Looking at the ducks in NoCal

Bay City News Wire
TESTERS GATHER TO LOOK FOR BIRDS WITH H5N1 FLU VIRUS
11/16/06 11:30 PST

As part of an ongoing effort to test wild birds for the deadly avian influenza subtype H5N1, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game and other government agencies came together this morning to catch and test wild birds in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, outside Davis.

The area is a vibrant and favorite habitat for pintail ducks, which migrate along the Pacific Flyway, an extensive series of avian migration paths that run through California to Alaska and Siberia, said Patrick Foy, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.

Birds that travel through California mix with birds from Asia in both Alaska and Asia, he said.

H5N1 hasn't been found in any of the 2,500 birds tested in California this year, nor elsewhere in North America, and today's efforts, which target pintail ducks, come as the department winds down a wild bird testing program that has been in effect since January.

Many birds, and ducks in particular, can carry the virus but not show symptoms, he said.

Staff from the Department of Fish and Game take one fecal sample from a bird, which is not tracked after testing, he said. Laboratories then first look for the H5 virus and, if those tests are positive, follow up with more tests for H5N1. Birds typically carry lots of viruses, he said.

The brown and white pintail ducks, which have a pointed tail, are caught by swimming into baited, passive traps or with rocket nets, which are blasted over the top of a flock of ducks settled on the water.

With the rocket nets, "if you're lucky you can catch 100 birds at a time,'' Foy said, adding that catching the birds can still be a real hit or miss operation.

Test results are available within a couple of weeks after the birds are sampled, Foy said. There is no particular cause for concern about the H5N1 virus in this round of testing, he said.

Many health care workers have been fitted. I have!

Clinicians raise questions about respirator use in pandemic

Lisa Schnirring * Contributing Writer

Nov 16, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – Last month the US Department of Health and Human (HHS) called for a greater role for N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers in the event of an influenza pandemic, and now clinicians are raising questions about potential problems such as inadequate supplies and poor fit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fielded questions from clinicians today during a teleconference with Michael Bell, MD, associate director for infection control in the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.

In October, HHS issued new interim guidance saying that the use of N95 respirators, designed to stop 95% of small airborne particles, is "prudent" for medical workers providing direct care for patients with confirmed or suspected pandemic fu and is recommended when caring for patients with pneumonia. HHS also said that respirator use is prudent for support workers who have direct contact with patients.

The recommendations were a departure from guidance in the HHS pandemic influenza plan released last year, which urged healthcare workers to wear simple surgical masks, designed to block large respiratory droplets, for routine care of pandemic flu patients. Both documents recommend use of N95 protection during procedures likely to generate airborne infectious particles, such as nebulization or endotracheal intubation.

Bell emphasized that the new HHS guidance is not intended to change how clinicians respond to patients who have seasonal influenza. He said the difference in recommendations between seasonal and pandemic influenza stems from uncertainty about inherent immunity to a pandemic flu strain and potential shortages of antiviral medication and vaccines in a pandemic. "As a result, there's more attention being paid to personal protective equipment," he said.

He predicted that recommendations about respirator use will continue to evolve as researchers learn more about flu virus particle size and virulence. "The interim guidance is very much interim," he said.

Another useful thing the recent HHS respirator recommendations do is to make a distinction between respirator use and use of negative-pressure isolation rooms, Bell said. "It's one thing to supply respirators and another thing to reengineer rooms," he said.

The HHS guidance states that negative-pressure isolation is not required for routine care of patients with pandemic influenza, though such rooms should be used whenever possible for performing aerosol-generating procedures such as inhalational intubation. If negative-pressure rooms aren't available, it is prudent to perform such procedures in private rooms with the door closed or other enclosed areas, the document says.

One clinician who took part in the teleconference said she and her colleagues were worried about the supply of N95 respirators and said her hospital had difficulty obtaining enough even for routine tuberculosis care.

Another clinician had questions about reusing respirators if a pandemic occurs and the devices are in short supply. Bell said healthcare workers had to be creative during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak; some kept their masks in plastic bags and reused them. He said breathing through the mask, over time, could reduce some the electrostatic charge that provides some of the filtering mechanism. "There are no clear recommendations, though the Institute of Medicine says they are disposable and not suitable for reuse," Bell said. "There may be safer ways to reuse them."

Bell said HHS officials and other healthcare groups are brainstorming about how to stimulate more production of N95 respirators. "The companies are concerned about liability. They want to be free of that before they produce mass quantities," he said.

Other clinicians had questions about how well the N95 respirators have to fit to provide adequate protection. They said respirator products range from models that don't require any fitting to ones that require time-consuming fitting procedures. Bell said that from a regulatory perspective, OSHA recommends strict attention to the fit of the respirator. "But in a pinch, you'd expect some benefit, even if the respirator isn't a perfect fit," he said.

Some clinicians said they were already fielding questions about community use of N95 respirators. Bell responded that HHS has just drafted guidance on such use. He anticipated that the recommendations would be posted on the government's pandemic flu Web site within the next 3 or 4 weeks. Bell said HHS probably won't recommend N95 respirators to the general public unless people are caring for family members or neighbors who have pandemic influenza.

from CIDRAP

Plan, What Plan?

11/16/2006
Workers Unclear About Employers' Plans for Pandemic Flu

Few working people (19 percent) are aware of any plan at their workplace to respond to a serious outbreak of pandemic flu, according to a survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Twenty-two percent of employed adults said they are very or somewhat worried that if a severe outbreak of Pandemic flu occurred in their community, their employer would make them go to work even if they were sick. Half of respondents said that they believe that their workplace would stay open if public health officials recommended that some businesses in their community should shut down.

The survey asked employed respondents what they would do if public health officials said you should stay home from work, but their employer told them to come to work. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they would stay at home, and 35 percent of respondents said they would go to work.

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they think that if they stayed home from work, they would still get paid; 42 percent said they think they would not get paid, and 22 percent do not know whether they would get paid or not.

The survey also asked employed respondents about the problems they might have if they were asked to stay out of work for seven to ten days, a month, and three months because of an outbreak of pandemic flu in their community.

The longer people are out of work, the greater the number of people who will face financial problems. While most employed people (74 percent) said that they believe they could miss seven to ten days of work without having serious financial problems, one in four (25 percent) said they would face such problems. A majority (57 percent) said that they think they would have serious financial problems if they had to miss work for one month, and a total of three-fourths (76 percent) said they would have such problems if they were away from work for three months.

Only about three in ten respondents (29 percent) said that if they had to stay away from the workplace for one month, they would be able to work from home for that long.

"These findings are a wake-up call for business, that employees have serious financial concerns and are unclear about the workplace plans and policies for dealing with pandemic flu," says Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.

A pandemic flu is a human outbreak of a global scale, and it spreads easily among humans. There is no pandemic flu currently, but public health officials are concerned about a strain of avian flu. Avian flu occurs naturally in birds and can be transmitted from birds to humans. The current strain of avian flu is the H5N1 virus. Among humans, there is no immunity and the fatality rate for avian flu is 50 percent of diagnosed cases. So far, the avian flu cannot be easily transmitted from human to human. However, health officials are concerned that the H5N1 virus could mutate and become easily transmitted among humans. from BenefitsNext USA

Bush visit to Southeast Asia

Vietnam, hailed for beating back bird flu and rallying against AIDS, is getting a chance to impress US President George W. Bush by showing just how much it has done, AP reported Thursday.

Bush is expected to visit the Pasteur Institute – one of the country's top research institutes for communicable diseases – in Ho Chi Minh City after attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the capital, Hanoi.

It is his first trip to Vietnam.

The Southeast Asias country has been deemed a bright spot in the fight against bird flu as the virulent H5N1 virus continues to plague the region.

Indonesia on Tuesday announced its second human death this week from the disease, which is likely to worsen during the approaching cooler months. Bush is to visit Jakarta after leaving Vietnam.

Vietnam has logged 42 human deaths, second only to Indonesia's 57, but has not detected any poultry outbreaks this year and no human infections since November 2005. The success is largely credited to a nationwide poultry vaccination campaign and strong political will to root out the virus.

Bird flu has killed at least 153 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry in late 2003. So far, the disease remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds, but experts fear it will mutate into a form that is easily spread among people.

"It's important that public health issues, including avian influenza and other similar pandemic threats, are on the APEC agenda, and it's a positive sign that these issues are being discussed at the highest level," said Hans Troedsson, World Health Organization representative in Vietnam. "I hope that the APEC meeting will translate into more commitment and collaboration among nations."

While touring the lab, Bush also is to learn about Vietnam's fight against AIDS. Vietnam has stepped up prevention efforts and worked to raise awareness since Bush selected it as one of the 15 countries to receive US emergency HIV/AIDS funding in June 2004.

The US government has contributed nearly US$80 million since then to fight the disease in Vietnam.

"President Bush drawing attention to the two diseases together I think is very positive," said Nancy Fee, UNAIDS country coordinator.

"It's very good that even within discussions about economic development he's highlighting these diseases, which could have a major economic impact on Vietnam if they're not handled well."

About 5,500 people, or 15 percent of those in need of anti-retroviral drugs in Vietnam, are now receiving them, compared with less than 5 percent two years ago, she said.

Experts say Vietnam is at a critical point as the number of HIV infections reaches an estimated 260,000 people. So far, most cases have been among vulnerable groups such as sex workers and injecting drug users, but the disease could soon become more generalized.

The Pasteur Institute and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi are the country's top two research institutes for communicable diseases.

Source: AP

From MeatNews.com word about China

CHINA: A Chinese official says the country has killed nearly three million birds to keep bird flu from spreading.

China’s chief veterinary officer, Jia Youling, has announced the country has killed 2.94 million birds so far this year to control bird flu.

Jia says there have been 10 outbreaks in seven provinces during the period, with 90,000 poultry infected and 47,000 of them died.

He says 3,641 migratory birds have died of bird flu in Qinghai province and Tibet in west China this year.

In addition, a total of 20 human infections have been reported in China since 2005, and 13 of the cases took place so far this year.

Jia denied the existence and spread of a new strain of H5N1 bird flu called ‘Fujian-like virus’, as was suggested in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States.

Jia said, “The data used in the article are erroneous and the research methodology is unscientific. The conclusions of the paper are untenable and contravene the facts.”

Web posted: November 15, 2006
Category: Food Safety
In Europe:Chris Harris, Editor or
In North America: Bryan Salvage, Editorial Director

H5N1 virus needs to adapt for humans

Scientists find mutations that let bird flu adapt to humans

November 15, 2006


Kawaokaby Terry Devitt

By comparing influenza viruses found in birds with those of the avian virus that have also infected human hosts, researchers have identified key genetic changes required for pandemic strains of bird flu.

The new work, reported in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Nature, illustrates the genetic changes required for the H5N1 avian influenza virus to adapt to easily recognize the receptors that are the gateway to human cells.

"We identified two changes that are important," says Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the senior author of the Nature paper and a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. "Both changes are needed for the H5N1 virus to recognize human receptors."

The new report provides a molecular blueprint for the genetic changes required to transform a virus that only infects birds to a virus capable of easily recognizing human receptors. Receptors are molecules on the surface of cells that permit the virus to dock with the cell and commandeer it to initiate a cascade of infection. By knowing what genetic changes are required for the virus to easily infect human cells, it may be possible to detect the emergence of pandemic strains earlier, providing public health officials and vaccine manufacturers with precious time to prepare for a global outbreak of highly pathogenic influenza.

To be successful, a virus must be able to recognize and attach to a host cell. But human and avian influenza viruses recognize different cell receptors. Avian flu viruses have demonstrated an ability to evolve to easily infect humans by exchanging genes with human viruses that subsequently permit them to recognize human receptor molecules and gain easy access to cells, typically in the human respiratory system.

The change is thought to occur when human patients are exposed at the same time to a human flu virus and an avian flu virus. Most viruses, including influenza, readily swap genes with one another.

In the new study, conducted by an international team of researchers, the viruses isolated from human patients in Vietnam and Thailand could recognize both human and avian cell receptors. By contrast, the viruses found in chickens and ducks could recognize the receptors only on avian cells.

The work helps flesh out the changes that have occurred in the worrisome strain of avian influenza virus known as H5N1, a strain some fear could be the organism that will trigger a pandemic of virulent human influenza. The avian virus has already changed dramatically from when it was first identified in 1997, says Kawaoka, who also holds an appointment at the University of Tokyo.

"There are big differences between the virus first found in 1997 and the virus we see now," Kawaoka explains. "We are watching this virus turn itself into a human pathogen."

The mutations found by Kawaoka's group have not yet conferred a complete ability on avian flu to easily recognize the topography of human cells, but they are key steps on that pathway. More mutations, says Kawaoka, will be required for the virus to fully adapt to humans, but it is not known how many mutations are needed for such a change.

However, if scientists are able to continue to monitor and secure viral isolates from humans infected with bird flu, they may be able to map a mutation trajectory that will help predict when the avian virus will cross the threshold to become a human pathogen.

The last two flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968 were caused by avian viruses that had accumulated enough genetic mutations to be considered hybrids of animal and human viruses, Kawaoka notes.

The new work was supported by grants from the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare; and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.


Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: comments@uc.wisc.edu
Copyright

© 2005 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

Something I had not thought about

GSK predicts unrest if bird-flu mutates

By Katherine Griffiths, City Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:16pm GMT 12/11/2006

# Profile: Visionary in the pursuit of excellence

Several governments around the world have promised to send in the army to protect GlaxoSmithKline manufacturing plants that produce bird flu vaccine should a pandemic break out, the drug maker's chief executive, Jean-Pierre Garnier, has said.

"People don't realise the disorder which comes from a scary event such as a true pandemic. It is not going to be the time to line up to your friendly pharmacist because there will be hundreds of people there. There will be panic episodes," Mr Garnier said.
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The Government is expected to make a decision in the next few weeks on what measures to take to protect the UK should bird flu mutate so that it can be passed from human to human, creating a global pandemic. As well as stocking up on antibiotics and face masks to reduce the risk of infection, the Department of Health is also expected to build a reserve of bird-flu vaccine.

GSK is one of several major pharmaceutical companies working on a vaccine against H5N1, the current strain of bird flu. It has signed a deal to supply its vaccine to Switzerland and an unnamed Asian country. It is in talks with other countries including the UK and US.

"We're hopeful the UK will come to a decision before the end of the year because other countries are knocking on our door," Mr Garnier said.

He said GSK could switch some of its factories making normal flu vaccine to the bird-flu drug. GSK has major flu drug plants in Germany and Canada. Mr Garnier said no countries had said they might requisition GSK factories in the event of a pandemic.

Check out the new OSHA guidelines for avian flu

November, 14 2006
OSHA Unveils Avian Flu Guidance
By Josh Cable

OSHA today unveiled new safety and health guidance that alerts employees and employers about the hazards of occupational exposure to avian influenza from infected birds and provides practical recommendations on ways to avoid infection.

"We encourage employers and employees who are most likely to be exposed to avian flu to take the appropriate precautions," OSHA Administrator Ed Foulke Jr. said. "This guidance offers them practical tips, such as hand washing and the use of proper protective equipment, for preventing illness."

The new document – OSHA Guidance Update on Protecting Employees from Avian Flu Viruses – updates guidance on avian flu issued by OSHA in 2004.

The update provides separate recommendations for poultry employees and those who handle other animals, and for laboratory employees, health care personnel, food handlers, travelers and U.S. employees stationed abroad.

The primary focus is on good hygiene, including use of gloves and hand washing, as well as respiratory protection for those who work with infected animals or individuals, OSHA said.

The guidance also includes links to helpful Web sites with additional information, and a list of technical articles and resources, including a history on flu pandemics, symptoms and outcomes of various strains of the avian flu, a summary of the bird importation regulations and details on the transmission of the virus.

Avian Flu Could Be the Next Flu Pandemic

Wild birds, particularly waterfowl, are natural hosts of avian flu viruses and often show no symptoms; however, some of the viruses can cause high mortality in poultry, including the H5N1 virus.

Some strains of avian flu viruses carried by these wild birds can infect domestic fowl and in turn can infect humans, causing fever, cough, sore throat, eye infections and muscle pain. Avian flu can also lead to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, and other severe and life-threatening complications. The most common route of transmission to humans is by contact with contaminated poultry.

The federal government is providing funding, advice, support and up-to-date information to help Americans prepare for and prevent the spread of avian flu in this country. The world's public health community is concerned that a new avian flu subtype may acquire the capability of human-to-human transmission, and become an agent for the next flu pandemic.

Increasing concern over the possibility of a pandemic has led the World Health Organization to develop a Global Influenza Preparedness Plan, and the White House to issue its National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza.

OSHA Guidance Available on Agency's Web site

OSHA Guidance Update on Protecting Employees from Avian Flu Viruses, as well as other important information on the topic, is available in English and Spanish by visiting the In Focus section on the home page of OSHA's Web site or by clicking here.

For more information on federal activities on avian flu and pandemic flu, visit http://www.pandemicflu.gov.

Did western nations not help this country after the tsunami devastated it?

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) as an opposition party sees the planned visit of United States President George W Bush to Indonesia on November 20 as merely a friendly visit of benefit only to the United States, a party spokesman said.

"There is nothing substantive or important to be gained from the visit. It is the United States that will benefit from it," PDIP Secretary General Pramono Anung said here on Tuesday.

Pramono said initially the PDIP saw no problem in the planned Bush visit but when the US asked for extra tight security and exaggerated facilities which led some parts of the Bogor Botanical Gardens to sustain damage, the party was now thinking Bush`s visit was an extravagance.

Pramono made the remarks after attending a dialog on the Law on the 2009 Election System and creation of quality democracy here on Tuesday.

He noted that just to welcome Bush, the government had built a helipad using expensive steel plates which were disturbing the ecology of the plant life being conserved in the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

"Indonesia should have shown its identity as a sovereign country and refused to be treated like that. It is as if Indonesia is a colony and we cannot accept this," he said.

On the occasion, Gajah Mada University political observer I Ketut Putra Erawan also questioned the purpose of the United States president`s planned visit.

"What is the benefit of the visit? Is there any benefit Indonesia will gain from it", Ketut asked , adding that public opposition to the visit was understandable.

Bush will visit Indonesia after attending an APEC meeting in Vietnam on November 20. The visit would be a return visit to the one made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the United States in May, 2005.

Talks during the Bush visit are expected to focus on six topics, namely Indonesia`s desire to attract more US investment, cooperation in biofuel development, education, the fight against bird flu, natural disaster handling and information technology. (*)

Copyright © 2006 ANTARA

I know this says "M" chip, but I keep thinking MC CHIP

Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed an inexpensive “gene chip” test based on a single influenza virus gene that could allow scientists to quickly identify flu viruses, including avian influenza H5N1. The researchers used the MChip to detect H5N1 in samples collected over a three-year period from people and animals in geographically diverse locales. In tests on 24 H5N1 viral isolates, the chip provided complete information about virus type and subtype in 21 cases and gave no false positive results, report the scientists. They say the MChip could provide a significant advantage over available tests because it is based on a single gene segment that mutates less often than the flu genes typically used in diagnostic tests. As a result, the MChip may not need to be updated as frequently to keep up with the changing virus.

The research was led by University of Colorado scientist Kathy L. Rowlen, Ph.D., and funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. A paper describing the work, now available online, is scheduled to appear in the December 15 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Analytical Chemistry.

“Concerns about a possible influenza pandemic make it imperative that we continue to devise reliable and easy-to-use diagnostic tests for H5N1 that can be employed on-site where outbreaks are suspected,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “The MChip developed by Dr. Rowlen and her colleagues performed extremely well in initial tests and has the potential to be a valuable tool in global influenza surveillance efforts.”

The MChip has several advantages over the FluChip, a flu diagnostic previously developed by the same research team, says Dr. Rowlen. While the FluChip is based on three influenza genes — hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M) — the MChip is based on one gene segment. Unlike HA and NA, which mutate constantly and thus are technically difficult to use to develop gene chip diagnostic tests, the M gene segment mutates much less rapidly, Dr. Rowlen explains. “The M gene segment is much less of a moving target than the HA or NA gene. We believe that a test based on this relatively unchanging gene segment will be more robust because it will continue to provide accurate results even as the HA and NA genes mutate over time. The work summarized in our paper strongly supports that idea,” she says.

Another potential advantage is that the MChip would, for the first time, create a way to simultaneously screen large numbers of flu samples to learn both the type and subtype of virus present. Current real-time tests provide information about the type of virus (type A or B) in a sample, but additional tests must be run to determine the virus subtype (for example, H5N1 subtype.)

Working in biosafety-level-3-enhanced labs in Atlanta, CDC scientists, including Catherine B. Smith, M.S., extracted H5N1 genetic material from virus samples derived from human, feline and multiple avian hosts, including geese, chickens and ducks. The samples represented infections that had occurred between 2003 and 2006 over a vast geographic area, including Vietnam, Nigeria, Indonesia and Kazakhstan. Six of the human viral isolates were taken from an Indonesian family in which human-to-human H5N1 virus transmission was suspected. The virus diversity in the samples is important, explains Dr. Rowlen, because any diagnostic tool designed for eventual use on a rapidly changing virus, such as H5N1, must be able to detect as many variants as possible.

Dr. Rowlen and her colleagues tested the ability of the MChip to correctly identify 24 different H5N1 viral isolates, and distinguish those from seven non-H5N1 isolates. The MChip accurately identified and gave complete subtype information (identifying the samples as H5N1) for the 21 out of 24 strains of H5N1. Importantly, notes Dr. Rowlen, the test gave no false positives, meaning that the chip never indicated the presence of H5N1 when none was present. Following exposure to a viral isolate, the MChip displays results as a pattern of fluorescent spots. To automate the process of interpreting this pattern — thus eliminating the possibility of human error — the researchers developed an artificial neural network trained to recognize the distinctive pattern indicative of H5N1. Automating the interpretation of MChip results could allow it to be used more readily by health workers at the site of possible flu outbreaks, notes Dr. Rowlen.

“This new technology, once manufactured and distributed, could have the potential to revolutionize the way laboratories test for influenza,” says Nancy J. Cox, Ph.D., director of the CDC’s influenza division. “The MChip could enable more scientists and physicians, possibly even those working in remote places, to more quickly test for H5N1 and to accurately identify the specific strain and its features. This would greatly increase our ability to learn more about the viruses causing illness and take the best steps to respond.”

The raw materials for the MChip cost less than 10 dollars, Dr. Rowlen says, and discussions are under way to commercialize its manufacture.

For more information on influenza see http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/focuson/flu. Also visit http://www.PandemicFlu.gov for one-stop access to U.S. Government information on avian and pandemic flu.

Another meeting in Asia

Control Of Avian Flu Among Issues For 28th AMAF Discussions

SINGAPORE, Nov 13 (Bernama) -- Asean ministers in charge of agriculture and forestry will meet in Singapore on Thursday to discuss various issues including the progress achieved in the control of avian influenza.

The meeting would update on the progress of avian influenza control measures in Asean countries, Singapore's Ministry of National Development (MND) said in a statement.

The 28th Meeting of the Asean Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) will be preceded by a senior officials meeting from today to Wednesday.

At the 27th AMAF meeting last year in the Philippines, the 10-member grouping endorsed a Regional Framework for Control and Eradication of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), covering eight strategic areas on the prevention, control and eradication of HPAI over a period of three years (2006 to 2008) under the coordination of assigned member countries.

Malaysia is assigned to coordinate implementation of containment measures, establishment of disease-free zones and emergency preparedness plan, while information sharing goes to Singapore; vaccination policy (Indonesia); disease surveillance and diagnostic capabilities (Thailand) and public awareness (the Philippines).

According to the Asean Secretariat, as of April this year, there had been 192 cases of human infections and over 200 million poultry lost, either they died because of the avian influenza (AI) or culled across the globe.

"Of the 192 human cases, 109 died. Out of these fatalities, 66 were in two of the Asean member countries -- 24 in Indonesia and 42 in Vietnam," the secretariat said.

Other issues on the agenda for the 28th AMAF meeting are collaboration on food safety, facilitating trade of agricultural products as well as implementation of animal health and regional fishery programmes.

The Asean ministers will also meet their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea at the 6th AMAF plus 3 Meeting on Friday.

Among others, the 6th AMAF plus 3 Meeting will discuss ways to strengthen research, promote agri-trade, and facilitate training and technical co-operation.

Malaysia will be represented by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries, Datuk Mah Siew Keong.

-- BERNAMA

Learning in Delaware

Romanians visit Del. to learn from bird flu experts
By LULADEY B. TADESSE, The News Journal
Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 at 11:40 am

Fifteen senior policymakers from Romania are visiting Delaware this week to participate in a nine-day training program on managing avian influenza outbreaks.

The Romanian group, which includes representatives from the government, poultry industry and academia, will spend most of its time with avian flu experts from the University of Delaware and Delaware Technical & Community College campuses in Georgetown.

In May, Romanian veterinarian authorities confirmed more than 80 outbreaks of the H5N1 virus infection in domestic fowl in 12 districts of the country, according to the World Health Organization. So far, no human cases have been confirmed, but Romanian officials are requesting assistance in controlling the disease.

UD and DelTech have formed the Delmarva International Poultry Partnership, which is focused on providing technical assistance to members of the international community faced with bird flu. Delaware is recognized worldwide for its expertise in bird flu prevention after its successful control of an outbreak in 2004.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded UD and Del Tech a total of $424,000 for the Romanian project.

In the past, other groups from abroad, including one from Kosovo, have come to Delaware to learn about bird flu prevention.

The Romanian delegation will be in Sussex County through Nov. 20.
Contact Luladey B. Tadesse at 324-2789 or ltadesse@delawareonline.com.

Back to basics and beginnings again...

The So-Called "Bird Flu": Why is Concern So High?

Seasonal (annual) flu is the flu that comes every year starting in the late fall and ending in the spring. There are a number of subtypes of this influenza virus circulating around the world, which is why the flu vaccines are a bit different each year. Most people have built up some immunity from exposure over the years. Although the seasonal flu is not usually a threat to healthy adults, it still kills some 36,000 Americans every year.

Pandemic flu is a global disease outbreak. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new flu virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity, and for which there is no vaccine. Pandemic flu spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness and death, and can sweep across the country and around the world in very short time.


It is difficult to predict exactly when the next influenza pandemic will occur or how severe it will be. Wherever and whenever a pandemic starts, everyone around the world is at risk. Unlike SARS, influenza is infectious before symptoms emerge. Consequently, countries might, through measures such as border closures and travel restrictions, delay arrival of the virus, but cannot stop it.

Health professionals are concerned that the continued, rapid spread of the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus across eastern Asia and other countries represents a significant threat to human health. The H5N1 virus has raised concerns about a potential human pandemic because:

* It is especially virulent and has caused severe disease in humans who have become infected
* There has already been limited human-to-human transmission in Southeast Asia
* It could evolve to become readily transmissible in humans
* No human H5N1 vaccine is commercially available, despite continual advances in vaccine technology
* Supplies of expensive antiviral medicines are very limited

As journalist Galen McBride summed it up for Pandemic Flu Awareness Week (Oct. 9-15), "A pandemic will occur if the H5N1 avian flu virus, currently circulating in more than 50 countries on three continents, mutates to acquire the ability to transmit efficiently from human to human. Flu viruses mutate millions of times a day and this virus has already achieved limited human-to-human (H2H) transmission as acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO)."

Public health experts understand that even a mild pandemic today would kill millions of people worldwide. However, the H5N1 virus is so lethal to humans in its current form that it raises the specter of another 1918 or worse. Scientists theorize that if H5N1 becomes easily transmissible it will also becomes less lethal, but there is no hard evidence to indicate that it will. The 1918 virus killed an estimated 2.5% to 7.4% of the Americans it infected, depending on the city. H5N1 currently kills over 50% of the people infected.

Everybody hopes a severe pandemic will not occur, but to not prepare for a worst case scenario is unconscionable. The U.S. Government and every state have pandemic plans. You can find your state's plan at http://www.pandemicflu.gov

For more information about preparations for communities, businesses, schools and individuals, check out these resources:

U.S. Government Site: http://www.pandemicflu.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Plan for Pandemic Influenza

http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/plan/

Note: Information for this article comes from the following sources:

Caldwell, M. Blake, MD, MPH, "Planning for a Severe Influenza Pandemic: Implications for the Community." Presentation to the Skidaway Community Institute, Oct. 13, 2006

McBride, Galen, "Flu Awareness Week." CulpepperCitizen.com. Oct 4, 2006

Newest victim in Indonesia

Bird flu patient in critical condition in Indonesia


A 35-year old woman, who has been treated in hospital since Nov. 8, is in a critical condition in Indonesia, a director at the Indonesian Health Ministry said in Jakarta Tuesday.

"She is still alive and today in a critical condition," Director Nyoman Kandun told Xinhua.

The woman, who is from Tanggerang in a suburb of Jakarta, was confirmed by the country's laboratory tests of positive of having avian influenza on Monday, according to an official of the anti- bird flu center of the ministry.

It was not clear whether she had any history of contact with fowls, the official said.

She is among the 74 people having contracted avian influenza in the country, 56 of which have died.

Indonesia, which has been affected the hardest in this regard, has become one of the front lines in the fight against the H5N1 virus.

The fact the country ranks first in terms of the number of victims of the virus has made bird flu top on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bogor, a town near Jakarta, on Nov. 20, Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Pati Djalal has said.

Millions of people can be killed should the highly pathogenic H5N1 mutate into a certain level, which can make it transmittable among humans.

Asia has been hit the hardest, with 134 of the 150 human deaths from bird flu since 2003 occurring in East Asian countries, according to the data from the World Bank.

Source: Xinhua

Azerbaijan being helped by Japan to equip labs

Azerbaijan to Conduct Analyses on Detecting Bird Flu Virus
Source: Trend
Author: S. Aghayeva
14.11.2006

As from now, all analyses on detecting bird flu virus will be conducted in Azerbaijan, Ismayil Hassanov, Chief of the State Veterinary Department of the Azerbaijan Agriculture Ministry, informed journalists, Trend reports.

According to him, this has been made possible as the Country has acquired new up-to-date equipment to conduct the analyses. According to the Chief of the Department recently, 98 bird carcasses samples were sent to a London laboratory which had previously received all the analyses taken in the Country to detect the virus. The results received from the London laboratory totally corresponded with those from the Azerbaijani laboratory.

“Six regional veterinary laboratories are expected to be fully equipped with new equipment at the expense of a grant to be given by Japan’s Government in the near future”, he said.

Pandemic Preparedness

APEC leaders to call for fight against bird flu
The Associated PressPublished: November 14, 2006


HANOI, Vietnam: Pacific Rim leaders will endorse a plan to fight bird flu and cooperate in improving regional pandemic preparedness, according to a draft statement to be released this weekend.

Leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, gathering in Hanoi for their annual summit, will support a plan calling for enhanced surveillance, improved infrastructure and expanded technical collaboration in the region.

The plan follows a meeting in May at which health and agriculture ministers from the region agreed on ways to head off a potential pandemic, including calling for the restructuring of some backyard farming practices into larger, more controlled operations.

In the draft statement, the APEC leaders urge a "deepened engagement of the private sector to help ensure continuity of business, trade and essential services in the event of a pandemic outbreak."

The virulent H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 153 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic.

So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

The APEC leaders also will call for better cooperation on AIDS, including pushing for rights for those living with the AIDS virus and universal access to prevention, care and treatment by 2010, the draft statement says.

Tamiflu problems noted

Tamiflu takers: Watch out for bizarre behavior
Strange side effects reported overseas spur FDA to review labeling


Doctors and parents should watch for signs of bizarre behavior in children treated with the flu drug Tamiflu, federal health officials suggested Monday in citing an increasing number of such cases from overseas.

Food and Drug Administration officials still don’t know if the more than 100 new cases, including three deaths from falls, are linked to the drug or to the flu virus — or a combination of both. Most of the reported cases involved children.

Still, FDA staff suggested updating Tamiflu’s label to recommend that all patients, especially children, be closely monitored while on the drug. They also acknowledged that stopping treatment with Tamiflu could actually harm influenza patients if the virus is the cause of delirium, hallucinations and other abnormal behavior, such as aggression and suicidal thoughts.

The FDA’s pediatric advisory committee is to discuss the recommendation Thursday. The FDA isn’t required to follow the advice of its outside panels but usually does. An FDA spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The meeting comes a year after the same panel of outside experts rejected linking Tamiflu to reports of 12 deaths in Japanese children since 2000 and voted against changing the drug’s label to suggest any such concern. At that time, however, the committee did recommend that the FDA continue to monitor the drug’s safety and return a year later with an update.

Role in outbreak of bird flu
The panel’s decision after reviewing the new update is likely to be closely watched, since Tamiflu could play an important role in an outbreak of bird flu. The drug doesn’t prevent flu but can reduce the length and severity of its symptoms.

Most of the 103 new cases of bizarre behavior are from Japan, where the number of Tamiflu prescriptions is about 10 times that in the United States, with more than twice the population.

The new cases occurred during a 10-month period, between Aug. 29, 2005, and July 6, 2006. The tally marks a sharp increase to the 126 similar cases logged over the more than five years between the drug’s approval in 1999 and August 2005, the FDA said.


The Japanese Tamiflu label now warns that disturbances in consciousness, abnormal behavior, delirium, hallucination, delusion and convulsion may occur. It also recommends patients be carefully monitored and the drug stopped if any abnormality is observed.

Even though severe cases of the flu can spark those conditions, the number and nature of the cases — along with comments from doctors who believe the abnormal behavior was associated with the drug — keep the FDA from ruling out Tamiflu as the cause, according to agency documents.

For that reason, the proposed changes would bring the U.S. label more in line with the Japanese one, and warn of abnormal behavior and recommend that patients, especially children, be closely monitored. However, the proposed U.S. version would recommend treatment be stopped only on a doctor’s advice.

'Prudent' changes
FDA staff called the proposed changes “prudent,” since U.S. Tamiflu use could jump to Japanese levels. The current U.S. label mentions only “seizure and confusion” seen in some patients.

Tamiflu is made by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG. A Roche spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Previously, Roche has cited studies from the United States and Canada that show the death incidence rate of influenza patients who took Tamiflu was far below those who did not.

Tamiflu is one of the few drugs believed effective in treating bird flu, which health officials fear could spark a pandemic should it mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
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