dottore pesta: February 2006

Monday, February 27, 2006

Niger enlists Muslim preachers in bird flu fight
27 Feb 2006 17:10:46 GMT, By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Niger is enlisting the help of teachers and Muslim preachers to tell its impoverished people how to fight an outbreak of deadly bird flu.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu, which has killed more than 90 people in Asia and the Middle East since 2003, was confirmed on Monday to have reached Niger after being found in neighbouring Nigeria earlier this month as the disease spread to Africa.

"I wish to ask teachers to begin their lessons with bird flu, and how each person must act in this worrying situation," Public Health Minister Ary Ibrahim said on state television on Monday.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Two new human cases of bird flu detected in China
2006-02-26 07:23:00

BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A nine-year-old girl in east China's Zhejiang Province and a 26-year-old woman farmer in east China's Anhui Province were confirmed to be infected with H5N1 bird flu, reported the Ministry of Health on Saturday.

The Zhejiang girl, surnamed You, lives in Anji County. She showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Feb. 10 and has been hospitalized. She is now in critical condition, said a report released by the ministry.

According to investigation, You visited relatives twice in Guangde County of Anhui Province before she fell ill. During her visits, chickens raised at her relatives' homes got sick and some died.

The exact source of You's infection is under further investigation, said the ministry.

China sees threat of "massive" bird flu outbreak
Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:08 PM IST163

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China warned of the threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it reported two new human cases of the virus, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said China culled 23 million fowl in 2005 as it sought to halt the spread of the disease. Of those, 163,000 were found to have the H5N1 strain of bird flu, Xinhua cited the minister as saying.

Du said his ministry would stick to consistent epidemic monitoring, diagnosing and reporting, and strengthen poultry vaccinating and virus testing.

"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Du said, repeating a similar warning issued earlier this week when he said a big outbreak could occur in the spring.

Bird Flu's Sweep Worries Health Officials, By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press

GENEVA — For years after its appearance in 1997 in Hong Kong, the current bird flu virus seemed corralled in a few east Asian countries. But in the past four months, it has spread across Europe and into Africa, bringing to 31 the number of countries with sick birds.

People have caught it in a quarter of those, and just six people outside east Asia have died. The virus is still not easily caught by humans.

Even so, its sudden sweep across continents on the wings of birds has stunned public health officials. And most say they cannot predict where or when this disturbing germ might mutate into a form that could unleash a deadly flu epidemic.

"Anywhere the virus lands," said Dr. Mike Perdue of the global influenza program for the World Health Organization.

For many months, most experts said Asia was the most likely starting point because of its large population and ubiquitous animal markets. And many still believe that. But it's all speculation.

Bird flu found in central Europe worst strain: German specialists
2006-02-26 00:08:13

BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The bird flu found in the center ofEurope is the most virulent strain, German specialists said Saturday, fearing that the virus could have entered Europe last year.

On Friday, it was announced that a dead duck found on Feb. 15 on Lake Constance in the Austrian and Swiss Alps had been infectedwith the deadliest strain, known as H5N1/Asia.

Earlier this month, dead wild birds were found in northern Germany with the same illness.

Scientists believe that the virus must have entered Germany last year rather than arrived with migratory birds this month, as the country is still in mid-winter and the dead duck was a type that lives on the shore of Lake Constance all year round.

According to a spokeswoman at the Riems institute, H5N1 exists in several strains. A less pathogenic strain of H5N1 was found in 2004 in wild ducks in France and last year in ducks in northern Italy, she said.

The deadliest strain claimed at least 90 human lives since it was first found in 2003.

New human bird flu cases in China

The Chinese government has reported two new human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a nine-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman.

The girl lives in the south-eastern coastal province of Zhejiang and the woman is a farmer from Anhui province in the east, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Health Ministry.

The report didn't say whether the woman worked with poultry or how the girl might have become infected.

The announcement raised the number of human cases of bird flu reported on China's mainland to 14 since October, with eight deaths.

Indonesia 'risks bird flu pandemic', By Frank Walker
February 26, 2006

A LACK of funding and expertise in Indonesia is increasing the risk of bird flu evolving into a global human pandemic, an Australian expert on the virus has said.

Andrew Jeremijenko says there is data to show the H5N1 virus, which has been killing humans in Indonesia, is different from the one that is killing birds.

"So far the investigations have been unable to match the viruses," he told the ABC yesterday. "They don't seem to be able to match the viruses from the human case to the animal case. And that is putting the world at threat.

"Every human case is another potential mutation that could turn this virus into a pandemic virus."

Dr Jeremijenko has worked in Indonesia for eight years, most recently leading influenza surveillance studies for a US naval medical research group.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Plan vs. bird-flu doom [NY Pandemic Plan Unveiled], BY PAUL H.B. SHIN

Neighborhoods could be quarantined. Schools could be closed, and public gatherings shut down.

This doomsday scenario is part of the state's first pandemic-flu preparedness plan.

The plan, released yesterday, also would urge New Yorkers to stockpile two weeks worth of food and water if a pandemic seemed likely.

"We might have to use quarantine and isolation in the first phase of the pandemic," state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello said, noting that would buy health officials time to distribute resources.

"But when the pandemic is full-fledged, quarantine and isolation are useless," she added.

The 400-page strategy also spells out how local hospitals should prepare for a possible surge of patients.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Ill-founded panic over the next pandemic
Calm down - hysteria clouds the coverage of the bird flu outbreak
February 24, 2006

THE global outbreak of avian flu has led to a growing pandemic of human reaction and panic. Conventional wisdom says that the disease could lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of Australians. This is purely speculative.

First, some context. The deadly H5N1 virus is spreading from country to country largely following the annual flight paths of migratory bird life. No one really expected the virus to race around the world with such speed. After remaining largely entrenched among wildlife in parts of Asia for many years, the virus is moving further afield. Why, nobody knows, and there remains much about avian flu that we do not understand.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Four Nigerians, one dead, being tested for bird flu
22 Feb 2006 17:11:11 GMT

GENEVA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Four Nigerians, including a woman who died last week, will be tested for bird flu after suffering respiratory problems during their illness, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The other three people have fully recovered, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said. They include two children who Nigerian health authorities had already ruled out as bird flu victims.

'Anti-bird flu' water goes on sale
February 22 2006 at 08:24PM

Prague - Bottled water said to prevent bird flu has gone on sale in a Czech supermarket, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The water called Fromin Aktium comes in orange, lemon and grapefruit flavour and is made by Czech company Aquamat, regional daily Rovnost reported.

It is on sale at two outlets of the Hypernova supermarket chain owned by Netherlands-based Ahold.

"The drink is a prevention against all viral-type infections, therefore against bird flu as well," Aquamat manager Ivan Novotny told the paper.

Two humans feared infected with Bird Flu
Updated 2026 hrs IST (+GMT 5:30), 22.02.06

New Delhi: As Union Health Secretary P K Hota announced that there is a distinct possibility of Avian Flu virus having infected some humans in the affected areas, sources on Wednesday claimed that Bird Flu seems to have spread to humans.

Sources say two of the 12 people under observation have been found to be infected with the bird flu virus. The patients have been put in isolation at Navapur.

World wide web cashing in on bird flu
New Delhi, February 22, 2006

"What can you do to survive Bird Flu? How Will You and Your Loved Ones Survive The Imminent Bird Flu Pandemic? Do The Recent Bird Flu Stories Scare You? ... They Should! Experts put the probability of a global influenza pandemic at 100% - an absolute certainty!"

The world wide web is full of such warnings, with hundreds of websites having come up overnight. And if by any chance, you heed to them, you may end up emptying your pockets.

The websites simply ask you for your credit card number, and promise to send you within 24 hours books, CDs, 'survival guides' and prescriptions.

"Five steps you can take to protect your family, loved ones, friends and neighbours from what some are predicting as an inevitable killer Bird Flu virus which will kill 50% of all infected humans. Don't make the mistake of ignoring this information, the lives of you and your family may well depend on it...," says another website noting everything you need to know and do has been published in our book 'Beating Bird Flu' (Price $24.97) and outlines the top methods of protection against Bird Flu.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Modeling pandemic avian flu, by By Ishani Ganguli
New model suggests containment won't be enough, but experts question value of flu predictions
[Published 21st February 2006 05:37 PM GMT]

Researchers published yet another avian flu model this week, this time arguing the world will likely see multiple pandemic-causing strains of avian flu, suggesting that containment strategies alone will not prevent widespread pandemic. The newest model, published in PloS Medicine, presents a different picture from previous ones, and adds to the growing debate over the usefulness of models in predicting flu patterns.

Ultimately, avian flu models suffer from a major limitation, experts say: Lack of information about the form a potential pandemic-causing strain could take. Until the strain, or strains, emerge, "we don't have any real data" on the mechanisms of transmission, let alone on social and environmental factors in such a pandemic, said D.A. Henderson, senior advisor of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), who did not participate in this study.

With 170 reported human cases, the most virulent form of the avian flu virus, H5N1 influenza A, has already killed nearly a hundred people, mainly in Asia.

'Multiple' bird flu pandemic alert, by IAN JOHNSTON

SCIENTISTS have warned of multiple bird-flu pandemics, amid concerns that if the virus mutates to pass between humans and potentially spark a pandemic once, it is likely to do so repeatedly.

Researchers in the United States compared the way such pandemics could start to "a fire throwing out sparks".

That means containing an emerging bird flu pandemic at its source would probably only delay, not stop, the spread of the illness, the team from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington said.

"If a single introduction of a pandemic-capable strain is likely to happen, then multiple introductions are also likely," said Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology.

Bird flu impels Christians to turn vegetarianAdd to Clippings
[Tuesday, February 21, 2006 05:37:32 pmIANS]

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bird flu scare is impelling Christians to religiously observe the 50-day Lent, a period of frugality beginning on February 27 leading up to Easter, by becoming pure vegetarians, according to several members of the community.
Christians account for 23 per cent of Kerala’s 32 million population and now even those members of the community who may not observe a 'lean' Lent period are adhering to the strict rules of frugal food.

Fear Borders on Hysteria as Bird Flu Hits Europe

Paranoia is rife as dead birds turn up in Europe
Paranoia is rife as dead birds turn up in Europe

While European governments aren't hitting the panic button as yet, the spread of bird flu has definitely got a lot of people fearing that the end is nigh. Bird flu psychosis is spreading faster than the virus itself.

It was a surprise that Germany's airports were not inundated with fleeing citizens; fighting each other for the last available seats to safety, panicked to distraction with only thoughts of escape passing through their fear-frazzled minds.

"The feathered death -- it has landed," blared a headline in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper heralding the arrival of bird flu in Germany last week along with, if the media were to be believed, the three other horsemen of the apocalypse.

Adding to the hysteria was the fact that if Germany were to empty its borders, where would the escapees flee to? Pestilence was everywhere. Not a corner of the globe was untouched. Poultry magnates considering the end of their empires must have seriously been considering investing their last euros in space tourism.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Govt Confirms Bird Flu, Alleges Cover-UpAdd to Clippings
[Tuesday, February 21, 2006 12:40:45 am]

MUMBAI: Confirming that it was bird flu and not Ranikhet disease that was killing thousands of chicken in Nawapur taluka of Nandurbar district in the past fortnight, state officials hit out at poultry giants for hiding the outbreak from the government.

"For at least two to three days before it came to our notice, birds had been dying in various poultry farms but we were not told about it," Maharashtra animal husbandry secretary Uttam Khobragade told TOI on Monday.

"The poultry farmers tried to deal with the crisis themselves. They buried the birds," he added. Khobragade was only repeating what government officials had told TOI on Saturday, but only more directly.

TOI had on Sunday quoted them as saying that there was "an attempt to hide the sudden death of chickens". "After we got wind of it, the administration initially thought it could be the seasonal Ranikhet disease, nevertheless we sent the samples to Bhopal for tests.

India quarantines six as bird flu spreads faster
By Krittivas Mukherjee
Monday, February 20, 2006; 12:45 PM

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India began a door-to-door search for anyone with fever on Monday, quarantining six people in hospital as authorities scrambled to contain the country's first outbreak of bird flu.

In Europe, officials urged people to carry on eating poultry meat despite outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain, saying European Union authorities had the means available to wipe out the disease.

Bird flu mutating, risk to humans no bigger: WHO
Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:21 PM GMT11, By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) - Mutations in the H5N1 bird flu virus are seemingly making it more deadly in chickens and more resistant in the environment but without yet increasing the threat to humans, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The changes, which all viruses undergo, have affected patterns of transmission amongst domestic poultry and wild birds, with ducks, for example, developing the ability to pass the virus on without getting ill.

"They have not, however, had any discernible impact on the disease in humans, including its modes of transmission," the United Nations' health agency said in a statement posted on its Web site (www.who.int).

Bird Flu Isn't Becoming More Transmissible to Humans (Update1)

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The virus that causes bird flu hasn't become more easily transmissible to humans as the disease spreads in birds across Europe, the World Health Organization said.

The H5N1 virus has undergone ``a number of changes,'' none of which make the virus more easily spread from birds to humans or from person to person, the Geneva-based agency said in a statement on its Web site today. Those changes include the ability to be carried by migratory waterfowl over long distances and kill them in large numbers, the WHO said.

``Human infections remain a rare event,'' the WHO said.

At least 92 of the 170 people known to have been infected with avian influenza have died, mainly in Asia, according to the WHO. Most of the people who have contracted the virus handled infected poultry or came in contact with their excrement. No human cases have been linked to exposure to wild birds. Cooking meat and eggs properly kills the virus, according to the WHO.

Malaysia reports fresh H5N1 bird flu case
20 Feb 2006 15:24:00 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Malaysia on Monday reported its first case of H5N1 bird flu since November 2004, with the death of 40 chickens in central Selangor state last week.

But Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said it was an isolated case and that the public need not worry as no human was affected.

"Tests conducted confirmed the death of the free range chickens was caused by H5N1 avian influenza virus," he said in a statement issued through state news agency Bernama.

Navapur poultry farmers: No bird flu, it`s a case of Ranikhet
Makarand Gadgil / Navapur February 20, 2006

Navapur, a prosperous and sleepy small town on the northern tip of Maharashtra, had a rude awakening a week ago when some of their worst fears came true. The Bhopal government laboratory confirmed the existence of avian flu virus among the local poultry.

Local poultry farmers, however, are not ready to accept the verdict of the High Security Alert Disease Laboratory (HSADL) of Bhopal, and are claiming that it is nothing but Ranikhet disease, which generally occurs this time of the year. To support their claim, they are citing a report of the Maharashtra government's lab report.

Speaking to Business Standard, a local farm owner Ismail Hazari said: "Take the samples of our birds. If you find they contain avian flu virus, kill our birds. We have no objection. In fact, we will do it on our own, but why is the government hell bent on destroying our years of toil?

He added: "There are around 52 farms here. They are killing all the birds in all the farms on the basis of samples from two farms. How justified is that?"

Meanwhile, the government's efforts to cull the birds are acquiring humourous proportions. During the culling process at a farm called Khalil farm, birds were given an anesthesiatic and stuffed in gunny bags. These gunny bags were then thrown into the dumps, but the drugged chicken desperately tried to get out of the bags.

The animal husbandry department teams then physically killed the birds that managed to get out of the bags, and again stuffed them into the same gunny bags with live chicken.

"We are just not finding enough labourers to cull the birds," a senior official from the animal husbandry department said. "Labourers from the farms are not co-operating with us, and we have to cull the birds with our limited manpower," he added.

Searches on for bird flu victims

Indian officials have been searching door-to-door for people with flu-like symptoms in the western town where the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain was found.

Navapur town in Maharashtra state is the first place in India where the H5N1 strain has been identified.

Officials in the state say more than 500,000 birds have been slaughtered.

Poultry markets are badly affected with restaurants in the state capital, Bombay (Mumbai) reporting drops in demand for chicken and egg.

German military joins fight against bird flu
20 Feb 2006 13:41:31 GMT, By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Germany deployed Tornado reconnaissance jets and soldiers in biohazard suits on Monday to prevent the spread of bird flu after government officials confirmed that the deadly H5N1 virus had reached the mainland.

Sixty Bundeswehr soldiers specialising in chemical, biological and nuclear contamination situations, clad in disease protection suits and gas masks, disinfected vehicles in bird flu protection zones on the Baltic island of Ruegen.

Four times as many soldiers were sent to the Baltic coast in the east German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Monday to help gather up corpses of dead birds to prevent a wider outbreak of the disease.

Internet bird flu treatments 'could be dangerous'
(Filed: 20/02/2006)

None of the thousands of "alternative" treatments available for bird flu are backed by evidence that they work, a leading expert on alternative medicine has said.

Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, said that some medicines could actually be detrimental to health, as they stimulate the immune system which could be counter productive.

Reliance on unproven alternative cures, many of which are advertised on the internet, could also prevent people from seeking effective treatment from doctors, he said.

Bird flu fears grip Europe press

Bird flu has grabbed headlines across Europe as the deadly H5N1 strain spreads to more countries, including at least six in the European Union.

A number of papers however warn against giving in to panic and urge a measured response.

Bird flu suspect dies in Bulgaria
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-20 21:36:13

SOFIA, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- A young woman hospitalized last Friday in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv has died after showing symptoms of bird flu, Bulgarian state news agency BTA reported on early Monday.

The patient, 27, was sent to hospital with severe bilateral pneumonia and breathing difficulties, BTA cited the chief doctor Mariana Stoicheva as saying.

Stoicheva revealed the woman had worked in a local minced chicken factory, prompting the hospital to treat her as a suspicious avian flu-infected patient.

Initial tests to detect the fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu virus were immediately carried out and the results were negative, Stoicheva said. However, the samples have been sent to the laboratory in Sofia for confirmation, and the result is expected on Feb. 22.

If the test result confirms H5N1 virus, this will be the country's first human fatality from bird flu.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Bird flu: Hospitals have no clue
[ Monday, February 20, 2006 12:08:02 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

NEW DELHI: More than a day after the first case of bird flu was detected in the country, most city hospitals say they are yet to receive instructions on tackling it.

"We will hold a meeting on Monday and then decide what to do. From what we understand, there is no need for ear-marking any hospital wards.

As far as medicines are concerned, they are needed for those who have been directly exposed to the infected birds which hasn't happened here as yet," said principal secretary (health) Rakesh Mehta.

Bird flu spreads, India tests dozens of people
19 Feb 2006 12:57:54 GMT
Source: Reuters, By Krittivas Mukherjee and Kerstin Gemlich

MUMBAI/PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - India said it was testing dozens of people for bird flu on Sunday, while France confirmed its first avian cases of the H5N1 virus as the deadly strain spread around the globe.

The Indian government said on Sunday that earlier fears of the country's first human victim were unfounded, after "preliminary" tests on a dead farmer showed he was not affected.

"Preliminary investigations by the rapid response teams at Navapur indicate that this patient had no exposure to poultry," a federal health ministry statement said.

Bird flu virus deliberately introduced in India?
Monday February 20 2006 00:00 IST

NEW DELHI: The government's announcement of bird flu deaths in Maharashtra has created an unnecessary panic and how the virus arrived in a remote place like Nandurbar needs “detailed investigations,” including the possibility of deliberate introduction, according to a leading virologist.

Meanwhile health ministry officials investigating the episode told PTI that Newcastle virus - that causes similar symptoms like bird flu - has also been isolated from the dead birds lending credence to the poultry industry claims that the deaths were not entirely due to bird flu.

“I am worried and surprised about the whole thing,” says Kalyan Banerjee, former director of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune who is also a member of the government committee advising about bio terrorism.

Transmission of flu from birds to humans is very difficult and the fears have been over blown, Banerjee told PTI in a telephone interview. The 90-odd persons in some 30 countries who have so far died of this virus were bird handlers and no single

Human-to-human transmission has taken place. The commercial angle to the whole bird flu business “should be looked at very carefully,” says Banerjee who is one of many scientists who believe that what struck Surat in 1994 was not plague. ...

Saturday, February 18, 2006

First suspected human death from bird flu in India
19 Feb 2006 04:44:45 GMT
Source: Reuters

AHMEDABAD, India, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A man has died of suspected bird flu in western India, a top official said on Sunday, a day after India reported its first bird flu infections in poultry.

"A poultry farm owner died on Friday in Surat district. Local tests have confirmed bird flu but we have sent samples to the national laboratory. A final report is awaited," Vatsala Vasudev, the top district administrator of Surat in western Gujarat state, told Reuters.

India Reports First Human Death From Bird Flu

Associated Press
Sunday, February 19, 2006; Page A24

BOMBAY, Feb. 18 -- India reported its first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu Saturday after chickens were found to have died from the virus. A man in Indonesia also died from the disease, that country's 19th death, officials said.

Indian officials will immediately begin slaughtering hundreds of thousands of birds in a 1.5-mile radius around the poultry farms in the western town of Navapur, where the confirmed cases were detected, said Anees Ahmed, the Maharashtra state minister for animal husbandry.

Bird flu 'to arrive in Britain this week'
Andrew Alderson, James Orr and Kim Willsher in Paris (Filed: 19/02/2006)

Fears were growing last night that bird flu will reach Britain within days, after the deadly H5N1 form of the virus swept across Europe, the Middle East and south-east Asia yesterday.

The Government conceded yesterday that it is now increasingly likely that bird flu will arrive in Britain, as the National Farmers' Union (NFU) told members to prepare to take poultry indoors at short notice.

NOTE: Be sure to visit this site and click on the great graphic there, a small rendition of which appears above.

Bird flu drugs: India has enough stocksAdd to Clippings
Kounteya Sinha & Chandrika Mago

NEW DELHI: India doesn't have to worry about the availability of anti-bird flu drugs. The health ministry had started stockpiling 80,000 cycles (8 lakh tablets) of Tamiflu (Roche's best known anti-influenza drug) soon after avian bird flu started spreading rapidly to several parts of the world, including West Europe and Africa in the past two weeks.

So, on Saturday, soon after the ministry's worst fears were confirmed that the flu had arrived in India, following the discovery of dead chickens in Nandurbar (Maharashtra), consignments of Tamiflu were at hand to be rushed with the rapid response team of National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) to the affected area.

The central authorities here have not reached for the panic button yet. Although eight people on these farms have so far been isolated by a team from the Institute of Virology in Pune, and over 80 blood samples tested, no human case has, according to Union health secretary P Hota, been found clinically positive. "None of them have been found to be clinically positive. However no chances are being taken. Tamiflu will be given to them orally," he said. ...

Deadly strain of bird flu virus hits India, France
India testing 8 people in area where 50,000 birds have died from virus, by Crack Palinggi / Reuters

BOMBAY, India - India and France each announced their first cases of bird flu on Saturday as tests confirmed birds infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

The French government on Saturday confirmed the country's first case of the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus, following tests on a wild duck found dead in a southeastern village. The duck was found Monday in a bird reserve some 20 miles northeast of Lyon, France's third-largest city, the Agriculture Ministry said.

A chronology of the spread of bird flu
Published: 2/18/2006

PARIS - Since the first human infections in Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 avian flu virus has reportedly infected 187 people worldwide, killing 97, and spread westwards across Europe and into Africa. The World Health Organisation lists 169 cases since 2003, including 91 fatalities, mostly in Vietnam (42), Indonesia (18), Thailand (14), China (8), Cambodia (4), Turkey (4) and Iraq (1): ...

German Military Joins Fight Against Bird Flu

The fire department on Rügen helps pick up dead birds from the ice
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The fire department on Rügen helps pick up dead birds from the ice

Officials on the Baltic island of Rügen have appealed to the military for help in collecting dead birds and disinfecting contaminated areas. The defense ministry has responded with aid.

As the number of confirmed cases of bird flu on the island of Rügen rose to 41 on Saturday, local officials turned to the rest of the country for desperately needed aid in preventing the spread of the bird flu.

"We have to return to the same spot every two hours or half a day to collect more dead animals. It is an endless task," said Kerstin Kassner, head of the island's authority responsible for managing the disease outbreak. She and others working in her team have appealed to the federal military for help in collecting the birds.

Very serious situation

Meanwhile, the entire island of Rügen has been declared an "observation zone." Every reported bird carcass must be collected and sent off to laboratories for testing.

A big threat looms as bird flu spreads to West Europe
The virus surfacing in Africa can prove catastrophic, by GAURI LAKHANPAL
Posted online: Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

Avian influenza is no longer a largely Asian virus. It has struck in the heart of Western Europe and there is no saying where it will spread from there. The discovery of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain in wild swans in Greece and Italy earlier this week marks the virus’ arrival in the western world. The H5N1 strain has already killed over 90 people in Asia over the last three years, and subsequently spread to Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last year. The last few months have seen the deadly virus afflict flocks of wild migratory birds in Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, and even as far as Nigeria.

There have been no human casualties outside of Asia. Individuals in non-Asian affected countries have reported flu-like symptoms but no cases have been confirmed. However, the virus obviously does have the ability to transmit itself from poultry to humans. Fears of such a transmission have seen chicken sales plunge 95% in Greece and over 50% in Italy over the last week. While Turkey has culled over 300,000 birds to protect the disease from spreading further, other countries have been slower to implement any such measures that would threaten the EU’s $24 billion poultry and egg industry.

From Europe’s perspective, the outbreak among a flock of chickens in Nigeria is much dreaded news. This is the first time the virus has been reported in Africa and the continent is ill-prepared to contain it. The timing of the outbreak in Africa, a few months before these birds start migrating northward to Europe, could be catastrophic. Furthermore, even though the outbreak took place on a commercial poultry farm the virus may have been percolating for months in backyard flocks. And according to reports, despite the health ministry’s efforts to quarantine and disinfect farms, apparently basic safety measures are being ignored. Carcasses are being burned in the open, letting infectious feathers and dander spread downwind. The farm workers doing the culling have no protective gear and villagers are still entering the property to draw well water. [my emphasis]

Swans in Iran Died from Bird Flu
Published: Saturday, February 18, 2006

Iran Veterinary Institute has confirmed the Avian Influenza, bird flu, in 135 swans in Gilan province, north of the country.

The head of the institute, Hussein Hasan, informed Agency France Press that bird flu cases have not been detected in any other part of the country.

The institute issued a statement Tuesdayannouncing more tests would be conducted to determine if the cause of the death is bird flu.

Bird Flu Spreads in Austria
Published: Saturday, February 18, 2006

The Avian Influenza, or the bird flu, that surfaced last week in Austria is now spreading to other parts of the country.

A dead swan was determined to have died of bird flu in Floridsdorf, north of capital Vienna and in the lower Austria province of Klosterneuburg a duck was determined to have bird flu.

The Avian Influenza was detected last week for the first time in the south of Austria in Styria.

Bird flu kills Thai boy

A 5-year-old boy in Nakhon Nayok province outside Bangkok has died of bird flu, the 14th Thai victim of avian influenza.

News of the death of the youngster came as a shock. Thailand hasbeen largely free of bird flu in the past two months, since a small outbreak killed a man last October.

The boy died in hospital last Wednesday, according to Deputy Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakula. He was not known to have had direct contact with chickens, but investigations are continuing.

The death brings the Asian death toll from H5N1 avian flu to 70.

Eight people admitted to Govt Hospital, for suspected bird flu

Dhule (Maharashtra), Feb. 18 (PTI): Eight people were today admitted to a government hospital at Navapur, for suspected bird flu and about 80 blood samples were sent to laboratory for test, health department sources said here.

Around two-lakh chickens were destroyed at Navapur and buried as a precautionary measure, today.

There are 57 poultries around Navapur.

Sources said since past two-days death of at least 20,000 chickens was reported at Navapur in Nandurbar district of north Maharashtra.

Official sources here said eight of the 11 chicken samples sent to Bhopal's laboratory for confirming Bird Flu were found positive.

High-dose bird flu vaccine trial fails, By Julie Robotham
February 18, 2006
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AUSTRALIA'S highly anticipated bird flu vaccine trial has produced immune protection against the virus in only a small minority of the 400 volunteers who received it, disappointing experts and throwing out estimates of how long it would take to vaccinate citizens in the event of pandemic.

Andrew Cuthbertson, the chief scientific officer of manufacturer CSL Ltd, said about half of those who received the highest dose in the trial - two 15-microgram shots with a booster substance added - had an immune response comparable to that for regular human flu shots.

But those who received single or smaller doses of the H5N1 bird flu antigen, and those whose shots did not contain the immune-boosting adjuvant, had a lesser response that was below the threshold for licensing human flu vaccines.

World must invest in bird flu vaccine: WHO official, By Stephanie Nebehay
Friday, February 17, 2006; 9:03 AM

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world has spent more than $3 billion to stockpile anti-virals against bird flu but is not investing enough to develop an influenza pandemic vaccine, a top official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Klaus Stohr, WHO's special adviser on influenza pandemic vaccine development, also said that while preliminary results from several clinical trials looked "promising," much more work was needed.

Bird Flu: Germany Prepares for Worst Case

Germany's agriculture minister expects bird flu to spread throughout the country and urged officials to prepare for a worst-case scenario. Efforts to contain the disease have top priority, he said.

After visiting the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer told health and veterinary officials in the rest of the country to be rigorous in enforcing measures to lock down all domestic birds and keep track of reported carcasses. "We must expect that this will expand to other geographical areas," he said at a news conference on Friday, urging state governments to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

"There will be zero tolerance," he added and warned that the rapidly spreading H5N1 virus, which so far has only infected migratory birds in Germany, could easily jump over to poultry livestock. From that point, it is also possible the disease could spread to humans.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Spread of avian flu jumps in West and Central Java, by Yuli Tri Suwarni and Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Pos, /Bandung, Semarang

Officials are planning emergency measures to deal with a worrisome spike in the incidence of avian bird flu in densely populated West and Central Java.

"Almost no region (in West Java) is free from bird flu infection," Fatimah Resmiati of the West Java health office told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Data from the office showed that chickens tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus in 17 of the 25 regencies in West Java, while human infection has been found in 12 regencies.

Resmiati blamed the fast spread of the virus on the limited control of the traffic of live chickens in West Java.

"In the period from September 2005 to Feb. 14, 2006, up to 50 people were suspected of being infected with the bird flu virus, of whom 15 died, with 10 confirmed as positive for the virus," she said.

U.S. says helping to fight Africa bird flu outbreak, By Pascal Fletcher
17 Feb 2006 18:24:08 GMT

DAKAR, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The United States is providing Nigeria with technical assistance and expertise to help fight its bird flu outbreak and is ready to aid neighbouring states to stop the virus spreading, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

"We're providing the Nigerians with a lot of information and technical assistance, we're cooperating with them," Jendayi Frazer, the United States' top diplomat for Africa, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Yaounde in Cameroon. The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu was detected in poultry in Africa's most populous country on Feb. 8. ....

Frazer said the United States stood ready to help any other nation in the region which needed assistance to fight bird flu.

"Our (Nigeria) embassy is providing information to neighbouring countries, our ambassadors in-country are providing them with information to try to stave off the spread," she said.

The bird flu virus poses a major health risk across Africa because chickens run free in millions of backyards and are carried live in public transport.

No human case has been found on the continent so far. Detecting such a case will be difficult because mortality rates are high from other diseases and health services are almost non-existent in rural areas, where people are often buried without a medical check. [my emphasis]

France detects first case of bird flu, By Sybille de La Hamaide
Friday, February 17, 2006; 11:56 AM

PARIS (Reuters) - France has detected its first case of bird flu on a duck found in eastern France, although it was not yet clear the fowl was carrying the deadly H5N1 strain transmissible to humans, the farm ministry said on Friday.

"The test showed the H5 virus was present and had strong similarities with the H5N1 Asian influenza," it said.

Influenza: What If We Had a Sept. 11th Every Month and Nobody Cared?

A think tank in Australia released a report claiming that an influenza pandemic might kill over 140 million people. So, after spending most of my professional career examining the evolution of infectious disease, I think...I don't have any idea if a pandemic influenza strain will evolve. Ultimately, we're trying to anticipate a unique historically contingent event: placing a probability on the likelihood that this would happen is foolish.
Personally, I think a pandemic is a low probability event, but likely enough to worry about. Why? There is one little datum that scares the hell out of me: amantadine resistance. ...

U.N. Pushing Bird Flu Prevention
Friday, February 17, 2006; 8:19 AM

ROME -- The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization expressed growing concern Friday that bird flu could spread beyond Nigeria to other West African countries, and proposed incentives for farmers to report possible outbreaks early.

"The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus poses a very serious threat to animal health in West Africa," Joseph Domenech, the agency's chief veterinary officer, said in a statement.

Get ready for bird flu, it's sure to come, leaders insist

Don't rely on the government to rescue you in the event of a pandemic like avian flu, Gov. Bush warned Thursday.

By DAVID ROYSE

TALLAHASSEE - Florida residents need to educate themselves now about the avian flu and prepare themselves for the prospect of a global outbreak of the disease in people, public health officials said Thursday, warning that it is likely a question of when, not if, a flu outbreak will hit this country.

''When it comes to a pandemic we are overdue and we're under-prepared,'' U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said, addressing a summit of state and federal officials on what Florida needs to do to prepare for a global flu outbreak.

Gov. Jeb Bush said the state doesn't have all the hospital beds it would need if a real pandemic were to emerge and had no prospects for changing that. And by its very nature, a pandemic would affect the whole country -- so there'd be no place to send the people that Florida's hospitals couldn't handle.

''There would be no mutual aid, we'd have to take care of this ourselves,'' Bush said.

The problems would be myriad: besides overflowing hospitals, schools would close and business would be crippled by absenteeism; there might be runs on food, cash, water and other critical items; and tourism could be devastated.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Bird flu could be major problem for Africa, By Laurie Goering
Published February 16, 2006, 6:30 PM CST

JOHANNESBURG -- Bird flu has spread to Africa, and experts fear that containing it will be a major problem on a continent where backyard chickens are the norm, health infrastructure is weak and many governments have little in the way of funding or plans to deal with an avian flu outbreak.

In northern Nigeria, where a deadly strain of bird flu began killing chickens this month, cheap chicken has flooded local meat markets, local media report. Poultry farm workers, faced with thousands of dead birds, are working without protective gear to toss them onto open fires. Farmers, not yet certain what government compensation they will receive, remain reluctant to report dying birds.

"If the situation in Nigeria gets out of control, it will have a devastating impact on the poultry population in the region, it will seriously damage the livelihoods of millions of people and it will increase the exposure of humans to the virus," warned Samuel Jutzi, director of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, which has rushed experts to Nigeria to try to contain the outbreak there.

US to test child bird flu vaccine

What may be the first clinical trial of a vaccine against the deadly strain of bird flu in children is set to take place in the US.

Scientists in St Louis want to test the vaccine, made from an inert form of the potentially lethal H5N1 virus, on 120 children aged between two and nine.

Centre for Clinical Vaccine Control experts say there is no risk and warn the young are more vulnerable to flu.

Nigeria struggles against bird flu virus., By Dino Mahtani in Lagos
Published: February 16 2006 16:31 | Last updated: February 16 2006 16:31

The deadly H5N1 strain was first confirmed in a commercial farm in northern Nigeria last week, and subsequently detected in nearby farms. However many rural farmers in the vicinity claim their fowl have been dying for weeks. The outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria is the first known appearance in Africa of the virus which has already killed over 90 people, mostly in Asia.

Tens of thousands of poultry have died or been culled in farms that have been officially quarantined by the government. But some officials fear the virus has already spread beyond the government’s reach.

The government’s response has been crippled by a lack of equipment and technical expertise amid administrative delays and fumbling between different ministries and authorities. Culling exercises at some farms were undertaken by farm workers who used bare hands to throw sick and dead chickens onto fires while children watched.

The government has dispatched a small clean up team to the north, equipped with safety suits donated from the US. The team is likely to face a painstaking task ensuring safe culling exercises and effective investigations halt the spread of the virus to remote rural areas where chickens often run freely in villages and backyards.

“It is a disaster. We are concerned for Nigeria, but also for the region as a whole.” said Juan Lubroth, a senior official at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Nigeria struggles against bird flu virus., By Dino Mahtani in Lagos
Published: February 16 2006 16:31 | Last updated: February 16 2006 16:31

The deadly H5N1 strain was first confirmed in a commercial farm in northern Nigeria last week, and subsequently detected in nearby farms. However many rural farmers in the vicinity claim their fowl have been dying for weeks. The outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria is the first known appearance in Africa of the virus which has already killed over 90 people, mostly in Asia.

Tens of thousands of poultry have died or been culled in farms that have been officially quarantined by the government. But some officials fear the virus has already spread beyond the government’s reach.

The government’s response has been crippled by a lack of equipment and technical expertise amid administrative delays and fumbling between different ministries and authorities. Culling exercises at some farms were undertaken by farm workers who used bare hands to throw sick and dead chickens onto fires while children watched.

The government has dispatched a small clean up team to the north, equipped with safety suits donated from the US. The team is likely to face a painstaking task ensuring safe culling exercises and effective investigations halt the spread of the virus to remote rural areas where chickens often run freely in villages and backyards.

“It is a disaster. We are concerned for Nigeria, but also for the region as a whole.” said Juan Lubroth, a senior official at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Nigeria struggles against bird flu virus., By Dino Mahtani in Lagos
Published: February 16 2006 16:31 | Last updated: February 16 2006 16:31

The deadly H5N1 strain was first confirmed in a commercial farm in northern Nigeria last week, and subsequently detected in nearby farms. However many rural farmers in the vicinity claim their fowl have been dying for weeks. The outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria is the first known appearance in Africa of the virus which has already killed over 90 people, mostly in Asia.

Tens of thousands of poultry have died or been culled in farms that have been officially quarantined by the government. But some officials fear the virus has already spread beyond the government’s reach.

The government’s response has been crippled by a lack of equipment and technical expertise amid administrative delays and fumbling between different ministries and authorities. Culling exercises at some farms were undertaken by farm workers who used bare hands to throw sick and dead chickens onto fires while children watched.

The government has dispatched a small clean up team to the north, equipped with safety suits donated from the US. The team is likely to face a painstaking task ensuring safe culling exercises and effective investigations halt the spread of the virus to remote rural areas where chickens often run freely in villages and backyards.

“It is a disaster. We are concerned for Nigeria, but also for the region as a whole.” said Juan Lubroth, a senior official at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

INTERVIEW-Swans not big culprit in spread of bird flu in EU
16 Feb 2006 15:10:41 GMT
By Anna Mudeva

AMSTERDAM, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Most of the European Union's known cases of bird flu have been in swans -- but they are not the species most guilty of spreading the deadly H5N1 virus around the continent, a leading scientist said on Thursday.

Dr Albert Osterhaus, a virologist at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Reuters the pattern of the outbreaks of the disease in four EU countries in the last few days showed other infected wild birds were to blame.

...

The researchers said their study confirmed the conventional wisdom that wild birds carry the relatively harmless viruses that eventually mutate into highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Scientists have suggested that migratory birds play an important role in the spread of the bird flu virus. H5N1, which originated in Asia, has killed over 90 people there as well as in Turkey and prompted culls of millions of chickens.

Osterhaus said cats were also vulnerable to bird flu and could catch the disease by eating infected wild birds.

"We know for sure that cats can get infected, dogs possibly too," he said, adding it was not clear whether other animals were at risk. [my emphasis]

Neglect could cause bird flu pandemic: Thai PM
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-16 23:28:47

BANGKOK, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned Thursday that neglect could cause a bird flu pandemic after the lethal virus spread from Asia to Europe and into parts of Africa.

Thaksin told reporters at the Government House, "If every country knows how to handle it and take good care of it, I think the pandemic will not happen." "But if we neglect one area or another, that might be a mutation of the disease and the pandemic might happen," he added.

Since the deadly H5N1 virus was first detected in Thailand in early 2004, 14 out of 22 confirmed bird flu patients have died. Most of the bird flu deaths in the country were either children or elderly people with weak immune systems.

"I think a country like France can be protected much easier than a country like us because we have free-range poultry. In the beginning we did not understand the nature of the disease. We did not know its effect and how it can spread from birds, chicken to mammals like cats and tigers," Thaksin said.

"Now we understand it better. We can take care of it better. I think we are in a very good shape in handling it," he said.

The Thai government said in November that it would begin producing its own generic version of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, believed to be the most effective defense against bird flu.

Poultry, Not Wild Birds, Most Often Carries Deadly Avian Flu to Africa, By David Brown
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Page A14

The lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu found in Nigeria this month probably got there in poultry and not through the movement of wild birds, according to migratory-bird experts and several lines of circumstantial evidence.

The first Nigerian cases were found at a commercial farm with 46,000 chickens, not among backyard flocks that would have greater contact with wild birds. Nigeria imports more than a million chicks a year from countries that include Turkey, where H5N1 appeared last fall, and China, where it has circulated for a decade.

Furthermore, the infected flocks in two of Nigeria's northern states are not near wetlands where migratory birds spend the winter. There are no reports of waterfowl die-offs like those in Asia and Eastern Europe. The few wild species known to occasionally harbor H5N1 arrived months ago and are about to leave.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Preparing for pandemic: know how to bury your dead, By Andrew Stern

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - When burying a body in the backyard, don't put it too close to the septic system. That was one piece of advice offered on Wednesday to a business conference on preparing for a potentially lethal bird flu andemic.

Preparations for a global flu pandemic, which many experts believe is overdue, have begun but the grisly details are horrific and the number of sick could quickly overwhelm the health care system.

Needed supplies of even common medical supplies such as surgical masks and gloves are in doubt, not to mention the syringes needed for an as-yet undeveloped vaccine and costly mechanical ventilators.

The H5N1 avian flu virus that has infected flocks on at least three continents and killed 91 people could be the virus that experts fear will mutate into a highly pathogenic form that kills hundreds of millions of people in a matter of weeks or months.

In Seattle, public health officials are weighing the ramifications of hospitals overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of sick people and the need for thousands of body bags.

"We talk about how people should bury their dead in their backyards, how far from the septic systems," said Dorothy Teeter, director of the King County public health department in Seattle. "In case you're wondering, it's $20 apiece for high-quality body bags. In New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina) they had to double-bag bodies."

Hungary confirms bird flu outbreak
16/02/2006

Hungary has become the seventh country to confirm an outbreak of the bird flu virus.

Hungarian authorities detected an H5 subtype of virus in three dead wild swans in the southern county of Bacs Kiskun, the EU commission said yesterday.

Tests are being undertaken now at the EU's reference laboratory to determine whether the virus is the H5N1 strain that can infect and kill people.

Ministers sound alarm over bird flu, by Rendi Akhmad Witular

With more human cases of bird flu being reported in the country, ministers warn the virus may be mutating into a more virulent form that is capable of being transmitted from human to human.

"The amount of time between contracting the virus and death is becoming shorter, raising the possibility the virus is becoming more virulent," Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said Wednesday before a limited Cabinet meeting with governors from five provinces to discuss efforts to combat bird flu. The meeting comes at a time of increased criticism over the government's perceived failure to respond to the crisis with the necessary speed or force.

Bird flu could kill 214,000 Aussies
February 16, 2006 - 6:04AM

A serious worldwide outbreak of avian flu could kill up to 214,000 Australians, according to new projections by experts.

The research shows the world death toll from a disastrous bird flu pandemic could be as high as 142 million, or 2.2 per cent of the earth's population, Fairfax newspapers report.

The estimates by Professor Warwick McKibbin, one of the world's leading economic modellers and a member of the Reserve Bank board, and Dr Alexandra Sidorenko, a health expert at Australian National University, will be presented at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

False bird-flu reports lead to slaughter in Zambia
15 February 2006 06:06

Hundreds of villagers in southern Zambia have slaughtered their chickens and goats in the wake of false reports of the presence of the deadly bird flu having reached the country, news reports said on Wednesday.

Chieftain Chiawa, of the Goba people in lower Zambezi, confirmed that her people had slaughtered all their poultry and goats after hearing of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus that can transfer to humans in Zambia.

EU Experts Boost Bird Flu Plan, By CONSTANT BRAND
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; 7:56 AM

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union veterinary experts on Wednesday backed plans to boost surveillance of wild birds and stricter bans on imports into the 25-nation bloc as officials scrambled to find ways to curb the spread of deadly bird flu in Europe.

With Austria and Germany saying wild birds in their countries have tested positive for deadly H5N1, the European Commission approved more than $2.26 million in additional funding for national surveillance programs and added testing to ensure early detection of bird flu outbreaks.

Europe locks up its chickens as bird flu spreads, By David Evans
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; 6:43 AM

PARIS (Reuters) - European governments ordered farmers to lock up their chickens on Wednesday after the deadly bird flu virus was found in two new countries on the continent, dealing another blow to battered poultry sales.

Germany and Austria are the latest EU countries to report the discovery of dead swans infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, that has spread from Asia to Africa and killed 91 people and led to the destruction of millions of birds.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Genetic Clue Pursued in Families Struck by Bird Flu, By Alan Sipress
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

BANDUNG, Indonesia -- Buenah's teenage daughter lay sprawled on a hospital bed, under observation for bird flu. In an adjacent room, her haggard husband was sitting wrapped in a gray blanket, also under treatment for the virus.

Her two other children had already died from it.

Indrawati, 14, was treated at a hospital in Bandung, Indonesia, after exhibiting bird flu symptoms. She recovered, but two of her siblings died. Experts want to know why some but not all members of her family fell ill.

"I don't know exactly why I'm healthy," Buenah admitted from a cot where she was keeping vigil late last month for her family. "I don't have a fever, a cough or other symptoms. I really don't know why not."

Nigeria inaugurates enlightenment committee on bird flu

The Nigerian government on Tuesday inaugurated a seven-man public enlightenment committee in the country's capital Abuja to contain the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

Agriculture Minister Alhaji Malam Adamu Bello said the government was taking a pro-active measure to ensure that the disease did not spread to other parts of the country.

He said the essence of the committee was to create awareness on its implication and the corrective measures to be taken on the flu to guard against it.

"Information has a critical role to play at all stages of development, because there is need to improve and enhance our understanding," he said.

German swans suspected of bird flu
February 15, 2006

PRELIMINARY tests have shown that two swans found dead on the German island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea could have been infected by the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which can be fatal to humans, the agriculture ministry said today.

A spokeswoman for the ministry said four dead swans had been found on the island but only two were suspected of having the H5N1 virus, which has cropped up in several European countries in recent days.

Neighbouring Austria said today H5N1 had been found in two dead swans there, while Italy and Greece reported cases of the highly pathogenic virus in birds late last week.

Deadly bird flu spreads, By Christian Oliver
Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:36 PM GMT6

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Two new countries confirmed cases of deadly bird flu in wild swans on Tuesday, with Iran and Austria the latest to detect the virus that has killed 91 people worldwide.

Experts had said it was only a matter of time before H5N1 broke out in Iran, a wintering place for wildfowl that may be carriers. Its neighbours Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkey had already reported outbreaks.

Austria became the third European Union country to find the virus in wild swans, just three days after the bloc's first instances were confirmed by Italy and Greece.

Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety said samples of the dead swans had been sent to the EU's reference laboratory in Britain for confirmation, but its own checks had shown H5N1 was present.

New cases of H5 bird flu were found in Romania, Europe's largest wetlands and a major migratory route for wild birds. Further tests were being carried out in Britain to see if the new samples were H5N1, which Romania has already had cases of.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed at least 91 people in Asia and the Middle East, according to the World Health Organisation.

Experts question generic bird flu vaccine

LONDON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A bird flu vaccine ordered by the British government in an effort to prevent a pandemic may be ineffective, The Times of London reported Tuesday.

British officials sought bids from pharmaceutical companies for a contract to manufacture as many as 3 million doses of a generic H5N1 vaccine. The winning bid is expected to be announced soon.

But writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists that studied the avian flu in China and Southeast Asia suggests generic vaccines may prove ineffective against a virus that has already had years to genetically diversify.

30th village in Romania hit by bird flu
Posted: 15-Feb-2006 00:28 hrs

A Romanian health worker tries to capture a domestic bird in Marsilieni, east of Bucharest after bird deaths occured in the village, in December 2005. The H5 strain of bird flu was found in Vlahi in southeast Romania, the 30th village in the former communist country to be hit by the virus

The H5 strain of bird flu was found in Vlahi in southeast Romania, the 30th village in the former communist country to be hit by the virus, authorities said.

Samples taken from birds in the village were sent to Bucharest for further analysis to check for the presence of the H5N1 strain, which can be deadly to humans, local officials said on Tuesday.

On Monday, authorities had begun culling about 30,000 birds in Topraisar, a neighboring village also hit by bird flu.

Institute says a flu pandemic is 'probable'
February 13, 2006, 13:30

The bird flu virus outbreak was in line with historical precedent which showed the world due for another pandemic, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said today. "We are due for one (a pandemic), if the periodicity holds," Barry Schoub, the institute's executive director, said. Since the 12th century, pandemics have occurred at a rate of about two or three every hundred years, he said.

The last pandemic was the Hong Kong flu of 1968 to 1969. "It's a probability, but not a certainty," he said of the likelihood of the H5N1 virus spreading between humans. Although the pandemic had already crossed the species barrier, Schoub said there was little evidence of efficient transmission between humans.

A worrying factor, however, was that there were many "molecular similarities" between the virulent H5N1 virus and that which caused the Spanish influenza of 1918 to 1919. This killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide.

Schoub said the fact that the virus, which has existed in its present form since 1997, had still not spread between humans was cause for hope. "It has had the opportunity, but has not grasped it," he said. The H5N1 virus has so far killed 88 people out of 166 infected in seven countries. [my emphasis] - Sapa

Spicy aircon kills bird flu, says company
February 14 2006 at 10:32AM

Seoul - South Korea's LG Electronics said on Tuesday that it had begun selling a new air conditioner equipped with a filter made out of kimchi that destroys the killer bird flu virus.

The new air conditioner filters the air through a chemical mix that includes an enzyme extracted from kimchi, which is reportedly capable of eliminating the H5N1 virus.

"It is too early to tally the sales figures yet but we believe the new air-con will sell very well," company spokesperson Jo Chang-Hyun told AFP.

Kimchi is a spicy fermented vegetable dish made with red peppers, radishes and a lot of garlic and ginger.

Koreans eat kimchi with almost every meal.

Bird flu behind family murder
14/02/2006 12:41 - (SA)

Rome - An Italian lorry driver who made a living out of transporting dead chickens brutally killed his wife and daughter and then committed suicide after running out of business because of the bird flu scare, daily La Repubblica reported on Tuesday.

Claudio Rubello, 49, used a bricklayer's hammer to kill his wife and his 10-year-old daughter Jennifer in their sleep. He then seriously injured his two teenage sons before killing himself with a kitchen knife.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Bird-Flu Vaccine Makers to Get Protection , By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON -- The government won't wait for bird flu to hit U.S. shores before granting liability protections to vaccine manufacturers and others that make products needed to battle a pandemic.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Monday that the administration soon would enter into contracts for bird flu vaccine, rapid tests to detect the virus, and technology that would make the available vaccine go further.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Romania reports bird flu in Black Sea village
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-13 11:06:40

BUCHAREST, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Romanian authorities identified an H5 subtype of the bird flu virus on Sunday in a southeast village near the Black Sea, the state Rompres news agency reported.

The case was detected after dozens of domestic fowls and chicks died on a farm in the village of Topraisar in Constanta County. Two children, aged seven and four, were also reported to be suffering from mild respiratory problems and taken to hospital.

WHO calms bird flu fear in Iraq

The World Health Organisation (WHO) attempted to calm bird flu fear across Iraq which has made people flee from some regions while in other areas a massive culling of birds was being carried out.

"At this moment this is just an agricultural emergency and still I can say that not every chicken is infected with avian influenza," said Dr Sam Yingst, a member of a WHO team who came to Baghdad after touring the northern Kurdistan area where the disease broke out last month.

Yingst, a veterinary virologist from Cairo, said the panic created by the first case had set off an extensive culling of poultry and birds across Iraq.

"At the moment the culling is extensive. Tens of thousands of birds have been killed in Arbil and around 200,000 in Sulaimaniyah," Yingst told reporters.

Ibtisam Aziz, spokeswoman of the government's Avian Influenza Technical Affairs Committee said the girl's uncle was still a suspect. There were also two other suspected cases in Sulaimaniyah and six in Amara.

Disease-hit Africa slow to grasp bird flu threat, By David Lewis
12 Feb 2006 15:42:16 GMT

KINSHASA, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Hortense Muadi has heard about bird flu on the radio and knows it can kill.

But the Congolese mother of two didn't know it had arrived in Africa and, like many others on the world's poorest and most disease-stricken continent, she has more to worry about than watching out for sick chickens.

Where Has Bird Flu Been Found So Far, Globally?
Article Date: 12 Feb 2006 - 14:00pm (UK)

Since 2003 Bird flu (avian flu) has spread from VietNam all the way across the globe to Nigeria (west Africa) and Italy (well into the European Union). Over 150 million birds have died. The number of human deaths is also going up, about 90 people have so far died as a result of bird flu infection. ... {list follows at the site]

Pandemic risk rises as bird flu spreads, By Elisabeth Rosenthal and Donald G. McNeil Jr.
...
But Africa also has the worst AIDS epidemic in the world; in some countries nearly a third of the adult population is infected. In the initial stages, having a depressed immune system could have a protective effect, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, because virulent flus set off a powerful immune reaction that can drown the lungs in fluid.

However, he added, it would probably hurt patients trying to fight off secondary immune reactions.

But HIV-infected people who managed to fight off bird flu would become ideal crucibles in which the H5N1 virus could exchange genes with other viruses, dramatically increasing the likelihood of a bird flu strain that could readily infect humans.

"If H5N1 gets into people with AIDS it would likely persist and throw off mutants left, right and center," Oxford said.

If bird flu takes root in Africa - or if has already done so, undetected - it could prove disastrous not just for that continent, but for Europe as well, experts say, since the northern migration of birds begins next month.

"The prospects are not good," said Oxford. "Soon they'll be coming back over Europe and why wouldn't it cause a great danger?" As a virologist, Oxford said that he could only assume that Nigeria was just the "red light we could see," but that there were similar bird flu problems in many other places.
...
With little accurate information about the disease's spread, scientists have been left to speculate about the possible impact of the disease in Africa.

Population density is lower than in Asia, Heymann noted, which could slow the spread. "Flu could wipe out all the chickens in a village, but there's still savannah or jungle between the villages," he said. Also, living with birds under the same roof is somewhat less common than in As

Slovenia reports bird flu

Slovenian authorities have reported H5 bird flu virus in a swan and have sent samples to an EU laboratory for further tests, the European Commission said.

It said Slovenian authorities have reported "a confirmed case" of the H5 bird flu virus.

"The Slovenian Laboratory for Avian influenza has made the first analysis, and samples have been sent" to the EU's bird flu laboratory in Weybridge, England, the commission said in a statement.

Researchers Race to Boost Supply of Bird Flu Vaccine
Additives Studied as Way to Help Fight Potential Pandemic, By David Brown

Medical researchers bracing for a global influenza epidemic are in frantic search of a way to perform a loaves-and-fishes miracle with the world's skimpy annual production of flu vaccine.

That production -- about 300 million flu shots a year -- cannot be increased quickly or easily, no matter how dire the circumstances. If the supply is going to protect more than a tiny fraction of the world's 6.5 billion people, some way has to be found to stretch it.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Iraq steps up bird flu fight with US help
2/12/2006

A LARGE consignment of masks, gloves and gowns was on its way from the United States to Iraq last Monday to help the war-torn country fight off an already deadly outbreak of bird flu in Iraqi Kurdistan. "What Iraq needs is lots of personal protection equipment such as masks, gloves, gowns and disinfectants to curb the spread of the disease," said Jon C. Bowersox, health attache with the US embassy in Iraq.
...
Authorities in Kurdistan had quarantined 18 people suspected of suffering from bird flu, of which 12 have been released after their health improved, a doctor from Sulaimaniyah told reporters.

"Of the six, four are strong suspects of bird flu while the health of the other two has improved," the medic said. ...

Bird flu moves closer as Italy confirms cases, by Daniel Foggo

BIRD FLU moved nearer to Britain yesterday as Italy and Greece confirmed cases of birds dying from the virus. [my emphasis]

The deaths of the birds in southern Italy from the H5N1 strain of flu, which is lethal to humans, are the first confirmed cases in western Europe.

Related Link

Avian Flu Discovered in Wild Swans in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria

Authorities calls for calm in Greek bird flu state of alert

A woman passes by swans in the town of Stavros, near Thessaloniki in northern Greece. A Greek official called on citizens not to panic but to observe precautions after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in swans found near the northern city of Salonika.

A Greek official called on citizens not to panic but to observe precautions after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in swans found near the northern city of Salonika.

"I call on citizens not to panic," the police subprefect of Salonika Ioannis Bikos said following a special meeting of local authorities.

"Calm and the contribution of each person to applying the measures ordained will bring the best results," he said.

A government vet warned that fines would be applied to people who break emergency rules aimed at preventing the virus spreading to farm poultry.

Greeks must "shut up poultry" to prevent them coming into contact with wild birds, veterinary and ministerial adviser Spyros Kyriakis said on public television.

Bird Flu Found in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, By MARIA SANMINIATELLI

ROME -- The deadly bird flu has reached Western Europe, with Italy and Greece announcing Saturday they had detected the H5N1 strain of the virus in dead swans, while the European Union confirmed the presence of the deadly strain in Bulgaria.

The announcement by Greece and Italy comes a day after the opening of the Winter Games in Turin, and marks the first time the potentially dangerous virus was detected in a EU country.

Greeks confirm three cases of bird flu in swans, By Lefteris Papadimas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece on Saturday reported cases of H5N1 bird flu in three dead swans, as the disease appeared to have been spread into the European Union by wild birds.

"This is the deadly, the aggressive strain of the virus," Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexandros Kontos told Reuters. "The swans were probably flying to Africa because of the cold snap in central Europe."

G8 acknowledges bird flu pandemic risk - communique

MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - The G8 acknowledges the risk of an avian flu pandemic and its potential economic and financial impacts, reads a communique issued following a G8 ministerial meeting in Moscow on Saturday.

"We welcome progress made at the donors' conference in Beijing in securing financial support for the national and international efforts to minimize the risk posed by a pandemic influenza and confirm our commitments made at this conference," the document says.

It was reported earlier that the donor countries decided to allocate about $1.5 billion to combat the potential bird flu spread.

Weil Combats Bird Flu 'Paranoia' By Carla McClain

Our anxiety over bird flu - the fear it might set off a worldwide pandemic - is making us sicker than the virus itself, says Tucson's celebrity physician, Dr. Andrew Weil.

Trying to calm what he sees as rampant "paranoia" about bird flu, Weil is using national media to stress that the virus remains a threat almost exclusively to birds. And if it ever develops into a human plague - a big if - there are signs it may be less deadly and more easily controlled than first thought.

Even so, Weil - who has studied influenza pandemics from throughout human history - maintains a serious respect for the potential havoc the bird flu virus could wreak across the globe, in a worst-case scenario.

"I am very, very interested in bird flu, and I do think it's a real concern," said Weil, a Harvard Medical School graduate who founded the movement combining mainstream and alternative medicine, headquartered at the University of Arizona.

"But at the moment, there is paranoia over it that is not justified. This virus is not contagious person to person, so the current fear of it is unfounded," he said. "That doesn't mean we don't need to keep a close eye on it. We do. But we don't need to lose sleep over it."

Experts to test two children for bird flu in Nigeria
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-12 00:13:37

LAGOS, Feb. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Experts will test two children who have fallen sick in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna where Africa's first H5N1 bird flu virus was found, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) told Xinhua on Saturday.

"The two children are sick. We are monitoring, but we cannot confirm (they have been infected by the deadly virus)," said Lola Sadiq, in charge of disease prevention and control at the WHO office in Nigeria by telephone.

Sadiq said that the two children lived close to a farm hit by the bird flu and that a WHO team had been sent to the field to test.

"If there is any suspicion, and it may be, we will send it out of the country for confirmation. From then we will know. It takes time," she added.

Nigeria seeking suspected human bird flu cases

DANBARE, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria scrambled on Saturday to discover whether people who had fallen ill close to where the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was found had caught the disease and farmers culled thousands more sick chickens.

No human case of bird flu has been confirmed in Africa's most populous country, where H5N1 has killed tens of thousands of poultry, but it is hard for authorities to monitor because of logistical problems and the high mortality from other diseases.

"There are a few suspected cases ... We're trying to locate them but our sources can't provide us with addresses for now," said Abdulsalam Nasidi, who is in charge of the response to bird flu as a threat to humans at the federal Health Ministry.

He said epidemiologists were searching for two people feared to have contracted bird flu in the northern state of Kaduna, close to Sambawa Farms where one of the poultry samples was found that tested positive for H5N1.

UN says bird flu virus only two mutations away from more deadly form

LISBON, Feb. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The bird flu virus is only two mutations away from a form that can spread easily among people, a UN official said in an interview published in Portugal on Saturday.

"Only two mutations are needed for it to become easily transmissible among humans," thus sparking a pandemic in which millions of people could die, David Nabarro, the world body's coordinator on avian influenza, told Portuguese newspaper Expresso.

"I wake up every morning thinking that today could be the day that I will see a report about a strange case of bird flu among humans," he said.

The UN official added that he has told governments around the world to prepare for the arrival of a human to human strain of thevirus "as if this will happen tomorrow."

Related Links

Spread of Bird Flu Boosts Pandemic Chances

Bird flu reaches Italy and Greece

Health officials step up precautions near Thessaloniki, northern Greece
The deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has reached two new European countries, officials have confirmed.

The Italian health minister said that the virus had been found in wild swans in Sicily, and other cases were suspected elsewhere in the country.

And Greek officials say a UK laboratory has confirmed the virus in three dead swans found in northern Greece.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Another Indonesian dies of bird flu --Saturday, February 11, 2006 08:50 IST

JAKARTA: A 27-year-old Indonesian woman who tested positive for bird flu has died, hospital staff said on Saturday.

The woman died late Friday after being on a ventilator since Tuesday, said Ilham Patu, the spokesman of Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital where the patient had been treated.

Tests conducted by the health ministry, which are normally accurate, showed that the woman had bird flu.

On Thursday a 22-year-old woman died after local tests showed she had the virus. Samples from the two women have been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for confirmation.

If confirmed, they would be Indonesia's 17th and 18th fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. The WHO has confirmed 23 human cases of bird flu in Indonesia, which have resulted in 16 confirmed deaths. [My emphasis]

The virus has killed more than 85 people mostly in Asia since 2003 although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.

Suspected bird flu victim was in UK

Editor's Note: This is odd.

A cook on a ship which recently sailed from an unamed UK port died from suspected bird flu in a Lithuanian port yesterday, the director of the country's epidemical crisis centre was reported to have said last night.