Pandemic News/Awareness.

indigo girl · Mar 30, 2007

About the recent Chinese mortality, the source of infection remains unknown. Infectious diseases do not exist in a vacuum. As this article points out, most of the time, poultry are considered to be the source. That does not seem to be the case in China, and that is cause for concern. The WHO spokesperson does seem to be troubled by this also. So what is going on in China?

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=73521&postcount=16

This is the 23rd out of 24 human outbreaks in China where we weren't forewarned by a poultry outbreak," Joanna Brent, the World Health Organisation spokeswoman in Beijing, told the AFP news agency.
Health officials said the boy had no history of contact with dead or sick birds, while no outbreaks of the virus among animals had been reported in the province.
In most cases elsewhere around the world, the disease has been traced to either an outbreak amongst animals or contact between the victim and dead or sick animals, Brent said.
In the light of the latest case she urged Chinese officials to strengthen monitoring and surveillance of bird flu among animals.
"This is not consistent with what we are seeing around the world," she said.

indigo girl · Mar 30, 2007

Here is an abstract discussing a reason why children may be more susceptible to avian flu infection. Basically, they are saying that with kids the receptors for avian flu are present in the upper airway making it easier for them to be infected. In adults, it is lower airway.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/356/13/1375

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/356/13/1375]
...higher incidence rates in children may represent age-dependent differences in host susceptibility to H5N1 virus infection. Human infection is mediated by a receptor recognized by avian influenza (2,3-linked sialic acid) that is expressed in the lower respiratory tract.3 In children this receptor may be expressed in the upper airway, increasing the risk of infection. Indeed, 2,3-linked sialic acids are homogeneously distributed in the human fetal lung, and the expression of the receptor appears to decrease with age.4

indigo girl · Mar 30, 2007

Bangladesh trying to contain the avian flu virus in its poultry farms:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=73775&postcount=45

The district livestock administration has sealed off all 174 chicken farms and placed restrictions on transport of poultry products at Bandar upazila of Narayanganj following detection of bird flu at four local farms.

indigo girl · Mar 31, 2007

Two more Egyptian children test positive for H5N1 infection. Considering that there has been such an increase in cases in this country recently, one might conclude that the disease is becoming more readily transmissible, or at least this particular strain seems to be. This remains unproven. And, the recent cases have all survived so far indicating a milder strain.

What happens when this possibly more transmissible milder strain infects a host that also has been infected with a Tamiflu resistant strain or one that contains M2301? This is a serious concern.

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/03/egypt-two-more-children-test-positive.html

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31663265.htm[/url'>
The Health Ministry identified the children as 4-year-old Ibrahim Mahmoud Helmy of Qena province, around 670 kilometres (416 miles) south of Cairo, and 7-year-old Mahmoud Mohamed Shalaby of Sohag province, around 467 kilometres south of Cairo.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) official confirmed the two new cases.
Both cases were admitted to hospital on Thursday suffering from fevers after exposure to poultry, and both have been treated with the antiviral Tamiflu, the standard treatment for the symptoms of the disease, according to the statement.
Both were in stable condition and had been transferred to hospital in Cairo, it added.

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03250701/H5N1_Aswan_3.html

In Egypt, five of the fatal H5N1 (cases) had an HA sequence with M230I.

http://www.curevents.com/vb/showpost.php?p=703775&postcount=1

indigo girl · Mar 31, 2007

Some Canadian prisons have a pandemic plan with six weeks worth of stored food. Their plan includes sequestering the staff also. I am trying to imagine being forced to stay at work for 6 weeks.

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/03/canadian-prisons-plan-for-pandemic.html

indigo girl · Mar 31, 2007

The situation in Kuwait:

http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2007/03/kuwait_stays_on.html

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=OTk2ODMyMTc4[/url]
"We already have over 65 teams comprising 400 employees working on fighting the virus and burying all the infected birds in a large trench," adding, "over 1.1 million birds have already been buried."

CRNI-ICU20 · Apr 1, 2007

Indigo Girl,

Do you get ANY of your information from any OTHER source than blogs?

indigo girl · Apr 1, 2007

The answer is, that I do NOT use blogs exclusively. Anyone who has read these flu threads would know that MANY of the sources include govt websites, interviews or quotes from the leading virologists etc. It is deliberately misleading to imply that only blogs are used. Why try to set me up to defend an untrue implication? The readers of this thread can see that there are other many other sources here that clearly are not blogs.

That said, when I do choose to use flu forums they provide links to news articles or some other source. And, I do frequently also use blogs that also provide links to foreign news articles or another source such as health ministeries . This is deliberate on my part. There are many ways to provide the same information. I could use the original source, and sometimes I do.

Here is why. If a news link has broken or been removed, that blogger or flu forum has captured that information already so that the information is not lost. I think that this is, for me, the best reason of all

to make use of the blogs. Example, there was a recent link on crofsblog to a letter to the editor that a person in Bangladesh wrote detailing their concern with the situation in Bangladesh. News links frequently disappear, and that one did, but we know which newspaper, and when the letter was published, because crofsblog had documented it. And, we know at least some of what was said because he documented most of that also. I have had people complain to me in the past that links no longer worked when I only provided news links. The information, hopefully is saved now because I purposely use the forums or these blogs that provide links to where their source of information came from. Many of these sites also have the info archived. It is my intention that this information be preserved because I believe that it is important.

Another problem with some news sites is that the reader has to subscribe. Most people are not going to want to go thru the hassle of doing so. If the forum or blog has captured the info, and is saying where it came from, then I would use it.

Sometimes I will use a blog such as Avian Flu Diary, simply because he writes well, and can explain concepts simply. Generally, he will also provide a clear link to where the information is coming from.

In other words, NOTHING is coming out of thin air. You can read the blog, and link to the source. Got it? The blogger's source is ALWAYS very discernible. And, they give you information about the blogger something that was impossible with the lamecherry blog that you provided, BTW which provided NO links (as in nada) to any sources.

indigo girl · Apr 1, 2007

A 4 year old Egptian girl diagnosed with H5N1 yesterday. Why such an upswing of cases in Egypt?

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/03/egypt-3rd-child-reported-infected-today.html

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/01042007/323/four-year-old-girl-32nd-case-bird-flu-egypt.html

CRNI-ICU20 · Apr 1, 2007

do you consider blogs evidenced based and factual?

indigo girl · Apr 1, 2007

do you consider blogs evidenced based and factual?

Again, I am using well sourced blogs as well as forums that provide links to news articles or another source. They are not the original source But, the original source is ALWAYS provided by the forum or blog that I am using. Despite these repeated but untrue implications, there are many different types of sources in these panflu threads.

When I do use any blogs, my reasons for doing so I have already stated quite clearly, and You can link to the source for the information when you read the blog or forum post, or I would not be using them to preserve this information.

And, I also use the media and the websites of international organizations such as the WHO, and source the foreign heath ministries of the affected countries. I would appreciate getting the facts straight about my sources instead of using an ad hominen tu quoque tactic.

Implying again that these threads contain no govt websites, no scientific abstracts, no data from Genbank, or any of the other myriad other types of sources is a misleading tactic. Why bother? The readers are not blind.

indigo girl · Apr 1, 2007

WHO update on the three latest Egyptian cases. Two of them are siblings. They do not mention the little girl just diagnosed:

http://www.emro.who.int/csr/ai_303132_1_04_07.htm