Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Asia
Seven Indonesian Bird Flu Cases Linked to Patients (Update1)
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- All seven people infected with bird flu in a cluster of Indonesian cases can be linked to other patients, according to disease trackers investigating possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus.
A team of international experts has been unable to find animals that might have infected the people, the World Health Organization said in a statement today. In one case, a 10-year- old boy who caught the virus from his aunt may have passed it to his father, the first time officials have seen evidence of a three-person chain of infection, an agency spokeswoman said. Six of the seven people have died.
Almost all of the 218 cases of H5N1 infections confirmed by the WHO since late 2003 can be traced to direct contact with sick or dead birds. Strong evidence of human-to-human transmission may prompt the global health agency to convene a panel of experts and consider raising the pandemic alert level, said Maria Cheng, an agency spokeswoman.
``Considering the evidence and the size of the cluster, it's a possibility,'' Cheng said in a telephone interview. ``It depends on what we're dealing with in Indonesia. It's an evolving situation.''
The 32-year-old father in the cluster of cases on the island of Sumatra was ``closely involved in caring for his son, and this contact is considered a possible source of infection,'' The WHO said in its statement. Three others, including the sole survivor in the group, spent a night in a ``small'' room with the boy's aunt, who later died and was buried before health officials could conduct tests for the H5N1 virus.
`Directly Linked'
``All confirmed cases in the cluster can be directly linked to close and prolonged exposure to a patient during a phase of severe illness,'' the WHO said.
While investigators have been unable to rule out human-to- human transmission in the Sumatran cluster, they continue to search for other explanations for how the infections arose, the WHO statement said.
Health experts are concerned that if H5N1 gains the ability to spread easily among people, it may set off a lethal global outbreak of flu. While some flu pandemics are relatively mild, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.
So far, studies of the Sumatran outbreak and genetic analyses of the virus don't indicate the virus has undergone major changes, Cheng said. Scientists at WHO-affiliated labs in the U.S. and Hong Kong found no evidence that the Indonesian strain of H5N1 has gained genes from pigs or humans that might change its power or spreading ability, WHO said.
Mutations
``These viruses mutate all the time and it's difficult to know what the mutations mean,'' Cheng said.
Health officials earlier found strong evidence of direct human-to-human spread of H5N1 in Thailand in 2004. Scientists reported in the Jan. 27, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that the H5N1 virus probably spread from an 11-year- old girl in Thailand to her aunt and mother, killing the mother and daughter. People who had more casual contact with the girl didn't become infected.
In the Sumatran cluster, close, direct contact with a severely ill person was also needed for spread, Cheng said. Preliminary findings from the investigation indicate that the woman who died, considered to be the initial case, was coughing frequently while the three others spent the night in the same room. One of the three, a second brother, is the sole survivor. The other two, her sons, died.
``It looks like the same behavior pattern'' of close contact and caretaking during illness with the bird flu virus, Cheng said. To raise the level of pandemic alert ``it would have to be transmissible from more casual contact.''
General Community
The Indonesian Ministry of Health and international scientists are continuing their investigation to trace the origins of the infections, the WHO said in its statement.
``Priority is now being given to the search for additional cases of influenza-like illness in other family members, close contacts, and the general community,'' the WHO said. ``To date, the investigation has found no evidence of spread within the general community and no evidence that efficient human-to-human transmission has occurred.''
Kathianne said:Just so you know. Has it jumped? Time will tell:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aWESsJvt6CFE&refer=asia
WHO says bird flu drug maker on alert
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical WriterSat May 27, 4:05 PM ET
The biggest case yet of humans infecting others with bird flu prompted the World Health Organization to put the maker of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu on alert for possible shipment of the global stockpile for the first time, officials said Saturday.
No further action on the emergency supply was expected for now, according to the U.N. health agency, which called the alert part of its standard operating procedure when a case arises like that in Indonesia.
"We have no intention of shipping that stockpile," WHO spokesman Dick Thompson cautioned. "We see this as a practice run."
Meanwhile, Indonesia confirmed three more bird flu deaths as the country grapples with a spike in human cases. Bird flu is known to have infected 48 people in Indonesia, with 36 deaths second highest after Vietnam's 42 deaths.
A precautionary 9,500 treatment doses of Tamiflu from a separate WHO stockpile, along with protective gear, were flown into Indonesia on Friday. The tablets will likely be handed over to the Indonesian government, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said in Geneva.
Officials revealed the stockpile alert came last Monday as experts puzzled over why six Indonesians from a family in a North Sumatra village died after being infected by the H5N1 virus. A seventh was buried before tests could be done, but she is believed to have been infected.
Despite the cluster of deaths, the virus has not mutated into a form easily passed among humans, experts said. Scientists have seen examples of bird flu passing between family members in a handful of smaller cases.
"If this virus had evolved into a form that is more easily passed between people, you would have seen some other cases (outside the family) by now," Cheng said. "The virus hasn't passed beyond the family."
No health workers could be seen Saturday in the family's village of Kubu Simbelang, where dozens of chickens ran among houses and through backyards framed by high mountains and surrounded by rich fields of chilis, oranges and limes.
The family infected by the virus lived in three houses near the church in the Christian village.
Indonesia's number of human bird flu cases has jumped this year, but public awareness of the disease remains low and government efforts have not equaled that of other countries. Indonesia's reaction has raised concerns it is moving slowly and ineffectively in containing the disease.
Vietnam, the country hit hardest by bird flu, has been hailed for controlling the virus through mass poultry vaccination, among other measures. No human cases have been reported there since November.
Indonesia, a sprawling nation of 17,000 islands, has refused to carry out mass slaughters of poultry in all infected areas a basic containment guideline saying it cannot afford to compensate farmers. And bio-security measures are virtually nonexistent in the densely populated countryside, with its hundreds of millions of backyard chickens.
WHO officials in Jakarta received word about the Kubu Simbelang cluster from the Indonesian Health Ministry on Monday. That led the Geneva-based agency to alert the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG within hours about possible Tamiflu shipments, said Jules Pieters, director of WHO's rapid response and containment group.
"We were quite keen to inform Roche quite timely," Pieters said. "We knew Thursday would be a holiday in Europe and wanted to make sure Roche warehouses would be open."
He said Roche would remain on alert for approximately the next two weeks, or twice the incubation period of the last reported H5N1 case.
Roche spokesman Baschi Duerr said the emergency stockpile, which consists of 3 million treatment courses, is ready to be shipped wherever it is needed.
"We are in very close contact with WHO, even today, and our readiness is geared to be able to deliver," Duerr said.
Meanwhile, Nyoman Kandun, a senior official at Indonesia's health ministry, said a WHO laboratory in Hong Kong had confirmed five more cases of human bird flu, three of which were fatal. All five had earlier tested positive for the virus in a local laboratory.
The latest confirmed deaths were a 39-year-old man from Jakarta, a 10-year-old girl from West Java and a 32-year-old man, who on Monday became the last to die in the Kubu Simbelang cluster.
Experts have been unable to link the cluster family members to contact with infected birds, and tests on poultry in their village have come back negative. No one else in the village has fallen ill.
So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected poultry. But there is evidence of isolated cases of limited transmission between people in very close contact with each other.
Scientists are unsure how this occurred, but they theorize the virus may pass from one person to another through droplets sneezed or coughed into the air or onto food or other surfaces.
It has been suggested some people may have a genetic susceptibility to the disease. In all, WHO has recorded four family clusters of bird flu so far and only direct blood relatives not spouses have become ill.
Experts are exploring whether the first woman sickened in the Kubu Simbelang family may have had contact with sick or dead chickens. She worked at a market where chickens are sold and may have used chicken feces as a garden fertilizer, WHO officials said.
Bird flu has killed at least 124 people worldwide since the virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.
1549 said:That is shitty.
We talked about the flu's potential devestation in my sociology of medicine class back in the fall. The research our professor gathered suggested if the flu became easily communicable, 1/3 of Americans would become infected and 1/3 of those would die. That puts the death toll at I guess roughly 25 million (or somewhere in that ballpark). The disease would sweep through towns and cities. After a town experienced one outbreak, there would be a latency period, followed by another flare up of the disease. After experiencing the disease twice, towns are expected to be in the clear. Each "flare up" would last about two weeks. All of that was based on whatever data my professor put together.
It would then be expected that public gatherings such as school and sporting events would be canceled for the duration of the outbreak.
I think that's Tamiflu? I think that you are correct on the death rate, but isn't that nearly always true of flu counts? The death toll is 'official' because those are the people that went to the doctor? Perhaps they should put a disclaimer:no1tovote4 said:I'm willing to bet quite a bit that Theraflu will cut this by a truly significant amount. Also there is evidence that this flu is not as deadly as has been previously ascribed. That many people who have had it simply were not killed by it and never really even went to the doctor....
Kathianne said:I think that's Tamiflu? I think that you are correct on the death rate, but isn't that nearly always true of flu counts? The death toll is 'official' because those are the people that went to the doctor? Perhaps they should put a disclaimer:
These stats are probably skewed higher, because people with less serious symptoms do not seek treatment.
I guess the fifth would be the I.R.S.) I digress...
Kathianne said:I think that's Tamiflu? I think that you are correct on the death rate, but isn't that nearly always true of flu counts? The death toll is 'official' because those are the people that went to the doctor? Perhaps they should put a disclaimer:
These stats are probably skewed higher, because people with less serious symptoms do not seek treatment.
no1tovote4 said:Yeah, Tamiflu. You are right. Theraflu is to relieve symptoms. Tamiflu is a anti-retroviral. D'oh!
And yes, people with less serious symptoms don't seek doctors. They have found the antibody for this flu in people who have not sought doctors care. Thus they know that they had the disease, just not to the level of death. Many believe that this particular bird flu does not have the impact that has been related in the Press... (the 4th institution of "goverment"
They make more money if they get you all afraid, the Press is NOT YOUR FRIEND, they want to make money the promote the fear that will get you to stick with the news holding your breath hoping it just doesn't become airborne...
grand! Now if they can figure out if there is a human-to-human link.manu1959 said:http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/31/D8HV33F00.html
if you nuke them will you save the rest of the world?
