June 2 Flu Update
The 8 year girl we reported yesterday has died in Indonesia. The case is not WHO-confirmed. Here's the potentially troubling side of the story.The girl's 10-year-old brother died three days earlier with similar flulike symptoms, but no samples were taken, said Dr. Hariadi Wibisono, a senior official at the national Health Department. The boy died in an emergency room before being treated, and the family immediately took him home
ProMed reports on another new case, a sick nurse who has suspected H5N1. Also reports on the girl above--note that some stories have her as 7, not 8. Note the mod comment from CP:
The deceased 7-year-old girl in the second report may identify another potential cluster, since her brother died also of a flu-like illness although he was never tested for H5N1 virus infection.
There's a new outbreak among birds in Southern Niger.
People who survived the earthquake in Indonesia are taking shelter in chicken coups. Warnings come now that they could be at risk for bird flu.
WHO says that there is no evidence of a mutation causing bird flu to spread more easily to humans.
Effect Measure on the bird flu response in Indonesia...or lack thereof. Also notes stronger actions from WHO, and hopes it is a signal of a trend toward stronger international controls.
FAO reports that it will track migratory birds, but that human activities are "principally" responsible for the spread of bird flu.
ProMed on this as well. Mod comments contain this interesting (and mildy alarming) commentary from someone who attended the conference.
Heads seem to be still firmly in the sand regarding the risks posed by commercial poultry. The birders did their best to defend the birds (which obviously do play a big part in viral spread, this is accepted), and Billy Karesh showed a good map of global wildlife trade which is not quite the same thing. Some countries' prime ministers have advocated cutting the tops off trees so that wild birds cannot roost. They seemed to think that mallard ducks roost in trees!"
My own suspicion is that we may be entering the closing phase of serious interest and equivalent funding on this virus unless something happens to maintain the hyper-sensitivity. If I am right,valid projects, like the above, will die from financial malnutrition and inattention -- until we are faced with the next international threat du jour.
Farm Ducks found in Denmark did not have H5N1.
CIDRAP on two recombinant vaccine approaches developed for chickens which could be applicable to humans.
The World Bank has allocated $7M to Georgia to fight bird flu.
An economist says a pandemic could cut economic output in New Zealand by 5-10%.
A regional APEC flu simulation will be held in Australia starting Tuesday.
South Africa says it is ready if bird flu strikes.
Xinhua has an interview with a WHO officials on actions being taken in Africa to fight the bird flu.
Effect Measure on the rather dizzying story of sharing the Indonesian flu sequences.
Not surprisingly, there appear to be lots of problems with the Hungarian human flu vaccine.
'Hungary's results initially showed that the vaccine would contain 30mg of active antigen, but it turned out that there may have only been 6mg, which would have made it highly ineffective,' Klaus Stohr, the WHO's advisor on influenza pandemic vaccines, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'In the context of this uncertainty, we recommended they share the blood of vaccinated people for result verification. This has not happened,' he said. 'We can't make an assessment, but we would like to confirm the results, which initially looked promising.'
posted by Orange @ 7:17 AM
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