Bird Flu Center

One of the world’s largest poultry exporters, Thailand, announced the death of a man from the Phetchabun province, lying about 350 kilometers north of Bangkok. The man had tested positive for H5N1, the avian influenza virus, and now part of the province is declared a red zone, as the highest level of bird flu alert. Although the case is the only one in the last 7 months in the country, world wide bird flu caused fatalities have tripled this year, as the virus has spread rapidly among wild birds and most noticeably domestic poultry, infecting flocks across 38 countries. New cases give reasons for concern the the virus could mutate into a form easily transmittable among humans, which could cause a flu pandemic. Of the 231 people infected world wide since the first outbreak, three years ago, 133 have died. Thailand in particular has faced 18 human flu cases, two of which were in the Phichit province.

One of the world’s largest poultry exporters, Thailand, announced the death of a man from the Phetchabun province, lying about 350 kilometers north of Bangkok. The man had tested positive for H5N1, the avian influenza virus, and now part of the province is declared a red zone, as the highest level of bird flu alert. Although the case is the only one in the last 7 months in the country, world wide bird flu caused fatalities have tripled this year, as the virus has spread rapidly among wild birds and most noticeably domestic poultry, infecting flocks across 38 countries. New cases give reasons for concern the the virus could mutate into a form easily transmittable among humans, which could cause a flu pandemic. Of the 231 people infected world wide since the first outbreak, three years ago, 133 have died. Thailand in particular has faced 18 human flu cases, two of which were in the Phichit province.

The disease that killed a flock of chickens in a northern province of Thailand has been confirmed to be caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, as authorities stated. It is the country’s first such outbreak in the last eight months and the Deputy Agriculture Minister Charan Trinvuthipong told the press the country was already on alert, as vigilance needs to be exerted. Another government official told reporters that the outbreak appeared on a farm in the province of Pichit, on a flock belonging to an unregistered farm. About 260 chickens were culled in the region to prevent the avian influenza virus from spreading, while the movement of poultry was forbidden on a 10-kilometer radius from the spot. Thailand has so far suffered 14 human deaths from the virus’ first occurrences.

A group of chickens in a northern region of Thailand is suspected to have died last week as bird flu carriers, with the H5N1 strain being feared as the source of infection, a Thai official from the Ministry of Agriculture declared. The death of 31 chickens in the province of Phichit lead to tests being carried out on the birds. Initial findings however, could not pinpoint the virus between H5N1 and a more common form of H5N2. However, the high mortality rate gives reasons to believe the highly pathogenic H5N1 form is to be blamed for the disease which caused the death of the poultry. Thailand has not had any case of bird flu in poultry for more than 8 months. Government officials say they are closely monitoring areas where heavy rains and flooding have taken place, as wet climates represent a perfect environment for avian influenza.

A 44-year old man is suspected to have died following an infection with the bird flu virus. The man was hospitalized for two days with high fever, severe coughing and breathing difficulties and died on July 12th. Health officials now believe his death might not have been due to a simple flu, but to the feared avian influenza virus, which has badly hit the Asian country. Tests by a local laboratory await a confirmation by a World Health Organization inquiry into the case. Apparently the H5N1 strain of the virus was the source of infection on the man originating from an eastern outskirt of the capital city, Jakarta. He reportedly had contacts with birds, another reason to believe the avian flu caused the disease. This could make Indonesia the hardest hit country in the world, as only Vietnam has reported a similarly large death toll so far. World wide, at least 132 people have died from the virus, since it has started ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. Most human cases are linked with a close contact to birds, but the greatest fear is that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmittable among humans. Indonesia is likely to record more cases, as its government says it cannot afford to cull domestic fowl in regions where bird flu is detected. This measures, applied aggressively in Vietnam, has led to the country not recording any new cases in humans this year.

A bird hunter and his son-in-law, living in a rural area in Thailand, are suspected to be infected with the bird flu virus. The two men feasted on wildfowl together and are both admitted to the Uttaradit Provincial Hospital, with suspicions of having contracted bird influenza. One hospital official said that results of further tests are being awaited, as a science laboratory in Phitsanulok will be able to pronounce a clear verdict. The two, aged 67 and 35, respectively, were hospitalized with flu symptoms. The father-in-law had previously shot a wild bird and cooked it to share with his son-in-law.

Singapore yesterday organized a bird flu pandemic drill to test the city’s readiness in the unfortunate case of such an outbreak. Students brought thermometers to school and hospital staff donned protective gear as part of the exercise, with more than 1,000 health workers and public servants took place in day one of the two-day “exercise Sparrowhawk”, besides 500 other volunteer patients. 19 different locations were involved in the exercise, including an airport, a ferry terminal, a border crossing to neighbouring Malaysia, as well as schools and hospitals. The city-state has recorded no bird flu cases so far, but authorities are taking no chances.

A national plan is on the table in Brunei, as his Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, stressed recently. A joint networking and firm understanding on all government levels is important in the country’s national effort against a possible influenza pandemic. His Royal Highness, made a visit to Tutong Hospital, chairing the third national committee meeting discussing a possible bird flu pandemic threat. The meeting was supposed to update the information on the issue, as 229 infections had been documented worldwide, up until July 12th, while 131 people had died from the disease.

The meeting noted the Ministry of Health’s plan of action that covers table top exercise, a review of the plan following a visit by WHO in the country and sharing of information and latest news from Apec and Asean meetings attended by government officials. A simulation exercise named “Serama Operation 2″ was carried out in April this year at a chicken farm in Tutong and was designed to test the effectiveness of preparation methods taken in Brunei. Close monitoring and surveillance on birds continues across the country, with a special focus on backyard farms, wild birds and commercial farms. So far, no infections of the feared virus have been found in the country.

An international research center concentrating on infectious diseases is planning to open a laboratory in Bangladesh, to aid in the effort of detecting early on any possible outbreaks of the bird flu virus. In the distant future, the laboratory will also concentrate on developing a low-cost vaccine for poultry to protect against the feared avian flu disease. Although no case of such an infection has yet been found in Bangladesh, health officials state the country is at risk after outbreaks have been signalled in neighbouring countries India and Myanmar. A collaboration with the United States Department of Health Services will ensure the laboratory will be set up within the next year.

A number of countries across Asia are working on developing a drug or vaccine for the disease, with one of India’s top animal disease research laboratory announcing recently that it was close to developing its own vaccine against avian flu in poultry. Vietnam is also working on producing a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of the virus, which has spread rapidly from its first outbreak in Hong Kong, about 8 years ago. 

Rajan Eye Care Hospital was recently the host of a sensitisation program on avian influenza, an event organized by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The Medical director of Rajan Eye Care Hospital, Mr. Mohan Rajan, was conferred the Doctor’s Day award by the public institution, as a reward for his commitment and dedication to caring for poor patients and for his impartial delivery of medical care to all his patients. During the same event, M Balasubramanian, national Vice-president of the IMA and N Muthurajan, IMA State Joint Secretary and Secretary of the Government Doctor’s Association of Tamilnadu, have delivered a lecture on bird flu.

Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Pakistan’s Federal interior minister, has declared there is no risk of bird flu outbreaks in the country, as the government is taking steps important steps towards saving the poultry industry. The minister expressed his views during a ceremony of distribution of cheques to the affected owners of poultry farms. He also said that the government is responsible both for the life and property of people, expressing its unity with a nation whose Prime Minister (Shaukat Aziz) ate chicken along with his whole cabinet, in a time when bird flu posed a great risk to the country.

Poultry flocks owners were praised for offering their full cooperation to authorities, allowing the culling of the affected hens. The government has however promised to compensate the loss by distributing cheques among them.

Between July 9th and July 12th the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) will be host of a forum concerning methods of preparing and dealing with avian flu. The forum will benefit from speakers from the Centre for Mass Destruction Defence at the Medical College of Georgia. The workshop aims to train health professionals from all over the United Arab Emirates in proper measures to be taken to prepare and combat bird flu.

Under the title of The Abu Dhabi International Forum for Disaster Training: Focus on Bird Flu Preparation and Response, the focus will be set on the practical training of medical and professional staff from public and private organizations to ensure preparedness in the event of a bird flu outbreak in the country. Administrators, doctors, nurses and rescue teams that might be involved in dealing with such crises will attend the workshop. Organizers of the event are the National Programme for Health Professional Skill Development in the UAE and the National Medical Simulation Centre, in collaboration with the American Medical Association.

Indonesia’s bird flu death toll rose to 41 after a 5 year old boy succumbed to the illness. Authorities say that, considering the virus is now present in 27 provinces, it is highly likely that this victim will be followed by others. The boy himself contracted the disease from dead chickens afflicted by the deadly H5N1 strain. His family members have been also tested, but the results have not yet been announced.

Indonesia has been severely criticized for not using the usual routine of mass culling of the poultry in the infected areas, experts agreeing this is the best way to eradicate the virus. However the Indonesian government says it cannot afford to compensate the farmers for the fowl it has to kill. Vietnam is still the worst struck country by the disease, reporting 42 human casualties so far. However this year there have been no cases recorded so far, as officials have decided to use an aggressive culling policy.

Asia has been the most ill-fated continent of the entire affair. The deadly disease was firstly documented in Hong Kong almost 10 years ago and every year the virus has slowly crawled across the continent, putting more countries on the danger map by the day. The majority of the victims originate from this area, with 6 of the 10 ten countries reporting human casualties being Asian countries.

Vietnam, China and Indonesia were the states to suffer the most from this, with Thailand also not far behind. The fact that avian flu has found this continent in particular to settle its roots in is perhaps not surprising. A large percentage of the population relies on poultry, the environment best suited for the virus’ life. With that in mind and the fact that Asia hosts the largest population of any continents, practically a large mass of people living in close quarters, it must come as no wonder that the illness has found a certain, proper place to spread and develop in.

Efforts are being pursued by the international community to aid the ailing continent into eradicating the biological threat. Many understand that if the source and intial spark of the virus can be correctly identified then a way to halt its future spread could be researched and put into practice.

The head of Iran’s Veterinary Organization, Hussein Hassani, announced on Sunday that the harsh measures taken by the institution in the country were a following of the critical avian influenza conditions from the neighbouring countries. He said the exterminations were mostly because Iran does not have enough information from its neighbours who are faced with the disease, according to international news agencies reports. Hassani also reassured the people of Iran that no sign of the illness had yet been witnessed in the country and that the institution he is running is prepared to take all necessary measures against suspected cases.

The US embassy has issued a warning for its citizens currently staying or passing through Saudi Arabia that extra caution should be exerted to monitor any possible outbreak of the bird flu virus. Saudi authorities have denied that any avian flu cases among humans have been found, but the embassy says five falcons found dead are suspected to be carrying the most deadly of the virus strains (H5N1) and laboratory tests are being carried out at the moment.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation has updated its service package to cover bird flu and influenza pandemic in its “SARS” category. PhilHealth’s benefit was expanded to cover avian influenza type A viruses or any other newly developed strains of the virus that have not been dealt with so far. The decision is included in the company’s Board Resolution No. 880.

The Department of Health has drawn up a list of hospitals designated as Avian Flu and Influenza Pandemic hospitals and in the case of PhilHealth members admitted to those, they can request a benefit of 50,000 Philippine Pessos per case. The sum is doubled is the patient is a health care workers in the same hospitals, if the person contracted the disease while caring for an avian flu victim.

An investigation has been started by China’s Health Ministry, to find out whether or not a man initially suspected to have died after a SARS infection, was actually suffering from bird flu, two years before the first official cases were discovered in China. Authorities were alerted by Chinese scientists, publishing their results in the June issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Tests are said to be conducted on samples taken from the victim, but the ministry is denying to comment on the situation. The case already raises worrying questions over China’s ability to handle bird flu cases and give its full cooperation to international institutions such as WHO. It also brings into question the possibility that other countries may have wrongfully attributed SARS to H5N1 victims.

The man in question died in November 2003 in a hospital in Beijing. At the time, it was believed Chinese officials were involved in an attempt to cover up the rapid spread of SARS in Beijing and health experts world wide have criticized the manner in which China has dealt with the issue. The severe acute respiratory syndrome has similar symptoms with those caused by bird flu and has claimed the lives of 774 people world wide.

Tony Abbott, the Australian Minister for Health, on Friday praised the way Vietnam has managed to control the bird flu situation. Speaking after a visit to the Viet Doc Hospital in Hanoi, Mr Abbott stated that the fact that no human cases of bird flu infections have been recorded in the Asian country since last November is encouraging and one that should pride Vietnam.

He stressed countries already under threat by the disease need to intensify cooperation with the World Health Organization, to ensure an effective surveillance of the virus and rapid identification and treatment of new cases. Mr Abbott also gave a warning that the threat has not been fully addressed yet, as bird flu is still active in countries like Indonesia and China. The Minister’s visit to Hanoi lasted two days and featured discussion on avian influenza prevention, control and cooperation between the two countries on the subject.

Senior officials in Thailand say the country has so far managed to stock up 1.5 million capsules of Oseltamivir, a drug which will help cope with a possible spread of the bird flu virus. During a seminar of the Public Health Ministry it was also announced Thailand has 300,000 doses of regular influenza vaccine and that health officials in all provinces are being trained to deal with a worst-case scenario of bird flu outbreaks, with closer attention being paid to the provinces where outbreaks used to happen. These include Kamphaeng Phet, Kanchanaburi, Suphan Buri, Sukho Thai, Nonthaburi, Phichit, Nakhon Sawan and Nakhon Nayok.

Among the wild birds in an area of Northwest China was confirmed on Friday by the Ministry fo Agriculture new cases of bird flu. In the date of April 23 was found dead a number of seventeen bar-headed geese in Yushu on a wetland. With these one the number of dead birds risen to 125.

The virus that killed the bird is the same H5N1 that until now allready killed 12 peoples in the country.

The place where the outbreak happened is a high and cold area, located more than 800 kilometres away from Xining, the provincial capital, and Qinghai Lake, which is an important habitant of a vast number of migrant birds.

The good news is that the nearest human residential area Yushu County, is located at more than 60 kilometres away.

The province’s veterinary departments has sterilized the area and is keeping a close eye on any new cases, said the ministry.

Local authorities have demanded local herdsmen keep a distance from the dead birds to prevent the virus from contaminating human beings.

The outbreak is the second case found in the province in a month after a dead bar-headed goose in Gangcha County was found carrying the deadly virus last Saturday.

Syrian paper accuses Israel of having spread bird flu to kill Arabs
Roee Nahmias
The state-run Syrian daily al-Thawra lately hinted that Israel developed the bird flu virus to harm the genes of its Arab neighbors.
An article published by the newspaper argues that Israel spread the virus in the Far East to mislead the world.
The newspaper backed its suspicions by citing a 1998 report in the Sunday Times that Israel is developing a biological “ethnic bomb” that would kill Arabs and not Jews.
According to the Times, Israeli scientists are trying to identify genes characteristic to Arabs and then develop viruses that attack these genes. The newspaper said the program is being carried out at the Institute for Biological Research in Nes Tsiona near Tel Aviv.
“The question being asked today is whether the virus chosen by the Zionist for their ‘ethnic bomb’ is bird flu?” the newspaper wrote.
The newspaper said that Israel buried 85,000 infected birds in the West Bank which could have infected a Palestinian from Jerusalem with Avian Flu.

“If the virus is designed to hurt Arab genes specifically, it will nevertheless spread beyond the Arab world,” the paper argued, adding that the whole world will suffer from an uncontrollable pandemic.

The paper also accused Israel of killing Yasser Arafat using biological viruses which can be used against the Arabs. “We recall that the assassination of Yasser Arafat was done using a biologically engineered virus to which only the Zionists had a remedy,” the paper wrote.

China has denied covering up human bird flu cases after a U.S.-based newspaper said local officials may be hiding suspected infections from the central government and that the country’s death toll could be higher than the 12 reported.

“We must clarify that China has not been concealing any confirmed or suspected human case of bird flu since the first case occurred in November of last year,'’ Ministry of Health spokesman Mao Qun’an said in an interview with the official Xinhua News Agency published late Friday.

It was a rare official response to reports by foreign media.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed source, said Thursday that local Chinese health officials “have failed to report possible human cases of bird flu to the central government,'’ raising concerns that more people than reported may have contracted the disease.

China has reported 18 cases including 12 deaths.

The Journal did not give any more details but cited the source as saying that the central government was “quite upset from receiving information late from local officials.'’

Mao said every human case of bird flu in China has been announced as soon as it is confirmed but acknowledged that most local hospitals were slow in reporting confirmed bird flu patients to Beijing.

“Therefore, we must first raise their awareness. That is a priority,'’ he said.

Experts fear that the H5N1 virus may mutate into a form easily passed between humans and spark a pandemic. 

According to World Health Organization figures, 113 people have died worldwide, mostly from handling sick or infected poultry.

Mao said medical services are inconsistent across China, making it difficult to track outbreaks.

He said the health ministry has been urging local authorities to step up reporting, testing and screening pneumonia of unknown causes, and to be very cautious in ruling out bird flu.

China was accused of covering up an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003. SARS eventually killed 774 people worldwide.

Despite holiday, surveillance tightened in bird-flu-hit Qinghai
Local veterinary officials in Qinghai province were asked to step up bird flu surveillance efforts during the May Day holiday, after a wild goose was killed by bird flu virus in the region.

A bar-head goose was found dead in Gangcha County of the western Qinghai province, being tested positive for the H5N1 strain, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Agriculture’s on Sunday.

The ministry, saying the area where the dead bird was found had been sterilized, ordered local authorities to tighten virus surveillance on areas where large number of migratory birds rest, China Daily reported on Tuesday.

“Dozens of teams of people are sent every day to monitor areas where lakes abound,” the paper quoted Sun Yingxiang, an official with the provincial agriculture department, as saying.

Even though it is the May Day holidays, the hundreds of observers would not be relaxing their surveillance duties, said Sun, according to the paper.

“We send people to regions that we have access to, and telescopes will be used in areas out of reach, such as wetlands,” Sun was quoted as saying.

Qinghai is known as a stopping point for migrating birds and thousands of bar-headed geese were killed by the virus in 2005 at a nature reserve in the region.

The European Commission has announced a ban on imports of live birds as China announces its third outbreak of bird flu in a week and Indonesia confirms its fourth human death from the virus.

The latest Chinese outbreak killed 545 chickens and ducks in central China and prompted authorities to destroy nearly 2,500 other birds, the government reported.

The latest cases occurred in a village in Hunan province, the government’s top veterinary bureau said in a report dated Tuesday and posted on the Web site of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.

China earlier told the United Nations that 2,100 geese in the eastern province of Anhui were infected, news agencies reported Tuesday.

More than 500 of the birds died and 45,000 were culled.

China last week reported another outbreak had emerged in the country’s northern region of Inner Mongolia. Some 2,600 chickens and ducks were found dead at a breeding facility.

There have been no reports of human cases of bird flu in China.

The government’s report on the Hunan outbreak did not say whether authorities imposed quarantines or took other measures in addition to destroying birds, according to AP.

Meanwhile, European Union officials, meeting in Luxembourg, called for a ban on commercial imports of live birds into the 25-nation bloc. A committee of EU veterinarians gave their backing to the proposal Tuesday, the commission said.

The decision followed confirmation that a parrot in Britain died in quarantine from the H5N1 strain. (Full story)

“The ban covers captive live birds other than poultry imported for commercial purposes,” the European Commission said in a statement.

“A separate decision regulates the movement of (pet) birds accompanying their owners which will be subject to certain conditions.”

The commission has already imposed a temporary ban on imports of live poultry, game and feathers from Croatia after at least six swans died there from bird flu. (Full story)

The swans landed in Croatia recently, but it is not known where they migrated from. Thirteen more swans have been found dead nearby. (Full story)

Meanwhile, dead wild geese in western Germany showed preliminary positive test results for a form of bird flu, a local health official said Tuesday, but they died from poisoning, not the virus.

Further tests would be needed to confirm the virus and to tell whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, The Associated Press quoted Stefan Brent, president of the bureau carrying out the testing, as telling a news conference in Koblenz in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

Brent said about 5 percent of wild birds could be expected to carry some form of bird flu, and he said the test results were “no sensational find.” (Full story)

Also Tuesday, Indonesia said testing had confirmed that a man who died last month was positive for bird flu, raising the number of deaths from the virus in the country to four.

The latest victim, a 23-year-old from Bogor, West Java, was hospitalized in late September and died two days later, Hariadi Wibisono, a Ministry of Health official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. A Hong Kong lab confirmed the test results.

The lethal H5N1 strain that has decimated the bird industry in Asia and has reached Europe first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997, before re-emerging in 2003 in South Korea. Since then it has spread to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Russia, Turkey and Romania.

While the bird flu has devastated the bird population, there have only been 121 cases where the flu has jumped to people since 2003. Of those, more than 60 have died, all after close contact with sick birds.

However, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could be transmitted between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

The latest developments in Europe and Asia came as health ministers from around the world met in Canada to discuss how to tackle a possible pandemic.

They emphasized that preventing the disease from mutating into a deadly human virus was as important as developing new vaccines against it. (Full story)

Also Monday, Russia’s Tambov region confirmed an outbreak of the same deadly bird flu strain, a senior regional animal health official said. The region is located 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Moscow.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain … in some dead fowl tissue samples,” the official told Reuters.

He said the disease killed 12 hens at a dacha in Morshansk district last week, after which local veterinary authorities destroyed 53 ducks and hens remaining in the area, and imposed a quarantine on it. (Full story)

Moscow confirmed last Wednesday an outbreak of H5N1 in the Tula region, some 200 kilometers south of the Russian capital.

Russia has been fighting bird flu since mid-July and has killed more than 600,000 domestic fowl.

Because there is no vaccine for a bird flu should it mutate to spread between humans, several countries around the globe have started stockpiling the antiviral or treatment drug called Tamiflu in a bid to mitigate its effects.

The World Trade Organization in 2003 decided to allow governments to override patents during national health crises, though no member state has yet invoked the clause, The Associated Press reported.

India’s government said it may consider whether to override Roche’s patent protections and allow drug manufacturers to copy Tamiflu.