October 14 Flu Update
ProMed confirms H5N1 in Romania.Nine people are being tested in Turkey for bird flu.
The world is shocked at the news that a girl in Vietnam has bird flu--and it is resistant to Tamiflu....if only there had been a warning.
CIDRAP follows up on this story.
When asked to comment on the implications of this study, infectious disease expert Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said the new study is important in that it confirms what we have known—that strains of H5N1 resistant to oseltamivir are emerging as the disease spreads and treatment expands. However, "What remains to be seen is how this will play out if a population is blanketed with treatment, as would be the case early in a pandemic. It would support emergence of resistant strains and even give those strains selective advantage."
Osterholm, director of CIDRAP, publisher of this Web site, added that while the stockpiling of zanamivir is a scientifically sound recommendation based on the current findings and others, limitations in the supply chain remain the roadblock. "Neither oseltamivir nor zanamivir can now be manufactured in quantities that would be meaningful once efficient human transmission started."
ProMed on the "not unexpected" Tamiflu news.
The Esteemed Helen Branswell on Tamiflu resistance.
As if in ironic counterpoint, the BBC has this on increased production of Tamiflu.
There are restrictions on bringing poultry products into the US from "most countries on the plant" and USDA officials are confident we have the situation under control.
EU meetings have led to new measures on the bird flu. They are also reassuring people that you can eat cooked chicken. They seem, unlike the USDA, to understand the concept of a migtatory bird.
The new measures, agreed upon after two days of emergency talks, focus on infection-control measures on farms and expanding early detection systems to high risk areas, such as wetlands frequented by wild birds, said a statement issued late Friday by the EU.
The Times of London has more on this perspective. Apparently, the theory is that the basic flu vaccine will help prevent the basic virus combining with the bird flu virus inside co-infected people.In an urgent announcement last night, European Union health commissioner Markos Kyprianou urged governments to begin building up stockpiles of antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu. Standard flu shots should be given to hundreds of millions of children and elderly across Europe as a precaution, he said.
"The higher the level of vaccination a member state can achieve, the better the prevention of a potential pandemic," he told reporters yesterday.
The EU is urging governments to place orders for hundreds of millions of doses of standard flu vaccine, not just to provide protection to vulnerable citizens but also to provide drug firms with the capital they need to build up manufacturing capacity so they can quickly make mass doses of vaccine against a mutated virus in the event of a general outbreak.
From Australia, a good story on the focus on vaccines.
This paper says there was panic in Germany, as people snapped up Tamiflu.
A company from India says it will make generic Tamiflu next year.
Taiwan has asked for the same thing.
The Czech Republic is buying Tamiflu.
The Prime Minister of France says there's no reason to panic.
At the same time, the French bought 2.5 million flu vaccines.
The WHO regional director, speaking in the Philippines, says that he know believes international momentum is reaching critical mass where stopping the flu might be possible.
Here's PR Newswire on the same story.
But now, nearly two years after H5N1 appeared in poultry in Thailand and Viet Nam, there was a new dimension to the fight, he said. "In the past few weeks, some of the world's wealthiest nations have stepped forward to join us in the struggle. One of the biggest coalitions in the history of public health is now taking shape, bringing together rich and poor nations, donoragencies, scientists, the business community, and bodies such as the World Health Organization and those in animal health."
Condi Rice is in China, with an important message to her hosts--and herself--on complete transparency.
The Korea Times has an editorial on the bird flu, noting health effects along with economic and political fallout.
CBS News on the "slow, steady drumbeat" of flu progression.
The New Britain Herald (CT) runs the "its not if but when" article.
Here's a story from France that says that Sanofi is preparing to begin vaccine production in Norway in Spring 2006...using cell culture technology.
"We have at this stage made significant progress in scaling up our cell culture production processes to develop clinical lots," said Michel de Wilde, Sanofi Pasteur's executive vice president, research and development.
Influenza vaccines are currently produced using embryonated chicken eggs. However, a more timely and economical production method for producing new vaccines in large quantities is required to combat a potential future influenza pandemic.
Crucell's novel PER.C6 technology uses cell culture for the production of influenza vaccine, where the virus is grown on specially selected cell lines instead of chicken eggs.
PER.C6 cells are highly susceptible to influenza viruses, thereby making the production of large amounts of influenza vaccine feasible.
This cell culture process has the potential to reduce from four weeks to two or three weeks the start-up time for manufacturing once the virus strain has been identified and could result in a more predictable manufacturing process.
Texas A&M is having a bird flu briefing.
Latest WHO update--virus is spreading, but the pandemic phase hasn't changed, and exposure to birds remains the most common route.
A MEP says that bird flu is the greatest threat facing Europe today.
Effect Measure on the delayed testing results in Romania, and poor messages sent to the public by the health officials in Europe.
ProMed carries an OIE report by Romania.
ProMed on EU bird flu measures.
Readers will recall that ProMed once housed a debate on whether migratory birds carried bird flu. From today's ProMed:
One of the main conclusions of the report is that in certain conditions migratory birds could carry the Asian H5N1 influenza virus to other parts of the world. The migratory routes of these potentially infected wild birds are mainly directed to the Caspian Sea, the Middle East, and Africa. A few of these birds could rest during the migration or migrate to western Europe.Here's ProMed on the OIE report from Turkey.
H5N1 has this report on dead birds in Kosovo, reported in Bulgaria, where attention is very close.
The Telegraph reports on the culling of the livelihood of some Romanians.
H5N1 found this report on a CDC tabletop flu quarantine exercise. As he notes, things did not go well, although, in WHO's terminology, I would term these results "not unexpected."
Note: Here's the link to the actual report, which doesn't come up (as of right now), for reasons which are open to speculation. Perhaps it will be fixed.
posted by Orange @ 8:15 AM
1 Comments:
So it seems that we've put too many of our eggs in the Tamiflu basket. Relenza will be the next drug to be snapped-up from pharmacies. But how long before Relenza doesn't work? Amantadine, an old anti-viral that is relatively cheap already doesn't work because vietnamese poultry farmers began mixing the stuff in with the feed.
Viruses seem to be able to adapt to antivirals more quickly than bacteria adapt to antibiotics- any scientific studies on this?
BTW: Saw something in the news yesterday about how the AIDS virus is getting weaker, not stronger as was the hypothesis. It's actually becoming less resistant to the various anti-AIDS drugs. A counter intuitive, unexpected result.
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