Flu
Who gets bird flu vaccine first when there’s not enough to go round?
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According to the top health official in the U.S., it will be three to five years before the United States can produce enough bird flu vaccine to inoculate its population against a potentially deadly outbreak in humans.
Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, says that until production capacity is sufficient for the entire population, supplies would have to be rationed in the event of an outbreak.
National Flu Expert Available
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Dr. Brian Currie, Senior Medical Director at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is a specialist in epidemiology and infectious diseases, and is an exceptionally informed and articulate spokesperson on all aspects of flu viruses and can speak with you about H5N1. He has been quoted frequently by national print and electronic media over the past few months.
Aside from memberships in most of the important national and state infectious disease professional societies, he is a Sentinel (one of 900 worldwide) in the Emerging Infections Network, sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a fellow and consultant for domestic and international field operations for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
U.S. probes deaths of children who took Tamiflu
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U.S. regulators are studying the deaths of 12 children in Japan who took Roche AG’s flu-fighting drug Tamiflu, officials said on Thursday, but they said it was difficult to tell whether the drug played a role in any of the cases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was “concerning” that 32 psychiatric events, such as hallucinations and abnormal behavior, also had been reported in children who took Tamiflu, which is in high demand because it is considered to be one of the best defenses against avian flu in people.
Bird Flu and the Global Threat of Emerging Respiratory Diseases
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How serious is the threat posed by bird flu to human health? How might the virus change to spread more easily between humans? Are influenza epidemics cyclical, and can one predict when the next one will strike? What related diseases do we need to be on the look out for? And what measures are being taken to develop effective vaccines and drugs?
In a free, public lecture on Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 5:30pm in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Grace Auditorium, Dr. Kanta Subbarao will address these and many other intriguing questions about the H5N1 influenza strain of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.
Bird flu claims rising toll among people
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Indonesia said on Monday a 20-year-old woman had died of bird flu while several countries reported new suspected human cases of the deadly virus.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed more than 60 people in Asia and is endemic in most poultry flocks in the region.
Bird flu may cut energy demand
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Bird flu may reduce world energy demand should it evolve into a form that is easily transmitted among humans, possibly by more than a million barrels per day, Goldman Sachs said in a report.
“Should the flu mutate into a true global pandemic, the economic implications would be profound, potentially reducing energy demand by well over one million barrels per day,” the U.S. investment bank said.
More dead birds in Malaysia raises bird flu alarm
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Concern has been raised in Malaysia after a second flock of pigeons was found dead in the country’s northwest.
According to reports health officials are worried following the deaths of more than 11 wild pigeons in Sungai Petani, and they are carrying out tests for bird flu.
Experts warn of human, financial bird flu cost
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A flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion, the World Bank said on Monday, as China asked for international help to double check whether bird flu had killed a 12-year-old girl.
The World Bank set out the possible financial cost at a three-day meeting in Geneva at which hundreds of experts are drawing up a strategy to prevent bird flu from developing into a pandemic in which millions could die.
Russia warns of risk of bird flu passing to humans
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The risk of humans becoming infected with the deadly bird flu virus will remain high over coming weeks due to bird migration patterns, Russia’s emergencies ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said that new outbreaks of the H5N1 virus were possible in November, particularly in southern Russia as wild birds continued to migrate towards milder parts of Europe and the Middle East and into Africa.
Australia says regional bird flu exercise likely
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Asia-Pacific leaders will be asked to approve a plan to hold simulated bird flu exercises next year to prepare nations for an avian flu pandemic, Australia said on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum bird flu meeting in Australia this week had agreed on a set of proposals to combat bird flu, including a simulation exercise.
China steps up watch against bird flu
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China is stepping up surveillance of migratory birds and poultry markets, has canceled pigeon races and stocked up on protective clothing to check the spread of bird flu, a state newspaper said on Monday.
Three areas hit by bird flu in the provinces of Hunan and Anhui and the northern region of Inner Mongolia remained closed to outsiders, the official English-language China Daily said.
Russia registers new birdflu outbreaks
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Russia’s Agriculture Ministry said on Friday that new bird flu outbreaks had been registered in three Russian regions already hit by the virus.
A ministry statement said outbreaks had been confirmed in the Tambov region, 400 km (298 miles) southeast of Moscow, in Omsk region in eastern Siberia and Kurgan in southern Urals.
Bird flu virulence key concern for scientists
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No one can predict when or where a bird flu virus will mutate into a human pandemic strain, but scientists are preparing so that when it does, they will be ready to pounce on it, a leading virologist said on Friday.
While surveillance centres dotted around the globe are keeping an eye on changes in the H5N1 bird flu virus, Dr Jim Robertson and scientists at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Controls (NIBSC) in England are working on vaccines in case it becomes highly infectious in humans.
China says no human bird flu, French trio tested
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A girl with flu-like symptoms has died in a Chinese village where a bird flu outbreak had been reported, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Thursday, but Beijing said it had received no reports of human cases of the virus.
Three people on a French island off Africa were being tested on Wednesday in what appeared to be the first suspected human cases outside Asia of bird flu, which experts fear could mutate to spread easily from human to human and become a pandemic.
Roche withholds Tamiflu in US to stop hoarding
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Drug maker Roche Holding AG has temporarily suspended deliveries of its Tamiflu antiviral drug to the United States in order to prevent a run on stocks by consumers fearing a pandemic caused by bird flu.
Roche said it had halted deliveries of the drug to pharmacists in the United States and Canada until the start of the flu season over concerns that consumers could deplete stocks by hoarding the drug at home.
