Flu
China confirms latest human bird flu case
|
|
China confirmed its eighth human infection from bird flu on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said, revealing that a 6-year-old boy came down with the symptoms in December.
The boy, surnamed Ouyang and from Guiyang county in the central province of Hunan, is undergoing hospital treatment for the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, Xinhua said in a brief report, citing the health ministry.
Italy says ready to go it alone on bird flu
|
|
Italy, concerned by the spread of bird flu in Turkey, may go it alone with preventive measures if the European Union does not move swiftly enough should the situation worsen, the health minister said.
Health Minister Francesco Storace said in an interview with newspaper La Repubblica published on Monday that he might also consider a ban on travel to high-risk areas, including Turkey where the authorities have reported the death of three children from the virus.
Worried Turks head to hospital for bird flu tests
|
|
Turkey reported a spike in suspected bird flu cases among people across the country on Monday as fears grew that the deadly disease was sweeping westward towards mainland Europe.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said victims appear to have contracted the virus directly from infected birds, allaying fears it was now passing dangerously from person to person.
Human-to-human spread not seen in Turkish bird flu
|
|
There are no signs that the bird flu virus spreading in Turkey is being passed among humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
The WHO has confirmed four human bird flu cases in Turkey, including the deaths of two siblings last week from Dogubayazit in the poor eastern part of the country.
“At the moment there is no element in this village indicating human-to-human transmission. It’s typically similar to what we have seen so far (in Asia),” Guenael Rodier, heading the WHO’s mission to Turkey and a specialist on communicable diseases, told Reuters Television.
China confirms new bird flu outbreak in southwest
|
|
China confirmed a bird flu outbreak in the southwestern province of Sichuan, a Food and Agriculture Organisation official said, adding cold weather and Chinese New Year holidays could mean more cases to come.
More than 1,800 poultry were found dead on Dec. 22 on a farm in Sichuan’s Dazhu county and Agriculture Ministry officials sent to the area confirmed the birds had the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Romania confirms deadly bird flu in six villages
|
|
Romania confirmed the presence of the deadly bird flu strain in six villages east of Bucharest on Thursday after test results from a British laboratory detected the H5N1 virus in suspect poultry.
Bird flu was detected in the villages earlier this month but Romania is not able to test for the highly pathogenic strain and had to send samples to Britain for confirmation.
French experts reduce possible bird flu death toll
|
|
The arrival of a bird flu pandemic in France might cause up to 80,000 deaths, a third less than what was estimated in an initial governmental study released in January 2004, a spokeswoman from France’s Health Watch Institute (INVS) said on Tuesday.
“The reduction is due to the current level of anti-viral treatments acquired by the French government,” Isabelle Bonmarin, epidemiologist at the INVS told a bird flu conference, organised by the French High Civil Defense Committee.
U.S. grapples with bird flu preparations
|
|
The White House on Wednesday planned an exercise to see just how poorly prepared the country is to cope with an avian flu pandemic, even as lawmakers in Congress debated how much to spend for U.S. preparations.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus is spreading steadily among poultry, pushing westward out of Asia into Europe.
Tourists unfazed by bird flu in Asia
|
|
The spread of bird flu in Asia does not appear to be putting off tourists but local officials are nervous, fearing a repeat of the SARS outbreak two years ago, which made parts of the region no-go areas.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed 69 people in Asia since late 2003 and several countries in the region regularly report more suspected cases in people and outbreaks in poultry.
Parts of Africa have no bird flu defences
|
|
Some countries in Africa have no defences at all against the possible arrival of deadly bird flu, the world animal health body said on Wednesday
Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), said countries like Namibia, Botswana and South Africa had services able to deal with the deadly H5N1 virus, but others like Somalia had no systems in place.
Use of Intranasal Flu Vaccine Does Not Show Unexpected Serious Risks
|
|
Approximately 2.5 million people received the intranasal influenza vaccine the last 2 flu seasons, and a new study did not identify unexpected serious risks associated with use of this vaccine, according to an article in the December 7 issue of JAMA.
Annual influenza vaccination is the primary method for protection against influenza illness, according to background information in the article. Until the 2002-2003 influenza season, the only licensed influenza vaccine in the United States was the inactivated, trivalent (reacting immunologically with three different combining sites [as of antigens or antibodies]) injectable vaccine, with recommendations emphasizing use among individuals for whom influenza is of particular concern. In June 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed a trivalent live, attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV-T [FluMist]) for intranasal use among healthy persons 5 to 49 years of age. Each dose contains live attenuated influenza virus of the 3 strains recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service for the corresponding influenza season. Although the number of vaccinees studied during prelicensure LAIV-T clinical trials was relatively large (20,228), postlicensure administration of the vaccine to much larger populations could reveal new safety issues.
Completion of the genetic sequencing of the 1918 influenza A virus
|
|
An article by Robert Belshe, M.D., of Saint Louis University School of Medicine in the New England Journal of Medicine reviews recent “spectacular achievements of contemporary molecular biology” that hold great importance as the world prepares for a possible flu pandemic.
These achievements, including a recent genetic sequencing and recreation of the virus from the 1918 flu pandemic, “may enable us to track viruses years before they develop the capacity to replicate with high efficiency in humans,” Belshe writes.
China has another death from bird flu
|
|
China has confirmed a third human case of bird flu.
According to local media the Health Ministry has said that a 35-year-old woman farmer in Anhui province developed fever and pneumonia-like symptoms on Nov. 11 after contact with sick and dead poultry, and she died on Nov. 22.
U.S. bans some of Canada’s poultry because of bird flu
|
|
Following the discovery of a non lethal strain of the bird flu virus in a duck in British Columbia, the United States has placed an interim ban on poultry from the area.
According to Elizabeth Whiting, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Agriculture department, the U.S. will continue to accept exports from the rest of Canada.
Experts warn of bird flu risk during haj pilgrimage
|
|
Millions of pilgrims who gather in Mecca for the annual haj pilgrimage risk creating the conditions in which a pandemic strain of flu could emerge, health experts said on Monday.
“It’s the worst case scenario we can have,” said Didier Pittet, director of the Infection Control Programme at Geneva’s University Hospitals.
