Avian Flu Strain Found In Pigs-Quite Awhile Ago

[Annie]

China just getting around to telling, the same China where it looks like they may have had a human contract without bird:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25649&highlight=avian

Here's the pig link:

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-11-11/34470.html

Chinese officials revealed that pigs have tested positive for bird flu in Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, where a bird epidemic is raging and one human death, possibly from bird flu, has already occurred, reported Phoenix TV on November 10. Hunan Province Bureau of Agriculture officials tested samples of pig oral secretions to assess the possibility that bird flu was responsible for the death of a 12-year old girl on October 17th. The girl was cremated the same day that she died, and her ill brother is still in quarantine.

The deputy head of the Bureau of Agriculture in Hunan Province, Ou Daiming, said that this was the first time pigs have been tested for the virus in Hunan Province. The results have already been reported to the Ministry of Health, and random pig testing is taking place in nearby villages. So far, officials say they have found no other inflected pigs.

Zoology experts at Hunan Agriculture University say that since pig genes are similar to human genes, and that viruses of many animals can live and mutate in pigs, it becomes dangerous for humans once the virus has been found its way to pigs. Therefore, not only poultry, but pigs too, should be closely monitored in epidemic areas.

Note the girl death is also in the Hunan Province?

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-11-1/34020.html

Following the announcement by Hunan Province health officials that He Yin had tested negative for bird flu, He Yin’s father, He Tieguang, testified in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Daily News that his daughter was cremated the same day health officials took her body. When asked if an autopsy was conducted at the hospital before the cremation, He Tieguang said, “I don’t think so.”

He Tieguang stated that he was not aware of the health officials’ announcement and that they had not contacted him or his family to obtain samples for further testing. Since He Yin’s death on October 17, her brother, He Junyao, is still being quarantined at a children’s hospital for further observation. He Tieguang questioned why health officials have not released his son when they have clearly ruled out bird flu.

The He family lives in Hunan’s Xiangtan County. Just one week ago, He Yin and her brother became ill after eating infected poultry. The Chinese Authorities announced that the girl died of “pneumonia” and not bird flu. Currently, He’s entire village is quarantined.

A representative from the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had contacted the Health Ministry for more information about the tests that were conducted on the Hunan girl. The WHO representative stated further that it did not know what tests Chinese officials had performed.

WHO officials have warned that the H5N1 strain of the bird flu is even deadlier than SARS. The death rate is 15 percent for SARS and 33 percent for H5N1. Experts have stated that many farmers in China and Asia live close to domestic bird farms which increases the chance of human infections. This also increases the chances of the strain mutating into a more virulent form among humans, one capable of causing a human pandemic.

At the International Bird Flu Prevention Meeting in Canada on October 25, Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang revealed that there are currently bird flu outbreaks in five Chinese provinces, including Qinghai, Anhui, Hunan, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia. However, the Chinese state-run media outlets have only reported outbreaks in Anhui, Hunan, and Inner Mongolia. During the press conference, Gao also revealed that last year, 16 provinces exprerienced bird flu outbreaks.

According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the State Council Information Office held a press conference with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture on October 28. Jia Youling, Chief veterinary officer of China’s Ministry of Agriculture, stated that, “The three outbreaks are currently under control and no new outbreaks have been reported.”

During the press conference, overseas reporters had to probe around the same questions. A reporter from Sankei Shimbun frankly asked the Chinese official to respond with conscience regarding the May incident in which 120 people in Qinghai became infected with the bird flu and died. The reporter explained that such a request was made because the world still has fresh memories of the Chinese government concealing information about SARS in 2003. In response to this particular question, Jia denied that the deaths in Qinghai were connected with bird flu.

On a well-known online Hunan Forum, all threads related to the bird flu are strictly controlled by the Chinese authorities, and some posts have already been removed. Internet users can only indirectly vent out their anger at the situation. International communities have criticized the Chinese government’s handling of the bird flu outbreaks, saying that it has not learned its lesson from the SARS outbreak.

 

[Annie]

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/11/11/hscout529060.html

Health
Bird Flu Triggers Immune System 'Storm'
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Nov. 11 (HealthDay News) -- As concern mounts over the potential spread of avian flu to humans, researchers believe they've discovered one reason why the infection can prove so deadly.

Experiments with human cells have found the H5N1 virus can trigger levelsof inflammatory proteins called cytokines and chemokines that are more than 10 times higher than those that occur during a bout of the common flu.

This massive increase in cytokine and chemokine activity can inflame airways, making it hard to breathe. It also contributes to the unusual severity of the avian flu, which can result in life-threatening pneumonia and acute respiratory distress.

According to the latest World Health Organization data, 125 cases of human H5N1 infection have been reported worldwide, including 64 deaths. All of these cases have occurred in Southeast Asia, and involved bird-to-human transmission. However, experts warn that if the virus mutates so that it can pass from human to human, a global pandemic could ensue.

Reporting in the Nov. 11 online edition of Respiratory Research, Michael Chan from the University of Hong Kong and his collaborators in Vietnam looked at the levels of cytokines and chemokines in human lung tissue exposed to the H5N1 virus.

They compared protein levels induced by strains of the H5N1 virus with levels induced by a more common, less virulent human flu virus, called H1N1.

Chan's team found that H5N1 induces more pro-inflammatory proteins than H1N1. After infection with H5N1, levels of the chemokine IP-10 in bronchial epithelial cells reach 2200 picograms per milliliter , compared with only 200 picograms per milliliter in cells infected with H1N1. Similar results were found for levels of other chemokines and cytokines.

"The recent re-emergence of H5N1 disease in humans is a cause for renewed pandemic concern and highlights the need for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of human H5N1 disease," the study authors wrote. "Such understanding will lead to new strategies for managing human H5N1 disease and enhance our preparedness to confront pandemic influenza, whether from H5N1 or other influenza A subtypes."

One expert said the findings are in line with symptoms seen so far in patients infected with the avian flu strain.

"These findings fit with what we see clinically," said Dr. Christian Sandrock, an assistant professor of pulmonary critical care and infectious diseases at the University of California Davis. "This is what we would expect with this virus."

When the H5N1 virus comes into contact with the cells of the trachea and small air sacs in the lungs, it drives up the production of these cytokines, Sandrock explained. The cytokines trigger inflammation, a normal response by the body to help fight the virus.

"The problem is that sometimes the inflammation can be so bad there's collateral damage," he said. "That collateral damage can cause inflammation and damage to your lungs enough so that you are unable to breathe, and you get acute respiratory distress."

The findings provide a scientific reason for what is being seen clinically, Sandrock said. "But there's still a lot we don't know," he added.

"This study confirms earlier work that H5N1 induces a cytokine 'storm,'" said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in Minneapolis. "It helps us understand the pathophysiology of the disease."

The noted increase in cytokine production is what distinguishes avian flu from other flu, Osterholm said. "The hyperproduction of cytokines is very relevant. It points out that the way people actually experience severe illness with this virus is different than what we see with other influenza viruses."

"This is basically a cytokine storm induced by this specific virus, which then leads to respiratory distress syndrome," Osterholm said. "This also makes sense of why you tend to see a preponderance of severe illness in those who tend to be the healthiest, because the ability to increase the production of cytokines is actually higher in those who are not immune-compromised. It's more likely in those who are otherwise healthy."

 

[Annie]

Links at site. For me, I think there are problems coming, whether this strain or that.

http://instapundit.com/archives/026858.php

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November 15, 2005

AVIAN FLU UPDATE: Michael Fumento thinks that there's too much avian-flu hysteria. I certainly hope he's right. Meanwhile, this article in Scientific American makes a useful point:

Some mysteries do remain as scientists watch the evolution of a potentially pandemic virus for the first time, but the past makes one thing certain: even if the dreaded H5N1 never morphs into a form that can spread easily between people, some other flu virus surely will. The stronger our defenses, the better we will weather the storm when it strikes. "We have only one enemy," CDC director Gerberding has said repeatedly, "and that is complacency."

That's right. These two points aren't necessarily at odds, of course: Hysteria in the short term can too-easily shift to complacency over the long term. We really need the kind of accelerated antivirus program, aimed at developing antiviral drugs and rapid vaccine production techniques, that Ray Kurzweil has called for.

Meanwhile, Tyler Cowen has much more on the subject.