-
-
Bird Flu Marches Through India and Indonesia
A serious outbreak of bird flu has devastated poultry stocks and prices in India and killed 100 people in Indonesia.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu is highly lethal, but does not spread easily to humans. Health officials are concerned that it might mutate into a strain that is easily transmitted to and between humans, leading to a global health crisis.
In the Indian state of West Bengal, authorities have already killed 1.5 million birds in an attempt to contain the disease, and have plans to kill up to 1.5 million more. This would constitute a cull of 15 percent of the 20 million domestic fowl in the entire state.
Authorities are particularly worried that if not contained, the disease might spread to the West Bengali capital of Kolkata, with a population of 13.5 million people. While no cases of human H5N1 infection have been confirmed in India to date, health officials remain concerned about the possibility.
"We are worried the H5N1 virus was confirmed in samples from villages just 22 kilometers from Kolkata," said Anisur Rahaman, the West Bengal animal resources development minister.
A drastic drop in demand has caused poultry prices to fall across the country and led to a surge in illegal sales of poultry marked for culling. West Bengali officials have resorted to raiding poultry traders at night to prevent the traders from hiding birds or resisting the cull.
The government is paying farmers approximately 40 rupees ($1) per bird, about half of what each bird would fetch on the open market, even without egg sales.
In Indonesia, the government confirmed that a 23-year-old woman in the capital city of Jakarta had become the 100th person to die from bird flu, out of 124 confirmed human infections so far. It is still unknown how she contracted the disease. A serious outbreak of bird flu has devastated poultry stocks and prices in India and killed 100 people in Indonesia. ... more -
Bird flu hopes from 1918 victims
American scientists found that people who lived through the outbreak can still produce antibodies that kill the deadly strain of the H1N1 flu.
The study, published in the journal Nature, could help develop emergency treatments for future outbreaks.
The Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people.
Some experts say it was the most devastating epidemic in history, affecting even healthy adults.
Scientists do not fully understand why it was so lethal - but they fear a new pandemic, once again triggered by bird flu, could be just as deadly.
But now researchers have come up with a new way of tackling such an outbreak.
They studied 32 people who lived through the 1918 flu, and found all still had antibodies in their blood to destroy the virus.
Some of the volunteers - aged from 91 to 101 - even had the cells which produce the antibodies.
The researchers used the antibodies to cure infected mice - showing, they said, that 90 years on, the survivors of the epidemic were still protected.
The antibodies were particularly powerful - so that only a small amount was needed to kill off the virus.
Dr James Crowe, of Vanderbilt University, who helped lead the study, said similar antibodies could be developed to destroy new strains of bird flu. American scientists found that people who lived through the outbreak can still produce antibodies that kill the deadly strain of the H... more -
Avian Influenza: Threat of H9N2 Strain Understated
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The H9N2 bird flu strain, identified as a possible pandemic threat, could be infecting more humans than commonly thought but its mild symptoms mean it often goes undetected, a leading Hong Kong bird flu expert said.
"It's quite possible ... H9N2 is infecting humans quite a lot, much (more) than we appreciate merely because it is beyond the radar," Malik Peiris, a Hong Kong-based microbiologist, told Reuters.
"In humans, it is very mild, so most of the time it's probably not even recognized or biologically tested," said Peiris, who has co-authored several papers on the strain in recent years.
So far, only a handful of human H9N2 cases have been documented worldwide, including four children in Hong Kong in 2003 who suffered from mild fevers and coughs -- as well as a batch in China's Guangdong province, where people often live in close proximity to poultry, Peiris said.
The Hong Kong cases were only picked up by chance given the city's rigorous influenza testing regime, Peiris said.
"It's quite a silent virus, it's not highly pathogenic ... and sometimes it causes some morbidity in poultry but by and large it is just there and it's unnoticed," Peiris said of the H9N2 strain.
The strain occurs mostly in birds, although it has also affected pigs and other animals in Europe and Asia.
Most influenza experts agree that a pandemic -- a deadly global epidemic -- of some kind of flu is inevitable.
[continued] HONG KONG (Reuters) - The H9N2 bird flu strain, identified as a possible pandemic threat, could be infecting more humans than commonly... more -
Battle Against Bird Flu
Laura Ling looks at the battle against bird flu in Vietnam and how poor poultry farmers are dealing with having to kill their chickens. Laura Ling looks at the battle against bird flu in Vietnam and how poor poultry farmers are dealing with having to kill their chickens... more
-
Avian Influenza A Virus Infections of Humans
Although avian influenza A viruses usually do not infect humans, rare cases of human infection with avian influenza A viruses have been reported. Most human infections with avian influenza A viruses have occurred following direct contact with infected poultry. Human clinical illness from infection with avian influenza A viruses has ranged from eye infections (conjunctivitis) to severe respiratory disease (pneumonia) to death.
Instances of Avian Influenza A Virus Infections in Poultry
Avian influenza outbreaks among poultry occur worldwide from time to time. Since 1997, for example, and based on the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reporting criteria for Notifiable Avian Influenza in commercial poultry, the United States has experienced 17 incidents of H5 and H7 low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), and one incident of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that was restricted to one poultry farm. The U.S. Department of Agriculture monitored and responded to these incidents.
In 2004, the United States experienced the first highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak among poultry in 20 years. This was an outbreak of avian influenza A (H5N2) which occurred in Texas. The outbreak was reported in a flock of 7,000 chickens in south-central Texas. There was no report of transmission to humans.
H7N3, Canada, 2004: In March 2004, two poultry workers who were assisting in culling operations during a large influenza A (H7N3) poultry outbreak had culture-confirmed H7N3 conjunctivitis, one of whom also had coryza. Both poultry workers recovered. One worker was infected with low pathogenic H7N3 and the other with high pathogenic H7N3.
Jon Fitch, director of the state's Livestock and Poultry Commission, said the birds tested positive for exposure to the H7N3 strain of the virus, not the H5N1 strain that ravaged Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed 240 people worldwide.
What next? Can humans become infected from wild birds? Although avian influenza A viruses usually do not infect humans, rare cases of human infection with avian influenza A viruses have bee... more -
Bird Flu spreads, prompts mass cull
Hong Kong ordered a mass cull of all poultry on Wednesday in a bid to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus between birds in hundreds of markets scattered across the territory. Hong Kong ordered a mass cull of all poultry on Wednesday in a bid to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus between birds in hundreds of m... more
-
Bird flu outbreak In England "highly pathogenic"
All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans, at the farm in Banbury, Oxfordshire late Tuesday.
Highly pathogenic means that the virus has a relatively high ability to produce disease.
Japan announced that it was suspending imports of poultry from Britain following the outbreak.
Officials near the affected farm have introduced measures meaning poultry within three kilometres (1.9 miles) of the farm must be isolated from wild birds and bird gatherings and movement of birds are banned within 10 kilometres.
"The source of the disease is not yet known and all birds on the farm will be or are being culled to help contain and eradicate this disease," the farmer, who was not identified, said in the statement. All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans, at the... more -
Bird flu hits Oxford
According to reports from the Dept. for Environment, Food an Rural Affairs, chickens on a farm in Oxfordshire have tested positive for the H7 strain of bird flu.
Although tests indicate it is not the virulent H5N1 strain, all the birds on the infected farm have been slaughtered as a precaution. According to reports from the Dept. for Environment, Food an Rural Affairs, chickens on a farm in Oxfordshire have tested positive for... more -
Scientists identify second H7 strain of bird flu that could cause pandemic
The H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed 241 people is not the only one that could trigger a pandemic, according to research in America. A few H7 strains of the flu virus have started to evolve some of the traits they would need to infect people easily, scientists have discovered.
The findings, from a team led by Terrence Tumpey, of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, show that while there is no immediate indication that H7 flu is about to acquire potentially damaging mutations, it is critical that global surveillance and research covers this virus class as well as the more obvious H5N1, scientists said.
The H5N1 strain has been regarded as the most deadly strain since it appeared in Asia in 2003. Although it has a death rate of more than 60 per cent, it has not yet acquired the ability to move from person to person, which would be a prerequisite for a pandemic.
There has been only one case in which it is considered probable that the virus was transmitted from person to person, and analysis of the virus's genetic structure has not yet revealed mutations that would allow it to infect people more easily. It is generally caught from close contact with infected birds, in which it is endemic in some parts of the world, particularly in Asia.
The H7 family of flu viruses also primarily affects birds. A deadly version of the H7N7 strain hit poultry in the Netherlands in 2003, and a less severe form, H7N2, broke out in the UK last year. Between 2002 and 2004 several outbreaks of H7N3 and H7N2 have been reported.
In each of these incidents a few human cases of infection have been reported. One vet died during the Dutch outbreak and about 80 people suffered conjunctivitis, an eye infection that is not life-threatening.
The UK outbreak also led to cases of conjunctivitis and a few mild respiratory infections.
Dr Tumpey's analysis of a 2003 case in New York has shown, however, that the H7N2 virus responsible is capable of replicating in the respiratory tract of mammals. This quality is unusual among avian viruses, and indicates that it could possibly be transmissible from person to person.
A study with ferrets — a standard animal model of flu in humans — also revealed that this H7N2 strain could be passed from animal to animal.
This suggests that the virus could be acquiring an ability to bind to sugars found on the cells of the human windpipe. This happened during all three of the 20th-century flu pandemics, which occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968. “These findings suggest that the H7 class of viruses are partially adapted to recognise the receptors that are preferred by the human influenza virus,” Dr Tumpey said.
“The finding ... underscores the necessity for continued surveillance and study of these viruses as they continue to resemble viruses with pandemic potential.”
Each of the three flu pandemics of the last century was caused by a humanised strain of flu. The Spanish Flu of 1918-19, which killed up to 40 million people, was caused by an H1N1 virus. The 1957-58 Asian Flu was caused by an H2N2 strain, and the 1968-69 Hong Kong Flu by an H3N2 strain. The H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed 241 people is not the only one that could trigger a pandemic, according to research in Ame... more -
EU green light for bird flu vaccine
European medical authorities have approved the first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine, produced by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, media reports say.
The ruling from the European Medicines Agency makes Prepandrix, which targets the H5N1 virus, the first vaccine to receive a license for pre-pandemic use in all 27-member European Union states.
Glaxo, which has already spent some $2 billion developing the vaccine, has orders from Switzerland and the United States for the vaccine based on the bird flu virus from Vietnam. European medical authorities have approved the first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine, produced by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, media reports say... more -
South Korea Reports Second Bird Flu Outbreak
South Korean officials have reported a second outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm.
-
Woman dies in Southern China; tested positive for bird flu
Scientists are still concerned that this virus could mutate to become transferable between humans because then we would have a global pandemic on our hands.The last pandemic we had was in 1918 that started right here in the United States and is estimated to have killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide. It is said we have one about every 100 years. Are we due? Will our own environmental degradation actually bring it on? Scientists even stated that a virus could be what is causing bees to disappear as as well as birds. Just how much of an effect is our own behavior having on creating and mutating these viruses? Scientists are still concerned that this virus could mutate to become transferable between humans because then we would have a global ... more
-
related topics
Bird Flu
Contributors (21)
Bird Flu
