Trains and Boats and Planes, will bring Bird-Flu…directly to you

Trains and boats and planes are passing by …

The trains and the boats and planes will bring Bird-Flu….

Will bring Bird-Flu… Bring it directly to you….

Let me take you back in time. Back to the year 1918.Life moved at a much more leisurely pace back then.

The fastest way to travel across the Atlantic was with an airship travelling at a bone shaking tens of miles an hour.

Using an ocean liner, It could take weeks to travel from China to Europe or to the US.

The world was really separated by the oceans then and the Americas, Australia, New Zealand etc were in reality cut off from the main mass of humanity on the great Eurasian Continent.

The total human population on the planet at the time was a fraction of what it is today and the big Cities were not as congested as they are now.

It was very difficult for an infectious disease to spread across the globe in such conditions.

Never the less, the Pandemic Flu of 1918, DID manage to spread all over the world in an amazingly short period of time.

In doing so, it killed over 40 Million people from all parts of the world.

Yes, the returning soldiers from the Great War did help carry the deadly virus back to their homes.

Even so, it could not have been easy for the killer virus to reach every nook and corner of the globe as it did at that time.

Things are a lot different now!

The world is a much, much smaller place and you can travel across the Continents in a matter of hours.

The concentration of vast number of people in overpopulated cities is the modern witches brew for all kinds of deadly viruses.

The increasingly fast modes of travel, the trains and boats and planes, are the ideal distribution network for these messengers of death.

It is estimated that a highly infectious, airborne virus such as a Pandemic Super Flu, could spread all over the world withing 48 hours of an outbreak in any one country!

That is NOT to say that a Pandemic will happen soon,  or even in our life time.

 IF IT DOES though, the above provides us with a realistic if frightening scenario that could well follow.

Here is what WHO says about the above:

With an estimated 2.1 billion airline passengers roaming the planet last year alone, infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before, the U.N. health agency said Thursday. The World Health Organization called on governments to follow its revised regulations for fighting dangerous health crises.

“New diseases are emerging at the historically unprecedented rate of one per year,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in an introduction to the annual World Health Report.

 Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202248_pf.html

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

India Bird-Flu Outbreak – Is it Over or Is It Not?

It was with a big sigh of relief that all of us heard that the bird flu epidemic had officially been declared over in India.

That was back on the 14th of August.

The official notification was celebrated with almost ritual chicken parties and the local media had a great time publicizing the people enjoying their chicken meals.

Free chicken meals were provided by some local poultry farmers in celebration of the end of the Bird-Flu outbreak in the Imphal area.

There were some minor stipulations regarding the five-kilometre secure zone with epicentre at Thangmeiband, the sight of the outbreak but it was announced that poultry meat brought in from outside the Thangmeiband security zone, would be allowed to be sold.

There was also another clause forbidding sale of eggs unless they are from outside of the culling zones.

Just how it was to be determined eggs from outside Imphal and those from Imphal, was however not explained.

All in all though, every one rejoiced in the fact that the virus had gone away.

So it was with mounting concern, that we heard about the arrests of some poultry meat vendors from the poultry meat centres in and around imphal.

This area was NOT within the Thangmeiband security zone and if the Bird-Flu virus is really over, then it was perfectly legal to sell the poultry meat and eggs in that area.

So, is the Bird-Flu outbreak NOT over as yet?

Even though we were impressed by the speed with which the Federal Government and the State Government had acted to try and root out the virus, there have been many questions regarding the origins of the outbreak that have not been answered.

A news item from the IMPHAL FREE PRESS has the following vital questions that must be addressed by the Indian Authorities immediately:

1. We still do not know where and how the virus entered the state.

2. The farm where the virus was first detected, (which is now clear of the virus), got its hatchings from the government farm at Mantripukhri. But then most other farms in the state must also have got their hatchlings from the same source.

3. How did only a single farmer come to acquire the diseased birds from an apparently shared source of the hatchlings?

4. How come even other birds belonging to the same farmer which shared the same coop as the diseased ones did not have the virus?

5. There were also suggestions that the virus could have entered the state from neighbouring Myanmar which saw an outbreak of the flu a few months earlier. How did the virus manage not to leave a trail along the way and land as if delivered by helicopter at Thangmeiband?

6. If it was migratory birds that brought the virus in, why would they leave the virus only at a chicken farm, that too in the heart of Imphal city which is not exactly a roosting place for wild birds?

It is of course good to remain vigilant against the H5N1 virus and we commend the Indian Government’s efforts in this respect as you can see from the following.

Ms. Upama Chaudury, the Joint Secretary of the Federal Agriculture Ministry of India, has reportedly asked the State Govt to heighten vigil against bird flu in and around Loktak lake as many migratory birds are expected to arrive in the lake soon.

Informing that the Forest and Wild Life Department has no active surveillance plan of its own, the Joint Secretary asked the State Government to formulate a surveillance plan.

Citing the complexities encountered during the containment drive against bird flu in Imphal town recently, she further suggested regulation on rearing poultry birds in urban area.

That is fine, however, full transparency in the efforts in the fight against the killer virus is also very important, as this fight involves not only the Government, but also the poultry farmer, the vendor of poultry meat as well as other citizens.

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=Snipp1..010907.sep07

http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=1648&typeid=0

Bird-Flu threat to Moon Festival celebrations.

The Chinese Moon Festival, (also known as the Mid-autumn Festival) which is normally celebrated on the 15th of the 8th lunar month, is is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

It is as important for the Chinese, as Christmas and Thanksgiving is for the people in the West

The Moon festival is famous for, among other things, its “Moon Cakes”.

                   

Traditionally, Lovers are supposed to spend the romantic night of the Moon Festival together, tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine, while watching the full moon.

Even for two lovers who can not be together at that time, they can still enjoy the night by watching the full moon at the same time, so that they are emotionally together at that hour.

A lot of Chinese poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival which is said to bring happiness.

This year however, there could be a problem with the bringing of happiness via the Moon Cakes.

This culprit is the Bird-Flu virus, which is a real pain in the  er.. neck.

Not only is the Bird-Flu killing millions of birds and an increasing (though still limited) number of humans, but also, it is now causing all kind of life style problems for us all.

The Chinese Government has told its people not to take moon cakes containing egg yolk or meat abroad, because of the threat of bird flu and other such diseases.

The Foreign Ministry reminded people heading to Australia for the September 25 Mid-Autumn Festival of strict quarantine laws, which prohibit the import of a wide range of food for fear of diseases such as bird flu, Newcastle disease and foot and mouth.

The strict Ausi quarantine laws carry fines of up to $49 000 and 10 years’ jail for failure to declare banned foods.

Other countries could well have similar penalties for unauthorised import of egg based products such as Moon Cakes.

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=nw20070830095342640C269549

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa093097.htm 

Steep rise in the Bird-Flu Infection and Fatality Rate curve.

The World Health Organisation graph below, with the steep growth curve showing the slow but steady growth, in the Bird-Flu Infection and Fatality Rate since 2004, presents an alarming picture.

Bali to Censor News about the current Bird-Flu outbreak.

It seems that the powers-that-be in Bali, are heading towards media censorship as far as any news related to the Bird-Flu outbreak is concerned.

Anak Agung Bagus Netra, the spokesman for the Bali Administration said on Tuesday that Governor Dewa Beratha had ordered all information regarding bird flu be delivered only by the public relations department.

He said that the Bali Government Authorities were annoyed by recent media reports of the bird flu virus on the island, which it said were creating excessive public anxiety that could damage the image of the resort island as it recovers from two deadly terrorist attacks.

“We are talking about a new outbreak here. We can’t have (ill-informed) people speaking about it on behalf of the administration. This is about Bali’s image. These days any information can fly overseas in a second,” Netra told The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile, Udayana University virologist Ngurah Mahardika suggested that tourist destinations such as Kuta, Sanur and Nusa Dua be free from fowl, following the rapid spread of bird flu virus on the island.

“This is a better move than simply taking chicken off menus,” Ngurah told the Post over the weekend.

Some hotels and restaurants in Bali had decided to drop chicken dishes from their menus.

The public have been told to abandon backyard farming, while traditional markets have been asked to sell chicken meat only, not live poultry, he said.

Ngurah said the human-fowl population density in Bali, especially in Denpasar, made the region prone to a bird flu outbreak.

Lagging precautionary measures, Ngurah said, could help the virus spread and develop more quickly, thereby increasing the threat of a pandemic on the island.

Sources:

http://www.balebengong.net/2007/08/29/bali-administration-annoyed-by-media-reports-on-bird-flu/

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.rambutan.org/maps/images/rc_map_bali.gif

“STAGE 4” Alert in the WHO Pandemic flu preparedness plan?

We are supposed to be at “STAGE 3” of Current phase of alert in the WHO global influenza preparedness plan!

However, we could even be at “Stage 4” alert, if the news about the confirmation of the human to human infection of the H5N1 from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is true.

Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century’s three pandemics occurred.

WHO uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat and of the need to launch progressively more intense preparedness activities.

Each phase of alert coincides with a series of recommended activities to be undertaken by WHO, the international community, governments, and industry.

Changes from one phase to another are triggered by several factors, which include the epidemiological behaviour of the disease and the characteristics of circulating viruses.

The world is presently supposed to be in phase 3: a new influenza virus subtype is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainably among humans.

The problem is, that the news today, of the confirmation of the Human to Human transmission of the H5N1 virus, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, could well push us to a Stage 4 Alert!

Sources:

http://www.who.int/csr/en/

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

We are a Step Closer to a Human Pandemic Flu….

We are a Step Closer to a Human Pandemic Flu…. now that Avian flu can spread between humans

The mutation of the current Bird-Flu virus in to a virus that can cause Human to human infection has been the greatest fear for all who have been following this potentially killer virus.

There have been reports of several “clusters” of humans over the last few years, who have apparently been infected with H5N1, without any contact with infected birds or poultry.

However, in all of these cases, there has always been a doubt, a possibility that the infection had in fact directly or indirectly, passed on to the victims from infected birds.

If the H5N1 can be shown to pass from human to human, then it means that it has already mutated to a step closer to the dreaded Pandemic Flu.

It seems that our worse fears may have come true.

In the first systematic, statistical analysis of its kind, using a computerized disease-transmission model, infectious-disease-modeling experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center confirm that the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in 2006 spread between a small number of people within a family in Indonesia.

The cluster contained a chain of infection that involved a 10-year-old boy who probably caught the virus from his 37-year-old aunt, who had been exposed to dead poultry and chicken feces, the presumed source of infection.

The boy then probably passed the virus to his father. The possibility that the boy infected his father was supported by genetic sequencing data.

Other person-to-person transmissions in the cluster are backed up with statistical data.

All but one of the flu victims died, and all had had sustained close contact with other ill family members prior to getting sick — a factor considered crucial for transmission of this particular flu strain.

In an attempt to contain the spread of the virus, the local health authorities eventually placed more than 50 surviving relatives and close contacts under voluntary quarantine and all, except for pregnant women and infants, received antiviral medication as a precaution.

The findings, by biostatistician Ira M. Longini Jr., Ph.D., and colleagues, appear online and will be published in the Sept. 1 print edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The containment strategy was implemented late in the game, so it could have been just luck that the virus burned out,” Longini said.

“It went two generations and then just stopped, but it could have gotten out of control.

The world really may have dodged a bullet with that one, and the next time we might not be so lucky,” he said.

Should a strain of avian flu acquire the ability to cause sustained human-to-human transmission, the results could be catastrophic, Longini said.

“If not contained, the outbreak could spread worldwide through the global transportation network faster than the appropriate vaccine supply could be made available. That’s why it’s so important to ascertain whether human-to-human transmission is happening as well as the virulence of the strain.”

Sources & Credits:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,166813.shtml

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

www.igda.org/studios/

India wants its women to be Aware of Bird-Flu.

India had one of the first women Prime Ministers in the world.

In India’s ancient history of more than 10,000 years, women have been known to be in powerful and vitally important positions in society.

Yet it is a fact that most of the women in India today, are not educated and are not able to fully develop their potential.

The Government of India and specifically the State Government of Manipur, has now decided that it is important to make the women of rural India  aware of the dangers that are present in the matter of the deadly Bird-Flu virus.   

Underlying the importance of women in Manipuri society in taking up various social issues, All Manipur Nupi Marup organised a State Level Awareness programme on Bird flu for womenfolk at State Museum Hall, Imphal today.

Health and Family Welfare Minister P Parijat attended the inaugural function of the awareness programme as chief guest and president of Nupi Marup I Ibeni as functional president.

Additional Director of Health Th Biren Singh was the resource person of the awareness programme attended by around 150 women coming from different parts of the State.

 Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi
 

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=Snipp3..270807.aug07

www.hindu.com

Office of Registrar General of India.

160,000 Geese Gassed to death in Germany following Bird-Flu Scare.

German health officials launched the largest ever massacre of poultry following the latest outbreak of the Bird-Flu in that country.

160,000 geese were slaughtered over the weekend, after the deadly bird-flu virus was found in a poultry farm near the Bavarian city of Erlangen.

The cull was ordered after 400 geese were found dead.  

A team of eight vets and poultry workers at the farm in Wachenroth, Bavaria, started what officials called the biggest ever culling operation in Germany late on Saturday.  The birds were placed in three large containers where they were either gassed or electrocuted, officials said after the operation ended on Sunday afternoon.   

Tests by the Friedrich Loeffler Institute of Veterinary Medicine had found the lethal strain of the virus in five of the birds.

A three-kilometer exclusion zone was set up around the farm, near the city of Erlangen which is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Munich, as officials began tracking down the cause of the infection.

Initial reports said the infected animals came from another poultry farm in the northern state of Lower Saxony, but this was later denied.

“We have not been able to pinpoint the source of outbreak,” said Bavarian Health Secretary Otmar Bernhard. Experts are expected to keep trying to determine how the virus entered the farm.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed nearly 200 people in recent years, mainly through direct contact with poultry.

Most of the victims have been in Asia.

There have been no human deaths from bird flu in Europe, where outbreaks were reported recently in several countries, including Germany and the Czech Republic.

Bird flu hit wild birds and some domestic poultry in other parts of Germany this year.

 Wild birds can infect domesticated birds with the highly pathogenic strain and it is feared that it could mutate into a strain that could be transmitted among humans.

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2752566,00.html

goeurope.about.com/…/ss/pope_bavaria_7.htm

www.student.valpo.edu 

A Bird-Flu Funny

Now that the thankfully brief British outbreak of the foot and mouth virus is over, we can think about the funny side of things.   

Here is a Bird-Flu Funny:

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com 

Best-Bird-Flu-Blogs – Tigana’s Blog

Little “Ni Putu” Fights the Bird-Flu while Indonesian Politicians “Haggle” with the WHO.

Another suspected case of human infection with bird flu virus was discovered Friday in Bali, which has been battling the fatal disease since last week.

 

The one-and-a-half-year-old infant, Ni Putu Aprilia Dewi, is being treated at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.

 

So, yet another Indonesian child gets the Bird-Flu.

 

I wish this would stop!

 

During all this time the silly politicians in Indonesia, are “haggling” with the WHO for the tissue samples of the Indonesian  victims of the  Bird-Flu.

 

To them it does not seem to matter that little kids are dying one after the other in their country.

 

Four times Indonesia has agreed to share samples of the bird flu virus with the World Health Organisation.

 

Each time the politicians in Jakarta have reneged on the deal.

 

The World Health Organisation recently singled out Indonesia as the only country in the world not sharing samples of the virus. 

 

 

World Health Organization

David Heymann, the WHO’s assistant director-general for communicable diseases said that he was concerned that by not sharing samples Jakarta was putting its own population at risk.

If the strains were not passed to the pharmaceutical firms, subsequent vaccines would fail to cover elements of the Indonesian infections.

On behalf of little Ni Putu and other children, we request Madam Supari, the Indonesian Health Minister, to please reconsider her policy of withholding the tissue samples, of the growing number of the Bird-Flu fatalities from her country.

 

Siti Fadilah Supari

Indonesian Health Minister

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070824132054&irec=6

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2155166,00.html

 

Brit Bird-Flu Victims to be stored in Tents, hired from a Marquee hire firm

The Brits are preparing for a possible Pandemic.

You know, just in case and all that….

The problem is that local Governments of the Counties of Great Britain have failed to finalise arrangements for an emergency morgues in case of an emergency situation such as a Pandemic.

The county of Lancashire’s dead could be stored in a tent in the event of a disaster because council bosses have no space available in proper morgues.

So as a solution for this, the Lancashire County Hall bosses are turning to a marquee hire firm to provide a super mortuary should disaster strike.

Under the deal, Field and Lawn, which hires out marquees for weddings, will continue to reserve a tent capable of storing 100 bodies.

Facilities for families to view the bodies of loved ones will also be supplied.

The £16,200 12-month retainer is due to be approved by County Coun Anne Brown, of Resources and Performance, on Thursday.

She said: “It does mean that in the event of something terrible happening we will be covered. The structure will be secure and appropriate.

“I hope we never have to use this facility.

“But it is one of the main responsibilities we have in planning for an emergency in the county.”

The council has to have emergency measures in place to deal with a sudden increase in deaths as a result of incidents such as a terrorist atrocity, a pandemic like avian flu or a natural disaster such as drought, flood or long heatwave.

Emergency planners revealed last year that the sports hall and gymnasium at Lancashire Police Headquarters in Hutton would also be used.

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.lep.co.uk/news?articleid=3122320

Third Bird-Flu Death in Bali, as Tourist Arrive in Record Numbers!

The Third Balinese Victim of the deadly Bird-Flu virus.

So soon after the death of the 29-year-old Ni Luh Putu Sri Windani and her Her five-year-old daughter Dian, Bali has yet another human victim of the Bird-Flu virus.

A 28-year-old woman died of suspected bird flu today after undergoing treatment for 36 hours at the Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, Bali.
The victim, from Desa Braban, Kabupaten Tabanan here, died at an isolation ward.

Sanglah Hospital Bird Flu Eradication Chief Dr Putu Andrika said the victim was one of two patients who were treated for suspected H5N1 viral infection.

The condition of another patient, who is 58 years old, is improving but the patient is still under intensive care, he told Antara news agency.

With the latest casualty, bird flu is said to have claimed three lives in the tourist island after the death of a 29-year-old woman and her five-year-old child last Sunday.

Dr Putu however said he was still awaiting a laboratory test to confirm whether the death of the mother and her child last Sunday was due to H5N1 viral infection.

This statement from Dr Putu reported by Bernama, is a bit confusing, as all of the reports at the time had suggested that Dian, the five year old girl had been cremated soon after her death! If that is the case then were some tissue samples were taken before the said cremation?

I wish the Indonesian Government would stop trying  to act like the old Soviet regime, as far as the H5N1 infections in the country are concerned!

Tourists arrive in record numbers in Bali, as the number of human Bird-Flu infections increase!

Nothing about this Bird-Flu virus seems to be clear and simple.

Even as we hear about a further death from the H5N1 virus along with another person infected with the virus under intensive care,  in in Bali, the number of tourists arriving in the Resort Island has reached record numbers.

Preliminary foreign tourist arrival figures for July 2007 record 164,618 visitors to Bali, according to BaliDiscovery.com

The new figures represent a whopping double-digit increase of 34.9 percent ahead of the same month in 2006 and allowing July 2007 to qualify as the “best July on record” for Bali tourism.

According to Bali Discovery, January to July’s 2007 arrivals are nearing the 1 million mark, totaling 910,567, an improvement of 35 percent as compared to the same period in 2006 (674,561).

I guess they are right, when they say that the Gods always smile on this magical island!

Sources:

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=280517

http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=12312_0_1_0_M

http://www.rambutan.org/maps/images/rc_map_bali.gif

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

Why are so many Children Succumbing to the H5N1 Bird Flu?

There may not be a global pandemic of the Flu virus, but it seems that almost every other day, there is yet another human infected with the Bird-Flu virus!

What is more, majority of the victims seem to be young children or teenagers!

Why is that?

Now there is yet another child being treated for suspected bird flu in Indonesia.

There are no obvious reasons for this many of these infections, as in many cases the victims have not even been in contact with infected poultry.

There is some thing really strange going on here guys!

So now Putri Amanda, a two-year-old girl is being treated for suspected bird flu at the Arifin Achmad general hospital in Pekanbaru, Riau.

“She is believed to suffer (from) bird flu based on the results of an x-ray and a laboratory test on her leucocyte,” Dr Azizman Saad SpP, chief of the hospital`s bird flu control team, said on Monday 20th of August.

The girl had developed fever symptoms similar to those of bird flu and has suffered high fever since August 10.

“She is now undergoing bird flu therapy. Her blood sample was sent to Jakarta today,” Dr Azizman Saad said.
Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/8/20/two-year-old-girl-treated-for-suspected-bird-flu/

Picture Credit: Nugi Kota Gadis Alias Madiun, Jawa Timur, Indonesia

Generous Offer from Bird-Flu inflicted Indonesia!

The government of Indonesia has generously agreed to send a bird flu virus sample that has killed a woman in Bali to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A sample of the bird flu virus that killed a woman on Bali has been sent to a World Health Organisation laboratory to allay fears that it has not mutated into human form, Indonesian Health Ministry officials said.

Triono Soendoro, head of the Ministry’s research and development, said the sample had been sent to the WHO laboratory in the United States as a precautionary measure.

“We have sent a sample of the virus from Bali to CDC in Atlanta this week,” he told AFP, referring to the US Government’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

  

Siti Fadilah Supari

Indonesian Health Minister

 

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari was quoted by state-run news agency Antara as saying the Government has sent the sample to convince the international community that the virus has not mutated into a more dangerous form.

Siti Fadilah Supari said that the Bali bird flu sample sharing was necessary to prove that the deadly virus had yet to spread from human to human.

Besides, it was also important to avoid panic in Bali, which is a famous tourist destination in the world, she said.

So nice of Madam Supari to be so considerate about avoiding the panic in the world etc.

All this time we thought that she and her Government were just being inconsiderate, selfish and stubborn, in their policy of refusing to share the tissue samples of their citizens who had died of the deadly Bird-Flu virus, with the WHO.

Seems that we were all very wrong.

Mind you, there are those in Indonesia who believe that there has been increasing amount of opposition to Madam Supari, the Health Minister of Indonesia, from within the Government as well as from the health care profession across the country.

They point out that the above statement from the Health Minister came after the WHO accused Indonesia of putting the world at risk by failing to share its samples, but officials denied the move was in response to pressure.

Some critics of the Health Minister think that the recent Bali outbreak and the world wide negative PR that followed, was the last straw for many in Indonesia.

The result of all of this, they say, was a forced turn around of policy from Madam Supari.

After all who wants to go on a holiday to the country with the highest number of Bird-Flu deaths?

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/17/2008476.htm

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070817172646&irec=6

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

THIRD Indonesian victim of the Bird-Flu in less than a week.

While The Indonesian Government led by Siti Fadilah Supari, the Indonesian Health Minister is endlessly haggling with the world community for its “biological assets” ( the tissue samples from its citizens who have died of the Bird-Flu) the deadly virus keeps on adding to its toll of human fatalities in that unfortunate country.

 

Siti Fadilah Supari

Indonesian Health Minister

Now there is yet another report of a death resulting from the H5N1 virus, this time from near Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

 

A 17-year-old Indonesian teenager identified only as L U, died of the Bird-Flu virus on Tuesday in Tangerang, a satellite city west of the capital, Jakarta.

 

 

The girl, identified only by the initials LU, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Tangerang, Banten province, after developing flu-like symptoms, said Joko Suyanto, an official at the Indonesian Health Ministry’s Bird Flu Information Centre.

 

“It is not clear yet whether she had been in contact with chickens,” he said. “Our team is now in the field finding out.”

Suyanto said the girl began showing symptoms of bird flu on August 3, five days before she was admitted to the hospital. Her condition continued to deteriorate and she died on Tuesday.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO), in a statement confirming the case, reported the girl got sick on Aug 9, was hospitalized Aug 13, and died a day later.

She was from Tangerang, 12 miles west of Jakarta, in Banten province.

The victim’s employer told hospital director Maruzzaman Naim that the girl had only been working for three months in the area.

 

Officials were still investigating how she came in contact with sick fowl.

The death is the “second confirmed from avian influenza” in less than a week in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation. A 29-year-old woman also died of the virus at the weekend on the resort island of Bali.

We believe this Bird-Flu fatality to be the THIRD and not the SECOND in Indonesia, in less than a week however.

This is because the infant daughter of the victim in Bali, who had died of the same symptoms but was cremated before tests could be performed to confirm the virus.

“The 29-year-old woman from Bali was confirmed as dying from the virus, while her five-year-old daughter who died early this month was assumed to have also been infected with it, a health official said. The infant was cremated before samples could be taken for testing to detect H5N1.”

Indonesia has now reported 105 confirmed bird flu cases, with 84 deaths.

 

Sources:

 

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP27675.htm

 

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/94263.html

 

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/aug1607indonesia.html

 

www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8843

 

 

 

India “Surrounded” by Countries with Bird-Flu.

Mr Naresh Dayal, the Federal Health Secretary in the Government of India, worries about  the possibility of the Bird-Flu virus mutating in to a human to human virus.

“Worldwide, human-to-human transmission is feared. We have to be able to tackle that if, God forbid, it starts,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Mr Dayal was very concerned about the fact that the counties neighbouring India seemed to have “uncontrolled” outbreaks of Bird-Flu.

“We are surrounded by countries with uncontrolled outbreaks in poultry and birds,” Dayal told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “And further, there is Vietnam and Indonesia.”                                              

Indonesia and Vietnam — both within a couple of hours flying distance from some Indian cities — have reported human deaths from bird flu this year.

Indonesia says it has 83 confirmed bird flu deaths since 2003, the highest for any nation.

In addition, Myanmar as well as Bangladesh, another two of India’s neighbour countries, have reported cases of Bird-Flu. 

India has stepped up vigil on its borders with Myanmar as well as Bangladesh, said Dayal, adding that New Delhi had offered to help its two neighbours fight the disease.

“We are willing to provide help to Bangladesh. It is also in our own interest,” he said, adding India was also ready to help Myanmar fight the virus if requested.

New Delhi has reported no human case from its three major outbreaks in poultry since 2006, but health officials are worried about its northeast region, which also borders China, where 16 human deaths have been reported since 2003.

Authorities are increasing the number of laboratories that can test for bird flu in humans.

Besides the three existing facilities, New Delhi will set up a new laboratory in Assam as well as Kolkata, Dayal said.

Sources:

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-28974620070814

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6392773.stm

http://www.oxfam.org.au/world/asia/asiamap.gif

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

Bird-Flu kills Two in Bali-a Neighbour is Hospitalised

Ni Luh Putu Sri Windiani, a 29 year old Indonesian woman and her five-year-old daughter Dian have died of bird flu, on the tourist island of Bali, a Health Ministry official confirmed today, bringing the nation’s toll to 83.

The latest Bird-Flu related deaths could be a problem for Bali, the last remaining Hindu region of Indonesia, which is the most popular tourist venue in the country.

Indonesia’s National Bird Flu Control Committee confirmed that 29-year-old Ni Luh Putu Sri Windani, who died in Bali’s Sanglah hospital in Denpasar late on Sunday, was positive to bird flu.

The 29-year-old woman from the northwest of the island, far from the major tourist centres, died on Sunday, while her daughter died on August 3, said Bayu Krisnamurti, head of Indonesia’s national bird flu commission.

“Both people are positive, from (tests at) the Eikman Institute and the health ministry’s lab,” he told a press briefing.

She was brought to the hospital three days earlier suffering pneumonia-like symptoms.

Her five-year-old daughter Dian, died on August 3 at a local hospital with similar symptoms.

However, her death was not linked to to bird flu and no tests were done.

It was only when the mother died from confirmed H5N1 that the authorities decided to re examine the cause of death for the daughter.

Obviously, this raises suspicions that there could well be many similar unreported deaths from the Bird-flu virus in Indonesia.

Chickens owned by a neighbour of the dead woman had previously died and have tested positive to the virus.

A two-year-old girl called Kadek Putria, a neighbour of the victims, is under observation in Sanglah Hospital with similar symptoms.

Officials said the Balinese bird flu victim came from a village in the north-west district of Jembrana, an area where poultry are known to be affected.

Health official Joko Suyono said there had been sick chickens around the woman’s house and many had died suddenly in recent weeks.

“The villagers didn’t burn the carcasses. Instead they buried them or fed them to pigs,” he said.

Kadek Putri, 2, with her mother in Sanglah Hospital,

Denpasar, yesterday. Picture: Lukman Bintoro / The Daily Telegraph

Sources:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22239424-5006009,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6943721.stm

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10457527

http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com 

Scientists Create “artificial” Human Bird-Flu Virus!

Scientists have mutated a protein of the H5N1 virus to identify changes which could make the virus capable of passing between humans.

Even an artificial Bird-Flu virus, which could infect humans easily, is really scary at this time.

What with all the goings on at the Pirbright Research laboratory, in Surrey, England, which is said to be linked to the recent Foot-And-Mouth outbreak in the UK.

An initial, report from the Government investigators into the outbreak in Surrey England says, that humans are to blame for carrying the foot and mouth virus from laboratories in Pirbright.

The initial report from the Health and Safety Executive says there is a “strong probability” that the origin was either the government-funded Institute of Animal Health laboratory or the commercial Merial facility, which share the same site.

Both were working on the strain involved in the farm outbreak, although Merial was producing it in large quantities while the IAH was using tiny amounts for research. So you see  what I mean?Very scary stuff this!

Any way, they are saying that this “artificial” human H5N1 virus could help find a real solution for the Bird-Flu problem so fingers crossed hope every thing would be OK.

Here is an excerpt from the news item via SciDev: 

Scientists have mutated a protein of the H5N1 virus to identify changes which could make the virus capable of passing between humans.

The findings are reported by Yang Zhi-Yong and colleagues in the 10 August issue of Science.

Scientists believe that for the H5N1 virus to spread among humans, a mutation must occur in the protein spikes on its surface, known as haemagglutinin (HA).

Scientists at the United States’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) created specific mutations in the RBD of H5N1 and then tested the ability of the mutated RBD structure to recognise bird and human cells.

Rather than using real H5N1 virus, the researchers altered the RBD of HA protein in artificial forms of the virus –– called pseudoviruses –– which do not cause disease but are otherwise a good model of H5N1.

The researchers believe the method can guide the development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies “that can be evaluated before the emergence of human-adapted H5N1 strains”.

“There is no guarantee that we will find the precise mutations needed to adapt to human [cells], but we can be prepared for most of them and there are probably a limited number of ways the virus can adapt to recognise the receptor [of human cells],” corresponding author Gary J. Nabel of NIAID told SciDev.Net.

He adds that new virus variants made in the study could be used to generate vaccine stocks against possible H5N1 virus mutants.

Dong Xiaoping of the Institute of Virology who chairs China’s ongoing development of human H5N1 vaccine, at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control welcomed the study.

Diagram of an influenza virus (Paul Digard)

Sources:

http://www.scidev.net

www.nwabr.org/…/WB_SC_Rimbakusumo/wworks.html

edition.cnn.com/…/?iref=mpstoryview

www.birdflubeakingnews.com

Back-to-the-Future for Bird-Flu Vaccines

The problem with all of the currently produced vaccines for the H5N1 virus is, that they may not protect us when we need them the most.

There is no guaranty, that the vaccines in production now, would provide any protection what so ever against the Pandemic Flu virus, if and when there is one.

Influenza viruses constantly mutate, however, and vaccines are most effective against the highly specific strains that they are made from.

This makes it difficult to predict how effective a vaccine made today will be against a virus that emerges tomorrow.

The vaccines produced for one strain of the virus, may not be effective against the mutated new version of the same virus. 

In order for the current Bird-Flu (H5N1) virus to mutate in to a human pandemic virus, it would have to have substantial changes to its structure.

Any vaccines produced for the current H5N1 virus therefore, would most probably, not be effective against the mutated human pandemic virus.

                    

Because of the above, I have always believed that the effort and money being spent in the production and the storage of the vaccines for the H5N1 virus, such as Tamiflu, is a real waste of resources.

     

Now however things may be different if the a team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) -a part of National Institutes of Health (NIH), succeeds in their project.

Led by Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIAID’s Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC), the team is reporting in the August 10, 2007 issue of the journal Science that they have developed a strategy to generate vaccines and therapeutic antibodies that could target predicted H5N1 mutants before these viruses evolve naturally.

“What Dr. Nabel and his colleagues have discovered will help to prepare for a future threat,” says NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.  “While nobody knows if and when H5N1 will jump from birds to humans, they have come up with a way to anticipate how that jump might occur and ways to respond to it.”

According to Dr. Nabel, their findings should contribute to better surveillance of naturally occurring avian flu outbreaks by making it easier to recognize dangerous mutants and identify vaccine candidates that might provide greater efficacy against such a virus before it emerges.

 Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/aug2007/niaid-09.htm

www3.niaid.nih.gov/Biodefense/Research/rbl.htm

www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/kids/html/vaccines.htm

“Virus Research Laboratories could become a target for bio terrorists”

No one seems to be owning up as a source of the recent Foot and Mouth outbreak in the UK.

The Official Rreport published on Tuesday in the UK however, suggests that it is very likely that the Laboratory researching the Foot and Mouth virus near the location of the outbreak is the source of the current outbreak.

What is more alarming, is the fact that the report also suggests that the current outbreak is the result of “human action”, either accidental or deliberate! 

Research into a range of potentially fatal diseases such as CJD – the human form of mad cow disease, avian flu, bluetongue and many more, are also handled by the  laboratories under suspicion as the source of the recent outbreak of foot- and-mouth disease.

Dr Ian Gibson, the former Labour chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology, called last night for an urgent review of security at British labs.

“The possibility of a release of the virus from a lab is very worrying. We did a report on biological terrorism and visited the US. There is a real fear that these viruses could fall into the wrong hands. There should be an immediate review of security of British labs.”

The Institute of Animal Health (IAH) lab is carrying out research on diseases including the highly dangerous variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, avian flu, bluetongue, African horse sickness and salmonella in addition to foot-and-mouth disease.

One of its fears is that the labs could become a target for “bio terrorists” who could release a virus to attack the economy.

There are at least 36 other labs licensed to deal with dangerous pathogens in nthe UK.

DEFRA, (the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) refused to disclose their locations, saying that it was “too dangerous”.

Alarm about the safety of British labs has been raised by fears that security at the IAH plant or the next-door laboratory run by the US-based private company, Merial, has been breached.

Professor Martin Shirley, the head of the The Institute of Animal Health , blamed the lack of proper funding.

“We’re trying to deliver a Rolls-Royce service for surveillance in the UK, but really we are being funded more and more at the level of a Ford Cortina.” he said.

Sources:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2841350.ece

http://www.defra.gov.uk/

www.iah.ac.uk/

Weird Australian Flu, Kills yet another Child.

It is not Bird-Flu as we know it.

Nor is it the “Normal Flu” as we know it.

A strange kind of Flu has been killing people (mostly children) in Australia.

Health authorities have confirmed that a five-year-old boy from Melbourne’s south-east had the flu when he died yesterday.

Ethan Ioannou, who was found by his mother yesterday morning in the family home in Berwick, had type A influenza, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services said this afternoon.

A four-year-old boy died in a Brisbane hospital of suspected influenza earlier this month.

Three children died last month in Western Australia after suffering secondary bacterial infections after contracting a common flu strain.

Experts are divided on the seriousness of the influenza outbreak which may have already claimed the life of a five-year-old Melbourne boy this week.

Virology professor Greg Tannock said a mutation in the virus was a possible cause of the increased reports of flu.

Flu ‘mutation’ possible

Mutations, which occur often, mean that people who had received flu shots were still vulnerable.

“Manufacturers are always behind the eight-ball, because it just changes. All vaccines are made on what was around the previous northern winter,” he said.

“If a sudden change occurs, all the previous immunity, that’s all the previous vaccines, are much less relevant.”

Major vaccine producer CSL conceded the flu vaccine is unable to protect people against new strains.

“We do tailor the vaccines very specifically to the strains in circulation at any one time but the flu vaccine is roughly 70 per cent effective because there’s always a chance that a strain can begin to be spread which is not included in the vaccine,” spokeswoman Rachel David said.

Ian Barr from the World Health Organisation said this year’s flu season was “much more intense season than” than in the past few years.

‘No sign of outbreak’

However, the state government’s Department of Human Services said its records showed no sign of an outbreak.

The strain causing concerns is likely to be H1, which has not been seen in large numbers for three years, Dr Barr said. The strain is combining with the more common H3 variety.

“It’s a little bit unusual to have two strains circulating so widely concurrently.”

DHS has described this winter’s flu as “normal seasonal activity”.

Spokesman Bram Alexander said the department had received 260 notifications of influenza, up from 245 at this time last year but down from 428 in 2005.

Australian Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment members wearing protective face masks,

working as flu doctors in Sydney, 1918. Photo: Australian War Memorial

Sources:

www.birdflubreakingnews.com

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/experts-divided-on-deadly-flu/2007/08/08/1186530424721.html

whyfiles.org/230birdflu2/index.php?g=6.txt

www.uoregon.edu/~mross3/

Much More Bird-Flu in Indonesia, than we know of!

While the Government of Indonesia is busy “negotiating” with the World Health Organisation for its “National Assests” (the tissue samples of its citizens who have died from the H5N1 virus), the Bird-Flu virus is raging all over the unfortunate country, killing millions of birds, some mammals and more humans than any where else.

Siti Fadilah Supari

Indonesian Health Minister

Now we learn that the Bird-Flu situation in Indonesia, is even worse than we thought it was!

Heru Setijanto, a veterinarian with the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, warned that the bird flu cases could be the tip of the iceberg.

“Chickens die everywhere. The problem is the deaths are not always reported,” he said.

Heru conceded there were shortages of veterinarians in the field as nationwide there were only 200 animal health posts.

“Half of the posts are not functioning.” Ideally, each district should have an animal health post overseen by a veterinarian, Heru said.

Avian influenza has killed no less than 500,000 chicken in Greater Jakarta in the last six months but not all outbreaks are reported to the health authority

Roeslan Isdhianto said Tuesday the data was collected from 10 poultry farmers — all of whom own 100-200 chickens on average — in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi.

The Bogor-based veterinarian said the farmers had told him cases were not being detected by the health authority because there was a shortage of field officers.

Roeslan said the government had taken the wrong approach to vaccinating birds.

“The government doesn’t have a firm stance in its vaccination policy,” Roeslan said as quoted by Antara.

“At present, there are 15 kinds of vaccine for the three AI subtypes of H5N1, H5N2 and H5N9. The government hasn’t clearly ruled which of the three is most suitable for our AI cases here,” he said.

Roeslan said none of the vaccines on the market had been properly evaluated.

“Monitoring and evaluating the performance of the vaccines already in use is important,” he said.

In January, bird flu outbreaks were reported in 43 subdistricts of Bogor. However, due to a lack of monitoring, there have been no reports on whether the areas are now “disease free”.

Sources:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20070808.H04&irec=3

www.essex.ac.uk 

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/november9/gifs/flu.jpg

Another person dies of H5N1, in a “Bird-Flu-Free” Province of Vietnam

 Vietnamese boy dies of bird flu  

 07/08/2007  The National Department of Preventative Health announced Tuesday, that Thanh Hoa province’s 15-year-old Cao Trong Toan died en route to Hanoi from the northern province for emergency treatment. 

On the 19th of last month, the patient’s family bought 20 geese to raise at home.Three days later all the geese had died and Toan developed a high fever. 

 

So another Vietnamese person, this time a 15 years old boy, has died.

The boy died in the province of Thanh Hoa.

The thing is, that Thanh Hoa was one of the provinces which had been confirmed by the Government of Vietnam, as a Bird-Flu-Free province only yesterday!

Please see the following: VietNamNet Bridge  reports the following today, 07/08/2007 :

Nation reins in bird flu, only three provinces still affected

Only three provinces across the nation remain infected by bird flu, dropping from a peak of 18 provinces struggling with the virus in May, said the Department of Animal Health yesterday.

The affected provinces include Dien Bien in the north, Quang Binh in the centre and Dong Thap in the south. Authorities said Quang Binh was well on the way to dropping off the list of bird flu-affected provinces, which will be achieved after being free of the virus for 21 days.According to the department, 63 out of 64 cities and provinces have completed or are implementing the first round of vaccination against bird flu in 2007. More than 160mil poultry have been vaccinated around the country.

Sources;

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2007/08/727015/ 

http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=30773  

Indonesia compromising global efforts against Bird-Flu pandemic” WHO

Indonesia has the dubious honour of being the country with the largest number of human fatalities resulting from the H5N1 virus.

Siti Fadilah Supari

Indonesian Health Minister

Laboratories in various part of the world are working hard to develop one or more vaccines against the current strain of the Bird-Flu virus which has shown itself to be fatal not only to birds but also to humans.

Influenza vaccines have to be reformulated every year to match the circulating strains because the virus mutates often.

The world Health organisation has been coordinating the efforts of all of these Bio Labs and has received tissue samples from the persons who have died of the H5N1 virus, from all the effected countries.

All of the effected countries have provided the tissue samples accept from Indonesia.

Indonesia maintains that if it provided “Indonesia’s” tissue samples, then it should have some kind of proprietary rights over the vaccines that are developed from the said samples.

Indonesia has complained that poor nations would not be able to afford vaccines being developed, earlier this year refused to share virus samples with the WHO unless it had guarantees they would not be used commercially.

Over the last year, Indonesia has been haggling with the world community, via the WHO for the “value” of its tissue samples.

Time and again Indonesia agrees to send its tissue samples over to the WHO and then it reneges on its promise to do so. 

“Indonesia has yet to provide usable samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus to the World Health Organisation, compromising international efforts to prepare for a pandemic”, a top WHO official said on Monday.

David Heymann, assistant director-general for communicable diseases at the U.N. agency, said the three specimens Jakarta sent in May, which came from two humans infected with the deadly influenza strain, contained fragments but no live virus.

While it later agreed to ship specimens under a deal with the Geneva-based agency meant to improve access to vaccines, Heymann said Indonesia had not shared any virus samples since the three unusable ones were shipped in May.

Indonesia is now the only country that has not shared samples of H5N1 that drugmakers can use to develop vaccines. Heymann said this raised global pandemic risks, given that vaccines now being developed cannot protect against the virus mutations that proved lethal there.

“Indonesia is aware of these issues and is working with WHO … to see how they can best begin sharing again,” he said. “We are hoping that that will begin fairly soon.”

In the mean time people from all over the world (more from Indonesia than any where else) are dying from this killer virus, while Indonesia “negotiates” with the WHO!

Sources:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L63164.htm

150 wild birds died of H5N1 in Germany in the past few weeks.

The Bavarian mountains, lakes and forests in the South of Germany, including the famous Black Forest, is one of the most beautiful regions of Europe.

This is also the area in Germany, where the Bird-Flu virus has been found in its domestic poultry as well as in its wild bird population.

Last week, three ducks were found dead near Speichersee, a lake to the northeast of Munich.

Two out of three ducks found dead there, were confirmed to have been carrying the H5N1 virus.

The surrounding area is being searched for any other dead birds.

It is reported that many more wild birds have been found dead of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Germany.

The Bavarian Police said that the restrictions on movement had been put in place around the Speichersee lake, east of Munich.

 

Press reports said around 14 other birds had also been found dead in the area, but it was not known if they were infected with the virus, which is potentially deadly to humans.

More than 150 wild birds have died of H5N1 in southern and eastern Germany in the past few weeks.

Domestic poultry was found to have been infected with the H5N1 virus last month in Germany.

The disease was found in a smallholding in the eastern state of Thueringen.

It was the first time this year that the highly pathogenic strain of avian flu had been found among domestic birds in Germany.

Scientists have suggested it could have jumped the border from the neighbouring Czech Republic where it has infected poultry on large turkey and chicken farms.

A number of countries have banned poultry exports from Germany, which battled a widespread bird flu epidemic in 2006. The disease spread to mammals last year, infecting three cats and a marten.

Sources:

www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070804173337.96uzg981&cat=science

student.valpo.edu

bicyclegermany.com/tours.htm

Mystery Death In Uzbekistan, Food Poisoning or Bird-Flu?

People of Uzbekistan love a wedding.

The wedding parties, with a whole lot of eating, drinking and merry making, can last for days.

The guests at a party held recently in the town of Asaka, in Andijan Region however, are anything but happy.

It seems that a dish prepared from chicken drumsticks at a wedding party in Asaka has made about 40 people very ill.

One of the unfortunate guests who had consumed the chicken drumsticks, has reportedly died.

Only one case of death has been made public so far.

The effected persons are being cared at the Asaka town hospital.

In order to take all the poisoned people, the administration of the Asaka town hospital had to organise additional beds.

A doctor, who is looking after the patients, said that the symptoms of their illness were similar to those of bird flu.

“It is not clear what actually happened here in Asaka” said the doctor.

“It is still a mystery” he said.

 

Sources:

http://uznews.net/index.php?lng=uz

centros.edu.aytolacoruna.es/…/uzbekistan.htm

www.wmin.ac.uk