H5N1 Fatality in Hunan China Raises Vaccine Concerns

Recombinomics Commentary
October 27, 2005

"The death of a Chinese girl with flu-like symptoms in a village where a bird flu outbreak had been reported was caused by pneumonia acute respiratory difficulty, local health authority cited initial blood tests result as saying on Thursday.

Latest tests on the girl's blood sample have turned out negative for the avian influenza virus, and doctors said she had died of severe pneumonia with acute respiratory difficulty, according to the provincial center for disease prevention and control.

The 12-year-old He Yin died recently after eating a dead chicken in Wantang Village, in Xiangtan County of central China's Hunan Province, where the latest outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza was reported several days ago.

"The above description provides additional evidence that the cause of the girl's death was H5N1. On Tuesday, China filed an OIE report indicating that H5N1 had been detected at Wantang Village and was killing chickens and ducks. The death and/or bird flu symptoms in two children that had eaten a dead chicken in the village strongly suggests the severe pneumonia was due to H5N1. Negative data means little if there is no positive data identifying the micro-organism that caused the pneumonia.

"...In 2004, the only reported human H5n1 cases were in Vietnam and Thailand and isolates from the two countries were similar as were case fatality rates. However, in 2005 a milder version of H5N1 emerged in northern Vietnam, while a more lethal version was found in southern Vietnam and Cambodia. This there were two versions of H5N1 co-circulating in Vietnam.

"Similarly, the first human cases in Indonesia were reported in 2005 and there may be milder version there also. Some reports have described two distinct versions of H5N1 in Indonesia.

"This increase in versions of H5N1 raises serious questions about a pandemic vaccine effort that targets a 2004 version of H5N1 and ignores the emerging human versions that are linked to wild birds. The current strategy is to wait for a reassortment event, and there is little data to support such a prediction." Click the title to read the article.

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USDA to Step up Wild Fowl Testing for Bird Flu

USA: October 27, 2005
Planet Ark

"WASHINGTON - The US Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it would step up testing of migratory fowl for bird flu as part of federal precautions against the deadly disease.

"The H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which can be lethal to humans, was found in poultry in Asia before moving into Romania, Turkey, Greece and Russia in recent weeks. No cases have been found in the United States.

"The United States is the world's largest producer and exporter of poultry meat, with chicken, turkey and duck production valued at about $23 billion annually.

"The USDA is already testing some chicken flocks on American farms as well as migratory birds in Alaska to detect bird flu.

"The US government said it is planning more extensive testing in 2006 in the flyways where wild birds, believed to be the primary carrier of the disease, enter the United States. Officials did not say how many birds would be tested or where.

"Ron DeHaven, head of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said importers of US poultry products could be tempted to halt purchases if the H5N1 strain was found in wild birds in the United States.

"While detection of the H5N1 virus in migratory birds would be a good early warming signal, it does not show if the disease has spread to commercial poultry farms, he told reporters at a briefing on the US government's surveillance system.

"To help detect the highly transmissible form of bird flu, the USDA said it has more than 40,000 private veterinarians across the nation watching for the disease in local fowl.

"The USDA has already taken other precautions against the disease, including banning imports of live birds and eggs from infected countries and requiring all imported birds to be quarantined and tested for the virus.

"According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, properly cooked poultry poses no risk to human health.

"Only two cases of humans contracting the disease from consuming chicken products have occurred, both in Asia, said Dick Raymond, USDA's undersecretary for food safety. Both infections are believed to have occurred through eating undercooked meat or raw blood of the fowl, he said." Click the title to read the article.

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Extensive H5N1 Human To Human Transmission In Indonesia?

Recombinomics Commentary
October 21, 2005

"Petersen said preliminary tests showed they had influenza, but the type was unclear. The Health Ministry said it might announce test results later on Friday.

"'What we know is that from one clear case in Thailand and probably in other cases there has been close family contact and this is why it could have gone from one person to another,' Petersen said.

"'It's not what we call extensive human-to-human transmission ... It doesn't mean mutation.'

"The above comments are in reference to a father and son who were admitted on Wednesday to Sulianti Saroso hospital in Jakarta. The son had handled a neighbor's sick poultry, but his father had not had contact with poultry. Thus, when both were admitted with bird flu symptoms, concern was expressed regarding human-to-human transmission associated with mutation. Since both now have pneumonia and evidence of influenza infection, it likely that the son infected his father with H5N1 bird flu.

"However, these familial clusters are not new and although WHO has been slow to acknowledged the fact, the vast majority of the familial clusters involver human-to-human transmission. Now WHO is using a new term, called extensive human-to-human transmission. Since WHO has maintained that the 2005 flu pandemic is a phase 3, which involves only rare human-to-human transmission, the focus on extensive human-to-human transmission may also be an admission that the pandemic has progressed beyond phase 3. When the transmission is sustained, the pandemic has reached the final phase, which is phase 6.

"The latest familial clusters will likely be confirmed for both father and son, since they both have tested positive for influenza. This new cluster, however, will add to the evidence that there has been extensive human-to-human transmission. The extent of the human to human transmission can be measured by the frequency of confirmed cases that belong to clusters." Click the title to read the article.

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H5N1 Infected Birds Smuggled Into Taiwan from China

Recombinomics Commentary
October 20, 2005

"Taiwanese authorities on Thursday confirmed the island's first case of bird flu, the Agricultural Commission said.

Birds taken from a Panama-registered freighter that was stopped by the Taiwanese coast guard on Oct. 14 tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the commission said.

"The above report indicates that H5N1 was detected in Taiwan for the first time. H5N2 was detected in Taiwan in late 2003 and there were also reports of H5N1 in smuggled ducks onto Quemoy.Island. However, this is the first report of H5N1 in Taiwan.

"Details of the shipment are unclear, including the origin of the shipment. Birds from Fuzhou were recently confiscated in Taichung Harbour, which may be the same incident.

"H5N1 is a reportable disease and a report from China on birds from the site of origin would seem to be required..." Click the title to read the article.

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Sequencing Confirms H5N1 Wild Bird Flu Migration to Europe

Recombinomics Commentary
October 20, 2005

"The above comments from the October 19 Romanian OIE report clearly show that H5N1 wild bird flu has migrated to Europe. The sequencing of the N gene shows that the isolates in Romania match the isolate in Turkey as well as isolates from Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China.

"The efficient transportation and transmission of H5N1 wild bird flu strongly suggests that the geographic reach of H5N1 will increase dramatically. Additional October 19 OIE reports from Russia and China filed yesterday also indicate that the H5N1 wild bird flu is migrating out of Mongolia into Inner Mongolia in China (see world map) and out of Siberia and into European Russia (see European map). The simultaneous reports by Russia and China on locations that are over 2500 miles apart begins to show the breadth of the H5N1 wild bird flu spread, which prior to July had never been reported in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkey, or Romania.

"As the birds continue to migrate into warmer regions, the number of reports or confirmations should continue of a daily basis. The number of negative reports are cause for concern. It appears that H5N1 in some areas of Europe went undetected or unreported for 3 months..." Click the title to read the article.

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Evidence For H5N1 Wild Bird Flu Cover-up in Europe Mounts

Recombinomics Commentary
October 17, 2005

What about the reports that other birds, including 15 swans, have been found dead on a lake outside the quarantine zones? "A lot of birds have been falling ill, don't ask me how many," he says. "I'm just a human being. I can only tell you what has been happening in Ceamurlia."

Later, we hear that the ministry has issued a statement saying that no swans have died on any other lake. However, later on the internet, we see that some Romanian news agencies are reporting that villagers from Ceamurlia first noticed birds washing up on the shores of the lake three months ago and that it was only when the fisherman discovered his own chickens had died that anyone thought to send tissue samples away for testing.

"...The above comments on H5N1 wild bird flu in Romania overlook the fact that there has been a clear cover-up of H5N1 in Europe since August. In August there were media reports of birds dying in the Volga Delta at the northern end of the Caspian Sea. Reports out of Russia would change almost daily. The Kalmikya region was H5N1 confirmed one day and then denied the next. Confirmation would indicate that H5N1 had migrated form Siberia and had entered Europe in August.

"...Monitoring and reporting of H5N1 in Europe, like Asia, remains scandalously poor." Click the title tor read the article.

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Romania quarantines area after confirmation that deadly bird flu strain has reached Europe

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 15, 2005
Newsday.com

"Romania quarantines area after confirmation that deadly bird flu strain has reached Europe Romanian authorities called for calm Saturday as they quarantined an eastern region where tests confirmed Europe's first appearance of a deadly strain of bird flu that has devastated flocks and killed dozens of people in Asia.

"Poland's government, meanwhile, banned the sale of live birds at open-air markets and ordered farmers to keep poultry in closed quarters beginning Monday. It also banned pigeon races.

"...On Friday, after the deadly H5N1 virus was confirmed in Turkey, on Europe's doorstep, European Union experts agreed that steps should be taken to limit contact between domestic fowl and wild birds. Experts say migrating birds have spread the disease since it appeared in Southeast Asia two years ago.

"...British laboratory tests confirmed that H5N1 was the virus that killed migratory birds found dead in Romania's Danube River delta.

"Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur placed the Dobrogea region under quarantine, requiring all vehicles entering and leaving the area to be disinfected. Checkpoints were set up on roads into the area, and the region was banned from shipping out eggs and poultry meat.

"The area includes the Danube and Black Sea counties of Tulcea and Constanta, where 1.5 million people live. The two lake-filled counties are an important stop for migratory birds from Asia.

"Flutur said birds in four neighboring counties were being monitored.

"...In Turkey, authorities sprayed a second round of disinfectant at the quarantined village of Kiziksa, some 80 miles from Istanbul, where the H5N1 virus was detected at a farm a week ago.

"Turkish officials said the virus had been contained in Kiziksa. But Mustafa Altuntas, head of a Turkish veterinarians association, said there was a risk of new outbreaks elsewhere in the country, especially near wetlands used by migrating birds.

"About 1,000 chickens were reported dead near the town of Patnos in Turkey's Agri province, but a local Agriculture Ministry official said it was not known if they were killed by bird flu or some other disease.

"Test results were not expected before Monday and no quarantine was ordered, said the official, who agreed to discuss the deaths only if not quoted by name because the Turkish government rarely allows civil servants to speak to journalists.

"...Stamping out the flu outbreaks in poultry swiftly is important for human health because the further the virus is allowed to spread, the more opportunities it has to mutate into a form that passes easily between people, sparking a human flu pandemic."
Click the title to read the article.

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Girl Has Drug-Resistant Case of Bird Flu

By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer
Associated Press
ABC News

"NEW YORK Oct 14, 2005 — The bird flu virus that infected a Vietnamese girl was resistant to the main drug that's being stockpiled in case of a pandemic, a sign that it's important to keep a second drug on hand as well, a researcher said Friday.

"He said the finding was no reason to panic.

"The drug in question, Tamiflu, still attacks 'the vast majority of the viruses out there,' said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Tokyo and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The drug, produced by Swiss-based Roche Holding AG, is in short supply as nations around the world try to stock up on it in case of a global flu pandemic.

"He also said it's not surprising to see some resistance to Tamiflu in treated individuals, because resistance has also been seen with human flu.

"In lab tests, the girl's Tamiflu-resistant virus was susceptible to another drug, Relenza, which is made by GlaxoSmithKline.

"Kawaoka and colleagues report the case in the Oct. 20 issue of the journal Nature, which released the study Friday. The researchers conclude that it might be useful to stockpile Relenza as well as Tamiflu.

"Both drugs are being stockpiled by the U.S. government. Doctors have good reason to believe Tamiflu would be effective at combatting a pandemic strain of bird flu, although it's not clear how long people would have to be treated or what doses they'd need, said Dr. John Treanor of the University of Rochester." Click the title to read the article.

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Over 3600 Dead Wild Ducks In West Azerbajan Iran

Recombinomics Commentary
October 12, 2005

"...The above OIE report on over 3600 dead wild ducks in Iran is cause for concern. Past rumors of dead birds in Iran have been denied, but this official report raises the prospect of H5N1 wild bird flu. The location is between the Black and Caspian Seas (see map), which is where many species from southern Siberia winter. These birds are now arriving from southern Siberia, and dead birds have been found on the western side of the Black seas in Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece.

"H5N1 has been confirmed in Turkey, where 1700 turkeys were found dead on a turkey farm with 1800 birds. It seems likely that H5N1 will be discovered in all countries adjacent to the Black and Caspain Seas, so the finding of the massive die off in Iran is not unexpected." Click the title to read the article.

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No quick fix for bird flu, experts caution

11 Oct 2005 19:48:57 GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Source: Reuters

"WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - If vaccines and drugs are available too late to stop bird flu, then what can be done to battle H5N1 avian influenza if it spreads to people? Not a lot, experts say.

"If a pandemic emerges in the coming year, there will not be enough supplies of drugs or vaccines to stop it and basic medical equipment that could slow its spread is also lacking.

"World leaders have been stepping up their efforts to battle avian influenza in recent weeks, holding meetings, making international visits and ordering vaccines and drugs.

"U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and a contingent of U.S. and World Health Organization flu experts are visiting affected southeast Asian nations this week and diplomats are working to make better alliances for sharing information quickly about any human outbreaks.

"But many experts agree that little real progress has been made in stopping the spread of H5N1 bird flu.

"...World Health Organization officials say many countries still seem to be reluctant to share information and to ask for help if the pandemic begins within their borders.

"...Experts say it is mutating steadily and fear it will eventually acquire the changes it needs to spread easily from person to person. If it did, it could sweep around the world in months or even weeks and could kill millions of people.

"Even in advanced nations like the United States, little has been done to help provide even basic care for pandemic flu patients, the American College of Emergency Physicians said." Click the title to read the article.

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