Bird Flu - Avian Influenza - news - information

Monday, March 31, 2008

Two Indonesian youths die of bird flu

JAKARTA, March 31 (Reuters) - Two Indonesian youths have died from bird flu, a health ministry official said on Monday, taking the confirmed death toll in the country worst affected by the virus to 107.

A 15-year-old boy from Subang, in West Java, died on Wednesday in an area where chickens had died, said Nyoman Kandun, director general of communicable disease control at the ministry.

An 11-year-old girl from Bekasi, east of Jakarta, who died on Friday also tested positive for the virus, the official said.

“There were dead chickens in the boy’s neighborhood, but in the girl’s case it is still unclear,” Kandun said via a mobile phone text message.

Kandun dismissed the possibility of more bird flu cases in the same family after the boy’s brother died recently. Confirmed cluster cases raise concerns over human-to-human transmission.

“It is not correct that there is a cluster in Subang,” Kandun said, adding that the brother has died of dengue fever.

Earlier on Monday, a 22-month-old girl from Sumatra’s Bukit Tinggi tested positive for bird flu and the health ministry was checking her neighborhood for possible backyard farming.

“Her condition is improving, and she is being treated at a Padang hospital,” Lily Sulistyowati, a health ministry spokeswoman, said by telephone.

Bird flu story source: Reuters

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Vietnam military to test bird flu vaccine on humans

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam, one of the countries hardest-hit by bird flu, will start a human vaccine trial this month, a military medical official said on Tuesday.

The official did not give a specific date but said the Health Ministry had approved testing that would last eight months at the Military Medical Academy in Ha Tay province near Hanoi.

“We are going to conduct the tests at the academy, with people joining on a voluntary basis, including students and employees,” said the official, who asked not to be identified in the media.

The academy had been licensed by the Ministry of Health to conduct the trial but it still required permission from the Ministry of Defense, the official said.

A company run by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said in a statement on its Web site (http://www.vabiotechvn.com) that it would produce six million doses per year for application on both humans and poultry should the tests be successful.

WHO in Vietnam said it was not directly involved in the Communist-run Southeast Asian country’s development of a human vaccine for the H5N1 virus.

“Our understanding is that this would be for local issue only and that the Ministry of Health has rigorous guidelines for quality control,” said Dida Connor, WHO spokeswoman in Hanoi.

The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1, known as Vabiotech, said in its statement that the vaccine used for poultry would be 1.5 microgram per dose, or one tenth the dose for humans.

Bird flu story source: Reuters

Monday, March 10, 2008

Japan seeks new form of flu vaccine, investors jump Bird flu related

OKYO, March 10 (Reuters) - A group of Japanese researchers has developed a substance that could potentially help make flu vaccines effective for multiple strains of the disease, including strains of the bird flu virus, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said on Monday.

The substance faces a lot more testing but investors seized on media reports of it on Monday, pushing the shares of a chemical firm involved in the project, NOF Corp (4403.T: Quote, Profile, Research), up nearly 21 percent.

Traditional flu vaccines create antibodies which act against flu viruses, but since virus surfaces frequently mutate, different vaccines have to be made every year.

The group found that when a peptide derived from the influenza virus is induced into mice, it could act against cells infected by multiple strains of influenza, including bird flu.

Part of the research was reported in the Journal of Immunology in 2006, and the group presented its findings last month at Japan’s National Cancer Center. The only tests so far have been on mice.

The next step is to develop a vaccine that works against multiple strains of flu and is proved safe for humans, said Tetsuya Uchida, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

“It usually takes about five years to develop vaccines for clinical use. But bird flu is an emerging issue and we would like to develop this as soon as possible,” Uchida said.

The findings could also potentially be applied to create drugs to treat AIDS, tumours and other diseases, he said. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Avian flu article source: Reuters

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Coming up with a flu plan - Avian flu related

LEXINGTON PARK, Md.—Interest in avian flu seems to have waned recently, but its threat is still present in several rural areas, principally in the Orient. A previously unknown and dangerous strain of the H5N1 bird flu has emerged from southern China and has spread from birds to people in Southeast Asia, marking a third wave of avian flu and rekindling fears of a global pandemic.

Medical researchers appear to be making progress toward producing vaccines and medications that may someday prevent and/or treat the disease, but it is unlikely that the United States or any other nation will be well prepared should there be an extensive outbreak of the disease in the near future.

Since avian flu will be spread throughout the population in many of the same ways that other strains of flu are spread, an experiment might be conducted during the current flu season that could lead to a set of measures to help contain the spread of avian flu should it become pandemic in the Unite d States.

This experiment could be conducted at relatively low expense by selecting two similar communities in Rhode Island for study, and encouraging the population of one of these communities to carry out a special anti-flu campaign while the population of the second community is asked to proceed through the flu season in its traditional manner.

Residents of the counter-flu community would be asked to voluntarily wear surgical masks throughout the one-month test period whenever they are outside of their homes, especially when they are in malls and other public sites or are using public transportation. If the experiment is sponsored by a governmental authority or by a private foundation or non-governmental organization, the surgical masks might be provided free at convenient locations or sold at reduced cost through pharmacies and other outlets.

The second phase of this experiment would consist of a campaign by local governments, institutions and businesses to disinfect door handles and other surfaces touched frequently by large numbers of workers, customers and others throughout working hours. Medical and public-health authorities would propose the most effective means of accomplishing this and, again, if government or non-governmental organizations are sponsoring the overall campaign, the appropriate materials might be made available at convenient locations at no cost or at reduced cost.

Businesses, schools, public-transportation facilities, libraries and other institutions would be encouraged to establish teams of personnel assigned and trained in the most effective techniques for disinfecting the surfaces that are touched frequently. Appropriate intervals for disinfecting these surfaces would be prescribed by the public-health authorities.

The third phase of this experiment would consist of providing an antiseptic hand lotion to any personnel desiring it. The lotion could be provided at various locations where free dispensers could be installed, in schools, at retail stores, mass-transit facilities and in restaurant and office restrooms. This hand-cleansing service is already available throughout the nation in grocery stores such as Whole Foods.

The fourth phase of the experiment would consist of regular reminders in the local newspaper and in prominently displayed posters throughout the city: “This is the flu season. Your fingers are quite likely to encounter millions of flu viruses. Don’t transmit these viruses to your eyes or nose, and wash your hands frequently.”

Although the statistics on cases of flu reported to hospitals and clinics are readily available, and may be sufficient to evaluate the effectiveness of this counter-flu campaign, it might be advisable to encourage any resident in the two cities who experiences unmistakable flu symptoms to provide this information to the public-health authorities.

If the Rhode Island counter-flu community turns out to have significantly fewer cases of flu over a typical flu season, a national plan for countering avian flu should incorporate these four procedures.

(Clayton Conger is a senior program analyst with Wyle Laboratories and a consultant to the Navy. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)

Avian flu article source: Scripts Howard News Service

Bird flu resurfaces in West Bengal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A fresh outbreak of bird flu in poultry has been reported from West Bengal, officials said on Sunday, a month after authorities there said they had contained the virus.

The outbreak, the fifth in India since 2006, has been reported from two villages of Murshidabad district, officials said.

“We are worried that bird flu has returned to West Bengal because the outbreak seemed to be under control,” Anisur Rahaman, the state’s animal resources minister told Reuters on Sunday.

In January, the H5N1 virus affected 13 of the state’s 19 districts, including Murshidabad. The strain of the latest virus was still being tested, but Rahaman said preliminary checks have indicated the H5N1 strain.

More than 3.4 million birds were culled during the last outbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) described as the worst-ever in India.

India has not reported any human bird flu cases, but the earlier outbreaks had badly hit poultry businesses in West Bengal and had a limited effect on poultry sales elsewhere in the country.

The virus could have now resurfaced from infected backyard poultry saved from culling by villagers, Rahaman said.

“We are trying to find out the reasons, but it seems that villagers had hidden ducks and chickens during the previous culling operation,” Rahaman said by phone from Kolkata.

Bird flu story source: Reuters

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Dead bird found in HK tests positive for H5N1

HONG KONG, March 8 (Xinhua)—An oriental magpie robin found dead earlier in Hong Kong has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in a press release Friday.

“An oriental magpie robin was confirmed to be H5N1 positive after a series of laboratory tests,” said the Department.

The dead bird was collected on Feb. 29 near a management center in Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve in the northern district of New Territories, a government spokesman said, adding that the oriental magpie robin is a common resident in Hong Kong.

Bird flu story source: Xinhua

Egyptian boy confirmed with bird flu, 47th case

CAIRO, March 8 (Reuters) - An 8-year-old boy in Fayoum province has contracted the bird flu virus after coming into contact with infected birds—the 47th case among humans in Egypt since 2006, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The boy, Abdel Hamid el-Sayed Youssef, was taken to a local hospital with a high temperature, difficulty breathing and a pulmonary inflammation, spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine said in a statement.

He moved to a Cairo hospital on Friday and is being treated with Tamiflu, the standard treatment for humans, it said.

Avian flu story source: Reuters

Vietnam bird flu outbreak spreads to Hanoi

Hanoi (dpa) - Bird flu has killed more than 2,000 ducks and chickens in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi, raising the number of provinces with avian influenza outbreaks this year to 10, an official said Friday.

More than 2,000 ducks and chickens were found dead at a farm in Hanoi’s outlying district of Soc Son between March 3 and 4, and tests Thursday showed they were positive for the H5N1 virus, according to Tran Manh Giang, head of the city’s animal health department.

“Most of the poultry at the farm were ducklings and chickens under 10 days old, and had thus not been vaccinated yet,” Giang said.

Giang said authorities had culled the remaining 1,660 chickens and ducks at the farm, disinfected the area, and banned the transport of poultry from the neighborhood.

“We are afraid the outbreak will expand to other farms in the district, in spite of the measures we have taken,” Giang said.

Bird flu outbreaks have been detected in 10 provinces since the beginning of this year, prompting local authorities to cull tens of thousands of ducks and chickens, according to the Agriculture Ministry’s Animal Health Department.

Bird flu story source: Bangkok Post

Thursday, March 06, 2008

No sign of deadly mutation in Indonesian bird flu samples: WHO

JAKARTA (AFP) — Bird flu samples sent by the Indonesian government to the World Health Organization show no sign the virus has mutated into a deadly form transmissible between humans, a WHO official said Thursday.

Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, sent 15 virus samples from two people who died of bird flu to WHO last month, the first such transfer since August 2007.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl confirmed in an email to AFP from the body’s Geneva headquarters that the samples had not shown any signs of mutation.

Scientists fear a human-to-human mutation of the virus would kick off a worldwide pandemic that could kill millions.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said the samples had been sent out of “goodwill.”

WHO had warned last year that Indonesia’s reluctance to share flu samples put its own population at risk because any vaccines developed would not be designed to combat Indonesian strains of the H5N1 virus.

Indonesia had halted sharing samples in December 2006, saying it feared multinational drug companies could use them to develop vaccines that were not affordable for poor countries.

In August last year, a sample of the bird flu virus that killed a woman on Bali was sent to a World Health Organization laboratory to allay fears that there had been a human-to-human transfer.

H5N1 is endemic across nearly all of Indonesia, where humans and poultry live in close contact. Of the 105 overall deaths reported since the disease emerged here, 11 have occurred this year.

Bird flu story source: AFP

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Bird flu well entrenched in Asia: WHO

MANILA (AFP) — The bird flu virus is “firmly entrenched” in Asia and a pandemic among humans remains possible, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert warned Wednesday.

While Asian countries are more prepared to react to any outbreaks than before and have vaccine stockpiles, deaths and infections have continued, noted Takeshi Kasai, the WHO’s regional adviser in communicable disease surveillance and response unit.

“The virus has been firmly entrenched in this region, I’m afraid,” Kasai told reporters during an exercise to test the Philippines’ preparations against the disease.

“The virus itself keeps changing, so the risk of pandemic persists.”

Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.

Three people have died in China this year of bird flu while a boy and his father were admitted this week to a hospital in Indonesia on suspicion of having the disease.

Since the first human cases were reported in 2003, at least 200 people have died from the H5N1 virus around the world, the WHO said. Indonesia is the world’s worst-hit country, with 11 deaths so far this year.

Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines remain the only countries in the region where the flu, either in birds or humans, has not been detected.

Kasai praised China for being more transparent in reporting suspected cases.

“I think China now is very open and has been positively sharing information, including lab results,” he said.

China has been highly criticized in the past for withholding information relating to the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that ravished the region several years ago.

Avian influenza story source: AFP