The Bird Flu Continues to Fly Our Way

[NurseHardee]

Tuesday February 10

Bird flu claims 19th victim as WHO warns of China's "formidable" task

Bird flu claimed another fatality in Vietnam, as the World Health Organization said China faced a "formidable" task in bringing under control the disease that has killed 19 people in Asia.

The warning came amid growing concern that an abnormal number of poultry deaths in Cambodia suggested the kingdom's outbreak of avian influenza was far more widespread than the authorities have acknowledged.

China has categorically denied covering up the extent of its bird flu outbreak, but Henk Bekedam, the WHO's representative to the country, said the authorities might not have a complete picture of the epidemic.

Beijing has also insisted that there are no human infections, but Bekedam said this could not be ruled out given the scale of the outbreaks.

"The WHO feels it is conceivable that there may be human cases, given the extent of the outbreaks in poultry," he said.

His comments came as state media reported four new suspected bird flu outbreaks, taking China's outbreak tally to 19 confirmed and 19 suspected cases in 14 of the country's 31 provincial-level regions.

"We believe the Chinese government is fully aware of the formidable challenge it faces, and is deeply committed to reversing the situation," Bekedam said.

China halted train transports of poultry into the capital, Beijing, after the nearby city of Tianjin reported a suspected outbreak, and ordered officials to monitor the movement of migratory birds as the bird flu outbreak appeared to gather momentum.

The government also earmarked 12 million US dollars for research into the deadly virus.

Health officials in Vietnam's southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City said Asia's latest victim, a 27 year-old man from Binh Phuoc province, died early Monday after being admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Disease on Thursday.

A 30 year-old man from neighbouring Lam Dong province was taken to the same hospital the following day and also tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu. Doctors said he was in stable condition.

In human terms, Vietnam is the worst hit of the 10 Asian nations and the United States currently tackling outbreaks of bird flu. Thailand, where five people have died, is the only other country with confirmed human infections.

In total, 19 Vietnamese have been infected with H5N1, 14 of whom have died. Two others have made a complete recovery but three remain in hospital.

The World Health Organization has warned that H5N1 could kill millions across the globe if it combined with a human influenza virus to create a new, highly contagious strain transmissible among humans.

"We are in a situation where people have become infected with H5N1 but we haven't crossed the threshold into this new threat level," said Bob Dietz, the WHO's spokesman in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said Monday that Japan, the largest market for its 1.2 billion-dollar poultry export business, would send a team of experts to the kingdom this week to test its chickens.

The country has eradicated all but one of its 163 outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, which had been reported in more than half of its 76 provinces, including Bangkok, where the remaining outbreak is located.

"I believe Thailand will be the first Asian nation to eradicate this disease," Somkid said.

But as Thailand appeared to be bringing bird flu under control, concern was escalating over the situation in Cambodia after authorities announced on Sunday that a 24-year-old female farmer had died last week with bird flu symptoms.

Cambodia, wedged between the two countries, has only identified three contaminated areas, all within the vicinity of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Numerous small-scale farmers have also reported suspicious poultry deaths across the impoverished country, according to local press reports.

"The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) in Cambodia does not have the means to know the extent of the epidemic," Jean-Claude Levasseur, the UN agency's representative in Cambodia, told AFP.

In the United States, agriculture officials said they would carry out tests this week on other farms in Delaware state following the cull of around 12,000 chickens on one farm after a non-lethal strain of bird flu was found.

As a precautionary measure, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea slapped temporary import bans on all US poultry over the weekend, while Hong Kong banned poultry imports from the northeastern American state.

Malaysia, which has so far escaped the disease, said Monday that a scare over the country's first possible human case was a false alarm.

The government, however, said veterinary and other enforcement agencies were on high alert to prevent any outbreaks of the disease.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, which has so far remained free of bird flu, destroyed more than 300 lovebirds imported from Europe because they had passed through Thailand.

[oramar]

I do a lot of post about infection control and I know I have a tendency to be very negative. Here I go again because it looks to me as if getting this under control is going to be very difficult. I almost used the word impossible to describe the situation but I hate to say impossible. The most important thing to note is that the US chickens do NOT have the same flu as the Asian chickens. The fact that the US variety has never jumped to a human is a small bright spot in a gloomy situation.