dottore pesta: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

Bird flu killed Indonesian baby girl
31 Mar 2006 16:08:33 GMT

JAKARTA, March 31 (Reuters) - A one-year-old baby girl, who died this month, has been confirmed as Indonesia's latest bird flu victim, the Health Ministry said on Friday, citing results from a World Health Organisation-affiliated laboratory.

The girl, from west Jakarta, is the country's 23rd victim of bird flu, senior ministry official I. Nyoman Kandun told Reuters after receiving results from the laboratory in Hong Kong.

He said it was unclear if the baby had had any contact with sick birds, the usual mode of transmission of the virus to people, but added there was a lot of fowl in her neighbourhood.

Jordan finds first human bird flu case
31 Mar 2006 17:02:43 GMT

AMMAN, March 31 (Reuters) - Jordan reported its first human case of bird flu on Friday in an Egyptian labourer who was believed to have become infected while on a holiday in his home town in Egypt, health officials said.

Health Minister Said Darwazeh said the man, a 31-year old labourer, who had lived in Jordan for three years, had been taken to hospital on Thursday after suffering severe breathing problems three days after arriving from his home town in Fayoum where people had been in close contact with infected poultry.

"His condition is good and (he is) getting treatment and we are coordinating with the Egyptian authorities," Darwazeh told Reuters, adding that preliminary tests showed there were no other cases.

"He was infected in his (home) country," he added.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

On the Front: A Pandemic Is Worrisome but 'Unlikely'
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL, Published: March 28, 2006

OXFORD, England — The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, where Dr. Jeremy Farrar works, has treated about two dozen people with avian influenza in the last three years.

Dr. Jeremy Farrar. The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, where Dr. Farrar works, has treated about two dozen patients with avian flu.
AFRICA Migratory birds take off from a beach in Senegal, in February.

With that tiny number, Dr. Farrar and his Vietnamese colleagues probably have more clinical experience than any other doctors with the A(H5N1) virus — the dreaded germ that international health officials fear may ignite the next flu pandemic.

Yet, Dr. Farrar notes, this trickle of humans infected with bird flu — 186 in all since 2003 — has provoked a flood of scientific meetings on pandemics, accelerating in recent months.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Fear of virus is sickest thing about bird flu, By Marc Siegel (MARC SIEGEL, an associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine, is the author of ``Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.'' He wrote this article for the Washington Post.)

Fear is a deeply rooted emotion -- one that can serve as a lifesaving response to imminent danger. But because we humans often magnify risk, fear can also cause us to overreact to remote threats, such as bird flu.

According to a significant study published in the prestigious British journal Nature recently, the H5N1 bird flu virus is at least two large mutations and two small mutations away from being the next human pandemic virus. This virus attaches deep in the lungs of birds but cannot adhere to the upper respiratory tract of humans. Since we can't transmit the virus to one another, it poses little immediate threat to us.

So why did the ``flu hunter,'' world-renowned Tennessee virologist Robert Webster, say of bird flu on ABC that there are ``about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human,'' and that ``society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die . . . I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role.''

I'm sorry, Dr. Webster, but your role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to enter into broad speculation on national television. By your way of thinking, we should all be either building an escape rocket ship or killing every bird we see before it can kill us.

Fear causes the public to blur the distinction between birds and people, and so, as the H5N1 virus infects flocks of birds in Pakistan and Israel, nightly news watchers track the path to the United States. The poultry industry cringes as migratory birds that may be carrying H5N1 make their way closer to the northern shores of North America.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Avian culling doesn't stop bird flu

At least 29 nations have reported initial cases of avian influenza during the past seven weeks, reflecting the ineffectiveness of bird culling.

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The viral disease has been newly reported in Nigeria, Israel, India, Sweden and elsewhere, with scientists in the United States estimating bird flu is likely to arrive in North America this year.

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"We expected it to move, but not any of us thought it would move quite like this," said Dr. David Nabarro, the U.N. coordinator on bird flu efforts, told The Los Angeles Times.

Researchers initially thought culling millions of chickens, ducks and other birds would contain or even eradicate the virus. It has not.

Sweden finds mink infected with bird flu virus
27 Mar 2006 15:30:43 GMT

STOCKHOLM, March 27 (Reuters) - Swedish veterinarians have found a mink with an aggressive form of the H5 bird flu virus and had the mammal put down, the National Veterinary Institute said on Monday.

The animal was found in the Blekinge region of south Sweden, an area where several bird flu cases have been found. What is initially described as an aggressive form of H5 bird flu is often later confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

The mink probably got the disease from eating wild birds which were already infected, the Institute said in a statement.

Iraq tests for bird flu after man dies in Baghdad
27 Mar 2006 15:08:44 GMT

BAGHDAD, March 27 (Reuters) - Iraqi medical authorities ordered tests for the H5N1 bird flu virus on samples from a man who died in Baghdad, a Health Ministry source said on Monday.

No further details were available.

A number of suspected cases of the virus in Iraq have turned out to be false alarms. At least two fatal cases of human bird flu -- in a teenage girl and her uncle in January -- were confirmed in the northern province of Sulaimaniya.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Cambodia's latest bird flu outbreak a 'serious' problem - WHO
03.26.2006, 06:45 AM

PHNOM PENH (AFX) - The World Health Organization expressed 'great concern' over Cambodia's latest bird flu outbreak after three more suspected cases were hospitalised following last week's death of a child from H5N1.

'It's a great concern, it's a serious problem ... we have to take this as seriously as possible,' WHO representative Michael O'Leary told Agence France-Presse.

Three people -- one adult and two children -- are being treated for fever and respiratory problems at a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, health officials said.

The suspected cases come from a village neighboring that of three-year-old Mon Vuthy, who died Tuesday after falling ill with the H5N1 strain of the virus.

She was the first bird flu death in Cambodia this year and the fifth since 2003.

Five other people who had contact with the suspected cases are also being tested, said Ly Sovann, head of the health ministry's department of infectious diseases.

Update I 3/27/06 3 suspected bird flu cases test negative in Cambodia

Friday, March 24, 2006

One Infected with Bird Flu Receives Treatment in Hospital
24/03/2006 21:40

15-year-old resident of Salyan region still receives treatment in hospital. Her tests made in London laboratory proved to be H5N1 positive.

At present her health condition is "stable and she remains under physicians' control," Samaya Mamedova, Health Ministry's press officer, told TURAN.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Mexico ministry denies bird flu found at US border
Thursday, March 23, 2006 11:09 a.m. ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's agriculture ministry denied rumors in U.S. commodities markets on Thursday that a case of H5N1 bird flu had been found near the U.S. border.

"We are free of highly-pathogenic bird flu," Jose Angel del Valle, the ministry's animal health director, told Reuters.

U.S. grain prices were lower early on Thursday amid talk of the deadly bird flu in neighboring Mexico, but livestock markets -- which stand to benefit -- were treating it as a hoax, traders said.

The rumors apparently began on a Brazilian web site which reported that a duck found dead in the town of Nogales, near Arizona, had died of bird flu.

Cambodian girl 'died of bird flu'
From correspondents in Phnom Penh
24mar06

INITIAL tests on a three-year-old Cambodian girl who died after playing with sick birds show she was infected the deadly H5N1 type of bird flu, officials of the health ministry and the UN World Health Organisation say.

The girl, whose name was not immediately available, died on Tuesday, a few days after playing with birds in the province of Kampong Speu, about 45km west of the capital Phnom Penh, said Ly Sovann, chief of the disease control bureau of Cambodia's Health Ministry.

Megge Milller, a locally based WHO representative, confirmed preliminary tests found the virulent H5N1 virus in the girl.

'Bird flu outbreak is God's punishment'
March 22 2006 at 03:08PM

Jerusalem - An outbreak of deadly bird flu in Israel is God's punishment for calls made in election campaign advertisements for gay marriages to be legalised, says David Basri, a prominent sage preaching the Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism.

"The Bible says God punishes depravity first through plagues against animals and then in people," the rabbi said in a religious edict quoted by his son.

Basri hoped the deaths of hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens would help atone for what he called the sins of left-wing Israeli political parties, his rabbi son, Yitzhak Basri, said.

The bird flu outbreak stemmed from far-left political parties "strengthening and encouraging homosexuality", the sage was quoted as saying.

Taking a gamble on bird flu
Novavax raises $38 million, sees stock rise, after shifting focus to vaccine development
Originally published March 23, 2006

When Rahul Singhvi took over Novavax Inc. last August, the drugmaker had less than $5 million and was losing money on its biggest product. Within days he decided to bet on an experimental bird-flu vaccine.

The gamble is paying off for Novavax, which was based in Columbia until it moved to Malvern, Pa., in 2004, and still does much of its bird-flu work in Rockville. The company has raised $38 million after changing its focus and the stock has jumped eightfold since Singhvi, 41, became chief executive officer. Novavax's most recent financing included $12.5 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that backed Google Inc. and Genentech Inc.

Al Qaeda and the Bird Flu

March 23, 2006: The bird flu epidemic may cause significant political instability in some countries, and add to the unrest that terrorist organizations thrive on.

The financial losses to bird flu have been substantial. France, for example, is losing about $48 million a month due to bird flu, and Russia has seen its flocks reduced by about a quarter due to efforts to eliminate the deadly virus. But developed nations have a more or less well established "social safety net," and can cope. France, and even Russia, are in much better shape to cope with the fall out of the disease than less developed nations.

Consider Egypt. Long a major poultry producer, with an internal consumption of some 800 million birds a year and an export market of several hundred million more, Egypt has just been hit by bird flu and has initiated massive slaughter of suspect flocks. ....
Nor is Egypt by any means the "worst case" situation. Many other countries in Africa and Asia are even less able to cope with the impact of a major bird flu outbreak. Several countries teetering on the edge failure, such as Chad, Ivory Coast, and Lesotho, could easily fall apart as a consequence of a devastating bird fly outbreak. And as that happens, terrorists will have more recruits, and more places to hide.

Research Reveals Possible Answer To Why Bird Flu Is Still Not A Pandemic
March 22, 2006 10:28 p.m. EST, by Matthew Borghese - All Headline News Staff Writer

Madison, Wisconsin (AHN) - Researchers say that they have found the reason why the deadly bird flu has difficulty transmitting itself from person to person.

The University of Wisconsin tells the journal, Nature, that the H5N1 avian flu virus attaches to cells deep within human airways, and as such is not as easy to pass from one person to another.

Dr. Laurence Tiley, a lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge, says, "This may at least in part explain why H5N1 is inefficient at transmitting person to person, although I doubt that it is the complete answer."

According to Professor Ian Jones, of the University of Reading, "It seems [those who have died] were just really unlucky and transmitted enough virus to their mouths for it to gain access to the lower lung, a distance shorter in children than adults."

"Casual contact with the virus may therefore not be as dangerous as initially thought."

Highly virulent form of bird flu can affect more species

New York, March 23 (PTI): A highly virulent form of bird flu could affect a far wider range of species, including rare and endangered, than previously believed, experts have warned.

The species that could be affected range from big cats like leopards and tigers to other mammals like martens, weasels and badgers and 80 per cent of all bird species, said a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

"We are learning many hard lessons from the threatened pandemic," said the head of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is administered by the experts attending a CBD conference in Curitiba, Brazil and called for increased surveillance and vaccination as also beefed-up training.

In many ways, it is a "threat of our own making," said CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf.

For example, reduced genetic diversity in domestic animals like poultry in favour of a "monoculture" in the last 50 years has resulted in reduction of resistance to many diseases.

Woman dies of suspected bird flu in Shanghai
23 March 2006

SHANGHAI - A woman has died of what could be bird flu in the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai, state television said on Thursday.

The patient, a 29-year-old female migrant worker, died on Tuesday of pneumonia of unconfirmed origin, an official at the Shanghai municipality information office told Reuters.

The case is under investigation for bird flu, Shanghai Television said.

China has recorded 15 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans since late last year, 10 of whom have died.

Doctors and nurses who tended the patient were under quarantine, said a source at the hospital, adding it was awaiting final test results.

“It’s a suspected case, but not confirmed,” the source told Reuters.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Soldiers Hospitalized in Kutaisi Georgia With H5N1 Symptoms
Recombinomics Commentary March 16, 2006

Three soldiers were taken to Davit Aghmashenebeli Church Hospital of Kutaisi, to the department of intensive therapy on March 17.

They are the soldiers of the subdivision under the Defence Ministry, dislocated in Kutaisi, Imereti region, western Georgia. The diagnosis of Rodani Chachanidze, Giorgi Gamezardashvili and Nikoloz Narchemashvili is the acute respiratory infection with pneumonia. They were brought to the stationary hospital with the nasal bleeding.

InterpressNews was informed that another 19 soldiers are ill with the similar symptoms but they have no acute forms of the disease like the their abovementioned colleagues.

The above comments on three soldiers with H5N1 bird flu symptoms in Georgia is cause for concern. Kutaisi is near Tbilisi, where two school children died. It is also within 200 miles of Azerbaijan, as well as eastern Turkey, where confirmed H5N1 patients have also died.

Acute respiratory symptoms with pneumonia and nose bleeding are H5N1 bird flu symptoms. Lab results and an update on the condition of the soldiers with mild and severe symptoms would be useful.

Bird flu killed five in Azerbaijan
Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:34 PM GMT171

GENEVA (Reuters) - The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed five young people in Azerbaijan in recent weeks, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The deaths take the global human toll from bird flu to 103 since late 2003.

The WHO said two other people in Azerbaijan had tested positive for bird flu. One of them, a 10-year-old boy, has recovered, while a 15-year-old girl remains in hospital in critical condition.

Four of those who died came from the Salyan region in the southeast of the country, while the fifth victim came from Tarter in the west, the WHO said.

The WHO said an investigation in Salyan had found some evidence that carcasses of numerous swans, dead for some weeks, but not buried, may have been collected by residents as a source of feathers.

The WHO team is checking whether the practice of defeathering birds may have been a source of infection.

Health Officials Gathered in Dale County for a Bird Flu Conference
Updated: 5:05 PM Mar 20, 2006, by Erika Kurre

Health officials from several agencies gathered in Dale County Monday for a bird flu conference.

One of the most alarming facts they talked about was the potential for tens of thousands of deaths when the deadly disease hits Alabama.

It’s the first event of it is kind to be held in the state, a county-wide conference on planning and preparation for a bird flu pandemic.

Officials called the conference, "prepare, not panic" but finding out how little preparation has been done, is alarming.

"If a pandemic influenza comes to humans in Alabama, then it will certainly have a wide-spread impact on health and the economy" said Dr. Charles Woernle, Alabama Department of Public Health.

Although humans can contract bird flu from birds, it's not much of a concern yet because the avian flu is still a germ that does not spread from human-to-human.

However officials are bracing for the point when it does change into a human germ.

Dale County Emergency Director Ray Phillips said "We are preparing by telling people to stock up on food and water. And be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least 3 days because that's how long it's going to take for us to get to you, basically."
...
There is still no vaccine and at this point, resources are limited.

The bird flu is being spread around the world, primarily by migratory birds.

The federal government is saying that if the virus changes into a human germ, more than 200,000 people in the U.S could die from it.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Bahrain deny hospitalising four suspected bird flu patients
21 March 2006

MANAMA - Bahrain health officials denied late Monday that they have admitted patients with suspected bird flu to a local hospital.

Adel Abdullah, head of international public relations at the Ministry of Health, described the reports as rumours, according to the Arabic daily Al Waqt. He confirmed that four people underwent routine checkups.
...
“The routine checkups we carried out on the four were part of the national precautionary emergency plan put in place to deal with any suspected case,” he said.

Earlier reports suggested that four people from one family suspected of being infected with the deadly bird flu virus had been admitted late Monday to a Manama hospital.

Sources said that the four had been isolated pending further tests.

Bird Flu Is Underreported In Africa, Allowing Spread

/noticias.info/ Bird flu has affected more countries in Africa than the four nations that have officially reported outbreaks, and reluctance to publicly disclose infections is contributing to the virus's spread said a World Health Organization (WHO) official, Agence France Presse and Bloomberg (03/20) report.

Nigeria, Egypt, Niger and Cameroon are the only countries that “dared announce their results,” the WHO's representative in Gabon, Andre Ndikuyeze said. “Others haven't been so brave and have not taken the necessary steps, which is another factor in the spread of the epidemic.” As widely pointed out by numerous experts, bird flu poses a particularly worrying threat for Africa, which lacks the basic healthcare and infrastructure of the developed world, and where poultry and humans tend to live in close proximity. Also, any large scale slaughtering of poultry, the best weapon against the virus, is bound to have severe economic and nutritional consequences in an impoverished continent where the chicken plays such an important role in diet. Representatives from the WHO, the United Nations, aid organizations and governments are scheduled to meet in Gabon Monday for three days of talks aimed at galvanizing a pan-African response to avian influenza.

Bloomberg (02/18) further notes the WHO said that more studies are “urgently” needed to determine how bird flu patients can be best treated with oseltamivir, the antiviral drug marketed by Roche Holding AG as Tamiflu. The WHO cites the current uncertainty of the optimal dosage which has not yet been determined during clinical trials as well as the fact that H5N1 infections continue to have a high mortality rate as the reasons for urging more studies.

WHO Suspects 14 People Infected with Bird Flu in Azerbaijan
Created: 20.03.2006 16:56 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:05

Experts from the World Health Organization suspect 14 more people are infected with bird flu in Azerbaijan where two girls died of the the H5N1 virus earlier this month, Interfax reported Monday.

A group of WHO experts reported their suspicions after visiting the Salyansky district of Azerbaijan, 150 km to the south of the capital Baku.

Earlier three residents of the district were provisionaly diagnosed with bird flu.

Meanwhile, the state commission for preventing the spread of bird flu in Azerbaijan and coordinating the work of relevant government bodies has issued a statement that says no new areas of bird flu outbreak have been discovered, Regnum news agency said.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Far rightist: Bird flu pullout punishment

Leader of National Jewish Front says bird flu outbreak 'punishment from God' for kibbutzim used to house 'expulsion headquarters'
Efrat Weiss

The bird flu outbreak in southern Israel is God's punishment for the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank disengagement, National Jewish Front Chairman Baruch Marzel says.

"You were punished by God and now you'll have to ask for the forgiveness of Gush Katif residents," Marzel wrote in a letter to southern residents whose communities were affected by bird flu.

In the wake of the bird flu outbreak, rightists have been voicing various theories regarding the connection between the disease and the implementation of the pullout. Marzel himself is certain such connection exists.

"The kibbutz was used to house the expulsion headquarters because of greed, and therefore the bird flu outbreak happened there of all places," the far right leader wrote in his letter to Ein HaShlosha kibbutz.

Tests Show Egyptian Woman Dies of Bird Flu
Saturday, March 18, 2006; 7:48 AM

CAIRO, Egypt -- Initial tests have shown that a woman who died this week had bird flu, making her likely the first human death from the disease in Egypt, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said Saturday.

A U.S. Navy lab in Cairo found that the woman, who died on Friday, had the H5N1 virus, but further tests will be conducted by the WHO to give final confirmation, WHO spokesman Hassan el-Bushra told The Associated Press.

A number of people who came in contact with the woman are also being tested, said el-Bushra, who is the WHO regional adviser for emerging diseases. He would not say how many people were being tested or whether they had shown any symptoms of bird flu.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Serb kids from bird flu area hospitalized for checks

Mar 17, 2006 — BELGRADE (Reuters) - Three Serb children from a bird flu-affected area were taken to hospital after developing fever and flu-like symptoms, Serbia's chief epidemiologist said on Friday.

A teenager put into isolation on Thursday after developing fever was also moved to hospital. All four come from a southwestern area close to the Bosnian border, where there was a suspected case of the deadly H5N1 strain in a cockerel.

"Three children were admitted to hospital today displaying symptoms of respiratory infection," Predrag Kon told Reuters.

"Two of them have signs of a viral infection. All three are coming from the outbreak zone and came into contact with infected poultry."

Scientists Say Bird Flu Will Likely Mutate and Jump from Birds to Humans
By Cathryn Curtis

As the threat of bird flu spreads around the world, the big question on the minds of scientists around the world is if — and when — the virus might mutate to allow it to be transmitted from birds to humans. This is what some scientists in the U.S. are predicting:

Bird flu has now been confirmed in more than 40 countries around the world, and health officials are scrambling to prevent the virus from spreading.

Nearly 200 people have been diagnosed with bird flu and more than half have died from it so far. They caught the virus from exposure to chickens and ducks and birds. The bird flu virus can't spread among humans...yet.

Dr. Robert Webster collects and studies samples of the virus in his Memphis, Tennessee lab. He says chances are good that the virus will mutate and jump from birds to humans. "[There are] about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human."

If that happened, a deadly pandemic could quickly spread around the world.

Dr. Webster says we need to be prepared. "We can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. I think we have to face that possibility. I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger, of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, says there is a frightening historic precedent from 1918. "The risk of the current bird flu is that this virus might be actually going down the same path as the 1918 virus."

BIRD FLU: IN ISRAEL THREE FARM WORKERS TREATED FOR POSSIBLE INFECTION

Tel Aviv, 17 March (AKI) - In Israel, three workers at kibbutz farms where more than 1,000 turkeys have been found dead were hospitalised on Friday for possible bird flu infection. One of the men, a Thai national, is being treated in isolation at the Soroka medical centre in Beer Sheva. Lab tests carried out on some of the turkeys appear to confirm fears that they were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the report said.

Hospital administrators said test results for the three men, who worked on the two kibbutzes situated some 25 kilometres south of Jerusalem, would be ready by Sunday.

According to Haaretz the UN's World Health Organization does not view the test conducted on the turkeys, called PCR, as a definitive confirmation of the existence of the viral H5N1 viral strain.

While Israel is planning a second, stricter test, whose results are expected by Sunday, it has already ordered the killing of tens of thousands of birds suspected of being infected.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Study finds mutations needed for bird flu pandemic
Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:07 PM GMT165, By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Thursday they had identified some of the mutations the H5N1 avian influenza virus needs to gain a permanent foothold in the human population, causing a greatly feared pandemic.

They said the test they used, called a glycan microarray, might be useful in monitoring the virus in birds and as it infects people, to see if it is mutating into a form that would allow it to pass easily from person to person.

H5N1 has moved steadily across Asia and into Europe since it reappeared in 2003, and has picked up speed in recent weeks. It has killed just over 100 people but remains mostly a virus of birds.

No one can predict when, or even if, it will evolve into a form that transmits easily from one person to another, but fears are that it will. Scientists have been examining the virus when they can get samples and trying to predict just which changes are needed to make it change from a bird-specific to a human-specific form.

Ian Wilson and a team at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California looked at a structure on the surface of all influenza viruses called hemagglutinin. It is the "H" in H5N1 and there are 16 known types of hemagglutinin.

Only three -- H1, H2 and H3 -- have been known to cause human disease and they caused the last three great influenza pandemics, in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

"When pandemics start, we really don't know, with the first virus that enters the human population, how well it is adapted to humans," Wilson said in a telephone interview.

Bird flu spreads suspicion, disbelief in Azerbaijan villages
16/03/2006 19:46, by Simon Ostrovsky

A waist-high pile of earth has been bulldozed to block the entrance to two villages where Azerbaijan's authorities have announced three human deaths from bird flu.

But little else sets these villages apart from others lining Azerbaijan's main throughway between Iran and Russia and locals are refusing to believe that a disease from poultry could have killed the teenagers.

"Bird flu is a big lie. They can't figure out why my children died because they're stupid, so they called it that," shouted Naile Askerova, whose 16-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter were among those named as victims by health officials on Tuesday.

Askerova and a number of relatives at a Shiite memorial service held for her children said they believed that their chickens, some of which were in the yard where the ceremony was being held, posed no danger.

Nearly every household in Sarvan and Dayikend -- some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital Baku -- continues to keep live poultry despite a health ministry notice ordering the eradication of all domestic birds within a three-kilometer radius of any outbreak of avian influenza.

Kazakhs say ready for gravest bird flu scenario
16 Mar 2006 10:54:55 GMT

ASTANA, March 16 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's top health official said on Thursday the Central Asian country was prepared to withstand the gravest scenario of having to treat up to a million people this year should bird flu spark a pandemic.

Birds in Kazakhstan were hit by an outbreak of the virus last year. However, none of the country's 15 million citizens were infected then.

"A mass migration of birds will start in about a week, 10 or 15 days, especially from Southeast Asia. They will basically fly across the whole of our country," Kazakhstan's top sanitary official, Anatoly Belonog, told reporters in the capital Astana.

"If you take our country, we can expect -- and that's the 'gravest' forecast -- about a million infected people. We are ready for this number of patients, which is possible." [my emphais and comment: what's he saying here? a million infected from contact with birds? Nowhere has that happened, not even in China, which has had the most cases of fowl and human infections. Is he working with some other info or scenario in mind?]

Under this year's preventive plan, the Kazakh government has equipped regional health and veterinary offices with new monitoring equipment. It has also set up working groups in each region to organise preventive measures, officials have said.

Russia says bird flu may hit US in autumn, mutate
Thursday, March 16, 2006; 9:50 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The deadly bird flu virus, which has hit Asia, Europe and Africa, may spread to the United States late this year and risks mutating dangerously there, Russia's top animal and plant health inspector said on Thursday.

"We think that H5N1 (strain of bird flu virus) will reach the United States in autumn," Sergei Dankvert told Reuters.

"This is very realistic. We may be almost certain this will happen after this strain is found in Great Britain, before autumn, as migrating birds will carry it to the United States from there."

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Most bird flu samples are ‘unfit for testing’
Thursday, March 16, 2006 01:18 IST, by Aditya Ghosh

MUMBAI: The spread of bird flu in Maharashtra could be worse than feared.

HK Pradhan, head of the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal, said it is not possible to get a clear picture of the spread of the disease because the state’s officials have failed to follow proper procedures while collecting and preserving samples for testing.

He said many of the samples reaching Bhopal are in such a state that it becomes impossible to get a positive result even if they are infected. As a result, there is no proper figure about the spread of the virus.

“A sample has to reach us where the virus is alive in the medium (dead chicken, blood, egg, tissue, or faecal matter) by maintaining a cold chain and following a strict protocol like time of collection and packaging,” Pradhan told DNA from Bhopal. “But many of the samples come in such a nasty condition that it is not possible for the virus to be alive. So, it will not give a representative figure.”

He narrated the example of one sample that was so bad that scientists had to dump it straight in the incinerator without even opening it.

The four samples that tested positive on Tuesday were from a batch of 26, all from a scattered, domesticated population. Though the samples showed the presence of the H5 virus, their N1 status has not been tested. “But it is quite certain that they will test positive for N1 as well,” Pradhan said.

This means the virus is still in the environment and a direct link exists, as H5N1 cannot transmit without a live carrier. “It is transmitted from bird to bird and not through air,” he said.

Most bird flu samples are ‘unfit for testing’
Thursday, March 16, 2006 01:18 IST, by Aditya Ghosh

MUMBAI: The spread of bird flu in Maharashtra could be worse than feared.

HK Pradhan, head of the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal, said it is not possible to get a clear picture of the spread of the disease because the state’s officials have failed to follow proper procedures while collecting and preserving samples for testing.

He said many of the samples reaching Bhopal are in such a state that it becomes impossible to get a positive result even if they are infected. As a result, there is no proper figure about the spread of the virus.

“A sample has to reach us where the virus is alive in the medium (dead chicken, blood, egg, tissue, or faecal matter) by maintaining a cold chain and following a strict protocol like time of collection and packaging,” Pradhan told DNA from Bhopal. “But many of the samples come in such a nasty condition that it is not possible for the virus to be alive. So, it will not give a representative figure.”

He narrated the example of one sample that was so bad that scientists had to dump it straight in the incinerator without even opening it.

The four samples that tested positive on Tuesday were from a batch of 26, all from a scattered, domesticated population. Though the samples showed the presence of the H5 virus, their N1 status has not been tested. “But it is quite certain that they will test positive for N1 as well,” Pradhan said.

This means the virus is still in the environment and a direct link exists, as H5N1 cannot transmit without a live carrier. “It is transmitted from bird to bird and not through air,” he said.

U.S.expert says bird flu virus may have dangerous mutations

Recent cases of bird flu outbreak indicate the H5N1 avian influenza virus may have dangerous mutations, a U.S. bird flu expert said on Tuesday.

The virus, which has killed several domestic cats in Germany and Austria, may have acquired the ability of directly transferring from wild birds to cats and dogs, said Dr. Carol Cardona, a poultry veterinarian and professor at the University of California, Davis.

Cardona is part of a network of U.S. researchers providing education about bird flu. Her laboratory also conducts research on avian influenza viruses focusing on the disease caused in chickens.

"Recent cases in Germany and Austria may be a dangerous sign," Cardona told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

"We have known that felids could be infected by the virus easily," she said. "Last year, tigers and leopards in a zoo in Thailand were killed by the virus after eating fresh chicken, but the German cases are different."

Generally, the H5N1 virus transfers from wild birds to poultry, and then goes from poultry to wild birds or other species, including human, according to Cardona.

But in recent cases, domestic cats were infected after eating dead wild birds or contacting with them.

"That means, the virus may have acquired the ability of directly transferring from wild birds to other species, such as domestic cats or urban dogs," she said. "It may be able to do this without the poultry."

If the virus can infect domestic cats and urban dogs, which closely contact with people in everyday life, it will pose more threat to humans, she said.

There is no evidence that the virus has accomplished the so-called "species jumping," which means it can circulate among animals other than the birds.

"But there is the possibility, so we can never underestimate the virus," she said. [my emphasis]

Iran and Bird Flu: The Perfect Casus Belli?, by Jorge Hirsch

The casus belli against Iran is about to be unveiled. You may call it the modern equivalent of Pearl Harbor, and it has already occurred without you even noticing. Iran is attacking us with air-delivered weapons of mass destruction, and we have no choice but to respond in kind. Unless we act immediately, the next wave of Iran's deadly chirping missiles will be launched in the next few weeks from the Iranian wetlands toward their targets in Scandinavia and Alaska, and from there will extend their deadly effect, killing millions throughout the Western world.

Officials say Azeri dog dies of bird flu
Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:02 AM ET165

BAKU (Reuters) - A dog has died of bird flu in Azerbaijan, a country where the virus is believed to have caused the death of three young women, officials said on Wednesday.

"A dead stray dog has been found, and after analysis type A bird flu was discovered. The medical investigation is continuing," said a statement from the state commission tasked with fighting the spread of bird flu. It said the dog died on March 9 in the capital Baku.

Experts admit bird flu virus gaining ground
Published: Wednesday, 15 March, 2006, 09:25 AM Doha Time

PARIS: Experts admit to mingled feelings of relief and apprehension as they survey efforts to combat bird flu, whose human toll is now nudging the 100 mark.
On the plus side: the H5N1 virus remains lethal to poultry and to humans in close proximity but shows no sign of mutating into a feared pandemic virus, transmissible among humans. ...

As for pandemic preparations, strategy is shifting in favour of a swift, localised response, backed by a WHO taskforce, that would use quarantine measures and antiviral drugs at the site where a mutated virus has broken out.

The goal is essentially pragmatic – to dampen and contain the outbreak rather than eradicate it, using precious resources to slow the spread and thus buy time for devising a vaccine and boosting preparedness elsewhere. ... [my emphasis]

Two More People Die Of Bird Flu

Tbilisi. March 15 (Prime-News) – Two members of Musayev’s family, residents of the village Baim Sarikh of Terteri region died presumably of the bird flu on the same day.

Azerbaijani TV Channel ANS informs that according to physicians, the bird flu diagnosis is preliminary and can be confirmed after results of laboratory examinations are known.

It became known that the main part of peasants doesn’t slaughter poultry, waiting far compensation from Azerbaijani government.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

N.Y. BIRDBRAINS KEEP FEAR OF FLU AFLIGHT
By MARSHA KRANES

March 13, 2006 -- The bird flu hasn't hit the city yet - but doctors say fear of it certainly has.

"It's a scary concept - it's easy to believe it can happen to you," said Dr. Marc Siegel, who's been getting 10 calls a week from patients worried their achy muscles and sniffles are symptoms of the virus.

"The fact is that not even a single bird in the U.S. has it, no less a single person. And in its current form, they won't get it," said Siegel, an internist and author of "Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic."

"I tell them not to worry, that the virus is transmitted through close bird handling and they can't become infected by eating poultry or walking down the street near fowl.''

Dr. Anne Moscona also sees "a constant undercurrent of worry."

"I tell them that right now there's a pandemic among birds . . . Occasionally, it has spread to humans, but we're not seeing a human-to-human spread yet," said Moscona, a pediatrician and professor of microbiology and immunology at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Croatian seagulls carrying bird flu
Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 15-Mar-2006 00:45 hrs

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in several seagulls in the south of Croatia, where several swans have already died of the disease.

"We have carried out tests on 30 or more seagulls and several samples have come back positive for the H5N1 strain," agriculture ministry spokesman Mladen Pavic said Tuesday.

Pavic did not specify how many samples turned up positive, but said they had been taken randomly between February 28 and March 3 in the town of Pantana, near Split on the country's southern coast.

Health officials in the region, a major tourist haven, have been closely watching the area since mid-February when two swans were confirmed dead from the H5N1 infection.

Some 1,200 birds within a three-kilometer (two-mile) radius from where the swans were found have since been slaughtered.

And in February the ministry of agriculture stepped up safety measures to keep the disease from spreading.

Such measures include the confinement of poultry throughout the country, a ban on the sale of poultry from affected areas and outlawing hunting of wild birds. — AFP

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in several seagulls in the south of Croatia, where several swans have already died of the disease.

"We have carried out tests on 30 or more seagulls and several samples have come back positive for the H5N1 strain," agriculture ministry spokesman Mladen Pavic said Tuesday.

Pavic did not specify how many samples turned up positive, but said they had been taken randomly between February 28 and March 3 in the town of Pantana, near Split on the country's southern coast.

Broken Link 3/14/06

EU Laboratory Accused Of Holding Back Bird Flu Information
Mediafax, Romania - 14 hours ago
... Ongoing tests of bird flu found in Sweden show that the virus carries the Z-type gene - the most agressive of the five genotypes of the H5N1 strain. ...

Fatal H5N1 Bird Flu Cases in Azerbaijan Expand
Recombinomics Commentary March 14, 2006

Two of the cases were from the south-eastern rayon of Salyan, but resided in different settlements. The cases occurred in a 17-year-old girl, from Sarvan settlement, who died on 23 February, and a 20-year-old woman, from Daikyand settlement, who died on 3 March.

The third case occurred in a 21-year-old woman from the central-western province of Tarter. She died on 9 March.

The above comments from today's WHO update on Azerbaijan indicates the familial cluster is growing in size and length and is linked to a geographical cluster in Azerbaijan. Five deaths have been reported and media reports indicated the other two fatalities also tested positive for H5N1 bird flu. Media reports indicate all victims are from two families, suggesting human-to-human transmission.

This mode of transmission is further support because the index case, who died February 23 is the cousin of the case who died March 3. Although the WHO update again withholds disease onset dates and relationships between H5 positive patients, the spread between the dates of death support human-to-human transmission. This transmission chain appears to have extended to the third generation because the 16 year-old male who died on March 10 was the brother of the patient who died on March 3.

This cluster is similar to the cluster of clusters in Turkey. In that cluster HA S227N was isolated from the index case. This genetic change increases the affinity of HA for human receptors and may be responsible for the cluster in Azerbaijan based on location and size of the clusters.

A mobile lab has been set up in Azerbaijan and WHO is sending additional personnel. More details on onset dates, familial relationships, and H5N1 genetic changes, would be useful.

State: Cockfighting Increases Bird Flu Threat, by Shae Crisson

(03/14/06 -- RALEIGH) - A popular Latino tradition is raising concerns about bird flu here in North Carolina.

Cockfighting is illegal. The birds are smuggled in and now health officials are worried they could be bringing a possible pandemic with them.

Birds found in an illegal cockfighting ring recently were brought to Wilson County from Guam, the sheriff says. Video of the fight shows the battle getting bloody. Handlers grab the birds without gloves. One man puts his mouth over the bird's head several times to revive him for many more rounds.

It is a very easy way that bird flu could spread. If one of the birds is infected, the virus could easily spread from bird to bird - - and bird to human. If the handler works on a poultry farm, which many of these men do, he would bring the virus to the farm infecting thousands of other birds.

Bird Flu Threatens American Troops In Iraq

Bird Flu Beacon has uncovered compelling evidence of human-to-human transfer of the deadly bird flu virus in Iraq, posing a grave threat to 150,000 US troops. Laurie Grace, a co-founder of Bird Flu Beacon, has spotted four key factors that indicate human-to-human transmission. In her article, "Bird Flu Threatens US Troops In Iraq," she pinpoints these 4 key conditions:

(PRWEB) March 14, 2006 -- In her article, "Bird Flu Threatens US Troops In Iraq," she pinpoints these 4 key conditions:

The virus spreads in large family clusters.
The virus spreads rapidly.
Early cases of human-to-human transfer tend to be milder, with fewer deaths.
Mutations occur that replicate the virus more easily in humans.

"These conditions have been met in Iraq," Ms. Grace indicated. She offers supporting evidence for each condition in her article.

The threat is already serious enough to prompt the military to alert troops and instruct them on steps to minimize risk. These bold steps are the military's first public response to the spread of avian flu from Northern to Southern Iraq and to areas around Baghdad over the past month. The Iraqi healthcare system is completely unprepared to deal with bird flu in humans, making the risk to US troops even higher.

Officially there have been just two confirmed human deaths from bird flu. "The confirmed deaths are just the tip of the iceberg," according to Ms. Grace. "What's most surprising is that any cases get confirmed at all. Once poultry farmers know their livelihoods will be impacted, even destroyed, through massive culling in areas reporting human or bird infections, they become very reluctant to report possible infections. Additionally, bird flu symptoms in humans or birds are not widely known. There is also a lack of funds for surveillance and testing, lack of testing supplies and medical staff, and hazardous conditions to be overcome when transporting blood samples for testing through war zones."

Has human-to-human transfer occurred in Iraq? A World Health Organization representative, Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, has declared that it has not. Her declaration is alarming, given her acknowledgment that to date confirmed human infections have not been tracked to infected poultry. That leaves open the strong possibility of human-to-human transfer. Over 500,000 birds have been culled in Northern Iraq alone, even though no infected birds were found at the time. That means Dr. Gasseer is assuming the deaths were from birds, and an assumption is not necessarily a fact. It really means that no one knows for sure. However, when looking at the evidence, the key conditions that suggest human-to-human transfer have been met and are detailed in Bird Flu Threatens American Troops In Iraq.

Hungary Announces Bird Flu Vaccination Developed
Published: Tuesday, March 14, 2006, By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Budapest

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferench Gyurcsany has reported the development of a vaccination to protect humans against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

The Hungarian Prime Minister held a press conference at the laboratories of Omnievst pharmaceutical, manufacturers of the vaccine, near the capital Budapest to introduce the product.

The vaccine strengthens the bodies own immune system against the virus.

Gyurcsany, showing an vile of the vaccine to journalists, said the sample contains six milligrams of the shot, which is enough to protect a person.

The vaccine was produced with aluminum and phosphate, and a viral gel that no other country has the production technology to produce.

UN Contractor: Countries Refuse to Cooperate in Bird Flu Investigation

(VOA) An environmental organization says several countries are refusing to cooperate with an investigation of the deadly strain of bird flu.

Dutch-based Wetlands International is the non-governmental agency commissioned by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to research H5N1 in wild birds.

Wetlands International says Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey have refused to grant access to researchers.

The organization says it believes the refusals are the result of concerns by those countries about the potential impact on poultry exports and tourism if the virus is found in wild birds.

Cherna Voda May Be First Town Quarantined Because of Bird Flu
13 March 2006 | 11:04 | FOCUS News Agency

Bucharest. Romanian town of Cherna Voda (Konstanca region) may be put under full quarantine today after the tests made in Bucharest confirmed presence of bird flu strain H5N1 in samples taken from poultry in the town, newspaper Evenimentul Zilei reads today.
Disinfections filters have been put at the entrance and exit of the town and if the town is put under quarantine it will continue for at least 10 days.
According to local authorities the biggest problem is connected to the nuclear power plant near the town as 65% of its workers live in the town. Thus the power plant management had to set up a disinfections checkpoint through which all workers from the town have to pass, the newspaper adds.

Russian Communist leader sees U.S. behind bird flu outbreak

MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov has blamed the United States for the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu, in a number of European countries, including Russia.

"The forms of warfare are changing. It's strange that not a single duck has yet died in America - they are all dying in Russia and European countries. This makes one seriously wonder why," Zyuganov said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on Tuesday.

Zyuganov said that he has good knowledge of war gases as he dealt with them during his army service.

"I tested all kinds of war gases at a range myself," he said.

Asked to be more precise as to whether he believes the bird flu outbreak could be a deliberate attack by the U.S., Zyuganov answered positively.

"I not only suggest this, I know very well how this can be arranged. There is nothing strange here," he said.

Bird Flu in Azerbaijan Infects Humans

Eleven suspected human cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus was found in Azerbaijan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating the scenario. Out of the 11 cases 3 people have already died. Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the UN health agency, told that all 11 cases came from the same village near the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

Apart from the 3 fatal victims the rest of the 8 cases are from a single family. They have been hospitalized and their state is critical.

It is possible that they have been infected with the H5N1 virus because it was a known fact that poultry were already hit by the virus in neighboring areas. ...

Azerbaijani authorities said they were investigating whether the deaths of two young children in the republic were caused by bird flu.

Another Broken Link to Roamnian Situation: This time from Reuters

First Romanian town officially quarantined due to bird flu
Reuters AlertNet, UK - 6 hours ago
This is the twelfth case of bird flu to be identified in Romania, but ... Since the Local Veterinary Department confirmed the H5N1 case in Cernavoda, over 13.000

When bird flu meets panic
By Paul McNamara on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 5:13am

It’s the aspect of disaster preparedness that disaster preparedness really can’t handle -- panic – and discussion of it comes up at the very end of this week’s Network World story headlined: “Bird flu: IT pros planning for the worst.”

"You've got a human fear factor, and you may have people reacting in a way you couldn't predict," says Paul Beaudry, director of technical services for JRI, a Canadian agribusiness company. "You may have a quarantine situation and business can be impacted - there's no question. But you have to keep the business running."

Someone has to keep the business running, but that doesn’t mean it has to be me – or you, for that matter. I don’t say this to be flip, but rather to drive home the point that this is one of those situations where the experts only know so much and the rest of us know a whole lot less -- especially as relates to the question of how ordinary human beings might react when the matter becomes one of life or death.

Let’s face it, when that happens our primary loyalties will be to our families and Charles Darwin.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Colorado Lawmakers Discuss Possibility Of Bird Flu

(CBS4) DENVER Colorado lawmakers spent Monday discussing the possibility of an avian flu outbreak in the state. The virus is extremely rare with only 177 cases worldwide out of 6.5 billion people, but it could still make an appearance in the United States.

"Most of the people that have got this have had pretty dramatic contact, they live with their birds," said Ned Calonge, Colorado's Chief Medical Officer.

The mortality rates is about 50 percent for those who get the virus from direct contact with bird mucous and feces. So far, 98 people have died from the avian flu.

Lawmakers were told if the virus is spread between humans in Colorado, about 25 percent of the population could expect to be infected.

"We'll have literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of people not being able to get the health care they need if this pandemic hits," said Senator Dan Grossman.

If the flu virus comes to the U.S., the Colorado State University Veterinary Lab in Fort Collins, would be one of the five core labs in the country where samples will be sent to be tested. The CSU staff told lawmakers that anti-viral treatments don't work and a bird flu vaccine may or not be in ready supply.

"We should be very wary of what the federal government is telling us and what the state government is telling us," Grossman said. "We're not ready and we shouldn't be living under the illusion that we are." [my emphasis]

Broken Link on Quarantined Town

The following link and article at Google is either broken or has been removed from circulation...

Total Quarantine In Cernavoda, Due To Bird Flu Outbreak
Mediafax, Romania - 6 hours ago
Local authorities placed Cernavoda town (Constanta County) in quarantine Sunday evening, following confirmed cases of bird flu in the town. ...

Commentary/Analysis

Some very strange things going on in Azerbaijahn. first, they have received their own flu testing labs from the UN. This follows on a request by the Azeri Health Minister that the UN send this equipment because he suspects that four people have died there from the Avian flu.

As far as I know, the only other countries with labs are western nations. This is suspicious because other nations that have avian flu have not received such labs.

Based on previous reports, I suspect that the reason why Azerbaijan is getting this equipment is because there are fears that human-to-human transmission is happening there. A badly garbled article from an Azeri newspaper says that perhaps up to 100 patients are being treated for avian-flu-like symptoms.

All of this follows on reports that Azerbaijan is experiencing what are known as "cluster cases" among families. This is an ominous development because it could mean that these families are passing it to each other, not by way of exposure to fowl.

Severe bird flu pandemic could pose risk to global financial system - IMF
03.13.2006, 11:15 AM

BEIJING (AFX) - A severe avian flu pandemic could pose risks to the global financial system due to sharp changes in asset prices and operational risks arising from absenteeism, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

'If the pandemic is severe, the economic impact is likely to be significant, though predictions are subject to a high degree of uncertainty,' the IMF said in a report providing a preliminary assessment of the risks and potential impact to the global economy from such a pandemic.

The IMF said that while the severity of a pandemic is impossible to predict, a pandemic similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu could result in not only a high death toll, but a sharp, although temporary, decline in global economic activity.

A severe pandemic would most likely lead to higher levels of risk aversion and a consequent surge in demand for liquidity, specifically cash and low-risk assets, the IMF said.

Scientist wants bird flu data open
Mon, March 13, 2006, By CP

TORONTO -- An American scientist in genetic sequencing is calling on publicly funded U.S. researchers and research groups to throw open their collections of H5N1 avian flu viruses to allow others to work toward lessening the threat the virus poses.

Steven Salzberg wants researchers to place their virus sequence data in open-access databanks on an as-processed basis.

He hopes such a move would end a pattern of virus hoarding many believe is undermining the world's ability to battle H5N1.

13.03 / 19:02 | 14 Bird flu situation in Russia is serious

MOSCOW-ASTANA. March 13, 2006. KAZINFORM - The Russian government sees the bird flu situation in the country as a very serious one, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has told President Vladimir Putin at a conference in the Kremlin.
Earlier in the day Medvedev held a teleconference with local Russian authorities to discuss measures being taken against the spread of the disease, Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.

EU laboratory accused of holding back bird flu information
13.03.2006 - 11:12 CET | By Helena Spongenberg

Data central for stopping bird flu from spreading are being kept secret by EU-paid researchers to ensure their own copyright, according to experts quoted by a Swedish daily.

The EU reference laboratory for Avian Influenza in Weybridge (UK) is concealing results from tests taken in 15 countries, reports Svenska Dagbladet

Ongoing tests of bird flu found in Sweden show that the virus carries the Z-type gene - the most agressive of the five genotypes of the H5N1 strain.

However, the already complicated mapping of the virus is being made more difficult because other countries' laboratories are not publishing results on the genetic form of the viruses they analyse.

"We will make our results public as soon as they are ready and it would be great if everybody did the same," said Swedish researcher Bernt Klingeborn, also referring to the the EU- and UN-funded bird flu laboratory in Weybridge.

U.N.: Bird Flu Found in 2 Afghan Sites
13 March, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan - Bird flu has been found at two sites in Afghanistan and there‘s a high risk that tests could prove it to be the deadly H5N1 strain, a U.N. agency said Monday. "There‘s a high risk that the virus detected is H5N1, but other possibilities remain at this time," an FAO statement issued in Kabul said.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

How Will Bird Flu Change Your Life?
A Look at What Could Happen at Home, Work, School and in Your Community
By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN

March 12, 2006 — We've all heard the doomsday scenarios of what could happen if an avian flu pandemic takes a grip on the United States: millions dead, millions more sick, basic utilities and services unavailable, hospitals overrun and unable to cope, communities reduced to devastation like something out of Stephen King's "The Stand."

What's known is human-to-human transmission of bird flu is inevitable as HSN1, a type of bird-flu virus, mutates. "It's going to happen," said Dr. Joseph Agris, a Houston physician. "It's no question. It's just a question of when."

But what will actually occur in your life if there is a pandemic? Will you go to work? Will your kids stay home from school? How will your community services work if employees are sick? Is your local hospital prepared to deal with the influx of people who fall ill?

BRACING FOR A PANDEMIC: Early-warning system for bird flu
Experts track flocks' flight patterns for clues on disease's course
Sunday, March 12, 2006, by Matthew Kalman

Tel Aviv -- In a nondescript corner of an anonymous administration building on the campus of Tel Aviv University, Yossi Leshem has been using the latest satellite technology to track the movements of a couple code-named Princess and Jonas.

For nearly a year, Israeli experts were able to track the pair as they left their adopted home in Germany and set out on their travels. Jonas traversed Europe to southern Spain, where he spent several months before rejoining his partner back in Germany. Princess journeyed east, across Turkey and Lebanon, passing through Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt before making a long stopover in Sudan. She then continued on to South Africa, returning to rendezvous with Jonas in Germany 235 days later.

For more than five years, Leshem has been tracking the travels of Princess and Jonas and dozens like them. He worries that their apparently benign wanderings could inflict death and devastation across the world, at a cost of untold numbers of human lives.

Princess and Jonas are birds -- white storks, the long-legged waterfowl that nest in Europe during the summer and migrate south for the winter. The feathery pair are among an estimated half billion fowl who fly over Israel twice a year, on their way to and from their nesting grounds.

China secrecy stalls bird flu vaccine
March 13, 2006, by Michael Sheridan

CHINESE state secrecy and academic squabbles have combined to deny vital research material to scientists struggling to develop a bird flu vaccine.

More than 90 people have died as the disease has spread from China to Europe and Africa. Yet bureaucrats in Beijing have only just agreed to share samples of live viruses after refusing such information to the international community during more than 30 outbreaks of the H5N1 virus.

Their reasons appear to have been an instinct to monopolise information and resentment that Chinese scientists were not credited for research published in an American academic journal.

How bird flu can be stopped
March 12, 2006 10:07 AM

Preventing the spread of bird flu to domestic poultry should be feasible, a Swiss expert at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, tells swissinfo.

Samuel Jutzi, director of the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division, advocates the use of vaccination in domestic poultry, under strict conditions, saying its effectiveness has already been demonstrated in some countries.

State bird flu summit to plan for devastation
Sunday, March 12, 2006, BY FORD TURNER

With avian influenza a growing worldwide concern, Pennsylvania is preparing for a worst-case scenario in which 1.6 million residents get the flu and 37,000 are hospitalized.

Nancy Dering Martin, the state's deputy secretary of administration for human resources and management, said such an extensive outbreak, while unlikely, could have a drastic impact on schools, businesses and public institutions.

"If you are running a hospital and 30 percent of your nurses are sick, you need to be thinking about what you are going to do," she said.

The price of cheap chicken is bird flu

March 12, 2006, By Wendy Orent, the author of "Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease."

CHICKEN HAS never been cheaper. A whole one can be bought for little more than the price of a Starbucks cup of coffee. But the industrial farming methods that make ever-cheaper chicken possible may also have created the lethal strain of bird flu virus, H5N1, that threatens to set off a global pandemic.

According to Earl Brown, a University of Ottawa flu virologist, lethal bird flu is entirely man-made, first evolving in commercially produced poultry in Italy in 1878. The highly pathogenic H5N1 is descended from a strain that first appeared in Scotland in 1959.

People have been living with backyard flocks of poultry since the dawn of civilization. But it wasn't until poultry production became modernized, and birds were raised in much larger numbers and concentrations, that a virulent bird flu evolved. When birds are packed close together, any brakes on virulence are off. Birds struck with a fatal illness can still easily pass the disease to others, through direct contact or through fecal matter, and lethal strains can evolve. Somehow, the virus that arose in Scotland found its way to China, where, as H5N1, it has been raging for more than a decade.

Industrial poultry-raising moved from the West to Asia in the last few decades and has begun to supplant backyard flocks there. According to a recent report by Grain, an international nongovernmental organization, chicken production in Southeast Asia has jumped eightfold in 30 years to about 2.7 million tons. The Chinese annually produce about 10 million tons of chickens. Some of China's factory farms raise 5 million birds at a time. Charoen Pokphand Group, a huge Thai enterprise that owns a large chunk of poultry production throughout Thailand and China as well as in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Turkey, exported about 270 million chickens in 2003 alone.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

D.C. Notes: Waiting for the bird flu in Alaska ... and the Southeast
Sunday, March 12, 2006, By Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON -- Where will the deadly avian flu first hit in the United States?

Agriculture Department disease trackers are predicting Alaska, where they expect the virus to be imported by migrating wild birds. But animal-rights activists are looking much farther south and suspect it's more likely to be detected in birds smuggled for cockfights and other illegal activities and spread through the southeastern chicken belt.

Azerbaijan investigating possible family cluster of bird flu cases, WHO says
Published: Saturday, March 11, 2006

GENEVA (CP) - Health authorities in Azerbaijan are investigating a worrisome cluster of possible human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

A total of 11 suspected cases, including eight members of the same family, are being assessed, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.

Of the 11 suspect cases, three people have died and one is listed in serious condition in hospital.

"Currently there are signs that suggest this could be a human H5N1 cluster," Cheng said. "But we don't know that right now. We still need to do more thorough epidemiological investigation and wait for the lab results."

"It certainly looks a bit suspicious, but we don't have enough information to draw conclusions."

Experts Say Medical Ventilators Are in Short Supply in Event of Bird Flu Pandemic [You'll need an NYTimes account]
Published: March 12, 2006, By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

No one knows whether an avian flu virus that is racing around the world might mutate into a strain that could cause a human pandemic, or whether such a pandemic would cause widespread illness in the United States. But if it did, public health experts and officials agree on one thing: the nation's hospitals would not have enough ventilators, the machines that pump oxygen into sick patients' lungs.

Right now, there are 105,000 ventilators, and even during a regular flu season, about 100,000 are in use. In a worst-case human pandemic, according to the national preparedness plan issued by President Bush in November, the country would need as many as 742,500.

Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
Published: 12 March 2006, By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen

Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral medication - the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease - to try to protect their people. The United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people worldwide.

Britain is about halfway through receiving an order of 14.6 million courses of the drug, which the Government hopes will avert some of the 700,000 deaths that might be expected. Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity.

The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.

Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding.

The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled.

Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping - according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year - capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. Further details are not likely to become known, however, until Mr Rumsfeld makes his next disclosure in May.

The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from which he got an income of up to $13m, owned land worth up to $17m, and made $1m from renting it out.

He also had illiquid investments worth up to $8.1m, including in partnerships investing in biotechnology, issuing reproductions of paintings, and operating art galleries in New Mexico and Wyoming. He also has life insurance with a surrender value of up to $5m, and received up to $1m from the DHR Foundation, in which he has assets worth up to $25m, and $773,743 from the Donald H Rumsfeld Trust, in which he has assets of up to $50m.

Late last week no one at Gilead Sciences was available to comment on Mr Rumsfeld's sale of its stock. In a statement to The Independent on Sunday the Pentagon said: "Secretary Rumsfeld has no relationship with Gilead Sciences, Inc beyond his investments in the company. When he became Secretary of Defence in January 2001, divestiture of his investment in Gilead was not required by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Office of Government Ethics or the Department of Defence Standards of Conduct Office.

"Upon taking office, he recused himself from participating in any particular matter when the matter would directly and predictably affect his financial interest in Gilead Sciences."

Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

Can We Trust Chertoff And Homeland Security? Avian Flu And Other Concerns, By Michael A. Minton (03/11/2006)

I guess I should dedicate this article to all those liberals out there who have accused me of having “no critical thinking skills.” That’s a direct quote. I know…hard to believe, huh? Well, my liberal friends, this one’s for you.

With the recent catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina: the breakdown in communication; the professional rescuers who were not allowed into the area for days; the buses which sat in compounds instead of carrying those left behind in New Orleans to safety; the THOUSANDS of mobile homes which sit rotting when they could be used by those left homeless by the killer storm, one has to wonder how the Department of Homeland Security would respond to an outbreak of H5N1, or ‘Bird Flu,’ if…no, make that when…an outbreak occurs here in the States.

And according to a top U.N. health official, it WILL be in North America within the next six to twelve months…if not sooner, according to a March 10 article in the Washington Times. That same article quotes DHS chief Chertoff as saying, “I can't predict, but I certainly have to say that we should be prepared for the possibility that at some point in the next few months a wild fowl will come over the migratory pathway and will be infected with H5N1."

Mr. Chertoff tried to maintain calm in America over the impending bird flu invasion, saying, "If we get a wild bird or even a domestic chicken that gets infected with avian flu, we're going to be able to deal with it, because we've got a lot of experience with that." Chertoff was referring to the fact that testing for various other forms of bird flu has been going on by the Agriculture Department for years.

The last paragraph of the Washington Times article states the following: “If a bird-flu case is confirmed in the United States, Mr. Chertoff said the Homeland Security Department would have specific plans to deal with it, including watching to see if it developed human health characteristics. ‘But it would not be time to push the panic button,’ he said.”

Ironically, an article appearing in the USA Today a day earlier, on March 9th, painted quite a different picture. According to that article, it would indeed be time to ‘push the panic button,’ were a human case of H5N1 to enter the United States via an international airline.

According to the USA Today article, there is major concern among airline officials and government officials alike should a planeload of international passengers need to be quarantined. The article says, “Eighteen airports with heavy international traffic have small federal quarantine stations. They must rely on airlines and state and local authorities to help identify sick travelers and, if needed, quarantine other passengers.” Need I remind you what happened when the Department of Homeland Security had to rely on state and local officials after Katrina?

And I truly don’t mean to pick on airlines, but are we really supposed to rely on them to not only recognize a passenger with bird flu, but to also coordinate a quarantine, when they can’t seem to even get my luggage from Louisville, KY, to Baltimore, MD? Give me a break.

The DHS, as well as the airline industry, is woefully under-prepared for an outbreak of H5N1, especially if the sickness mutates into a germ that can be transmitted from human to human. According to USA Today, “Bird flu response plans are still being developed at many airports, where the first human case could show up. Few airports have practiced quarantine scenarios. It has been more than 40 years since a U.S. airport quarantined a passenger, for smallpox.”

Bird flu plan sent to schools
Proposal: Buildings would close, become hospitals as education for students would continue at home, BY MICHAEL D. CLARK

Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky schools are being asked to prepare crisis plans in case the deadly avian flu now spreading overseas mutates - as some medical experts predict - and becomes contagious among humans.

Last month the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed crisis plan for schools across America to deal with a pandemic flu, and Friday officials from the Ohio School Boards Association made the preliminary plan available to the state's 614 school districts via the association's Web site.

The Kentucky School Boards Association also recently posted the same plan on its Web site for that state's 176 school districts.

Though rare, in the past global flu pandemics have killed millions.

For the first time school officials nationwide are being asked to begin putting into place emergency procedures that include closing schools; converting schools into hospitals; and continuing instruction via mail, the internet, television or radio.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Health officials would have new power in flu pandemic
March 10, 2006, 2:14 PM EST, By CANDICE CHOI

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Health officials would be given additional powers to react to a pandemic flu, including the authority to train civilians to deliver immunizations and other medical care, state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello said Friday.

Under forthcoming legislation, the health commissioner and local health officials would be able to authorize unlicensed people to deliver immunizations and other medical care.

Experts say that more than half the hospital staff statewide would not show up to work in the case of a disease outbreak with no known cure.
.........
The 400-page emergency plan emphasizes the critical role of local agencies in the state's reaction to a pandemic. Some local leaders have said they do not have the resources to take the actions outlined in the plan. [my emphasis]
__________

On the Net: www.pandemicflu.gov

Leavitt urges people, institutions to take precaution against flu
Friday, March 10, 2006, By BOB MOEN

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- As bird flu is found in more places around the world, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said even a place as remote as Wyoming couldn't remain isolated forever if the bird flu was to mutate into a pandemic flu strain.

"If a pandemic happens in the 21st Century, it will come to Wyoming," Leavitt said Friday at the Wyoming Pandemic Flu Summit. "You can count on it."
...
So far, the virus has not mutated into a form that spreads easily from human to human. But scientists say if that happens, it could start a pandemic.

That, Leavitt said, is why everyone should be prepared, from the state down to individual households.

"Have a plan that isn't just a piece of paper," Leavitt said, adding that families should prepare the same way they would for a major blizzard, making sure they have first-aid kits and adequate supplies of food and water. Communities should practice what they would do in case of a pandemic flu outbreak.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said employers should be prepared to lose much of their work force for weeks at a time. ...

Freudenthal said the summit was called as a way of helping the state prepare for the possibility of a pandemic flu outbreak.

Bird Flu Found in Stone Marten in Germany
Friday, March 10, 2006; 9:42 AM, By DAVID McHUGH

BERLIN -- A weasel-like animal called a stone marten was infected with the deadly bird flu virus, marking the disease's spread to another mammal species, a German laboratory said Thursday.

The sickly animal was found on the north German island of Ruegen, where three cats and dozens of wild birds have been infected with the disease, the agriculture ministry of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said.

Airports not ready for large-scale bird flu quarantine
By John Ritter, USA TODAY

The nation's major airports aren't prepared to quarantine a planeload of international passengers if someone is suspected of carrying bird flu, airport and government officials say.

Eighteen airports with heavy international traffic have small federal quarantine stations. They must rely on airlines and state and local authorities to help identify sick travelers and, if needed, quarantine other passengers.

"Do we have enough people? No," says Robert Tapia, chief of Honolulu's five-person quarantine station. "If we have 25 international flights a day here and get a surge of four or five airlines reporting illness, how do we get to them all?"

Death of Tbilisi children raises bird flu suspicions among parents

TBILISI. March 10 (Interfax) - Another pupil of Tbilisi's School No. 50 has died of pneumonia.

The death sowed panic in the school and raised suspicions among patents that the seven-year-old girl and another 12-year-old pupil, who died two days ago, were the victims of bird flu.

However, a source in the Georgian Health Ministry has categorically denied such suspicions, adding that tests did not detect the bird flu virus in the children's blood samples.

Classes have been suspended at School No. 50 and the building is being disinfected.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Canada Transit System May Halt for Bird Flu
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 9, 2006; 10:49 PM

OTTAWA -- Health and security workers at airports and other key sites might refuse to work during a bird flu outbreak, complicating efforts to handle such a crisis, a Canadian government intelligence report warns.

The report says the entire country would probably experience "shortages of everything from fresh food and health supplies" due to worker sickness and fear of public exposure, the Canadian Press news agency reported Thursday.

The prospect of front-line staff at border points and airports staying home is among the worrisome scenarios flagged by analysts bracing for a possible flu pandemic.

Bird Flu Spreading to New Animal Species Raises Risk to Humans

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu's spread in Germany to a second animal species heightens concern the lethal virus may be adapting to mammals, including people, scientists said. In Azerbaijan, 11 possible human cases are being investigated.

German officials confirmed H5N1 infection in a stone marten, a type of weasel, which showed severe illness when found on the Baltic island of Ruegen on March 2, the World Health Organization said yesterday. As with three dead domestic cats found on the island, the marten is presumed to have contracted the virus from feeding on an infected bird, WHO said.

``It's a property of this virus that it can go into these animals,'' Hugh Pennington, who has studied viruses for more than 40 years, said yesterday by telephone from Aberdeen, Scotland. ``One just has to watch and see what happens because the virus has the property to evolve.''

The rate of H5N1 infections in humans is increasing as the virus spreads to more parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Georgia yesterday became the 23rd country to report an initial outbreak in birds since February.

The virus has killed at least 96 of 175 people infected since late 2003, mainly in Asia, and may have claimed its first victims in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan investigating possible family cluster of bird flu cases, WHO says

GENEVA (CP) - Health authorities in Azerbaijan are investigating a worrisome cluster of possible human cases of H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

A total of 11 suspected cases, including eight members of the same family, are being assessed, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.

Of the 11 suspect cases, three people have died and one is listed in serious condition in hospital.

"Currently there are signs that suggest this could be a human H5N1 cluster," Cheng said. "But we don't know that right now. We still need to do more thorough epidemiological investigation and wait for the lab results."

"It certainly looks a bit suspicious, but we don't have enough information to draw conclusions."

Though all human cases of avian flu are potentially dangerous, WHO pays particular attention to clusters of cases. While clusters may be the result of several people from the same family or village each having exposure to infected birds, they could also signal that the virus has passed from one person to another.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

H5N1 Bird Flu Spreads South in Nigeria Into East Atlantic Flyway
Recombinomics Commentary
March 7, 2006

Nigeria's epidemic of a deadly form of bird has spread south and infected poultry in three more states, Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement.

A highly pathogenic form of avian influenza has been identified in the town of Idemili in Anambra State, 500 kilometres south of Abuja, in Oturpo in the central state of Benue and in Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

The above comments confirm earlier reports that H5N1 has migrated south in Nigeria into the East Atlantic Flyway. The earlier report, almost a month ago, described H5N1 movement into Lagos. At the time. The nrew outbreaks were not officially reported. In Nigeria's OIE map, the areas to the south were called "free states". The above description indicates H5N1 has spread well beyond the areas cited in the recent map.

Movement to the south places H5N1 in the East Atlantic flyway, suggesting that H5N1 will soon be migrating back into Western Europe and North America. These regions already have indigenous H5N1 from earlier migrations, and the introduction of new sequences will create new problems.

Bird flu flies through Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia 07 March 2006 11:29

A four-year-old boy who died in Indonesia is the sixth suspected fatal victim of bird flu in the last week, health workers said on Tuesday. The boy died on Monday at Sayidiman Hospital at Magetan, in East Java, less than 10 minutes after arriving, Sudarsih, a nurse, told Agence France-Presse.

She said he was suffering symptoms of the virus, which has been confirmed as killing 20 Indonesians, and had a history of contact with poultry.

The boy's death follows five recent suspected bird-flu deaths: a pregnant woman (25) on Monday; a 10-year-old Saturday; a brother and sister last Wednesday; and a three-year-old last Tuesday.

The woman was from Jakarta, where most of Indonesia's bird flu deaths have been recorded, but the siblings and 10-year-old were from Central Java's Boyolali district, and the three-year-old died in Central Java's Semarang.