Black-market bird flu drug seized in raids

Government investigators have carried out raids to dismantle a multi-million-pound international black market in fake and stolen versions of the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

The world’s biggest seizure of suspect Tamiflu took place last week in London, where officers from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confiscated 5,000 illegally imported packets of the drug worth an estimated £500,000.

Separately, the MHRA is investigating a company based in Greater Manchester that has been advertising cheap antiviral drugs under the name Tamiflu with a 1,500% mark-up. The agency began its inquiries after being passed information by The Sunday Times.

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The raids come amid rising concern over the spread of avian flu. The Department of Health is to commission an advertising agency to spend £350,000 making a television advertisement to be shown if bird flu starts to spread between humans. It will warn people how to avoid infection.

Times Online

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Cannot rule out person to person spread, says WHO

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu could be passing from person to person in Turkey even though health experts have no evidence that the virus is spreading that way, a senior World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said on Thursday.

Guenael Rodier, the WHO's head of communicable diseases and response, said experts cannot rule out person-to-person infection because "we haven't documented each and every case properly".

"When you have a mother and a child, and both get sick, you don't know if they both were exposed to the chickens or if the mother got sick because she was caring for the child," Rodier said. "It leaves room for some question marks. We have not documented every transmission story."

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Mail and Guardian

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Avian flu maps in Google Earth

The visualization of avian flu outbreaks is the first online map, to my knowledge, of each of the more than 1800 individual outbreaks of avian flu in birds that have been reported over the past two years. It also provides a geographical overview of confirmed human cases of infection with the H5N1 influenza virus.



DeclanButler

Indonesia's confirmed bird flu deaths rise to 12

A laboratory in Hong Kong has confirmed Indonesia's 12th human death from bird flu, a senior Health Ministry official said on Saturday.

Hariadi Wibisono said the latest results from the laboratory, which is recognised by the World Health Organisation, showed the H5N1 virus had killed a 29-year-old Indonesian woman who died this week in a Jakarta hospital.She had been in contact with dead chickens before falling ill, hospital officials have said.

...

"We are still waiting on the other pending result, that of the 39-year-old man," Wibisono told Reuters.

Local tests have shown that man also died of bird flu earlier this month.

WHO-recognised laboratories have now confirmed 12 deaths and five other cases in Indonesia where patients survived.

The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily between humans at the moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability and set off a global pandemic which might kill millions of people.

It has killed more than 70 people in Southeast Asia and China since 2003. Cases have also emerged in Turkey, the first human infections outside East Asia.

Sunday Observer

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More on the sequences from Turkey

The official WHO case count from Turkey has now risen to 18, matching the largest outbreak (Hong Kong 1997) to date for H5N1. A major question is whether there is something different about the Turkish virus.

The news dribbling out about the sequencing of the Turkish isolates is not encouraging but also not surprising. As I noted several days ago, the proposition that the hemagglutinin protein of the isolates is "very close" to the avian sequences is not very informative because extremely small changes can cause important changes in host range, as studies by Stevens et al. on the 1918 HA show. That paper described studies with glycan arrays (see previous post) that looked at the binding of various viral HAs to various linkages of sialic acid, the cellular receptor. Sialic acid is linked in two forms, one characteristic of bird intestinal cells, one characteristic of human lower respiratory tract cells, although we now know that humans have avian-type linkages in sialic acid in their upper respiratory tract. Most avian viruses bind well to the avian receptor, human viruses to the human linked receptor, but the HA protein from a case from New York's second wave in the 1918 pandemic showed some affinity for both humans and birds.


From
EffectMeasure Blog

The Netherlands: Different Set of 30 H5N1 Strains Generated in Tree Format

Rudi Cilibrasi, a fellow contributor to this blog and a Machine Learning researcher in the Netherlands wrote CompLearn which is an open-source data mining toolkit and is using it for H5N1 analysis. He has generated a different set of 30 H5N1 strains in tree format (PDF version / PostScript version), using CompLearn, which demonstrates that the avian flu virus is mutating into a closer H2H strand which is surely a cause for concern. According to Rudi, the numbers around the edges are all very low indicating that all the viruses are pretty closely related except for the "k2" subtree that includes duckShandong0932004, duckYokohamaaq102003, and the others off to the right past "k0". You can see that it is bordered by high numbers and there are several high numbers within the subtree itself suggesting a fit that is not very close, perhaps genetically.




This suggests there may have been more intermediate steps that we might explore using different hypothetical subsets of 15-50 virii to see what the most-likely phylogeny leading up to them is. But the "k10" subtree confirms an earlier comment by Dr. Niman that the Mongolian and Novobirisk strains are very closely related. The "k11" subtree suggests that there was a transmission of virus between Korea and Japan with those very low numbers. Overall the S(T) score of 0.990241 means that the computer believes it has figured out the structure nearly perfectly. Now it's our job to figure out why.

(Suggestions for better choices of species to try are always welcome.) Rudi stresses that he would love to try more recent data and thinks that this is the most important use for this type of chart at the moment, i.e. to track which strains are going where and when new strains pop up we can match them to the nearest previously known strain in the hope that this can shed light on the epidemiology of the situation.

Rudi has clarified that the data sources for the sequence data and the distance approximation technique (read more about this on the FluWikie) were obtained from a fellow member at the Bird Flu Discussion Forum (AvianFluTalk) whose onlinse pseudonymn is "gs" and it is presumed that 'gs' extracted the data from one of the two Databases at FluWikie. Rudi was trying to determine Normalized Compression Distance, a modern more robust measure than normal multiple alignment like you get from BLAST in certain situations and more information about this is available from Paul Vitanyi on the FluWikie as well as the web or just search for/google Rudi's complete name which has a bunch of papers tagged along with examples. More importantly his measure is a lot easier to operate as it is essentially parameter-free and so is a good choice as a first approximation analysis of a medium to large group of samples of unknown relation.

On a final note, readers are kindly requested to suggest Rudi a better group of 30 samples to use in order to provide and gain more insight (please email your suggestions to cilibrar at ofb.net) to the situation.

Iran: Government Bans Passages at Esendere Border Gate

The Iranian government has banned passage of people and vehicles from Esendere border gate in Yuksekova town of southeastern city of Hakkari until a further notice. Sources said that Iranian government banned passages due to bird flu cases seen in Turkey.


Source: TurkishPress

UK: Time Running Out to Register Poultry

Poultry owners have less than two months to register their flocks on the national Poultry Register. The poultry register has been set up to boost government and industry's ability to tackle an outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu). Poultry keepers who own flocks of 50 or more birds have until 28 February 2006 to register their birds. They can do this by:

1) calling freephone number 0800 634 1112 and registering by phone
2) calling the above number and getting a registration form sent to them by post,
completing and returning it
3) downloading a form from the DEFRA website, completing and returning it

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Source: DEFRA UK ( Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

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Lebanon: Now in the Bird Flu 'Circle of Danger'

"Lebanon is now in a state of alert as a result of the bird flu cases reported in countries relatively close to Lebanon," said Agriculture Minister Talal Sahili reassuring that till the moment "no bird flu cases have been reported in Lebanon." Following a meeting Friday with Premier Fouad Siniora and Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh, Sahili said "with the spread of the disease in Turkey, this means that Lebanon is in the circle of danger."

He added that there is a laboratory ready in Fanar to test bird samples. "The laboratory still receives between 50 to 100 samples daily, and there remains no trace of the bird flu disease." The minister called on all citizens who raise chicken and birds to "isolate the birds in coops to prevent them from getting in contact with the migrating birds and keep them away from children." For any suspicions about bird flu cases, citizens are asked to contact the following numbers: 03-626215 and 01-848445. Read More ....


Source: The Daily Star

Finland: Health Officials Map Out Bird Flu Scenarios

Finland is preparing for a possible global outbreak of bird flu by stockpiling medicines, ordering vaccines, and drawing up scenarios and plans of action. Officials believe that in spite of the precautions, more than one third of Finns - over 1.8 million people - would catch the virus, and that as many as 10,000 people could die in the pandemic. In such a situation, a state of emergency would be declared, with restrictions on movement and gatherings. Emergency hospitals would be set up, and distribution of medicines would be regulated.

The scenario would be that a new virus would mutate somewhere in the world, resulting in a strain that can spread from person to person, against which humans have not developed a resistance. Emergency measures would be enacted when an outbreak occurs somewhere in the world, even if no cases of the disease are diagnosed in Finland. Merja Saarinen, chairwoman of a pandemic preparation working group of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, says that the first measure to be taken would be to assess the vaccine situation. Read More ....


Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Belgium: Man Tests Negative for Bird Flu

A man in Belgium has tested negative for bird flu after falling ill upon his return from the Turkish province worst hit by the disease, Belgian Health Minister Rudy Demotte said on Saturday.

"The initial results of the tests would indicate that we not dealing with bird flu," Demotte told a news conference.

The man had undergone tests for the H5N1 avian flu after he checked himself into a hospital on Friday (Previous Report

...

). He had returned the previous day from Turkey where he had traveled in the eastern province of Van.


Source: Reuters

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UK: Belgium Bird Flu Probe Monitored

British health officials are "closely monitoring" reports of a case of human bird flu in Belgium. Staff at the Sint Pieters Hospital, in Brussels, said they were investigating a suspected case of the disease. They fear a man who returned from an area of Turkey where bird flu is present may have contracted it.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the suspected case did not affect the level of risk to UK residents. Blood tests were being carried out after the man, who returned from Turkey two days ago, checked into hospital complaining of flu-like symptoms. The results will confirm whether the patient has contracted bird flu and whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain. Read More ....

Source: Scotsman

China: Nations Convene to Mobilize Pandemic Flu Preparedness

The International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Influenza convenes in Beijing on January 17-18, with a goal of winning commitments of $1 billion or more to help combat outbreaks of bird flu and avert the emergence of a human influenza pandemic. The government of China, the World Bank and the European Commission are jointly sponsoring the meeting; donor nations and affected nations are attending.

The World Bank has conducted a study estimating the costs of preparedness at between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. In 2005, the United States earmarked more than $50 million to help other nations control avian influenza and prepare for a possible human influenza pandemic. A U.S. delegation will attend the Beijing meeting. Read More ....

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Source: The Washington File via Critt Jarvis - Global Voices Online

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New Zealand: Low Risk of Bird Flu in NZ, Says Study

New Zealand faces a medium risk of bird flu spreading, but Britain could be hit hard, an international study finds. British risk consultant Maplecroft has ranked 161 countries on its overall risk for a pandemic, and while New Zealand's overall risk is low, the risk rises to medium for an inability to contain an outbreak. Britain was the only Western country considered at extreme risk from the flu. It was 25th overall, but first among those countries to which the human virus is likely to spread.

Maplecroft attributed this to Britain's widespread urbanisation, high population density, and the large number of visitors to the country. Australia was assessed at low risk of not being able to control the disease, but faced a far higher risk of the virus reaching its shores and spreading. Overall, New Zealand was rated 145th out of 161 countries, behind Australia at 158. Read More ....


Source: The New Zealand Herald

Belgium: Suspected Bird Flu Case

A suspected case of bird flu is being investigated in Belgium, SkyNews reported. A person has been taken to a hospital in the country after returning on Thursday from a region in Turkey hit by the killer virus. If confirmed, it would be the first case of the virus in a human in Western Europe. Read More ....

Source:

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Sky News via Sofia News Agency

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Thailand: Scientists Developing Vaccine

A group of Thai scientists is developing a bird flu vaccine for humans in a bid to boost the country's preparedness for an H5N1 influenza pandemic. Group leader Prasert Auewarakul, of Siriraj Hospital's medicine faculty, said the scientists had isolated some H5N1 virus strains from Thai patients over the past months and successfully reduced their virulence to the point where they could be used as initial prototype strains for vaccine production.

Dr Prasert said Thailand's bird flu vaccine development project, jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health and the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), would allow the country to have its own defences against a bird flu outbreak instead of waiting for help from the WHO. He said the vaccine prototype would be ready for animal testing in the next four or five months. Read More ....

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Source: Bangkok Post News

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Russia: Aeroflot Holds Bird Flu Drill.

Russian Airlines has held a bird flu drill – stewardesses had to isolate “an ailing passenger” during a flight without a prior warning. Cooperation between the Aeroflot crisis control center and the crew with representatives of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service was also trained, the company press service said on Friday.

Aeroflot is daily monitoring the epidemiological situation in Turkey. All the crews pass medical examinations before flights, and they have been informed what to do in case of finding an infectious disease patient onboard.

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Source: ITAR-TASS

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Cambodia: Dead Ducks Raise New Fears

The sudden death of hundreds of ducks near the Cambodian capital has raised new fears that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus may have reappeared in the country, sources here say. According to the English-language Cambodia Daily, officials say up to 3,000 ducks have died over a period of days, but initial testing for bird flu proved negative.

Tests are continuing, and no human bird flu infections have been identified. Officials confirmed that half of the roughly 2,000 ducks in that area had died suddenly over several days. Vichet Mony, head of the provincial veterinary department, said he was sending samples to Phnom Penh for testing to determine the exact cause of the deaths. Read More ....

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Source: Radio Free Asia

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Finland: BirdLife Says Migratory Birds Highly Unlikely to Bring H5N1

BirdLife Finland said in a statement Friday that the spring migration was "extremely unlikely" to introduce the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza into Finland. BirdLife points out that no link between migratory birds and the spread of H5N1 has been identified. Bird flu did not spread to Africa and India with the hundreds of millions of birds that migrated there in the autumn, the statement added. Read More ....

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Source: NewsRoom Finland

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Risk to UK Low from H5N1 Virus in Tukey

The WHO International Influenza Centre at the MRC's National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill have completed the genetic and antigenic analyses of viruses recovered from two fatal cases of H5N1 influenza in Turkey. Results from the analyses have shown that there are a small number of differences between the viruses from the human cases in the Turkish outbreak.

These differences include a mutation at the receptor binding site seen in one of the Turkish viruses. Such mutations have been seen previously and are to be expected given the diversity of H5 viruses. The gene sequencing of the viruses has also indicated that they are sensitive to the antivirals, oseltamivir and amantadine.

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These viruses are very closely related to current avian H5N1 viruses in Turkey, and also to those isolated at Qinghai Lake in Western China last year. These results do not mean that the virus has the capacity to transmit from person to person.

This is not the start of a pandemic and the risk to the UK remains very low.

So far investigations in Turkey have not shown any human to human transmission of the virus.

Avian flu remains a disease of poultry, and human cases have occurred only in people who have had close contact with diseased and /or infected birds. These human cases have occurred in a rural part of eastern Turkey. The risk to people travelling to Turkey remains low but we would remind travellers to avoid close contact with poultry.

Read the Entire 13 Jan 2005 Press Statement from the Health Protection Agency

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Ukraine: Bird Flu Quarantine Lifted in 16 Crimean Villages

Quarantine imposed to control the spread of bird flu has been lifted in 16 villages in the Crimea, Ukraine said Friday. All infected domestic fowl in the villages have been culled and incinerated, the Ministry of Agricultural Policy ministry said.

Quarantine remains in only two villages in the Crimea: in Solnechny in the Sevastopol Region, and in Primorskoe in the Feodosia Region in the southeast of the peninsula. The autonomy has 29 poultry factories, at which hygienic and veterinary measures are being closely monitored.According to official data, more than 150,000 domestic fowl have so far been culled.


Source: Novosti

Turkey: Bird Flu Patient Discharged from Hospital

Following treatment at Van Yuzuncuyil University’s School of Medicine Research Hospital, nine-year-old girl Sumeyye Mamuk (the girl who got infected after kissing a chicken) has been discharged from the hospital upon her recovery. Juvenile Illnesses Department Faculty Member Professor Ahmet Faik Oner confirmed that Sumeyye's treatment was completed successfully.

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Meanwhile, it was reported that, six patients suspected of having bird flu and under treatment at Ondokuzmayis University School of Medicine Hospital in Turkey took off from the hospital without informing officials. Five were at the stage of discharge and the sixth patient, E.D., was still under treatment.


Source: Zaman

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Japan: Mild Bird Flu Too Risky to Ignore (H5N2)

The world's first confirmed human cases of a weaker strain of bird flu are too "risky to ignore", even though none of those affected has health problems, Japanese officials warned. The H5N2 strain -- a milder form of the H5N1 which has killed more than 70 people in Asia since 2003 and two people in Turkey -- needs global attention because it could mutate, they said Wednesday.

"There is no health risk for those infected workers, but as long as the virus is a type of H5- strain, it is risky to ignore it," said a researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

"In the past there was a case that a mild strain eventually transformed to a lethal one for chickens," warned the scientist, who declined to give his name in line with institute policy. Read More ....


Source: TodayOnline

Britain: Bird Flu Preparations

BBC News has a comprehensive article on what the UK is doing to protect it's population and an explanation of some of the prevention methods which would be implemented, including -- stopping bird flu coming from abroad, detecting bird flu in wild birds and sheilding domestic birds. The impacts on the UK population has also been detailed in terms of health services, business and daily life while the other doubts and/or questions that have been explored are the mesaures that would be used to cope with a pandemic, the question of farmers being compensated if British poultry are infected and how vulnerable is the UK to the avian influenza.

Thailand: 24-Hour National Bird Flu Network Setup

An anti-bird flu network will soon be set up in Bangkok and operate around the clock. Public Health Minister Pinit Jarusombat said the coordinating network will be based at Rajvithi Hospital and that staff will be on duty 24 hours a day to assure that bird flu and possible human influenza will be immediately put under control and stopped from breaking out in the provinces.

Members of the public are advised to contact the network which is to be under care of the Department of Medical Science via an Internet website operated by the Ministry of Public Health at www.dms.moph.go.th. Physicians attached to the network will give medical advice to private and public hospitals and health care units nationwide so they could promptly and correctly treat bird flu patients -- at any hour of the day or night. Read More ....


Source: MCOT

U.S.: Emergency Rooms Barely Ready, Report Finds

America's emergency medical system is barely prepared for a real emergency, with overcrowded facilities and poor staff training, experts said on Tuesday. The report from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) adds to a growing list of complaints that a lack of a cohesive health care system means U.S. residents get different care depending on where they live, and that emergency response in general is lacking in the United States.

he ACEP panel graded U.S. states in four broad areas: access to emergency care, quality and patient safety, public health and injury prevention, and the medical liability environment. No state was considered outstanding, but overall, California came out as the best-prepared state, followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia, the report found. Read More ....


Source: Reuters

The Balkans: Security Stepped Up

Balkan nations have stepped up preventive measures and border control to prevent spreading of the deadly HN51 bird flu virus in the region, which has killed three children in nearby Turkey, while 15 others have been infected. Bulgaria and Greece have introduced a practice off disinfecting all vehicles coming from Turkey and banned all imports of poultry meet. Similar measures have been taken by Serbia and Montenegro. Read More ....


Source: AKI

Romania: First Possible Human Case of Bird Flu, Confronted

Romania may have its first human case of avian influenza. A Turkish citizen was admitted to a hospital in Bucharest on Wednesday night with bird flu-like symptoms. Romania has been on alert as the virus spreads westwards across neighbouring Turkey, where two people are known to have died of the disease and many more are thought to have been infected.

Countries to the east of Turkey have also taken action. Georgia has tightened controls on goods crossing the border and Iran has decided to cull poultry within 15 kilometres of the Turkish frontier. The European Union has banned imports of live birds and risky poultry products such as fresh meat and untreated feathers from affected areas. Read More ....

Source: EuroNews

Iran: Turkey Border is Made a Poultry-Free Zone

Iran is destroying all poultry in an area along its border with Turkey in an effort to create a buffer against the spread of bird flu.

"All the poultry existing within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of the border... will be destroyed," a local veterinary official said.

Iran shares a 486 kilometre (301 mile) border with Turkey, and the report said more than 50,000 birds were expected to be killed in the measure and farmers compensated. The Islamic republic, which has yet to report a case of bird flu, has already banned poultry imports from Turkey and urged its citizens not to travel there.


Source: The Persian Journal

Singapore: Avian Flu Test Kit Endorsed by WHO

As the world prepares for an avian flu outbreak, a test kit produced by home-grown medical diagnostic company, Veredus Laboratories, has been given an endorsement by the World Health Organization (WHO). Its Avian Flu H5N1 Kit — which made headlines six months earlier for being able to diagnose the virus within hours — is currently one of the test kits being used by the WHO in Australia.

It has also been sold to countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The Australian authorities say the kit is more specific and sensitive than the primer set currently recommended by the WHO. With more accurate test methods, health care professionals can better pinpoint outbreak situations and public health officials can mobilise resources more effectively. Read More ....


Source: ChannelNewsAsia

Turkey: Five People Have Tested H5n1 Virus Positive

''Two people from (eastern city) Van and three people from Ankara have tested positive for H5N1 virus and PCR (polymerase chain reaction),'' said Turan Buzgan, director general of Health Ministry Basic Health Services.

Buzgan told reporters, ''research on 28 samples in Refik Saydam Hygiene Center Virology Laboratory were completed as of 14:00 hours today.''

''According to results, two people from Van and three people from Ankara have tested positive for H5N1 virus and PCR,'' he added.


Source: The Anatolia Times

Symptoms: often mild

If you have the flu, any flu, you might be worrying and wondering if you've got avian strain.

The Avian Flu symptoms are very similar to any othef flu
fever, aches, cough, sore throat and possible ear and chest infections, according to sources.

http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/270104avianflu.html

Research published today suggests that "Symptoms are often Mild"

...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13590448.htm

and people may contract the virus, be sick for a few days and then go back to normal.


If your symptom are severe, go straight to a competent doctor, and ask them to give you a test.

If your symptoms are mild, treat them like you would treat any case of flu, and monitor carefully for improvements or deterioration of your case.

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Turkey: Signs of Recovery Console Turks Hit by Bird Flu

In the children's ward where the Turkish victims of bird flu died, eight-year-old Sumeyye Mamuk has recovered enough to wander the corridor and watch as doctors tend to sicker children lying suffering in bed. Nine days earlier she was laid low with fever after hugging a sick chicken at her home in Van, eastern Turkey. All 28 children in the ward fell ill after touching poultry, a daily reality for locals ignorant of the dangers until the flu outbreak.

Back at her home in a poor district of the city, Sumeyye's brothers smile when shown a video of her. Until now they have only seen her through the glass doors of the isolated ward, which is only open to staff wearing protective clothing. A Reuters reporter was given permission to enter the ward. Read More ....

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Source: The New Zealand Herald via Bird Flu Prevent

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Southern Turkish City Hatay: New Bird Flu Risk Zone

The highest risk areas in the bird flu outbreak are marsh regions and for Turkey, the new risk zone is the southern city of Hatay. National Parks Director General Mustafa Kemal Yalinkilic highlighted that the town of Belen in the city has the highest possibility of becoming in contact with bird flu.

Another region at risk of the disease is given as the Lake region in central Anatolia.
According to Yalinkilic, the regions along the route of migratory birds are most at risk of coming into contact with bird flu and require additional precautions. Bird sanctuaries and the reeds where birds nest will be monitored and kept under control. Read More ....

Source: Zaman

Vietnam: Month-Long Sterilisation Drive Against Bird Flu Begins

The Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched a month-long drive of sterilisation which will last until Feb. 6 in an effort to prevent bird flu outbreak. The National Steering Board for Bird Flu Prevention will co-ordinate with relevant agencies to tighten control and asked all localities to actively participate in the sterilisation drive, which will last beyond the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival. During the drive, localities will carry out sterilisation work twice a week in communes where bird flu has occurred in the recent past, and once a week in others. Read More ....


Source: Nhan Dan

Avian Flu Maps in Google Earth

Declan Butler over at Nature has a Google Earth map (kml format) of avian flu outbreaks online tonight. The visualization of avian flu outbreaks is the first online map, to my knowledge, of each of the more than 1800 individual outbreaks of avian flu in birds that have been reported over the past two years. It also provides a geographical overview of confirmed human cases of infection with the H5N1 influenza virus. Read More ....


Source: Declan Butler

Thailand: Free-grazing Ducks & Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Thailand has recently had 3 epidemic waves of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI); virus was again detected in July 2005. Risk factors need to be identified to better understand disease ecology and assist HPAI surveillance and detection. This study analyzed the spatial distribution of HPAI outbreaks in relation to poultry, land use, and other anthropogenic variables from the start of the second epidemic wave (July 2004–May 2005).

Results demonstrate a strong association between H5N1 virus in Thailand and abundance of free-grazing ducks and, to a lesser extent, native chickens, cocks, wetlands, and humans. Wetlands used for double-crop rice production, where free-grazing duck feed year round in rice paddies, appear to be a critical factor in HPAI persistence and spread. This finding could be important for other duck-producing regions in eastern and southeastern Asian countries affected by HPAI. Read More ....


Source: CDC

Poultry in 11 of 81 Provinces in Turkey has Bird Flu

Bird flu has been discovered in poultry in 11 out of Turkey's 81 provinces while a further 14 provinces are suspected of having the virus, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said on Thursday.

"It's confirmed in 11 provinces among birds and suspected in a further 14 provinces," he told a news conference in eastern Turkey broadcast live on television.

The deadly H5N1 virus has been found in wild birds and poultry across Turkey. It has killed at least two children and infected more than a dozen people in little more than a week.

...

Source: Reuters

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Britain at Highest Risk from Avian Flu Pandemic

Widespread urbanisation, high population density and a large number of foreign visitors increase the country’s vulnerability Britain is at highest risk of an H5N1 flu outbreak if the avian virus starts passing from person to person, according to a map of the probable global impact of a pandemic according to the The Times. Although a pandemic strain of flu is more likely to emerge elsewhere in the world, Britain is the country to which it is most likely to spread once the disease evolves the ability readily to infect humans, the research suggests.

...

High population density, widespread urbanisation and large number of tourists and business visitors make it particularly vulnerable to a new virus, the study by Maplecroft, a risk consultancy, finds. As well as topping the league table of countries to which human H5N1 flu is likely to spread, Britain is also the only Western country considered at “extreme risk” from the general impact of a pandemic. The alarming figures are from a global survey that uses World Health Organisation (WHO) data to calculate the hazards that a pandemic of flu or another new infectious disease would pose to individual countries and regions. Read More ...

Source: The Times

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Russia to Produce Mass Bird Flu Vaccine

Russia is making progress in its bid to mass-produce a veterinary vaccine against avian flu, a senior flu researcher announced in Moscow Thursday. The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has been coordinating the production of 100 million doses of the vaccine for domestic fowl in Siberia, and regions of the Urals Federal District, which are close to stopover sites used by migrating birds. Read More ...

Source: Science Daily

Dead Pigeon Sparks Panic in Georgia

A dead pigeon discovered in western Georgia on Thursday has caused panic among local residents, according to local television. Reports said the bird was found near the central market in the town Zugdidi, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of the capital, Tbilisi. Witnesses said the pigeon was sitting on an electricity transmission line and then suddenly plummeted to the ground.

"It must have been ill with bird flu," people who gathered around the dead bird are reported to have said. Local veterinaries examined the pigeon, and said it had not been infected with bird flu, a television channel, Imedi, said. Read More ....


Source: Novosti

Bird Flu Virus Found in 3rd Dead Turkish Child

Tests have shown that the H5N1 virus was in the lungs of a Turkish child who died last week and who had originally tested negative for bird flu, the state Anatolian news agency said on Thursday.

The elder brother and sister of Hulya Kocyigit, 11, were the first confirmed cases of bird flu among human beings outside China and Southeast Asia. Mehmet Ali Kocyigit died on January 1 and Fatma on January 5. Hulya died on January 6.


Source:

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Reuters

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Indonesian Woman Dies of Suspected Bird Flu

An Indonesian woman who local health officials said, had suffered from bird flu died at a hospital late Wednesday after being treated for three days in the Sulianto Saroso Hospital according to Hospital spokesman, Ilham Patu who also stated that local tests showed that she had bird flu.

The blood sample of the 29-year-old woman has been sent to a WHO-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, he said. The hospital is also awaiting the Hong Kong laboratory test result of a 39-year-old man who died last week after locally tested positive of bird flu. If both cases were confirmed, bird flu death toll in the country could reach 14.

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Source: Xinhua

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Donors Urged to Give US$1.5 Billion to Fight Bird Flu

A UN official (David Nabarro, the UN coordinator on avian and human influenza) in charge of leading the battle against the avian flu outbreak on Wednesday called on donors to contribute around US$1.5 billion at a pledging conference in Beijing next week. Nabarro lauded Vietnam for its bird immunization program and said China had made an important step forward in detection efforts although "a lot more has to be done".

The Beijing conference, scheduled for January 17-18, is sponsored by China, the European Commission and the World Bank. Nabarro made the remarks here as the World Health Organization warned Wednesday that an outbreak of deadly bird flu sweeping across Turkey could become entrenched and spread into nearby states. Read More ....

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Source: The Jakarta Post

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Girl Lucky to be Alive After Bird Flu Ordeal

Sumeyya Mamuk's backyard chickens were her beloved pets. She fed them, petted them and took care of them. When they started to get sick and die, she hugged them and kissed them goodbye. The next morning, the 8-year-old's face and eyes had swollen and she was suffering from a high fever. Her father took her to a hospital, and five days later she was confirmed to have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Following a few tense days when her family worried if she would recover, Sumeyya's condition has improved due to quick treatment with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Van hospital's Chief Physician Dr. Huseyin Avni Sahin said on Tuesday. Even if not animal lovers like Sumeyya, children in poor agricultural towns tend to be extremely comfortable with the animals they share their lives with. It has been particularly difficult to convince them that this can now be dangerous. Read More ....

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Source: China Daily

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France Presents Bird Flu Plan to Protect Entire Population

France aims to have protective masks, vaccines and anti-viral drugs to protect its entire population in the event of a deadly flu pandemic, the health minister said Wednesday. France currently has 14 million anti-viral treatments, and has ordered 40 million flu vaccines, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said. He did not indicate what kind of vaccines had been ordered or from where.

Bertrand spoke to reporters after presenting parliament with the government's new 68-page plan for coping with any influenza outbreak stemming from bird flu. Health experts fear the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain could mutate into a highly infectious form of human flu. The French plan orders veterinary officials and farmers to monitor much more closely all poultry farms and wild bird populations. Read More ....

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Source: Billings Gazette

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Experts Warn of Bird Flu Risks With Lunar New Year

When Chinese people gather all over the world to celebrate Lunar New Year at the end of January, chicken will be standard fare on their dining tables. But experts are warning the jump in demand and the way live chickens are packed densely in crates, moved across borders and slaughtered is a sure recipe for trouble and could mean more outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in birds and humans.

The Chinese have a penchant for cooking and consuming freshly slaughtered chickens, but that age-old habit requires them to shop at neighbourhood markets where buyers and sellers are exposed to poultry in often unsanitary conditions. Eating well-cooked chicken poses no danger but slaughtering and handling infected chickens does. Read More ....


Source: AlertNet

UN: Bird flu may spread

Turkey’s fast-moving outbreak of bird flu prompted villagers across the border in Georgia to slaughter chickens, geese and ducks en masse today, while in neighbouring Greece, Georgia and Syria, authorities beefed up border inspections. In Russia, nationalist legislator Vladimir Zhirinovsky even urged men to grab rifles and shoot migratory birds to keep the virus at bay.

The European Union announced it would keep monitoring wild and domestic birds around the 25-member bloc until end of the year, and a Swiss soccer club cancelled a trip to Turkey.The measures were taken despite assurances by the World Health Organization that there was no reason to panic and no evidence of person-to-person infection. Read More ....

Source: Toronto Star

Bird Flu Outbreak Provides Virtual Laboratory

While an unwelcome development, the explosion of human cases of avian flu in Turkey is a scientific bonanza for researchers and public health authorities trying to unravel the mysteries of the H5N1 strain and better assess its risk to global health, experts admit. Never before have scientists had the opportunity to study so many newly diagnosed cases in such a short period of time. Amplifying the benefit is the fact that at least some were diagnosed early in their infections, allowing doctors to monitor how the antiviral drug Tamiflu performs against this virus when commenced early in the disease course.

The willingness of Turkish authorities to collaborate with international scientists adds to the sense that this flare up of disease has the real potential to push out the bounds of H5N1 science. Researchers got another gift in the form of two children whose worried parents rushed them for testing at the first sign of a sniffle because they'd been in contact with sick poultry. They tested positive and were quickly started on Tamiflu. The willingness of Turkish authorities to send sample viruses to Britain for testing and genetic sequencing already suggests researchers who have been charting the evolution of the H5N1 family of viruses may have easier access to isolates from Turkey than they have from East Asian countries. Read More ....


Source: CTV

Live Online Broadcast of Bird Flu Victim's Treatment

The Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital will live broadcast the medical treatment of the country's eighth bird flu victim online, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The patient, identified as a native of Hunan Province surnamed Ouyang, 6, began to suffer serious damage to both lungs yesterday, said Zhu Yimin, president of the hospital, where the boy is receiving treatment.

Zhu said many people were caring about the boy's condition because he is the second human being who was infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Hunan. So they planned to install a camera in his ward to broadcast the medical treatment and show part of his daily life via the Web. Ouyang began running a fever and exhibiting symptoms of pneumonia on December 24. He was transferred to the provincial-level hospital early Monday.

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Source: Shanghai Daily

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Scientists Ready to Crack Bird Flu Code

British scientists say they will determine the genetic sequence of the bird flu virus in Turkey within the next few days. Researchers at the National Institute of Medical Research can use the code to determine whether the virus is resistant to Tamiflu, the drug being stockpiled to deal with a potential pandemic, the London Telegraph reported.

A team at the World Influenza Center in London has received six samples of the virus from Turkey. Of those, two have been confirmed to be H5N1, said Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council. The team has also succeeded in growing the first sample virus in eggs and will determine the entire genetic code. Read More ....

Source: ScienceDaily

Funeral Directors' Plan for Bird Flu in New Zealand

The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand has ruled out the need for mass burials in the event of a bird flu pandemic, but says funeral services would not be held and cremations would be rare. The associations' pandemic committee chairman Simon Manning says the industry's plans for any pandemic allow for all victims to be buried with dignity, in individual marked graves.

Manning says if coffins ran out, heavy polythene bodybags would be used. He says funeral services would not be held because gatherings would be banned, and there would not be many cremations. Manning says bodies would be buried within 48 hours of death and people would be buried in the district in which they died.


Source: TVNZ

Georgia Steps Up Anti-Bird Flu Measures

Georgia is bringing in necessary equipment, disinfection materials and special garments from Germany to prevent the spread of bird flu in the country, as the neighboring Turkey has reported at least 15 confirmed human cases and two deaths, Agriculture Minister Mikhail Svimonishvili told reporters on Wednesday. Imports of poultry products from 23 countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, are banned in the country since autumn. The Georgian Health Ministry is circulating booklets with information on bird flu. Read More ....

Source: ITAR-TASS

NHS Hotline Staff Trained to Spot Bird Flu

Nurses on the NHS 24 hotline (0845 4647) have been given special training to identify the first signs of bird flu entering Scotland. Health officials believe the frontline service, which handles around 3500 calls a day, will be one of the first places to spot if more people than normal are getting ill. The nurses are being kept up-to-date on the latest situation from affected countries around the world and have been given training on how to spot the symptoms of bird flu.

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Dr George Crooks, medical director of NHS 24, said: "We have an early warning system for bird flu. All our staff have been fully briefed about the symptoms and are monitoring all calls for them."
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Source: Scotsman

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Romania Finds New Suspected Flu Cases in Poultry

Romania has found new suspected cases of bird flu in poultry in a region west of the Danube delta, where the deadly strain of the virus was first detected in October, the farm ministry said on Wednesday. The Balkan country has found the highly pathogenic avian flu in 26 villages in and outside the Danube delta, Europe's largest wetlands and a major migratory route for wild birds.

Scientists fear the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which is known to have killed 78 people since late 2003 and is endemic in poultry across parts of Asia, could mutate into a form that can spread easily among humans and become a global pandemic that could kill millions. Romania has not recorded any bird flu cases in humans so far but two people have died and more than a dozen have been infected with the virus in Turkey. Read More ....

Source: AlertNet

Indonesian Woman Has Bird Flu, Local Test Shows

A 29-year-old Indonesian woman in Jakarta has the deadly strain of bird flu, officials said on Wednesday, citing the results of a local test. Outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organisation have so far confirmed 11 deaths and five other cases in Indonesia where patients survived. Local tests also show a 39-year-old man died of bird flu this month, although there has been no confirmation yet of that result, officials said this week. The woman was admitted to Jakarta's hospital designated to treat patients with bird flu on Sunday, a hospital spokesman said. He said the woman had contact with dead chickens.

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Source: The Jakarta Post

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Vietnam Scientists Produce Key Ingredient for Tamiflu

Vietnamese scientists have succeeded in producing a key ingredient of the drug Tamiflu, paving the way for cheaper and more rapid domestic production of the medicine used to fight bird flu in humans, an official said Monday. The news came as Vietnam reported Monday that it had brought the epidemic of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry under control through an aggressive vaccination programme and has seen no human cases of bird flu for two months. Shikimic acid, made from Asian spice star anise, is a key ingredient in oseltamivir, commonly called Tamiflu, one of the few medicines deemed useful in treating the H5N1 bird flu virus in humans but also in short supply worldwide.

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The drug's patent-holder, Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, has cited limited supplies of shikimic acid as an obstacle to producing more supplies quickly. Previously, China has been one of the only sources of the seed for the chemical, and prices for shikimic acid have reportedly increased ten-fold in the past year as demand for Tamiflu rose worldwide. However, star anise is also grown in Vietnam's Lang Son province, near the Chinese border, and local successful production of the key ingredient should aid Vietnam in its plans to produce Tamiflu under a deal reached with Roche in November. Read More ....


Source: Monster and Critics

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Official Says There is No H5N1 case in Iran

No case of H5N1 strain virus has yet been detected in Iran, said head of Iran's Veterinary Organization, Hossein Hassani here on Sunday. Hassani told IRNA that a team has been assigned to look into the outbreak of the avian flu which was reported to have been detected in the Iran-Turkey border areas. He said quarantine and disinfectant operations have been launched in traditional and mechanized chicken farming centers to prevent possible spread of the virus.

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Source: IRNA

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Ukrainian Scientists State That H5N1 Flu Strain May not be Dangerous

Samples of poultry in Crimea tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, RIA Novosti reported. It has been proved that this strain is very pathogenic to birds. Meanwhile, the people in contact with the infected birds have not caught the disease. Spokesman at the Ukrainian Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, Nataliya Skultetskaya said that poultry farms should be put under quarantine and poultry in the affected areas should be culled, which had already been done. The fact that there are no human cases of bird flu shows that either the measures against the epidemic are efficient, or the H5N1 strain might not be dangerous for people, Skultetskaya added.

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Source: FOCUS

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Hungary Not to Take Preventive Measures Against Bird Flu

The Hungarian government will not take preventive measures or travel restrictions in the wake of recent bird flu cases in Turkey, a senior health official said Tuesday. Laszlo Bujdoso, head of Hungary's national public health authority, said that travellers whose destination was Turkey should avoid contact with birds in that country. He added that a similar warning had been issued earlier to those going to Vietnam or India. Bujdoso reiterated that the virus could not be communicated from humans to humans. Read More ....

Source: Xinhua

Bird Flu in Bulgaria "Within A Month"

The deadly bird flu virus might reach Bulgaria within one month, the head of the Regional Veterinary Service in Sofia doctor Bohosyan predicted. Talking to local Darik radio Bohosyan said that the virus could not be transmitted from one person to another and that it is being destroyed by temperature of above 70 degrees. Still, doctor Bohosyan urged people to maintain good personal hygiene. A day earlier Bulgaria's Health Ministry announced that it has prepared detailed instructions for bird flu prevention and spread of the H5N1. Read More ....

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Source: Sofia News Agency

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Japan Tests Show 77 People Exposed to Mild Bird Flu

Japan's Health Ministry said blood tests conducted over five months showed 77 poultry workers had been exposed to a mild form of avian influenza. The so-called H5N2 strain found in the workers is different from the H5N1 strain, which has killed as many as 76 people worldwide since 2003. The lethal H5N1 strain, which passes from infected birds to humans, has reached Turkey after spreading out of Asia and into Russia and China.

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases administered the tests at poultry farms in Ibaraki and Saitama prefectures adjacent to Tokyo, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site. The blood samples were drawn from 353 poultry farm workers their family members from the end of June to the end of December. Read More ....

Source: Bloomberg

WHO Says No Need to Panic Over Turkey Bird Flu

Turkey has no reason to panic over the bird flu outbreak, a World Health Organization official said Wednesday, urging Turks anew to avoid sick or dead poultry suspected in the rapid spread of the deadly H5N1 strain. Dr. Marc Danzon, the UN health agency's regional director for Europe, told reporters at a news conference with Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag that health officials were doing “everything that is known to maintain and manage this difficult situation.” Meanwhile, in Rome, the UN agriculture agency warned Wednesday that the Turkish outbreak could spread to neighbouring countries.

Dr. Danzon said there were no signs that the deadly strain, which preliminary tests indicate has infected 15 Turks -- including two children who have died -- was being transmitted person to person. Asked whether countries should ban or restrict their citizens from travelling to Turkey, Dr. Danzon called it “a non-story” and said there was no reason to take such measures. In Turkey, all of the cases appeared to have involved adults or children who touched or played with infected birds. Read More ....

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Source: The Globe and Mail

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Test May Monitor Bird Flu Virus Mutation

A new test may help provide a kind of early warning system for new and dangerous mutations in the avian flu virus, US researchers say. The test could alert scientists to when the virus starts to change into a form that easily infects people, the researchers report in the Journal of Molecular Biology. The test, called a glycan array, shows it would take very little change for the H5N1 avian influenza virus to cause a human pandemic, said Ian Wilson of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

The H5N1 virus still primarily infects birds and only rarely passes to people. Experts fear this could change, and that a form easily transmitted from person to person could cause a pandemic, a global epidemic, that would kill millions. Wilson's team says the new test can spot this happening. They used their glycan array to survey samples of the proteins that make up the coats of strains of human and avian viruses, including from the 1918 influenza pandemic. The Scripps Institute test can tell the difference between a bird virus that prefers bird sialic acids and a virus that prefers the human version, the researchers said. Read More ....

Source: The Age

India Prepares Itself For H5N1

The avian flu virus’ signature has not been seen in India so far, according to the Indian Council for Medical Research’s (ICMR) Director-General N.Ganguly . The institution has also set up with the Hong Kong Flu laboratory, a working relationship. Migratory birds are also being kept under surveillance to ensure that the poultry in the country are not infected. The normal flu vaccine is also sought to be enhanced, and a vaccine technology towards this end has already been identified by Aventis Sanofi. Read More ....

Source: MedIndia.com

Two More H5N1 Deaths in China

The World Health Organisation says two more Chinese nationals diagnosed with bird flu have died from the disease, bringing the country's total to five. WHO spokesman in Beijing, Roy Wadia, said a 10-year-old girl died on December 16 and a 35-year-old man died on December 30. He said China's health ministry informed the WHO of the deaths, however the health ministry was unable to comment immediately on Mr Wadia's statement, according to AFP. China has reported eight cases of H5N1 human infections since late last year. Read More ....


Source: SBS Australia

Turkey reports new case of H5N1 flu

Preliminary tests indicate that a new patient may have contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in central Turkey, a Health Ministry official said. The official said the person admitted to hospital in the central Anatolian city of Sivas tested positive for H5N1 in Turkish lab tests. At least two children have died of the deadly strain in the past week in Turkey.

Meanwhile, health experts monitoring human bird flu are waiting anxiously to see if efforts to contain the virus can stop it spreading to the European Union. Confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain in people living near Turkey's capital Ankara, and more suspected cases in eastern Turkey, prompted EU experts to widen an existing ban on imports and to review existing EU-level surveillance efforts. Read More ....

Source: Scotsman

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