Bird Flu - Avian Influenza - news - information

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Indonesian man dies of suspected bird flu

An Indonesian man who has developed bird flu symptoms died Thursday at a hospital in the Central Java town of Solo and could be the 73th bird flu casualty in the country if his blood sample is tested positive.

The patient, identified only as Suramto, 29, died at the Moewardi Hospital after being treated since March 30, reported leading news website Detikcom.

His body was packed in a plastic bag and relatives were banned from opening the coffin, a standard procedures for bird flu victims, the report said.

Bird flu story source: XINHUA

Russia bans poultry imports from West Virginia

MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s food safety watchdog said Thursday it has imposed a temporary ban on imports of poultry products from the U.S. state of West Virginia, starting April 6.

According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, turkeys at a farm in Pendleton County in West Virginia tested positive April 3 for the bird-flu virus. Preliminary tests indicated the turkeys had a low-pathogenic H5N2 strain of the virus.

“Due to an outbreak of bird flu virus containing H5N2 strains registered in the U.S. state of West Virginia, Rosselkhoznadzor is introducing temporary restrictions on imports of poultry products, feed-stuff and feed supplements from this state,” said Alexei Alekseyenko, a spokesman for the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection.

The official said that restrictions will apply for poultry produced after March 31.

Rosselkhoznadzor has requested that U.S. food safety authorities provide Russia with detailed information on the bird flu outbreak in the country.

Bird flu story source:RNA (Russian News And Information Agency)

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Most do not know how to wear respirator masks - Bird flu related

Research conducted by a group made up from researchers at The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, found that only 24 percent of people in their test knew how to properly wear a respirator mask.

With the bird flu virus in the news lately and one of the recommended preventative measures being respirator masks, it would be a good idea for people to know the proper placement for bird flu (respirator) masks.

The team, headed up by Kristin J. Cummings, tested individuals in post-hurricane New Orleans, to see if they knew the proper way to wear N95 FF respirators(bird flu masks).

The tests were conducted in New Orleans because this is where respirators were recommended for the on-going mold clean-up.

They randomly selected, interviewed, and observed 538 participants. Only 129 (24%) participants demonstrated they knew how to properly put on the masks.

Errors included nose clip not tightened (71%) and straps incorrectly placed (52%); 22% put on the respirator upside down.

The complete article from the CDC can be found HERE.

UAE closes borders amid bird flu scares

Poultry imports to the United Arab Emirates from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been banned following reports of bird flu incidents in the two countries.

All markets selling live chickens were closed in the UAE yesterday as the government stepped up measures to prevent the deadly virus entering the country.

The Minister of Environment and Water, Dr Mohammed Saeed Al Kindi issued a directive last Thursday as a preemptive measure closing the markets and putting border and customs teams on high alert to ensure the import restrictions are met.

In Saudi Arabia, bird flu scares have caused demand for poultry to fall by 30 percent in some provinces, according to the Al Hayat newspaper.

Saudi Arabia’s agriculture ministry confirmed in March that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had been discovered in birds at a house in the east of the kingdom.

In late March a health ministry official in Kuwait confirmed three new outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in two turkeys and a chicken, raising to 57 the number of infected birds found this year.

Bird flu story source: Arabian Business News

indonesian woman dies of bird flu: health ministry

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Jakarta housemaid who had looked after a pet eagle has died from bird flu, marking Indonesia’s 72nd confirmed death from the virus, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous country, has had more deaths from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza than any other nation. An additional 20 people confirmed to have the virus have not died.

Muhammad Nadirin of the health ministry’s bird flu center told Reuters that two tests on the 23-year-old housemaid from south Jakarta, who died on April 1, confirmed she had bird flu.

“Her master keeps an eagle at home, she took care of the bird,” Nadirin said.

He said authorities had yet to determine whether the eagle had the virus, although a number of fowl in the area had suddenly died.

Bird flu article source: Reuters

128 Japanese exhibited abnormal behaviour after Tamiflu use: report

TOKYO (AP) - More than 100 mostly young people in Japan have exhibited abnormal, sometimes dangerous, behaviour after taking the influenza drug Tamiflu, a news report said Wednesday citing a study by the Health Ministry.

Some 1,800 people have reported to the ministry that they experienced side effects after taking Tamiflu since the drug went on sale in Japan in 2001, Kyodo News Agency reported. Of those cases, 128 displayed abnormal behaviour, such as attempting to jump off buildings or an overwhelming desire to hop, the report said.

Swiss drug manufacturer Roche Holding AG has insisted the drug is safe.

The ministry study did not confirm a causal link between the drug and the unusual behaviour, Kyodo said.

Health Ministry official Ito Kamide could not immediately confirm the Kyodo report.

Concerns over the drug have spiked since February when a boy and a girl, both 14, fell to their deaths from their condominiums after taking Tamiflu.

Bird flu story source: AP

Bird flu tests ‘positive’ on four Bangladeshis in Kuwait

Preliminary tests for bird flu were positive on four Bangladeshi workers who had been culling infected chickens in Kuwait, a medical source said on Wednesday, but they have not been officially confirmed.

This would be the first cases of bird flu affecting humans in Arab nations of the Gulf.

“The first test on the four men was positive,” the source told AFP, requesting anonymity. “We have taken blood samples for a second test to reconfirm the initial results. We expect the outcome within hours.

“If the outcome is reconfirmed as positive, we will have to send blood samples to the World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory in Cairo for a final confirmation,” the source said.

Health ministry spokesman Ahmad Al-Shatti told AFP an official statement would be made on Thursday, after tests results were reviewed, as to whether the four were indeed infected.

The ministry said specimens “have been sent to the World Health Organisation (WHO) reference laboratory in Egypt for confirmation.

“These measures are in line with recommendations by WHO for guidelines for the diagnosis and announcement of bird flu cases in humans,” he said.

The four workers were admitted to Kuwait’s infectious diseases hospital with flu-like symptoms on Tuesday. The men have been isolated in a special ward and were still at the hospital on Wednesday.

Since the outbreak of bird flu in Kuwait, 22 people have been admitted to hospital on suspicion of being infected, but later discharged after confirming they were healthy.

The Bangladeshis were part of official teams culling and burying hundreds of thousands of chickens in Wafra, south of Kuwait City on the Saudi border.

Bird flu story source: AFP

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Bird flu strain found in W.Va. doesn’t pose a threat to humans

Agriculture authorities were destroying about 25,000 turkeys at a farm in rural Pendleton County after detecting a strain of avian flu in the flock.

State Agriculture Department spokesman Buddy Davidson said Monday the strain of the disease is not the same that has infected humans in Asia and Africa.

“People should not be worried,” he said. “This should not affect the average person at all.”

Authorities have not released the name of the farm where the flu was discovered. However, they are telling all poultry farms in a five-county area not to remove any “litter”—the bedding and manure of birds on farms—until testing can be done.

The affected counties are Pendleton, Hardy, Grant, Mineral and Hampshire in northeastern West Virginia.

The flu was detected in the turkeys during routine screening before the birds were slaughtered. Routine tests for avian flu have been done since a 2002 outbreak in Virginia.

Bird flu story source: AP

Monday, April 02, 2007

Myanmar reports new bird flu outbreak

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar reported a new outbreak of H5N1 bird flu on Monday, the country’s fifth bout with the deadly virus strain in as many weeks.

About 1,000 chickens died at a poultry farm in the town of Htaukkyant, north of Yangon, between Wednesday and Friday of last week, said Than Hla, the Livestock Ministry’s director of disease control.

“Laboratory tests confirmed the H5N1 virus in some of the nearly 1,000 chickens that died,” he said. He did not specify the number of birds that tested positive for the disease.

It was the fifth reported outbreak since Feb. 28, all in areas outside of Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. Since then, authorities have slaughtered nearly 60,000 chickens and other birds, Than Hla said.

The recent outbreak was believed to have spread through the sale and transport of poultry in the area, the New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

Bird flu story source: AP

Bird flu spreads in Bangladesh over weekend

Bird flu has spread to nine more farms in Bangladesh over the weekend.

The health ministry says the H5N1 virus was found in poultry in farms near Dhaka, where it was first detected, and in the north, taking the total number of affected farms to 25 in six districts.

Authorities have culled about 70,000 birds since confirming the outbreak in six farms on March 22.

A health ministry official says nearly 500 workers at the infected farms have been given a local version of the Tamiflu anti-viral drug as a precaution.

No humans have tested positive for the disease in the country.

Bird flu story source: Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC)