Re: Bird Flu Update (a public service to MFW)

Wow. A useful post at last! ;-)
Well done!

I'll be passing this on to my poultry lists....

Thanks!

In article <btaas1p6jh2cu3h9cr7uvi6l3d18aee4hv@xxxxxxx>,
TBR <TBR@xxxxxx> wrote:

> New findings challenge bird flu assumptions
> By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune
>
> WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2006
>
>
> ANKARA Two young brothers, aged 4 and 5, are being closely watched at
> the gleaming new Kecioren Hospital here, a police car at the entrance
> guarding a potential scientific treasure. Though both boys have tested
> positive for the H5N1 virus after contact with sick birds, neither has
> any symptoms of the frequently deadly disease.
>
> Doctors are unsure if - for the first time - they are seeing human
> bird flu in its earliest stages, or if they are discovering that
> infection with the H5N1 virus does not necessarily lead to illness.
>
> In any case, the unusual cluster of five cases detected in this
> capital city over the past four days is challenging some doctors'
> assumptions about bird flu and giving them new insights into how the
> virus spreads and causes disease.
>
> These cases have raised the possibility that human bird flu is not as
> deadly as has been thought, and that there may be many mild cases that
> have gone unreported.
>
> "The two brothers are a very interesting finding that may for the
> first time give us a chance to monitor the human response to the
> disease," said Guenael Rodier, who is leading a team of doctors and
> researchers from the World Health Organization to study bird flu here.
>
> [At a news conference here Wednesday, WHO officials urged the public
> to remain calm over the recent outbreak and to avoid contact with sick
> or dead poultry, The Associated Press reported. Turkey has raced to
> contain the outbreak, destroying 300,000 fowl and blaring warnings
> from mosque loudspeakers.
>
> "The worst situation is a panic situation. There is no reason to
> panic," Dr. Marc Danzon, the organization's regional director for
> Europe, said at a news conference with Health Minister Recep Akdag of
> Turkey. Danzon said health officials are doing "everything that is
> known to maintain and manage this difficult situation."
>
> In Rome, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization cautioned that the
> outbreak in Turkey could spread to farms in neighboring countries.
>
> "The virus may be spreading despite the control measures already
> taken," said Juan Lubroth, senior animal health officer at the agency.
> "Far more human and animal exposure to the virus will occur if strict
> containment does not isolate all known and unknown locations where the
> bird flu virus is currently present."]
>
> The run of flu outbreaks and infections that have beset this country
> in the past week is leaving international scientists perplexed on many
> fronts, because it has been so unusual. Turkey is the first country
> outside East Asia to have human cases, and the first one anywhere to
> have so many poultry outbreaks simultaneously.
>
> In one week, Turkey has announced 15 confirmed human cases of H5N1;
> Asia has seen about 140 cases in five years. In that same week,
> Turkish agricultural authorities have announced bird flu outbreaks in
> 18 cities from Aydin on the west coast to Van in the far east; in
> Asia, outbreaks have occurred more sporadically.
>
> "We are not yet sure of the mechanism," said Keith Sumption, an expert
> with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
>
> The five cases in Ankara hospitals are different than most of those
> seen in Asia. First, four of the five display only mild symptoms or no
> symptoms at all. Although all five had some recent contact with birds,
> Rodier said, they live on the fringes of a major city; they are not
> farmers or people who keep birds in their backyards.
>
> All human cases so far have occurred through close contact with birds,
> though scientists are worried that the virus might gain the ability to
> spread more easily to humans or be transmitted among them, setting off
> an epidemic.
>
> The group includes two sets of brothers: The pair who show no symptoms
> at all, and a pair from the distant suburbs who developed mild
> symptoms after contact with gloves that had been used to dispose of a
> dead duck. The fifth case is a 65-year-old man, who lives in the city
> itself. The Health Ministry said he had "close contact with a
> chicken," without elaborating on the details.
>
> In addition to observing the boys, who are being treated with
> anti-viral medicines, scientists are struggling with other questions,
> like whether bird flu might not be as deadly as thought.
>
> A study released Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine
> suggested that the H5N1 virus might cause a wide spectrum of disease,
> but that doctors in Asia might only detect the severest cases, the
> ones that went to the hospital. The four children in Ankara bolster
> that theory.
>
> In Ankara, where even people with mild symptoms are going to the
> hospitals to be checked for bird flu, milder cases might be more
> likely to be detected. The government has been sending vans with
> loudspeakers through areas like the Sincan District, where the
> 65-year-old lived, urging people to report symptoms and avoid fowl.
>
> "I'm sure that part of the explanation for the high number of cases in
> Turkey is better surveillance," said Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for
> the WHO in Geneva. "Also because of the small number of cases in Asia,
> we may not be seeing the full spectrum of disease there, and we've
> getting a better picture of that here."
>
> In one urban district of pastel-colored apartment blocks and a few
> small homes, residents said almost nobody in the area kept birds; they
> bought poultry at the supermarket.
>
> "After all these announcements we've decided not to eat chicken at
> all," said Parlak Inci, an elderly woman.
>
> But poultry is found all around Turkey. Ibrahim Ercan keeps seven
> chickens in the backyard of his small tire store, he said, "mostly as
> pets, to create a farmlike atmosphere." He is supposed to call to have
> them killed, though he has not yet.
>
> The vast number of bird flu outbreaks across Turkey is also
> perplexing, scientists said. One theory is that migrating birds seeded
> various areas in late December, although such outbreaks have not been
> reported in adjacent countries where birds would have also passed.
>
> Another possibility is that poultry-selling practices in Turkey
> contributed to the spread.
>
> In Dogubayazit, home to four of Turkey's 15 human cases, people said
> that big chicken farms from other areas often send huge trucks of old
> birds to the town, selling them to poor farmers for 1 Turkish lira, or
> about 75 cents. The last truck arrived two or three weeks ago, they
> said. If even one bird on such a truck had bird flu, experts said, it
> could have quickly infected the others on board, disseminating the
> virus to many villages.
>
>
> No new patterns seen
>
> Lawrence K. Altman of The New York Times reported from New York:
>
> New mutations in the H5N1 virus do not appear to account for its
> spread among humans in Turkey, a World Health Organization official
> said Tuesday.
>
> Though scientists have completed only the earliest stages of
> epidemiologic and virologic investigations, they have found "no
> evidence to suggest any difference in the disease pattern than what we
> have previously seen for H5N1," said Rodier, the WHO official.
>
> The molecular pattern of the viruses that have infected people and
> animals is similar, said Rodier, who added that he had "no reason to
> believe anything strange is going on."
>
> The WHO does not intend to issue any restrictions for travel to Turkey
> now, he said.
>
> Rodier said that transmission seemed to be occurring in families with
> children in an epidemiologic picture that closely resembled the one
> seen in East Asia. The recent cases identified in Turkey are the first
> outside of East Asia.
>
> The sudden appearance of a number of cases of avian influenza in
> different parts of Turkey is worrisome, Rodier said, but is probably
> linked to the complexities of bird migration. There seems to be "more
> efficient transmission from animals to humans," he said.
>
> A clearer picture may emerge from studies health workers are
> considering in which they would test blood from a number of people to
> determine the extent of infections in Turkish communities.
>
> ANKARA Two young brothers, aged 4 and 5, are being closely watched at
> the gleaming new Kecioren Hospital here, a police car at the entrance
> guarding a potential scientific treasure. Though both boys have tested
> positive for the H5N1 virus after contact with sick birds, neither has
> any symptoms of the frequently deadly disease.
>
> Doctors are unsure if - for the first time - they are seeing human
> bird flu in its earliest stages, or if they are discovering that
> infection with the H5N1 virus does not necessarily lead to illness.
>
> In any case, the unusual cluster of five cases detected in this
> capital city over the past four days is challenging some doctors'
> assumptions about bird flu and giving them new insights into how the
> virus spreads and causes disease.
>
> These cases have raised the possibility that human bird flu is not as
> deadly as has been thought, and that there may be many mild cases that
> have gone unreported.
>
> "The two brothers are a very interesting finding that may for the
> first time give us a chance to monitor the human response to the
> disease," said Guenael Rodier, who is leading a team of doctors and
> researchers from the World Health Organization to study bird flu here.
>
> [At a news conference here Wednesday, WHO officials urged the public
> to remain calm over the recent outbreak and to avoid contact with sick
> or dead poultry, The Associated Press reported. Turkey has raced to
> contain the outbreak, destroying 300,000 fowl and blaring warnings
> from mosque loudspeakers.
>
> "The worst situation is a panic situation. There is no reason to
> panic," Dr. Marc Danzon, the organization's regional director for
> Europe, said at a news conference with Health Minister Recep Akdag of
> Turkey. Danzon said health officials are doing "everything that is
> known to maintain and manage this difficult situation."
>
> In Rome, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization cautioned that the
> outbreak in Turkey could spread to farms in neighboring countries.
>
> "The virus may be spreading despite the control measures already
> taken," said Juan Lubroth, senior animal health officer at the agency.
> "Far more human and animal exposure to the virus will occur if strict
> containment does not isolate all known and unknown locations where the
> bird flu virus is currently present."]
>
> The run of flu outbreaks and infections that have beset this country
> in the past week is leaving international scientists perplexed on many
> fronts, because it has been so unusual. Turkey is the first country
> outside East Asia to have human cases, and the first one anywhere to
> have so many poultry outbreaks simultaneously.
>
> In one week, Turkey has announced 15 confirmed human cases of H5N1;
> Asia has seen about 140 cases in five years. In that same week,
> Turkish agricultural authorities have announced bird flu outbreaks in
> 18 cities from Aydin on the west coast to Van in the far east; in
> Asia, outbreaks have occurred more sporadically.
>
>
> All human cases so far have occurred through close contact with birds,
> though scientists are worried that the virus might gain the ability to
> spread more easily to humans or be transmitted among them, setting off
> an epidemic.
>
> The group includes two sets of brothers: The pair who show no symptoms
> at all, and a pair from the distant suburbs who developed mild
> symptoms after contact with gloves that had been used to dispose of a
> dead duck. The fifth case is a 65-year-old man, who lives in the city
> itself. The Health Ministry said he had "close contact with a
> chicken," without elaborating.
> ====================
>
> WITHOUT ELABORATING? That sounds like the best part of the story to
> me...
>
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson
.

Relevant Pages

  • Bird Flu Update (a public service to MFW)
    ... New findings challenge bird flu assumptions ... infection with the H5N1 virus does not necessarily lead to illness. ... Turkey has raced to ... The run of flu outbreaks and infections that have beset this country ...
    (misc.fitness.weights)
  • Belgium testing man for bird flu
    ... Belgian officials are testing a man for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus ... after he returned ill from Turkey. ... Three people have died and 18 have been infected in Turkey by the ...
    (rec.travel.europe)
  • British report Turkish bird flu has mutated
    ... The evidence that the bird flu virus has mutated is disturbing ... Mediterranean will be reduced, not just Turkey. ... the past to allow the virus to infect a greater range of cells. ...
    (rec.travel.europe)
  • Fowl Play in Turkey: Bird Flu Takes Flight
    ... Bird flu spreads across Turkey ... infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus in Turkey, ... directly among the human population rather than from birds to people. ...
    (rec.birds)
  • Bird Flu News 3-21--6
    ... Aid Needed To Curb Bird Flu Virus ... the H5N1 virus in wild birds, are trying to prevent the virus from ... Russia first recorded bird flu, including the H5N1 strain, in Siberia ...
    (misc.survivalism)