19 Dec 2007
Avian flu situation
This is the first edition of a summary with news facts which handle avian flu. I have made these kind of summaries in Dutch for one and a half year now. Recently I wrote edition 74. Because there is a growing demand for an English version of this news I will try to provide a Dutch and an English version of these summaries and I hope to inform you about the avian flu developments.
Science17
December 2007 A medical team from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Pakistan to investigate a possible human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus in the country's north-west region. The team, which arrived from Geneva, was due to travel to the North-West Frontier Province to join other WHO staff in the towns of Manshera and Abbotabad, site of the country's first-ever human cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to WHO officials in Islamabad.
At least two people have died and a total of eight were infected, including a number of blood relatives, prompting Pakistan's Ministry of Health requesting the WHO to investigate a possible human-to-human transmission, which is extremely rare but has occurred among family members in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Flu outbreaks
18 December 2007 Benin became the latest in a string of West African states to report cases of H5N1 bird flu after laboratory tests confirmed the deadly virus on two poultry farms. Agriculture Minister Robert Dovonou said in a statement that test results from a laboratory in Italy confirmed the H5N1 virus in cases discovered this month north of the capital Porto Novo and on a farm in the commercial capital Cotonou. Benin's immediate neighbours, Nigeria, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso, have all reported H5N1 cases. Other regional states hit include Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon. Eastern neighbour Nigeria is one of the regional countries worst affected by bird flu. It reported sub-Saharan Africa's first confirmed human death from the disease early this year.
Miscellaneous
18 December 2007 The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the death of a 47-year-old Indonesian man from the H5N1 strain of bird flu. There have been 209 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain and 340 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to WHO data.
18 December 2007 Swedish authorities raised the alert level in the southern part of the country on Tuesday after outbreaks of bird flu in Germany and Poland. The Board of Agriculture said that while there were no reports of increased deaths among poultry or wild fowl in Sweden, there were cases in parts of Poland, near the Baltic Sea.
The protection level in southern Sweden, south of the main Dalalven river, was raised from level one to level two, meaning a "moderate risk," the board said.
Effective from Wednesday, poultry have to be kept indoors, while poultry and other bird exhibitions and competitions were banned.
Ducks, geese, and other farmed game birds and hobby flocks were allowed to remain outdoors but behind fences, the board said.
Heimen Huisman
Comments
22 Dec 2007
Avian flu situation (2)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
19 December 2007 If everyone thought the mutated human killer variant of bird flu had died a death over the last few months, you would have been totally wrong. All the following flu outbreaks were recorded this month: China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Poland, Benin, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Germany.
But the most disturbing news is that scientists have created the human killer virus in the lab. The dreaded H5N1 avian flu, as feared, finally mutated last August into a virulent form that can easily spread from person to person, increasing the likelihood of a pandemic that could kill hundreds of millions — much like 1918’s infamous Spanish flu.
Luckily, this mutation was the creation by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the mutated strain lives — for now — only in Petri dishes.
But it shows this is clearly on the horizon, for if it can be created in the lab, it is only a matter of time before it can replicate itself in the world at large.
22 December 2007 The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there was no need for a massive vaccine campaign against the bird flu virus (H5N1) because it has not been proven that it would become a pandemic.
"There is no evidence available that would say that we should begin vaccinating populations across the board with H5N1 at this point in order to prevent a pandemic because it is not known what may cause a pandemic"
Flu outbreaks
20 December 2007 A third outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus has occurred in south Russia.
The fresh outbreak of avian influenza took place in the Rostov Region, in the village of Shosseiny, some 10 km (6 miles) from the poultry farm where the first case of bird flu was registered in the region in late November.
37 dead poultry were found, following which the entire population of 50 birds was culled.
Birds started dying at the Gulyai-Borisovskaya poultry farm in the Rostov Region on November 29, and an analysis showed traces of the lethal H5N1 strain. The farm's entire population of 500,000 chickens has since been culled. A bird flu outbreak was later registered at private subsidiary holdings located close to the farm.
21 December 2007 A common buzzard found dead in Hong Kong has tested positive for the deadly bird flu virus. Laboratory tests confirmed the bird, found on rural Lantau Island on Monday, was infected with the H5N1 strain. The common buzzard is a winter visitor to Hong Kong.
22 December 2007 Laboratory tests have confirmed a fresh outbreak of deadly H5N1 avian flu in the same area of northern Poland where the virus was discovered earlier this month.
The presence of the H5N1 virus has been confirmed by the State Veterinary Institute in (dead) chickens found on an egg-producing farm in the district of Zuromin. Preparations were under way to cull birds on four poultry farms in the village of Sadlowo Parcele, where 186,000 egg-laying hens are found.
Miscellaneous
19 December 2007 Pakistan said there was no threat of a pandemic from bird flu, as World Health Organisation experts visited the country's northwest which reported the first human death from the virus.
Pakistani authorities confirmed at the weekend eight human bird flu cases, including the one death that the WHO said were likely a combination of infections from poultry and limited person to person transmission due to close contact.
19 December 2007 Bird flu protection measures imposed following the November outbreak of the disease have all been lifted.
Restrictions on bird gatherings and movements of poultry and poultry meat within the zones affected have also been removed.
The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the move followed advice that the disease was confined to two farms in Suffolk.
However, the cause of the outbreak is still unknown.
Acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said there would be an ongoing investigation to find the source of the virus.
Heimen Huisman
29 Dec 2007
Avian flu situation(3)A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
27 December 2007 A recent study supports a theory that seasonal flu vaccines may offer a slight amount of protection against bird flu, Italian researchers reported.
Cristiana Gioia, Maria Capobianchi and colleagues at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani in Rome tested the blood of 42 volunteers who had been vaccinated against seasonal influenza. In the laboratory, they added H5N1 virus to the blood and found that in some of the volunteers immune system antibodies acted against the bird flu virus. "Our findings indicate that seasonal vaccination can raise neutralizing immunity against (H5N1 avian influenza) virus," the researchers concluded. This could help explain why H5N1, which only rarely affects people, is even rarer among the elderly, Gioia's team wrote. "This finding may be explained by hypothesizing that older people, although not previously exposed to H5N1 subtype, may have gained protective immunity by previous infections sustained by circulating influenza virus strains," they wrote.
Flu outbreaks
22 December 2007 Jordan is trying to prevent an outbreak of bird flu from crossing over from Saudi Arabia. Jordan has raised its state of alert to its highest level and resumed field inspections of bird farms and poultry stores.
Under the alert, non-processed livestock from Saudi Arabia is banned from entering Jordan. Saudi Arabia reported culling thousands of birds after finding four outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of the disease on a farm about 50 miles south of Riyadh. The birds ordered destroyed included 13,500 ostriches at a farm.
25 December 2007 A fifth case of bird flu has been confirmed at a farm in the Rostov Region, south Russia, close to the site of previous outbreaks, the regional emergencies ministry said. "The outbreak at two smallholdings was registered on Saturday, samples were taken and sent for analysis, they came back positive for bird flu," the ministry said.
25 December 2007 The third case of the deadly bird flu virus in ten days has been discovered on a small poultry farm in the German state of Brandenburg resulting in the culling of 46 chickens. The H5N1 virus was detected among 15 chickens on a property in the state, which surrounds the German capital Berlin.
The property's owner, who had contacted officials on Monday, was also looking after a neighbouring property with 31 chickens over the Christmas period. As a precaution the chickens on both properties were destroyed.
Miscellaneous
25 December 2007 More than half-million birds have been killed on a southern Russian farm in the wake of an avian flu outbreak. Officials say the chickens were destroyed to prevent the spread of the H5N1 flu strain. The virus has also sickened birds in a neighbouring district, and authorities say they're taking steps to keep it from spreading.
26 December 2007 A 24-year-old woman from the outskirts of Indonesia's capital has died of bird flu, raising the country's death toll from the virus to 94. The woman from Cengkarang, on the western outskirts of Jakarta, was hospitalized for six days. She died early Tuesday and two laboratories confirmed she was infected with bird flu.
26 December 2007 An Egyptian woman has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the 16th person to succumb to the virus in Egypt. Oula Yunes Ali, 25, died after being admitted to hospital with a high fever.
Women and children have borne the brunt of the virus due to their role in taking care of domestic fowl.
27 December 2007 The Vietnamese Health Ministry confirmed the 47th known death in the country from bird flu.
The victim, a four-year-old child from the country's northern Shonla province, died of pneumonia on December 16 in a hospital in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital.
Subsequent tests confirmed on December 26 that the child had been infected with the deadly H5N1 form of avian influenza. The death was the first known fatality from bird flu in Vietnam since the beginning of August.
It is not known how the child, whose gender has not been given, became infected. However, some reports say that he or she may have eaten a chicken which had died of unknown causes.
Heimen Huisman
Review bird flu 2007
The end of the year is the time to reflect on the past year. In this contribution I would like to reflect on the bird flu. In order to do this I read through my contributions from this last year and have used the figures to try to make a summary.
First of all I looked at how often the bird flu broke out and where. The results will be on the low side because not everything was reported, but it will still give you some insight.
I have made two categories, one over the outbreak under wild birds and one under poultry. The following countries reported bird flu under wild birds.
Hong Kong---- 5
Germany--------4 (comment. At one given time it was reported that 153 birds with H5N1 had been found)
France---------- 2
Thailand-------- 1
Afghanistan----1
Pakistan-------- 1
Austria---------- 1
Siberia-----------1 (comment. At one given time it was reported that 50 birds with H5N1 had been found)
The following countries reported bird flu under poultry.
Bangladesh------- 12
Vietnam------------ 11
Pakistan------------10
South Korea---------8
Myanmar-------------7
Poland----------------7
Germany-------------6
Russia---------------6
Check Slovakia-----5
Hungary-------------4
Japan---------------- 4
Thailand------------ 4
China---------------- 3
England----------- 3
Ghana--------------- 3
Nigeria-------------- 3
Turkey--------------- 3
Benin-----------------2
France--------------- 2
Kuwait--------------2
Cambodia-----------1
Egypt-------------- 1
India----------------- 1
Indonesia---------- 1
Romania----------1
Saudi Arabia------1
Togo-----------------1
It is clear from this summary that the number of outbreaks of bird flu under poultry is substantial and is also higher than the previous year. Previously bird flu was generally reported because dead wild birds had been found and now it is more often a poultry farm. I don’t think it means that there isn’t any bird flu under the wild birds, but that there are less dead wild birds found because the virus is no longer deadly for wild birds.
I don’t think that all contaminations are reported because, take for example Indonesia, the land with the largest number of human victims, only reported one contamination in the media. These figures give an indication but the reality is probably much worse.
The human victims are of course more important and it is disarming that there are victims continually. In total there have been 340 human bird flu contaminations in 13 countries, where from 209 have died, bringing the death percentage to 61%.
In 2007 there were an additional 79 contaminations and 52 victims, which was 10 more than in 2006.
The most striking feature is that most victims are young and the reason for this is not clear. Recently Italian scientists have discovered that the resistance that humans build up against the ordinary flu also provides resistance to the contamination with bird flu. Because old people have often been in contact with the flu virus during their lives means that their resistance is larger and is possibly the reason why the majority of victims are young.
The World Health Organization is still worried that the bird flu a pandemic, that is to say can cause a worldwide flu virus whereby millions of victims will be claimed. This is only possible if the virus changes into a variant that is dangerous for humans. Large concentrations of poultry are the ideal conditions for a virus to spread and change.
How the bird flu will spread is not clear, but it is clear that transport plays a big role, but the role of migratory birds is still not evident.
The many obscure, but yet still continuous contaminations and victims will still lead to fear and all sorts of sanctions.
The pigeon sport has been seriously affected by the outbreaks of bird flu this past year.
- France was forbidden terrain for a long time
- A scenario that forbids races as soon as there was an outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands
- A lot of confusion and emotional reactions from the fanciers
- Lack of clarity and communication by management
And there was also bird flu in the Netherlands and Belgium. And then?
In my estimate trying to convince government and science that pigeons don’t form a risk is not the beneficial way.
There is not enough solidarity about the risks under the scientists, per definition the choice for the lowest risk will be taken, which means that pigeonsform a risk , however small, and won’t be exempt from the sanctions.
I think it is better, together with the government, to find a way that disrupts the pigeon sport as little as possible and reassures the government because they have taken trusting measures.
Holding fast to the idea that pigeons are not a risk could have a negative effect on the pigeon sport.
A lobby in the EU can be beneficial as long as Europe continues to function in the same manner as now and every country decides for itself, but where no miracles are expected.
My advice would be:
Management: Keep in contact with the government, understand their position and work together whereby the pigeon sport, eventually with restrictions, can still function.
Fanciers: Try to be united because discord can only work negatively and internal arguments have never led to success.
Much success and sportsmanship in 2008.
Heimen Huisman
01 Jan 2007
Avian flu situation(4)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
No relevant news items detected.
Flu outbreaks
28 December 2007 Nearly 2,000 chickens have been culled in a village in northern Bangladesh after the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected at a poultry farm.
The latest infection was detected in the Dinajpur district, 420 km (260 miles) from the capital Dhaka, a senior official of Fisheries and Livestock said.
Bird flu was first detected near the capital in March and has since spread mainly to northern districts and forced authorities to cull about 275,000 chickens and destroy nearly 3 million eggs.
29 December 2007 Military-ruled Myanmar has detected a new outbreak of bird flu among chickens in the country's eastern Shan state, an official and state media said.
Authorities confirmed the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus after an unspecified number of chickens had died in Yankham village, 580 kilometres (360 miles) northeast of Yangon.
"We killed more than 1,000 chickens, and so far found no case of human infection," said the official.
30 December 2007 Bird flu has killed hundreds of ducks and chickens in southern Tra Vinh Province.
The Vietnam Animal Health Department has confirmed that the deaths this week in the province’s Tra Vinh Town, Chau Thanh, Cau Ngang and Cang Long districts were the result of the deadly H5N1 virus.
Some had not been vaccinated, while the remainder were injected just two or three days before dying. The vaccine needs at least seven days to allow the birds to develop sufficient antibodies against the virus.
31 December 2007 Bangladesh culled more than 2,500 chickens after the H5N1 bird flu virus infected more farms in the northern part of the country.
The latest infection was detected in two villages in the Gaibandha district, about 350 km (210 miles) from the capital Dhaka, an official of the government’s livestock department said.
Miscellaneous
27 December 2007 Two Egyptians have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, one day after an Egyptian woman died of the disease, Egypt's health ministry said. "There are two cases, one in Damietta and one in Menoufia... lab results confirmed that they are infected with bird flu," said Amr Kandeel, head of communicable disease control at the health ministry. The two new cases, both of whom are currently receiving treatment in hospital, bring the total number of human bird flu cases in Egypt to 41, Kandeel added. State news agency MENA said the Menoufia case was 22-year-old Nora Aboul Abbas Mohamed, but gave no details for the second case.
27 December 2007 The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a single case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a family in Pakistan but said there was no apparent risk of it spreading further.
30 December 2007 A 25-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird Flu, the second fatality amongst humans in Egypt in less than a week.
Fatma Fathi Mohamed died in hospital in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, three days after she was admitted to a smaller local hospital with a high temperature and difficulty with breathing. Her death was the 17th in Egypt since the virus was first detected in February 2006.
31 December 2007 China’s latest bird flu patient, whose case raised fears of human-to-human transmission of the virus, has been discharged from hospital after recovering.
The patient, a 52-year-old man who has been identified only by his surname Lu, was hospitalised with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus soon after his son died from it on December 2. The case prompted the World Health Organisation to warn about the risks of human-to-human transmission of the virus, a route that remains rare, but which experts say could become more common if the virus mutates and possibly cause a global pandemic.
The elder Lu was discharged from an unidentified hospital in the eastern province of Jiangsu on December 26, after making a sufficient recovery.
31 December 2007 An Egyptian woman died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu on Monday. The health ministry said that this was the third such death in less than a week. Fardos Mohammed Haddad, 36, from the Nile Delta province of Menufia died in Menuf hospital where she had been admitted with a very high fever.
1 January 2008 Egypt's health ministry said another woman has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the fourth such death in a week.
Hanem Atwa Ibrahim, 50, from Damietta north of Cairo, died in a hospital in the capital and was the 19th death from the disease in Egypt. Atwa was admitted to hospital on December 24 and had been in a critical condition ever since.
Heimen Huisman
09 Dec 2008
Avian flu situation(5)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
3 January 2008 Dutch scientists have concluded that a breakthrough Avian Influenza vaccine may be effective against multiple strains of the virus.
ViroClinics, a small company run by the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, has tested the vaccine against bird flu developed by a British pharmaceutical firm on 20 ferrets, which have bronchial tubes similar to those of humans.
The vaccine against the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus tested on animals was developed by the British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smith Klein (GSK).
The vaccine offered protection to those ferrets not only against the H5N1 virus, but several other bird flu viruses that occur worldwide.
8 januari 2008 U.S. researchers say they've discovered a critical difference between flu viruses that infect birds and humans. Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists said it appears a virus's ability to infect humans depends on whether it can bind to one specific shape of receptor on the surface of human respiratory cells.
"The discovery could aid in the development of vaccines against a deadly flu pandemic," MIT said.
"Now that we know what to look for, this could help us not only to monitor the bird flu virus, but it can aid in the development of potentially improved therapeutic interventions for both avian and seasonal flu," senior author Ram Sasisekharan said.
Flu outbreaks
1 January 2008 Egypt has culled 1,599 domestic poultry suspected of contracting bird flu in its latest efforts to prevent further spread of the fatal disease in the populous Middle East and North Africa country. The culling of birds was carried out in four governorates. Under the supervision of a committee, the dead poultry was buried deep between two layers of white lime. The preventive medicine department has launched a campaign to vaccinate live poultry against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the country, with the participation of 3,000 veterinarians, assistants and drivers.
2 January 2008 The H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in another poultry farm in northern Bangladesh, forcing authorities to cull nearly 300 chickens.
The latest infection was at Dinajpur town, 410 km (250 miles) from the capital.
3 January 2008 A deadly strain of the bird flu virus has infected chickens in northern Israel.
The virus was found at a nusery petting zoo in the northern Israeli city of Binyamina, more than ten kilometers south to the city of Haifa.
18 of the 25 chickens in the petting zoo were earlier found dead.
The Haifa District Physician Prof. Shmuel Rishpon confirmed that the chickens were infected by the H5N1 bird flu virus.
3 January 2008 Bird flu has killed 350 white-winged ducks in northern Vietnam this week, the first outbreak in poultry detected this year.
The virus was found at a farm raising two-month-old ducks in the Thai Nguyen province and animal health workers slaughtered all the remaining birds there to prevent it spreading.
4 January 2008 China has reported an outbreak in poultry of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in its far west Xinjiang region. The first bird flu outbreak in the country since September came about a month after the virus killed a 24-year-old man in the eastern province of Jiangsu. The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus as a subtype of the H5N1.
5 January 2008 Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh, forcing health and veterinary workers to cull around 1,500 birds.
The latest H5N1 infection was reported in Kurigram, 380 km north from the capital.
Bird flu was first reported near the capital in March last year and has since spread mainly to northern districts, forcing authorities to kill more than 300,000 chickens.
Miscellaneous
4 January 2008 The four-year-old child from Vietnam's northern Son La province, who died in mid-December 2007 from bird flu, may have been infected with bird flu virus strain H5N1 from wild birds.
All specimens from poultry in the province have been tested negative to H5N1, so the child might have contracted the virus from infected wild birds hunted and brought home by his family members.
Heimen Huisman
15 Jan 2008
Avian flu situation(6)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
No relevant news items found
Bird flu outbreaks
10 January 2008 Three wild swans found dead in Dorset have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The birds were found in the Chesil Beach area of the county during routine surveillance.
A control area has been set up in the area, within which bird owners must isolate their flocks from wild birds. No disease has been found in domestic birds, and a programme of surveillance of wild birds is to be carried out.
Defra said there were no plans to cull wild flocks as this may disperse birds further. The Government's acting chief veterinary officer, Fred Landeg, said: "While this is obviously unwelcome news, we have always said that Britain is at a constant low level of risk of introduction of avian influenza.
13 January 2008 Bird flu has killed nearly 500 chickens at a poultry farm in northeastern Bangladesh in what officials said was the first outbreak of the disease in that area.
The farm is in Moulavibazar district, about 250 km (155 miles) from the capital.
"After the confirmation of bird flu, authorities culled nearly 800 chickens, ducks and birds in a one-kilometer area around the affected farm," he said.
13 January 2008 Around 25,000 poultry birds have died in a farm along the India-Bangladesh border at Margram in Rampurhat area of Birbhum district, sparking fears of a bird flu breakout.
Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) said: "It might be a case of bird flu. Thousands of chickens have died of bird flu-like symptoms in the farm in the past few days. We have already taken all preventive measures and sent samples of dead birds to the Bhopal laboratory."
Miscellaneous
9 January 2008 Nearly five percent of 15,000 samples from healthy poultry in different cities and provinces in Vietnam have been tested positive to bird flu viruses.Nearly 1.8 percent of tested waterfowls have bird flu viruses.
Fowls having high rates of bearing the viruses are raised in Lang Son, Ha Nam and Thai Binh in the northern region, Ha Tinh, DaNang and Quang Nam in the central region, and Long An, Dong Thap, Ca Mau and Tra Vinh in the southern region.
9 January 2008 Poland has managed to contain its recent outbreaks of bird flu and improved its general animal disease situation.
Since early December, Polish authorities had reported nine outbreaks of highly pathogenic strains of the disease in poultry and one in a shelter for wild birds.
The last reported outbreak occurred more than two weeks ago in a laying hen flock in northern Poland, in the same area where the virus was discovered in early December.
In response to the outbreaks, Poland applied standard EU-approved protection measures to contain avian influenza in domestic poultry -- including the slaughter of all birds in the affected holdings and tightening movement restrictions.
12 January 2008 Indonesia has recorded another human case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising its world-leading total to 117 cases, according to the World Health Organization.
The agency said that the Indonesian Health Ministry had reported that a 16-year-old girl from West Java Province has been hospitalized since Jan. 4 with symptoms of the disease. It said the strain had been confirmed as H5N1.
12 January 2008 Two dead swans have tested negative for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a reserve where three birds were earlier found infected with the deadly virus.
The three infected swans were found at the Abbotsbury Swannery, an open reserve in the Chesil Beach area of Dorset on December 27, 31 and January 4.
Another dead swan was found along the Fleet lagoon at the historic tourist attraction and will be sent for testing.
14 January 2008 A 32-year-old Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, the health ministry said in a statement, bringing the toll to 95 in the nation worst hit by the H5N1 virus.
"The patient died at home on January 10," the statement was quoted, adding that two laboratory tests had since confirmed that she was infected with the bird flu virus.
Heimen Huisman
18 Jan 2008
Avian flu situation(7)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
16 January 2008 Dr. Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), believes the H5N1 avian influenza virus still has the potential to cause a human flu pandemic, the OIE said in an effort to clarify news reports of comments Vallat made last week.
At a meeting with reporters Jan 10, Vallat described the H5N1 virus as extremely stable and said the risk of a pandemic associated with it had been "overestimated" in the past, according to news service reports published the same day. Today's OIE statement says Vallat's comments came at an informal meeting with reporters, during which he discussed OIE activities and reporters asked about the H5N1 situation. The statement does not specifically criticize any of the reports of Vallat's comments, but it says he made clear that the H5N1 virus still could evolve into a pandemic strain.
Bird flu outbreaks
15 January 2008 Preliminary tests on samples of dead birds from Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts of West Bengal have confirmed bird flu.
Reports quoting an Agriculture Ministry official said that an outbreak could be declared once a confirmation is received from the Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal.
Close to 10,000 chickens died in the last 10 days at Margram in Birbhum. Reports say that over 15,000 birds have perished since December 29 but apparently, the government took few measures at the time.
16 January 2008 A fourth swan at a swannery in Dorset has tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, environment department Defra has said.
Three mute swans found dead last week at the Abbotsbury Swannery also tested positive for the strain of the disease.
Tests have been conducted on birds around the nearby Chesil Beach, as vets try to contain the outbreak.
Culling has been ruled out so far but there are restrictions on movements of captive birds nearby.
18 January 2008 A new outbreak of the strain of bird flu that is deadly to humans has struck Ukraine after being kept under control for two years, veterinarians said. Ukraine's Veterinary Inspectorate said the outbreak was detected this week in the village of Rovnoye in the Crimean peninsula, the same region hit in late 2005.
A total of 153 birds died suddenly at a private firm where more than 25,000 poultry were kept. "Tests were concluded and DNA of the H5N1 virus was found," a veterinary inspectorate spokesman said.
18 January 2008 Iranian veterinary authorities have detected a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus among migratory and indigenous birds in the north of the country. "The strain of highly pathogenic bird flu that had been detected among migratory swans in ponds at Anzali has been discovered among wild geese and ducks around lakes in Barzanghib and among local birds," veterinary chief was quoted as saying.
"All the chickens in the neighbouring village have been destroyed," Norouzi said, adding a warning against people hunting birds in the area.
Norouzi said no cases of bird flu had been found among farm birds.
Miscellaneous
15 January 2008 16-year-old Indonesian girl died from bird flu, raising the country's death toll to 96.
The girl, from the town of Bekasi on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, developed symptoms on Dec. 30 and had been hospitalized since Jan. 4. It was the second bird flu fatality in Indonesia this year.
She died and laboratory results showed she had an infection of the H5N1 strain of the virus.
17 January 2008 The World Health Organisation or WHO has warned that India has big trouble on its hands - hinting that the Bird Flu outbreak could perhaps be one of the worst ever, more severe than previously encountered.
A WHO statement released (January 17) reads: "More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than previously encountered, including that the affected areas are more widespread and because of proximity to extended border areas." Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar meanwhile has said that an alert has been sounded not only in West Bengal but across the country. "We have taken strong measures to counter the Bird Flu threat from the Bangladesh border. We have passed on all information to the West Bengal government and sounded a countrywide alert. International guidelines are being followed in the culling operations in West Bengal," said Pawar.
The statement comes after the Centre, facing a crisis and coming under harsh criticism for its handling of the outbreak, began a blame game alleging that the state government had pressed the alarm button at least a week after it received information about abnormal poultry deaths in the state.
18 January 2008 An eight-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the health ministry said, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to 97. The boy from Tangerang, west of the capital Jakarta, died after being treated for one day at the country's main bird flu treatment centre.
The ministry said the fact the boy's neighbour ran a chicken slaughterhouse was a risk factor and it was investigating.
18 January 2008 The bird flu outbreak in West Bengal has hit poultry traders in the northern parts of the country, and eggs and broiler chicken are being sold at throwaway prices.
The fear of the humans getting infected by the avian influenza has pushed down the sales of poultry products in Punjab. Meanwhile, panic has gripped poultry owners in West Bengal as they incur huge losses due to culling of thousands of poultry to contain the spread of bird flu.
Poultry owners in Margram village say their businesses have been severely hit due to the disease.
Heimen Huisman
22 Jan 2008
Avian flu situation(
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
22 January 2008 Countries afflicted with H5N1 avian flu sent more than 700 viruses to World Health Organization laboratories from 2003 to 2007 - and nearly a quarter of them came from Indonesia. Of 734 viruses currently stored in WHO labs, 171 were provided by Indonesia, the country which for the past year has been at the centre of a standoff over access to viruses. China, thought to be the birthplace of the H5N1 virus, has provided 22 viruses to the WHO network, 20 in 2006 and two in 2007. Its special administrative region, Hong Kong, has provided another four.
The WHO needs the samples to monitor the ever-shifting H5N1 virus, to watch for mutations that might signal it is becoming more transmissible to and among humans and test whether the viruses are vulnerable or resistant to the few available anti-flu drugs.
Bird flu outbreaks
18 January 2008 A fifth dead swan has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a reserve, it was confirmed.
Three other wild swans tested positive for the virus last week after they were found dead at the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, an open reserve in the Chesil Beach area, during routine surveillance.
19 January 2008 Bird flu spread to two new districts in an eastern Indian state, officials confirmed, as veterinary staff struggled to cull thousands of birds in the face of resistance from farmers. The H5N1 virus was found in dead birds in Burdwan and Nadia, taking to five the number of infected districts in West Bengal state.
The virus was also spreading to new areas within already infected districts.
Officials said they were immediately extending culling operations to the newly affected areas. West Bengal began culling more than 400,000 chickens and ducks in three districts this week.
22 January 2008 Turkish authorities confirmed the presence of the deadly bird flu virus among chickens in a village in the northern Black Sea region. An Agriculture Ministry spokesman confirmed that the virus was the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
22 January 2008 In a report, the Animal Health Department said tests have confirmed that bird flu has infected poultry in Tuyen Quang province. It said chickens and white-winged ducks died at a farm in the province early this month and health officials took samples from 11 birds on Jan 17. for bird flu tests. They found three of the 11 samples carried the H5N1 virus.
Miscellaneous
20 January 2008 Around 100,000 poultry birds have been culled in West Bengal as the dreaded bird flu virus engulfed five districts, and the state government staved off criticism over its handling of the crisis. "We have culled around 100,000 birds in the first four days and the culling operation is on in full swing. Now we have 250 Rapid Response Teams, each team comprising five people," West Bengal Animal Resource Development Minister told.
The state had set a target of slaughtering 400,000 poultry birds but with the spread of the disease to new areas at least 200,000 more birds might now have to be killed.
21 January 2008 Villagers in eastern India are continuing to eat chickens killed by bird flu and there are signs the virus may be spreading among poultry. West Bengal animal resources minister told the situation in the affected areas was "horrible", and that more suspect cases had been reported on the state's borders with Nepal and Bangladesh. "The ignorance of villagers is one of the main hurdles. They are carrying the dead chickens without any protective gear," he said. "Most villagers are not aware of the disease. They are eating the dead chickens. Their children are playing with the infected chickens in the courtyards. It's horrible".
22 January 2008 In Indonesia, which has the highest human death toll from bird flu, a 30-year-old man has tested positive for disease, the health ministry said.
He had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Jakarta suffering from a fever, breathing difficulties and pneumonia.
The new case brings the number of people in the Southeast Asian country who have tested positive for the disease to 120 -- of which 97 have died.
22 January 2008 Bird flu may have killed a 32-year-old Vietnamese man in a northern province where the virus has been found in poultry. The man died at a Hanoi hospital of pneumonia. The man fell ill on Jan. 16 after eating chicken which had died of unknown cause. Dead chicken and white-winged ducks were also found near his house. Vietnamese doctors were testing to see if the man had been infected by the H5N1 virus.
Heimen Huisman
28 Jan 2008
Avian flu situation(9)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
23 January 2008 Europe must stay alert to the risk of bird flu affecting humans and focus on small flocks kept by amateurs and small breeders as the main danger, a senior scientist said. So far, the nearest that human cases of bird flu have come to the European Union is Turkey and Egypt, where four people died from the disease as recently as last month. The main risk we see in the European Union is not the big chicken barns because they are usually inside and surveillance is good," said Johan Giesecke, chief scientist at the Sweden-based European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control. "It's the hobby flocks -- that's the main risk and where we fear that infection of the birds may spread to humans.", "Hobby flocks" is the term given to small collections of birds, usually fewer than 200, such as pigeons, chickens or turkeys. They usually roam freely, often in backyards, and so can mix quite easily with any wild birds in the vicinity.
Bird flu outbreaks
23 January 2008 West Bengal's unchecked bird flu epidemic spread to two more districts, one right on the outskirts of Kolkata and the other on the Assam border. Well over two million poultry in nine districts are now affected and will have to be culled.
West Bengal Animal Resource Development Minister confirmed that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus had been found among poultry in Hooghly district.
23 January 2008 Avian influenza, or bird flu, continues to spread in Bangladesh, with 26 of the country's 64 districts now affected. The Department of Livestock confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus in 84 poultry farms across the country.
23 January 2008 Thailand detected bird flu in poultry in a northern province, its first outbreak in 10 months. The outbreak occurred in the Chumsaeng district of Nakhon Sawan province, 300 kilometres (188 miles) north of Bangkok, the Department of Livestock said. The lab test confirmed the H5N1 virus strain.
25 January 2008 A new bird flu outbreak has killed 30 chickens in northern Thailand, the second reported in two days. The outbreak was confirmed by laboratory tests after the poultry deaths were reported a week ago in Saklek district of Phichit province, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of the capital, Bangkok. The birds were infected with the H5 strain of bird flu and tests were under way to determine whether it was the virulent H5N1 subtype.
26 January 2008 A sixth swan from a sanctuary in Dorset has tested positive for bird flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said.
Defra said the mute swan tested on 21 January had the virulent H5N1 bird flu.
27 January 2008 The spread of bird flu among poultry has become "alarming" in Bangladesh as three more districts reported outbreaks, leaving almost half the nation affected.
More than 10,000 birds were slaughtered in north and south Bangladesh as part of a continued massive cull to contain the deadly H5N1 virus.
"On Saturday alone we had culls at 18 farms. And the next morning we have already 10 more farms affected with the disease," a senior government science adviser said.
Miscellaneous
24 January 2008 An Indonesian man died of bird flu, bringing Indonesia's death toll from the disease to 98. The 30-year-old man from the outskirts of the capital Jakarta died in hospital. Tests confirmed he was infected with H5N1 virus.
25 January 2008 China has confirmed that a father and son who were sickened with bird flu are the country's first infections within the same family, but said their cases showed no evidence that the virus has changed into a form that can easily be passed between humans, according to the World Health Organization.
The 24-year-old son from the eastern city of Nanjing died Dec. 2, becoming China's 17th fatality from the H5N1 bird flu virus. His 52-year-old father began showing symptoms a day later and was confirmed to have the disease.
28 January 2008 A 9-year-old boy has died of bird flu, bringing Indonesia's death toll from the disease to 99. The boy died at the Sulianto Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in Jakarta. Tests confirmed the boy had the H5N1 virus.
Heimen Huisman
01 Febr 2008
Avian flu situation(10)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
31 January 2008 A case of deadly H5N1 bird flu found in wild swans in Dorset earlier this month was probably introduced by an infected migratory bird.
Six swans from the Abbotsbury Swannery have tested positive for the disease.
An epidemiology report said the strain of the virus is similar to that found in Europe in the latter part of 2007.
A Defra report said it is not possible to conclusively identify the source, but a migratory bird is the "most likely hypothesis".
There is no evidence of widespread infection in the wild bird population in the area and no evidence of disease in domestic birds, the report said.
Bird flu outbreaks
29 January 2008 China has detected an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry in Tibet.
A total of 1,000 poultry have died of the disease in Gonggan county since Jan. 25, while another 13,080 have been culled. The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus as a subtype of the H5N1 strain.
29 January 2008 Saudi authorities have culled nearly 160,000 birds after a new case of the deadly strain of bird flu was found on a farm outside Riyadh.
30 January 2008 A SEVENTH dead swan has been confirmed to have caught the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu at the Abbotsbury Swannery.
The news of the latest bird infected comes as Defra released a report saying that an infected migratory bird was the most likely cause of the deadly H5N1 bird flu outbreak discovered earlier this month.
An epidemiology report which looks into the spread of the disease at Abbotsbury said that the strain of the virus is similar to those found in Europe in the latter part of last year.
1 February 2008 Pakistani authorities culled thousands of birds to control an outbreak of avian flu at poultry farms in the southern port city of Karachi.
"We have culled 5,500 birds after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus at a farm in Guddap district," said Ali Akbar, the director of Poultry Research Institute Sindh.
Animal health workers had tightened surveillance at hundreds of other farms that supply poultry products to the city's 15 million people, Ali said, adding the bird flu was limited to only one farm.
1 February 2008 Two more dead swans have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu, Defra has said. This brings the total number of swans from the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset found to have the disease to nine.
Defra said it expected more cases to emerge over the coming weeks but stressed there was no evidence it had spread to other wild birds or poultry.
Miscellaneous
28 January 2008 Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, has recorded its 100th human death as the virus picks up speed across Asia. The H5N1 bird flu virus killed a 20-year-old woman from the outskirts of Jakarta. Two other Indonesians in their 30s, who also tested positive, were being treated in the capital.
30 January 2008 A 32-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia's capital, lifting the toll in the country hardest hit by the virus to 101. One of the victim's neighbours was a PIGEON BREEDER, but it was not immediately clear if that was the source of infection, said Health Ministry official Toto Haryanto.
"We're still investigating," he said. "We are not sure if any of those birds was sickened by the H5N1 virus."
1 February 2008 An Indonesian woman who lived near a poultry slaughterhouse on the outskirts of the capital has died of bird flu, the latest victim in a surge of cases this year. The woman from Tangerang is the seventh person to die of bird flu in Indonesia this year. Some experts say the flare-up is caused by a combination of several factors such as rainy weather and poor sanitation.
The woman, 31, was being treated at a Jakarta hospital. She died of multiple-organ failure. "The woman lived in a neighborhood full of fowl. A slaughterhouse is not so far from her house," Muhammad Nadirin of the bird flu centre told.
It remains unclear how she contracted the bird flu virus.
Her death brings the country's death toll to 102, the highest of any nation.
1 February 2008 India put 26 people in isolation after they fell sick while culling poultry in a state affected by bird flu, while medical staff were monitoring hundreds of others.
Those quarantined in the eastern state of West Bengal complained of fever and respiratory distress over the past few days, but health staff said it was unlikely they had bird flu.
Heimen Huisman
10 Febr 2008
Avian flu situation(11)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
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Bird flu outbreaks
2 February 2008 Livestock officials slaughtered more than 27,000 chickens and ducks in northern Bangladesh after bird flu was confirmed at a poultry farm near the border with India. Officials in India's West Bengal state, which borders Bangladesh, have been struggling to contain that country's worst-ever outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus.
Meanwhile, a heron found dead outside an aviary at a popular Hong Kong theme park has tested positive for the virus.
In Bangladesh, several hundred chickens died at the poultry farm in Dinajpur district, 170 miles north of Dhaka, and laboratory tests confirmed that the H5N1 virus was responsible.
2 February 2008 Turkish authorities in the northern coastal town of Samsun have erected a quarantine zone and begun slaughtering poultry after suspected cases of bird flu.
3 February 2008 In West Bengal, fresh cases of bird flu have been reported, even as the State Government claimed to have almost completed the mop-up drive, in 13 affected districts. The Bhopal based high security Animal Diseases Laboratory said, two new blocks in the South 24 Parganas district has tested positive for avian flu.
3 February 2008 Turkey detected bird flu virus in dead chickens found late last month in the northern part of the country after it had started culling poultry due to bird flu suspicions. "Bird flu disease was detected in the samples after examinations in our ministry's laboratories," a statement said. It did not say whether the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain.
5 February 2008 Authorities in Turkey have detected bird flu in chickens in a third village in less than a month, but there was no information as to whether the virus was the deadly strain being monitored by world health authorities.
The village of Yenicam, in the northwestern province of Sakarya, was placed under quarantine, and almost 500 chickens and ducks were culled.
10 February 2008 Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh despite efforts by authorities to contain it, taking the number of affected districts to 40.
Health workers culled nearly 12,000 fowls after tests confirmed some chickens had died from the avian influenza virus in the northeast, livestock.
The H5N1 virus, first detected in Bangladesh in March last year, was quickly brought under control through aggressive measures, including culling. But follow-up monitoring eased in later months prompting the disease to reappear.
Miscellaneous
3 February 2008 Indian authorities have extended the deadline for a massive poultry cull after a fresh outbreak of bird flu was reported in a village in West Bengal state.
The virus has been detected in 13 of the eastern state's 19 districts since the outbreak began in mid-January.
Nearly three million poultry had been due to be slaughtered, but authorities said that after the fresh outbreak the exercise was now expected to be completed by Monday.
4 February 2008 An Indonesian woman died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 103. The 29-year-old housewife from Tangerang town on the outskirts of Jakarta, at a hospital in the city. She was first hospitalized on Jan. 28, six days after she developed symptoms. The woman was reported to have visited her parents, whose neighbors kept chickens.
6 February 2008 According to a Chinese news agency, the number of bird flu affected districts in Bangladesh has risen to 37 out of total 64 districts as bird flu continued to take its toll on the flourishing economic sector.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 25,705 chickens, ducks and pigeons were culled while 6,042 others died of bird flu in three Bangladesh's districts.
With the latest culling, a total of 449,593 fowls have so far been destroyed and 68,420 died of avian flu in 58 sub-districts of 37 districts since March 2007.
9 February 2008 The dreaded bird flu outbreak seems to have been contained with no further samples from West Bengal and outside testing positive for the virus.
There are no further reports from the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal of any sample testing positive from any part of the country including West Bengal.
A total of 158 Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) were engaged in culling and mopping up operations which completed culling 22,177 birds.
Preventive culling operations were progressing well in Assam where a total of 47,548 birds were culled.
Heimen Huisman
16 Febr 2008
Avian flu situation(12)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
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Bird flu outbreaks
13 February 2008 BIRD flu has killed about 800 chickens in Laos, the first known outbreak in the country in a year.
The virus struck in the village of Nam Ma in northern Luang Namtha province, about 30 kilometres from the Chinese and Myanmar borders, and tests confirmed the H5N1 strain on Feb 8.
14 February 2008 A dead gray heron found in Hong Kong tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, the third such case this year in the territory.
Tests confirmed the bird had the H5N1 virus after it was discovered near the territory's border with mainland China.
14 February 2008 Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh despite efforts by authorities to control it, officials said, bringing the number of affected districts to 41 out of 64.
15 February 2008 Authorities said that a wild bird found dead in Hong Kong has tested positive for the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus strain — the territory's second case in two days. The dead oriental magpie robin, native to Asia, was found at a food market. It was Hong Kong's fourth announcement of an H5N1 case in a bird this year, and came a day after authorities said a gray heron tested positive for the virus.
16 February 2008 Pakistani authorities have detected an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in chickens in a part of the northwest where the country recently had its first human death from the virus.
Miscellaneous
13 February 2008 A 14-year-old girl from West Jakarta whose mother was hospitalized with bird flu last month, has also tested positive, bringing Indonesia's total confirmed cases to 127.
The teenager started to become sick a week after visiting her grandmother, who sells poultry. The girl's mother had also visited the grandmother.
Some of the chickens and water fowl at her grandmother's house died suddenly.
14 February 2008 The second bird flu related death in 2008 has confirmed in Vietnam, a 40-year-old man from the Northern Province of Hai Duong. The victim died after five days at the National Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases. He was hospitalized when his lungs, kidney and several other internal organs became seriously infected after eating chicken; his house was surrounded by ill and dead poultry.
15 February 2008 Iran's deputy director general for communicable disease says that no confirmed instances of the avian flu have been seen in the country.
He said that while numerous cases have been seen in neighboring countries, Iran has been exempt from the disease so far.
15 February 2008 BIRD flu has killed a second Vietnamese man this week, raising the country's death toll from the virus to 50.
Hoang Van Doan, 27, from northern Ninh Binh province, died of H5N1, in hospital where the man had been treated since early last week.
16 February 2008 A 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province has died of bird flu, bringing the nation's death toll from the illness to 104. The boy became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms. He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Tests confirmed he had been infected with the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
16 February 2008 A seven-year-old child from northern Hai Duong province has been infected with H5N1, raising the total number of bird flu patients in Vietnam since 2003 to 105. To date, Vietnam has reported a total of 105 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003.
Heimen Huisman
25 Febr 2008
Avian flu situation(13)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
21 February 2008 Like the rumble of distant thunder, bird flu continues to spread across Asia, Africa and Europe. Although it's been out of the news lately in the United States, scientists say that avian influenza, as it's also known, remains a serious threat to human and animal health.
The lethal H5N1 version of the virus is mutating rapidly and rampaging through bird flocks throughout those parts of the world, infecting and often killing people who come in contact with them.
The fear is that the virus will change into a form that makes human-to-human transmission quick and easy. At least seven slightly different subtypes already have been identified.
"New genes are being formed all the time," said Henry Niman, a molecular geneticist who tracks bird flu outbreaks around the world.
23 February 2008 Outbreaks of bird flu in Thailand last month were caused by a strain of the virus that had slightly mutated from earlier cases but did not pose a greater health risk. The deadly H5N1 virus was detected among chickens last month in the provinces of Pichit and Nakorn Sawan.
Bird flu outbreaks
17 February 2008 Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh despite massive culling by authorities to control the outbreak, bringing the number of affected districts to 43 out of 64. The new case of the avian influenza was found in Shariatpur, in the southwest, livestock. The outbreak occurred as health workers culled more than 160,000 chickens at a poultry farm in the capital Dhaka following detection of the bird flu virus.
19 February 2008 Chinese authorities have confirmed a new bird flu outbreak among poultry in Tibet, the second case of this year in the southwestern region. A ministry statement said that 132 poultry had died in the epidemic in a village outside the regional capital, Lhasa, since it started on Feb. 6, while another 7,698 have been culled. The National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus as a subtype of the H5N1 strain.
19 February 2008 Dead poultry have been found in rivers and streams in northern Vietnam, a sign of a possible new bird flu outbreak during a prolonged cold spell.
The Agriculture Ministry said in a report that callers to an animal health department hotline reported large numbers of dead birds in five provinces, but was not specific.
20 February 2008 Outbreaks of bird flu among fowls, in Vietnam, were detected from Feb. 16-18 Vietnam's northern provinces, raising the total number of its localities hit by the disease to seven.
24 February 2008 Pakistani health officials confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu at a farm outside the southern city of Karachi.
It was the third outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the Karachi area this month, but limited only to fowl that tested positive at one farm, and no humans were infected.
24 February 2008 Two more districts in central Bangladesh have been hit by bird flu, as the nation nears its third month of trying to control an outbreak of the virus among poultry.
The deadly H5N1 strain was reported in central Munshiganj and Chandpur districts in the past two days, taking the number of affected districts to 45 since January.
Miscellaneous
16 February 2008 A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, a health official said, announcing the country's second death from the illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105. The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the southern part of the capital, Jakarta.
18 February 2008 A 22-year-old Chinese man has died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the second death from the disease since late last year. The man, first noticed symptoms of fever and headache on January 16. He went to hospital several days later and died on January 24.
20 February 2008 THE 21-day wait is over for the Abbotsbury Swannery as officials declare that there is no evidence of any new bird flu cases.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that the wild bird control area and the wild bird monitoring area in Dorset will merge.
This means that poultry farmers and bird keepers living within the previous control area around Abbotsbury will be less restricted. It has been three weeks since the last swan tested positive for the lethal H5N1 virus.
21 February 2008 A 41-year-old man has died of bird flu in southwest China, marking the country's 19th fatality from the H5N1 virus.
The man, died of the H5N1 virus strain in the Guangxi region.
Heimen Huisman
07 Mar 2008
Avian flu situation(14)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
6 March 2008 The avian flu has undergone a critical mutation making it easier for the virus to infect humans, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," lead researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka said. One of the primary things that keeps bird flu from infecting humans is that the virus has evolved to reproduce most effectively in the bodies of birds, which have an average body temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Humans, in contrast, have an average body temperature of 98.6 degrees, with temperatures in the nose and throat even lower (91.4 degrees). This vast temperature difference makes it very difficult for the bird flu virus to survive and grow in the human body.
In the current study, researchers found that a strain of H5N1 has developed a mutation that allows it to thrive in these lower temperatures.
"The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," Kawaoka said. But he pointed out that one mutation is not sufficient to turn H5N1 into a major threat to humans.
"Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains."
Bird flu outbreaks
26 February 2008 China says bird flu had broken out in the country's south-west, the latest in a series of recent outbreaks of a disease which has killed at least two, and possibly three people so far this year.
The agriculture ministry says the latest outbreak occurred on February 17 in Guizhou province, where it killed nearly 4,000 fowl before a cull of about 240,000 other birds brought it under control.
29 February 2008 A dead goose has tested positive for the highly virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, government scientists of Great Brittan have said.
The remains of the bird were discovered around 1km (0.6m) from Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, where a number of swans have been found with the disease.
1 March 2008 New cases of bird flu have been reported in the northeastern region of the Dominican Republic and thousands of birds were culled to prevent the spread of the virus. Precautionary measures have been taken, including the culling of chickens within a radius of five kilometres of the virus-hit area, since the cases were found earlier this week. This is the bird flu outburst in the country since December 2007.
7 March 2008 Bird flu has killed more than 2,000 ducks and chickens in Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi, raising the number of provinces with avian influenza outbreaks this year to 10. More than 2,000 ducks and chickens were found dead at a farm in Hanoi's outlying district of Soc Son between March 3 and 4, and tests showed they were positive for the H5N1 virus.
Miscellaneous
25 February 2008 A woman in southern China is suspected to have been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. the 44-year-old woman had developed symptoms on February 16 and the case had yet to be confirmed.
26 February 2008 Egypt's health ministry said Tuesday that a 4-year-old girl has tested positive for bird flu, bringing the number of diagnosed with the deadly H5N1 strain in the country to 44.
26 February 2008 Bird flu killed a school teacher from northern Vietnam in the country's 51st death from the disease, and health officials fretted that the virus would spread further.
The woman, 23, was infected in Phu Tho province, some 50 miles northwest of Hanoi. She died in a Hanoi hospital.
Test results showed that she was infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus.
1 March 2008 A 25-year-old Egyptian woman tested positive for bird flu on Saturday, the 45th confirmed human case. The woman was suffering from a high fever, both her lungs were inflamed, and she was being kept on a respirator and under observation.
4 March 2008 An Egyptian woman aged 25 has died of bird flu, the 20th death in Egypt from the disease since the deadly virus arrived in the country in early 2006.
4 March 2008 In a statement, the Egyptian ministry said an 11-year-old boy from the Nile Delta province of Menoufia had tested positive for the bird flu virus.
5 March 2008 In Great Brittan, DEFRA has lifted the wild bird control area put in place in Dorset in February after a Canada goose was found with H5N1 avian influenza.
The wild bird monitoring area (WBMA) will also reduce in size today (5 March), based on expert advice on the area most at risk from disease.
The monitoring area must remain in place for at least 30 days following the collection of the last positive sample.
Surveillance for disease in the WBMA is ongoing, and new restrictions may need to be reintroduced should the risk of disease increase.
Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza was first confirmed in wild birds in the Dorset area on 10 January, and to date 11 cases have been identified in wild birds.
6 March 2008 The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that an 11-year-old Egyptian boy has become the North African nation's 46th infection of bird flu. According to the organization, the boy tested positive on February 26 with the H5N1 strain of the deadly virus.
Heimen Huisman
24 Mar 2008
Avian flu situation(15)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
24 March 2008 Scientists in the Netherlands tracking the spread of bird flu in wild ducks say mallards may be the best long-distance carrier of the deadly H5N1 virus.
Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam experimentally infected six wild-duck species with H5N1 to determine which were capable of excreting the virus without succumbing to the disease. Pochards and tufted ducks shed the most virus, though tend to become ill or die earlier, they said.
``Of the six wild duck species studied, the mallard is the prime candidate for being a long distance vector,'' the researchers wrote in a study published in the April edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases. ``It was the only species to show abundant virus excretion without clinical or pathologic evidence of debilitating disease.''
The study suggests mallards should be given priority in any surveillance for the H5N1 virus in wild ducks, the authors wrote.
24 March 2008 Europe's top semiconductor maker, STMicroelectronics, said it has developed a portable chip to detect influenza viruses including bird flu in humans. The device, which functions as a mini laboratory on a chip, can screen and identify multiple classes of pathogens and genes in a single diagnostic test within two hours, unlike other tests available on the market that can detect only one strain at a time and require days or weeks to obtain results.
The chip can differentiate human strains of the Influenza A and B viruses, drug-resistant strains and mutated variants, including the Avian Flu or H5N1 strain.
Bird flu outbreaks
7 March 2008 A bird found dead in Hong Kong a week ago has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain. The bird carcass was found on February 29 in a nature reserve in Tai Po, near the Chinese border.
9 March 2008 Authorities confirmed new cases of bird flu in eastern India, a month after they slaughtered nearly four million birds in the same state to stem the country's worst ever outbreak of the disease. Roughly 900 birds have died of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus over the past week in two villages where bird flu was previously confirmed.
16 March 2008 China has reported a bird flu outbreak at a poultry market in the southern city of Guangzhou, prompting neighbouring Hong Kong to suspend live poultry imports from the region.
The outbreak, which was first noticed on March 13 at a poultry market in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, killed 108 birds and triggered the culling of another 518.
19 March 2008 Authorities in Laos have reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu in the northwest of the country near the border with China and Myanmar.
The outbreak was detected in a village in Luang Namtha province, the sixth registered there in a month. About 100 chickens died and subsequent tests had revealed the birds had died from the H5N1 virus.
22 March 2008 Turkish authorities quarantined a village in northwestern Turkey and began culling poultry after test results showed that chicken deaths there had been caused by bird flu.
The report did not specify the strain of the bird flu virus.
Three villages were quarantined and nearly 2,000 birds culled last month after tests proved the presence of bird flu in another province in northwestern Turkey.
22 March 2008 The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected for the first time in poultry in Myanmar.
Experts confirmed cases in hundreds of dead chickens at a farm outside of Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay. Myanmar borders Thailand and China, which together have reported 24 human deaths from the disease.
22 March 2008 Cameroon's government announced its first avian case, becoming the fourth African country to be struck by the deadly bird flu virus.
Experts have expressed concern that bird flu was likely to be spreading undetected in Africa, which is ill-prepared to deal with the virus and lacks laboratories to detect it.
Cameroon's government said the tests that confirmed the H5N1 strain were carried out in a laboratory in Paris.
Miscellaneous
17 March 2008 Bird flu has killed a 11-year-old boy in northern Vietnam, the fifth casualty from the H5N1 virus this year. The boy died at a Hanoi hospital, more than a week after he had fallen sick, and tests confirmed he was infected by the H5N1 virus.
20 March 2008 Indonesia needs more help to rein in the bird flu virus, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has said.
The human death toll from bird flu in the country rose to 100 earlier this year - almost half of the total worldwide fatalities.
The FAO's chief veterinary expressed concerns that failure to tackle the disease could lead the virus to mutate and cause a "human influenza pandemic".
Most of those infected are thought to have caught the disease from poultry.
Heimen Huisman
17 Apr 2008
Avian flu situation(16)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
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Bird flu outbreaks
27 March 2008 A wild duck has tested positive for bird flu in the first case in Switzerland in two years.
The European pochard was discovered on Lake Sempach near Lucerne carrying the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Analysis of the virus showed that it bore a strong resemblance to cases of bird flu discovered elsewhere in Europe in 2007.
There will be no changes to existing protection measures for poultry farmers around larger Swiss lakes.
3 April 2008 South Korean government said that it has confirmed a virulent bird flu outbreak in south-western city of Gimje.
The cause of outbreak taking place at an egg-laying farm in Gimje, 260 km south of Seoul, was confirmed as the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza.
The ministry said it will cull and bury 308,000 chickens within 500 meters from the farm. All eggs from the seven farms in the neighborhood will also be buried to prevent any spread of the disease.
12 April 2008 Russia's agriculture ministry confirmed a bird flu outbreak in a village in the Far East region of Primorye which was quarantined after scores of chickens died.
"In two days, 28 out of 42 hens and guinea fowl died on a farm" in the village of Vozdvizhenka, 110 kilometres north of Vladivostok.
17 April 2008 South Korea has culled three million farmed birds and confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu, as the country grapples with its worst avian influenza outbreak in four years.
In just two weeks South Korea has confirmed 15 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, raising alarm as the highly virulent virus is spreading at its fastest rate since the country reported its first case in 2003.
The farm ministry said it had seven new reports of suspected bird flu outbreaks at poultry farms in North and South Jeolla provinces, some 320km south of Seoul, where the first bird flu recurrence for a year was reported earlier this month.
Miscellaneous
31 March 2008 Two Indonesian youths have died from bird flu, taking the confirmed death toll in the country worst affected by the virus to 107.
A 15-year-old boy from Subang, in West Java, died in an area where chickens had died.
An 11-year-old girl from Bekasi, east of Jakarta, who died also tested positive for the virus. There were dead chickens in the boy's neighbourhood, but in the girl's case it is still unclear.
4 April 2008 The first case of human-to-human transmission of avian flu in Pakistan has been confirmed.
Tests carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that bird flu killed some members of a family in north-west Pakistan late last year.
The WHO says steps were taken to prevent future fatalities in the area.
6 April 2008 An Egyptian man has died of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, bringing the number of fatalities in Egypt to 21, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on.
The 19-year-old victim had died on after falling ill following contact with infected birds in the Nile Delta province of Beheira.
The man, is the 48th Egyptian infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus since it arrived in Egypt in February 2006.
9 April 2008 A Chinese father, 52, barely survived bird flu he caught from his son, 24, who died.
The December 2007 cases are only the second time scientists have demonstrated probable human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus. But a fourth of the 378 known human cases of H5N1 bird flu have occurred in two or more "epidemiologically linked" clusters of people — usually other family members.
Of course, family members may share exposure to sick poultry. This is by far the main way people get the virus. That's because H5N1 is still a bird virus, and has not adapted to human hosts.
12 April 2008 Egypt's health ministry has announced the death of a woman from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the 22nd human death from the disease since it was discovered in the country in 2006. "Walaa Ahmed Abdel Geleel, 30, died on Friday, the 22nd death from bird flu from among 49 cases in the country since the disease was first discovered (in Egypt).
Ms Abdel Geleel's case was Egypt's second death from the disease in a week.
On Saturday, Mohammed Idris Hassan Ibrahim, 19, from the Nile Delta province of Beheira, died in hospital after being unsuccessfully treated with Tamiflu.
16 April 2008 A 2-year-old Egyptian boy has been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, bringing the number of cases in the most populous Arab country to 50.
Heimen Huisman
Avian flu situation(17)A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
19 April 2008 A new bird flu vaccine being developed by US researchers could provide broader protection, last longer and be easier to mass produce than existing vaccines.
The vaccine protected mice from bird flu infection for more than a year and researchers are hopeful that similar results could be found in humans.
It is also broad enough to protect against some mutations of the virus, according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
6 May 2008 The risk of a human influenza pandemic remains real and is probably growing as the bird flu virus becomes entrenched in poultry in more countries, health officials warned.
Some 150 experts are attending a meeting hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to update its guidance to countries on how to boost their defences against a deadly global epidemic.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has infected flocks in much of Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. Experts fear it could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking an influenza pandemic that could kill millions.
"The risk of a pandemic remains and is probably expanding," said Dr. Supamit Chunsuttiwat, a disease control expert.
Bird flu outbreaks
19 April 2008 South Korea's Farm Ministry reported a new outbreak of bird flu at a chicken farm in the southwest, taking the total confirmed cases to 16 in poultry just over two weeks.
Test results were confirmed positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus at a farm in Jeongeup, North Jeolla province, an area which saw an outbreak earlier this month.
29 April 2008 Japan confirmed four swans found last week were infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu. It was the first case of bird flu in Japan since March 2007 when the highly virulent H5N1 strain was found in a wild bird in Kumamoto prefecture on Japan's southern Kyushu island.
The swans, three of which had died, were found on the shores of Lake Towada in northern Akita prefecture on April 21.
7 May 2008 Bird flu has spread to South Korea's capital Seoul despite a massive nationwide cull that saw the slaughter of six million ducks and chickens in recent weeks.
This was the first outbreak in Seoul. It has been caused by infected pheasants that district officials purchased at an open market in the city of Seongnam south of Seoul.
3 June 2008 Chickens on a farm in Oxfordshire have tested positive for the H7 strain of bird flu.
All birds on the infected farm near Banbury will be slaughtered as a precautionary measure.
The Health Protection Agency said the H7 strain of avian flu was largely a disease of birds and did not transmit easily to humans. Despite this, Defra said testing was continuing to discover whether the strain of bird flu was a highly pathogenic one.
5 June 2008 An outbreak of the H7 strain of bird flu at a farm in central England is "highly pathogenic," officials said. All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans, at the farm in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
"The Chief Veterinary Officer has confirmed that the strain of H7 avian influenza present in laying hens at the farm in Banbury is highly pathogenic,".
Highly pathogenic means that the virus has a relatively high ability to produce disease.
8 June 2008 Hong Kong has found the feared H5N1 bird flu virus at a poultry stall in one of the territory's many markets and ordered the culling of 2,700 birds. Hong Kong had banned poultry imports from mainland China for 21 days, as well as from local farms in the territory, while it worked to discover the source of the infection. There had been no human infection detected.
Miscellaneous
30 April 2008 A 3-year-old boy in Indonesia died from bird flu, boosting the death toll in the country hardest hit by the disease to 108.
The toddler from Central Java province first showed the flu-like symptoms of high fever and breathing difficulties. He died five days later after being admitted to a local hospital.
Two laboratory tests came back positive for the H5N1 virus, and health investigators found the child "had a history of contact with dead poultry".
22 May 2008 Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu, but said the 16-month-old victim had now recovered from the virus.
The baby boy from a Dhaka slum was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of the disease in January, but this was only confirmed by a US laboratory this week.
Heimen Huisman
09 Oct 2008
Avian flu situation(18)
A selection of news facts related to avian flu.
Science
No relevant news items recorded.
Bird flu outbreaks
23 June 2008 Pakistani authorities reported a new outbreak of avian flu at a commercial poultry farm in the country's northwest, killing thousands of birds. Tests conducted at a government-run laboratory in Islamabad confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at a farm in Swabi district. The virus was detected after the owner of the farm informed the authorities that some 4,000 birds had died within the past few days.
30 July 2008 An outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in two Nigerian poultry markets, the first discovery in almost 10 months in Africa's most populous nation.
Agriculture director for the livestock department, said the infected chickens and ducks were located in the northern cities of Kano and Katsina.
12 August 2008 A new strain of H5N1 bird flu has shown up among birds in Africa in a worrying development, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported. The new strain of H5N1 avian influenza is genetically different from the strains that circulated in Nigeria during earlier outbreaks in 2006 and 2007 and is new to Africa. The detection of a new avian influenza virus strain in Africa raises serious concerns as it remains unknown how this strain has been introduced to the continent.
11 Sept. 2008 An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in the West African nation of Togo for the first time since last year. The virus was detected at a poultry farm housing more than 4,500 birds in the village of Agbata outside the capital, Lome. It was not known how many birds died, but more than 80 percent of those infected by the flu were fatalities.
The statement did not say whether the birds were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
4 October 2008 South Korea reported a suspected bird flu outbreak at a duck farm in Yesan city, south of Seoul, the first since the latest confirmed case about five months ago.
The suspected case is currently under tests. Initial tests at the suspected farm, home to 5,000 ducks, had given positive readings for the avian virus.
The government plans to slaughter all birds in the farm as a pre-emptive measure.
09 October 2008 The German state of Saxony said the H5N1 bird flu strain had been detected in a duck at a farm near Dresden. Tests are being carried out to determine whether it is the highly contagious version of the epidemic.
The flu strain was detected in the duck during a routine examination at the farm, which held some 1,400 birds. All birds at the farm would be killed as a precaution.
Miscellaneous
20 June 2008 The Indonesian Health Ministry has reported the deaths of two women from bird flu, easing concerns about whether Jakarta would share information about the disease, the World Health Organization said. Indonesia has had more human bird flu infections than any other country, with 110 deaths out of 135 cases, and monitoring the H5N1 virus in the country is seen as crucial. The latest infections are the first since Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari declared two weeks ago that Indonesia had changed its policy on reporting human cases and would announce the death toll only every six months.
18 July 2008 An Indonesian cargo worker died of bird flu, relatives confirmed, raising the unofficial toll in the world's hardest hit nation to 111 in three years. The government recently started delaying announcements about bird flu fatalities, sometimes by several weeks. But health workers speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the tests came back positive.
Asnawi Sandri, a 38-year-old father of two, died in the hospital on July 10, days after he came down with symptoms of the disease, including high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties, said Abdul Kadir, his brother-in-law. Sandri lived in Belendung, a village 24 miles west of the capital, Jakarta, where chickens and ducks freely roam the dusty streets. But it is not clear where he contracted the H5N1 virus, with residents saying none of the poultry had fallen ill or died.
3 August 2008 An Indonesian factory worker died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 112. The 19-year-old died in a hospital just west of the capital, Jakarta, Nyoman Kandun.
11 Sept. 2008 An Indonesian man from Tangerang, a satellite town near the capital Jakarta, has died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 112.
The 37-year-old man had worked as a driver for a cargo company at Sukarno-Hatta airport, Jakarta's main airport for domestic and international flights.
The man, who had had no contact with sick fowl, died in early July, after being treated at three different hospitals, the official said. Tests had showed he was infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
Heimen Huisman