Bird Flu - Avian Influenza - news - information

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Suspected bird flu shuts Hong Kong park’s aviaries

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong theme park is to shut its aviaries for three weeks following the discovery of a wild heron suspected of dying from bird flu.

The bird was found on Monday in a remote area of Ocean Park, on the south coast of Hong Kong Island.

“As a precautionary measure, the walk-in aviaries in Ocean Park will be temporarily closed to visitors for 21 days starting tomorrow,” said a spokesperson with Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Ocean Park, a conservation-focused theme park with pandas, dolphins, birds and rollercoasters, attracted nearly 5 million visitors last year, proving more popular than the struggling Hong Kong Disneyland.

Spokeswoman Christine Lau said the rest of the park would operate normally and the aviary closures were a precautionary measure, with the 900 birds in its collection not having shown any symptoms of bird flu.

Bird flu story source: Reuters

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Indonesian woman tests positive for bird flu virus

JAKARTA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua)—A 32-year-old woman has tested positive for the bird flu virus and is now in critical condition at a Jakarta hospital, local press said Wednesday.

The woman was admitted to the Persahabatan Hospital on Jan. 26 and laboratory tests later confirmed she had the H5N1 virus, the Metro TV reported.

“She is very critical now with pneumonia and respiratory problems,” Dr. Mukhtar Ikhsan with the hospital said.

The patient has been put on a ventilator to assist in her breathing. She was the country’s 125th confirmed bird flu case, which has killed 101 people since the disease began ravaging the country in 2003.

Avian influenza story source: Xinhua (China News)

UPDATE 1-India sprays markets, roads to halt bird flu outbreak

KOLKATA, India, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Workers sprayed roads and markets in Kolkata with disinfectants and culled thousands of birds as authorities in eastern India battled to stop an outbreak of bird flu in poultry reaching the crowded city.

Bird flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal’s 19 districts and authorities in the communist-ruled state said they were culling sick chickens in a private farm about an hour’s drive from Kolkata, one of India’s biggest cities.

“We are not taking chances as the farm reported bird deaths and preliminary tests suggest bird flu,” Anisur Rahaman, the state’s animal resources minister told Reuters.

Over 2 million birds have already been culled, but authorities now say they will slaughter thousands of more birds.

They will also ban rearing backyard poultry in infected districts for at least three months.

India was checking hundreds of villagers and health workers for possible symptoms of bird flu, officials said.

Avian flu story source: Reuters

Indonesian Man Dies of Bird Flu (Brings total to 101)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 32-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia’s capital, lifting the toll in the country hardest hit by the virus to 101.

One of the victim’s neighbors was a pigeon breeder, but it was not immediately clear if that was the source of infection, said Health Ministry official Toto Haryanto.

“We’re still investigating,” he said. “We are not sure if any of those birds was sickened by the H5N1 virus.”

The man, who came from the nearby industrial city of Tangerang, died Tuesday after being treated for three days at Persahabatan Hospital in east Jakarta, said Dr. Erna Tresnaningsih, another senior ministry official.

Indonesia has regularly tallied human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. The latest casualty comes days after the country’s toll climbed to 100 — accounting for nearly half the worldwide total of more than 220.

As of Wednesday, 101 Indonesians had died and 23 others had been infected but recovered.

Bird flu story source: AP

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Birds culled in Saudi as new bird flu case found

RIYADH, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Saudi authorities have culled nearly 160,000 birds after a new case of the deadly strain of bird flu was found on a farm outside Riyadh, state media said on Tuesday.

The Saudi Press Agency said 158,000 birds were exterminated at al-Kharj, 150 km (94 miles) south of the capital, after the H5N1 strain of bird flu was found there.

The Saudi government says it has large stocks of Tamiflu anti-flu

avian flu story source: Reuters

China reports bird flu outbreak in poultry in Tibet

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has detected an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry in Tibet, a government Web site said on Tuesday.

A total of 1,000 poultry have died of the disease in Gonggan county since January 25, while another 13,080 have been culled, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its Web site (http://www.agri.gov.cn).

“The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus as a subtype of the H5N1 strain,” it said.

Source for this bird flu story: Reuters

Monday, January 28, 2008

Bangladesh plans house-to-house bird flu search

DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladeshi authorities are to start house-to-house surveillance in their latest effort to stem a worsening outbreak of bird flu, an official said Monday.

The country’s emergency government said the spread of avian flu, which has hit half the country, has become “alarming.”

Three more districts reported outbreaks at the weekend, and wild birds have also been dropping dead.

“We are going to search house to house and bring each of more than 150,000 poultry farms under our active surveillance to prevent the spread,” government spokesman Salahuddin Khan said.

“We’re not panicked. But we have stepped up our action programme for greater public safety,” Khan said.

Officials said the situation in the impoverished country of 144 million was so wide in scope that even wild crows had been infected.

“It is an alarming situation. Hundreds of crows have died across the country due to the bird flu. Laboratory tests have confirmed that the crows died of H5N1 strain of the bird flu,” a government science advisor said on Sunday.

“Farmers in some villages are throwing away dead chickens in canals and ponds, spreading the disease without knowing it. The government should make it an emergency health issue,” added the official, who asked not to be named.

Avian flu story source: AFP

Indonesia Reports 100th Bird Flu Death

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, has recorded its 100th human death as the virus picks up speed across Asia.

Health officials are bracing for more possible outbreaks during the upcoming Lunar New Year, when massive numbers of people and poultry are on the move.

In Indonesia, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a 9-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman from the outskirts of Jakarta, said Joko Suyono of the National Bird Flu Center.

The boy fell ill Jan. 16 and died Sunday in Jakarta after testing positive, Suyono said. The woman developed symptoms Jan. 19 and died in a hospital.

Two other Indonesians in their 30s, who also tested positive, were being treated in the capital, Suyono said.

Bird flu story source: AP

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Sixth swan tests positive for H5N1 bird flu

LONDON (Reuters) - A sixth swan in southern England has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the farm ministry said on Saturday.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said in a statement that the swan was found in the same area as five previous cases.

“This is not unexpected and our enhanced surveillance of wild birds in the area is continuing including active patrols to look for dead wild birds,” DEFRA said.

“There is currently no evidence to suggest widespread disease in the wild bird population and there remains no evidence of disease in domestic birds.”

On January 10, the ministry said three wild swans in a bird sanctuary in Dorset had died from the virus.

Source for this bird flu story: Reuters

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Experts probe high bird flu mortality rate in Indonesia

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Medical experts are worried about how death rates for H5N1 bird flu have shot up in places like Indonesia, and studies are being carried out to see if victims require higher dosages of drugs.

Although the H5N1 has only infected 352 people since 2003, it has killed 219 of them, with mortality rates rising to more than 80 percent in places like Indonesia in the past two years.

“It could be they are treated later, or the virus is different, more virulent. There are many maybes, including differences in susceptibility of the virus,” Menno de Jong, a doctor who has treated bird flu victims in Vietnam, told Reuters on the sidelines of a bird flu conference in Bangkok.

He said a major concern was the H5N1 variant in Indonesia appeared to be less susceptible to oseltamivir, the antiviral used to combat the disease.

“It’s not a (drug) resistant virus, it’s just that a bit more drug (may be) needed to inhibit these (H5N1) clade 2 viruses,” he said, referring to the sub-category that Indonesia’s H5N1 virus has been classified under.

Studies are being conducted in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to see if H5N1 patients need to be given higher dosages of oseltamivir.

Bird flu story source: Reuters