Relenza vs Tamiflu

Glaxo's Relenza Is Less Likely to Cause Resistant Flu Strains

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza antiviral treatment is less likely to lead to drug-resistant flu strains than Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu, giving the product an edge against a feared pandemic, a Glaxo-sponsored study found.

Tamiflu is recommended by the World Health Organization as the first choice for doctors treating human cases of avian influenza. A Tamiflu-resistant strain of the H5N1 virus killed at least three people in Vietnam, raising concern about the drug's potency should H5N1 spark a pandemic.

Human flu strains created to be resistant to Relenza were weakened and less viable when studied test tubes in the laboratory. The study, to be published in this month's edition of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, was undertaken by Glaxo's Medicine Research Centre in Stevenage, England, and an Australian government scientific organization.

``It appears that mutations that confer Relenza resistance compromise the ability of the virus to survive and multiply,'' said Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin, a virologist at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization in Melbourne. The finding may explain why no cases of Relenza-resistant flu have been found in normally healthy adults, she said in a telephone interview yesterday.

McKimm-Breschkin was a member of a team that developed London-based Glaxo's Relenza, which is also known by its chemical name, zanamivir.

Relenza and Tamiflu, known scientifically as oseltamivir, both work by blocking neuraminidase -- one of the two surface proteins in influenza viruses and the ``N'' in H5N1 -- that allows the virus to spread from infected cells to other cells in the body.

Different Molecules

The two drugs have a different molecular structure. Zanamivir more closely resembles the sugars coating cells which the virus has to remove in order to spread, McKimm-Breschkin said. Mutant flu viruses that lose the ability to bind with zanamivir also lose the ability to remove the sugars and subsequently can't spread and reproduce, she said.

``It has always been more difficult to get zanamivir resistant mutants than oseltamivir-resistant mutants in the laboratory,'' said K.Y. Yuen, head of the microbiology department at the University of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has a policy of recommending Relenza as a safeguard to any health care worker caring for an avian flu patient being treated with oseltamivir, Yuen said in an e-mail yesterday.

For health workers, ``Relenza should be considered as a prophylaxis since they may have a risk of getting an oseltamivir- resistant flu virus from these patients who may be brewing them up during treatment,'' he said.

Preferred Choice

Oseltamivir, taken orally in capsules, is the preferred drug for treating avian flu cases because the medicine is easier to administer than zanimivir, which is inhaled. It also is circulated in the bloodstream around the body, unlike zanamivir, which is taken up by tissues mostly in the upper airway and may not kill virus outside the lungs.

Only 4 percent to 17 percent of the total amount of the orally inhaled Relenza is absorbed by multiple organs, according to a study published in 1999 in the journal Clinical Pharmacokinetics.

Infection caused by seasonal flu is typically confined to the upper respiratory system. Avian flu has been shown to infect numerous parts of the body, including the gastrointestinal system, blood and cerebral spinal fluid, according to Menno de Jong, head of the virology department at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

De Jong's team was the first to report human avian flu cases caused by Tamiflu-resistant H5N1 strains.

New Version?

Relenza isn't made in pill form because the drug can't enter human cells and tissues properly by that route, Jennifer Armstrong, a Glaxo spokeswoman said last month. Glaxo is in the early stages of studying the possibility of a version that could be administered directly into the bloodstream, she said.

``If an intravenous or oral preparation of zanamivir is finally available, it will replace oseltamivir whose only superiority is good systemic blood level,'' said Yuen.

Relenza sales rose 70 percent to 5.2 million pounds ($9.8 million) in 2005. Roche's Tamiflu brought in 1.6 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion) last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net

Pharmacies to screen for bird flu

Pharmacies urged to help screen bird flu patients in Thailand

In a bid to prevent spread of bird flu, Thailand's Public Health Ministry will encourage pharmacies and drug stores across the country to help screen patients, the Thai News Agency reported Saturday. The ministry's bird flu screening system, in which state hospitals and other health care facilities screen their patients, might not cover blue-collar workers used to buying drugs at pharmacies instead of visiting doctors, said caretaker Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat on Friday. Pinij said that the nation's drugstores are places that can most easily check regarding the sickness of people, as many people when feeling unwell still prefer self-prescribing drugs for their own treatment to visiting a doctor or hospital. "Pharmacists at the drugstores must ask for details about each patient who buys drugs. If they are found to have contacted sick or dead poultry or live in areas where a large number of fowls died of unknown causes, the pharmacists will recommend the patients to meet the doctor immediately," he said. One reason for the increasing number of patients who are being included in the bird flu watchlist each day is because the country is entering the rainy season, he said. "A lot of people catch the flu from the change of weather. Meanwhile, there is a seasonal outbreak of dengue fever. The symptoms of influenza, dengue fever, and bird flu are similar," Pinij said, "so the authorities have to implement strict measures to monitor the bird flu epidemic." Source: Xinhua

New strain of bird flu

UN confirms new bird flu virus strain

(TNA) United Nations officials in Bangkok Thursday confirmed that the recent outbreak of avian influenza along the Thailand-Laos Mekong River border area was due to a strain of virus not previously present in either country, and that it probably came from southern China.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also said that the outbreak in Phichit province was a re-emergence of the H5N1 virus previously active in Thailand, and that governments needed to be more attentive to cross-border trade in poultry.

FAO regional director He Changchui said that Asia's poorer governments are less equipped to deal with any outbreak and should be assisted with long-term programmes.

Laboratory confirmation points to both old and new isolates of the bird flu virus as sources of the recent HPAI outbreak in Phichit, where the 'old' virus re-emerged and in Nakhon Pathom Province as well as in Laos, where the 'new' virus appeared, according to the FAO.

Calling for improved and sustained HPAI control efforts in Asia, FAO warned in an official news release that "vigorous implementation of recommended control measures is needed to prevent a further spread of the disease and sustain past successes in the region."

"Continuing outbreaks in China, recurrence in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, and the steady march of the disease in Indonesia underline the need for heightened vigilance in other Asian countries to prevent and detect any resurgence or introduction of the deadly bird flu virus. Timely reporting and sharing information continue to be crucial," He Changchui, FAO's Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific warned.

"Concerned about the recurrence of bird flu in Asia, close monitoring of diagnostic results by FAO has revealed that bird flu is endemic in some areas while new strains have emerged in other places," an FAO release said.

"Last month's HPAI outbreak in Thailand's Phichit province was caused by the same virus strain circulating in the area since 2003/4. The H5N1 virus thus remained alive in central Thailand in a reservoir of birds and poultry, most probably a mix of backyard chicken, ducks and fighting cocks," according to Laurence Gleeson, regional manager of FAO's bird flu centre in Bangkok on Thursday.

This indicates that the H5N1 virus is endemic in the area. While the number and size of outbreaks has been reduced, past control efforts were only partly successful.

On the other hand, the outbreaks in Nakhon Phanom and Vientiane, the capital of Laos, were caused by a H5N1 virus strain previously not detected in Thailand and Laos. Instead, the virus is similar to recent isolates from southern China, suggesting that the virus spread from China to Thailand and Laos.

The UN organisation said it recognizes that poultry trade across borders is continuing in Southeast and East Asia despite well-known risks to the governments and people in the region.

Countries are once more called upon to strengthen in-country as well as cross-border HPAI control measures, FAO added. In addition, regional HPAI networks need to be made stronger and sustainable with national and international support.

Recent sharing of information, epidemiological analysis and joint field missions to assess and control outbreaks in poultry have resulted in a better understanding of the month-old resurgence of bird flu in Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

The endemic presence of bird flu over the last three years coupled with the proven inroads of new virus isolates into already affected countries makes a redoubling of efforts at both national and regional level essential, the FAO noted.

"We are at another critical juncture of fighting against the bird flu situation in the region," emphasized Mr He. "Some countries can beat back occasional bird flu reoccurrence, but poorer countries still need long-term work – and for that long-term funding is an absolute necessity – to strengthen veterinary services and build up trans-boundary animal disease containment programmes," he added.

Governments in the region and FAO are working to tackle the bird flu problem at its source, but have so far only received a fraction of the $308.5 million needed. So far, Japan, USAID and the Asian Development Bank are the main donors in the region.

Super bird flu fighter: high tech

Supercomputer could fight bird flu

By Stephen Pounds

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 18, 2006

If IBM and Scripps Florida can pry $18 million in grants from the state and Palm Beach County, they will begin to build the world's largest supercomputer in Boca Raton starting Oct. 1.

The supercomputer would be used to study bird flu and other infectious diseases. Eventually, it could help to transform the city into a research mecca with a university-affiliated Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at its hub, attracting scientific and technological talent and businesses who want access to the King Kong computer.

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The two partners in Project Checkmate, a research effort against bird flu and other emerging diseases, outlined how the initiative will grow over five years in a $544 million proposal submitted to the county in July and released this week.

The plan will serve as a basis for negotiations with the Palm Beach County Commission.

The two sides hopes to hammer out a deal for $9 million in job-growth incentives sometime in September.

If it's approved, the proposal goes to the state of Florida for another $9 million.

The county commission gave the plan conceptual approval on Tuesday.

"We won't bring IBM and Scripps back to the commission until we have a contract," Deputy County Administrator Verdenia Baker said.

IBM and Scripps are asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to tap $7.2 billion earmarked for pandemic preparedness for most of the project's budget.

But they are also approaching nonprofits such as the Waitt Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The two local outfits expect to expand the project in three phases through 2011.

Today, IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer in New York is modeling a single hemagglutinin protein, the substance that makes the bird flu deadly.

Ultimately, Boca's Blue Gene will be capable of 1.2 quadrillion computations a second, enough to do computer modeling of 11,250 different combinations of viral-protein sequences.

"We propose an unprecedented level of computer modeling," the IBM/Scripps proposal reads.

The strategy is new, said Nick Tsinoremas, Scripps Florida's director of informatics. Normally, drugs to fight a flu virus are modified each year ahead of the flu season, with scientists trying to predict how the pathogen might change from the previous year.

"It's a very reactive way," Tsinoremas said. "We're more proactive."

In Phase 1 of Checkmate, which runs through next year, the first four racks of IBM's latest Blue Gene supercomputer will be installed at the company's Boca Raton site on Congress Avenue. Each rack consists of a dark computer box with a terabyte of memory and 2,000 microprocessors.

During this phase, as IBM builds up computer muscle, Scripps scientists will search for viral mutations of the bird flu that escape the body's immune system.

"To understand the current virus, we have to understand how it mutated through the years," Tsinoremas said.

In 2008, Phase 2 expands computer capacity to 22 computer racks. With the greater computer power, IBM and Scripps scientists will try to predict how the virus will mutate in the future and identify compounds and antibodies to combat those future changes.

"We'll need a lot more computing power to predict which strains will be lethal," Tsinoremas said.

Phase 3 represents the final three years of research, followed by drug production.

In this phase, Blue Gene grows to 84 racks with 168,000 processors and eclipses the largest Blue Gene, which is now in use at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Scientists then will develop therapeutics and begin testing them in animals.

"This is where the major discovery will occur," Tsinoremas said.

Plans for bird flu fight in Indonesia

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 (Jakarta):

Indonesia's President vowed on Wednesday to boost funding to fight bird flu, saying the country hardest hit by the disease needed to improve surveillance and stock up on anti-viral medicine.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made his comments to Parliament as health officials awaited laboratory test results for a 9-year-old girl who died this week with symptoms of the disease.

If they are positive, the child will be the 45th person in Indonesia to die from the H5N1 virus in just over a year.

"We have to improve surveillance efforts against bird flu and strengthen our regional laboratory abilities," Yudhoyono said, adding that the country also has to stock up on anti-viral medicine and self-protection gear.

Sparking a pandemic

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 139 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 with Indonesia tallying the highest toll, according to the World Health Organization.

Most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus, which remains hard for people to catch, will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

Indonesia has come under fire for doing too little to stamp out the virus in poultry. Slaughtering often isn't carried out following outbreaks, vaccination is spotty and surveillance is weak.

Yudhoyono said the government would increase its budget for health from $ 1.5 billion (€1.17 billion) in 2006 to $ 1.7 billion (€1.3 billion) next year so the country could better fight communicable diseases, "especially bird flu." (AP)

Origami birds for bird flu lessons

Bangkok, Thailand - Action star Jackie Chan is starring in a new video to help protect children and families from another deadly villain - bird flu.

Chan talks to six young children in a new public service announcement about the dangers of bird flu, the United Nations Children's Fund said on Tuesday.

While playing with colourful origami birds with the six children, Chan tells them that birds can pass on avian flu to people, so it's important to stay away from sick and dead birds, especially chickens.

He then adds that "playing with paper birds is fine", Unicef said in a statement.

The children in the one-minute video, ranging in age from six to nine, came from various countries and were filmed in Hong Kong with Chan in May.

The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003 and has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

More than 200-million fowl have been killed by the virus or slaughtered to control the spread of the disease, the statement said.

At least 238 people have been sickened by the virus, including at least 139 who died, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organisation. Most had contact with sick birds.

The public service announcement was produced by Unicef, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, and was funded by the Japanese government. - Sapa-AP

Culling in China

Bird flu kills 1,800 ducks in China, 210,000 culled

15 Aug 2006 14:33:47 GMT

Source: Reuters

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BEIJING, Aug 15 (Reuters) - About 1,800 ducks have died from bird flu at a farm in central China and more than 210,000 have been culled, the online edition of Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. A total of 1,805 ducks have died at the farm in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, since the first poultry death was reported on Aug. 4, Xinhuanet (www.xinhuanet.com) quoted the agriculture ministry as saying. About 217,000 ducks at the farm have been culled, Xinhuanet said. A national laboratory confirmed on Monday the ducks had died from the H5N1 bird flu virus, it said. About 40 bird flu outbreaks in poultry have been reported in a dozen Chinese provinces in the past year. On Monday, the Health Ministry said a 62-year-old farmer from Jimsar county in the northwestern region of Xinjiang died on July 12 from the H5N1 strain, bringing the nationwide bird flu death toll to 14. It was 21st human case of bird flu in China.

Numbers add up in Thailand

46 more suspected human bird-flu cases reported in Thailand

Forty-six more people were put under medical close watch after developing symptoms similar to bird flu illness, Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat said on Sunday. The 46 people were detected in 16 provinces during Saturday dawn to Sunday dawn, Pinij said. Apart of the 46, 96 other people are awaiting lab results on whether their illness had caused by the fatal bird-flu virus. Thailand is now fighting a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus which was confirmed in several provinces across the country. The latest outbreak killed a 27-year-old man of the northern province of Uthai Thani early August, the country's 16th victim, following another fatality a week earlier in Phichit, prompting officials to conduct a large-scale culling of infected chickens. Source: Xinhua

Child dies of H5N1

Indonesian girl dies of suspected bird flu
Posted: 8/15/2006 8:35:27 AM

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Bird flu is suspected in the death of a nine-year-old girl in Indonesia.

If confirmed, she would be the 45th person in Indonesia to die from the H5N1 virus in just over a year.

The H5N1 strain has killed at least 139 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. Indonesia has been hit hardest.

Most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds and is hard to catch. But experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

Photo Copyright Getty Images

Number of new cases mount

Indonesia's latest bird-flu victim refuses treatment Aug 14, 2006, 9:27 GMT

'Jakarta - An Indonesian teenager who is the country's 59th bird-flu case has refused to undergo medical treatment as the virus continues to spread in the world's worst-affected country, a health official said Monday. The 17-year-old boy from West Java's Garut district was confirmed to have the deadly H5N1 avian-influenza virus late Friday, Lily Sulistyowati, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Health Ministry, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. However, she said, the ministry has no power to compel him to undergo treatment. 'Our test result was positive, but since he refuses treatment, there's nothing we can do,' Lily said. It remained unknown why the boy was refusing treatment although his father picked him up from a hospital designated for bird-flu cases on Saturday and took him home, according to the Jakarta-based El-Shinta radio station. The latest case came after officials last week confirmed the deaths of two other teenagers from the virus, taking the number of the country's human deaths to 44, the highest in the world. Vietnam is second with 42 deaths but has had none this year, compared with 33 in Indonesia. The Jakarta government has come under fire for its slow response to bird flu, including its reluctance to cull chickens, after the disease was first discovered in the archipelago country in 2003. Bird flu is endemic in 27 of Indonesia's 33 provinces with millions of chickens and ducks infected. International health experts have said they fear H5N1 would mutate into a human-to-human virus and spark a pandemic that could kill tens of millions of people. Bird flu in Indonesia grabbed the worlds attention in May when seven members of a single family died of the virus - the largest recorded cluster to date. The World Health Organization concluded that limited human-to-human transmission likely occurred, but the virus did not spread beyond the blood family members. A total of 138 people have died of bird flu in nine countries in Asia and Africa, according to WHO. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur';

India in control of deadly H5N1

India conquers avian flu with controls and vaccine (With Images)

Posted by admin on 2006/8/14 13:38:35

No chicken, no eggs and at least 133 people dead of avian flu that can spread from chickens to humans... the disaster scenario of disease striking the very heart of kitchens came true in 10 Asian countries, but India is finally free of it with stringent controls and a home grown vaccine that can kill the virus. According to WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia Samlee Plianbangchang, the H5N1 strain of avian flu virus infected humans in 10 countries with 231 human cases being reported, including 133 fatalities. India, too, reported an outbreak of the disease in western India's Jalgaon town February this year, but there were no human cases. In the months since then, authorities worked relentlessly to localise the disease to one region and finally declared the country avian flu free last week. No fresh avian flu outbreaks have been reported in the last three months since the completion of the culling, cleaning and sanitising processes. As India complied with all protocols necessary for being notified bird flu-free from the international animal health agency OIE. scientists at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal announced that they had developed a vaccine against the deadly disease -- a first for India. "We developed the avian influenza vaccine within a short span of four months. The vaccine, developed for the first time in India, can kill the H5N1 virus and is also capable of preventing its further spread," said head of the research team, Dr Harekrishna Pradhan. The vaccine, which needs to be given through the intra-muscular route, can be used during a bird flu outbreak and is capable of preventing its spread up to five to ten km or more, he said. "We are now working to develop a diagnostic test that can differentiate vaccinated and infected birds," said the scientist. While the notification does not rule out a recurrence, the country's Animal Husbandry Department is hopeful that the surveillance and other preventive steps taken will prevent a repeat outbreak. "As we have not had an avian flu outbreak after the outbreak in Jalgaon (in Maharashtra state) for three months, we are in a position to claim disease free certificate. Our preparedness will always be there," Animal Husbandry Department Secretary P.M.A. Hakeem said at the end of a two-day review meeting of Asian countries. He said India was planning to put in place four more hi-tech animal disease-testing laboratories ahead of the next season of migration of birds to prevent recurrence of the disease. OIE regional representative for Asia and Pacific region Teruhide Fujita also endorsed that India had been adhering to the protocol laid down by the global body ahead of and during the avian flu outbreak. Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) added that India had taken adequate steps to contain the spread of the disease post outbreak. The meeting, hosted by India, was attended by ministerial representatives from 13 countries, including China, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. A Delhi Declaration adopted at the meeting said it was decided to develop a common framework under existing regional Asian forums like ASEAN and SAARC for better preparedness for pandemic threat and appropriate control measures. According to Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, the preparedness and surveillance mechanism put in place in India a year and a half before the outbreak in February this year had helped reduce the adverse impact and contained the disease to one region. The disease free tag could not have come sooner for India's poultry industry, which last year exported products worth 6.2 billion rupees ($133 million). Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the disease-free notification would help India in its poultry exports and improve the health of the poultry industry. "The Indian industry has suffered huge losses. While the market has been practically restored with prices at normal levels, it will take one to two years for the industry to recoup losses," said Pawar. "We are looking to the opening up of the export market with the notification by the government that India is free of avian flu," said O.P. Singh, CEO of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC). "Most countries, particularly in the Middle East, are also waiting for the notification so that they can switch back to India for sourcing eggs." Many countries prefer to import Indian eggs as they are of good quality besides costing around four times less than those from Europe. Till early this year, India exported around six million eggs daily, including table and hatching varieties. Though they have conquered the disease, authorities are taking no chances. Poultry samples are still being tested to ensure that there is no fresh outbreak as in Thailand where the disease re-surfaced after 260 days. "Though OIE does not require it, we will be putting all the data of testing of all suspected cases on our website as a confidence building measure for the trading community. It will be like an international document so that there is no backtracking," said S.K. Bandhopadyay of the Animal Husbandry Commission. "Once OIE notifies India is avian flu-free, we will be able to meet the demand not only in the Middle East but in Africa that requires large quantities of hatching eggs," added another senior official. Indian scientists are getting ready to meet other similar challenges. At the Bhopal laboratory, one of the 10 containment laboratories in the world of Bio-safetyLevel-4 (BSL-4) standard -- a standard required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of laboratory infections and life-threatening disease -- scientists have developed Elisa tests for diagnosis of three livestock diseases, including the deadly avian influenza. This technique can be applied for diagnosis of any disease of man or animal and scientists describe it as a revolution in the area of disease diagnosis. "We have tried in our laboratory and successfully produced the antibodies against bovine immuno deficiency virus, bovine viral diarrhoea virus and avian influenza virus," said head researcher Pradhan. The guards are in place in India. The task is to make sure that diseases like the avian flu don't cross species and borders - a task scientists and officials admit is more than daunting in today's world. --By Lola Nayar and Jatindra Dash

Death toll mounts

China reports new human bird flu death

Staff and agencies
14 August, 2006

6 minutes ago

BEIJING - A farmer has died of bird flu in far western China, the 14th person to die of the disease in the country.

The case brings China‘s total number of human bird flu infections to 21, Xinhua said. The tally includes a case the government confirmed last week occurred in 2003, two years before China publicly acknowledged its first human infection.

The 2003 case, disclosed by Chinese researchers in June in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine , raised questions about Beijing‘s ability to detect emerging diseases.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 138 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to a tally kept by the World Health Organization .

© 2006 The Associated Press.

Michigan swans have a bird flu

Printable Page

Two Michigan swans have avian flu; experts quell concerns

Lisa Schnirring Contributing Writer

Aug 14, 2006 (CIDRAP News) –The federal government announced today that two swans in Michigan tested positive for both the H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes, but initial genetic sequencing suggests that it is a low-pathogenic type rather than the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain spreading through birds in Asia, Europe, and Africa and causing deaths in humans.

Ron DeHaven, chief veterinary officer for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), said at a media briefing today that the birds appeared healthy and normal and were part of a group of 20 nonmigratory, resident mute swans that were sacrificed and tested on Aug 8 as part of a population reduction plan at a game area on Lake Erie in southeast Michigan.

Bill Raub, science advisor to the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the findings should not cause alarm. "There is no threat to human health, and there is no cause for any special actions," he said. "This is a matter of wildlife biology."

On Aug 9 the samples were tested at Michigan State University's Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, part of the USDA's National Animal Health Laboratory Network, where tests confirmed the presence of an H5 avian influenza virus. The samples were then sent to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, which is the only national reference laboratory that can confirm the H5N1 virus.

Confirmatory tests at the NVSL lab showed the presence of an H5 virus along with an N1 subtype; however, experts aren't sure if the birds were infected with two separate avian influenza strains or if the findings represent low-pathogenic H5N1. Testing began at the NVSL on Aug 12 to further characterize the virus, and results are expected in about 2 weeks.

An analysis of genetic sequences at the NVSL has already suggested that the avian influenza virus in the swans is similar to the low-pathogenic avian flu virus identified previously in North America. Routine sampling in wild ducks in the United States showed evidence of low-pathogenic H5N1 in 1975 and 1986. The virus has also been detected in Canada as recently as 2005.

"These results are not unexpected in a given surveillance activity," DeHaven said at the media briefing.

Sue Hazeltine, associate director of biology for the US Geological Survey at the Department of the Interior (DOI), said the agency has taken 8,000 wild bird samples since early June. About 4,000 were from dead birds taken by subsistence hunters in Alaska, and the rest were from live birds. "Less than 2% have shown avian influenza of any type, which is standard and what we would expect to find across the country at any point," she said. None have tested positive for low-pathogenic H5N1.

DeHaven said there is no reason to believe the swans had any connections to any commercial poultry operations, and the findings do not provide a basis for any country to impose any trade restrictions on the United States.

On Aug 9 the USDA and the DOI announced they are expanding wild bird monitoring for H5N1 avian influenza beyond Alaska in partnerships with the lower 48 states, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands. Surveillance in Western states in the Pacific flyway during late summer and fall will coincide with the southward migration of birds that have been exposed to Asian species this summer in the Arctic. Surveillance in Alaska has been under way since summer 2005.

Vietnam's "silent carriers" of H5N1

7] Viet Nam
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006
From: Mary Marshall <tropical.forestry@btinternet.com>
Source: Reuters alertnet, 11 Aug 2006 [edited]
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAN157710.htm>


Viet Nam, worried about a recurrence of the H5N1 bird flu which has
already killed 42 of its people, has found more ducks and geese
infected with a strain of avian influenza, state media reported on
Friday [11 Aug 2006].

The Saigon Giai Phong (Liberation Saigon) newspaper quoted Dong Manh
Hoa, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Regional Veterinary Centre, as
saying tests of the waterfowl in Tien Giang, Long An and Ben Tre
provinces revealed the H5 subtype virus. [Viet Nam's 61 provinces are
presented in the interactive map
<http://www.angelfire.com/co/hongnam/vnmap.html>.
- Mod. AS]

A Ben Tre official told Reuters on Thursday more than 50 healthy
waterfowl had been killed in the province after tests showed they had
the H5 subtype, but there had been no outbreaks.

The H5N1 virus swept across much of Asia in late 2003 and, although
it has shown no signs of doing so yet, experts fear it could mutate
into a form that can pass easily between people.

It has not killed anyone in Vietnam this year, but recurrences in
Thailand, Laos and China have alarmed Hanoi officials worried their
country has become complacent.

In an urgent directive issued on Thursday, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan
Dung told officials "to focus strongly on instructing and deploying
forces to carry out synchronised, preventive measures".

Officials say a failure to control waterfowl, which can be silent
carriers of bird flu, made Vietnam vulnerable to new outbreaks and
wild birds believed to carry H5N1 would migrate soon from the north,
raising the risk of outbreaks [see comment].

Farmers in the Mekong Delta have been raising ducks in large numbers
despite a ban on breeding waterfowl due to remain in place until
February 2007.  At this time of year, when a rice harvest is underway
in the region, ducks usually roam from field to field feeding on spilled grain.

--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Laboratory findings on the full identity of the H5 virus s

Traditional Chinese medicine and H5N1

Traditional Chinese medicines have contributed a lot to the recovery of China's latest bird flu patient, said a Chinese medical expert on Saturday.

The patient, surnamed Jiang, 31, was discharged on August 2 from the Donghu Hospital after being treated here for about 50 days, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

During the early period of Jiang's treatment, doctors used a kind of soup made by ginseng, a medicinal herb, to clear toxic heat in his body, said Zhou Boping, head of the hospital.

Hirudo, a medicine in China, was also used to activate blood circulation against stasis in the second phase, said Zhou.

Other Chinese medicines such as Cordyceps Sinesis, a Chinese caterpillar fungus, were also used to promote the function of lungs, according to Zhou.

The use of traditional Chinese medicines worked well along with other forms of treatment, said Zhou, also head of the medical team of experts for treating Jiang.

On June 15, the Ministry of Health confirmed that Jiang had contracted the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Jiang was sent to the Donghu Hospital on June 9.

Jiang had been to a local market where live poultry was sold several times before developing symptoms of fever and pneumonia on June 3. He was critically ill when he got to hospital, and many internal organs showed signs of failure and his lungs were severely infected by different kinds of anti-drug virus, according to Zhou.

But he had been doing well since late June. Examinations showed the avian influenza virus was no longer in his system by June 22. By July 5, he was able to breathe without the use of a respirator.

China's Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the country's first human case of H5N1 bird flu occurred in November 2003. Since then, the total number of the country's human cases of bird flu has been registered at 20, among them seven recovered.

Source: Xinhua

Education for countries on bird flu

Singapore (ANTARA News) - More than 50 health and government officials from the Asia-Pacific will gather in Singapore to discuss ways to strengthen the region's response to any bird flu pandemic, a regional grouping said Sunday.

The two-day workshop starting Monday is a follow-up to a bird flu exercise coordinated by Australia in June involving the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members, the grouping said in a statement as reported by AFP.

"The exercise achieved its purpose of highlighting the need for improved
communications to handle these sorts of emergencies," Helena Studdert of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in the statement.

"The next step is for the Singapore workshop to discuss the report, decide how to move forward and make a series of recommendations to ministers," she said.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 138 people since late 2003, mostly in
Asia. Health experts fear it could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans, marking the first stage of a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. (*)

COPYRIGHT © 2006 ANTARA

Thai issues with H5N1

46 patients monitored for bird flu

Compiled from agencies
A total of 46 Thai patients suspected of contracting the deadly avian influenza are under close medical supervision, while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has approved a budget to build 100 more patient rooms at hospitals nationwide, said Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat on Sunday.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said that no victim of the deadly disease has been found in Bangkok.

Rumours of Bangkok victims had caused concern last week. The capital has suffered a spate of influenza, including many serious cases, but none has proved to be H5N1 bird flu, authorities said.

Mr Pinij said the prime minister had given the green light for a budget to build 100 more rooms for patients suspected of contracting the disease.

Most of the rooms will be built at hospitals in provinces where the situation is severe such as Phichit, Uthai Thani, Kampaengphet and Nakhon Sawan and they will be completed within three months.

Mr Pinij said he expected the budget would likely be given by the Bureau of the Budget on Tuesday or Wednesday (August 15-16).

More than 50 health and government officials from Asia and the Pacific will meet in Singapore this week to discuss ways to strengthen the region's response to avian influenza pandemic.

The two-day workshop, starting Monday (August 14), is a follow-up to a bird flu exercise coordinated by Australia in June involving the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member economies

Mr Pinij visited two patients having bird flu-like symptoms at a government-run hospital Sunday afternoon.

The first patient is a 24-year-old man from Bangkok's neighbouring province of Samut Prakan, while the second is a 66-year-old woman from the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.

Both are in critical condition, said Mr Pinij, adding that results would be known Monday (August 14) whether they have come down with bird flu or human influenza.

Mr Pinij said a total of 46 patients in 16 provinces nationwide are now being under the close supervision of doctors.

The northern province of Phichit has most patients with nine, followed by eight in nearby Nakhon Sawan Province and five in Bangkok's neighbouring Nonthaburi Province, he said.

Watching a Cambodian village of outbreak

Sunday, August 13, 2006 (Phnom Penh):

A Cambodian village hit by a new outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus will be closely monitored for 30 days.

Officials will also inspect surrounding areas in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading.

Animal health officials will continue collecting samples from poultry in the Rokar Chuor Timuoy village in Prey Veng province, and in a three-kilometer radius around it to test for bird flu.

"The village itself has been placed under constant monitoring for a 30-day period to prevent the spread of the virus," said Kao Phal, director of the Agriculture Ministry's animal health department.

He also said that officials have finished culling some 400 ducks that were part of the 1,600 on the small village farm where the outbreak began.

The ministry on Saturday confirmed the outbreak of H5N1 virus among ducks in the village.

Some of the affected ducks began falling sick on August 2, and more than 1,000 of them died in following days.

The latest outbreak has prompted Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun to urge people across the country to be on "high alert" for bird flu. (AP)

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Dutch bird flu in owls

The Hague - Two owls found dead at the Rotterdam zoo may have been infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus that has killed nearly 140 people, the Dutch agriculture ministry said late on Saturday.

"As part of routine examinations indications were found of the H5N1 bird flu virus," the ministry said in a statement.

A second test returned the same result, while a third is being conducted to determine conclusively whether the owls were infected with H5N1 strain.

Unlike most of the birds at the zoo, the owls had not been vaccinated against the bird flu.

The authorities said there was little risk to the public, and the zoo would remain open, but measures would be taken to ensure there was no contact with birds.

At the beginning of the month a mild form of the H7N7 strain of bird flu was found on a Dutch farm.

In 2003 the Netherlands was hit hard by an epidemic of a stronger H7N7 strain which led to the cull of 25 million birds, about one quarter of the country's poultry population at the time. One veterinarian died.

According to the World Health Organisation 138 people have died from the H5N1 strain of the virus.