectious NY18 binded to the umbrella-shaped glycan receptors, it did not do it as well as the highly infectious pandemic strain did. The non-infectious AV18 strain had no affinity for the receptors.
Another strain, TX18, proved much more infectious than NY18, and it bonded with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped receptors.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the infectiousness of these strains last year, but the MIT study is the first to explain the biochemical reason causing these differences.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu, mosquitoes and blowflies


Posted on: February 21, 2008 7:03 AM,

A notice from ProMed yesterday alerted many of us to a new published report [subscription firewall] about H5N1 influenza detection in an arthropod species in the vicinity of an infected poultry farm. The arthropods were mosquitoes (Culex tritaeniorhynchus) in Thailand. Two years ago a similar report implicated blowflies (Calliphora nigribarbis and Aldrichina grahami) near some infected farms in Kyoto, Japan. Both papers suggested using arthropods near infected farms as surveillance tools. But both, especially the Japanese paper, raised the open question whether arthropods might play a part in transmission. I took at look at both papers.

The most recent paper (Thailand) examined mosquitoes trapped at a poultry farm in October 2005, a day before the farm reported an outbreak of H5N1. Females need a blood meal to ovulate so 148 engorged female mosquitoes were tested for H5N1 via RT-PCR. (http://effectmeasure.blogspot.com/2006/02/new-cdc-test-what-is-rt-pcr.html) H5N1 identical to the Thai chicken strain were found in engorged females but not in females not gorged with blood. So the mosquitoes seemed to have picked up the virus after taking a blood meal, presumably from infected poultry on the farm. We don't know if the virus replicates in the mosquito or is just being carried mechanically. As one way to test whether mosquitoes can be infected, the authors inoculated a mosquito cell culture line, designated C6/36. These cells are not from the same species as found here (they are from Aedes albopictus) and the virus didn't come from the poultry but from a cloacal swab from a dead Asian open-billed stork found in 2004 (location not given). The virus had been previously propagated in dog kidney cells and it isn't clear if it was different in host range than the straight poultry-derived virus. But H5N1 did grow in this mosquito cell-line. What we know for sure is that detectable virus was in mosquito gut and able to persist in replicable form at least for hours. Mosquitoes have never been implicated in influenza transmission, either as mechanical "flying needles" or after additional replication and amplification. For them to be effective vectors they would have to deliver an infectious dose in a way that evades the usual host defenses.
The Japanese blow fly study is a bit more interesting. Four outbreaks of bird flu occurred in Japan in 2003 and 2004 and two farms near Kyoto were involved in the last two of these, in March 2004. Domestic flies (Musca domestica) are well known mechanical transporters (http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/08/flies.php) of a wide variety of pathogens, but March is too cold in Kyoto for domestic flies. But at a team of medical entomologists in Japan wanted to know if other fly species might also be capable of transporting H5N1 virus. They set up traps within a 2.5 km radius of one of the infected farms and collected flies. One finding was that poultry farms attract flies. The closer to the farms the higher the fly density, but even more than 2 km away there were flies. Eight different species were trapped, none of them Musca domestica. More than 80% were the two blowfly species. These are pretty big critters, more than a centimeter long and they ingest the feces and secretions of infected birds. So it was not that much of a surprise to find essentially identical virus in the intestinal tracts of the blowflies as in the chickens and some infected crows from the same area. Since chickens and wildbirds also eat blowflies, the question as to the role of blowflies in spread of the virus on these poultry farms was reasonable. Reasonable but not demonstrated. So this is all we know at the moment. Blow flies are big and serve as food for birds but they are not biters and humans don't eat them. So they are very unlikely to be a vector for spread of H5N1 from birds to people. Still, the bird to bird question remains open.
Finding pathogens on arthropods isn't unusual. Decades ago I taught a course in environmental health and happened to have a microbiologist as a student. We decided to go to the kitchen of the hospital cafeteria and grab us a couple of cockroaches (the big "water bugs," Periplaneta americana). After throwing them in a blender and plating the stuff out on nutrient medium a lot of stuff grew out of these guys, including typical bacterial enteric pathogens like Salmonella spp. and E. coli). But it is rare in the medical literature to find any outbreaks traced to cockroaches. They've got the pathogens on them but they aren't a significant mode of transmission.
For people I would surmise it is the same. For spread between birds and poultry operations I think the verdict is out, although again I would guess this is a minor mode of spread compared to human and poultry movements between farms (with maybe some wild bird contribution).
There is still very little information about this, so we'll have to see what comes of this (if anything). Meanwhile I'd be much more worried about West Nile Virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or in many areas, malaria from a mosquito bite. H5N1? Maybe, but doubtful.

[cHeroKee]

By Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers Wed Feb 20, 2:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON ? Like the rumble of distant thunder, bird flu continues to spread across Asia , Africa and Europe . Although it's been out of the news lately in the United States , scientists say that avian influenza, as it's also known, remains a serious threat to human and animal health.



The lethal H5N1 version of the virus is mutating rapidly and rampaging through bird flocks throughout those parts of the world, infecting and often killing people who come in contact with them.


The fear is that the virus will change into a form that makes human-to-human transmission quick and easy. At least seven slightly different subtypes already have been identified.


``New genes are being formed all the time,'' said Henry Niman , a molecular geneticist who tracks bird flu outbreaks around the world.


Although H5N1 hasn't reached the Western Hemisphere, Joseph Domenech , the chief veterinary officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization , warned last month that it ``could still trigger a human influenza pandemic.'' A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak such as the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed tens of millions of people in the United States and Europe .


The virus ``continues to cause human disease with high mortality and to pose the threat of a pandemic,'' the latest situation report from the World Health Organization says.
As of Wednesday, bird flu had infected 362 people and killed 228 of them in 14 countries in Asia , Africa and Europe .
In the last year, the WHO confirmed 98 new human cases, including 69 deaths, an alarming 70 percent death rate. It was the second worst year for bird flu, topped only by 2006, when 115 cases and 79 deaths (69 percent) were reported.
Since the major outbreak in China in 2003, the virus has killed millions of chickens, ducks and geese along with pigs, cats and other mammals in some 50 countries.


Almost all the people who've been infected caught the disease from close contact with domestic poultry and occasionally from wild ducks, geese or swans. In a handful of cases, scientists think the virus passed from one human to another, usually among relatives or people living close together.

``So far the spread of H5N1 from person to person has been very rare,'' the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


For example, eight family members in Indonesia caught the disease in 2005, and all but one of them died. A pregnant Chinese woman passed the virus to her 4-month-old fetus last fall. Both died. Four brothers in Pakistan were infected last winter, and two of them died.


``It's pretty clear that was a case of human-to-human transmission,'' said Niman, founder of Recombinomics, a genetics research firm in Pittsburgh .


Multiple teams of researchers are studying the details of how the virus performs its deadly work. They hope that their findings will lead to better vaccines to limit or prevent infection, but the problem is difficult.


``The rate of evolution makes it hard to make a vaccine. There are a lot of moving parts,'' Niman said.


Vaccines such as Tamiflu that are used for common seasonal flu offer partial but not complete protection from H5N1. Furthermore, the virus already is developing resistance to these vaccines.


Recent research has discovered several reasons that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been limited so far.


For one thing, bird and human viruses have different shapes, according to Ram Sasisekharan, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge .


To cause infection, the virus must fit a spike on its surface, known as HA, into a hollow ``receptor'' on the surface of a human cell. The virus that attacks birds fits its HA spike into a cone-shaped receptor. To infect humans, however, the spike must fit into a slightly wider receptor shaped like an open umbrella, Sasisekharan said.


``For animal influenza viruses to cause pandemics in human population, their HA protein must acquire mutations that allow human-to-human transmission,'' Carole Bewley , a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md ., noted in the January issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology. ``Fortunately, this barrier has so far protected us from rapid spread of H5N1.''

[mrs_thermocouple]

Cherokee...Based on the current rate of mutation, in your opinion, how soon could this mutate into a human-to-human contact virus?

[cHeroKee]

Hard to say, it's up to the natural evolution of the virus. That is what makes all these researchers /epidemiologist so scared. They are afraid they will not be able to give sufficient warning before it hits and gets out of control. Like all previous pandemics it always became damage control.


Cherokee...Based on the current rate of mutation, in your opinion, how soon could this mutate into a human-to-human contact virus?

[cHeroKee]

Feb 22, 2008
Thailand detects minor mutation in bird flu virus


http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20080222/ln-asia-thailand.jpg
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/common/c.gif
The deadly H5N1 virus was detected among
chickens last month in the provinces of Pichit
and Nakorn Sawan. -- PHOTO: AP


http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/common/c.gif
BANGKOK - OUTBREAKS of bird flu in Thailand last month were caused by a strain of the virus that had slightly mutated from earlier cases but did not pose a greater health risk, officials said on Friday. The deadly H5N1 virus was detected among chickens last month in the provinces of Pichit and Nakorn Sawan.
After studies, scientists found that the virus had undergone minute changes but appeared to pose no greater threat to humans than earlier cases of bird flu, said Sakchai Sriboonsue, director general of the livestock department.
'According to our research team, the virus's genes have gradually changed from those of the H5N1 strain found in previous outbreaks. But there is little change in the harm it can cause to animals or humans,' Sakchai told a press conference.
Scientists have long feared the the H5N1 virus could mutate to a form that passes easily among humans, causing a global flu pandemic.
Yong Poovorawan, chief of the department's research team, said the existing strain remained a threat and urged people to closely follow the government's prevention guidelines.
He noted that the disease's mortality rate in humans is about 70 per cent.
H5N1 has killed more than 200 people and ravaged poultry flocks worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.
Thailand, the world's fourth-largest exporter of poultry, was criticized for being slow to respond to the first outbreak of bird flu, but now is considered one of the countries best prepared to battle the disease. -- AFP

[cHeroKee]

As bird flu mutates, scientists worry
Person-to-person infection rare - for now
BY ROBERT S. BOYD
McClatchy Newspapers
Article Last Updated: 02/23/2008 03:56:55 PM CST

WASHINGTON - Like the rumble of distant thunder, bird flu continues to spread across Asia, Africa and Europe. Although it's been out of the news lately in the United States, scientists say avian influenza, as it's also known, remains a serious threat to human and animal health.
The lethal H5N1 version of the virus is mutating rapidly and rampaging through bird flocks throughout those parts of the world, infecting and often killing people who come in contact with them.
The fear is the virus will change into a form that makes human-to-human transmission quick and easy. At least seven slightly different subtypes already have been identified.
"New genes are being formed all the time," said Henry Niman, a molecular geneticist who tracks bird flu outbreaks around the world.
Although H5N1 hasn't reached the Western Hemisphere, Joseph Domenech, the chief veterinary officer for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, warned in January that it "could still trigger a human influenza pandemic." A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak such as the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed tens of millions of people in the United States and Europe.
The virus "continues to cause human disease with high mortality and to pose the threat of a pandemic," the latest situation report from the World Health Organization says.
As of Feb. 20, bird flu had infected 362 people and killed 228 of them in 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.
In the past year, the WHO confirmed 98 new
Advertisement


human cases, including 69 deaths, an alarming 70 percent death rate. It was the second-worst year for bird flu, topped only by 2006, when 115 cases and 79 deaths (69 percent) were reported. Since the major outbreak in China in 2003, the virus has killed millions of chickens, ducks and geese along with pigs, cats and other mammals in some 50 countries.
Almost all of the people who've been infected caught the disease from close contact with domestic poultry and occasionally from wild ducks, geese or swans. In a handful of cases, scientists think the virus passed from one human to another, usually among relatives or people living close together.
"So far, the spread of H5N1 from person to person has been very rare," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
For example, eight family members in Indonesia caught the disease in 2005, and all but one of them died. A pregnant Chinese woman passed the virus to her 4-month-old fetus last fall. Both died. Four brothers in Pakistan were infected last winter, and two of them died.
"It's pretty clear that was a case of human-to-human transmission," said Niman, founder of Recombinomics, a genetics research firm in Pittsburgh.
Multiple teams of researchers are studying the details of how the virus performs its deadly work. They hope their findings will lead to better vaccines to limit or prevent infection, but the problem is difficult.
Vaccines such as Tamiflu that are used for common seasonal flu offer partial but not complete protection from H5N1. Furthermore, the virus already is developing resistance to these vaccines.
Recent research has discovered several reasons that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been limited so far.
For one thing, bird and human viruses have different shapes, according to Ram Sasisekharan, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
To cause infection, the virus must fit a spike on its surface, known as HA, into a hollow "receptor" on the surface of a human cell. The virus that attacks birds fits its HA spike into a cone-shaped receptor. To infect humans, however, the spike must fit into a slightly wider receptor shaped like an open umbrella, Sasisekharan said.
"For animal influenza viruses to cause pandemics in human population, their HA protein must acquire mutations that allow human-to-human transmission," Carole Bewley, a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., noted in the January issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
"Fortunately, this barrier has so far protected us from rapid spread of H5N1."
Eight family members in Indonesia caught the disease in 2005, and all but one of them died.

[cHeroKee]

A migrant worker has died of the H5N1 virus in southern China, the Hong Kong government said Tuesday, as the country confirmed its fourth outbreak of bird flu among poultry this year.
The woman who died Monday in Shanwei, a coastal city in eastern Guangdong province, tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus, Hong Kong's Health Department said in a statement issued after receiving confirmation from China's Health Ministry.
Her death marked the country's 20th fatality from the deadly H5N1 virus and its third this year.
The woman had been in contact with dead poultry before becoming sick Feb. 16, a statement on the Web site of Guangdong's Health Department said Monday.
Meanwhile, China confirmed its fourth outbreak of bird flu among poultry this year but said it had been effectively contained.
Nearly 4,000 poultry were killed by the H5N1 virus in southwestern China's Guizhou province, the Agriculture Ministry said on its Web site Monday. Another 240,000 were culled to contain the outbreak.
China, which raises more poultry than any other country in the world, has vowed to aggressively fight H5N1, which has killed 232 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

[cHeroKee]

Egypt reports 44th case of bird flu virus
February 26 2008 at 02:16PM
Cairo - A four-year-old girl from southern Egypt has been diagnosed as having contracted the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the health ministry announced on Tuesday.

The girl was admitted to hospital on Monday with a high temperature in Menya before being transferred to Cairo for further treatment, the official MENA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman Shahin as saying.

She became the 44th case of the virus reported in Egypt since the first outbreak was announced in February 2006.

A total of 19 people have died from the virulent strain. Four people died at the start of 2008, although no fatalities have been reported over the past six months.




Women and children have borne the brunt of the virus due to their role in taking care of domestic fowl in Egypt. - Sapa-AFP

[cHeroKee]

Rostov Chicken and Starling H5N1 Sequences Match
Recombinomics Commentary 17:04
February 25, 2008

Wild bird H5N1 sequences associated with a poultry outbreak in Rostov on December 14, 2007 are being released at Genbank. Complete sequences for all eight gene segments were generated, and the starling sequences, A/starling/Rostov-on-Don/37 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?val=EU486854.1)/2007 are virtually identical to the chicken H5N1 sequences, A/chicken/Rostov-on-Don/35 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=166798263)/2007. Five of the gene segments (PB1, PA, HA, NP, NS) are exact matches, while the other three gene segments (PB2, NA, MP, differ by one nucleotide each.

This high level of identity parallels results from an outbreak in Krasnodar, where chicken and whooper swan sequences were over 99.95% (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12030701/H5N1_Krasnodar_Match.html) identical (6 differences in over 12,000 positions). These examples demonstrate the level of identity in isolates from a common source and provide additional compelling data linking poultry outbreaks to H5N1 circulating in wild birds in the region of the outbreak. The above sequences were clade 2.2.3. As noted previously, the Krasnodar sequences trace back to the Uvs Lake wild bird outbreak in the summer of 2006 as do most of the recent sequences from Europe, as well as 2007 isolates in Kuwait (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02210802/H5N1_Kuwait_G743A.html) and Saudi Arabia (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02180802/H5N1_Uva_Saudi.html). However, although all of these sequences trace back to Uvs Lake (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11300701/H5N1_Uva_Lake.html), they are readily distinguished from each other (but these recent sequences also have NA G743A (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11290702/H5N1_G743A_Migration.html))..

The recent outbreak in mute swans in England are also closely related, although the percent identity is well below the 99.9% which is characteristic of a common as seen above or seen in chicken, duck, and cat isolates from Romania, which had identical HA sequences (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01080802/H5N1_Romania_Uva_Lake.html).

Thus, sequence analysis can be used to trace origins and readily distinguish between infections by a common source, or independent introductions (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01310806/H5N1_Wild_Birds_England.html), as seen in the mute swan (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02060802/H5N1_Swan_Surveillance.html) population in Dorset, England.

[cHeroKee]

New Delhi New Delhi, February 24, 2008

Close on the heels of the bird flu outbreak in Bengal, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team led by Indian-born Ram Sasisekharan has explained just how bird flu spread to humans in 1918, leading to a pandemic that killed 50-100 million people worldwide. Scientists fear the emergence of a new bird flu strain that could jump easily from birds to humans ? potentially unleashing a pandemic.
Sasisekharan?s team reports in the February 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that two mutations in the 1918 bird flu virus played a key role in transmitting it to humans.
The mutations developed on a surface molecule called hemagglutinin (HA), allowing it to infect humans, by binding tightly to the human upper respiratory tract.
?These two HA mutations dramatically change the virus?s ability to bind with receptors on the human respiratory tract,? Ram Sasisekharan, an IISc alumnus and currently MIT?s Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology, told HT.
Last month, Sasisekharan?s team had reported in Nature Biotechnology that flu viruses infect humans only if they match the shape of umbrella-shaped sugar receptors found on the human respiratory tract.
In the current study, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, six out of the seven researchers are NRIs.
The findings could aid researchers in monitoring mutations in the bird flu strains in India. ?We now know what to look for. The latest findings will aid the monitoring of the evolution of the bird flu virus leading to its human adaptation,? says Sasisekharan.

[cHeroKee]

H5N1 Confirmed in Canada Goose in Dorset England
Recombinomics Commentary 15:25
February 29, 2008

Defra has today confirmed that a Canada goose collected on 25 February in the Wild Bird Monitoring Area in Dorset as part of wild bird surveillance has tested positive for highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza. The bird was found less than a kilometre from where the previous positive cases in swans were collected.

This is the 11th wild bird with highly pathogenic H5N1 in the area. The previous ten cases were in wild mute swans, with the last case being confirmed on 4 February.

The above comments on an H5N1 confirmed Canada goose in Dorset are not a surprise. However, the finding of H5N1 (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02050811/H5N1_Swan_Dorset_10.html) over a two month period (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01100802/H5N1_England_Swans_Confirmed.html) in two wild bird species further supports H5N1 circulation in wild birds in the region (see satellite map (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.00043ee5a39d1c6a88577&t=h&om=0&ll=50.676011,-2.463684&spn=0.183625,0.350876&z=11)).

Moreover, the DEFRA description of the sequence relationships between the first four isolates leaves little doubt that the infections are not from a common source, as indicated or implied in the DEFRA report (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01310806/H5N1_Wild_Birds_England.html)and press releases.

Recent sequences from other outbreaks in Europe involve exact matches between wild birds and infected poultry, demonstrating the level of fidelity (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12030701/H5N1_Krasnodar_Match.html) in isolates collected in the same region over a short time period. Such levels have not been reported for the isolates in Dorset.

The latest positive demonstrates that enhanced surveillance (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02030702/H5N1_England_Flaws.html) detects H5N1 in wild bird populations in England. The described sequences are clade 2.2.3, which is the only subclade reported in western Europe since the summer of 2007. Sequences have been released for multiple independent infections in Germany in the summer of 2007, as well as more recent isolates from Krasnodar and Romania (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01080802/H5N1_Romania_Uva_Lake.html). Sequences from the same sub-clade have been published from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In contrast, DEFRA has withheld the sequences from H5N1 in Suffolk (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11130704/H5N1_Suffolk_WB_Match.html) in the fall of 2007, as well as the 11 confirmed cases in or near the swannery in DEFRA.

Release of the H5N1 sequences from isolates in England would be useful.

[cHeroKee]

Large Suspect H5N1 Cluster in Lampung Indonesia
Recombinomics Commentary 12:22
March 13, 2008

The ten patients were treated on the Long community health centre recommendation.

The existence of the assumption of bird flu, because apart from the sign that was suffered by the patient resembled AI, also the existence of the story of the death of the positive poultry was contracted by AI in their village.

From the patient suspek AI this, five including being children.

They were Sanpidi (43) and his child of Imas (10), the older brother was siblings Adi Sutihat (8) and Dani (8 months), Nurdin (52) and his child of Hariyanto (11), Aminah (20), Fedi (2), Aniti (42), Lala (20).

However, from ten patients suspek bird flu, two among them Aniti and Lala refused to be treated in the hospital.

Now two other, Sanpidi and Imas on Wednesday night bolted from the hospital, around struck 21,30 WIB.

According to the official RSU Abdul Muluk, on Thursday (13/2/2008), overnight already did not find the father and this child in isolation space for the sufferers or suspek bird flu.

The above translation describes a ten person cluster in Lampung, Indonesia. Two of the family members have more severe bird flu symptoms, including high fever, and their poultry has tested positive for H5N1. However, as noted above, some family members have refused hospitalization, while others have left the hospital. Family members have been given Tamiflu.

Clusters have been reported in Lampung previously, but the only confirmed cluster (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10240503/H5N1_Lampung_Cluster_Confirmed.html) was in late 2005, and the cluster had mild H5N1 (all three survived and two of the three were confirmed by antibody levels).

Larger suspect clusters have been reported, and large numbers (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/09060701/Tamiflu_Blanket_Tanggamus.html) have been placed on Tamiflu, which may have limited detection of H5N1.

The use of Tamiflu in the current cluster may also limit confirmation.

[cHeroKee]

More H5N1 Clustering in Fayoum and Menofia Egypt
Recombinomics Commentary 22:41
March 12, 2008

Sources official from the Egyptian Ministry of Health found new cases of infection contracted avian influenza governorates of Menoufiya, Fayyoum rising incidence of the disease in Egypt that to 49 cases.

The above translation describes two more confirmed cases in Egypt, raising the total to 49. The two most recent cases are from Menofia (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03040806/H5N1_Minufiyah.html) and Fayoum (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03040805/H5N1_Fayoum_Fatality.html), the same locations as the past three confirmed (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03090801/H5N1_Fayoum_Cluster_Concerns.html) cases. Thus, if the above translation is correct, the five confirmed H5N1 cases this month are all from these two provinces. This type of clustering remains a cause for concern. Either the H5N1 in this region is becoming more efficiently transmitted to humans, or the level of surveillance has increased due to recently confirmed cases. However, 5 cases in two weeks from a relatively small area demands more detail.

Recently released bird sequences from Egypt identified an alarmingly high number of non synonymous changes (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03020801/H5N1_Egypt_Evolution_Pandemic.html), signaling a vaccine failure (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03030803/H5N1_Egypt_Vaccine.html) and rapid evolution (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03010802/H5N1_Egypt_Evolution.html). Thus far, in contrast to this time last year, all confirmed cases have developed pneumonia. Last season, most of the fatal cases were associated with M230I, which is widespread in poultry this season.

It has been almost three months since the December (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12310706/H5N1_Egypt_Fatal_4.html), 2007 cases were confirmed, yet no sequences from human cases have been released. The reasons for these delays in unclear. Last year, NAMRU-3, to its credit (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12230601/H5N1_Egypt_2_New.html), promptly released sequence data. After NAMRU-3 became a WHO regional reference center, the transparency dropped dramatically.

Release of the sequences from December, 2007 is long overdue. Release of sequences from the spate of recent cases would also be useful.

[cHeroKee]

Boy dies from bird flu in Vietnam

14:12 | 17/ 03/ 2008


HANOI, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - An 11-year-old boy has died of bird flu in Vietnam's northern province, the Vietnamese Health Ministry reported on Monday.
The boy from Ha Nam province was admitted to a Hanoi hospital on March 11, and died on Friday night. Medical tests confirmed that the victim was infected with the lethal H5N1 strain.
His death is thought to have been caused by eating infected chicken meat. The boy's family raises chickens at their home, and 10 of them died in late February. Some healthy chickens from the flock were slaughtered for food.
Vietnam ranks second after Indonesia in bird flu fatalities, with an overall death toll of around 52 since the lethal H5N1 virus was first reported in the country in 2003. A total of 11 out of the country's 64 provinces have reported bird flu outbreaks. The two main sources of infection are the country's northern Thai Nguyen and central Quang Binh provinces.
This is the country's fifth death this year from bird flu, which has so far killed 235 people out of 371 confirmed cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Health experts in Vietnam warned that the H5N1 virus seems to have intensified with fatality rates growing to over 90%, against 50-60% in previous years.
However, the government said on its animal health department website that chicken owners were failing to report when their animals died or became ill, and even ate sick birds, which had led to deaths.
Although there have been no incidences of human to human infection, experts fear that it may mutate into a form that could easily be transmitted from person to person, causing a global pandemic.

[cHeroKee]

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu//cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/mar1708coinfect.html

Avian, human flu coinfection reported in Indonesian teen

Maryn McKenna Contributing Writer


Mar 17, 2008 ? ATLANTA (CIDRAP News) ? An Indonesian teenager has been brought forward as a case of simultaneous infection with seasonal and avian strains of influenza?a possibility that health planners have long warned could give rise to a pandemic flu strain.

In a paper presented today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vivi Setiawaty of Indonesia's Center for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research and Development described the case of a 16-year-old girl who was tested for flu in Jakarta in April 2007 under a flu-surveillance system established in 2005 by the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

The girl, who had been experiencing flu symptoms for several days, was only mildly ill, with a 100.5?F fever, sore throat, cough, headache, and body aches, but no difficulty breathing and no signs of pneumonia. (Case reports of H5N1 patients in countries such as Thailand have described more dramatic clinical presentations.)

Throat and nasal-swab samples that were taken on the 6th day of her symptoms tested positive by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for both avian influenza H5N1 and the seasonal flu strain H3N2 at the Indonesian National Institute of Health Research and Development. Serology test results were less clear. Antibody titers from serum samples taken the 6th day provided a weak indication of H5N1 infection (titer of 1:10) but were negative for H3N2; convalescent sera, on the other hand, gave a strong indication of H3N2 infection (titer of 1:640) but were negative for H5N1.

The test results were confirmed by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta, an arm of the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology, according to the paper. The girl's case fell within the period when the Indonesian government was not sharing flu isolates with the international laboratory system maintained by the World Health Organization, and there was no indication whether her isolates were evaluated outside the country.

"This is the first case-report of a human with both influenza A/H5N1 and H3N2 co-infection," the paper states. "Such infections are of great concern due to the possibility of genetic reassortment leading to the emergence of a H5N1 strain that is more easily transmitted human to human, and emphasizes the importance of advanced laboratory-based surveillance in geographic regions where both human and avian influenza viruses are co-circulating."

[cHeroKee]

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL1880246820080318

Bird flu may mutate to human form in Indonesia: FAO

Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:17am EDT
MILAN (Reuters) - The bird flu virus, widespread in Indonesia, could mutate and cause a human influenza pandemic, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday.

"I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said in a statement.

Avian influenza mostly attacks birds but its deadly H5N1 strain has killed 235 people around the world among 372 known cases since its outbreak in 2003 in Asia.

"The human mortality rate from bird flu in Indonesia is the highest in the world and there will be more human cases if we do not focus more on containing the disease at source in animals," Domenech said.

Bird flu has hit 31 out of 33 provinces of Indonesia with an endemic virus in Java, Sumatra, Bali and southern Sulawesi and sporadic outbreaks reported in other areas, Rome-based FAO said.

Despite major control efforts, Indonesia has failed to contain the spread of bird flu in poultry in the country where about 20 percent of 1.4 billion chickens are scattered in around 30 million backyards, Domenech said.

"We have also observed that new H5N1 avian influenza virus strains have recently emerged, creating the possibility that vaccines currently in use may not be fully protecting poultry against the disease," he said.

A highly decentralized administration, under-resourced national veterinary services, thin international and national financial and human resources for control campaigns are among the major problems that Indonesia has to deal with in fighting the virus spread, he said.

[cHeroKee]

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/i...08coinfect.html (http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/mar1708coinfect.html)


Avian, human flu coinfection reported in Indonesian teen


Maryn McKenna Contributing Writer


Mar 17, 2008 ? ATLANTA (CIDRAP News) ? An Indonesian teenager has been brought forward as a case of simultaneous infection with seasonal and avian strains of influenza?a possibility that health planners have long warned could give rise to a pandemic flu strain.

[cHeroKee]

Recombination in Human Swine and Avian Influenza
Recombinomics Commentary 18:20
March 27, 2008

Specifically, because our analysis is necessarily based on viral consensus sequences rather than the myriad individual viral molecules that characterize any infection, it is equally plausible that the ?recombinants? detected here in fact represent cases of mixed infection in individual hosts followed by the amplification and sequencing of different viral molecules, thereby producing laboratory-generated artificial recombinants. Hence, to demonstrate conclusively the occurrence of homologous recombination in influenza A virus it will be necessary either to clone (or plaque purify) and sequence multiple viral genomes from an individual host and demonstrate the presence of the recombinant and both parental genotypes within the sample (1), or to show that recombinant sequences form a distinct circulating lineage, with readily identifiable parents, that is transmitted among multiple individuals in a population (30).

The above comments are from the ahead of press publication (http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/JVI.02683-07v1), ?Homologous Recombination is Very Rare or Absent in Human Influenza A Virus?. Although the paper presented data showing that the likelihood that the short regions of recombination (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03270802/Influenza_Recombination_Short.html) in NA H3N2 human influenza was due to chance was less than a billion to one, the authors relied on lab artifact to maintain their position that homologous recombination doesn?t happen in influenza in general, or in human influenza in particular.

However, the requirements delineated in their discussion have already been met for human, swine, and avian influenza, so going through the public data is worthwhile.

Although the paper excluded (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03260801/Human_Influenza_Recombination.html) the best evidence for clear cut homologous recombination in human influenza, the sequences are public and meet the above requirements. All six sequences from six individuals in South Korea have the same recombination. All have a version of human H3N2 human influenza in circulation worldwide at the time. However, each isolate has a 1991 H3N2 HA sequence in the center third of the gene, thus meeting the requirement of the same recombinant transmitted among multiple individuals in a population. Since all six sequences were generated in the same lab, ad hoc arguments for lab error could be developed, but would have to include contamination of all six isolates with a 1991 lab sequence resulting in the contaminant replacing the center of the 2002 sequence resulting in three similar sequences and three additional sequences where 2002 sequences nested inside of the 1991 sequence. Although such a scenario would be possible, it would be highly unlikely.

The authors cited a Recombinomics preprint (http://precedings.nature.com/documents/385/version/1) at Nature Precedings, which met the ?proof? criteria for swine influenza. Recombination evidence was presented for all 8 gene segments, but the most compelling examples were for PB2 (http://www.recombinomics.com/phylo/Canadian_Swine_PB2.html) or PA (http://www.recombinomics.com/phylo/H5N1_HK_PA.html) and involved sequences from two closely related 1977 isolates from Tennessee. The data for PB2 had clear evidence for recombination, involving exact matches for large portions of the gene, even though the Canadian swine isolates were from 2003/2004, while one set of parental sequences were from 1977.

One of the clearest examples of nesting can be seen in three of the isolates, 11112, 57561, and 56626. All three have sequences which exactly match a 1998 North Carolina sequence between positions 755 and 1594. This sequence remains intact in 11112, but the 1977 sequence from Tennessee is nested in the other two sequences between positions 1006 and 1326. All of the above are exact matches and represent just a subset of the recombination events depicted in the PB2 sequences. Thus, the shared recombination events are present in multiple swine isolates and would once again satisfy the requirement of the same recombination event in multiple isolates. Once again, these sequences were generated by a single lab, but generation of this data through contamination would require contamination with multiple isolates, including the two mentioned above as well as a 2002 isolate from Korea. Similar large sets of contaminating sequences would be required to generate the recombination events depicted in the other gene segments.

In addition to the large regions of recombination in the human and swine isolates described above, another Recombinomics paper (http://precedings.nature.com/documents/459/version/3) at Nature Procedings provides evidence for recombination between closely related H5N1 avian NA sequences depicted by a single nucleotide polymorphisms, G743A. These data include plaque purification of isolates from one host providing evidence that the same polymorphism was acquired by two distinct clones present in a single host. The two consensus sequences, each represented by multiple clones, differed from each other at 11 positions. One set of sequences differed from one of the Gharbiya cluster sequences at just two positions and one of the two positions was G743A. The other set of sequences matched two other isolates, and differed from related sequences isolated months earlier and differed at three positions, one of which was G743A. Thus, both distinct sequences had acquired the same change, even though the number of changes was only 2 or 3 positions in the two instances. The likelihood that both sequences made the same copy error at the same time is remote.

This type of coincidence is even more remote when the same change was found on multiple additional genetic backgrounds in Egypt, Kuwait, Russia, Ghana, and Nigeria. Moreover, G743A was also on sequences related to the Kuwait sequence in the Czech Republic (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03030805/H5N1_Czech_G743A.html), multiple locations in Germany, (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11290702/H5N1_G743A_Migration.html) and Krasnodar (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/12030701/H5N1_Krasnodar_Match.html). Like the first two examples, the acquisitions on the various backgrounds were small numbers (2-6 positions) of changes between the 2007 sequences and closely related sequences from 2006 which did not have the change.

Thus, the above description delineate homologous recombination in human, swine, and avian influenza which are unlikely to be due to lab error or contamination.

[A'Marie]

Just a question for you Cherokee-

How effective do you think consistent inhalation through a nebulizer of Mesosilver would be in combating a bird flu attack to the lungs? I am curious about your opinion on this.

[cHeroKee]

Just a question for you Cherokee-

How effective do you think consistent inhalation through a nebulizer of Mesosilver would be in combating a bird flu attack to the lungs? I am curious about your opinion on this.

Taken internally, colloidal silver can be used to fight infection. It has been shown to be effective against more that 650 disease-causing organisms. In my opinion when all else fails, colloidal silver can beat infections presumed unbeatable.
Infections such as pneumonia due to staphylococcal, pneumocystis, streptococcal, klebsiella and fungal infections being difficult to treat by traditional antibiotic treatment, CS can be a good choice in fighting the infections (both orally and using a nebulizer). In addition, colloidal silver is a safe and effective topical method to fight infections

In regards to bird flu, again oral and use of a nebulizer would be very beneficial. With the virus of BF attaching to the upper respiratory system (sometime lower) and back of the throat a nebulizer is a must. I believe that treatment with the nebulizer will need to be very aggressive during the course of the symptoms. One will need to "drown" the area with the colloidal silver, so having enough colloidal silver on hand is a must. 2 -4 cc would be a good start.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu situation improves in Bangladesh with temperature rising


www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn/index.htm) http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif
2008-03-30 16:44:39
DHAKA, March 30 (Xinhua) -- With the rise of temperature, bird flu that battered the growing poultry industry in Bangladesh now started to ease off, an expert of the Livestock Department said Sunday.
Sujas Kanti Bhoumik, a technical officer of the Livestock Department, told Xinhua that the situation of bird flu is gradually improving with the rise of temperature.
An official at the Bird Flu Control Room told Xinhua that some 1,536,542 chickens, ducks and pigeons have been culled so far till Saturday since the virus broke out in March last year.
The official said the disease affected 486 commercial farms and42 private farms in 47 districts out of 64 districts in the country.
The government agencies are campaigning through electronic media and SMS services that there is no danger of eating chickens and eggs if cooked and boiled at 70 degree Celsius.
Physicians said there is no reason for the people to be panic about the virus as there is no human infection case in Bangladesh.
People who were earlier panic at the spreading of virus and stopped eating chickens and eggs are now changing their mindset. Many households started eating well cooked chickens and eggs.
The Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPLA) said the deadly virus led to the closure of more than 50 percent of the farms, turning nearly five million people jobless. The BPIA said about 100 billion taka (about 1.43 billion US dollars) were invested in the poultry sector.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu can mutate to infect humans
29.03.08 14:25

The international medical community has met in Bali for the Sixth International Bird Flu Summit to discuss the possibility of mutations in the avian flu virus leading to human pandemics, RIA Novosti reported.

Attending the summit was Dmitry Lvov, director of the Ivanovsky Research Institute of Virology at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

The danger of mutations, Lvov warns, is considerable, and the situation is potentially highly alarming.

?The H5N1 virus needs only one or two amino acid changes to become transmittable between humans, to produce mutations and hybrid cells,? Lvov said. ?Nobody knows when these killers may appear, for everything depends on the specific features of the virus?s receptors. So far, it can provoke pathologies after reaching the lower parts of the respiratory tract. The ordinary flu virus hits the upper sectors.?
The scientist said: ?Since H5N1 mutations never stop, the virus could eventually ?learn? to hit the upper parts of humans? respiratory tract. This would be very bad, but in the worst scenario bird and flu viruses will infect the same recipient, for example a pig, whose organism is susceptible to both viruses. There is one chance in a million of that, but this one chance could result in a global catastrophe that would claim millions of lives.?

?The scale of danger is huge. Any country will be completely defenseless against the disease, because quarantines will not help, as the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 showed,? Lvov said.



- The virus has not yet overcome the genetic barrier, yet humans are dying of bird flu, although mainly in East Asia. Why?


- About 400 humans have contracted bird flu. So far, it is extremely difficult to contract bird flu, for molecular and genetic reasons. You must have direct contact with an infected bird to catch the disease, for example, by drinking the infected bird?s blood (some nations do this) or ?kissing? the infected hen. I was told that a girl started giving the kiss of life to her favorite hen, which she had nurtured since it was an egg. As a result, the child died.

In other words, hygiene has now become a matter of life and death. So far, there have not been any cases of virus transmission between humans.


-Bird flu has existed since prehistoric times. What has provoked the appearance of its current, highly virulent form?


- Birds are the natural carriers of bird flu. The virus and birds have lived together for 300 million years, so that wild fowl have become immune to it. But when conditions change, the bird flu genome changes too, producing new, highly virulent strains. To keep living, viruses must mutate. Sometimes new and dangerous strains infect humans, spreading across the globe incredibly fast.
Scientists reported 40 years ago that birds carry all the pandemic flu strains, although not all scientists accepted that view immediately. The first proponents of this theory were Robert Webster, of St Jude?s Children?s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee; Professor Graeme Laver of Australia; and myself. We were ridiculed then. Unfortunately, we have now been proved right.


? You also predicted the threat of a panzootic, an outbreak of an infectious disease of animals that spreads across a large region (for example a continent), or even worldwide.

My institute warned of the danger of a panzootic in September 2003, three months before the first cases were reported. I said in my report at the international flu congress in Japan that Russian scientists had isolated the low pathogenic H5 flu virus in wild fowl in the Altai region (southwest Siberia) and the southern regions of the Maritime Territory in Russia?s Far East. We also predicted that the virus might hit the poultry farms of Southeast Asian countries, and that it might quickly become highly pathogenic. Unfortunately, our forecast was later confirmed.


? Epidemics can be fought with the help of vaccines. Do we have them for bird flu?

Creating a vaccine is a fundamental project, which our institute is involved in. Russia has a program of poultry vaccination and is producing eight times more vaccine than it needs. It can export the rest.

We don?t have, and cannot have, a human vaccine, because we don?t know which pandemic strain will hit humans. Bird flu is adjusted to its carrier, the bird. We are studying bird flu areas and relations between the virus and birds, other animals and humans in different ecosystems.

In the event of a pandemic, we?ll need two or three months to create the human vaccine. This is the fastest a civilized country can launch its large-scale production.


? How is the H5N1 virus behaving now? Has the risk of dangerous mutations increased?

The virus is changing, and not in the direction we had hoped for. It is becoming more virulent, although this is nonsense theoretically. Nobody can change the evolution of the flu virus or prevent a pandemic now. The worst thing is that H5N1 has reached wild fowl, which migrate between their winter and summer areas and infect poultry in the process.

Russia felt the impact of this in 2005, when the virus reached the country from Lake Kukunor in Qinghai, China. Later that Qinghai-Siberian cocktail went on to spread throughout the world.


The most important information is that when the highly virulent H5N1 flu virus reaches a natural bio-community, it does not eventually peter out. It continues to circulate there, and retains its high pathogenic potential.

[Mrs Cowboy]

We are preparing for this at the hospital. It is a BIG concern.

[cHeroKee]

Bird Flu Crosses Species Barrier to Spread Among Dogs (Update1)
By Jason Gale
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- A bird flu virus that killed dogs in South Korea can spread from one dog to another, showing that the disease is capable of crossing species and causing widespread sickness in mammals, a study found. cherokee
A cocker spaniel and a miniature schnauzer were among dozens of dogs in South Korea sickened by an H3N2 strain from birds, researchers said in a study published in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases (http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/14/5/pdfs/07-1471.pdf) journal. Viruses taken from the sick canines were used in an experiment later to see if pathogens were capable of spreading from dog to dog. cherokee
The findings add to scientific understanding of how flu viruses evolve in animals and the risks they pose to humans. A separate bird flu strain called H5N1 has killed 236 people worldwide by spreading primarily from birds to humans. If a deadly H5N1 strain evolved like the strain in today's study to spread from one human to another, it could kill millions. cherokee
``Transmission of avian influenza A virus to a new mammalian species is of great concern because it potentially allows the virus to adapt to a new mammalian host, cross new species barriers, and acquire pandemic potential,'' the Korean researchers said. cherokee
The study, led by Daesub Song, Bokyu Kang and Chulseung Lee of the Green Cross Veterinary Products Co. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=006280%3AKS) and Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=069620%3AKS) at Yong-in, outside Seoul, followed cases of severe respiratory disease last year in dogs at three veterinary clinics in Kyunggi province.

Close Resemblance cherokee
Tests on specimens collected from three of the dogs showed they were infected with H3N2 viruses closely resembling those found in chickens and doves in South Korea in 2003. The pathogens may have been transmitted from birds to dogs fed raw, minced meat from infected ducks and chickens, the authors said. cherokee
``In South Korea, untreated duck and chicken meats, including internal organs and heads, have been widely used to feed dogs for fattening in local canine farms (http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=6373) or kennels,'' they said. cherokee
Dog is regarded by some Koreans as a delicacy. Seoul city officials will ask the national government to include the animal in the legal definition of livestock, the Chosun Ilbo (http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200803/200803240015.html) newspaper reported last week. cherokee
A variant of the H3N2 virus causes seasonal flu in humans. A canine strain was linked to an outbreak among 13 dogs at an animal hospital and later reported at a kennel in Jeolla province, where as many as 52 canines were infected, most likely as the virus spread from dog to dog, the Korean researchers said. cherokee
Seal, Dogs cherokee
Avian flu viruses are known to transmit to unrelated mammalian species only rarely, the researchers said. Bird- derived H7 and H4 flu viruses were reported in seals in the early 1980s, and the H5N1 bird-flu strain was found in a dog that fed on a duck infected with the virus in Thailand in 2004, according to the study. cherokee
Large cats, including tigers and leopards, kept in capacity and fed on infected poultry carcasses, have also been infected and developed severe disease. Almost two of every three human H5N1 cases were fatal, according to the World Health Organization. cherokee
``This is an important and interesting study because previous avian-to-mammal influenza infection by H5 or H7 were not efficient in subsequent human-to-human or cat-to-cat transmission, whereas this study shows an outbreak of 13 dogs in addition to sporadic cases,'' said Yuen Kwok-yung (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Yuen+Kwok-yung&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), a microbiology professor at the University of Hong Kong (http://www.hku.hk/).
Not Unexpected cherokee
``Efficient mammal-to-mammal transmission'' of H3N2 viruses isn't unexpected since variations of the strain regularly infect humans and pigs, Yuen said in an interview today.
Dogs may be more susceptible to flu strains carried by birds because both canines and birds share a type of virus- binding site in their respiratory systems that is less common in humans. cherokee
The bird-like H3N2 virus may be capable of spreading between dogs because it was excreted in nasal discharges and caused sneezing of experimentally infected beagle puppies, the study found. The virus wasn't active in their feces. cherokee
Evidence of avian flu in pet dogs ``raises the concern that dogs may be become a new source of transmission of novel influenza viruses, especially where avian influenza viruses are circulating or have been detected,'' the authors said. cherokee
cherokee

[cHeroKee]

Man dies after bird flu contacthttp://www.gulf-times.com/site/images/spacer.gif
Published: Saturday, 5 April, 2008, 02:27 AM Doha TimeISLAMABAD: A man in northern Pakistan passed the deadly bird flu virus to two of his brothers, and the virus killed one of them, in the first known human-to-human transmission in Pakistan, a health official said yesterday.
?It was definitely person-to-person. That is confirmed,? said Maqbool Jan Abbasi, Ministry of Health joint secretary.
He said the World Health Organisation confirmed by serological testing from a family in Peshawar, northwest of the capital Islamabad, three brothers had H5N1, the strain of avian influenza that can be deadly in humans.
?Two of the brothers had no contact with birds,? Abbasi said.
One brother who did not have contact with birds died and was buried, and his blood could not be tested. For cultural reasons they did not exhume the body to test him for bird flu, Abbasi said. But he added they feel certain he died of bird flu.
?The other two brothers, including the one who culled birds, did have the virus. Now they are okay, clear of all symptoms,? he said.
Theirs were the first human cases of bird flu in Pakistan and were reported in November 2007.
The human-to-human transmission of the virus raises the concern about the bird flu danger and the country will have to be more careful, Abbasi said.
Pakistan already has quarantine rooms ready for when people are suspected to have bird flu, he said.
?We will have to be more careful in the future,? he said.
Pakistan?s poultry population has seen multiple outbreaks of the H5N1 strain since 2006, but still only the one case of humans getting the virus. ? DPA

[cHeroKee]

Evolution of flu strains points to higher risk


(AFP)
26 May 2008

CHICAGO

Some strains of bird flu are coming ever closer to developing the traits they need to cause a human pandemic, a study released Monday said.

Researchers who analysed samples of recent avian flu viruses found that a few H7 strains of the virus that have caused minor, untransmissible infections in people in North America between 2002 and 2004 have increased their affinity for the sugars found on human tracheal cells.

Subsequent tests in ferrets suggested that these viral strains were not readily transmissible.

But one strain of the H7N2 virus, a low pathogenic avian flu strain isolated from a man in New York in 2003, replicated in the ferret's respiratory tract and was passed between infected and uninfected ferrets suggesting it could be transmissible in humans.

The investigators said the evidence suggests that the virus could be evolving toward the same strong sugar-binding properties of the three worldwide viral pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

"These findings suggest that the H7 class of viruses are partially adapted to recognize the receptors that are preferred by the human influenza virus," said Terrence Tumpey, a senior microbiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The authors said that if the viruses continue to evolve in this direction, the avian flu viruses could travel more easily between other animals and humans. They called for strict surveillance of avian flu viruses and continuing federal preparations for a possible future pandemic.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?...eworld&col= (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/May/theworld_May1165.xml&section=theworld&col=)

[cHeroKee]

Warning about the danger of yet another bird flu virus

Published: Tuesday, 27-May-2008

Scientists in the United States have identified a second H strain of bird flu that could cause a pandemic, they say the H5N1 strain of bird flu currently circulating the globe is not the only cause for concern.

A team from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the H5N1 strain of bird flu which has already killed 241 people and millions of bird life is not the only one that could trigger a pandemic.
The scientists say research in America has revealed other H strains of the flu virus which have started to evolve some of the traits needed to infect people easily.
The research, while it indicates there is no immediate indication that H7 flu is about to acquire potentially damaging mutations, demonstrates how critical global surveillance programs are and the scientific team say it is important that research includes this virus class as well as the more prominent H5N1.
The H5N1 strain has long been perceived as the most deadly strain since it appeared in Asia in 2003, but while it has a death rate of more than 60 per cent, it remains a disease of birds which is quite difficult for people to contract.
Almost all cases have involved close contact with infected birds - but it is however endemic in some parts of the world, particularly in Asia.
The H5N1 strain has yet to acquire the ability to transfer between people which is a prerequisite for a pandemic.
The H7 family of flu viruses also mainly affect birds - a deadly version of the H7N7 strain hit poultry in the Netherlands in 2003, and a less severe form, H7N2, broke out in the UK last year and in the period 2002 to 2004 several outbreaks of H7N3 and H7N2 have been reported.
Each of these outbreaks have had a minimal affect on humans with only one death and reported incidents of about 80 eye infections and a few mild respiratory infections.
An analysis of a case in 2003 in New York has shown that the H7N2 virus has the unusual capability of replicating in the respiratory tract of mammals which indicates that it could possibly be transmissible from person to person.
An animal study also revealed that this particular H7N2 strain could be passed from animal to animal which suggests that the virus could be acquiring an ability to bind to sugars found on the cells of the human windpipe which has happened before in all three of the 20th-century flu pandemics.
The scientists say the findings suggest that the H7 class of viruses have begun to adapt and recognise the receptors that are preferred by the human influenza virus and this is why continued surveillance and research into these viruses is imperative.
The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[cHeroKee]

N. American bird flu viruses adapting more to humans

Updated Tue. May. 27 2008 8:13 AM ET
The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- North American avian flu viruses of the H7 subtype -- like the H7N3 viruses responsible for British Columbia's massive poultry outbreak in 2004 -- seem to have adapted to more easily invade the human respiratory tract, a new American study suggests.
The adaptation is still only partial and the findings do not suggest the viruses are imminently poised to trigger a pandemic. But experts say they underscore the fact that H7 flu viruses need to be watched and studied.
"I think this is certainly amongst the most dangerous (avian flu) viruses out there,'' said virologist Dr. Ron Fouchier, with the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
"And I think we need to continue to develop vaccines for H7 just as well as H5(N1).''
Fouchier was commenting on a scientific paper published Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Fouchier's research on avian influenza includes study of the H7N7 outbreak in the Netherlands in 2003, but he was not involved in this work.
Scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported on their research on a number of H7 viruses, looking both at the types of receptor cells -- bird or human -- each was more inclined to latch onto and whether the viruses transmitted from infected to uninfected ferrets.
Of all available animal models, influenza infection in ferrets is considered to mirror most closely the course the disease takes in humans.
Human flu viruses that circulate every winter have adapted to be able to bind to the receptors that predominate in the human respiratory tract, known as alpha 2-6 receptors. Avian viruses, on the other hand, prefer the alpha 2-3 receptors found in the guts of wild birds (their natural host) and domestic poultry. Those receptors are scarce in the human upper respiratory tract.
It is assumed that an avian virus would need to make this kind of adaptation -- learning to latch onto the human-type receptors -- before it could transmit easily to and among humans.
Among the H7 viruses the CDC scientists studied were H7N3 viruses recovered from the two British Columbians infected during an outbreak in the poultry farm-dense Fraser Valley in 2004. More than 17 million chickens were destroyed in the efforts to stop that outbreak.
Also tested was a virus recovered from a strange H7N2 infection in the Yonkers area of New York City. A man who had no known contact with poultry was hospitalized in November 2003. Because he was suffering from other ailments, the fact that he was also harbouring an avian flu virus was not detected at the time. In fact, it was thought he had human flu.
Several months later testing at the CDC revealed the rare infection. How the man caught the virus remains a mystery.
Of all the H7 viruses studied for this work, the New York man's seemed most adapted to humans. It bound more easily to the receptors found in the lining of the human upper respiratory tract and had decreased binding to bird receptor cells. And when ferrets were inoculated with the virus, it spread from the infected animals to healthy animals placed in the same cages.
But in general H7 viruses from North America that have been isolated from about 2002 onwards seem to have developed an increasing affinity for the human-type receptors, said Dr. Terrence Tumpey, the CDC scientist who led the work.
"These viruses are partially adapted to recognize the receptors preferred by human influenza viruses, but not completely,'' he said in an interview from Atlanta.
"It needs to be adapted further. But I think it shows that potentially that these viruses are changing.''
"Because we can look at an older North American H7 or Eurasian H7s or H5s and they have the characteristic avian influenza binding properties. Whereas these seem to be different and possibly changing.''
At this point it is unclear what additional changes would be needed for an H7 virus to fully adapt to a human host -- or whether H7 viruses could acquire all those changes.
When H7 viruses have caused human cases, the ensuing disease has typically been mild, with people suffering conjunctivitis (pink eye) and-or mild respiratory symptoms. There is one exception -- a veterinarian infected with an H7N7 virus died during the Dutch outbreak.
The mildness of the disease may have lulled some people into a sense of complacency about H7 viruses, said Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
But she insisted the fact that H7 viruses don't induce the life-threatening disease seen in H5N1 infection doesn't mean they shouldn't be viewed as a serious pandemic threat.
"H7, with its mildness, may be more -- I hate to anthropomorphize -- but more devious. Because through surreptitious spread -- because it's milder, it's unrecognized, people might dismiss it more -- it may actually have more opportunity to adapt to the human respiratory tract,'' she said from Vancouver.
"And even though it may be mild today, even though it may not transmit easily today, the potential is always there for it to change. And basically we don't want new (flu) subtypes in the human population. We've got enough to deal with the humanized strains.''

[cHeroKee]

Young boy in Bangladesh recovers from bird flu-WHO

Wed May 28, 2008 9:24pm IST


GENEVA, May 28 (Reuters) - An infant in Bangladesh contracted H5N1 bird flu and survived, in the South Asian country's first human infection with the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.
In a statement released in Geneva, the United Nations agency said a 16 month-old boy from Komalapur, Dhaka, developed symptoms in late January and then recovered.
"The case was exposed to live and slaughtered chickens at his home," the WHO said. "Specimens have been collected from his family members and neighbours. All remain healthy to date."
The H5N1 virus has infected millions of birds in much of Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Public health experts fear it could spark a human pandemic if it mutates into a form that passes easily between people.
A total of 383 humans are known to have been infected with the virus since 2003, and 241 have died, according to the WHO.
The Bangladeshi infection was flagged during surveillance activities by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, the WHO said. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

[cHeroKee]

H7N2 New York Case Due to Human Transmission?
Recombinomics Commentary 20:41
May 29, 2008
Researchers have found that some North American strains of influenza have increased their affinity for human cell surface molecules. These findings suggest that the viruses are coming closer to attaining the characteristics needed to cause a human pandemic and that surveillance of avian flu viruses, and preparations for a possible pandemic, should continue.

They show that one strain of the H7N2 virus, isolated from a man in New York in 2003, replicated in the ferret respiratory tract and was capable of transmission through direct contact with other ferrets. Belser et al. suggest that these viruses could be evolving toward the same strong, sugar-binding properties that characterized the three pandemic viruses of the 20th century. If this evolution continues, avian flu viruses could potentially travel easily between animals and humans, according to the authors.

The above description from the PNAS commentary (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/105/21/7339?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=h7n2&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT) highlights the importance of the H7N2 isolate, A/New York/107 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=183207737)/2003(H7N2). However, interpretation of the experimental results is muddied with the removal (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05280802/H7N2_Curious.html) of the sequences from the public database shortly after they became public in late April. The deposited sequences clearly represented reassortment data since three of the sequences (H7, N2, NP) were avian, and the other four sequences were human (PB1, PA, MP, NS). The sequence of the eighth gene segment (PB2) was not made publc. The removal of the sequences by the submitter, because the origin of the sequences could not be determined, raises concerns that the sequences are due to lab artifact or a dual infection.

However, there is significant support for reassortment. The human sequences are closely related to H3N2 isolates from New York isolated in 2003, which is the expected result if the H7N2 was an early lab artifact, or was due to a dual infection. The patient was initially thought to be H1N1 infected, strongly suggesting that he tested negative for H3N2. If the original infection was a dual infection, the patient should have been positive for H3N2. If the virus was a reassortant, the patient would not have tested positive for either seasonal flu serotype, because both HA and NA were avian.

If the H7N2 in the patient matched the removed sequences, then the isolate would be a major discovery, because a reassortant between human and avian H5N1 or H7N2 genes has not been reported previously. Experiments which created reassortants with human H3N2 and H5N1 were viable, but generally did not replicate or transmit as efficiently as viruses with only avian genes. In this case however, the reassortant was transmitted more efficiently from ferret to ferret and had increase binding for human receptors, and decreased binding for avian receptors. Moreover, the infection in 2002 was not linked to any poultry exposure.

If the virus was a human / avian reassortant and the patient was not co-infected with H3N2, then it is likely that he was infected by another human, since the H7N2 had human genes. These data would raise concerns of undetected H7N2 transmissions.

Thus, the delay and/or hoarding (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05290801/H7N2_Hoarding.html) of sequence data has clouded the interpretation of the animal experiments, as well as considerations of human to human transmissions. This delay in the human case in New York is compounded by delays in release of sequence data from human cases in England (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05270701/H7N2_Efficient_11.html) linked to the H7N2 outbreak there a year ago. These sequences are being hoarded by another WHO regional center.

The continued widespread hoarding of sequence data by WHO regional labs continues to be hazardous to the world?s health.

[cHeroKee]

15,000 hens in Ark. tests positive for bird flu

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Tyson Foods Inc. has begun killing and burying the carcasses of 15,000 hens in northwest Arkansas that tested positive for exposure to a strain of the avian flu that is not harmful to humans, state officials said Tuesday.
Jon Fitch, director of the state's Livestock and Poultry Commission, said routine blood tests conducted Friday found the possible exposure. Further tests done by the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the birds did not have active infections, but rather were exposed to a subtype of the disease.
Fitch said the company immediately began disposing of the birds.
"There is absolutely no human health threat," Fitch said. "But we take this very seriously."
Fitch said state officials decided against announcing the infection to the general public because the birds tested positive for exposure to the H7N3 strain of the virus. The strain that ravaged Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 was H5N1 bird flu virus. That version of the virus has killed 240 people worldwide and scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people.
Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Springdale-based Tyson, said the hens showed no signs of sickness before their pre-slaughter blood tests. He said the exposed birds all came from a contractor.
"As a preventive measure, Tyson is also stepping up its surveillance of avian influenza in the area," Mickelson said in a statement. "The company plans to test all breeder farms that serve the local Tyson poultry complex, as well as any farms within a 10-mile radius of the affected farm."
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor was alerted about the tests Monday.
Stock in Tyson, the world's largest meat producer, fell by 8 percent in trading Tuesday, down $1.47 to $16.98 per share.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu mixed with human virus could form pandemic: research

Posted June 6, 2008 19:50:00

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200711/r199942_764722.jpg (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200711/r199942_764729.jpg)
Avian flu can spread from birds to humans.

(Reuters: Darren Staples)



A new research paper has been published in the United States, proving that bird flu, which has so far only killed people in its pure form, is capable of combining with conventional human flu viruses.
A mutated virus combining human flu and bird flu is the nightmare strain which scientists fear could create a worldwide pandemic. The pure bird flu strain, called H5N1, has caused hundreds of deaths recently around the world.
The research was conducted in a laboratory by the US Centres for Disease Control.
Dr David Smith, a director of microbiology and infectious diseases at PathWest laboratories in Perth, told ABC radio's PM it increases the level of concern that a bad pandemic may occur.
"It doesn't change our ongoing uncertainty about whether and when the pandemic will occur," he said.
"That's something that is controlled by events that occur in nature and they are chance events that we can't accurately predict."
The research does not say whether the new variety of mixed virus could spread easily, but Dr Smith says it does further our understanding of what may happen.
"I think it's important information for us to understand how pandemic strains may emerge and how bad they may be," he said.
"Of course this was, if you like, deliberately created in a safe laboratory setting in order to show what might happen.
"However, in actual human populations, there are a lot of other things that can happen in terms of how the viruses might mix and what might results from it.
"So it really tells us a potential, it doesn't tell us what is going to occur and that's unfortunately the problem with predicting human pandemics."

'No warning system'

The research has emerged at the same time as other worrying news. The Indonesian Government has announced it will stop reporting bird flu deaths as they happen, apparently because it does not want bad news to spread.
Indonesia has suffered the greatest number of H5N1 deaths. Jakarta has admitted that a teenager died of the disease last month, but it only reported details of the incident this week.
Professor Anne Kelso from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Melbourne says such a move would hinder efforts to contain any outbreak.
"The sharing of information and the sharing of viruses [for research] are the two most important things that countries can do to help the world prepare for a potential pandemic," she said.
"So this is, if it turns out to be true, [is] a worrying step on behalf of the Indonesian Government to no longer share information about deaths as they happen.
"We don't need to know who the people are. It's very important we know where the deaths are occurring and if possible to have access to the viruses to compare with other viruses from around the world."
She says if the Indonesian Government does not report H5N1 deaths, it means the world receives less warning of the spread of the disease.
"The WHO on behalf of all the member states will have less warning if there are changes happening that could lead to a pandemic," she said.
"In particular it's important to know whether the deaths are due to exposure to viruses in poultry or whether there's evidence that they are being transmitted from human to human."



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/06/2267791.htm?section=justin

[Cowboy]

Looks like it is getting closer. Is this the first bunch in the US?

[cHeroKee]

Yeah. The migratory bird patterns are evident now. Should at some point see things in South America as well as the northern states.

I'll have to find the post within this thread but a swine flu hit Tenn. earlier this year. It was a derivative from the H5N1 virus.

Something is on the horizon.


Looks like it is getting closer. Is this the first bunch in the US?

[cHeroKee]

Hong Kong's poultry being slaughtered as dangerous bird flu virus detected




(RTTNews) - Following the detection of the dangerous H5N1 avian influenza virus in four markets in Hong Kong, the government ordered the slaughter of all chickens in the city's markets and retail outlets.
This is in addition to a temporary ban on import of all live poultry from mainland China and export from local farms for three weeks.
Health workers killed 2,700 poultry in a market on Saturday after routine tests showed five chickens were infected with the bird flu virus.
Public health officials and scientists are concerned about the possible spread of the H5N1 virus among birds in Asia to other regions, and if it will eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Bloomberg quoted Alice Lau, deputy director of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, as saying that the government has adopted such a measure "to make sure the message, the need to preserve hygiene, gets through to the public."

[cHeroKee]

Some Bird Flu Strains Have Acquired Properties That Might Enhance Potential To Infect Humans


ScienceDaily (Jun. 12, 2008) ? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released results of a study suggesting that some North American avian influenza A H7 virus strains have properties that might enhance their potential to infect humans as well as their potential to spread from human to human.

The study was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Avian influenza A H7 viruses are fairly common in birds, but rarely infect humans. Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans have resulted from contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces.


?We know that influenza viruses are constantly changing and that is why it′s so important to watch them carefully. In this study, we discovered that some recently identified avian influenza A H7 viruses have some properties that could enhance their potential to infect people and possibly spread among people,? explained Dr. Jessica Belser, CDC lead author on the project.


Influenza viruses infect humans by attaching to certain sugar receptor molecules found on cells in the respiratory tract in humans. Influenza viruses can have differing degrees of ability to bind to these receptors. The greater an influenza virus′s ability to bind to these receptors, the greater the likelihood that the virus can cause illness in humans and possibly be passed from human to human.


Three recent H7N2 strains and two H7N3 strains from North America were tested and found to bind to varying degrees to both avian and human receptors. One virus, an H7N2 virus strain isolated from an immune compromised man in New York in 2003, was found to have the greatest binding to the human sugar receptors. This study′s findings suggest that these North American avian influenza A H7 viruses are partially adapted to recognize sugar receptors preferred by human influenza viruses which are found in the human upper respiratory tract.


?The results of this study underscore the importance of continued influenza virus surveillance,? said Dr. Belser.


Health officials have also been closely monitoring a different avian influenza virus, H5N1, which began spreading among birds and poultry in Asia in 2003 and has spread to birds in other countries in Europe, the Near East, and Africa.


Nearly 400 human cases of H5N1 have been reported world-wide though none of these have occurred in the United States or even the Northern Hemisphere. Most of these cases have occurred from direct or close contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces; however, a few cases of human-to-human spread of H5N1 virus have occurred.

[cHeroKee]

<big><big></big></big>H5N1 Pre and Post-Pandemic Vaccine Concern

Recombinomics Commentary 13:51
June 23, 2008

Both the 1918 and 1968 pandemics showed a wave as lasting 17 weeks with a peak at week 8.

Current estimates for start of vaccine production in the EU from time of identifying the pandemic virus is 22 weeks. This would likely still be of some use but may be better characterized as a 'post pandemic' vaccine or at least post 1st wave.

It would likely be at least 7 months before large amounts of virus is being produced globally to adequately immunize nations. Also the current recommendation is to give 2 doses spaced 3 weeks apart.

They took people from the first trial who had originally had 2 doses of the vaccine 21 days apart and gave them a booster 12-17 months later with a heterologous virus. This booster showed that the immune system had been well primed by the initial series and in 7 days gave good antibody titres to both the new and original virus. This data is supportive of using a prepandemic vaccine followed by a true pandemic vaccine.

The above comments from the International Conference on Infectious Diseases in Kuala Lumpur raise concerns that the current policy of waiting for the emergence of a pandemic followed by the creation of an appropriate vaccine may lead to a post pandemic vaccine, rather than a pandemic vaccine base on the time for manufacturing a vaccine compared to the time for the global expansion of the first wave. The current approach adopted by most countries is to stockpile vaccines for immunizing first responders at the start of a pandemic. This approach is based on concerns that early vaccinations may lead to unnecessary side effects if the targeted pandemic does not emerge.

However, a strong case can be made for the emergence of an H5N1 pandemic, and matches with the stockpiled vaccine will decline as the virus evolves. Although a pandemic H5N1 may be radically different that current circulating strains, H5N1 has been evolving through antigenic drift and changes in a small number of single nucleotide polymorphism can dramatically change transmissibility, in the absence of dramatic antigenic changes.

The evolution and expansion of H5N1 in recent years has been rapid and significant. The ?Asian? version of H5N1 was first reported in 1996 in a Guangdong goose. The following year it was reported in humans in Hong Kong. Aggressive culling in Hong Kong created a lull in human cases, although there were repeated poultry outbreaks in the following years. In early 2003 there were human cases in a Hong Kong family that had visited Fujian province, as well as Beijing resident, who was initially diagnosed as SARS.

However, the explosion in H5N1 began at the end of 2003, beginning of 2004, when H5N1 was reported in countries to the east and southeast of China. These outbreaks produced human cases in Vietnam and Thailand. This H5N1 was designated clade 1. Related clade 2 isolates caused human cases in Indonesia (clade 2.1) and China (Fujian clade 2.3) in 2005, which is when Qinghai clade 2.2 was reported in long range migratory birds. The movement of clade 2.2 into long range migratory birds in the spring of 2005 led to the global expansion of clade 2.2 into 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and associated human cases in Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Egypt in 2006, followed by Nigeria and Pakistan in 2007. It is likely that the human case in Bangladesh in 2008 was also the Qinghai strain. Most recently, Fujian (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05190803/H5N1_232_234.html) clade 2.3 has been found in long range migratory birds in northern Japan (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05190801/H5N1_Hokkaido_M230I.html), with related isolates in South Korea (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05210802/H5N1_Japan_Korea_Match.html) and eastern Russia (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05230804/H5N1_Japan_Russia_Match.html).

Thus, the dramatic spread of clade 2 was been recent, and it accounts for virtually all reported human cases in the past few years. However, most approved pre-pandemic vaccines target clade 1, which was the H5N1 in humans when vaccine development programs began in early 2005.

Stockpiling these vaccines, or those targeting early clade 2 isolates, will not be optimal for the current clade 2 in circulation, as the various sub-clades evolve away from the 2005 isolates. Thus, these vaccines may be useful for priming patients now, but would have limited utility for a raging pandemic, and may in fact drive H5N1 evolution because of poor matches as seen in poultry vaccines (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03030803/H5N1_Egypt_Vaccine.html).

However, use of these vaccine now, when H5N1 has not been established in human populations could delay adaptation to humans by reducing the number of human H5N1 infections.

Thus, the current policy of stockpiling older vaccine for use in first responders may have limited value if used after the pandemic begins, and use at that time may lead to a more rapid H5N1 evolution, which will decrease the utility of newer vaccines, which will still be chasing the evolving H5N1, even if the vaccine selection is limited to a pandemic H5N1 which has begun to emerge.

[cHeroKee]

<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td>Study shows H5N1 virus is adapting each time it infects a human

</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="article-author"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="article-date">Published: Tuesday, 8-Jul-2008 </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="background: transparent url(aspvirtualnews/template_images/smalldot.gif) repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" height="25"> </td> </tr> <tr><td>Disease/Infection News
<script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-8430344808469242"; /* 250x250, News-Medical */ google_ad_slot = "1096755934"; google_ad_width = 250; google_ad_height = 250; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>
Scientists have discovered how bird flu adapts in patients, offering a new way to monitor the disease and prevent a pandemic, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of General Virology (http://vir.sgmjournals.org/).

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread through at least 45 countries in 3 continents. Despite its ability to spread, it cannot be transmitted efficiently from human to human. This indicates it is not fully adapted to its new host species, the human. However, this new research reveals mutations in the virus that may result in a pandemic.
"The mutations needed for the emergence of a potential pandemic virus are likely to originate and be selected within infected human tissues," said Professor Dr Prasert Auewarakul from Mahidol University, Thailand. "We analyzed specific molecules called haemagglutinin on viruses derived from fatal human cases. Our results suggest new candidate mutations that may allow bird flu to adapt to humans."
Viruses with a high mutation rate such as influenza virus usually exist as a swarm of variants, each slightly different from the others. These are called H5N1 bird flu quasispecies. Professor Dr Auewarakul and his colleagues found that some mutations in the quasispecies were more frequent than others, which indicates they may be adaptive changes that make the virus more efficient at infecting humans. Most of these mutations were found in the area required for the virus to bind to the host cell.
"This study shows that the H5N1 virus is adapting each time it infects a human," said Professor Dr Auewarakul. "Such adaptations may lead to the emergence of a virus that can cause a pandemic. Our research highlights the need to control infection and transmission to humans to prevent further adaptations."
The research has provided genetic markers to help scientists monitor bird flu viruses with pandemic potential. This means they will be able to detect potentially dangerous strains and prevent a pandemic. The research also gives new insights into the mechanism of the genesis of a pandemic strain.
"Our approach could be used to screen for mutations with significant functional impact," said Professor Dr Auewarakul. "It is a new method of searching for changes in H5N1 viruses that are required for the emergence of a pandemic virus. We hope it will help us to prevent a pandemic in the future."
</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

[cHeroKee]

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'; document.write(sclListTop); </script> <script src="http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge.js"></script> <!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- /EdSysObj --> ATLANTA (AP) — A backup generator system at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed and left four buildings, including one that houses a deadly bird flu virus, without power for more than an hour.
The outage affected air flow systems in labs that contain germs such as the H5N1 virus, a strain of avian flu virus that some experts think could cause a pandemic. But neither agency employees nor the public were at risk of exposure to infectious agents, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The outage is the most recent in a series of mechanical and construction problems at labs on the agency's Clifton campus.
An hour-long power outage last summer at a different CDC lab building led to a congressional hearing. The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, is still looking into safety at the agency's high-contaminant laboratories. Concerns were raised years ago by agency engineers that the backup power system could fail.
"It's important for people to understand that even though we lose power to these facilities from time to time, worker safety and the public's safety is not in jeopardy because multiple, redundant systems are in place, separate from those that rely on power," Skinner told the newspaper Saturday.
Friday's outage occurred around 5:40 p.m. when a Georgia Power transformer failed, cutting off electricity to part of the CDC campus. Skinner said the backup generators came on initially but then experienced some sort of problem and shut down.
The power was out for about 1 hour 15 minutes, Skinner said, and was restored when Georgia Power fixed the transformer problem.
Jeff Wilson, a spokesman for the utility, said the Georgia Power transformer failure was caused by a bird.
CDC officials didn't try to restart the agency's backup generators because they didn't know what the anomaly was that caused them to automatically shut down, Skinner said.
He stressed that the CDC has many other barriers that don't need electricity in place to contain germs, including safety cabinets and layers of rooms, filters and corridors between the germs and the outdoors.
"I think people need to know we're talking about an enormous campus with complex systems, and we're never going to be able to fully eliminate power outages," Skinner said. "That's impossible. The key for us is to minimize the duration of the outage."

[cHeroKee]

Frequent Human H5N1 Transmission in Indonesia
Recombinomics Commentary 00:30
July 18, 2008

The MOH report also says that 24% of the 116 cases "occurred in 10 clusters of blood-related family members."

But the report offers no opinion on how many cases of person-to-person transmission occurred. As reported previously, person-to-person transmission was considered likely in a widely publicized cluster of eight cases (seven confirmed, one probable) in Sumatra in May 2006.

WHO reports on the Indonesian cases so far this year show only one family case cluster, involving a 38-year-old woman from West Jakarta, who fell ill in late January, and her 15-year-old daughter, who got sick in early February.

The above comments on the Indonesian Ministry of Health report include a gross underestimate of the number of cases in family clusters as well as the frequency of human to human (H2H) transmission in Indonesia.

The evidence for the underestimate can be seen in the confirmed clusters reported this year. Most of the recent confirmed cases in Indonesia have been in family clusters, but the index case was misdiagnosed with lung inflammation, typhus, or dengue fever. As a result, the index case was not tested, but the infection of the relative led to bird flu symptoms and testing, leading to confirmed H5N1 cases, but not to confirmed H5N1 clusters.

These three clear clusters had the appropriate time gap between the index case and the family member signaling H2H. This type of cluster was clear for the first confirmed case in Indonesia in 2005. The index case was infected from an unknown source. She then infected her sister who died without being tested. The father of the two girls was subsequently infected, and he tested positive (and the H5N1 isolated from him was used to make clade 2.1 vaccines, which led to Indonesia's withholding of samples). Eventually, the index case was confirmed because of elevated H5N1 antibodies.

The second confirmed case in Indonesia was also in 2005 and also a cluster. In this case the index case infected her nephew. Both cases were confirmed, but the source of the index case infection was said to be fertilizer, but a match between putative H5N1 in the fertilizer and the index case was never demonstrated. The nephew was tested because he was a contact, but he never developed pneumonia and quickly recovered.

Both of these clusters clear were H2H, but as noted above, only the Karo cluster was officially acknowledged as H2H. Similar clusters were seen in Garut, but samples were not collected from index cases, who died before contacts were confirmed, and additional contacts who subsequently developed symptoms were treated with Tamiflu and were not confirmed.

Thus, it is likely that the number of H5N1 cluster members is close to half of the confirmed cases in Indonesia rather than the reported quarter.

The news blackout that followed the three recent clusters this year was not a coincidence.

[cHeroKee]

The first bird flu infection of a mammal in Korea was confirmed on Monday. The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service confirmed that the cause of death of a cat found dead in marshland along the Mangyeong River in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, in late April was a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu virus, H5N1. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Chungnam National University asked the national quarantine service to verify the exact cause of death. The Ministry said unlike poultry, cats do not transfer the highly pathogenic strain to humans. The virus found in the cat was the same strain that killed thousands of poultry in April.
"The virus discovered in poultry in April can infect mammals, but the kind has never been found to infect humans,? said Joo Yi-Seok, head of the Department of Animal Disease Control at the NVRQS. "Because cats do not have a strong enough system to reproduce the bird flu virus in their bodies, there is no risk of cats spreading the virus. There is no known case around the world of humans being infected with the virus by cats."

[DavidA]

I am now officially a germaphobe. Scary!

[cHeroKee]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Countries around the world may be preparing for a possible H5N1 bird flu pandemic, but another strain called H9N2 also poses a threat to humanity, researchers reported on Tuesday. Tests on the H9N2 strain of the virus show it is capable of infecting and spreading with very few changes, a team from the University of Maryland, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, and elsewhere reported. "Our results suggest that the establishment and prevalence of H9N2 viruses in poultry pose a significant threat for humans," the researchers wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. Most influenza experts agree that a pandemic -- a deadly global epidemic -- of some kind of flu is inevitable. No one can predict what kind but the chief suspect is the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has infected 385 people and killed 243 of them since 2003. It is entrenched in birds now in some areas and has killed or forced the slaughter of 300 million. Just a few mutations could turn it into a virus that people catch and transmit easily. But flu experts caution H5N1 is not the only virus with this potential. H9N2, a virus seen mostly in birds, has infected at least four children in Hong Kong, causing mild illness, and is found in birds, pigs and other animals in Europe and Asia. Maryland's Daniel Perez and colleagues tinkered with the virus and tested it in ferrets, animals whose biology is very close to humans when it comes to flu. A single mutation made H9N2 more virulent and pathogenic, and also helped it transmit more easily from one ferret to another, they reported in their study, available on the Internet at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002923. They also mixed H9N2 with an H3N2 virus, a type of influenza virus that causes seasonal flu in people. Scientists believe that if a human or animal is infected with two strains of flu at the same time, this "reassortment" can happen in nature. The reassorted virus was easier for the ferrets to catch and transmit. One reassuring finding -- neither of the lab-engineered viruses could be transmitted in the air, via aerosol. This might make them somewhat less transmissible, although people pick up flu from surfaces touched by an infected person. "Although no aerosol transmission was observed, the virus replicated in multiple respiratory tissues and induced clinical signs similar to those observed with the ... human H3N2 virus," the researchers wrote. There are hundreds of strains of avian influenza viruses, but only four -- H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, and H9N2 -- are known to have caused human infections, according to the World Health Organization.

[cHeroKee]

Scientsts Warn Bird Flu Strain Could Mutate To Spread Quickly




WASHINGTON (AFP)--U.S. scientists warned Wednesday that a different strain of the bird flu virus could mutate to become more easily transmissible among humans and cause a pandemic.
"Since their introduction into land-based birds in 1988, H9N2 avian influenza A viruses have caused multiple human infections and become endemic in domestic poultry in Eurasia," said the study published in the journal of the Public Library of Science.
"This particular influenza subtype has been evolving and acquiring characteristics that raise concerns that it may become more transmissible among humans."
The team from the University of Maryland studied the transmission of the H9N2 virus among ferrets to see how it spreads.
Examining five types of H9N2 viruses isolated from five types of poultry from 1988 to 2003, they discovered the virus seems not to spread in the air.
Instead, an amino acid known as Leu226, found on the surface of the virus, was found to be important to the spread of the disease. They also found that ferrets were more susceptible to H9N2 viruses which had already infected humans.
"Although no aerosol transmission was observed, the virus replicated in multiple respiratory tissues and induced clinical signs similar to those observed with the parental human H3N2 virus," the report said.
"Our results suggest that the establishment and prevalence of H9N2 viruses in poultry pose a significant threat for humans."
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 230 people worldwide since late 2003 through contact with infected birds, with about half of the cases in Indonesia.
Health experts fear the strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic.

[phylm]

Thank you so much for staying on top of this threat and keeping us updated. Really appreciate it.

[cHeroKee]

H7N3 in Rhode Island
Recombinomics Commentary 20:44
August 21, 2008

A strain of avian influenza (bird flu) has been detected in a small number of mute swans collected from the Seekonk River during routine surveillance performed by the Department of Environmental Management's Division of Fish & Wildlife.

The swans were caught near the Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, and subsequently tested by the USDA.

Four of the eleven birds were found to be infected with the H7N3 strain of the avian influenza virus.

The above comments describe the confirmation of H7N3 in Rhode Island. Although H7 outbreaks are reportable, an OIE report has not yet appeared, and the media reports do not indicate if the H7N1 is high or low path.

Reports of H7 outbreaks in the US have become more common. The most recent was in wild birds in Arkansas (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/06110802/H7N3_AR_Failure.html). Initially only antibodies were detected, but low path H7N3 was subsequently isolated.

In addition, H7N3 sequences from Delaware and Maryland have been deposited at Genbank, but have not yet been released (see list of 2006 and 2007 isolates here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175327&postcount=5)). H7N3 has also been reported in Canada (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/09270701/H7N3_SK.html) last year.

H7 outbreaks are frequently linked to human infections (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01060503/Efficient_H7N7.html), although such cases are usually mild. A more aggressive case was identified in New York (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/20/nyregion/20flu.html?ex=1219464000&en=6a9fe28d881df3a0&ei=5070) in 2002, but that infection involved H7N2 (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/06020803/H7N2_Replaced.html). Most of the H7N3 cases have been linked to eye infections.

[cHeroKee]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A strain of bird flu has been detected in four swans found in the Seekonk River.
The cases were discovered as part of routine surveillance by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
DEM says the strain of avian flu detected in Rhode Island is not the same strain that has infected people in Asia and Europe since 2003 -- so it does not pose a significant health risk to humans.
However, the agency says the virus can be transmitted to wild birds and domestic poultry flocks. It is urging all poultry owners to employ standard biosecurity and sanitation practices. In particular, they should prevent flocks from having any contact with wild birds.
All poultry owners should have their flocks tested. To schedule an appointment call the DEM's Division of Agriculture/Animal Health Unit at 401-222-2781. There is no charge for the testing.

[cHeroKee]

<table class="ap-mediabox-table" style="float: right; clear: both; margin-left: 3px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 3px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr class="ap-mediabox-tr"> <td class="ap-mediabox-td"><!-- Package: 358216: ADVERTISEMENT_STATE Created: 2004/3/4 18:54:42 Modified: 2007/3/12 14:56:14 Generated: 2008/4/1 16:52:29 --> <!-- HtmlFragment: 4265 Created: 2005/11/28 11:27:55 Modified: 2005/11/28 11:28:04 Generated: 2008/4/1 16:52:29 --> <table class="ap-htmlfragment-table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr class="ap-htmlfragment-tr"> <td class="ap-htmlfragment-td"><script language="JavaScript">tcdacmd="cc=lcn; dt";</script> <script src="http://an.tacoda.net/an/11676/slf.js" language="JavaScript"></script> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- /HtmlFragment: 4265 --> <!-- HtmlFragment: 5577 Created: 2007/3/12 14:56:03 Modified: 2007/3/12 14:56:14 Generated: 2008/4/1 16:52:29 --> <table class="ap-htmlfragment-table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr class="ap-htmlfragment-tr"> <td class="ap-htmlfragment-td"><script language="JavaScript"> var hosted_site ="AP"; var hosted_section ="STATE"; </script> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://hosted.ap.org/specials/adscripts/hosted_ad.js"></script> <!-- AP call to x96 --> <script language="JavaScript">hosted_ad('@x96');</script> <!-- AP call to @x03 --> <script language="JavaScript">hosted_ad_pop('@x03');</script></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- /HtmlFragment: 5577 --> <!-- /Package: 358216 --> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="ap-mediabox-table" style="float: right; clear: both; margin-left: 3px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 3px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr class="ap-mediabox-tr"> <td class="ap-mediabox-td"><!-- Package: 399067: X_ANALYTICS Created: 2004/5/27 15:15:02 Modified: 2005/5/15 15:38:55 Generated: 2008/4/1 16:35:54 --> <!-- HtmlFragment: 3308 Created: 2004/5/27 15:15:31 Modified: 2005/5/15 15:38:54 Generated: 2008/4/1 16:35:54 --> <table class="ap-htmlfragment-table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr class="ap-htmlfragment-tr"> <td class="ap-htmlfragment-td">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- /HtmlFragment: 3308 --> <!-- /Package: 399067 --> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- /MediaBox: 24379771 --> <!-- /Story-MediuaBoxPosition: 1 --> BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A southwestern Idaho bird farm has been quarantined after two birds there were found to have a bird flu virus, but Idaho Department of Agriculture officials say it is not the same virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.
About 300 birds were shipped from the farm to a bird dog sporting event at Prado Regional Park in Chino, Calif., just before the virus was detected, and all of those birds were quarantined and euthanized, said Larry Hawkins, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Sacramento, Calif. The trucks used to transport the birds were disinfected and the suits and other materials used to collect them were incinerated, Hawkins said.
It does not appear as if the virus spread to any animals beyond the two at the farm in the Treasure Valley region of Idaho, said Bill Barton, the state veterinarian with the Idaho Department of Agriculture.
The virus is not uncommon among wild birds, Barton said, and poses little or no risk to human health. In domesticated birds, it can cause coughing and respiratory illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but rarely causes more serious illness and often goes undetected.
The Idaho farm has thousands of pheasants, chukars, ducks and quail, Barton said, but all of the birds are used for sporting events, not human consumption.
Finding the virus does cause concern, Barton said, because there is a small risk it could mutate to a more virulent strain.
Identifying and classifying the types of bird flu viruses is complicated and requires sophisticated molecular testing.
"It would be nice if it were simpler," said Walter Boyce, a University of California, Davis professor of veterinary medicine and the co-director of the school's Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Research. Boyce is an expert in bird flu but is not involved in the investigation or testing of the Idaho game birds.
There are essentially two types of bird flu viruses, Boyce said: H-types and N-types. Viruses classified as an N-type are generally not of concern. But the H-type viruses are more closely monitored, because at least two versions of that type - H5 and H7 - are known to be able to mutate into new viruses.
The deadly, highly pathogenic bird flu virus found in Asia and parts of Europe is H5N1, Boyce said, and is considered a high-pathogen virus, meaning it is more contagious and more easily spread.
The virus found at the Idaho farm was classified as H5N8, said Barton, and is a low-pathogen virus, considered much less dangerous.
It's fairly rare for a low-pathogen virus to mutate into the more dangerous high-pathogen type, said Boyce, but it can happen, especially in situations where large numbers of birds are kept together in close quarters.
It's not yet known when the Idaho birds became infected, Barton said. The birds were kept in an outside pen area that was covered with plastic mesh, he said, and they could have been exposed to the virus through droppings from a wild bird flying or roosting overhead.
Other than the California shipment, it was not immediately clear where other birds in the flock had been shipped in recent weeks, Barton said. The farm's owner, whom Barton declined to identify, was cooperating completely with the investigation.
"They've been so helpful, and they've done everything right," Barton said. "They're excellent producers and proactive, and these things can still happen sometimes."
Barton said he didn't know yet how long the farm will be quarantined, or if the rest of the flock will be euthanized. That will depend on the investigation, which could take some time.
Department officials are examining all bird farms in a roughly two-mile radius of the affected farm, he said, and the farm where the birds were found is being disinfected.
The virus was found in the two infected birds incidentally as testing was being done to check for a common bacteria, Barton said.

[cHeroKee]

Another bird flu death in Indonesia

<!-- PRINT_CONTENT_END --> <!-- PRINT_CONTENT_START --> Updated September 12, 2008 02:34:12
Bird flu has claimed another life in Indonesia taking the national toll from the disease to 112.

A Health Ministry official says the latest vistim is a man aged 37 from Tangerang, a satellite town near the capital Jakarta.

The official, says the man had worked as a driver for a cargo company at Jakarta's main airport for domestic and international flights.

The man, who had had no contact with sick fowl, died in early July, after being treated at three different hospitals.

Tests had showed he was infected with the H5-N1 strain of avian influenza.

[cHeroKee]

Human / Avian Influenza Recombinants in Korean Swine
Recombinomics Commentary 19:39
September 12, 2008

Complete sequences for all eight gene segments from swine isolates in South Korea were recently released at Genbank (see list here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=179088&postcount=2)). The twenty isolates represented all three serotypes currently in circulation in seasonal flu (H3N2, H1N2, H1N1). Like many swine sequences in circulation, including the Canadian swine sequences, all isolates had a human PB1. In the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Korea</st1:place></st1:country-region> swine, the PB1 was most closely related to human isolates from the mid-nineties. The other gene segments were swine, but five of the sequences had segments representing 1/3 to 1/2 of the gene, which were identical or closely related to avian sequences. Many of the avian sequences matched low path isolates, but clade 2.2 H5N1 was present in one isolate, which also had regions of identity with clade 1 H5N1 also.

These regions of obvious homologous recombination represented several combinations. Two of the isolates, A/swine/Korea/CY07 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=190404072)/2007(H3N2) and A/swine/Korea/CY08 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=190404058)/2007(H1N2) had the same wild bird sequence in the first half of PA. The H1N2 isolate also had long segments of avian sequences in PB2.

However, recombination was also present in the human PB1 sequence. One isolate, A/swine/Korea/CY09 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=190404032)/2007(H3N2) had long regions of identity with wild bird sequences. In contrast, the other isolates, A/swine /Korea/CAS05 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nuccore&id=190404011)/2004(H3N2) had clade 2.2 H5N1 sequences in its human PB1 sequences. In addition, there were clade 1 H5N1 sequences (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=179384&postcount=68) in PB2 for this isolate.

The examples of PB1 recombination represent the first reported human / avian recombinants, which are cause for concern. Swine are mixing vessels that lead to reassortment and recombination. When H5N1 emerged in humans in southeast Asia in 2004, many of the isolates had mammalian polymorphisms that would be frequently found in swine (http://www.recombinomics.com/swine_human_signatures.html). Some of these polymorphisms were also present in wild birds. These recent sequences help explain both of those observations.

These recombinants also support earlier results with Canadian swine, which had examples of recombination with earlier swine sequences. The most striking examples in the Canadian swine were in PB2 and PA, as was also seen in the Korean swine. Similarly, sequences with clear examples of recombination were seen in isolates from live markets in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Korea</st1:place></st1:country-region> in 2003.

The latest recombinants highlight the role of swine as mixing vessels as well as evolution in mammalian flu genes, including the human sequences in PB1. This extensive evolution between avian and mammalian flu sequences remain a cause for concern.

[cHeroKee]

Confirmed B2H2H2H2H H5N1 Transmission in Pakistan
Recombinomics Commentary 16:02
October 4, 2008

With respect to the chain of transmission, evidence gathered during the investigation supports the theory of initial transmission from poultry to humans followed by human-to-human transmission involving a third generation.

Case 5 was a 33-year-old brother of Case 1. He was asymptomatic but clinical specimens were collected from him owing to the close and prolonged contact with his ill brothers. Initial testing at the National Institute of Health yielded positive results for H5 RT?PCR on a throat swab collected on 29 November. When serum specimens were tested by microneutralization assay, a specimen collected on 8 December yielded an H5 antibody titre of 1:320 and a positive western blot assay.

The above comments are from WHO?s Oct 3 Weekly epidemiological record (WER), which includes a report (http://www.who.int/wer/2008/wer8340.pdf) entitled ?Human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) in North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, October-November 2007?. As indicated in the title, the report is coming out almost a full year since the start of the outbreak, and as indicated in the quotes above, includes an asymptomatic brother who was H5N1 confirmed by three different lab tests. However, these results have not been released previously, and the newly described case extends the transmission chain to B2H2H2H2H, which is the longest recorded to date for H5N1. Moreover, even though the case is acknowledged in this week's report, the case has not been added to the WHO table of confirmed H5N1 cases (http://www.who.int/entity/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2008_09_10/en/index.html). These delays and omissions extend the long list of deficiencies in the detection and reporting of this historic and important H5N1 outbreak in Pakistan.

The report provides detail that was lacking for months after the outbreak began, and clears up a subset of the long list of questions raised by the outbreak. However, many important issues, including the sequence of the H5N1 isolated from the first confirmed case, which remains in WHO?s private password protected database, along with hundreds if not thousands of H5N1 sequences from infected patients or other hosts, remain unresolved.

As noted in the report, the transmission chain began when one of the cullers was infected in October (B2H) and developed symptoms on October 29, 2007. He then infected one of his brothers (B2H2H) who developed symptoms on November 12 and died a week later, but not before the brother infected two more brothers (B2H2H2H) who developed symptoms on November 21. One of these brothers died November 28 and one infected a fifth brother (B2H2H2H2H) who was asymptomatic, but as noted above, was H5N1 positive by three lab tests, including PCR on a nasal swab collected November 29.

However, none of the above was made public until there were local media reports, which were picked up by internet discussion groups in early December, 2007. The story was subsequently picked up by wire services followed by comments by agencies in Pakistan or WHO. However, the initial stories were largely confusing, in part because of the long delay between the start of the outbreak and the start of media coverage. Consequently some stories noted that the outbreak began in October, while others assumed the outbreak began in December, just prior to the media stories.

In addition to the brothers described above, other cullers and contacts were also said to be H5N1 positive based on testing done in Pakistan. However, by the time investigators from WHO regional centers in Egypt and England arrived, the samples had largely degraded and initially the only positive was a sample from the brother who died November 28. A sample from the brother who died November 19 was not tested (although at least one local media report indicated a sample had been collected), and samples from the brothers who were hospitalized and recovered tested negative. The time of the testing of the asymptomatic remains unclear, because the WER indicates the sample collected November 29 was PCR positive, yet this positive result was not disclosed prior to this week.

However, in addition to the long delay in the acknowledgment of the asymptomatic case and the failure to test the first fatal case, the two cases who recovered were not reported confirmed until April (http://www.who.int/entity/csr/don/2008_04_03/en/index.html), when results from neutralizing antibody tests were reported. It is unclear if these delays were linked to the establishment of a new test using the H5N1 isolated from the second fatal case as a target, because the sequence of this isolate has been withheld. Therefore, it is unclear if there were significant differences in sequence between the human isolate and other available targets.

However, since the titer for the index case was 1:2560 and the recovered brother was 1:320, as was the asymptomatic brother, it seems likely that these high titers would have been detected when the samples were collected in late November or early December. Thus, the reasons for the four month delay in reporting the confirmation of the two recovered brothers or the 10 month delay in reporting the asymptomatic case remains unclear, as is the reason for the failure to add the asymptomatic case to the list of H5N1 confirmed cases, since the brother was H5N1 positive in three lab tests (PCR, neutralizing antibody, and Western blot).

The reporting delays associated with the longest human to human H5N1 transmission recorded to date has been followed by questionable reports by other countries. The H5N1 in Pakistan was followed by massive outbreaks in India (West Bengal) and adjacent Bangladesh. Bangladesh has acknowledged one human case, which was also reported months after the fact. The location of the reported case in the slums of Dhaka (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05220804/H5N1_Dhaka_Child.html) strongly suggests that the number of human cases in Bangladesh and India was markedly higher than one. India has yet to report any human cases, although the bird flu symptoms in villagers were wildly reported, as was the similarity in sequence between the H5N1 in India and Bangladesh, although neither country has released sequences from these outbreaks (and Bangladesh has not released sequences from any H5N1 outbreak).

Similarly, H5N1 clusters in Indonesia have been denied (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/06060801/H5N1_Indo_H2H_Failures.html). Fatally infected index cases from clusters that involve H5N1 confirmed cases have been said to have died from respiratory disease (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03310801/H5N1_Padang_Cluster.html), typhus (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05140803/H5N1_Jakarta_Cluster_Another.html), and dengue feve (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03310803/H5N1_Cluster_Denial.html)r, which has raised serious credibility issues with regard to reporting from Indonesia, and WHO was stopped reporting confirmed H5N1 cases in Indonesia in a timely manner. Instead of the mandated IHR reporting time of 24-48 hours, WHO has been reporting H5N1 cases weeks or months after lab confirmation, setting the precedent for more reporting violations, including South Korea who refused (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05100801/H5N1_Korea_Soldier_False.html) to acknowledge a soldier/culler who was H5 PCR positive (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04210803/H5N1_Korea_Soldier.html) earlier this year.

In addition to the delays or lack of reports on H5N1 cases and clusters, WHO regional centers continue to hoard H5N1 sequences in the WHO private database. NAMRU-3 became a WHO regional center last year and has not released any human H5N1 sequences since, even though cases were confirmed at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. Sequences from West Bengal have been sequestered at Genbank for several months (see list here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171133&postcount=1)), and over 170 HA H5N1 sequences from Turkey have also been sequestered at Genbank for several months (see list here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171134&postcount=1) here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171135&postcount=2) here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171136&postcount=3) here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171137&postcount=4) here (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=171138&postcount=5)).

These reporting failures coupled with the hoarding of H5N1 sequence data by WHO and regional centers continue to be cause for concern and continue to be hazardous to the world?s health.

[cHeroKee]

ECONOMY: Threat of 'Major Global Recession' Tied to Bird Flu
By Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (IPS) - A severe outbreak of flu could kill tens of millions of people and spur a "major global recession", the World Bank is warning world leaders preoccupied with financial, food, and fuel crises.

The bank has drawn up a worst-case scenario in which a flu pandemic could kill as many as 71 million people, cost some three trillion dollars, and cut global gross domestic product (GDP) by "almost 5 percent, constituting a major global recession."

Some experts have said the death toll could exceed 180 million people.

The threat of a pandemic stems from the H5N1 bird flu virus, which surfaced in 2003, is entrenched in parts of Asia and Africa, and has killed hundreds of people while causing billions of dollars in losses. This is nothing compared to the massive outbreak among humans that would follow the emergence of a new strain of influenza to which almost no one would have natural immunity, experts say.

Similar events have already unfolded: The Spanish Flu of 1918, which may have killed some 50 million people, is thought to have begun when another strain of bird flu crossed over into the human population.

"Because such a pandemic would spread very quickly, substantial efforts need to be put into place to develop effective strategies and contingency plans that could be enacted at short notice," says the bank.

In June 2006, the agency anticipated costs of 3.1 percent of global GDP or about two trillion dollars. Its more calamitous assessment, completed in recent weeks, comes ahead of international talks to be held in Egypt next week.

Poorer nations face the greatest risk.

"Generally speaking, developing countries would be hardest hit, because higher population densities and poverty accentuate the economic impacts," bank economists Andrew Burns, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, and Hans Timmer write in the latest estimate.

In their current estimation, a "mild" pandemic, like the Hong Kong Flu of 1968, could kill some 1.4 million people and cut global GDP by 0.7 percent in the first year. A "moderate" pandemic, similar to the Asian Flu of 1957, could claim 14.2 million lives and cut global economic output by 2 percent in the first year. The "severe" worst case, in which 71 million or more could die, would slash global GDP by 4.8 percent.

Some of the loss would result from deaths and infections, which could affect 35 percent of the population and would prompt absences from work. However, says the bank, ''people's efforts to avoid infection are five times more important than mortality and more than twice as important as illness."

Most of the cost would arise because people would change their behaviour in hopes of avoiding infection, it says.

The bank assumes that fears of contracting disease in the close confines of an airplane would push down air travel by 20 percent during the first year of a severe pandemic, with similar declines in tourism, mass transport, and restaurants.

"The assumed 20 percent declines are well below the peak decline of 75 percent in air travel to Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic and an average decline of 50-60 percent during the four-month period the outbreak was active," the report says.

Since it is virtually impossible to say when and to what extent a pandemic will sweep the globe, the bank cautions that its latest scenarios are "purely illustrative".

"They provide a sense of the overall magnitude of potential costs. Actual costs, both in terms of human lives and economic losses, may be very different," it says.

Participants in the Oct. 24-26 Sixth International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza will be confronted with the bank's estimates and asked to commit some 500 million dollars, the annual amount the United Nations says is needed to fend off and prepare for a potentially ruinous outbreak.

International donors have pledged 2.7 billion dollars -- and delivered 1.5 billion dollars -- to buttress affected and at-risk countries' own spending on the fight against bird flu in the five years since the highly pathogenic disease broke out in Southeast Asia and spread across Asia, Europe and Africa, according to a joint World Bank-U.N. report prepared for next week's talks.

Vaccines have been developed, poultry has been slaughtered from Hong Kong to Britain, public awareness has been raised, and health personnel are being trained to distinguish bird flu among humans from other ailments with similar symptoms.

As a result, so far this year the world has seen "fewer outbreaks in poultry, fewer newly infected countries, fewer human cases, and fewer deaths compared to the same period in 2006 and 2007," says the "Fourth Global Progress Report on Responses to Avian Influenza and Pandemic Readiness."

More than 50 of the 61 countries that have suffered outbreaks of H5N1 have succeeded in eliminating the disease but "the virus remains entrenched in several countries and the threat of further outbreaks...in poultry (and sporadic cases in humans) persists," the report says.

However, it warns: "Even with such efforts, an eventual human pandemic at some unknown point in the future is virtually inevitable."

Since December 2007, according to the bank, new outbreaks have been confirmed in Bangladesh, Benin, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The disease has affected chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks.

Other animal viruses that have afflicted and killed humans include SARS, HIV, Ebola, and West Nile.

Seasonal flu epidemics result in 250,000-500,000 deaths a year, mostly among the elderly, according to the World Health Organisation.

(END/2008)

[cHeroKee]

<big><big>Commentary</big></big>
H5N1 Returns to Bangladesh
Recombinomics Commentary 15:20
October 19, 2008

Veterinary officials confirmed bird flu in a poultry farm in Naogaon on September 29, the first case since the last one detected in a Tangail farm four months ago.

?The detection indicates that the virus is still active and may spread to other places,? chief veterinary officer and director of the Department of Livestock Services Salehuddin Ahmed said.

The above comments describe the re-emergence of H5N1 in Bangladesh. (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05230803/H5N1_Dhaka_Delay.html) The re-emergence is not unexpected, but there has been no OIE report filed on the outbreak, which is mandatory for H5 and H7 infections of poultry.

There has been somewhat of a decline in the reporting of H5N1 in birds because Indonesia and Egypt have declared H5N1 endemic and report less frequently. Other countries do not report H5 and H7 in wild birds. However, the number of countries which disregard mandatory reporting is on the rise and much of the detail on H5N1 outbreaks goes unreported.

[Toni]

This is all very interesting. I heard that birds can't give diseases directly to people but it can go from a bird to a swine to a human. I have been wondering if there is going to be a pandemic but, in reality it will be formulated and spread by human design and will be called bird flu and that a lot of birds are being sacrificed now to make people believe it is a naturally caused disease instead of constructed by humans.

I really don't know what to think. It's like watching an enemy army advance. Do these birds really have a disease that kills humans or is it carefully crafted to prepare us for the planned annihilation of much of earth's population? I really don't know.

[cHeroKee]

This is all very interesting. I heard that birds can't give diseases directly to people but it can go from a bird to a swine to a human.
This is incorrect. Birds can pass on the virus within close contact. The problem lies with the receptors of the virus itself; being able to attach to the back of the throat. As of now the virus is a deep respiratory virus and is hard to catch for the human being due too the receptors and also the temperature at which it needs to survive. The throat is too cold but the lower respiratory tract makes it an ideal environment to thrive. The H5N1 virus has mutated and is continuing to evolve for the purpose of survival, even if it means changing hosts.
As for human design; it is too hard to make the receptors from scratch. One would need a working model to "formulate" a human design. The virus is not there yet but as you have stated it will be a matter of time before a power hungry, needful sick person will need to try such a thing.

[Toni]

Thanks, Cherokee.

Your reply reminded me of something I read. There are vaccines that are administered through the nostrils (squirted in via a syringe type thing) and someone made a video (utube, probably) that the vaccine is laced with H5N1.

There are so many people shouting, "Conspiracy!" where there is none and denying it where there is something. The world is a mass of confusion. How do you know who to believe?

[cHeroKee]

Thanks, Cherokee.

Your reply reminded me of something I read. There are vaccines that are administered through the nostrils (squirted in via a syringe type thing) and someone made a video (utube, probably) that the vaccine is laced with H5N1.

There are so many people shouting, "Conspiracy!" where there is none and denying it where there is something. The world is a mass of confusion. How do you know who to believe?
Very true!! I am confused as anyone on who to believe.

[Earthling]

I have heard a lot about conspiracy involved with flu shots. Every year I have gotten the flu shot at work. This year I don't know what to do. Some people claim the shot gave them the flu but I haven't found that to be the case after 9 years of flu shots. Are you all going to get a flu shot? Is worrying about the shot just being a "conspiracy nut"? I would appreciate comments.

[signseeker]

I don't get the shot. They decide on the "ingredients" in February for the following flu season (from what I read on the WHO website some time ago - they need this much time for manufacturing, etc.) so you are 2 years behind right off the bat. The flu can mutate so quickly, I don't believe our flu vaccines can keep up in a pandemic type situation... and we likely couldn't produce new ones targeted at the actual strain the pandemic winds up being in time to get them to the people. I also think the flu vaccine encourages mutations.

I've had the flu twice in my life. Once was when I was 11 and once was in the past year or so - that 24-48 hour type that knocks you on your butt and then it's gone pretty fast.

I've also heard some opinions that if we as a people would fully live the WoWisdom, we would be safe from all disease...

[cHeroKee]

Associated Press - October 20, 2008 10:45 AM ET
COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Department of Health is urging residents to prepare for what officials believe will be a worldwide flu pandemic by stocking their pantries.
Public health officials say that during a flu pandemic families won't be able to go to work, school or the store.
Health Commissioner Wendy Davis says people should buy things like dried foods that have a long shelf life.
In 1918, a worldwide flu pandemic killed millions of people.
Davis says it's only a matter of time before another pandemic spreads across the world.
Burlington is 1 of 9 communities around the country taking part in a pilot project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to get ready for the pandemic.
Information from: WVPS-FM, http://www.vpr.net (http://www.vpr.net/)

[signseeker]

Here's the link directly to the story from Vermont...

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/82507/

[Toni]

Associated Press - October 20, 2008 10:45 AM ET
COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Department of Health is urging residents to prepare for what officials believe will be a worldwide flu pandemic by stocking their pantries.
Public health officials say that during a flu pandemic families won't be able to go to work, school or the store.
Health Commissioner Wendy Davis says people should buy things like dried foods that have a long shelf life.
In 1918, a worldwide flu pandemic killed millions of people.
Davis says it's only a matter of time before another pandemic spreads across the world.
Burlington is 1 of 9 communities around the country taking part in a pilot project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to get ready for the pandemic.
Information from: WVPS-FM, http://www.vpr.net (http://www.vpr.net/)

If no one goes to work, what happens if the electricity goes out? We are dependent on well water that is pumped up via electricity. Our drinking water comes from an artesian well about five miles away. We won't be able to access either if something like that happens here. If electricity goes out and no one goes to work, bye bye a lot of things, right? (3 months supply of water?)

[LoudmouthMormon]

The idea of an infectous disease quarantine is kind of simple: Diseases spread more slowly the less people are out mixing around, and if few enough people are out, you can stop the spread completely.

Consider the electrician driving alone on an empty road, eating his lunch from home instead of McDonalds, filling up at gas stations where he's the only customer where there weren't 50 people before him leaving germs on the pump handle, same with all the bathrooms he visits.

[signseeker]

Another tricky thing is that we can be contagious often before we even know we are infected.

In this scenario, seems like the medical people will be the most at risk, and they are who we all need. I can also imagine dads or moms (self included) not being able to quarantine away from kids or other family that are dying.

[cHeroKee]

First Confirmed H1N1 in CanadaTamiflu Resistant
Recombinomics Commentary 20:02
October 23, 2008

Since 1 September 2008, National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) has antigenically characterized three influenza viruses: one influenza A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like and two influenza B/Florida/4/2006 viruses, which are the influenza A(H1N1) and influenza B components recommended for the 2008-09 influenza vaccine.

The testing results showed that the influenza A(H1N1) isolate was sensitive to amantadine, however, it was resistant to oseltamivir due to the H274Y mutation.

The above data from the most recent (week 41) report (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fluwatch/08-09/w41_08/pdf/fw2008-41-eng.pdf) on seasonal flu in Canada indicates that the first confirmed influenza A cases this season was H1N1 and was Tamiflu resistant. Data had been trickling in (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10190802/H274Y_Fixing_Additional.html)for influenza in the northern hemisphere this flu season. Several countries, including the US and Canada had high frequencies of H274Y in H1N1 isolates, but the above report is on the first Canadian isolate in the 2008/2009 season.

In the southern hemisphere, several countries (South Africa, New Zealand, New Caledonia) reported frequencies of 100%, raising concerns that H274Y was becoming fixed in human H1N1. There high levels in last season in the northern hemisphere was limited to clade 2B (Brisbane/59), and as found in the isolate in Canada. H274Y was present in patients who had not recently taken Tamiflu, indicating the sub-clade with H274Y did not have a fitness penalty, and the increase to 100% levels indicated that the sub-clade had a selection advantage.

The early data from Canada supports concerns that the H274Y levels in H1N1 in the northern hemisphere will be close to 100% this season.

[Toni]

Cherokee, would you explain this a bit? Something in the flu is resistant to drugs? Some aspect of the flu is the same as aspects of another flu? I didn't realize they had numbered so many flus. Are any of these flus considered lifethreatening?
Thanks

[cHeroKee]

Cherokee, would you explain this a bit? Something in the flu is resistant to drugs? Some aspect of the flu is the same as aspects of another flu? I didn't realize they had numbered so many flus. Are any of these flus considered lifethreatening?
Thanks
Different mutations are at different stages. Some are life threatening. The resistance to the drug(s) comes about when the receptors are re-sequenced by the virus itself, therefore causing a resistance. Drugs used against a virus is an inhibitor of the viral enzyme neuraminidase and they are currently used for protection against and treatment of influenza. This is why a vaccine will not be effective. Two problems: 1) The virus is always mutating. 2) and guessing what may be on the horizon.

The is labeled as a H-N sequence and there are varying viruses going around, so each strain has its identifier. What complicates everything is one virus can "combine" with another to mutate into a "new" and more deadly strain.

Nature has a way of surviving even at a cellar level.

[Toni]

So there's really no way to fight deadly flus and vaccines are a waste of time and money. What if you got a vaccine and the vaccine killed you? (I guess you wouldn't have to worry about disease any more :))

[LoudmouthMormon]

A few recent publications:

Genetics Provide Evidence for the Movement of Avian Influenza Viruses from Asia to North America via Migratory Birds (http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2044)


Implications of the Research:

Migratory bird species, including many waterfowl and shorebirds, that frequently carry low pathogenic avian influenza and migrate between continents may carry Asian strains of the virus along their migratory pathways to North America.
USGS researchers found that nearly half of influenza viruses isolated from northern pintail ducks in Alaska contained at least one of eight virus genes that were more closely related to Asian than North American strains. None of the samples contained completely Asian-origin viruses and none were highly pathogenic forms that have caused deaths of domestic poultry and humans.
The central location of Alaska in relation to Asian and North American migratory flyways may explain the higher frequency of Asian lineages observed in this study in comparison to more southerly locations in North America. Thus, continued surveillance for highly pathogenic viruses via sampling of wild birds in Alaska is warranted.
U.S. International Avian and Pandemic Influenza Assistance Approaches $950 Million (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/oct/111241.htm)

LM

[cHeroKee]

Wild birds carry avian flu viruses to North America: Report


http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/33c8f3f9-b884-4a6b-b2d7-739f60df1694/80175365_210oct29.jpg?size=l
Migrating waterfowl may be carrying


avian influenza viruses from Asia to the


Americas, U.S. government researchers report.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images



Reuters


WASHINGTON - Migrating waterfowl may be carrying avian influenza viruses from Asia to the Americas, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found genetic evidence that some non-dangerous influenza viruses infecting northern pintail ducks in Alaska are genetically more closely related to Asian strains of bird flu than to North American strains.
"Although some previous research has led to speculation that intercontinental transfer of avian influenza viruses from Asia to North America via wild birds is rare, this study challenges that," said Chris Franson, a research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, who helped lead the study.
USGS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service experts have been testing birds in Alaska for any evidence they may be carrying highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu with them from Asia.
Writing in the journal Molecular Ecology, the USGS team said they had collected samples from more than 1,400 northern pintails from throughout Alaska and compared any viruses they found to virus samples taken from other birds in North America and eastern Asia where northern pintails spend the winter.
None of the samples were found to contain completely Asian-origin viruses and none were highly pathogenic. But certain parts of the genes of the viruses resembled Asian strains, they said.
Since 2003, H5N1 has swept through flocks in Indonesia, Korea, China and elsewhere in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa.
It has killed or forced the slaughter of more than 300 million birds.
Not only is it devastating to the poultry industry but it occasionally infects people and has killed 245 out of the 387 infected people so far, according to the World Health Organization.
Birds can carry dozens of different flu viruses, some dangerous and some not. So far there is no evidence any have carried H5N1 with them to North America from Asia.


? Reuters 2008

[cHeroKee]

Great article as H5N1 is still new and unfortunately kills people quickly.
Sadly H5N1 or bird flu continues to spread around the world slwoly like a bad weed. We still have no defense against it.



Bird flu and blood cells (http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/11/bird_flu_and_blood_cells.php)


Posted on: November 8, 2008 7:03 AM

[/URL]
<!--proximic_content_on--> One nasty (and usually fatal) consequence of infection with bird flu (influenza A/H5N1) in humans is that the virus doesn't just infect the lungs but becomes disseminated to many different organs. We know that a bird-like receptor that the virus can use to get into cells is found in several other organs, including [URL="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2007/10/flu_biology_receptors_ii.php"]the lining of blood vessels and neural tissues (http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/11/bird_flu_and_blood_cells.php). Central nervous system involvement is frequently a hallmark of fatal bird flu cases. The virus probably gets to a lot of other organs, as well. But how? An examination of the blood of a fatal case in a pregnant woman suggests answer -- white blood cells:

In the present study, we investigated organs obtained at autopsy from an H5N1 virus-infected pregnant woman and from her fetus in an attempt to study the mechanism of systemic dissemination of H5N1 virus. Neutrophils were abundant in the placenta, and therefore, we evaluated blood cells in the placental villi obtained at autopsy to determine whether neutrophils were infected by H5N1 virus. [snip]
The unequivocal evidence of H5N1 viral proteins and nucleotide sequences in the nuclei and cytoplasm of neutrophils of patients with avian influenza indicates novel mechanisms of pathogenesis. These cells may serve as a viral carrier in systemic circulation and may cause multiple organ infection, as was reported elsewhere. (Zhao et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/593196) 2008;47)
What this means is that viral proteins and viral genetic material was found inside the kind of white blood cells (neutrophils) that make up the majority of white cells in our blood and that constitute the vanguard of our innate (non-specific) immune response. The neutrophils are like wandering policemen, engulfing foreign particles, bacteria, viruses and whatnot, and digesting them so they are no longer harmful. In this case it seems they have somehow internalized H5N1 virus, either by their normal "gobbling" process or because they have receptors on their surfaces that allow the virus to enter the cell and infect it. Once inside the neutrophil we don't know if the virus becomes disabled or remains infective. If the former, it may still cause the neutrophil to die, thus imparing the immune response, and if the latter, it may be the way the virus gets around the body, inside a cell and protected by antibodies in the serum.
Is this another piece of the puzzle? Perhaps. Maybe it's a piece of another picture or a peripheral piece of the bird flu one. Or maybe a central piece. We'll have to see.

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:05pm IST

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has culled more than 200 chickens after detecting the H5N1 bird flu virus in a rural area more than 400 kms (250 miles) north of Bangkok, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

Tests confirmed the country's first outbreak in 10 months near the ancient capital of Sukhothai, where villagers had found several dead chickens.

"Lab tests showed that the chickens died of the deadly H5N1 virus and we have killed all chickens in the area," Agriculture Minister Somsak Prisnanantakul told reporters.

"We are confident that everything is under control," he added.

The highly pathogenic virus was last found in Thailand in late January in the northern provinces of Nakhon Sawan and Phichit, where thousands of birds were culled.

There were four outbreaks in Thailand last year, but no new reports of human infections in the country where H5N1 has killed 17 people since 2003.

The virus has killed 245 people out of 387 infected people so far, according to the World Health Organisation, and is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.

Bird flu remains an animal disease but scientists fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans and kill millions of people.

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn/) 2008-11-12 11:59:03
Special report: Global fight against bird flu

HANOI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A bird flu outbreak has been confirmed in Nghe An, a central province of Vietnam, the local newspaper Liberty Saigon reported on Wednesday, citing a statement from the provincial People's Committee.

The outbreak was spotted at the Dien Hong commune, causing the death of nearly 1,000 poultry. Specimens from the dead poultry have recently been tested positive to the bird flu virus strain H5N1, according to the statement.

The local authority has established a zone covering the outbreak to prevent the virus from spreading. Consumption and sale of birds and bird-related products within the zone are banned.

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.

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Wednesday, November 12, 2008 18:12:00

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Wednesday issued a low-level avian influenza (AI) warning after Thailand confirmed the first AI outbreak in nine months.

The ministry said it will open an AI quarantine situation room and strengthen quarantine inspections at seaports and airports.

In addition, the ministry will inspect poultry farms and slaughterhouses for possible AI outbreaks through November 21st.

The ministry has been operating an AI quarantine system every day since July.

[cHeroKee]

Symptoms in Neighbors of H5N1 Confirmed Case in Semarang

November 12, 2008

Dinas Kesehatan of the City (ET AL) Semarang took the sample of three neighbours DS, casualties died with suspect bird flu. The three people who were taken the sample of his blood it was known experienced the high fever.

The three people who were taken the sample of his blood, namely Wd (8), Jf (10), and Ks (35). The taking of the sample of the blood was carried out, last Sunday (9/11).

Because since the death of casualties, there was his one resident that underwent treated inap in RSUP Kariadi Semarang since the last four days. Results of the temporary analysis, his resident was affected by the typhus illness.

The above translations describe symptoms in three neighbors of the H5N1 confirmed fatal case in Semarang. In addition, another resident with symptoms has been hospitalized, but diagnosed as typhus. In the past, several patients initially diagnosed as typhus were subsequently H5N1 confirmed. In addition, the index case from one of the three clusters, which each included one confirmed H5N1 case, was also diagnosed with typhus. Therefore, the information on the laboratory basis for the typhus diagnosis would be useful.

In addition to the testing of the seven family members or neighbors described above, investigators are assessing students at the senior high school of the fatal case.

More information on these subjects would be useful.

[cHeroKee]

Hong Kong on bird flu alert, 80,000 chickens killed: report

By V. Phani Kumar
Last update: 9:08 p.m. EST Dec. 9, 2008

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- The Hong Kong government has shut down all poultry farms and markets, killed 80,000 chickens and halted chicken imports from mainland China after the dreaded bird flu virus was detected at a local poultry farm, according to reports. The H5 virus, which causes avian or bird flu, killed 200 chickens at the farm, including vaccinated as well as unvaccinated birds, the South China Morning Post reported. Secretary for Food and Healthy, York Chow Yat-ngok declared a "serious alert," which means a 21-day shutdown of the trade until Dec. 29, if the outbreak doesn't spread. http://i.mktw.net/mw3/News/greendot.gif

[cHeroKee]

<table class="lan18" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="97%"><tbody><tr><td class="hei22" height="25" valign="bottom">ndonesia reports two human bird flu cases
</td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff" height="4">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="50%"> <tbody><tr> <td height="8">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="97%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="48%">www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn/index.htm) http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif 2008-12-10 12:20:34 </td> <td class="hui12" align="center" width="26%"> </td> <td class="hui12" align="center" width="12%">http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/xiao.jpg (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/10/content_10482811.htm#)http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/da.jpg (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/10/content_10482811.htm#)http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif Print (javascript:doPrint();)</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%"> <tbody><tr> <td height="20">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> JAKARTA, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- A two-year old Indonesian girl has died on avian influenza, and another nine-year old girl has been infected by the virus, health ministry said here Wednesday.
The cases put the total cases of human bird flu infection to 139, including 113 fatalities, in Indonesia since the virus hit the archipelago country in 2003.
The two-year-old girl from East Jakarta died on Nov. 29 after developing symptoms on November 18, spokesperson of the ministry Lily Sriwahyuni said.
Investigation indicated that the source of her infection was from live bird market, the spokesperson said.
The other girl from Riau province in Sumatra developed symptoms on Nov. 7 after her poultry died, said Sriwahyuni. The girl was admitted into a hospital five day later and recovered on Nov. 22.
The worldwide death toll, so far, reached 246 people out of 389cases.

[cHeroKee]

Indonesia's bird flu toll hits 113 with toddler death

Posted December 10, 2008 16:00:00
A two-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu, the country's 113th fatality from the disease, the World Health Organisation says.
A spokeswoman said the toddler from east Jakarta contracted the deadly strain of the virus on November 18, was hospitalised on November 26 and died three days later.
"Laboratory tests have confirmed infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Initial investigations into the source of her infection suggest exposure at a live bird market," the WHO said in a statement.
It said the Indonesian health ministry had confirmed the death but officials were not immediately available to comment.
A nine-year-old girl from Riau province was hospitalised with bird flu on November 12 but she recovered and was discharged about two weeks later.
Tests confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The source of her infection was believed to be poultry kept at her home.
Indonesia has been the country hardest hit by bird flu, with its official toll of 113 deaths accounting for nearly half of worldwide fatalities from the disease.
The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic.
- AFP

[cHeroKee]

Bird Flu Found in Rhode Island Duck

Friday, December 12, 2008
http://www.foxnews.com/images/service_ap_36.gif

PROVIDENCE, R.I. ? A state veterinarian says a duck shot by a hunter in Johnston last month has tested positive for avian flu.
The state Department of Environmental Management says the H5 strain of the avian influenza virus detected in the mallard cannot be transmitted to humans, but it can infect other birds.
Officials are asking hunters and poultry farmers to keep an eye out for birds that appear ill. Poultry farmers may notice some of their fowl with respiratory illnesses or a drop in egg production
Veterinarian Scott Marshall tells The Providence Journal the H5 strain appears to be nonfatal, but there is concern it could mutate into fatal form for birds.
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[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Guwahati (IANS): Health authorities in Assam have placed under surveillance about 300,000 people in bird flu affected areas with reports of some 150 people suffering from fever and upper respiratory infections, fuelling fears of the deadly virus spreading to humans, officials said Friday.

"Isolation facilities have been strengthened to admit and treat suspect cases although no cases of influenza like illness with history of contact with infected poultry have been detected so far," Parthajyoti Gogoi, regional director (northeast) of the central health and family welfare department, told IANS.

"About 150 people were treated for fever and upper respiratory tract infections in bird flu hit areas. We have put the patients in isolation, although the symptoms do not indicate influenza like illness," he added.

The bird flu virus has spread across six Assam districts, with authorities claiming it has assumed an epidemic proportion. More than 250,000 poultry has been culled in the past two weeks in Assam and an estimated 150,000 more are ordered to be killed.

Health authorities have sounded a general alert fearing strains of the deadly bird flu virus spreading to humans and sparking a pandemic in the state.

"We are really worried about the bird flu virus spreading to humans as the strains transmit rapidly. We don't know for sure if our health department would be able to cope if such a thing happens," said Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

"We want the people of Assam to cooperate with the veterinary department so that the culling operations are carried out properly. Otherwise, we might face a disaster," he added.

The districts hit by bird flu are Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup (Rural), Dibrugarh, Nalbari, Barpeta and Chirang.

The poultry targeted includes ducks and chickens. Authorities have imposed a ban on sale of poultry and poultry products in most parts of Assam after the bird flu outbreak.

"Additional logistics are being mobilised and we are monitoring the situation of a daily basis," Gogoi said.

[cHeroKee]

Cambodian man gets bird flu, first case since 2007

Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:41pm GMT

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<script> var csvSymbolIds = ""; var quoteLink = ""; </script> PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A 19-year-old Cambodian who ate dead poultry has been confirmed with H5N1 bird flu, the country's first human case in more than 18 months, the World Health Organization (WHO) and government said on Friday.
The man, the eighth person in Cambodia to have contracted bird flu since its first case in 2005, was in a stable condition in the capital's Calmette hospital, Sok Touch, head of the Health Ministry's Communicable Diseases department, said in a statement.
The patient, who came from the province of Kandal, about 50 km (30 miles) south of Phnom Penh, fell ill on November 28 but was only confirmed as having bird flu on Thursday, the joint Health Ministry-WHO statement said.
All seven of Cambodia's previous cases have died.
Since H5N1 resurfaced in Asia in 2003 it has killed more than 200 people in a dozen countries, according to the WHO.
Experts fear the constantly mutating H5N1 virus could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person and potentially kill millions worldwide.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jerry Norton)


? Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

[Charsee]

Bird Flu Vaccine Total Failure
<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Bird flu vaccine for poultry headed for 'total failure'
December 11, 2008 ? 9:34am ET | By John Carroll

An outbreak of bird flu at a Hong Kong poultry farm is raising concerns as some of the birds that died had been vaccinated against the virus. That's an alarming sign that the vaccine may be losing its potency as new strains arise.

Microbiologists at the University of Hong Kong say the diseased chickens had only one quarter of the antibodies they found in vaccinated birds back in 2001. And one top scientist in Hong Kong says the vaccine appears headed for total failure.

"I'm disappointed because Hong Kong has done so well since this outbreak started," Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, told Time. "But this is a very versatile virus. It's on tractor wheels and in wild birds. It may be found on a farmer's boots. We've seen this virus embedded right across Asia."

Apparently there's no new vaccine to take the place of the old vaccine, and that raises the risk of a human epidemic.

http://www.fiercevaccines.com/story/...ure/2008-12-11 (http://www.fiercevaccines.com/story/bird-flu-vaccine-poultry-headed-total-failure/2008-12-11)

[Charsee]

Chinese Regime Covers Up Bird Flu Outbreak For A Month
<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> By Tian Xi and Guo Liang
Sound of Hope Radio Dec 18, 2008

Local Jiangsu resident revealed to Sound of Hope Radio (SOH) that the bird flu outbreak recently admitted by China?s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) actually started about one month ago, and dead chickens have been processed and sold to other provinces by underground factories.

Local residents complained the regime covered up news of the epidemic. They also said officials fell short on prevention plans and had no regulation or monitoring of the sale of chickens.

The staff of a veterinary station in Haian City confirmed to Sound of Hope (SOH) that Haian had a chicken plague ?about one month ago.?

Villagers of Guanba Village, Dongtai City, said that 70 percent of local chickens died of infection. The symptoms are fever, anorexia, excreting green feces, and dying on the next day. Hundreds of thousands of chickens have died.

A villager of Guaba Village told SOH, ?The chickens in our village have all died. We don?t know what disease they had. We could not cure them. Medicine served no use. The disease spread very fast.?

People of Tangyang Town, Dongtai City also complained the local regime did not take effective actions. No media reported on it. ?The government did not factually announce to the public the scale of the epidemic here and the level of losses. We lack a unified epidemic prevention system. There?s no unified treatment for chicken feces and no unified plans, so all kinds of germs spread in the air. The official figure for our region?s loss is 160 million yuan [US$23.4 million]. I am not sure whether it is the bird flu, but at least, it is a chicken plague. At present, the government continues to cover up the news. There are many sick chickens in this period of time as there?s no effective supervision.?

According to local residents, unscrupulous traders bought chickens that died of diseases for few yuan (approximately US$50 cents) and sold them to the entire nation after the dead chickens were processed. The processed dead chickens have been sent to Shanghai, Shandong, and Henan provinces. ?The government does not supervise the sale of chickens,? one local of Tangyang Town told SOH.

The local continued, ?I saw a police car and an excavator come here to bury and burn out the dead chickens. Some chicken farmers went to the government buildings because the government had promised to give 10 yuan [US$1.46] for burning a dead chicken as compensation, but the government sent anti-riot police there. In fact, the trading of chickens, ducks, and geese are easy, without any bit of supervision in any levels of the government.?

One source revealed that the dead chickens were soaked with hydrogen peroxide and quickly frozen after being killed. There are over a dozen processing factories around the outbreak area, where dead chicken processing goes on around the clock. Tens of thousands of dead chickens were sent to the entire nation or frozen every day to be sold during the Chinese New Year. There are hundreds of thousands of dead chickens in local cold storage.

http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/ch...r-up-8760.html (http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/china-bird-flu-cover-up-8760.html)

[cHeroKee]

Dead Crows In Malda West Bengal Raise H5N1 Concerns

December 17, 2008

Hundreds of crows have died since yesterday in Budhia village at Norhatta in English Bazaar block, the spot where more than 3,500 chickens died of Bird Flu, causing panic among the people.

The villagers suspect that the dead crows might have eaten the carcass of the Bird Flu affected chickens. The CMOH, Malda, Mr Srikanta Roy, said that this could be a possibility.

Despite the situation, there is no awareness campaign at Norhatta against consumption of chicken. Children could be seen playing around with the dead crows that had simply fallen off the trees in the area. It may be noted that the local gram panchayat yesterday decided to inform people that they should not eat chicken.

Mostaq Mian, a resident of Budhia village, said that despite warnings, the people are consuming the dead chickens.

The above description of crows dying in Malda and villagers eating the dead poultry repeats events described in January when H5N1 was discovered in Birbhum, just to the south in West Bengal. The dead crows raise concerns of local spread by wild birds or wild animals. Although there is little doubt that the crows are H5N1 infected, India has never reported H5N1 in any host other than dead or dying poultry.

Last season crows also died in Bangladesh, which were H5N1 confirmed. In addition, dogs and jackals died in Tripura after eating infected birds, adding to concerns that these outbreaks offer opportunities for spread and evolution in mammalian hosts.

The same is true for the villagers eating the birds, which can lead to transmission which birds are prepared. Symptomatic villagers were largely just observed last season, and those that did not develop pneumonia were not tested. The same appears to be true for symptomatic patients in Assam.

However, as was seen in the recent confirmed case in Cambodia, or prior cases in Egypt, H5N1 can cause milder disease that does not lead to pneumonia.

Thus, the hundreds of dead crows create additional concerns that are not addressed by testing in India.

[Charsee]

Wow Cherokee...that IS sobering...

[cHeroKee]

Hospitalized Neighbor Increases Semarang H5N1 Cluster

December 22, 2008

like the TUR, the condition of JAS when being treated in RSD Sunan Kalijaga worrying. The condition for his body continued to descend, the patient experienced breathless, as well as hot the high body was similar to the sign of bird flu.

JAS also could direct contact with the poultry around his house.

JAS was the neighbour of TUR.

For first help, JAS was treated in the Karangtengah Community Health Centre as well as was given medicine tamiflu. Because his condition worsened, JAS was run off with to the hospital.

The patient had finally been reconciled by us again to Kariadi Semarang.

The above translation describes the hospitalization of the neighbor of the most recent H5N1 suspect case, TUR, in the geograhic cluster near Semarang. Like the earlier case, JAS was initially treated at a local hospital and when the patient's condition declined, in spite of Tamiflu treatment, tansfer to RSUP Kariadi was made.

Both current patients are in isolation and being treated by the same attending physician who said the index case (15F) was lab confirmed by the government labs and detailed in wire service reports. The positive lab results were then denied by the Ministry of Health.

The current cluster has now grown two five. Two patients, including the index case have died. The status of one patient (50F), from the same sub-district, is unclear. The two neighbors are being treated with Tamiflu and in isolation.

H5N1 has been confirmed in the poultry in the village, but none of the five patients, including the index case who was said to be lab confirmed, are official WHO cases.

This cluster has formed in the last month.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu resurfaces in poultry in Vietnam

<!-- UID: 8f77c7a1d34bc07dd2ec9ab2d208a3cb9c5ba238 AID: 1827205 C: 2008-12-28 17:55:50 U: 2008-12-28 17:57:10 P: 2008-12-28 18:29:50 --> Updated at 5:57pm on 28 December 2008
Bird flu has resurfaced in poultry in northern Vietnam killing ducks and chickens at two farms.
Nearly 4,200 chickens had been slaughtered to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading.
The health minister said earlier this week that although there had not been any cases of bird flu in Vietnam for several months, there was a very high risk of it returning during the winter and spring in northern Vietnam.
The H5N1 strain seems to thrive best in low temperatures.
Five Vietnamese have died of bird flu so far this year out of six reported H5N1 infections and all were found in northern Vietnam.

[cHeroKee]

Newborn baby contracts mild bird flu strain

Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily

A TWO-MONTH-OLD Hong Kong-born infant who lives on China's mainland has contracted a mild strain of bird flu, a health official said yesterday.

The baby girl, who contracted the H9N2 strain of avian influenza, is currently isolated at a Hong Kong hospital and is in a stable condition, Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection, told a news conference.

The baby lives with her family in the southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province but recently visited a hospital in Hong Kong after showing symptoms, Tsang said.

He said health officials in Guangdong are trying to determine how she caught the virus.

Tsang said the baby showed symptoms of vomiting, cough and runny nose on December 22. She was admitted to Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong that night and discharged on December 23. It was not categorized as a suspected case of infection at the time as the baby did not have a fever.

The baby was later found to have a high level of white blood cells in Shenzhen.

She was rushed to the Tuen Mun Hospital again on Monday and confirmed to have contracted the H9N2 virus on Tuesday.

Tsang said the department has already contacted the patient's family members and medical staff who came into contact with the baby to see if they showed any symptoms.

"As the girl was staying in Shenzhen for the whole incubation period, we have informed the Guangdong health department of this case and they will carry out necessary investigations and follow-up actions," said Tsang.

The department will inform the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health, and health authorities of Macau about the findings.

Tsang said Hong Kong has recorded four previous human cases of H9N2 infections. All patients have fully recovered. The case came weeks after three dead chickens tested positive for bird flu in Hong Kong.

There are hundreds of strains of avian influenza viruses, but only four - H5N1, H7N3, H7N7 and H9N2 - are known to have caused human infections, according to the World Health Organization.

Hong Kong's biggest bird flu outbreak was in 1997, when the more virulent H5N1 strain killed six people.

(Shanghai Daily/Xinhua)

[cHeroKee]

<table border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="storyhead">New Bird Flu Cases Revive Fear Of Human Pandemic </td></tr> <tr><td class="storysubhead"> 2009-01-04 17:30:35 (1 hours ago) </td></tr> <tr><td class="storybody"> Just when you thought you could scratch bird flu off your list of things to worry about in 2009, the deadly H5N1 virus has resurfaced in poultry in Hong Kong for the first time in six years, reinforcing warnings that the threat of a human pandemic isn't over.

India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks in December. During the same period, four new human cases - in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia - were reported to the World Health Organization. A 16-year-old girl in Egypt and a 2-year-old girl in Indonesia have died.

The new cases come after a two-year decline in the number of confirmed human deaths from H5N1 bird flu and as fewer countries are reporting outbreaks among poultry. A United Nations report released in October credits improved surveillance and the rapid culling of potentially infected poultry for helping to contain and even prevent outbreaks in many countries.

Yet H5N1 has continued to "at the very least smolder, and many times flare up" since the chain of outbreaks began in 2003, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The year-end uptick is a reminder of how quickly the situation can turn as long as the H5N1 virus is still out there, said Osterholm and other scientists. "What alarms me is that we have developed a sense of pandemic-preparedness fatigue," he said.
</td></tr> <tr><td class="storybody"> H5N1 already has been a disaster for poultry farmers in Asia. Public health officials estimate that as many as half a billion fowl have been killed by the virus or culled to contain its spread, causing enormous economic strain and food shortages; but the bigger fear has always been that H5N1 would give rise to a human pandemic like the so-called Spanish flu of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

It was in Hong Kong in 1997 that the H5N1 virus was first observed to jump from chickens to humans, infecting 18 people and killing six of them, raising fears of a worldwide catastrophe. Hong Kong ordered its entire poultry population, estimated at 1.6 million birds, destroyed within three days.

A more recent chain of poultry outbreaks began in South Korea in 2003 and spread over the years to 61 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

To fuel a pandemic, a virus must be able to both infect humans and spread readily from person to person. The currently circulating H5N1 strain does neither well.

The total number of verified human cases since the 2003 outbreak began is 391, of whom 247 died. After peaking in 2006 at 115 human cases with 79 deaths, human infections dropped to 40 in 2008, with 30 deaths, according to a World Health Organization update in mid-December.

Most of the human cases were traced to direct contact with poultry, especially in Southeast Asia where many people have backyard flocks and few wear gloves or masks while handling them. The few suspected human-to-human transmissions occurred in those who were closely involved in caring for an infected relative.

As long as the virus continues to circulate, the threat remains that it could mutate to pass more easily among humans, according to the U.N. report.

The Hong Kong poultry outbreak last month is significant because the government thought it had stamped out H5N1 in the Chinese territory after an outbreak in 2003. Since then, Hong Kong has vaccinated poultry against the virus and strictly regulated farm sanitation.

The government ordered the slaughter of 80,000 fowl at two large farms after the latest outbreak killed 60 chickens at one of the farms. Investigators are looking for the source of the infection and testing the effectiveness of the vaccine used since 2003 to inoculate chickens, geese and ducks against H5N1.

Hong Kong uses a vaccine that protects poultry against several flu subtypes; but some scientists believe that the H5N1 virus may have mutated to break through the vaccine. Flu viruses change constantly, which is why human vaccines for seasonal flu are modified every year, said Scott P. Layne, a professor of epidemiology and environmental health sciences at UCLA.

Mainland China is using a newer poultry vaccine developed specifically for H5N1, but vaccination programs there and in Vietnam have not eliminated outbreaks.

The vaccine itself could be the problem, said Robert Webster, a virologist and avian flu expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Vaccines should be used only in areas where the virus is out of control, and then only temporarily, he said. That is because routinely administering the vaccine encourages the evolution to resistant strains.

Some countries have managed to stop the virus by culling infected poultry flocks. Japan, South Korea and Malaysia are considered to be free of H5N1, according to the World Health Organization.

But the virus appears to be entrenched in Indonesia, parts of China, Vietnam, Egypt and other countries where backyard flocks are more difficult to regulate than commercial chicken farms, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Though bird flu viruses are common, highly pathological ones such as the 1918 virus and H5N1 - which has been lethal to 100% of chickens infected and 63% of humans known to be infected - are rare.

Scientists have little experience with which to gauge how H5N1 will evolve.

"We still have to treat this as a potentially very, very dangerous virus," said Webster.



</td></tr></tbody></table>

[Charsee]

Bird Flu Resistant To Drugs
<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Study Says Bird Flu Could Be Resistant To Drugs
By Davie Barret 23:54, January 8th 2009

Study Says Bird Flu Could Be Resistant To Drugs

Scientists doubt if anti-viral medication would have any effect in the case of a bird flu pandemic, as the virus is known for its extraordinary ability to mutate very fast.

University of Colorado at Boulder scientists analyzed nearly 700 avian flu genome sequences from bird, cat and human hosts, discovering about one-third of them had mutations to resist the effects of popular flu drugs.

Avian influenza has been widely debated in the last years, as it can spread to humans, not only poultry. The H5N1 virus has killed 248 people worldwide since 2003 and scientists are afraid that the virus might mutate into something more dangerous and cause a pandemic.

Presently, the virus is mostly a threat to birds, but most cases of humans infected with the virus proved to be fatal.

Sure, the thought of a bird flu pandemic sounds scary, but if some basic hygienic measures are respected this should not happen. Basically, the best tips are to cook your meet properly and to not play with dead birds you may come across.

National health authorities are worried by the fact that the H5N1 virus has the potential to mutate. If bird flu can be transmissible from one human to another, things can get pretty bad.

Another problem would be that modern anti-viral medicines could become useless after it has been widely use to cure the possible disease. The virus might get accommodated with the medicine and become immune.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Study...ugs_32927.html

[Charsee]

I better dig up that Bird Flu thread again...
(http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000647_Bayer_vaccines_HIV.html)

[cHeroKee]

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" align="left" valign="bottom">Warning on bird flu for New Year (http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=b31f35ec9bbce110VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCR D&s=news)

</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" align="left" valign="bottom">Health Ministry demands vigilance against virus during holiday travel

</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" bgcolor="#999999" height="1">
</td></tr> <tr valign="top"> <td> Raymond Li
Jan 13, 2009 </td></tr></tbody></table>
The Ministry of Health issued a stark warning yesterday about a possible bird flu outbreak and the potential for human infection with the deadly virus as hundreds of millions of mainlanders embarked on the annual Lunar New Year migration."The discovery of a human infection of the highly contagious virus in Beijing has once again reminded us of the need for vigilance against bird flu and possible human infection," ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said in Beijing.
Nineteen-year-old Huang Yanqing of Putian , Fujian province , died on January 5 in the capital from the H5N1 bird flu strain. She died after eating ducks she had bought live from a wet market on December 19 in neighbouring Hebei province .
The death prompted authorities in Beijing to ban live poultry from other regions and partially shut down the market, even though investigators have yet to reach a consensus over the source of the infection.
Gao Fu , director general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Microbiology, said members of the public were more sophisticated in their defence against conventional types of flu, but needed to be better educated about what they could do or should not do to protect them from bird flu.
Professor Gao said that although scientists were still trying to understand how the virus spread from chickens to humans, people should reduce direct contact with live poultry.
"As we don't have a bird flu vaccine, the best defence is to maintain a high hygienic standard for those who work at wet markets and have direct contact with poultry products on a daily basis," he said.
The professor said authorities should also discourage travellers from carrying live poultry back with them during the Lunar New Year peak travel season and that agricultural authorities, which monitor the spread of H1N5 on the mainland, must shore up their defence system against bird flu with measures such as bans on fowl imports from affected areas.
Huang's death was the first on the mainland from the disease in nearly a year and highlighted the increased risk of the H5N1 virus during winter.
Mr Mao also said: "Medical institutions must strengthen monitoring, especially in areas where bird flu could erupt, and particularly during the Lunar New Year."
The spokesman warned that people would be held accountable for failing to report a case of an infectious disease in a timely manner.
Beijing's health bureau said yesterday on its website that more than 51,300 people working in the poultry business in the capital had undergone medical checks with no flu-like cases found.
It also said that 131 of the 200 people who were in close contact with Huang before she died had been released from quarantine; the rest were still under observation.

[cHeroKee]

Third Case Of Bird Flu Infection Reported In China In 3 Days

Posted on: Monday, 19 January 2009, 13:50 CST
A 16-year-old boy in central Hunan province is badly ill after contracting the H5N1 birdflu virus, the third case reported by Chinese health authorities.
The teenage student entered a hospital in Hunan on January 16 and the province disease control center confirmed he was infected with the H5N1 virus, according to the Ministry of Health?s website.
The official statement said the boy's condition is critical and that he previously had "contact with dead poultry," but it did not say where that contact happened.
After reporting two new cases over the weekend, China has warned of the risk of further human cases of bird flu in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday.
Before the current outbreaks, there had not been a single human infection reported in China in almost a year, but now four cases of the H5N1 virus have been confirmed in less than two weeks.
Two of the reported cases were fatal; one was a 27-year-old woman who died in eastern China on Saturday, and the other a 19-year-old woman who died in Beijing earlier this month.
A two-year-old girl was found ill on January 7 in Hunan and later diagnosed with bird flu at a hospital in her home province of Shanxi.
There have not been any reports of outbreaks of the virus among birds in Hunan since May 2007, Reuters reported.
<script language="JavaScript"> GA_googleFillSlotWithSize("ca-pub-5440138744487553", "News_Main_300x250", 300, 250); </script>
The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on its website: ?As the Spring Festival approaches, there are frequent movements of poultry products and the risk rises of virus outbreaks and transmission.?
Next Monday marks the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year holiday, which is celebrated by a mass movement of people back to their home provinces for lavish celebratory meals.
Concerns were expressed by Hong Kong's top health official, York Chow, who called on China to release the results of epidemiological tests on the three previously reported cases.
"There are two main areas that we are concerned with. One is if there is no avian flu outbreak in poultry and yet there are human cases, whether there's a change in the virus," Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, told Reuters.
The possibility of ?silently infected chickens? carrying the virus or transmitting the disease without showing outward birdflu-like symptoms was also among Chow?s chief concerns.
?WHO officials have been informed of the latest case and hope to get a better understanding of it in a meeting with Chinese health officials on Tuesday,? said Nyka Alexander, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in Beijing.
The WHO said in a statement that during the holiday season, when people are more exposed to poultry as consumption rises, people are urged to maintain normal precautions against avian influenza, such as ensuring all poultry is well cooked and always washing hands after contact with raw meat.
Although the two-year-old girl was in stable condition at a hospital, state television reported on Monday that she is not yet out of danger, and added that nobody else she had been in contact with had shown signs of illness.
China has reported 34 human bird flu cases overall and at least 22 people have died.
There have, so far, been no other reported outbreaks of bird flu among poultry in the two provinces where the two-year-old patient had lived.
"The ministry has already asked Shanxi and Hunan provinces to ... strengthen their bird flu prevention work," it said.
Experts have pointed to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry in China since the newer cases came about unexpected, as the virus is more active during the cooler months between October and March.
Health experts say the H5N1 virus is mostly a disease among birds, but many fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted among humans and spark an influenza pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.
China is seen as critical in the fight to contain bird flu because it is the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of backyard birds run free.
WHO figures released in mid-December showed that since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them.

[cHeroKee]

Hunan / Shanxi H5N1 Familial Cluster Grows to Four

January 19, 2009


Speaking on condition of anonymity, told the staff of "financial" journalists, and the girl with the B in the area of separation zone, there are two suspected patients, both the girl's relatives.

The above translation describes the confirmed hospitalized case (2F) in Shanxi, as well as two relatives. These confirmed or suspect H5N1 cases are in addition to the girl?s mother, who was said to have died with bird flu symptoms.

Details surrounding the infection, which was said to have originated in Hunan, and the status of relatives and contacts, which WHO describes as ?healthy?, remains cloudy.

The lack of transparency in China and in WHO situation updates remain hazardous to the world?s health.

[cHeroKee]

Shandong bird flu victim has no contact with live poultry<!--sizec--><!--/sizec-->



www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-24 20:34:59

Special report: Global fight against bird flu
BEIJING, Jan. 24

A bird flu victim in China's eastern Shandong Province <!--coloro:#8B0000--><!--/coloro-->was not exposed to live poultry and was only known to have eaten chicken<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->, said the Shandong Provincial Health Bureau on Thursday. The 27-year-old woman, whose name was not revealed, died of the bird flu virus last Saturday in Jinan, Shandong.

Of the four deadly bird flu cases in China since December, three were exposed either to live fowl or market poultry.


more
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/...nt_10714859.htm (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/24/content_10714859.htm)

[cHeroKee]

Evidence for Human to Human H5N1 Transmission in China

January 26, 2009


The 4 human cases of avian influenza reported during the 1st 3 weeks
of January 2009, the 1st in China since February 2008, occurred in 4
different provinces and appear to be unconnected. In all cases, there
is evidence of contact with diseased poultry. There is no evidence of
human-to-human transmission of infection from affected individuals to
their contacts or care givers.

The above remarks from a ProMED commentary on the cases in China are curious and unfortunate. ProMED is an infectious disease newsletter that is widely read by media writers and the lay public, who have minimal background in infectious diseases. As the commentator knows, the strongest data for human to human transmission are gaps in disease onset dates between two or more contacts who have symptoms and/or are lab confirmed.

The evidence for human to human transmission is the same evidence that has been repeated dozens of times since H5N1 exploded out of China in late 2003. The clusters of human H5N1 have obvious gaps in disease onset dates and have been reported dozens of times. Testing remains at the abysmal level. Samples are frequently not collected from the index case, and false negatives and misdiagnosis are common. In the latest cases, discussed above, the child (2F) from Hunan developed symptoms when her mother died of pneumonia. The child was H5N1 lab confirmed. In Beijing, multiple media reports indicated the nurse linked to the fatal H5N1 case (19F), developed symptoms, but recovered. One media report indicated the nurse was confirmed and none of the reports indicated the nurse tested negative for H5N1. Moreover, extensive testing failed to identify diseased poultry. The last confirmation of H5N1 in poultry in China was in December in Jiangsu, which was not directly linked to any of the subsequent confirmed cases in China.

However, the history of H5N1 clusters since late 2003 provides the most compelling argument that the recent clusters in China are virtually identical in time and space to prior clusters.

One of the first reported clusters was in Vietnam in early 2004. A recently married groom developed symptoms and died with bird flu symptoms in the hospital, but was never tested. His two sisters who cared for him developed symptoms on the same day, initially tested as ?inconclusive?, were hospitalized on the same day, were retested and H5N1 confirmed on the same day, and died within an hour of each other. The gap in disease onset dates indicated both were infected by their brother, although the index case was not confirmed.

Later that year one of the most cited clusters was in Thailand and written up in the New England Journal of Medicine. The index case was living with her aunt, hundreds of miles from Bangkok, where her mother worked in an office and had no exposure to poultry. The index case developed symptoms after burying a pet bird, but was diagnosed as dengue fever. Consequently, the mother had no protection during hospital visits. After the index case died, the mother returned to Bangkok and developed symptoms, but also was not tested, even though her daughter had just died with symptoms. The aunt also developed symptoms and also tested negative, but was positive on a re-test. The mother was serendipitously identified just before cremation, and fixed tissue yielded H5N1 sequences. The index case was never tested for H5N1.

The index case for the first confirmed case in Cambodia collected dead chickens in early 2005. He developed symptoms and died, but was never tested. His sister subsequently developed symptoms and subsequently was hospitalized in Vietnam, where she was lab confirmed after she died.

In 2005 there were multiple clusters in Vietnam. The clusters in 2004 and 2005 were written up and published by the CDC. The vast majority of the clusters had gaps in disease onset dates.

The first confirmed case in Indonesia was also a cluster. The index case was initially diagnosed as having bacterial pneumonia. When she was finally tested for H5N1, her tittered had already risen to 64, as confirmed by the CDC and Hong Kong. A seconad sample, collected three days later had an even higher titer, 128, but since the titer wasn?t four fold higher than the initially collection, which should have been collected on admission, the case was not confirmed. Her sister subsequently developed symptoms and died, but was never tested. Her father was PCR confirmed and the isolated H5N1 is the current vaccine target for clade 2.1.

Clusters are common in Indonesia, and all initial confirmations were from clusters. The Tangerang cluster above was followed by a cluster involving an index case and her nephew. The aunt died and H5N1 was isolated, but her nephew?s case was mild. H5N1 was detected because he was among contacts tested, but H5N1 wasn?t isolated. That cluster was followed by a mild cluster on Sumatra, but virus was not isolated from any of the confirmed cases, and most were confirmed by antibody level. These three clsuters were also reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Subsequent reported cases from Indonesia had a higher case fatality rate. On Sumatra in 2006 six of seven members of the Karo cluster died. That cluster involved the index case infecting five family members including a brother who infected his son. That H2H2H cluster was easily identified, but no sample was collected from the index case.

An even larger cluster was a Garut the following year. Three independent clusters were identified with an H5N1 confirmed case in each cluster. However, none of the index cases fro the three clusters were tested and all died. Subsequent contacts developed symptoms and were hospitalized, but use of a Tamiflu blanket lowered viral loads and all symptomatic contacts tested negative.

More recently, Indonesia has ignored obvious misdiagnosis in cluster members, even after H5N1 has been confirmed. A series of such clusters involving fatal infections in index cases as lung inflammation, dengue fever, and typhus preceded the news blackout and reporting delays fro H5N1 cases.

False negatives have also been generated by degraded samples. In Turkey, almost all 21 cases confirmed locally were in clusters, but only 12 were confirmed in England. Similarly, only one of the cluster members in Pakistan tested positive by PCR, but four were subsequently confirmed by antibody increases.

Thus, the number of negatives due to failures to collect or preserve samples or limits in testing procedures, coupled with misdiagnosis has led to a gross undercount of official clusters.

However, recent clusters such as those in Hunan and Vietnam have clear evidence of human to human transmission, even though the samples from the index cases were not collected.

These H2H clusters are further supported by the explosion of confirmed cases in China, which are causes of increased concern.

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> By Tong Wenxun Jan 28, 2009

Immediately following the terror of the SARS breakout and its mysterious disappearance, another deadly disease appeared on the scene. In 2004 the avian influenza virus attacked poultry farms and wild birds across the Asian countryside.

These two diseases share the same source: China. Their initial disclosures were also similar in that a few brave people revealed the truth to the world despite pressure from Chinese authorities to deny their existence.

These heroes all suffered for their bravery. Dr. Jiang Yanyong, the person who disclosed the SARS breakout, was arrested and put under strict surveillance. Individuals who sent pictures of large amounts of dead, wild birds to the outside world have never been heard from again.

Five years later, almost everyone seems to have forgotten about SARS, and have become numb to bird flu reports. But the medical world remains deeply concerned. A doctor?s heart would miss a beat when he reads news that in 2009 alone three people have been diagnosed with H5N1 in China. All three have died.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that bird flu will cause millions of deaths around the world once the virus evolves to human-to-human transmission. Before this gloomy prediction comes true, there are a lot humans can do to control the damage, if, and only if, the information of the disease is provided openly and in a timely manner. In China, however, publicizing disease information is next to impossible.

In December 2008, H5N1 was discovered in chickens in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government killed tens of thousands of birds, but avoided revealing the source of the chickens under pressure from Chinese authorities. It is widely known that Hong Kong?s live poultry is provided by mainland Chinese suppliers. These birds could not have been infected with the virus after arriving in Hong Kong. This Hong Kong discovery may indicate a massive bird flu breakout in China, one which has been intentionally hidden by the government controlled media.

Unsurprisingly, soon after the Hong Kong breakout, news soon spread throughout the internet that millions of chickens died of H5N1 bird flu in south-eastern China?s Jiangsu Province in November 2008. These reports offered evidence that these dead chickens were simply bleached with hydrogen peroxide and sold to Shanghai, Shandong and Henan provinces.

As authorities continue to conceal this critical information, unscrupulous businesses in China take advantage of the environment, putting the public at unnecessary danger of contracting disease from contaminated sources. Chinese media claimed that a 19-year-girl from Beijing who died on January 5, 2009 was the first victim of the new wave of H5N1 breakout. But was she really the first?

The reported human bird flu cases appeared in different areas of China, which may mean H5N1 has spread to a vast range of areas throughout the country through unregulated channels as diseased chickens go to market. One need only consider the Chinese communist regime's recent behavior in covering up SARS to realize that the official government reports might not tell the whole story. It casts serious doubt on the credibility of the claim that there are only four cases of humans contracting the virus. Might they be just the tip of an iceberg?

Without the necessary information, even the most advanced medical equipment and sophisticated system can do little to control the spread of the disease. By covering up relevant information, the Chinese communist regime is not only harming the Chinese people, but also endangering the entire human race. H5N1 is another major reason why everyone in the free world has the obligation and the right to demand more freedom and human rights in China.

http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/content/view/11060/

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> By VOA News
31 January 2009

A 21-year-old woman has been diagnosed with bird flu and is recovering in a central Chinese hospital.

Chinese health authorities say the woman fell ill January 23 and was hospitalized three days later.

China's official Xinhua news agency quotes the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as confirming that the woman contracted the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which can be fatal to humans.

She becomes the seventh person to have contracted the disease in China this year - five of them have died.

A string of deaths that began earlier this month, as China prepared to mark the Lunar New Year holiday, has sparked concerns about a possible epidemic. The holiday is a time when many Chinese return to their home towns and consume poultry in vast quantities.

Chinese health officials say there is no evidence that the potential for an outbreak of bird flu is on the rise.

The World Health Organization says bird flu has killed 248 people since it resurfaced in Asia in 2003. Twenty-five of those people have died in China.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-31-voa21.cfm

[Charsee]

By Mayo Kuo , Max Kuo 郭明裕 郭明實
Thursday, Feb 12, 2009, Page 8

Since last month, eight people are known to have been infected with the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, of whom five have died. Strangely, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has received no reports of H5N1 infection in birds from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. It could be that the Chinese government is hiding information about infections among poultry.



If that is the case, sporadic cases of people infected with bird flu in various provinces of China may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Since children of poultry raisers are most susceptible to bird flu infection and the death rate for avian influenza is more than 50 percent, failure to divulge the true situation would hamper preventive efforts and put children?s lives at risk.

Recently, 21 dead birds were found washed ashore on Hong Kong?s Lantau Island. The birds were believed to have come from the Pearl River Delta ? the origin of H5N1 avian influenza ? which has the highest density of poultry farming in the world.

The fact that three of the birds have tested positive for H5N1 tends to confirm suspicions that China is hiding information about bird flu cases.

In 2005, Jeffery Taubenberger, chair of the Department of Molecular Pathology at the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, published the genome of the 1918 pandemic strain of H1N1 in the scientific journal Nature. The strain was confirmed to be a genetic mutation of an avian influenza virus that crossed over into humans and spread rapidly, and was 50 times to 39,000 times more toxic than the original strain.

The following year, Taubenberger published a chart showing mass deaths of birds infected with the avian influenza virus in 1916 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Considering this historical pattern, the appearance of dead birds on the shore of Lantau Island should be taken as a serious warning.

The influenza epidemic of 1918 coincided with the end of World War I.

Last year saw a string of disasters in China ? blizzards, the Sichuan earthquake and a drought in its northern provinces. Could it be that natural and man-made calamities are setting the scene for a bird flu epidemic?

Another cause for concern is that outbreaks of new strains of human influenza have occurred in cycles, at intervals of between 10 and 40 years.

If this pattern is any indication, another outbreak could be expected soon.

Up until now, H5N1 bird flu has infected mainly children and young people under 20 years old. Figures published by the US magazine Annals of Internal Medicine in 1987 show that, among all historical outbreaks of new flu strains, only in the 1918 human H5N1 flu pandemic were the majority of those infected adults aged between 20 and 40.

Other human flu outbreaks have affected mostly elderly people aged 65 and above.

If H1N1 infection among humans starts moving into the 20 to 40-year-old age group, the alarm bells should start ringing.

Experts at the US CDC think that if mortality among those infected with H5N1 falls below 2.5 percent and the infection rate rises over 25 percent, it will show that the H5N1 virus has shifted from attacking α2,3 sialic acid-containing receptors in the lower respiratory tract ? as discovered by Mikhail Matrosovich and others in 2005 ? to new infection sites in the upper respiratory tract, from where, after replicating itself in vast numbers, it can spread easily via airborne droplets. This would make the virus more infectious.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that during the past two years, resistance of H1N1 and H5N1 to the drug Oseltamivir ? marketed as Tamiflu ? has increased sharply, indicating that the H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated and adapted. These scientific data suggest that a nightmare ? the outbreak of a new flu strain among humans ? will soon be upon us.

China may be able to conceal the spread of H5N1 from public view, but people in Taiwan, being such close neighbors of China, cannot afford to ignore the approaching nightmare, because H5N1 bird flu can cross national borders at any time.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/02/12/2003435925

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Tue Mar 3, 2009 4:42am GMT By Niu Shuping and Tom Miles BEIJING, March 3 (Reuters)

The impact of bird flu and the economic slowdown may have cut China's poultry numbers by about a third or more in the last month, executives in the poultry feed industry said on Tuesday.

Although China has not disclosed any significant outbreaks of bird flu or the extent of the impact on the industry, feed company executives say the sector has suffered a dual blow from disease and a drop in demand that could keep stocks in short supply into the third quarter.

"There have been very few restocks after the Chinese Lunar New Year. Poultry stocks could have fallen by 30 to 40 percent compared to last year," said one executive from a leading feed and poultry producer.

Families traditionally feast over the Lunar holiday, which fell at the end of January this year, causing a bump in demand.

Consumption has also taken a big hit from weakening demand.

"Overall demand is falling, particularly from migrant farmers, who used to be the major force in poultry consumption. Urban consumption has also seen a decline," said the executive, who declined to be named.

Traders have said weak poultry breeding is to blame for a sharp fall in prices of soymeal, a protein-rich feed, which has prompted some cancellations of U.S. soybean cargoes from China, the world's top buyer.

Chinese officials have said 20 million migrant labourers have lost their jobs after factories making export goods such as toys and textiles closed because of the global economic recession. That has slashed demand from factory canteens.

The party boss of Henan province, one of the provinces with the most labourers, said on Monday that 3 million migrants out of a total of 20 million in the province were unable to find jobs.

Migrant labourers generate the majority of income for rural families.

"With many migrant labourers returning home, consumption of meat and eggs has fallen and pig prices are also down a lot because of the high stocks of pigs and low consumption," said Sun Zhiqiang, an official with China Feed Industry Association.

The executive said many chicken slaughter houses were closed, including half of those in the largest poultry producing province of Shandong, mainly because of outbreaks of bird flu.

"Feed demand has been very sluggish. Besides bird flu, there are also other chicken diseases. Our sales have fallen by 30 percent," one official with a major feed producer in Shandong told Reuters. He asked that his company and name not be named.

"IT'S WINTER FOR THE INDUSTRY"

China has not officially reported any outbreaks of bird flu among chickens, and Chinese media have not reported the number of birds culled because of outbreaks. China only reported eight human cases of bird flu in January. Five people died from the H5N1 strain of the disease.

But feed officials told Reuters that outbreaks have also killed much of the poultry breeding stock, driving up prices for young chicks.

Although poultry demand is under pressure, costs have been kept up by the Chinese government's purchases of grains such as corn, a major ingredient of feed for chicken and pigs.

Analysts at Rabobank say animal feed accounts for two-thirds of corn demand in China. In the United States, by contrast, corn is widely used to make the biofuel ethanol. A slowdown in feed industry and a bumper harvest at home prompted the Chinese government to lift a 5 percent tax on exports last December.

Beijing's massive purchases of corn, totalling about 80 percent of the harvest in northeast provinces have reduced supplies to the market in the north and south, where prices picked up over past weeks.

The price rise has prompted Beijing to drop the plan to purchase more corn for state reserves in northern China, the Shandong feed mill executive said.

The increase has prompted some feed mills in the south to consider switching to relatively cheaper imports. But the price advantage narrows because of quota limitations and higher costs associated with strict quarantine inspections for containers.

"Importing in containers doesn't make for good prices and we really can't afford to wait at ports for two months of strict quarantine inspection," said the first executive.

Many small feed mills have been closed since late last year. Big ones have reduced production by 10-30 percent, he said.

"It is 'winter' for the feed industry. What we are trying to do is survive until next year."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/consum...BrandChannel=0 (http://uk.reuters.com/article/consumerproducts-SP/idUKPEK33067520090303?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0)

[Charsee]

<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> By IRWAN FIRDAUS ? 2 days ago

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) ? Four Indonesians have died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country hardest hit by the disease over the past several years to 119, an official said Tuesday.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, chief of the National Bird Flu Commission, said all the victims were believed to have been infected after coming into contact with sick poultry. They were from Java island and died in January and February.

Indonesia, which has been criticized in recent months for refusing to immediately make public news of human deaths and in some cases hushing them up all together, has been worst affected by bird flu since it started ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

It accounts for nearly half the 256 human fatalities tallied worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected chickens. But health experts worry the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.

Indonesia is considered a potential hotspot for that to happen.

Krisnamurthi had little details about the latest deaths, saying only that two were siblings from the city of Bogor and the others were women from Bekasi and Surabaya.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has withheld almost all virus samples from WHO since January 2007, arguing that its system is unfair because her country's bird flu specimens can be used to make vaccine that would ultimately be too expensive for most Indonesians and controlled by wealthy nations.

She has since called for the creation of a global stockpile of drugs or other forms of benefit-sharing.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...i-cCwD96MFKD00 (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gApQbyawgKLjltct03EvadCi-cCwD96MFKD00)

[cHeroKee]

Smallpox vax highly effective against bird flu <hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Published on FierceVaccines
Smallpox vax highly effective against bird flu

By john
Created Mar 4 2009 - 2:13pm
A modified smallpox vaccine has proven extraordinarily effective in guarding mice against bird flu. And a team of scientists in Hong Kong and the U.S. say that it promises to offer a cheap supply of vaccine to guard against a pandemic.
"It produced a lot of (H5N1) antibodies and the speed of antibody response was far higher with this strategy than the Sanofi one," microbiologist Malik Peiris told reporters, referring to a newly approved H5N1 vaccine. While the tested vaccine used a bird flu strain from Vietnam, the jab also guarded against an Indonesian strain, indicating that it can be widely effective against the constantly changing virus.
Smallpox was wiped out a generation ago and the vaccine used in the bird flu study would be cheap to make and easy to distribute, with a long shelf life. That would significantly help developing countries looking to stockpile a vaccine. Researchers cautioned, however, that the vaccine was still some years away from possible commercialization.

- check out the report [1] from Xinhua

[rhiamom]

You only *think* you are worried about bird flu. I live in Thailand, where they routinely cull thousands of chickens over bird flu outbreaks. *I* am worried about bird flu, specifically H5N1. We get outbreaks annually as the birds migrate south from China. Nothing so far this year, but it's early. Fortunately, while human to human transmission has been confirmed in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam it remains a difficult transmission means requiring lots of close contact. Contact with dead birds, though, is a pretty risky business. If H5N1 mutates into something that is easily transmissible among humans, I should be able to give you all a solid 21 hour heads up. That's how long it takes to fly from here to the US.

[cHeroKee]

Bird Flu Found On Western KY Poultry Farm

FRANKFORT, KY - State and federal authorities are investigating a finding of suspected non-pathogenic or low-pathogenic avian influenza in a single broiler/breeder poultry farm in western Kentucky. The strain poses minimal risk to human health and is not the high-pathogenic strain associated with human and poultry deaths in other countries.
State Veterinarian Robert C. Stout has quarantined the farm, which produces hatching eggs for Perdue Farms Inc. Perdue plans to depopulate 20,000 chickens in two houses on the farm.
"The state and federal government and Perdue are acting aggressively to contain and eliminate the disease," Dr. Stout said. "There is no evidence that any infected poultry are in the human food supply as a result of this infection. We will do what is necessary to minimize the disruption to overseas trade."
"I have been in constant contact with state, federal and industry officials since this came to light," Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. "The people of Kentucky and our trading partners should rest assured that we are doing everything possible to address the situation."
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is conducting surveillance on backyard flocks within a two-mile radius of the farm.
A minimal drop in egg production at the farm was noticed in mid-March. Perdue's veterinary services laboratory took samples from chickens at the farm and found antibodies for avian influenza. Testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, resulted in a presumptive positive finding for the H7 strain. Subsequent testing by NVSL and the Breathitt Veterinary Center in Hopkinsville confirmed the finding.
No virus has been isolated and no poultry deaths have been found in connection with the infection.
Avian influenza is a virus that affects domestic poultry and some wild birds. It is spread to healthy birds by direct contact with infected birds or infected material, often through feces from infected birds. Avian influenza is not transmitted through eggs. Low-pathogenic avian influenza causes little if any illness in poultry and is rarely fatal to poultry.

[Charsee]

New bird flu cases suggest the danger of pandemic is rising
<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Infections in Egypt raise scientists' fears that virus will be spread by humans
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor Sunday, 12 April 2009

First the good news: bird flu is becoming less deadly. Now the bad: scientists fear that this is the very thing that could make the virus more able to cause a pandemic that would kill hundreds of millions of people.

This paradox ? emerging from Egypt, the most recent epicentre of the disease ? threatens to increase the disease's ability to spread from person to person by helping it achieve the crucial mutation in the virus which could turn it into the greatest plague to hit Britain since the Black Death. Last year the Government identified the bird-flu virus, codenamed H5N1, as the biggest threat facing the country ? with the potential to kill up to 750,000 Britons.

The World Health Organisation is to back an investigation into a change in the pattern of the disease in Egypt, the most seriously affected country outside Asia. Although infections have been on the rise this year, with three more reported last week, they have almost all been in children under the age of three, while 12 months ago it was mainly adults and older children who were affected. And the infections have been much milder than usual; the disease normally kills more than half of those affected; all of the 11 Egyptians so far infected this year are still alive.

Experts say that these developments make it more likely that the virus will spread. Ironically, its very virulence has provided an important safeguard. It did not get much chance to infect other people when it killed its victims swiftly, but now it has much more of a chance to mutate and be passed on.

The WHO fears that this year's rise in infections among small children, without similar cases being seen in older people, raises questions about whether adults are being infected but not falling ill, so acting as symptomless carriers of the disease. Its investigation, due to start this summer, will see if this is happening by testing the blood of people who may have been in contact with infected birds, but who have not themselves become sick.

John Jabbour, who works with WHO in Cairo, told Reuters last week: "There is something strange happening in Egypt. Why in children now and not in adults? We need to see if there are sub-clinical cases in the community." He added that if the research did find such cases, they would be the first to be discovered anywhere in the world.

Though he stressed that there was still no evidence of the disease passing from person to person, other experts are also becoming alarmed. Professor Robert Webster, of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee ? who is the world's leading authority on the disease ? told The Independent on Sunday that, while he himself had not seen firm data, the WHO in Egypt was raising "a very, very important issue" which should receive "maximum attention". He added: "I hope to hell they are wrong. If this damn thing becomes less pathogenic, it will become more transmissible."

And Professor John Oxford, of Queen Mary, University of London, said that any evidence that H5N1 was becoming less deadly would be serious, as the greatest cause for concern was the disease's ability to spread.

Even a much less virulent strain of the virus could result in a devastating pandemic. Studies show that an outbreak that killed as few as 5 per cent of those it infected could still cause hundreds of millions of deaths around the world.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...g-1667526.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/new-bird-flu-cases-suggest-the-danger-of-pandemic-is-rising-1667526.html)

[cHeroKee]

Minn. quarantines turkey flock due to bird flu (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D99TC5600.htm)

By CHRIS WILLIAMS

MINNEAPOLIS

A commercial turkey flock in central Minnesota has been quarantined after routine testing discovered a strain of the avian flu virus, the state Board of Animal Health announced Wednesday.

Minnesota Board of Animal Health Assistant Director Dale Lauer stressed that the avian flu strain found at the Meeker County farm was different from the more lethal strain has caused problems in birds and humans mostly in Asia.

"It's probably apples and watermelons," he said. "It's completely different. It's a big, big difference."

Lauer, a veterinarian, said the strain of virus found at the farm didn't pose a threat to the general public but could cause mild symptoms in poultry workers.

He said the quarantined flock was showing no signs of illness, but if left unchecked the virus could morph into a form that could be lethal to the state's commercial poultry flocks. Minnesota is the nation's top turkey producing state.

Lauer would not identify the farm but said the flock and other flocks within three miles would stay under quarantine for six weeks while they are repeatedly tested for the virus. If the animals recover, he said, they could go back into the food supply.

He said the board's testing frequently finds blood evidence that domestic turkey flocks have been exposed to strains of the avian flu. The Meeker County flock was somewhat different in that testing found live virus.

"It simply means our testing methods are getting better," he said.

Domestic turkey operations can get the virus from wild turkeys and migrating water fowl, he said. He called the Meeker County incident another reminder for poultry producers to secure their flocks.

The Minnesota Health Department is monitoring about 20 poultry workers at the turkey farm because the strain of virus found there, H7N9, has been known to cause mild eye infections and mild respiratory problems in people who work with infected turkeys.

However, Joni Scheftel, state public health veterinarian for the Health Department, said none of the workers have shown any symptoms. "We haven't seen any problems at all," she said.

Lauer said the workers could stay on the job during the quarantine and wouldn't need protective gear beyond the boots, coveralls, masks and caps they usually wear.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu returns after 6 months of quiet

http://www.thanhniennews.com/images/newsimages/bird-flu-305-09.jpg



Vietnamese animal health authorities officially recognized the resurgence of bird flu in the northern Dien Bien Province on Sunday, a half a year since the country brought the deadly virus under control.
The province Animal Health Department said tests on sick and dead chicken at nine farmers? houses in Dien Bien District between October 21 and 23 were positive for the H5N1 virus. A total of 2,283 chickens in the area had been destroyed, the department said.
The Animal Health Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said in a statement Sunday that the outbreak was occurring after six months in which the disease was fully contained throughout the country.
Another statement by the department in June said Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of bird flu, together with two other livestock diseases ? foot-and-mouth and the blue ear pig disease.
Since early this year, bird flu has occurred in 16 provinces and cities, prompting the culling and destruction of 100,000 ducks and chickens, according to the ministry.
Vietnam has the world?s second-highest human bird flu death toll after Indonesia, with 56 deaths to date, including four this year. The last case was a 23-year-old woman who died in northern

[cHeroKee]

Compound found to safely counter deadly bird flu (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uow-cft121709.php?)

MADISON ? The specter of a drug-resistant form of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza is a nightmare to keep public health officials awake at night.

Now, however, a study published this week (Dec. 21) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that a new compound, one on the threshold of final testing in humans, may be more potent and safer for treating "bird flu" than the antiviral drug best known by the trade name Tamiflu.

Known as T-705, the compound even works several days after infection, according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist and the senior author of the new PNAS study.

"H5N1 virus is so pathogenic even Tamiflu doesn't protect all the infected animals," explains Kawaoka, a professor of pathobiological sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and a world authority on influenza. "This compound works much better, even three days after infection."

The Wisconsin research was conducted in mice and demonstrated that the compound was effective and safe against H5N1 virus, the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, which some scientists fear could spark a global epidemic of deadly influenza. The compound is also effective against seasonal flu and more worrisome varieties such as the H1N1 virus, and has already been tested against circulating seasonal influenza in humans in Japan where it is on the brink of Phase III clinical trials in people.

The prospect of a new front-line drug for influenza, in particular highly pathogenic strains such as H5N1 virus, is important as there are few drugs capable of checking the shifty influenza virus. The new study showing the efficacy and safety of T-705 assumes more importance as instances of Tamiflu-resistant strains of H5N1 virus have recently been reported, raising concerns about the ability of current antiviral drugs to blunt a pandemic of deadly avian flu.

Antiviral drugs are viewed as a readily available first line of defense against pandemic flu and are especially important for protecting health workers and others during an outbreak of disease. Vaccines, which utilize inactivated or weakened viruses to confer immunity, are the primary line of defense for influenza, but require months to formulate and mass-produce.

Aside from its safety and basic efficacy, another key trait of the T-705 compound is the fact that it is effective even after an infection is acquired. Bird flu, notes Kawaoka, is almost always diagnosed in the hospital after symptoms of the disease manifest themselves: "This compound has a chance to save people who have gone into the disease course," he says.

T-705 targets a critical viral molecule, polymerase, an enzyme that enables the virus to copy its genetic material, RNA. By disabling polymerase, the virus is unable to make new virus particles and maintain the chain of infection. Tamiflu, which remains an effective drug for blocking influenza virus, targets and regulates the enzyme neuraminidase, a protein found on the surface of the flu virus particle and that is essential for spreading the virus throughout the respiratory system.

"The activity of this agent is considerably higher than Tamiflu," says Kawaoka, adding, "the compound is very specific to viral polymerase. It doesn't affect host polymerase, which is important for safety and reducing side effects."

###
The new Wisconsin study was funded through the Program of Founding Research Centers for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; and by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

[cHeroKee]

134 died of bird flu in Indonesia in 2009 (http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/01/06/12363826.html?)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: 6th January 2010, 10:33am

JAKARTA, Indonesia ? Indonesia on Wednesday reported 15 more bird flu fatalities in 2009, taking the human death toll in the country worst hit by the illness to 134.

Officials recorded 20 cases of the illness last year, 19 of them fatal, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The figures are the first to be released by Indonesia since March, when four deaths were announced. They show that while avian influenza is still active, the number of cases is on the decline.

Last year saw the lowest number of human fatalities since 2005, when 13 were reported.

The ministry said that the most recent death was on Sept. 23, but gave no details about who had died or where.

Bird flu has killed 282 people worldwide since it began ravaging poultry stocks in 2003, the WHO said on its Web site. Indonesia is the worst affected country, with 161 infections since 2005, 134 of them fatal.

Indonesia came under strong criticism last year when it stopped announcing individual cases of the disease and ceased sharing virus samples with international health experts working on a vaccine.

Indonesia?s former health minister had argued that the global system for a vaccine was unfair because her country?s bird flu specimens could be used for a cure that would ultimately be too expensive for most Indonesians.

[thermocouple]

The heading of this article is misleading. It implies that 134 people died of bird flu in Indonesia during the calendar year of 2009. The reality is that 15 people died in this time frame, which brings the total deaths in Indonesia to 134, counting from the beginning of the bird flu outbreak in 2003. So this number really represents the deaths through 2009, not in 2009.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu H5N1 re-strikes Myanmar

6 February 2010 | 06:28 | FOCUS News Agency

Yangon. Bird flu H5N1 has re-struck Myanmar with one case occurring in Yangon's Mayangong township in the beginning of this month, according to a statement of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) Saturday, Xinhua News Agency informed.
Control measures are being against the spread of the disease, the statement said, calling on people to step up bio-security measures, change of livestock breeding system, avoidance of illegal import, transport and trading of chickens and its products, and prompt report of suspected bird flu case.
In April 2008, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) declared Myanmar as a bird-flu-free country three months after the country was proved that there was no residual bird flu virus remained over the period since January of the year.
From February 2006 until the last in December 2007, there were numerous outbreaks of the avian influenza in Myanmar covering 25 townships of six states and divisions.
All of the occurrences were blamed for infecting from abroad especially that the virus was carried into the country by migratory birds from the cold regions in the world infecting local birds, according to the LBVD.
Myanmar reported outbreak of the avian influenza in the country for the first time in some poultry farms in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions in early 2006, followed by those in Yangon division in early 2007, in Mon state's Thanbyuzayat and western Bago division' s Letpadan in July and in eastern Bago division's Thanatpin and in Yangon division's Hmawby in October the same year.
Despite the declaration as a bird-flu-free country, the Myanmar livestock authorities continued to call on the country's people to exercise a long-term precaution against the deadly H5N1 bird flu.

[cHeroKee]

Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

Japan drug can fight avian flu (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100227a8.html)

Kyodo News
<nomooter></nomooter> A new drug developed in Japan and now under government screening has been proven effective in tests on mice against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, as well as another H5N1 strain resistant to the widely used treatment Tamiflu, according to a U.S. science publication released Friday.
A team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, professor of the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science, infected mice with the deadly strain and found that 70 percent to 90 percent of the mice given the drug, code named CS-8958, survived within a three-week observation period, according to the PLoS Pathogens publication.
Those without any dose of the drug, made by Daiichi Sankyo Co., died within 11 days, according to the researchers.
The team said mice infected with the Tamiflu-resistant strain and administered with CS-8958 had a higher survival rate than those given Tamiflu.
The drug is the first treatment developed in Japan from the research stage, according to Daiichi Sankyo, which aims to start marketing it in fiscal 2010.

[cHeroKee]

Is Bird Flu Back, Or Did It Never Go Away? (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/04/bird_flu_is_back_or_did_it_nev.html?ft=1&f=1001)

By Jaclyn Schiff



http://media.npr.org/assets/blogs/health/images/2010/04/birdflu.jpg?s=12

A caged chicken at a market in Vietnam,
one of the countries where the H5N1
virus is still around. (Chitose Suzuki/AP)

Just as your worries have faded about swine flu, today at the International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza (http://www.imcapi-hanoi-2010.org/imcapi-hanoi/en/) in Hanoi, Vietnam, an infectious diseases expert is raising red flags about the ongoing presence of H5N1, also known as avian flu.

<!--
http://media.npr.org/assets/blogs/health/images/2010/04/birdflu_wide.jpg?s=12
A caged chicken at a market in Vietnam, one of the countries where the H5N1 virus is still around. (<span class="credit"</span>Chitose Suzuki/AP)



http://media.npr.org/assets/blogs/health/images/2010/04/birdflu_sq.jpg?s=12 A caged chicken at a market in Vietnam, one of the countries where the H5N1 virus is still around. (<span class="credit"</span>Chitose Suzuki/AP)


-->
That other H-something N-something virus continues to be a "serious menace" even though bird flu has mostly been eliminated from the 63 countries it infected during the high-point of the global outbreak in 2006, according to U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Juan Lubroth.

At a recent conference, Lubroth said bird flu is still present in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam. Just a few days ago a 22-year-old man and a 2-year-old tested positive for the virus in Bac Can province in Vietnam, Reuters reports (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63D35L20100414).

"As long as it is present in even one country, there is still a public health risk to be taken seriously," he said. "We should not forget that it has killed 292 humans, killed or forced the culling of more than 260 million birds, caused an estimated $20 billion of economic damage across the globe and devastated livelihoods at the family-farm level."

Bird flu has stayed under the radar for the last few years, especially with the rise of new H1N1, or swine flu, virus in 2009.

But journalist Alan Sipress has been paying attention. He traveled to nine Asian countries tracking the bird flu outbreak, wrote a book (http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Strain-Trail-Coming-Pandemic/dp/067002127X)on the subject and highlighted its danger in a Washington Post op-ed (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111302213.html?nav=emailpage)late last year. "Unlike swine flu, which is no worse than a seasonal flu bug for most people, bird flu kills more than half of those who contract it....And even more than swine flu, bird flu preys on the young and healthy, ravaging their lungs, a modus operandi reminiscent of the 1918 flu that killed as many as 50 million people."

Crawford Killian, a former college professor in Canada, obsessively documents news and updates about avian flu on his H5N1 blog (http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/). "I started flu blogging [in 2005] as a way to teach myself something about a disease that looked pretty ominous. One thing led to another... and covering H5N1 has taught me it's just part of a larger problem--the impact of infectious diseases on societies and economies both rich and poor," he says.

Killian, who is currently a contributing editor at The Tyee (http://thetyee.ca/) - a British Columbia news website - says Lubroth's comments today raise more questions. "Why did it seem to vanish from Pakistan, but not from Egypt? Are some authorities doing the right thing while others aren't? This is a question worth pursuing in itself."

[cHeroKee]

Indonesia reports H5N1 death (http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/90880/7096485.html)

20:07, August 06, 2010

A 34 year-old Indonesian woman died of bird flu in Tanggerang city in an outskirt of Jakarta, bringing the total fatality to 139 in the country, the Health Ministry said here Friday.

The archipelago country had been hit the hardest by the H5N1 virus, and the attacks of the virus have been weakened recently.

The woman died on July 7 after she was treated intensively at a hospital in the city, the spokesperson of the ministry Tri Tarayati said.

"Two of laboratory tests showed that she was positively infected by H5N1," she said at the health ministry.

The woman, who was a teacher of a senior high school in the city, first felt the symptoms of cough, fever, and the problem on her throat on July 2, she went to a doctor, the spokesperson said.

Two days later she returned to the doctor as she had not been cured yet, she was then shifted to a hospital in the city, Tarayati said

During the treatment the woman had got a high fever and respiratory problem, her condition deteriorated as she contracted pneumonia before she died, said the spokesperson.

It was not clear yet whether the woman had historical contact with poultry, as it was the common cause of the death of bird flu in Indonesia, she said.

The ministry has reported the case to the World Health Organization, said Tarayati.

[cHeroKee]

Avian, swine flu mix may be deadly (http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201008050258.html)

BY YURI OIWA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/08/06


A group of University of Tokyo researchers has warned that a new deadly flu pandemic could result from a mixing of genes from the new swine flu that hit last year with those from the highly pathogenic avian flu.
The researchers, led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the university's Institute of Medical Science, found the H1N1 flu, which originated in swine, and the H5N1 bird flu are highly compatible, meaning their genes could easily be recombined.
The evolution of influenza viruses can take place through a process called reassortment. While the deadly avian flu virus does not easily multiply in the human body, the new swine flu virus, which is much less pathogenic, does. The researchers said a combination of the two could create pandemic H5N1 viruses.
"Pigs can contract both the highly pathogenic flu and the new swine-origin flu, so there is a possibility gene reassortment could occur in pigs," Kawaoka said. "Research to quickly detect the emergence of a new virus is indispensable."
The team confirmed reassortment was possible by infecting dog cells with both viruses. It then created 16 types of viruses by recombining four genes needed for virus proliferation. When the 16 new viruses were transmitted to human lung cells, those viruses generally multiplied well. Some propagated much faster than the original viruses, the team said.
The group reported its findings in the Aug. 4 online edition of the Journal of Virology of the American Society for Microbiology.

[cHeroKee]

Avian Influenza Virus May Persist on Feathers Fallen from Domestic Ducks (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100820115052.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily% 3A+Latest+Science+News%29)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2010/08/100820115052.jpg
Domestic ducks. Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
(H5N1) may persist on feathers fallen from the bodies of
infected domestic ducks and contribute to environmental
contamination. (Credit: iStockphoto/Yungshu Chao)


ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2010) — Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) may persist on feathers fallen from the bodies of infected domestic ducks and contribute to environmental contamination. Researchers from the National Institute of Animal Health, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan report their findings in the August 2010 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.


Since the emergence of Asian avian influenza virus in 1997, it has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa causing significant mortality and economic loss in the poultry industry. Although the virus is mainly found in waterfowl and transmitted through fecal contamination in water, humans as well as other mammalian species have contracted the virus through close contact with infected birds.

A prior study showed that H5N1 could replicate in the skin cells of feathers and further suggested that those that drop off the body could potentially contaminate the environment. Here, researchers evaluated the environmental risk posed by contaminated feathers by inoculating domestic ducks with H5N1, collecting feathers, feces and drinking water three days following, and then storing them at 39 degrees and 68 degrees Fahrenheit for 360 days. Results showed that H5N1 persisted the longest in feathers at both temperatures.

"These results indicate that feathers detached from domestic ducks infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) can be a source of environmental contamination and may function as fomites with high viral loads in he environment," say the researchers.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu of highly virulent H5 strain confirmed in Japan (http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/bird-flu-of-highly-virulent-h5-strain-confirmed-in-japan)

Thursday 02nd December, 03:43 AM JST
TOKYO —

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry confirmed Wednesday that the chickens suspected of having bird flu at a farm in Shimane Prefecture had been infected with the highly virulent H5 strain of avian flu virus. It represents the first bird flu infection since February 2009 when a quail farm in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, was found to be infected by another strain of avian flu virus.

The prefectural government in western Japan said it has found at least two spots in chicken houses at the poultry farm in the city of Yasugi where wild birds could enter the houses.

It had earlier said there were no abnormalities in a metallic bird net inside of a plastic sheet covering the poultry houses and that birds should have not been able to get into the houses.

According to the local government, the net has come loose at one of the two spots while part of the sheet has turned at the other spot.
The prefectural government suspects that the virus was brought by a wild bird as there is a lake nearby where many migratory birds gather and aims to identify the infection route in cooperation with researchers from the ministry.

Shimane also continued Wednesday to kill the chickens at the farm, aiming to complete the culling of some 23,000 birds by the end of the day.
The culling began Tuesday, a day after five chickens were found dead at the farm and tested positive for bird flu in preliminary tests, and about 3,300 were destroyed by Tuesday evening.


© 2010 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

[cHeroKee]

H5 bird flu virus in Toyama found to be highly lethal (http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tottori-toyama-check-for-other-signs-of-bird-flu)

Monday 20th December, 08:31 AM JST
TOTTORI —



The highly infectious H5 avian flu virus found in a dead swan in Toyama Prefecture is highly lethal and extremely close to the strains that infected birds in Shimane Prefecture and Hokkaido, the National Institute of Animal Health said late Sunday.
Following the announcement, the Environment Ministry upgraded its alert level against avian influenza to the highest rank of 3 from 2 for areas within a radius of 10 kilometers from a park in the Toyama city of Takaoka where the infected bird—a mute swan—was found dead.
In Shimane Prefecture, the highly lethal H5N1 virus was confirmed in chickens that were found infected with flu last month at a poultry farm in the city of Yasugi, after the same virus was detected in October in the waste of a wild duck in Wakkanai, Hokkaido.
The DNA sequence of the virus found in Toyama was 99.7% identical to that of the H5N1 strain seen in Yasugi, and the national institute in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture is expected to clarify its type on Tuesday, prefectural officials said.
After two dead swans were found Thursday in Takaoka, the Toyama government has culled 10 birds found in the same moat and inspected local poultry farms, and is due to start distributing to all 28 poultry farms in the prefecture Monday lime hydrate as a disinfectant.
Both the highly lethal or virulent and the attenuated viruses of the H5 and H7 bird flu strains are defined as highly infectious under Japan’s Domestic Animal Infectious Disease Control Law.

[cHeroKee]

H1N1 and bird flu virus produce dangerous hybrids (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-03/01/content_12095798.htm)

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-03-01 11:41



HONG KONG - The H1N1 swine flu virus is compatible with a bird flu virus that is endemic in poultry in Asia and they can produce hybrid viruses packed with greater killing power, Chinese researchers warned on Tuesday.
The scientists made 127 hybrid viruses by mixing genes of the H1N1 and the avian H9N2 virus in a laboratory, and eight of the hybrids turned out to be more virulent than either parents when tested in mice.

Flu viruses have eight gene segments and one of the segments is called the PA gene. Interestingly, all eight dangerous hybrids carried the PA gene belonging to the H1N1 parent virus.
The eight hybrid viruses caused severe pneumonia, edema and hemorrhaging in infected mice, the experts wrote.
Liu said their findings underscored the importance of monitoring hybrid viruses that arise from the H9N2 and H1N1.

[cHeroKee]

When Flu Strains 'Hook Up' Dangerous Progeny Can Result, Says New UMD-Led Study

July 14, 2011

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- A new University of Maryland-led study finds that 'sex' between the virus responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1) and a common type of avian flu virus (H9N2) can produce offspring -- new combined flu viruses -- with the potential for creating a new influenza pandemic.

Of course, viruses don't actually have sex, but University of Maryland Virologist Daniel Perez, who directed the new study, says new pandemic viruses are formed mainly through a process called reassortment, which can best be described as viral sexual reproduction. "In reassortment, two viruses enter the same cell; their genetic material is mixed; and new genetically distinct viruses emerge," explains Perez, an associate professor in the VA-MD Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Maryland Campus.


According to Perez and his colleagues many factors are involved in the viability of new viruses that result from reassortment, but the most important is the compatibility of their two sets of viral genes to work together to form functional offspring. The importance of reassortment in the generation of viruses with pandemic potential, the scientists say, was demonstrated in 2009 when a novel H1N1 influenza (pH1N1) virus caused the first influenza pandemic in 40 years. That virus was identified as the product of a three way reassortment, between avian, swine, and human influenza viruses.

In their current study, the researchers looked at the compatibility of the 2009 pandemic pH1N1 virus -- which has some genetic characteristics that may allow it to reassort more easily than other influenza viruses - with an influenza strain known as H9N2.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of July 4-8, this new research builds on earlier findings by Perez and his team of the heightened communicability of the H1N1 virus as well as their work on the airborne communicability of H9N2. And it adds knowledge that may advance modern medicine's longstanding effort to learn how to predict when pandemic flu viruses will arise. An effort that in recent years has focused on study of H5, H7, and H9 subtypes of flu viruses because these all occasionally infect humans and, in the case of H5 viruses, can cause significant disease and death.

For their PNAS study, the researchers created four reassortant viruses with one or two genes from the H9N2 virus and the rest of the genes from pH1N1. They used two different H9N2 viruses to provide the genes. One was a typical H9N2 isolated from a bird in Asia. The other was an avian isolate that had been adapted to infect and transmit in mammals.

Perez and colleagues looked at the growth characteristics of these four viruses and also their infectivity and transmissibility in ferrets. Ferrets are used as a model for human infections as they are susceptible to the same viruses and show similar signs of infection. All four viruses were able to grow to relatively high levels in cell culture. Similarly all four viruses infected ferrets and showed similar signs of disease and levels of replication. Additionally, they were all able to transmit to ferrets housed in the same cage and allowed physical contact. Finally, three of the four viruses were able to transmit to ferrets that were physically separated but shared the same air.

The new results are important for several reasons according to Perez. "Ours is the first study to show respiratory transmission of an H9 reassortant virus in mammals without prior adaptation. This is important because a new virus must be able to transmit via the respiratory route to impact the human population significantly. Secondly, adapting some of the genes to mammalian hosts allows for more efficient infection and transmission. Finally, these studies indicate that the pH1N1 and H9N2 influenza subtypes are highly compatible for reassortment with each other. And this compatibility means there is potential for the emergence of an H9 influenza pandemic."

University of Maryland

[cHeroKee]

<table style="width: 506px; height: 89px;" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="f-title" height="40">
Bird flu appears returning: UN (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-08/30/c_131083505.htm)


</td> </tr> <tr> <td height="5">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>English.news.cn (http://english.news.cn/) 2011-08-30 10:19:50

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The United Nations is warning authorities to be on high alert of bird flu as the virus appears to be returning.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement Monday a mutant strain is spreading across parts of Asia, and there could be a spill-over to humans.
However, it said at this stage, there's no need for any alarm.
A mutant strain of H5N1, which can apparently sidestep defenses of existing vaccines, is spreading in China and Vietnam, it said.
It said the variant of the virus appears able to side step Vaccines.
The UN is concerned the new form of the virus could spread to Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
"Wild birds may introduce the virus, but people's actions in.........
conintues (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-08/30/c_131083505.htm)........

[cHeroKee]

Bird Flu Takes Off

As bird flu spreads into new areas, it should start getting the attention of HR leaders at multinational companies. They should urge employees in affected areas to use common sense: Steer clear of outdoor markets and make sure to eat in reputable locations where food is properly cleaned and cooked.

By Jared Shelly, senior editor

Bird flu is making a comeback -- in a big way.
Last month, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that a mutant strain of the deadly virus is spreading into Asia and other areas.
"Birds move around all the time," says Katherine L. Harmon, director of health intelligence at iJET, an Annapolis, Md.-based business-resiliency specialist. "With migratory flocks and farming practices, if people don't maintain a certain vigilance or surveillance, Avian influenza could be a bigger issue in the future."
The H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus had been largely off the radar screens of risk managers -- and the public in general -- since its presence fell from 63 nations in 2006 to just six in 2011: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
But bird migrations and trade have led to the disease spreading recently, and it's even moving into countries that were previously virus-free, according to the FAO report.
There have been 800 new cases recorded between 2010 and 2011, the report states, but there only have been 565 cases found in humans since the disease first appeared years ago. That said, it's still deadly. A six-year-old girl died from the virus in Cambodia on Aug. 14, the eighth such
continues......... (http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533341091)

[cHeroKee]

Five easy mutations to make bird flu a lethal pandemic (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128314.600-five-easy-mutations-to-make-bird-flu-a-lethal-pandemic.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news)

Editorial: "The risk of an influenza pandemic is fact, not fiction (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128313.300-the-risk-of-an-influenza-pandemic-is-fact-not-fiction.html)"




H5N1 bird flu can kill humans, but has not gone pandemic because it cannot spread easily among us. That might change: five mutations in just two genes have allowed the virus to spread between mammals in the lab. What's more, the virus is just as lethal despite the mutations.
"The virus is transmitted as efficiently as seasonal flu," says Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who reported the work at a scientific meeting on flu (http://www.eswi.org/) last week in Malta.
"This shows clearly that H5 can change in a way that allows transmission and still cause severe disease in humans. It's scary," says Peter Doherty (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1996/doherty-autobio.html#), a 1996 Nobel prizewinner for work in viral immunology.
H5N1 evolved in poultry in east Asia and has spread across Eurasia since 2004 (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9944-introduction-bird-flu.html). In that time 565 people are known to have caught it; 331 died. No strain that spreads readily among mammals has emerged in that time, despite millions of infected birds, and infections in people, cats (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325883.800-deadly-h5n1-may-be-brewing-in-cats.html) and pigs (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19414-bird-flu-jumps-to-pigs.html). Efforts to create such a virus in the lab have failed, and some virologists think H5N1 simply cannot do it.
The work by Fouchier's team suggests otherwise. They first gave H5N1 three mutations known to adapt bird flu to mammals. This version of the virus killed ferrets, which react to flu viruses in a similar way to humans. The virus did not transmit between them, though.
Then the researchers gave the virus from the sick ferrets to more ferrets - a standard technique for making pathogens adapt to an animal. They repeated this 10 times, using stringent containment. The tenth round of ferrets shed an H5N1 strain that spread to ferrets in separate cages - and killed them.
The process yielded viruses with many new mutations, but two were in all of them. Those plus the three added deliberately "suggest that as few as five are required to make the virus airborne", says Fouchier. He will now test H5N1 made with only those five.
All the mutations have been seen separately in H5N1 from birds. "If they occur separately, they can occur together," says Fouchier. Malik Peiris of the University of Hong Kong, a flu virologist, says this means H5N1 transmissible between humans can evolve in birds, where it is circulating (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20845-bird-flu-flies-back-into-the-news.html) already, without needing to spend time in mammals such as pigs.
Peter Palese (http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/peter-palese), a flu specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City who has expressed doubts that H5N1 can adapt to mammals, is not convinced.
"Ferrets are not humans," he says. "H5N1 has been around for a long time" and failed to mutate into a form that can jump between people.
"That it has not adapted doesn't mean it cannot," replies Jeffery Taubenberger of the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, who studies how a bird flu became the deadly pandemic of 1918 (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825204.000-reconstruction-of-1918-flu-virus-prompts-warnings.html).
"It simply means that so far it has not - luckily for us."

[cHeroKee]

27/09/2011 14:44:36

New threat from avian influenza (http://www.farminguk.com/news/New-threat-from-avian-influenza_21634.html)

Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned of a potential new threat from avian influenza.

The FAO – the United Nations organisation responsible for food security – says that wild bird migrations have introduced AI to previously virus free countries. It has also warned that a mutant strain of H5N1 is spreading in Asia and beyond. From its headquarters in Rome, the FAO has issued an international alert for countries to heighten readiness and surveillance against a possible resurgence of the virus.
"Preparedness and surveillance remain essential," said Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. "This is no time for complacency. No one can let their guard down with H5N1."
Since it first appeared in 2003 the H5N1 virus has infected 565 people, killing 331 of them, according to World Health Organisation figures. It also killed or forced the culling of more than 400 million domestic poultry and caused an estimated $20 billion of economic damage across the globe before it was eliminated from........ </td></tr></tbody></table>
continues.......... (http://www.farminguk.com/news/New-threat-from-avian-influenza_21634.html)

[cHeroKee]

Flu in Palm Beach County -091511 (http://www.pr.com/press-release/353488)

Patients Test Positive for Influenza at Several Local MD Now Urgent Care Walk-in Medical Center Locations (they are not sub- typing this flu to find out the strain)


Boca Raton, FL, September 15, 2011 --(PR.com)-- As one of the largest providers of walk-in urgent care medical services in South Florida, MD Now Urgent Care Center’s medical staff had barely been administering the 2011/2012 all-in-one seasonal influenza vaccine to patients, employees and local businesses for less than a month when the center suddenly began seeing its first cases of the flu. In the past, flu season was typically expected to begin in October or November, yet each year it seems to be arriving earlier and earlier. This year was no different.

“We had three patients test positive yesterday, and two today. And I know that we saw several flu patients over the weekend. And they were sick, sick, sick!” says Laurie Kardon, MD, MPH, an urgent care physician working at MD Now’s Boca Raton urgent care location.

The flu, more scientifically known as influenza, is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses. When a person with the flu coughs or sneezes, the virus becomes an airborne contagion – waiting to be inhaled by anyone nearby. The risk of infection is greater in highly populated areas like schools, subways and crowded urban settings. You can also get the flu by touching a contaminated surface like a telephone or a door knob, and then touching your nose or mouth. The influenza virus usually enters the body through mucus membranes in the mouth, nose or eyes.

[cHeroKee]

Dozens Of Dead Seals Found On New England Beaches (http://www.wmtw.com/news/29427290/detail.html)

Experts: Similar Incident Happened 1979, 1980


POSTED: 11:28 am EDT October 8, 2011
UPDATED: 11:41 am EDT October 8, 2011
Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- As authorities wait for answers in the deaths of dozens of seals found on beaches in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, there's been discussion about a similar event that happened from 1979 to 1980.

Marine biologist Scott Mercer, of York, Maine, told the Portsmouth Herald that many dead seals that washed ashore at the time had a strain of avian or bird flu.

A spokesman for the New England Aquarium in Boston said there's no information showing bird flu could be to blame for the 49 seal deaths recently reported in the three states.Tony LaCasse said only pups are dying this year, which was not the case 30 years ago. He said it will likely be late next week before results are in on necropsies performed on the animals. </td></tr></tbody></table>

__________________

[cHeroKee]

Fears of new deadly super-flu which 'could spread to Britain within 24 hours' (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2056953/Deadly-strain-super-flu-spread-Britain-24-hours.html?ITO=1490)



Bird flu and human flu could merge into 'one of biggest biological threats of our time', warn scientists


By Emma Reynolds

Last updated at 9:06 AM on 3rd November 2011

Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> A new deadly strain of super-flu could spread to Britain within 24 hours, experts have warned.

The potential for bird flu and human flu to combine and form a new virus has been described as 'one of the biggest biological threats of our time'.

The alert comes as people have started to fall victim to seasonal flu and the more virulent swine flu at the same time, according to the Daily Express.
This creates the risk of a lethal mutation, leading to an 'ominous' super-flu virus to which humans have almost no immunity, said scientists.

Dr Peter Hotez, a world-renowned infectious disease expert, said: 'Highly infectious strains of the virus against which humans have little defence can spread from one continent to another within 24 hours.'
He said the detection of the rare double-flu infection highlighted the need for extreme vigilance against new killer strains around......... (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2056953/Deadly-strain-super-flu-spread-Britain-24-hours.html?ITO=1490) </td></tr></tbody></table>
continues.......... (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2056953/Deadly-strain-super-flu-spread-Britain-24-hours.html?ITO=1490)

[cHeroKee]

Egypt H5N1 Recombines With Seasonal H1N1 H3N2 pH1N1 (http://www.ldsglo.com/forum/www.recombinomics.com/News/01131201/H5N1_Egypt_H1N1_H3N2_pH1N1.html)

Recombinomics Commentary 23:30
January 13, 2012

St Jude has released full sequences (at Genbank) from four H5N1 avian isolates from Egypt. The PB1 and/or PB2 sequences from three of the isolates (A/chicken/Egypt/Q1182/2010, A/chicken/Egypt/Q1185/2010, A/chicken/Egypt/Q1011/2010) have extensive regions of identity with seasonal H1N1, seasonal H3N2, or H1N1pdm09, raising serious concerns regarding sequences in internal genes from human H5N1 cases.

NAMRU-3 has not released any H5N1 sequences from any human case since March, 2010.

Full sequences on human H5N1 should be generated and released as soon as possible.

The recombination with human sequences seen in the avian isolates strongly suggests serious recombination in human H5N1 cases.

[cHeroKee]

H5N1 virus targets pulmonary endothelial cells (http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-h5n1-virus-pulmonary-endothelial-cells.html)

<small>January 20, 2012 (http://medicalxpress.com/archive/20-01-2012/)</small>
<small>
(http://medicalxpress.com/archive/20-01-2012/) </small>

The H5N1 virus has killed roughly 60 percent of humans infected, a mortality rate which is orders of magnitude higher than that of seasonal influenza virus. Many victims of the former fall heir to acute respiratory distress syndrome—the inability to breathe. Now researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of South Alabama show that the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus, but not seasonal influenza viruses, can target the cells of human lung tissue, where they replicate fast and efficiently, and induce inflammation, which correlates with H5N1-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome that is observed in humans. The research is published in the January Journal of Virology.


“The pulmonary endothelium is strategically located within the lung and its function and structural integrity are essential for adequate pulmonary function,” says coauthor Terrence Tumpey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We compared the infection rate of different subtype influenza viruses in human lung endothelial cells, and assessed the host response to infection,” he says. “We found that the H5N1 virus, but not common seasonal influenza viruses, can target human pulmonary endothelial cells.” There, the viruses replicate rapidly, creating an overwhelming inflammatory cytokine response, essentially causing an immune response so powerful that it kills the pulmonary endothelial cells, results which......
continues...... (http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-h5n1-virus-pulmonary-endothelial-cells.html)

[cHeroKee]

H5N1 Wake Up Call (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02191201/H5N1_Wake_Up.html)


Recombinomics Commentary 14:30
February 19, 2012

Bruce Alberts says that the research shows that it is very easy for lethal bird flu to develop and it should act as a "real wake up call to the world".

He added: "This is likely to happen at some point in the wild because these viruses are mutating very actively in the wild."

Kudos to Science for cutting to the chase (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/17066147) on the H5N1 transmission issues. The two papers are game changes with regard to the understanding of the risk of a natural and evolving H5N1. Prior “experts” had claimed that H5N1 would never transmit in humans because it is an “avian” virus, and had not jumped to humans, in spite of many opportunities since the outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997, and rapid expansion in Asia in 2004, and throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in 2006...........


H5N1 however, remains a poor choice as a bioweapon because it can’t be controlled once it has been released, although interest in a transmitting H5N1 will likely increase due to the attention and concerns expressed by the NSABB.
continues....... (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02191201/H5N1_Wake_Up.html)

[cHeroKee]

Commentary
H3N2v Utah Match Raises Concerns (http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120412/flu-h3n2-united-states-infection-20120412/20120412/?hub=WinnipegHome)
Recombinomics Commentary 12:00
April 12, 2012
The first human infection with an influenza A H3N2 variant (H3N2v) virus in 2012 has been reported in a child by the state of Utah. CDC has confirmed this virus is very similar to the 12 H3N2v viruses that infected 12 people in the United States in the latter half of 2011. The virus contains genes from human, swine and avian influenza viruses, and the M gene from the 2009 H1N1 virus.

Animal and public health investigations are currently underway to determine the source of this infection and if there are additional human cases.

Although the CDC has not yet released sequences from the first confirmed H3N2v case in 2012, the above description strongly suggests that the lineage of the Utah case will match the first 10 cases in 2011 or the two most recent cases (from West Virginia).

This similarity strongly suggests that the H3N2v is transmitting human to human, even though the current case had exposure to swine at a family slaughterhouse one week prior to disease onset. The extent of exposure is unclear, and H3N2v in Utah swine has not been reported. To date there have only been two examples (NY and IA) of swine matches of the H3N2 identified in the first 10 cases in 2011, and the five most recent cases in 2011 had no swine exposure.

Moreover, the five cases formed two clusters. In addition to the three confirmed cases in Iowa, the brother and father of the index case were symptomatic but not tested. H3N2v was confirmed in two classmates of the index case, and all three sets of sequences were virtually identical. Similarly, the cluster in West Virginia had a constellation of flu genes which were similar to the 10 prior cases, but had an N2 from a different lineage. Moreover, 22 additional contacts were symptomatic, but not tested.

The evolution of the H3N2v also supports human to human transmission. In 2010 most of the flu genes from most of the human cases were of the same lineage, and two of the isolates matched in all 8 gene segments. The matching isolates were the parental sequences for 5 of the 8 gene in the 2011 isolates. The other three gene segments including an H1N1pdm09 M gene were from an H1N2 parent swine sequence from Ohio (A/swine/Ohio/FAH10-1/2010). This combination was found in all of the first ten cases, even though they were isolates from four states (Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maine, Iowa). The final two match in 7 of the 8 genes (the N2 was from swine H3N2).

The CDC description strongly suggests that the lineages that were dominant in 2011 are once again present in 2012, strongly supporting human to human transmission. Release of the sequences from the Utah case would be useful.

[cHeroKee]

Updated: Thu Apr. 12 2012 11:49:19

The Canadian Press
TORONTO — After a lull of several months, U.S. officials are reporting a new case of human infection with a swine-origin H3N2 flu virus.
The case is in a child in Utah who had exposure to pigs.
It's the first case of the H3N2 variant flu reported this year and the 13th since this particular virus started sporadically causing human infections last summer.
All but one of those cases have been seen in children under the age of 18 and all have been spotted in the United States.
The child has recovered after having been treated with the flu drug Tamiflu.
Flu experts are keeping a close eye on this virus, which contains a gene from the 2009 pandemic virus that is believed to enhance its ability to infect people.

[Earthling]

My very own county has a rare case of swine flu. I am best friends with the head of the health dept. & his wife and she told me about it. The person evidently caught it directly from a pig. It hit the news on Friday - 2 days ago.

[cHeroKee]

<hr style="color:#FFFFFF; background-color:#FFFFFF" size="1"> Mexico hit by high-path avian flu outbreak (http://www.agra-net.com/portal2/home.jsp?template=newsarticle&artid=20017971235&pubid=ag002)

Friday June 29 2012
Mexican veterinary authorities are stepping up avian flu control efforts after tests revealed that the strain responsible for more than 200 000 bird deaths on three large commercial farms is the highly pathogenic H7N3 subtype.
The events mark the first highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks in Mexican flocks since the country battled H5N2 in the mid 1990s. according to the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota.

[cHeroKee]

<big><big></big></big>
CDC Acknowledges H3N2v Human to Human Transmission (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08241203/H3N2v_CDC_H2H.html)

Recombinomics Commentary 21:00
August 24, 2012
The three instances of likely person-to-person spread of H3N2v were recently identified during investigations of cases and their household contacts and are not epidemiologically linked to one another. In all three cases, transmission is thought to have occurred from one person to another person without further spread to additional people. Each of these three instances of likely person-to-person spread happened between 2 people living in the same household, with the initial infection in each household being associated with pig exposure at an agricultural fair.

The above comments are from the CDC August 24 update (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/h3n2v-new-cases.htm), which acknowledges limited human to human (H2H) transmission of H3N2v as noted above. However, this approach of following the CDC biased sample who had extensive swine contact severely limits investigation. Most families with H2H transmission will be excluded, because family members had some sort ofg swine exposure. The CDC approach is similar to other countries limiting confirmed cases of H5N1 by limiting testing. Moreover, the 2012 cases are due to the sub-clade initially identified in a West Virginia cay care center where there was no swine exposure, yet ILI was identifed in 23 contacts of the index case, so extenisive H2H has already been demonstrated for this sub-clade.

The CDC has used a heavily biased sample of cases with ILI and swine exposure to identify a pseudo-link that has no scientific basis. Similarly, they misrepresent the USDA data which heavily discounts swine H3N2 transmission to humans (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08211202/H3N2v_USDA_S2H_NOT.html), because the sub-clade that is widespread in swine in 2012 has not produce a single sequenced case, while all sequenced human cases in 2012 are caused by a sub-clade that has only been detected in two swine prior to the July explosion of cases (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08161205/H3N2v_OH_IN_Match_WV.html).

Although the CDC now says physicians should “consider” collecting samples from ILI cases without swine contact, such cases have already been identified in Kentucky and West Virginia in areas near the Gallia, Ohio outbreak (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08241202/H3N2v_CDC_Secret.html) which involved more than 200 H3N2v cases. In Kentucky 6 cases have been H3 confirmed by the CDC RT-PCR test, but questions concerning CDC verification of these cases, which were called “seasonal” H3 by Kentucky have not been answered by Kentucky or the CDC (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08231201/H3N2v_Curious.html). West Virginia has acknowledged similar cases in Mason County, which is adjacent to Gallia County.

These H3 “seasonal” cases have no swine contact and are not epidemiologically linked. Therefore, confirmation of H3N2v in two of the H3 “seasonal” cases would mimic the results for the first two H1N1pdm09 cases in 2009 where they were infected with the same swine influenza bit had no contact with swine or each other.

However, the CDC has not asked for the “seasonal” H3 samples from West Virginia, and won’t respond to repeated voice and e-mail questions regarding Kentucky.

It is well known that the CDC RT-PCR test can false serotype H3N2v as seasonal H3, and confirmation of a seasonal diagnosis requires antigen characterization tests or sequencing,

The CDC failure to test or report results of testing of these “seasonal’ H3 cases continues to be hazardous to the world’s health.

[cHeroKee]

Vietnam hit by new, highly toxic bird flu (http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/207361-vietnam-hit-by-new-highly-toxic-bird-flu.html)


HANOI: A new highly-toxic strain of the potentially deadly bird flu virus has appeared in Vietnam and is spreading fast, according to state media reports.

The strain appeared to be a mutation of the H5N1 virus which swept through the country’s poultry flocks last year, forcing mass culls of birds in affected areas, according to agriculture officials.

The new virus “is quickly spreading and this is the big concern of the government”, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said, according to a Thursday report in the VietnamNet online newspaper.

Experts cited in the report said the new virus appeared in July and had spread through Vietnam’s northern and central regions in August.

Outbreaks have been detected in six provinces so far and some 180,000 birds have been culled, the Animal Health department said yesterday.

The Central Veterinary Diagnosis Centre said the virus appeared similar to the standard strains of bird flu but was more toxic.

The centre will test how much protection existing vaccines for humans offer, the report said.
Afp

[cHeroKee]

New virulent strain of flu found in healthy Korean pigs (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/09/12/new-virulent-strain-of-flu-found-in-healthy-korean-pigs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverHealthMedicine+%28Dis cover+Health+%26+Medicine%29)

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2012/09/Pigs.jpg (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/files/2012/09/Pigs.jpg)



If flu viruses have favoured hook-up spots, then pig pens would be high on the list. Their airways contain molecules that both bird flu viruses and mammalian flu viruses can latch onto. This means that a wide range of flu strains can infect pigs, and if two viruses infect the same cell, they can shuffle their genes to create fresh combinations.


This process is called reassortment. In 2009, it created a strain of flu that leapt from pigs to humans, triggering a global pandemic (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/06/29/from-spanish-to-swine-how-h1n1-kicked-off-a-91-year-pandemic-era/). If we needed proof that pigs are “mixing vessels” for new and dangerous viruses, the pandemic was it.


Now, scientists have found a new strain of flu in Korean pigs (http://www.nature.com/news/need-for-flu-surveillance-reiterated-1.11382) that remphasises the threat. It’s an H1N2, subtly different to the H1N1 virus behind the recent pandemic.


But it’s got all the makings of a serious problem. It can kill ferrets – the animal of choice for representing human flu infections. And it spreads through the air between them. I’ve written about this new strain for Nature News, so head over there for more details. (http://www.nature.com/news/need-for-flu-surveillance-reiterated-1.11382)

[cHeroKee]

97 Residents Suffer Bird Flu in Indonesia- Unverified (http://www.suaramerdeka.com/v1/index.php/read/news/2012/09/19/130345/97-Warga-Wonosobo-Terserang-Flu-Burung)



WONOSOBO, suaramerdeka.com - A total of 97 villagers Plobangan, District Selomerto Wonosobo bird flu on Wednesday (19/9). Residents attacked from three hamlets namely Hamlet Depok, Wonosobo, and Hamlet Plobangan Wetan
All the victims were examined by the medical team gradually local village health centers. Dozens of victims of that number are children of elementary school and the rest of the parents.
The village head Plobangan Ismail said cases of bird flu that hit some residents is the first time this has happened. He said more than..


Also.....
Hundreds of Poultry in Wonosobo Sudden Death

Plobangan Hundreds of poultry in the village, District Selomerto, Wonosobo regency, Central Java, over the past few days found dead suddenly on Wednesday. Birds such as chickens, ducks, and wild duck belonging to several residents who died suddenly were allegedly infected with the bird flu virus.
Plobangan village chief, Ismail, on Thursday (20/09/2012), said, after finding dozens of dead birds suddenly are many people suffering from the flu with fever, and cough. Residents immediately went to the nearest health center.
"Data while there are 97 residents in the village Plobangan who suffer from symptoms of bird flu and have it checked at the village health post (PKD)," he said.
Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (Disnakan) Wonosobo immediately took to the field to make sure the situation. As a result, hundreds of birds died suddenly the bird flu and should be immediately destroyed. In addition, continued Ismail, performed well throughout the spraying desinvektan poultry cages..


http://regional.kompas.com/read/2012/09/20/11441450/Ratusan.Unggas.di.Wonosobo.Mati.Mendadak

[cHeroKee]

Mysterious virus spreads: 10 cases diagnosed (http://www.examiner.com/article/mysterious-virus-spreads-10-cases-diagnosed)



February 11, 2013
By: Effie Orfanides



A mysterious virus spreads (http://www.examiner.com/topic/mysterious-virus-spreads/articles) in London. The SARS-like virus is popping up in the UK and could pose a potential epidemic, not unlike SARS or the Bird Flu. On Feb. 11, ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/uk-sees-10th-case-mysterious-sars-linked-virus-18465355)reported that the new virus is a coronavirus -- a group of viruses that are behind the common cold and other, more serious sicknesses.

"In past cases, patients with the new coronavirus had symptoms including acute breathing problems and kidney failure," ABC News (http://www.examiner.com/news) reports. The 10th patient has been diagnosed with this illness and is currently in the ICU in a London hospital.
The mysterious virus spreads not from human contact -- at least not easily -- according to doctors. It is believed that this virus come from animals like bats or camels. As far as origin, all of the 10 cases of this virus had ties to the Middle East. While this doesn't sound coincidental, the World Health Organization doesn't believe that this virus is "quarantined" in Middle Eastern countries. In 2012, the WHO said the virus was likely more widespread.
Anyone who has symptoms of pneumonia could have this virus. Doctors say that patients who are diagnosed with "unexplained pneumonia" should be tested for this strain.
As this mysterious virus spreads, people find themselves thinking about whether or not this could turn out to be a serious, worldwide threat.

[cHeroKee]

New bird flu kills 8 in China (http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17671756-new-bird-flu-kills-8-in-china?lite)By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News



Eight people have died and 28 confirmed infected with a new type of bird flu in eastern China, the official Xinhua news agency said Tuesday. But officials say China's come a long way in watching for and controlling new disease outbreaks.

Chinese authorities are rushing to test patients with respiratory illness to see how far the new H7N9 bird flu has spread. They’re also starting culls of chickens and other birds, which are suspected of spreading the infection.

The new strain of flu -- never before seen to cause serious illness in people -- appears to have first started making people ill in February. Chinese authorites announced the first cases in March.
Flu occasionally passes from animals to people, and most experts believe that new pandemics of influenza have originated in animals – most likely pigs, but also possibly chickens and ducks. Dr, Arnold Monto, an expert on influenza and other infectious diseases at the University of Michigan, notes that several cases were reported last summer of people infected with a strain of flu called H3N2 from pigs at state fairs.........

[cHeroKee]

Deadly H7N9 bird flu strain continues to spread in China (http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/395018/Deadly-H7N9-bird-flu-strain-continues-to-spread-in-China?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-world-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+World+Feed%29) SCIENTISTS have discovered a case of the H7N9 strain of bird flu in the south eastern province of Fujian, China for the first time today.
By: Dion Dassanayake (http://www.express.co.uk/search/Dion+Dassanayake?s=Dion+Dassanayake&b=1)
<time pubdate="" datetime="2013-04-26T15:32:00Z">Published: Fri, April 26, 2013</time>




<section class="photo"> http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/bird-flu-h7n9-virus-china-395018.jpg
The H7N9 strain of bird flu has so far killed 23 and infected over 100



</section><section class="text-description">The flu was first detected in March, and the virus which was so far has killed 23 and infected over 100 have largely been found in Shanghai.

The local health authorities said a 65-year-old man tested positive for the virus and 37 people had close contact with him but not shown flu symptoms.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said: "This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far."

Experts from the WHO said the H7N9 strain if bird flu is more easily transmitted than the H5N1 strain that killed 350 people worldwide in 2003.

Yesterday scientists in China revealed there is strong evidence that H7N9 bird flu strain is transmitted to humans via live poultry markets.



</section>http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/secondary/29078.jpg

In a study of four people the University of Hong discovered the virus found in one patient was almost exactly the same to that found in a chicken.

Study leader Kwok-Yung Yuen said: "Aggressive intervention to block further animal-to-person transmission in live poultry markets, as has previously been done in Hong Kong, should be considered."

This week, a man in Taiwan become the first case of the flu outside mainland China.

The 53-year-old caught the flu while traveling in China.

[CurtisG]

Cherokee, since you keep a close eye on this kind of stuff, does it seem to you as if the media is mostly ignoring the h7n9? I have only heard of this latest bird flu once recently on FOX, and it was accompanied by a factiod on how common flu deaths are each year.
I'm not suggesting conspiracy, just maybe they are pendulum swinging far away from the scary hype given to flu stories in previous years.

[cHeroKee]

Until the flu can reach a level of opportunity, the news media will ignore it. Regardless, the flu is spreading. Case in point -
Taiwan confirms first H7N9 bird flu case outside China | News You ... (http://genomega1.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/taiwan-confirms-first-h7n9-bird-flu-case-outside-china/)Until the main stream news media is told to cover it, I don't see it showing up much in the news. It will take am American catching the strain for it to make the news.

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 bird flu outbreak could pose 'serious risk' says WHO (http://www.theweek.co.uk/health-science/52829/h7n9-bird-flu-outbreak-could-pose-serious-risk-says-who)

New strain of disease has already killed 24 people in China and is mutating rapidly LAST UPDATED AT 15:07 ON Thu 2 May 2013
DOCTORS in the UK have been warned to look out for a new strain of bird flu that has killed 24 people and infected more than 120 in China. The strain poses a "serious threat" to human health, according to the World Health Organisation.
The H7N9 virus originated in China and so far all but one of the cases have been found there. The other was discovered in neighbouring Taiwan.
It is not thought that the disease can pass from human to human but the Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/flu/10031476/Doctors-warned-to-look-out-for-new-H7N9-bird-flu-virus.html) reports that GPs and health workers have been put on alert and ordered "to report any signs of influenza in people who have recently travelled from China".
The paper adds that around 11,000 Britons travel to China each week, with around 3,500 Chinese visiting this country.
"Experts fear that while the disease is currently only being passed from birds to humans, it is changing rapidly and could start passing directly from person to person, raising the risk of a pandemic," says the paper.
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/01/scientists-concerned-h7n9-bird-flu-outbreak) explains that five mutations are needed for the virus to be able to pass between humans, but it warns that H7N9 already has two of them. If it mutates again "it could spread worldwide with lethal effect".
According to the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22364628) "predicting which viruses will become deadly on a global scale is impossible", but it quotes Prof Jeremy Farrar, director-elect of the Wellcome Trust, who said: "Whenever an influenza virus jumps across from its normal host in bird populations into humans it is a cause for concern... It cannot be taken lightly."
He added that as the victims ranged in age between two and 81, it suggested that if a pandemic did occur it would put everyone at risk. Often older people are immune as they have been exposed to similar viruses in the past.

The last major bird flu virus to affect humans, H5N1, killed more than 300 people but can still not spread between humans. ·

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 'a mix of four flu strains' (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8232641.html)
By Hu Min (Shanghai Daily (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)) 09:41, May 05, 2013 http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/img/2011english/images/icon16.gif http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/img/2011english/images/icon17.gif (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8232641.html#) http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/img/2011english/images/icon18.gif (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8232641.html#)
A new type of "quadruple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from four flu strains found in birds led to the H7N9 bird flu outbreak, researchers said yesterday.

One of those genes of the strain is likely to have come from migratory birds in East Asia, and the H7 influenza virus was later transmitted to ducks in the Yangtze River Delta region during migration, said researchers with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and universities.

The possible source of another gene was migratory birds. Another six gene segments are traceable to chickens in Shanghai and Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and the H9N2 virus.

Meanwhile, a seriously infected H7N9 victim was discharged from a hospital in Zhejiang Province on Friday, the first seriously infected patient to recover, Xinhua news agency reported.

[Toni]

A string of avian influenza outbreaks in Indonesia has brought the country's death toll from the disease to a global high of 103, as scientists here deal with a lack of infrastructure and funding to fight the virus.

103 people out of a few billion. Sounds like we have a pandemic on our hands. Heck, doctors in the U.S. alone kill a greater percentage of people than that. I wonder if people struck by lightning would exceed that number. We better find a way to fight doctors - and maybe lightning. Declare a global emergency and fight everything that kills more than three people a year globally! (Oh, except for those sanctioned by TPTB.)

[Toni]

Oops. I didn't realize I was looking at such an old post. Still (more currently), 24 people dead and 120 people infected in a country the size of China?! How is that terrifying? More people die by knife or in car accidents.

[cHeroKee]

Oops. I didn't realize I was looking at such an old post. Still (more currently), 24 people dead and 120 people infected in a country the size of China?! How is that terrifying? More people die by knife or in car accidents.


The Thread is "old" but the post is not. I add new news to the same "old" thread to keep the news in one place.

[Toni]

The Thread is "old" but the post is not. I add new news to the same "old" thread to keep the news in one place.

That makes sense.

[cHeroKee]

3 more die of bird flu in China; toll hits 35 (http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/asia/236991-3-more-die-of-bird-flu-in-china-toll-hits-35.html) Tuesday, 14 May 2013
BEIJING: Three more people have died in China from the new strain of H7N9 bird flu virus, raising the death toll to 35, while the total number of infections rose to 130, state media said yesterday.
Without giving details of the deaths, Xinhua news agency said a new case of the H7N9, described by the World Health Organisation as one of the most lethal flu viruses around, was found in China’s east Jiangxi province.
There has so far been no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, a point reiterated by Xinhua, citing health authorities. It said 57 of those infected have recovered. Chinese scientists say the virus has been transmitted to humans from chickens, though WHO says 40 percent of people infected with H7N9 had no contact with poultry.
Since it was detected in March, the H7N9 virus has raised alarm and pummelled Chinese demand for poultry. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain of bird flu cannot start a pandemic but said there is no guarantee it will not mutate and cause a serious pandemic.

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 more likely to transmit among humans (http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-05/19/content_28865764.htm) <dl id="guild"><dd> Xinhua, May 19, 2013


A China, World Health Organization (WHO) joint report said the H7N9 bird flu virus has a higher potential for human-to-human transmission than any other known bird flu virus.

The report, compiled after the WHO's week-long field assessment of the influenza, was publicized by China's National Health and Family Planning Commission on Saturday.
It said, the H7N9 virus, compared with other bird flu virus, has infected more in a shorter time, and some H7N9 virus have shown genetic alterations which means they have adapted to be more contagious than other avian influenza virus.
Besides, the WHO offered the Chinese government several suggestions, including staying alert despite the virus' seasonal weakening during the summer, as the virus poses grave hazards and a lot of its basic information are still not known.
The report admitted there are still uncertainties surrounding this fresh strain of virus, asserting that exposure to live poultry is a major risk factor.
The WHO last month sent a joint mission of experts to China to survey areas affected by H7N9 in Shanghai and Beijing for a week-long assessment of the influenza.
From Late March when the first H7N9 case was reported to May 13, the Chinese mainland had reported a total of 130 confirmed H7N9 cases. Thirty-five of these cases ended in death, and 57 patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital, according to official statistics.

</dd></dl>

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 bird flu spreads much like ordinary flu (http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/23/18449728-h7n9-bird-flu-spreads-much-like-ordinary-flu?lite)By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News



The H7N9 bird flu can spread from one mammal to another – meaning it could also spread person to person, an international team of researchers reported Thursday.

Researchers haven’t been exactly sure how H7N9 is spreading. They know it can infect people – it’s infected more than 130 people and killed more than 30 of them – but they have suspected most of the victims had some sort of contact with infected poultry.
The research team, led by Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong, tried infecting ferrets – the animals closest to humans when it comes to catching flu.

The animals could infect one another by direct contact in cages. And one ferret kept in a separate cage was infected as well, they report in this week’s issue of the journal Science.
“Under appropriate conditions human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 virus may be possible,” they wrote.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says he is not too worried by the findings. “We already know you can infect mammals,” said Fauci, who was not involved in the research.
“That is what influenza does. We know that. You are talking about a handful of ferrets. You can’t make major extrapolations.”
Officials are keeping a close eye on H7N9 because it has the potential to cause a human pandemic. So far, it doesn’t seem to infect people easily and people who are infected do not seem to spread it to others much, if at all. But influenza viruses change quickly and unpredictably and if one starts passing easily from one person to another, it could spread.
The experiment also showed that the ferrets could pass the infection before they started showing symptoms. Human flu does this too – that’s why it spreads so quickly and easily every year, because people are out and about, touching others, before they know they are sick.
“If this virus acquires the ability to efficiently transmit from human-to-human, extensive spread of this virus may be inevitable, as quarantine measures will lag behind its spread,” the researchers wrote in Science.
“Assuming that poultry is the source of the H7N9 virus, continued prevalence of this virus could lead to it becoming endemic in poultry as has occurred with the Asian highly pathogenic H5N1 and H9N2 virus lineages," they added. Endemic viruses are established and cause constant outbreaks.
"If so, the opportunities for the H7N9 virus to evolve to acquire human-to-human transmissibility, or to be introduced to pigs, would greatly increase. To prevent this happening, it may be advisable to reconsider the management of live poultry markets, especially in the urban areas.”
New H7N9 infections appear to have trailed off in China. World Health Organization officials say it might be because officials are closing poultry markets and cleaning them. Or it could be because it’s spring and influenza tends to die down in the spring.
Marc-Alain Widdowson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the virus doesn’t make poultry sick, so it could spread quietly and easily.


“One thing that we are particularly worried about is there is a tremendous amount of poultry that goes from China into Vietnam,” said Widdowson, who visited China with a CDC team to investigate the outbreak.

“One of the things we are looking at is ramping up surveillance in bird markers and in the population.”


People who buy an infected chicken won’t know, because H7N9 doesn’t make the birds sick they way H5N1 does, Widdowson says. “It worries me substantially,” he said.
“There’s absolutely no doubt it has got some very concerning mutations which suggest it may be adapting to human receptors. These make it closer to what we are all fearing, which is a virus that can spread sustainably humans to human and cause severe disease.”

[cHeroKee]

Two die after bird flu virus resists treatment (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/28/two-die-h7n9-bird-flu-resists-treatment) The Lancet reports that H7N9 is already showing the ability to mutate to avoid treatment with Tamiflu




James Meikle (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamesmeikle)

guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), <time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2013-05-28T11:08EDT" pubdate="">Tuesday 28 May 2013 11.08 EDT</time>






http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Columnists/Columnists/2013/5/28/1369753543779/Tamiflu-for-treating-bird-010.jpg

Tamiflu tablets are already proving ineffective against some cases of the H7N9 virus. Photograph: Marianna Day Massey/ZUMA/Corbis


Scientists say they have found the first cases of the new bird flu (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bird-flu) virus – which has so far killed 36 people and been confirmed in 95 others in China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china) – being resistant to treatment with Tamiflu (http://www.tamiflu.com/) or similar drugs.
The analysis of the course of the H7N9 bird flu (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bird-flu) virus and use of antivirals in 14 patients, reported in the Lancet medical journal, (http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/pdfs/S0140673613611253.pdf) found that three severely ill people did not respond to the group of medicines that are the standard weapon against threatened flu pandemics. Two died and the third still needed specialist equipment to oxygenate their blood at the time the research paper was submitted.
The authors, from Shanghai and Hong Kong, said that in these cases genetic testing showed a mutation. In one patient, it seemed to have occured after the infection took hold, probably as a result of the treatment.
"The apparent ease with which antiviral resistance emerges in (H7N9) viruses is concerning: it needs to be closely monitored and considered in future pandemic response plans."
However, they say that in most cases, treatment with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) "even when started 48 hours or more after disease onset, was associated with falling viral load in most patients … Therefore, early treatment of suspected or confirmed cases is strongly encouraged".

[cHeroKee]

Mild strain of bird flu contained on Arkansas poultry farm (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/usa-poultry-flu-meat-idUSL2N0EW22420130620?rpc=401)
Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:02pm EDT


By Theopolis Waters

June 20(Reuters) - A low-pathogenic strain of avian influenza was found on an Arkansas poultry farm, but was quickly contained and did not appear to be a threat to other poultry farms in the nation's second largest chicken state, a state poultry official said. "We're pretty certain this was isolated to just this one farm. USDA is there with us on hand as we work the next few weeks to make sure it's contained," said Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission director Preston Scroggin. The influenza is a milder strain of the flu that killed dozens of people in China and crippled its poultry industry. Testing found about eight birds in the Arkansas flock of 9,000 were positive for the H7N7 low-pathogen avian flu, Scroggin said. The flock was humanly euthanized and buried and the eggs they produced were destroyed. The farm and all farms within a 6.2-mile radius of it were quarantined. No additional cases were found on nearby farms. The Arkansas farm supplied birds to Tyson Foods Inc , Scroggin said. Poultry farms 30 to 40 miles away from the site sent in birds for testing and they have come back negative, he said. Scroggin said the farm is in Scott County in western Arkansas and raises hens that produce eggs for chickens. Tyson Foods, which supplied the birds and feed to the farmer who owns the facility, learned of the problem through routine testing last week. Tyson immediately notified the poultry commission, which conducted follow-up tests and sent test samples to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's lab in Ames, Iowa for confirmation. "We're working cooperatively with the USDA and the Arkansas Agriculture Department regarding a flock of breeder chickens that contracted a low pathogenic, or mild strain of avian influenza," said Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson. Tyson has since heightened its bio-security measures and surveillance of avian influenza, said Mickelson. It also plan to test all area breeder farms that serve the company, as well as any contract broiler farms within a six mile radius of the affected farm, he said. Neither the meat or the eggs would have entered the human consumption chain. Also, the virus does not pose a threat to humans, state and industry officials said.</pre>

[cHeroKee]

Taiwan reports first human case of H6N1 bird flu to world health body (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1266258/taiwan-reports-first-human-case-h6n1-bird-flu-world-health-body)

Taiwanese woman is first person to catch H6N1 flu strain; experts search for source of infection and play down fear of human-to-human spread








Taiwan reported the world's first human case of H6N1 bird flu infection yesterday but appealed for calm, saying no sign of human-to-human transmission had been detected.

The patient, a 20-year-old woman who worked at a breakfast shop in Changhua county, central Taiwan, was admitted to hospital on May 8 with a high fever and respiratory problems, health officials said.
They said X-rays showed she was suffering from slight pneumonia, and the woman recovered and left the hospital on May 11 after being treated with anti-bird-flu medication.
The hospital told the health authorities on May 20 that it had been unable to determine the type of virus.
"We received the hospital's report," Chou Jih-haw, deputy director of the island's Centres of Disease Control, said in Taipei yesterday, and after further examination of the samples and comparison of the genetic sequence, the centres found the patient had the H6N1 flu strain.
H6N1 is a mild form of flu that has been found only in wild birds or in poultry in the past 15 years.
As it did not kill poultry and birds had a natural resistance to it, the virus was not listed as one that required reporting to the World Health Organisation, health officials said.
It is third bird flu strain to emerge in humans in China.
Another strain of bird flu, H5N1, first jumped the species barrier in Hong Kong in 1997 and has since killed more than 380 people worldwide. And this year H7N9 began infecting people on the mainland, and has killed 37 of 133 people infected.
Chou said the centres were trying to find out how the patient was infected, because she had never been abroad and had no history of contact with poultry. He said the Centres of Disease Control had reported the case to the WHO.
He appealed to the public to remain calm, saying the Centres of Disease Control checked 36 people who had been in contact with the patient and found that none had the H6N1 virus.
Dr Chuang Jen-hsiang, director of the Centres of Disease Control's epidemic department, said: "There has been no report or evidence of person-to-person transmission in this case."
Quarantine officials said they had collected samples from two poultry farms near the patient's home, but no H6N1 virus was detected. They ordered poultry farmers in Taiwan to implement strict sanitation controls.
Some Taiwanese experts suspect the infection could have been caused by the patient's everyday contact with eggs.
Hong Kong health experts said the human infection in Taiwan was an isolated case.
H6N1 has been found in fowl and quail in Hong Kong and other areas before, but University of Hong Kong microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the risk of infection was lower now because ducks and geese are no longer sold in the city's wet markets.
The concern now, he said, was whether there were more H6N1 human infections, what the source and route of transmission were, and whether there was any human-to-human transmission. For the time being, travellers did not need to worry about going to Taiwan as long as they did not visit farms or markets, he said.
Professor Paul Chan Kay-sheung, head of microbiology at Chinese University, said H6N1 did not usually make birds ill, but it could mutate to become highly pathogenic.

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 bird flu kills about 1/3 of hospitalized patients: study (http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/314220/news/world/h7n9-bird-flu-kills-about-1-3-of-hospitalized-patients-study)
June 24, 2013 8:42am





PARIS - The H7N9 bird flu that hit China this year killed over a third of hospitalized patients, said researchers Monday who labeled the virus "less serious" but probably more widespread than previously thought.


They warned watchdogs not to take comfort from a lull in new infections, as the virus may reappear in the autumn.

In what they described as the most complete picture of the virus' severity, researchers in Beijing and Hong Kong found that H7N9 proved fatal in 36 percent of patients admitted to hospital in mainland China.

This was a lower fatality rate than H5N1-type bird flu which emerged in 2003 and killed about 60 percent of hospitalized patients.

It was higher, though, than the H1N1 "swine flu" outbreak of 2009-10, which had a 21-percent death rate among people requiring hospitalisation.

A total 131 human infections have been recorded on the Chinese mainland since the outbreak started in February, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its last monthly update.

Of these, 123 were admitted to hospital, and 39 died.

One other case was recorded in Taiwan.

The virus is believed to spread to humans from birds. The fear is that it could mutate into a form transmissible from human to human.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, the researchers estimated that between 0.16 percent and 2.8 percent of all people infected with H7N9, and who displayed symptoms of flu, were at statistical risk of dying.

"Human infections with avian influenza A H7N9 virus seem to be less serious than has been previously reported," they wrote.

But many mild, unreported cases may have occurred—between 1,500 and 27,000—said the study, urging "continued vigilance and sustained intensive control efforts".

In a separate paper also published by The Lancet, the researchers said there was a possibility H7N9 could rebound within months.

"The warm season has now begun in China, and only one new laboratory-confirmed case of H7N9 in human beings has been identified since May 8, 2013. If H7N9 follows a similar pattern to H5N1, the epidemic could reappear in the autumn," they wrote.

"This potential lull should be an opportunity for discussion of definitive preventive public health measures, optimisation of clinical management, and capacity building in the region in view of the possibility that H7N9 could spread beyond China's borders."

The team also estimated the virus' incubation period—the time between infection and the onset of symptoms—at about three days, shorter than previous estimates.

Last month, a study in The Lancet said laboratory tests had revealed resistance in some H7N9 patients to the only available treatment.

And the results of a lab study published in the US journal Science showed the H7N9 strain can spread among mammals, specifically ferrets, and could do the same between humans under certain conditions.

H7 influenza viruses comprise a group that normally circulate among birds, of which H7N9 forms a subgroup that had never been found in humans until the Chinese outbreak.

In a comment on the studies, The Lancet said that while the number of new cases had stalled, probably in response to authorities closing live bird markets, the threat persisted.

"Continued monitoring of infections, together with near-real-time estimation of case fatality risk and serological surveys, remains crucial," it said. —Agence France-Presse

[cHeroKee]

Report: New H7N9 bird flu virus deadlier than H1N1 swine flu (http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/report-new-h7n9-bird-flu-virus-deadlier-than-h1n1-swine-flu)
Posted: 06/24/2013
By: CNN Wire



The H7N9 bird flu virus, first identified in humans earlier this year, kills about 36% of infected people admitted to hospitals in China, according to a new report published Sunday in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Far more difficult to estimate, according to the study, is how many die in the general population after becoming infected, as the most severe cases are also more likely to lead to hospitalization.


That estimate -- a 0.16% to 2.8% overall fatality rate for those showing symptoms of infection -- suggests that the H7N9 virus is less deadly than the H5N1 Bird Flu first appearing in 2003, and more deadly than the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.


Others infected with the virus may never show symptoms.
"There's almost always a large portion of asymptomatic (flu virus) cases, and cases where infected people don't seek treatment," says Dr. Gabriel Leung, one of the study's authors and head of the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health.


The rate of infections seen earlier this year has nearly stopped entirely at 132 total confirmed cases, almost all in China and one in Taiwan, according to the World Health Organization and the study. Thirty-seven people have died. Only one case has appeared since May 8 - a 6-year-old boy in Beijing.


Still, public health officials warn that number could significantly rise again during the autumn flu season.
In contrast to H1N1 swine flu, which is now part of the seasonal flu vaccine, H7N9 and H5N1 flu viruses most commonly occur after exposure to infected poultry, and do not appear to spread easily from person-to-person.
In April, the World Health Organization warned the H7N9 virus was "one of the most lethal" that doctors and medical investigators had faced in recent years.


"The preemptive closure of live poultry markets made a difference," says Leung. "They were closed within weeks of the initial cluster of cases in and around the Yangtze delta. If those live poultry markets are reopened, we may expect to see cases again."


Symptoms of H7N9 flu infection start with high fever and cough, and in severe cases progress to pneumonia and multi-organ failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


The risk to people in the United States is low, and no cases have been detected in the country, the CDC says.

[cHeroKee]

AP/ April 3, 2013, 6:31 AM
China's deadly new H7N9 bird flu virus may be harder to track than predecessors, scientists say (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57577666/)

BeijingScientists taking a first look at the genetics of a bird flu strain that has killed three people in China said Wednesday that the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread among poultry without showing any signs.

The scientists, at several research institutes around the world, urged Chinese veterinary authorities to widely test animals and birds in affected regions to quickly detect and eliminate the H7N9 virus before it becomes widespread.


They said the virus is troubling because it can infect poultry without producing any symptoms, while seriously sickening humans. The virus, previously known to have infected only birds, appears to have mutated, enabling it to more easily infect other animals, including pigs, which could serve as hosts and spread the virus more widely among humans, they said.
The findings are preliminary and need further testing.


China over the weekend reported two deaths in Shanghai in the strain's first known infections of humans. On Wednesday it announced an additional fatality -- a 38-year-old cook working in Jiangsu province, where other cases also have been reported.
The cook went home to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province for treatment after falling ill in early March, and died March 27.


One other person in Hangzhou, a 67-year-old retiree, was in critical condition, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, bringing the number of seriously ill H7N9 patients in three eastern provinces to six. Those regions stepped up measures this week to guard against the spread of the disease, calling on hospitals to report severe pneumonia cases with unknown causes and schools to monitor for fevers.


In the wake of the outbreak, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention shared the genetic sequence of the new virus with the global health community. The data allow scientists to make preliminary interpretations of how the virus might behave in different animals and situations. Such hypotheses, while not conclusive, can help provide important early warnings to authorities dealing with the disease.


The scientists said that based on information from the genetic data and Chinese lab testing, the H7N9 virus appears to infect some birds without causing any noticeable symptoms. Without obvious outbreaks of dying chickens or birds to focus efforts on, authorities could face a challenge in trying to trace the source of the infection and stop the spread.

"We speculate that when this virus is maintained in poultry the disease will not appear, and similar in pigs, if they are infected, so nobody recognizes the infection in animals around them, then the transmission from animal to human may occur," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of the World Health Organization's influenza research center in Tokyo and one of the specialists who studied the genetic data. "In terms of this phenomenon, it's more problematic."


This behavior is unlike the virus's more established relative, the virulent H5N1 strain, which set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003. H5N1 has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.


"In that sense, if this continues to spread throughout China and beyond China, it would be an even bigger problem than with H5N1 in some sense, because with H5N1 you can see evidence of poultry dying, but here you can see this would be more or less a silent virus in poultry species that will occasionally infect humans," said University of Hong Kong microbiologist Malik Peiris, who also examined the information.



Scientists closely monitor bird flu viruses, fearing they may change and become easier to spread among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic. There's no evidence of that happening in China.


Peiris praised Chinese health authorities for being forthcoming with data and information, but said animal health agencies needed to act quickly. He urged China to widely test healthy birds in live animal markets in the parts of the country where the human infections have been reported to find out what bird species might be hosting the virus and stop the spread.
"If you don't stamp it out earlier now, there won't be any chance of stamping it out in the future," Peiris said. "It already may be too late, but this is the small window of opportunity that really one has to grasp, as quickly as possible."


The Agriculture Ministry's propaganda office could not be reached by phone and did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions.


Other information gleaned from the genetic data was that the H7N9 virus was what scientists call a "gene re-assortant" - in which three bird viruses swapped genes among themselves - undergoing changes that allowed it to adapt more easily, though not fully, to human hosts, WHO's Tashiro said. One change has allowed it to lodge on the surfaces of cells of mammals, making it easier to infect humans.


"The tentative assessment of this virus is that it may cause human infection or epidemic. It is still not yet adapted to humans completely, but important factors have already changed," Tashiro said.


In China, the public is highly sensitized to news of infectious disease outbreaks, with many still recalling the SARS pneumonia scare a decade ago, when the government stayed silent while rumors circulated for weeks of an unidentified disease in southern Guangdong province. The cover-up contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other countries, killing hundreds of people.


While many foreign health experts say China is being far more forthcoming this time than during the SARS scare, the government still faces credibility questions at home as it tries to juggle the need to respond to calls by the public for more information and the need to prevent unnecessary panic.


"The H7N9 bird flu is currently approaching. Ten years ago, the lesson learned in fighting SARS was: The greatest enemy is not the virus, but covering up the truth; the best medicine is not steroids, but transparency and trust," Yang Yu, a commentator with state broadcaster CCTV, said in a post on his microblog. "No matter what H7N9 is, now, the time to test the progress of Chinese society over the past 10 years has come."

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 avian flu

The influenza A(H7N9) virus is one subgroup among the larger group of H7 viruses that normally circulate among birds. A number of human infections of the H7N9 virus have been reported in eastern China, mostly in the Yangtze River Delta region since late March 2013. Some of the patients have died of severe pneumonia brought on by the virus.

H7N9 is most adapted bird flu for human-to-human transmission, say experts (http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1273364/h7n9-most-adapted-bird-flu-human-human-transmission-say-experts)

Researchers say interventions have curbed the virus, but it may rebound in winter



The new H7N9 virus that has emerged on the mainland in recent months is more likely to be transmissible between humans than any other known bird flu virus, Chinese and world experts have concluded after investigations in affected areas.



They based their conclusion on the fact that the virus has caused more human infections in a shorter period than any other bird flu virus, and that it has undergone genetic changes that suggested it is better adapted to infecting humans.



"The virus appears to be very transmissible from poultry to human, implying that it could more easily become transmissible between humans," said Professor Malik Peiris, head of virology at the University of Hong Kong and one of 14 experts who took part in the study.



The virus appears to be very transmissible from poultry to human, implying that it could more easily become transmissible between humans

Professor Malik Peiris, head of virology at the University of Hong Kong





The findings were published last month after a joint mission by the World Health Organisation, Chinese health authorities and international influenza experts spent a week in Beijing and Shanghai in April.



There were 132 cases of H7N9 human infections reported from February to May, a much higher rate of infection than H5N1 virus, which was responsible for about 60 cases a year over the past 10 years. In the first human outbreak of H5N1 in Hong Kong in 1997, 18 cases were reported, according to the WHO.



There have so far been no cases of human-to-human transmission of either H7N9 or H5N1, but H7N9 has mutated genetically to allow it to bind to human cells, while H5N1 has not.
Another strain named H9N2 has some of these mutations but it very rarely infected humans, Peiris said.



The joint mission report recommended ongoing monitoring of human and animal populations in all mainland provinces to identify any signs that the H7N9 virus was spreading geographically, gaining the ability to infect humans more easily, or transmitting efficiently among humans.
An H7N9 vaccine is being developed by the WHO.



The virus appears to have become less active, with no new infections in the past month. Peiris said it was likely that intervention and the virus' seasonal pattern played a role in curbing it.
Mainland authorities have closed live poultry markets in Shanghai and other affected areas and there have been no new cases since.



Bird flu is less active in warmer weather, but cases go up as the temperature falls.
Peiris said: "What many of us believe is that H7N9 will not completely disappear in poultry. It may appear again in winter."

[cHeroKee]

Why H7N9 bird flu cases arose so quickly (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/07/03/why-h7n-bird-flu-cases-arose-so-quickly/)

By Rachael Rettner (http://www.foxnews.com/archive/author/rachael-rettner/index.html)
<time itemprop="pubdate" datetime="2013-07-03T15:00-04:00">Published July 03, 2013</time>LiveScience




The H7N9 bird flu virus appears to be particularly well adapted to jump from birds to people, a new study from China finds.


In the study, the H7N9 virus (http://www.livescience.com/28767-bird-flu-virus-h7n9-evolved.html)http://global.fncstatic.com/static/v/all/img/external-link.png was able to bind to receptors on both human and bird cells. Thats different from the H5N1 bird flu virus, which bound more strongly to receptors on bird cells, and the H1N1 flu virus, which bound more strongly to receptors on human cells.


The ability of H7N9 to bind to both "human type" and "avian type" receptors may be one reason why the virus was able to cause so many cases of infection so quickly, experts say.


"We are seeing more transmission, faster, with this H7N9 than we saw with H5N1," said Robert Webster, a bird flu expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., who was not involved with the study.
The new virus first showed up in China in February, and so far, has infected 132 people, including 39 who have died.
Webster stressed that the receptor binding ability was not the only factor that makes the virus so worrying. Flu viruses have eight gene segments, and multiple changes in each of the segments are needed to allow the virus to transmit between people. Because of its genetic changes, H7N9 appears to be "closer" to becoming a transmissible virus compared to the H5N1 virus (http://www.livescience.com/18551-flu-h5n1-experiments-explained.html)http://global.fncstatic.com/static/v/all/img/external-link.png, Webster said.


So far, there have been no reports of sustained human-to-human transmission of H7N9. The new study also suggested one reason why this might be: The virus grows well in lung tissue, but not as well in the trachea where it could be transmitted through a cough or sneeze. If the virus adapts to thrive farther up the respiratory tract, it may more easily pass between people.


The study also found that, as suspected, the general public does not have immunity to H7N9, which means they are at risk for infection.


The pandemic threat of H7N9 "should not be underestimated," the researchers wrote in the July 4 issue of the journal Nature.


However, the outbreak appears to be dwindling this summer there have been no reports of new H7N9 cases (http://www.livescience.com/29515-bird-flu-h7n9-case-decline.html)http://global.fncstatic.com/static/v/all/img/external-link.png since the end of May. Shutting all the poultry markets in Shanghai, an action taken by China health officials, may have contributed to this decline, Webster said. But H7N9 may return in the colder months, he said.

[cHeroKee]

Scientists issue warning over new bird flue strain (http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/165332/)


http://media.pn.am/media/issue/165/332/photo/165332.jpg
July 11, 2013 - 20:10 AMT



PanARMENIAN.Net - A new strain of bird flu that has already claimed 37 lives in China has traits that make it a potential global threat, say scientists, Belfast Telegraph reported.

Researchers tested the ability of the H7N9 virus to infect several mammal species including ferrets and monkeys. They found that as well as readily invading the lungs, it could be spread like seasonal flu by coughing and sneezing.

Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, and Tokyo University in Japan, who led the international team, said: "H7N9 viruses have several features typically associated with human influenza viruses and therefore possess pandemic potential and need to be monitored closely."

Most bird flu viruses do not infect humans. But H7N9 has so far infected at least 132 people, more than a fifth of whom have died. Several instances of human-to-human infection are suspected.

In monkeys the H7N9 virus efficiently infected cells in both the upper and lower respiratory tract, the scientists reported in the journal Nature. Most human flu viruses are restricted to the upper airway of non-human primates.

Transmission studies were conducted in ferrets, which like humans possess the ability to cough and sneeze. One of the H7N9 sub-strains isolated from humans was found to transmit via respiratory droplets, though not as efficiently as human flu viruses.
A major problem associated with the virus is that it infects poultry birds without killing them, making surveillance difficult.

A more positive outcome from the research was the discovery that most H7N9 strains are sensitive to the antiviral drugs effective against seasonal flu. One strain, which appeared to be a mix of two H7N9 variants, showed signs of resistance against the drug Tamiflu.

[cHeroKee]

Ferret Study Shows H7N9 Could Transmit Between Humans (http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112902373/h7n9-bird-flu-could-mutate-transmit-humans-071913/) July 19, 2013


The H7N9 bird flu (http://www.redorbit.com/topics/bird-flu/) strain that broke out in China earlier this year, sickening more than 130 and resulting in at least 43 deaths, has so far remained largely non-transmissible between humans. Regardless, that has been one of the most pressing questions to date, with fears that a move to human-to-human transmissions could spark a global pandemic (http://www.redorbit.com/topics/pandemic/).

As well, cases of the 2013 outbreak have seemed to grind to a halt, with only two laboratory-confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2013_07_04/en/index.html)) since May 29.


But a recent study, published online in the journal Science (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/07/17/science.1240532.full), has shown that the virus does have the ability to become airborne between mammals, after three experiments involving ferrets have shown positive transmission results.
Ferret models are typically regarded as the most accurate ways to assess human-to-human transmission and the researchers had intentionally infected the animals to test their theory.


Hualan Chen, of China‘s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, and colleagues report that they have isolated a sample of the H7N9 strain that was shown to be “highly transmissible” via respiratory droplets.


When Chen and his team inoculated three ferrets in one cage with the sample strain from a person who fell ill in the Anhui province, three ferrets in an adjacent cage all became infected. After analyzing the strains, the team found that all three infected ferrets in the separate cage had the same strain as those in the first. The team had similar results in two subsequent tests, although in the first follow-up, only one of the three ferrets in the separate cage fell ill, and only one in the third cage fell ill using a sample strain taken from a bird.
While some may argue that ferret models have limitations, Chen and colleagues noted that their findings show that H7N9 could in fact become a future problem.



“Currently, implementation of compulsory control measures in H7N9 virus-positive live poultry markets is preventing further human infections; however, the elimination of the H7N9 virus from nature is a huge and long-term challenge,” they wrote. “Its replication in humans will provide further opportunities for the virus to acquire more mutations and become more virulent and transmissible in the human population.”


Chen’s results were not duplicated in a different control setting use the same Anhui sample. A group of researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/)) came to a much different conclusion in their study.
After inoculating two groups of three ferrets, the team found that the disease spread to only two of six ferrets in an adjacent cage. The CDC team reported in the 10 July issue of Nature that their virus “did not transmit readily by respiratory droplets.”


The CDC team emphasizes “that additional virus adaptation in mammals would be required to reach the high-transmissible phenotypes observed by the respiratory droplet route with pandemic and seasonal influenza A (http://www.redorbit.com/topics/influenza-a-virus/) viruses.” They noted this was in sharp contrast to Chen’s findings.


In a second study also published in the same issue of Nature, a team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka (http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/people/kawaokay/), a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Tokyo, reported that the Anhui sample infected one in three ferrets — the same percentage as what was seen in the CDC study.


However, Kawaoka concurs with Chen’s team that the virus poses “a formidable threat to public health” due to respiratory transmission.


Although Chen’s findings are somewhat different than what was found in the CDC and Kawaoka findings, virologist Ron Fouchier (http://www.erasmusmc.nl/MScMM/faculty/CVs/fouchier_cv?lang=en) of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said the results were more similar than it seemed.
“H7N9 clearly transmits via aerosol or respiratory droplets in ferrets,” says Fouchier, whose own studies with ferrets inoculated with the H5N1 subtype drew worldwide criticism (http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112477529/bird-flu-research-to-remain-unpublished-for-now/) when he intentionally made the bird flu virus transmit through respiratory droplets to tease out responsible mutations. “In general, human flu viruses transmit in 100 percent of ferrets, avian in 0 percent, and this one is in between.”


It is likely the debate is not over on transmissibility in H7N9. Fouchier noted that the experiments in these studies included too few ferrets to draw definitive conclusions on transmissibility between humans.
“Do you say the glass is half full or half empty?” Fouchier asks. The CDC researchers “are the optimists, while the other groups are more pessimistic.” He said right now the bottom line is that we are fortunate that the disease is not being spread efficiently between humans. But all it will take is a few mutations and we could see it easily adapt into a full-blown pandemic via human-to-human transmissions.


This H7N9 outbreak still requires close monitoring to see how it behaves in birds and humans.

[CurtisG]

I think I am an optimist, but the pessimist in me knows that it is a matter of time before we get a very deadly, highly contagious virus.

[cHeroKee]

Bird flu strain infects first human (http://www.3news.co.nz/Bird-flu-strain-infects-first-human/tabid/417/articleID/321364/Default.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+co%2FMvia+%283News+-+International+News%29) Thursday 14 Nov 2013

By Maria Cheng




A strain of bird flu that scientists thought could not infect people has shown up in a Taiwanese woman, a nasty surprise that shows scientists must do more to spot worrisome flu strains before they ignite a global outbreak, doctors say.
On a more hopeful front, a company on Wednesday reported encouraging results from its first human tests of a possible vaccine against a different type of bird flu that has been spreading through Asia since first appearing in China last spring that is feared to have pandemic potential.
The woman, 20, was hospitalised in May with a lung infection. After being treated with Tamiflu and antibiotics, she was released. One of her throat swabs was sent to the Taiwan Centres for Disease Control. Experts there identified it as the H6N1 bird flu, widely circulating in chickens on the island.
The patient, who was not identified, worked in a deli and had no known connection to live birds. Investigators couldn't figure out how she was infected. But they noted several of her close family and friends also developed flu-like symptoms after spending time with her, though none tested positive for H6N1. The research was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Since the H5N1 bird flu strain first broke out in southern China in 1996, public health officials have been nervously monitoring its progress - it has so far killed more than 600 people, mostly in Asia. Several other bird flu strains, including H7N9, which was first identified in China in April, have also caused concern but none has so far mutated into a form able to spread easily among people.

[cHeroKee]

"Because they can mutate so rapidly, we need a fast way to test lots of potential drugs at once to keep up. It is an arms race."

New Avian Flu Virus Emerges in Taiwan: Researchers Working to Prevent Infection (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131114193159.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily% 3A+Latest+Science+News%29)
Nov. 14, 2013 — A novel strain of influenza A, H6N1, has been reported in a 20-year old woman in Taiwan. Health officials fear the virus, which is very similar in structure to the H7N9 avian flu virus which killed 45 and infected 139 people in China last year, may infect more people.
Michael Caffrey, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is an expert on avian influenza viruses. In a recently published paper in PLOS One, he reported that a compound commonly used as a food preservative was able to prevent H7N9 from entering cells. The virus is hosted by domestic chickens, so preventing it from spreading among these birds, possibly through adding the preservative to their feed, could be a simple but effective way of keeping the viral load down in the host and preventing the virus from spilling over into humans.
Lijun Rong, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Illinois at Chicago also focuses on preventing emerging viruses from infecting cells. Rong uses a high-throughput screening protocol to test hundreds of potential drugs and agents for their virus-blocking potential. The viruses he studies include Marburg, Ebola, SARS, avian influenza and HIV- some of the most dangerous viruses known to humankind. By removing proteins on the virus surface involved in recognizing, binding to and entering host cells, and affixing them to much less dangerous viruses, Rong can safely test agents that interfere cell infection. "One-at-a-time drug testing is no longer a viable method for finding drugs against these emerging viruses," Rong says. "Because they can mutate so rapidly, we need a fast way to test lots of potential drugs at once to keep up. It is an arms race."

[cHeroKee]

U.S. FDA approves GSK's bird flu vaccine for national stockpile
<span class="articleLocatio</span>n">(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it has approved a vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc for use in the event of an H5N1 bird flu epidemic.

</span> The vaccine, Pandemrix, will be added to the national stockpile and will not be available for commercial use, the FDA said.
It is the first H5N1 vaccine approved in the United States to contain an adjuvant, or booster, that turbo-charges the body's immune response to the vaccine.
"This vaccine could be used in the event that the H5N1 avian influenza virus develops the capability to spread efficiently from human to human, resulting in the rapid spread of disease across the globe," Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's biologics division, said in a statement.
The FDA approved the vaccine for use in people over the age of ........



more (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/22/us-glaxosmithkline-vaccine-pandemic-idUSBRE9AL14Q20131122)

[cHeroKee]

Quarantine for 17 after HK bird flu confirmed
Source: AFP | December 4, 2013, Wednesday |

Hong Kong will quarantine 17 people after the city confirmed its first human case of the deadly H7N9 bird flu, officials said yesterday.
The 17 are mostly relatives of the employer of a 36-year-old Indonesian domestic helper, who is in critical condition in a Hong Kong hospital after a visit to China’s mainland.
They were all taken to hospital for observation.
“If those who had been in close contact don’t have symptoms, we will later arrange for them to enter quarantine facilities,” health chief Ko Wing-man told a press conference.
“Tonight, five people who were in close contact and do not show signs of infection will enter the quarantine,” Ko said, adding that they will be held until 10 days after their last contact with the carrier.
A government statement later said all 17 people had tested negative for the virus, but would be sent to a holiday village in the seaside town of Sai Kung “for medical surveillance.”
The Indonesian domestic helper had a history of traveling to the mainland city of Shenzhen, just across the border with Hong Kong and coming into contact with live poultry, Ko said on Monday.
“She has a history of traveling to Shenzhen, buying a chicken, slaughtering and eating the chicken,” Ko said.
She was admitted to hospital last Wednesday after developing a cough and shortness of breath.
The city has suspended imports of live poultry from Shenzhen and escalated its flu contingency plan to “serious.”
“At this point, we reckon it could be an imported case, but the government will continue to follow this up with full effort,” Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said.
In all, 137 human cases of H7N9 have been reported in the mainland since February with 45 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
In April, Taiwan reported its first case, a 53-year-old man who had been working in eastern China.
The man was eventually discharged but the case prompted island authorities to begin research into a vaccine they hope to roll out by late 2014.
In August, Chinese scientists reported the first likely case of direct person-to-person transmission of H7N9. But they stressed it was still difficult for the virus to spread between humans.

[cHeroKee]

New 'H6N1' bird flu reported in Taiwan

By Tim Sandle (http://digitaljournal.com/user/429626) <abbr title="Dec 7, 2013 at 3:30PM EST">Dec 7, 2013</abbr> - 2 hours ago


It has been revealed that a woman who was hospitalized in Taiwan after she developed a high fever, cough and shortness of breath, was the victim of a rare strain of 'bird flu'.

The 20-year-old woman in Taiwan is the first person known to be infected with a strain of bird flu called H6N1, according to a new report of the case. Tests confirmed that the woman had H6N1, a flu virus that's common in birds, but has never before been seen in people. The woman was treated with the anti-viral medication oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and made a full recovery. The infection remains unique. So far, there is no evidence that H6N1 can spread between people. Of the 125 cases of flu reported in Taiwan since the woman became ill, none were caused by H6N1. However, the worked in a deli, and did not have close contact with chickens or wild birds. Medics are puzzled ov......



more (http://digitaljournal.com/article/363544)

[cHeroKee]

New Strain of Bird Flu Packs a Punch Even After Becoming Drug-Resistant
Dec. 11, 2013 — Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reported that a virulent new strain of influenza -- the virus that causes the flu -- appears to retain its ability to cause serious disease in humans even after it develops resistance to antiviral medications. The finding was included in a study that was published today in the journal Nature Communications.

It is not uncommon for influenza viruses to develop genetic mutations that make them less susceptible to anti-flu drugs. However, these mutations usually come at a cost to the virus, weakening its abi.........
more (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131211104620.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily% 3A+Latest+Science+News%29)

[cHeroKee]

H7N9 Bird Flu Update


World health authorities are on alert as China continues to battle new H7N9 bird flu infections, as well as the detection of the virus (http://www.on2url.com/lnk?2r8+4QPRkBQ%3D)in at least two poultry wet markets in Shenzen. As reported in last week's Threat Journal podcast (http://www.on2url.com/lnk?278+4QPRkBQ%3D), Hong Kong authorities have been dealing with several new confirmed cases of H7N9 as well as putting nearly two dozen people into quarantine in an attempt to minimize further spread of the virus.


Additionally, a new study (http://www.on2url.com/lnk?3L8+4QPRkBQ%3D) appearing in the science journal Nature reveals that an H7N9 mutation has been found NOT to lose its ability to spread to mammals, despite developing resistance to drugs such as Tamiflu. It is commonly known in medical science that seasonal flu strains often become LESS transmissible once they develop resistance to such treatment drugs. However, the deadly H7N9 bird flu strain has been found to not follow this rule of thumb, with the drug-resistant virus no less efficient than the drug-sensitive one.


According to the researchers leading the study at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Department of Microbiology and Division of Infectious Diseases, the key takeaway with this discovery for doctors and clinicians should be to use discretion in their reliance on antivirals to treat H7N9 cases, as well as consider using drugs other than Tamiflu whenever possible.

[cHeroKee]

Guangdong confirms 2nd H7N9 bird flu case
Source: Xinhua | December 17, 2013, Tuesday |


South China’s Guangdong Province yesterday reported the second H7N9 bird flu case since Sunday.
The female patient, Zhang, 65, a resident of Yangjiang City, is in serious condition, the provincial health authority said in a statement.
On Sunday, Guangdong confirmed an H7N9 case from a man, aged 39, who is also in serious condition. The province has warned the public of the virus after it was found in its live poultry markets.
Lin Shaochun, vice governor of Guangdong, warned on Sunday that the province had entered a season when human infections of H7N9 are highly likely to occur.
The Chinese mainland has reported 142 human infections of the deadly bird flu virus since it emerged in March. Earlier this month, Hong Kong also confirmed its first two H7N9 cases.



source (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/Guangdong-confirms-2nd-H7N9-bird-flu-case/shdaily.shtml)

[cHeroKee]

Jiangxi death first human case of H10N8 bird flu strain, expert says




Elderly woman is first confirmed to have caught H10N8 strain, disease expert says



http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/2013/12/18/scmp_30apr13_ns_yuen1_dw_5439_35506411.jpg?itok=IK GJlC5W (http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980w/public/2013/12/18/scmp_30apr13_ns_yuen1_dw_5439_35506411.jpg?itok=lS MU2ImQ)

Yuen Kwok-yung, University of Hong Kong microbiologist

Another bird flu strain has crossed the species barrier and claimed a human life in China.
Health authorities and infectious disease experts said last night that an elderly Jiangxi woman died earlier this month after contracting H10N8, a strain previously unknown in humans.
"It has never been detected in humans before," University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung, one of the world's foremost experts on bird flu, told Hong Kong Cable TV.
The 73-year-old woman was diagnosed with severe pneumonia on November 30, after being admitted to hospital in Jiangxi's provincial capital, Nanchang . She died on December 6, the official Jiangxi Daily reported online last night, citing provincial health department.
At some point, she was diagnosed as having contracted H10N8, one of 15 known bird flu varieties. Unlike H5N1 or H7N9, it was not previously known to have made humans ills.
Health authorities said the woman had a compromised immune system and visited a local live poultry market before b............

more (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1384747/jiangxi-death-first-human-case-h10n8-bird-flu-strain-expert-says)

[cHeroKee]

Woman In China Dies From H10N8 Bird Flu Strain New To Humans
12/17/13 11:49 PM ET EST http://s.huffpost.com/images/v/ap_wire.png



BEIJING (AP) — Chinese health authorities say a 73-year-old woman died after being infected with a bird flu strain that had not previously spread to humans.
The Jiangxi province's health department said Wednesday that China's national disease center confirmed the woman had been infected by the H10N8 bird flu strain.
The department says the woman had severe pneumonia before dying Dec. 6 in an eastern city.
It says she suffered high blood pressure, heart disease and other underlying health problems that lowered her immunity. Her medical history showed she had had exposure to live poultry.
The department says experts believe this is an isolated case and there's low risk of this strain infecting more people or spreading.

[cHeroKee]

H5N1 Bird Flu: First Case Found In Canada

Huffington Post Canada |
Posted: 01/08/2014 3:59 pm EST | Updated: 01/08/2014 10:28 pm EST


Health officials announced today that the first North American case of H5N1 flu has been found in Canada.
The person was admitted to hospital on Jan. 1 and died on Jan. 3.

“Avian influenza is not easily transmitted from person to person. It is not the same virus that is currently present in seasonal influenza in Alberta."

Almost all human cases of H5N1 infections have been the result of close contact with infected birds or H5N1-contaminated environments......


more (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/08/h5n1-flu-canada_n_4563772.html)

-=-=-
FYI: patient died of meningoencephalitis,swelling of the brain. Possible viremia(high virus load,travelling around in the body). The first symptoms were 27 dec., then hospitalized 1 jan,died 3 jan.

No news on administrating Tamiflu,possibly because it wasn't diagnosed as H5N1 untill after the labtest confirmed it. She fall seriously ill "on the flight back from China". China is showing no interest in checking this patients contacts in China,which is very suspicious.

Only in animals it has been shown to attack the nervous system,so this is a whole new ballgame.


-=-=-
Worldwide, a total of 641 people have died from H5N1, according to the latest available data reported to WHO

Google map attached showing cases: [link to www.ctvnews.ca (http://www.godlikeproductions.com/external?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ctvnews.ca%2Fhealth%2Fh5 n1-map)]

-=-=
It's not just the first case in North America,it's a H5N1 that has very a typical symptoms. This virus attacked the nervous system,not attacking the respiratory system. This makes it very difficult to diagnose,cause the symptoms don't point at flu.

Then there's the problem how this patient got the flu,visiting China and being the only one that caught it?
Right now there are only two cases of H5N1 with the same symptoms,they were in Vietnam. This specific case has all the flu-sites on red alert,cause the story is far from complete.

This case is well worth following,it's a potential nightmare scenario,and lot's of info is missing.