The H5N1 strain of influenza - often referred to as bird flu - is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans in 1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected. Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the potential to kill billions.
Flu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks.The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to persist.
But sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to.
KOMNAS is the site for the Indonesian National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness. Muhamad Nabi was the most recent bird flu fatality, and an administrative employee of a hospital, a fact that is troubling in itself since no source has been identified for his infection.
MN had shown symptoms of fever, breathing difficulties, leucopenia (a decrease in the number of white blood cells), thrombositopenia (a decrease in the number of platelets in the blood) and pneumonia (an infection of the lung that causes respiration problems ).
Indonesia now records 113 human cases of bird flu, 91 of them are fatal.
The description of symptoms is beginning to sound routine in these reports.
Yes, but they are not mentioning all of his symptoms, i.e. the seizures, and
diarrhea. At any rate, all of the above is cause for concern if this is what
...As noted in the earlier report, the victim had no recent contact with poultry and was on the administrative staff at the hospital in Duri, where he and his neighbor were initially treated.
Confirmation of H5N1 in a health care worker is cause for concern because such infections signal a more efficient transmission and may signal more unreported cases at the Duri hospital.
The department said the turkeys had tested positive for the H5 strain of the disease. It was not yet known whether it was the deadly H5NI strain, which has killed dozens of people around the world.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a 3 kilometer (2 mile) protection zone had been set up around a farm in Diss, northeast of London, and all birds on the premises would be slaughtered.
"Thousands of turkeys are due to be slaughtered after an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in Diss, Norfolk.
Some 5,000 birds are expected to be culled after the H5 strain of the virus was discovered at the premises."
The above comments suggest that H5N1 has re-emerged in England. Although H5N1 has not been confirmed in the above report, the size of the cull and the establishment of an exclusion zone suggest the H5 will be the Qinghai (clade 2.2) strain of H5N1. Media reports indicate the farm has turkeys, ducks, and geese, further establishing a link with wild birds.
The outbreak of bird flu killing turkeys at a UK farm has been confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus...
Redgrave Park is said to have received no deliveries that could have brought in infected poultry for four weeks. Scientists point out that enough H5N1 to infect turkeys could be brought into a barn by someone who has walked in infected bird droppings.
The source of the virus might be clearer when its genetic sequence is determined, as this will show which other viruses it is most closely related to. "The initial sequence data suggests that it's closely related to outbreaks in the Czech Republic and Germany," says the UK's acting chief veterinary officer, Fred Landeg. This, "does suggest a possible wild bird source", he adds.
Redgrave Park farm is located very close to a large ornamental lake used by wild birds, and is four kilometres from a wetlands nature reserve.
The reserve, England's largest remaining river fen, is internationally protected under the RAMSAR treaty on wetlands and home to several endangered species. It also harbours several species of dabbling duck, which would have flown into the area from breeding grounds in Siberia over the past two months.
Autumn is when the ducks, which can carry H5N1 with no symptoms, are most likely to be carrying bird flu.
An investigation...is being conducted by government veterinary experts, amid fears that the H5N1 virus has already spread to two nearby farms within the 1.9mile (3km) protection zone.
There is now concern that 45,000 free-range geese may be infected. An immediate cull will be ordered if there is any evidence there have been “dangerous contacts” between flocks and farms, Fred Landeg, the acting Chief Veterinary Officer, said yesterday.
...despite Government warnings of the high risk of avian flu transmission during the spring and autumn migration periods, the free-range birds were not kept away from wild birds at an ornamental lake on the farm.
...a brisk cottage industry in Indonesia -- and duplicated across Asia -- is the raising of a certain species of swallow called the "Edible-nest swiftlet."
The Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia fuciphaga is found throughout S E Asia and is renowned for the fact that the birds’ nests are used for making bird’s nest soup. During the breeding season, the salivary glands of this species expand to produce the special saliva for binding detritus together for building the nest, which is a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. Nests which are ‘white’ and made purely or almost purely of saliva - like those of the Edible-nest Swiftlets above - are the most valued.
... both the WHO and Pro-Med are reporting that the focus of the investigation is the presence of a swiftlet in the immediate vicinity of the dead 31-year old healthcare worker.
..Identification of the source of his infection is ongoing and includes investigation into a large swallow farm in close proximity to the case's house.
My stomach is feeling queasy just reading about this...
Yes, people actually do consume the nests as an ingredient in soups.
Britain's farm ministry, battling to fight the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu, said on Wednesday it would cull poultry at four more sites as a precaution.
... to prevent any potential spread of the disease," Acting Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said, adding there were no confirmed cases at the four premises.
The ministry began on Tuesday to cull about 6,000 birds at the Redgrave Park farm near Diss, Norfolk in eastern England where the virus has been confirmed.
Redgrave Poultry, which runs the small organic farm where the outbreak has been confirmed, said it also operated the four other sites...Stone House Farm in West Harling, Bridge Farm in Pulham, Grove Farm in Botesale and Hill Meadow in Knetishall. All the farms share the same staff.
"Each farm is too small for a dedicated staff, so a small team of people run this cluster of farms," it said in a statement, adding in total 22,000 free range turkeys will be culled at the 4 additional premises.
Of course, all of the workers and the cullers have been offered Tamiflu.
The lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected at a poultry farm in Saudi Arabia and 50,000 birds have been culled, the agriculture ministry announced on Wednesday.
It said tests were carried out after 1,500 birds died in a farm of the Al-Kharj region, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Riyadh.
All the birds on the farm were subsequently culled and the area disinfected, with measures taken to ensure other farms in the area were not affected, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
Govt planners, and those that direct our emergency health response would
do well to understand the importance of preparing us to deal with outbreaks
in this country.
It won't be just emergency responders that will be working and taking
care of flu victims in a pandemic situation. It is unrealistic to think that
mass numbers of victims will only be treated in hospitals. They should be preparing all nurses
and other HCW in all kinds of facilities, not just hospitals and soon.
What we do and how well we are prepared to do it, is the key to saving more lives.
...researchers were reviewing how Turkey handled an outbreak that killed four people in 2006 -- the first human victims reported outside China and Southeast Asia after the H5N1 bird flu strain re-emerged in 2003.
The rapid response overcame the impact of nervous health-care workers who felt ill-prepared to deal with the outbreak and poor coordination between human and animal health services, the researchers reported in the journal BioMed Central Public Health.
In their study, the researchers interviewed health workers -- including doctors, nurses and officials -- who were actively involved in dealing with the outbreak.
They concluded that poor organisation concerning emergency disease plans in the event of a bird flu outbreak and a lack of training left health workers unprepared.
Fears about their own and their families' health also affected how workers responded, underscoring the need to communicate risks to front-line workers, the researchers said.
Another major problem was poor coordination between animal and health services that hindered the initial detection of a human bird flu case and stymied the search for the original infection, they said.
Despite these shortcomings, the rapid response from central and regional health authorities and the performance of health workers helped prevent more deaths and contained the outbreak.
"...the rapid response and performance of the health workers played an important role in controlling the epidemic," the researchers wrote.
...the entire stock of three poultry farms outside the capital had been culled due to an outbreak of bird flu, the official SPA news agency said.
The ministry said in a statement that all birds in the three farms west and south of Riyadh were culled, but gave no figures.
"It is almost certain that migrant birds are the source of the disease," the ministry said.
On Wednesday, the ministry had announced that 50,000 birds were culled at a poultry farm in Al-Kharj, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Riyadh, after the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected there.
But the virus was later detected at two other farms, about 80 kilometres west of the capital.
Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghnaim was quoted as saying earlier Friday that around 90,000 chickens had been lost at the two western farms.
The lack of symptoms in the positive birds increases the likelihood of detecting H5N1 in the other two farms as well as adjacent farms, because the infections were recent and birds, including waterfowl, have not developed symptoms.
The sequence of the positives point toward a wild bird source because they are similar to wild bird H5N1 from the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and linked to wild bird isolates from Uva Lake in Mongolia which died during a massive outbreak in Mongolia and Tyva in the summer of 2006. Moreover, no evidence of bird flu was found at the Netherlands hatchery which had provided chicks to the owners of the infected turkeys.
The General Department for Animal Resources (GDAR) at Yemen's Ministry of Agriculture says it is worried about the potential for an outbreak of bird flu, but has at the same time warned that its resources and capacity are limited.
Al-Eryani told IRIN his department had received several reports from citizens and farmers over the past few days.
"Two days ago, a local citizen reported to us that 8,000 chickens had died on his poultry farm which had 10,000 chickens. Despite limited resources, we took samples for laboratory tests," he said.
However, al-Eryani said that because of limited resources his department could not do much. It had already stopped bird flu surveillance work for some months now.
Farmers in East Java say thousands of chicken have died suddenly at poultry farms and in villagers' backyards around Blitar and Tulungagung.
Didi Syaputra, our reporter in Blitar, East Java, says it was first thought the birds died as a result of a cold snap that has hit the two towns for the past few days. But authorities say that it appears they have died of the H5N1 virus as their crests had turned blue.
According to one of the local poultry farmers if no action is taken scores of poultry farmers will become bankrupt.
indigo girl
5,173 Posts
KOMNAS on the death of Muhamad Nabi
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2007/11/komnas-on-the-d.html
KOMNAS is the site for the Indonesian National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness. Muhamad Nabi was the most recent bird flu fatality, and an administrative employee of a hospital, a fact that is troubling in itself since no source has been identified for his infection.
Yes, but they are not mentioning all of his symptoms, i.e. the seizures, and
diarrhea. At any rate, all of the above is cause for concern if this is what
this virus can do.
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11090704/H5N1_Riau_HCW_Confirmed.html
The WHO is already on the ground in Indonesia:
http://www.riauterkini.com/photo.php?arr=1513