H5N1, Bird Flu Updates - Page 16

malili – avian influenza or bird flu h5n1 attacked kabupaten (municipal) luwu timur, south sulawesi. at least twenty-four thousand birds in nine sub-districts, kecamatan wotu, burau, tomoni, mangkutana, tomoni timur, kalaena, malili, angkona and wasuponda had been infected.

so far, the virus is not transmitted to human.

the newshounds on flutrackers are watching reports out of indonesia today on 8 people with flu-like symptoms in the region (pinrang) where thousands of chickens recently died from the h5n1 bird flu (see a bad week for indonesian chickens).

reports like these usually end up being something other than bird flu – since seasonal flu, along with many other illnesses – can produce similar symptoms.

still, human cases and even clusters have occurred in indonesia in the past, and so reports like these are taken seriously by local health officials and are watched closely by the rest of the world.

The situation in Indonesia over night appears to be evolving, but `into what’ isn’t easy to say.

The headline – if it can be trusted – is that the number of people being `monitored’ with flu-like symptoms in the area where thousands of birds have recently died has grown to 18.

But exactly what criteria is being used to decide who to monitor, and how seriously ill any-or-all of them are is difficult to determine.

In contrast to the swine flu, which killed only 1 out of every 2,000 people who got it, the avian flu kills about 3 out of 5.

Since 2003, there have been 508 cases around the world, with 302 deaths. Only three countries — Indonesia, Egypt and Vietnam — have reported more than one or two a year recently. It is more often found in poultry flocks.

The government in Indonesia recently released details of two deaths. One was a 35-year-old Jakarta man who died after 11 days despite prompt hospitalization. The second was a 40-year-old woman who died a week after falling ill. For unknown reasons, a greater percentage die of the flu in Indonesia than elsewhere.

Japan will cull about 20,000 chickens at a farm in the western prefecture of Shimane after the country’s first case of avian influenza since 2009 was discovered by the government today.

The government has asked the farm operator, which also raises about 3,300 chicks, not to move the birds out of the area to contain the disease, Yuji Kawakami at Shimane Prefecture’s livestock office said today by phone. The owner of the egg- laying chicken farm in Yasugi city found five dead birds yesterday, he said.

The government has asked farms within a radius of 10 kilometers from the Yasugi farm not to move birds, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

For the first time in more than a year, Japan yesterday announced the detection of what they believe to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus on their soil.

While early PCR testing showed H5N1, final laboratory confirmation is still awaited.

Today, the Mainichi Daily News is reporting that in the face of this latest outbreak, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has ordered officials to do everything in their power to prevent the further spread of the virus.

On November 22nd, a 21-year-old woman from West Java, Indonesia was admitted to Hasan Sadikin (RSHS) hospital with serious respiratory symptoms, and was almost immediately placed on a ventilator.

The tentative diagnosis was possible H5N1, or bird flu, infection. Laboratory tests were ordered to either confirm, or rule out, the virus (see Bandung, Indonesia: Bird Flu Suspect).

Twelve days later, and after multiple laboratory tests (results undisclosed), the young woman remains on a ventilator (although somewhat improved) and doctors are still unable to say whether she has the H5N1 virus.

quietly, although not secretly, egypt tests thousands of people with flu-like symptoms each year for the h5n1 virus.

of the more than 11,800 people tested since 2006, only 113 have tested positive. and of those, 37 have died.

cairo, dec 4 (kuna) -- egypt on saturday announced the 10th bird flu fatality this year for a 30-year-old women northern the capital.