EXCLUSIVE: Spin and Counterspin: New Bird Flu Mutation has 91% Fatality Rate in Humans

SourGrapes - sorry - I scanned and didn't find it either. Might be I was thinking of the wrong article.

Will come back later to the vaccine issue.

UPDATE

Get powers ready for bird flu, U.S. governors told

Governors should make sure they have the legal powers they need to impose quarantines, close schools and keep utilities and transport running in case of a bird flu pandemic, according to new primer from the National Governor's Association published on Tuesday.

..."The effects of pandemic flu will be broad, deep and simultaneous," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told reporters by telephone from a National Governor's Association meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

"Medical response will be limited, restrained and potentially depleted during a pandemic," said Pawlenty, a Republican. Outbreaks in people or birds may have to be met with "a pretty aggressive form of containment" and public gatherings eliminated.

...public facilities -- schools, government offices, transportation hubs, museums, libraries, and convention centers -- would be the first considered for closing," the primer advises. ..."Private facilities -- shopping malls, concert halls, skating rinks, gyms, restaurants, bars, theaters, and grocery stores -- may be closed under general emergency powers or special powers granted during times of public health emergencies."

***

Tamiflu-Type Drugs Do Not Prevent Spread of Seasonal Flu

A class of drugs commonly used to treat typical influenza symptoms such as fever, headache and cough do not prevent people from becoming infected with the flu virus, a new review shows, although the use of these neuraminidase inhibitors (NIs) to check the spread of flu has been of interest to researchers.

Whether these antiviral drugs — including oseltamivir (or Tamiflu) and zanamivir (or Relenza) — would be effective in preventing spread in a pandemic or avian (bird) flu scenario is not clear, the authors stress.

“Because of their low effectiveness, NIs should not be used in routine seasonal influenza control,” the authors write. “This review found that Nls are effective in preventing and treating the symptoms and complications of influenza but do not prevent infection or interrupt voidance of viruses from the nose.”

***

States hesitant to buy bird flu drugs

At least six states plan to buy smaller quantities of antiviral drugs than the federal government has offered them, a setback for part of the government's bird flu pandemic plan. ..."It would be irresponsible to put all our eggs into one basket, for a drug that we don't know will work, against a pandemic that we don't know we'll have," said Arizona state epidemiologist David Engelthaler, in an e-mail. ...Less than two weeks before a federal deadline for states to announce their plans, at least 16 say they're undecided how much Tamiflu and Relenza they'll buy. Thirteen others - including California, the biggest state - say they plan to buy their full allotments.

The federal government plans to buy 44 million antiviral treatment courses for the states this fiscal year and next, enough to cover 17% of their populations. It wants states to buy 31 million more courses, to reach 25%. A course is the amount needed to treat one person.

Even at a discount — about $15 for Tamiflu, about a fifth of the Internet retail rate — cost is a concern.

.

The Spread:

Indonesia confirms 54th case of bird flu: Of the 54 human cases confirmed in Indonesia, 42 have been fatal.

***

Five new human bird-flu cases in Indonesia

The World Health Organization laboratory in Hong Kong will conduct confirmatory tests.

***

Bird flu confirmed in domestic fowl in southern Bulgaria

***

FACTBOX-Bird flu's spread around the globe

The Politics:

Bird flu outbreaks in Romania could postpone Romania's accession date to the European Union, said Guido Podesta, Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament.

...Podesta added that the EU had discussed modalities to fight against the pig plague in Romania.

The money:

Tamiflu's Gilead Sciences 2nd-quarter profit up 35 percent

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD.O) on Thursday posted a 35-percent increase in second-quarter profit... Gilead is generating more than $2.5 billion in sales...

Gilead also collects royalties on sales by Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) of Tamiflu, an anti-viral treatment being stockpiled as a potential treatment for bird flu.

Senators Slam Voluntary Bird Flu Testing in the USA

Senators on Friday criticized the Agriculture Department's planning for deadly bird flu, saying the voluntary nature of its testing program threatens the U.S. poultry industry.

At issue is a federal audit that found the government lacks a comprehensive plan for testing and monitoring bird flu in commercial poultry.

***

China kills 400,000 chickens in latest bird flu outbreak

***

Super computer tackles bird flu

A super computer, considered one of the most powerful in Europe, has been given a boost in its brain power for the UK's fight against bird flu.

Blue C, based at Swansea University, has been made 20% more powerful so it can work out more quickly the best way to tackle a possible disease outbreak.

...Blue C aims to predict where a UK outbreak would start.

Gaps in bird flu plan leave US vulnerable: senators

Senators Slam Voluntary Bird Flu Testing

US Senators Ask USDA To Do More On Bird Flu Preparedness

.



Indonesia's human-to-human family cluster of seven H5N1 cases started with eating contaminated poultry. The lone survivor went home today, while in the USA, officials say bird-hunting season is a go - just wear rubber gloves and cook your meat "thoroughly."

Lone Indonesia bird flu survivor goes home

Jones Ginting can't remember much of his battle with bird flu, and it's probably for the best. ...For the first two weeks, he slipped in and out of consciousness at Adam Malik Hospital. His skin stuck to the sweaty sheets as a fever raged. His arms were as rigid as steel pipes. When he did come to, he was delirious and agitated, fighting nurses who were trying to give him the antiviral drug Tamiflu. ...And always, always, he was struggling to breathe.

Looking back, Ginting might have remembered how his family had gathered for a feast in late April, laughing and chatting, eating chicken curry and grilled pork as the children played.

Then, one by one, they started falling sick and dying. First his sister, then nephews, a niece and two other siblings.

***

Official: Bird flu threat will not change hunting

The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there's no reason to modify upcoming bird-hunting seasons because of the threat of bird flu.

But Dale Hall says it's important to educate hunters on proper sanitary techniques. ...He says that includes wearing rubber gloves when cleaning birds, and cooking the meat thoroughly.

Thailand reports more human bird flu cases.

More suspected bird-flu cases emerge in Thailand

Three more people with suspected bird-flu have been reported in Phichit, one of the provinces listed by the Thai government as an avian-flu "red zone", local media Monday reported.

Two of the patients were men aged 59 and 86 and the other was a boy aged seven. All the three had reportedly been in contact with dead chickens and were being treated in an isolation ward at Phichit Hospital.

...Despite numerous reports of irregular poultry deaths in many areas, particularly the North and Central provinces, the Department of Livestock Development insists that no avian flu has been detected so far.

***

Official: Thai Chickens May Have Had H5N1 Bird Flu

It is likely that a group of chickens in northern Thailand that died last week from bird flu carried the virulent H5N1 type of the virus, a Thai agricultural official said Monday.

Vermont farmers are fighting against livestock registration that might track diseases like bird flu and Mad Cow.

Fighting livestock registration

Vermont farmers are expected this week to sound off against a proposal to register all animals on livestock farms. ...The State of Vermont is holding hearings this week on a plan to register all farms that raise livestock. The hope is this will make is easier to stop diseases like bird flu. Steve Tripoli says many farmers aren't buying it.

...Vermont officials say they plan to stop their effort after simply identifying which farms have which kinds of animals. Federal officials had wanted to register all animals individually, but the proposal was shelved after nationwide complaints.

Shollenberger says many farmers won't take part because they fear the state won't stop at registering farms, and any larger effort would strain small farms' budgets.

Govt stifling bird-flu mapper, says firm

...technology that could save thousands of lives around the world in a bird-flu pandemic is being stifled by government bureaucracy here, its developers say. ...Encos Global Systems has developed a computer-based application called Chameleon that enables medical field teams to identify, isolate and contain outbreaks of bird flu almost instantaneously.

Using palm pilot computers, medical field workers enter their diagnosis of a case of bird flu into a centralised database. Within seconds, decision-makers can see the spread of the disease and immediately quarantine infected suburbs or towns.

New Zealand's army and navy have carried out successful trials of the system. ...Overseas agencies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Foundation (UNF), the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Centre for Disease Control in the United States have been given demonstrations of it and are said by Encos to be excited about the technology.

***

Water Basin "Possible Source" of Bird Flu in Bulgaria

A water basin located close to the southern village of Slanchogled where bird flu was first detected in Bulgaria may be the source of the virus, Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said Monday. ...He said that wild birds gathered at the water basin in question and they might have brought the avian flu to the country.

***

U.S. duck hunter exposed to type of bird flu, study finds

A U.S. duck hunter and two state wildlife employees had evidence of an uncommon type of bird flu virus in their blood, researchers reported on Monday in one of the first studies to show that hunters might be at risk. ...The virus was H11N9, not known to be dangerous to humans and not related to the feared H5N1 virus circulating in wild and domestic birds and among some people, the researchers said. ...But their study, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, shows that people who work with wildlife should take care.

"To our knowledge, this study is the first to show direct transmission of influenza A viruses from wild birds to humans," Dr. James Gill of the University of Iowa and colleagues wrote in their report.

"Many species that breed in Alaska migrate and winter throughout parts of Russia and Asia," the USGS says in a statement on its Internet Web site at alaska.usgs.gov... ..."Birds could be exposed to H5N1 in Asia or Russia during winter or on migration and carry the virus to Alaska in spring along migratory corridors."

UN News Centre: Americas must prepare for bird flu

25 July 2006 – Though no cases of avian flu or its H5N1 virus have been reported yet in birds or humans anywhere in the Americas, United Nations health agencies and other partners today launched a new preparedness campaign for the disease, which they say could reach the hemisphere at any time and possibly mutate into a human pandemic.

“We need to be prepared for H5N1 to enter the Western Hemisphere, whether it is through wild birds or commerce or a combination of the two. We should take this interval to get prepared,” said David Nabarro, senior UN system coordinator for avian and human influenza, in a message taped for a two-day meeting of health experts at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) headquarters in Washington.

The new Inter-Agency Communication Framework for Avian and Human Influenza in the Americas sets forth a common approach for communicating with the media, government officials, the private sector and the general public, as part of ongoing efforts to prevent and prepare for avian and pandemic flu.

Soficrow:

Just wanted to drop by and say keep up the good work... Your research is much appreciated.

You have voted soficrow for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have used all of your votes for this month.

Now this is what I call some serious research. I will respond further once I read everything, but sofi, this is truly a great job! Thanks for your dedication in this.

Niteboy

Thanks loam, niteboy.

...Just re-interpreted this bit:

...United Nations health agencies and other partners today launched a new preparedness campaign for the disease, which they say could reach the (North American) hemisphere at any time and possibly mutate into a human pandemic.

Is the UN suggesting that the pandemic form could emerge in/from North America? ...It sure seems like it - and makes scientific sense too.


.

Thai authorities admit return of bird flu

***

July 26 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday that a 17-year-old man from Thailand, who died on Monday, was infected with bird flu.

Of the 23 cases confirmed to date in Thailand, 15 have been fatal.

FACTBOX-Bird flu's spread around the globe

***

Tuva and Mongolia H5N1 Bird Flu Sequences Are Similar

***

H5N1 Bird Flu Recombinant in Ivory Coast

***

Vaccine against bird flu developed

THE first vaccine against H5N1 bird flu that can protect people at low doses has been developed by a British company. It is an advance that could improve the world’s capacity to contain a human pandemic of the virus.

A clinical trial reported yesterday by GlaxoSmithKline has found that the vaccine provokes a human immune response at much smaller doses than previous versions.

Previous candidate vaccines have worked only with very high quantities of antigen — the active ingredient that triggers an immune response — limiting their suitability for the mass market.

***

Bird Flu Vaccine: Will It Work? It's Too Early to Know, Scientists Say

***

Bird-Flu Vaccine May Be Ready by Next Year

***

Stocks for Tamiflu Manufacturer Roche Slips with Glaxo Bird Flu Vaccine Announcement

...erm, what about the claim that vaccines must be targeted to the latest mutation in order to be effective? (BS of course.)


.

The genetics of bird flu and other diseases is about to get very interesting.

H5N1 H9N2 Bird Flu Reassortant Identified In Israel

The H5N1/H9N2 reassortant in Israel is cause for concern and human infections may be under-reported. Israel had reported a suspect case with confirmed antibodies to H5N1, but re-confirmation attempts failed. The sharing of H5N1 polymorphisms with the first Qinghai H5N1 isolated in the area (western Turkey in 2005), suggest H5N1 had been in Israel long before its first reported case in poultry in 2006.

***

Thai health officials Thursday said that test results were not yet conclusive regarding a possible role that dengue fever might have also played in the death Wednesday of a teenage boy who was confirmed to have succumbed to the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

Complex medical reports have some members of the public worrying that bird flu virus has mutated with dengue fever after the teenager died from bird flu earlier this week in the northern province of Phichit.

The suspicion caused concern among some who fear the two viruses could mutate if they meet, but there is no medical evidence that such has occurred.

Dengue impact on bird flu not yet known, says medical official

.


When an animal or person is infected with two or more RNA viruses at the same time, the viruses can exchange genetic material - that's how super-plagues are created.

This "genetic exchange" could occur in the wild - in bats, for example - in domestic animals, or in infected people. Most areas where bird flu is now endemic also have other endemic RNA diseases, like dengue fever, or are susceptible to outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola.

RNA viruses include influenza (ie., bird flu), dengue fever, hemorrhagic fevers (ie., Ebola), gastroenteritis, encephalitis, and hepatitis - all life-threatening diseases.

Right now, all eyes are on Thailand watching for a bird flu/dengue fever hybrid - but it's a crap shoot. The genetic exchange could happen anywhere, with any RNA virus, with almost any individual in any species serving as the host "mixing-vessel."

It's a molecular time bomb.

IMO - the world's nations and political powers should be focusing on public health, not distracting people from the real crisis with gratuitous wars.

Here's a quick overview of the science and the situation.


THE SCIENCE:

"Until now, it's been very much a single-host, single-pathogen type of framework," Rohani said. "Now with avian influenza being very much on everyone's mind, we're beginning to realize that the genetic diversity of infectious agents is really important."

***


RNA viruses can cause many life-threatening diseases such as hemorrhagic fevers, gastroenteritis, measles, influenza, dengue fever, encephalitis, and hepatitis.

Comparative structural genomics on viral enzymes involved in replication

***

The actin cytoskeleton has been implicated in playing an important role assembly and budding of several RNA virus families including retroviruses and paramyxoviruses.

Packagin g of actin into Ebola virus VLPs.

***


Researchers discovered that the Nipah virus, which killed 100 people last year in Singapore, originally came from fruit bats; the virus, a cousin to Ebola and HIV, is also carried by pigs

Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus.

***

Zoonosis is the cause of the vast majority of emerging diseases. Bats that occupy the second place in the mammal class play an important role. Whether they belong to the microchiroptera suborder or to the megachiroptera suborder, bats on all five continents have been implicated in transmission of numerous pathogens including not only viruses such as Lyssavirus (e.g. rabies), Hepanivirus (e.g. Hendra and Nipah virus) and recently coronavirus (e.g. SARS-like coronavirus and Ebola virus) but also fungus such as histoplasmosis. By modifying environmental conditions and encroaching on their biotope, human intervention has probably contributed to the introduction of chiropteras into an epidemiologic chain in which they previously had no place, thus promoting the emergence of new pathogens.

Chiropte ra and zoonosis: an emerging problem on all five continents

THE SITUATION:

In December 1979, the British Medical Journal published a letter from an army physician that had laid undiscovered in a trunk in Detroit for 60 years. In the 1918 letter, the doctor who was attending to soldiers in Boston during the devastating pandemic that year described in graphic detail how they were dying from the flu: 'Two hours after admission they have the mahogany spots over the cheek bones and a few hours later you can begin to see the cyanosis extending from the ears and spreading all over the face, until it is hard to distinguish the colored man from the white.

'It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes and it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate.' (Cyanosis is a bluish or purplish tinge to the skin.)

Note that reports described the Sichuan patients as having skin that turned very dark. Some H5N1 bird flu variants can produce bleeding under the skin. The index case in Thailand's human cases of bird flu this year was initially misdiagnosed as dengue hemorrhagic fever because of that bleeding.

Yale Global: China Bug – Is It Ebola-like Bird Flu?

***

Ebola-like disease outbreak in Angola may be bird flu

Original source: Recombinomics


***

The youth died after being admitted to a Phichit hospital on July 20, said Thawat Suntrajarn, director general of the ministry's disease control department, in a telephone interview today. He tested positive to both dengue hemorrhagic fever and H5N1 avian flu, Thawat said.

***

112 people in Thailand under watch for bird flu

Authorities admit return of bird flu

***

As of June 17, there had been about 12,500 cases of dengue fever reported across Thailand this year or about 20 per 100,000 people. The total number of deaths from dengue fever in the period was 15.

Thailand on high alert for dengue outbreak

Dengue fever warning issued for south

Four provinces in Thailand declared "red zones" for dengue

It happened in China ...and where else?

Official test confirms Chinese soldier died of bird flu in November 2003

***

Concealed? Or misdiagnosed?

The confirmation showed that the virus was present in China before the outbreak of the virus was disclosed elsewhere in Asia and raised questions about Beijing’s ability to detect emerging diseases, as well as its transparency.

Welcome to reality. In Indonesia,

...one of the teens who died this week... was initially diagnosed with typhoid and told to go home.

"When you have trouble controlling infection among the chicken flocks, you are naturally going to see continuing infections among humans," Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told The Associated Press. ...He said the more it spreads, the greater chance it has of eventually evolving into a strain that could cause a human pandemic. ..."It's obviously a toll in human suffering, but it also continues to give this virus the capability of circulating," he said. "And the more it circulates, the more you have an opportunity."

"It's a disgrace. We have the biggest problem in the world with avian influenza in Indonesia and yet the world is still not investing in getting a systematic control program in place," said Peter Roeder, an FAO expert in Rome who has worked closely with Indonesia. "What's Vietnam going to feel like if they get virus reintroduced from Indonesia?"

***

Two teenagers in Indonesia die of bird flu

Thailand is not immune: Thai cabinet declares 29 provinces bird flu emergency zones.


And the good news - after ongoing criticism about the CDC's unwillingness to share scientific data on H5N1 "bird" flu - the CDC has decided to share genetic information on 40 strains of H5N1 "bird" flu that infect humans:

CDC puts genetic sequences of about 40 human H5N1 viruses into public domain

The move to put the data in the public domain, giving scientists from around the world free access, came after the Indonesian government told the World Health Organization on Thursday that it was willing to share the genetic sequences of all H5N1 viruses isolated from humans there.

The CDC's influenza division is a reference laboratory for the WHO. The CDC and a laboratory at the University of Hong Kong run by influenza authority Dr. Malik Peiris have sequenced the human H5N1 viruses from Indonesia for the WHO. Peiris has also been asked by the WHO to release the Indonesian data in his possession. ...On Friday, CDC staff transferred genetic codes of more than 300 individual H5N1 genes into an open access sequence bank called the Influenza Sequence Database. Cox said the data will also be logged into Genbank, a second open access database. ...The Influenza Sequence Database is housed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory; the same computers host a password-protected WHO database that includes the sequences of all H5N1 viruses that have been turned over to the WHO system.

That limited access system has been harshly criticized by scientists who don't have access to it. They have complained that keeping the data sequestered in this way is impeding the global scientific community's ability to puzzle out the mysteries of this dangerous virus.

So now the CDC acknowledges 40 strains of human H5N1 "bird" flu. Cool.

Anyone know what they're still keeping under wraps? Any guesses?


Another question: What do you get when Ebola, West Nile, rabies and "bird" flu recombine genetically in our all-new retooled "natural" world? ...Besides population control and profit-making opportunities in the biotech sector, I mean?





Related? Ecologist advocates use of Ebola to exterminate 90% of Earth's Population

Originally posted by soficrow

What do you get when Ebola, West Nile, rabies and "bird" flu recombine genetically...? ...Besides population control and profit-making opportunities in the biotech sector, I mean?

I wonder. But some of my sources say Ebola has been weaponized! ...although others say it was bird flu.

Unconfirmed sources report that the President has discovered that the Avian Flu is an Al Qaeda plot to wipe out the western world. Secret documents leaked to UCS indicate that the Bush administration believes that the Avian Flu was developed in a bio-weapons laboratory in Iraq and that Saddam gave the Avian Flu to Al Qaeda in a desperate attempt to seek revenge against the west.

George W. Bush Reveals Avian Flu is Iraqi Al Qaeda Plot

[/satire]




[edit on 11-8-2006 by soficrow]

H5N1 bird flu continues to reappear, mutate and spread, with Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Iran grabbing weekend headlines.

A teenager being treated at a hospital in West Java has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, Indonesia's Health Ministry said Saturday. ...The 17-year-old boy identified only as Umar, from the West Java district of Garut...

The deaths of two teenagers this week pushed Indonesia's human toll from the virus to 44, making it the country worst-hit by the disease. Most of the deaths have occurred this year.

Indonesian teenager tests positive for bird flu

***

...bird flu is found in almost all of Indonesia's provinces, infecting many of the country's estimated one billion chickens

...field workers use eight different kinds of vaccine. ..."The government should choose just one type," he suggested. "The more vaccines we use the more likely they are to endanger other creatures."

Animal experts believe that the use of a variety of vaccines to curb the spread of H5N1 among animals might cause certain strains of the virus to become more robust and resistant to vaccines.


***

Cambodia Ag Official: New Bird Flu Outbreak Is H5N1

***


Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry has confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the country's southeast, said a ministry official. ...Kao Phal, director of the ministry's animal health department, said the outbreak was the virulent H5N1 type of the virus.

It was detected yesterday in Prey Veng province, which borders Vietnam, he said.

New bird flu outbreak reported in Cambodia

***

Vietnam, 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.

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.

***

In Vietnam, ...the government imposed sweeping vaccination programmes for birds. ...(and) conducted mass culls to get rid of sources of infection

***

An Iranian medical university raised warning status for regional bird flu contamination in northern Iran, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.

The first case of bird flu was reported in Iran in February, when tests confirmed 135 swans died of the virus in marshes near Bandar Anzali in northwestern Iran.

Those of us familiar with traditional Chinese medicine won't be surprised at this news:

Traditional Chinese medicines have contributed a lot to the recovery of China's latest bird flu patient, said a Chinese medical expert on Saturday [12 August].

...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.

Expert Says Traditional Chinese Medicine Helps Bird Flu Patient Recover

***

Bird Flu patient cured with herbs: Chinese traditional medicine experts succeeded in curing a bird flu patient after 50 days of therapy.

.

According to authorities, everything is under control. No need to be concerned.

Two Michigan swans were carrying an apparently harmless version of the H5N1 bird flu virus. It is not the same H5N1 bird flu that has killed 139 people in Asia. ..."We do not believe this virus is a threat to human health," Ron DeHaven, an administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in a news conference.

Genetic tests show the virus infecting the birds is what biologists call "low pathogenicity" bird flu, meaning it is not particularly dangerous to birds and is no health threat to humans. In contrast, the H5N1 bird flu circulating in Asia is a "high pathogenicity" H5N1 strain. ...It's not the first time a low-pathogenicity H5N1 bird flu has been seen in the U.S. It popped up in wild ducks here in 1975 and in 1986. Last year it was detected in wild ducks in Manitoba, Canada.

Flu viruses mutate easily, and it is possible the Michigan virus could mutate into a high-pathogenicity one. But there's no evidence that is happening. And even if it did, the virus would still not be the same as the Asian H5N1 virus.

***

Shares of Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (PPC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) shrugged off the news as the top two U.S. chicken companies' shares rose 3 cents to $13.48 and 4 cents to $23.20, respectively, to close at the New York Stock Exchange.

USDA says Michigan bird flu case no risk to humans


***

China Reports New Human Death From Bird Flu

Xinhua says the 62-year-old man, from the Xinjiang region, became ill on June 19 and died on July 12. The agency says research showed the man did not have contact with any humans infected with the virus or with dead poultry in the month before he died.

It says local health authorities found no abnormal symptoms in people with whom the farmer came in contact.


***

Two owls from the Rotterdam zoo in Holland may have the bird flu virus

Holland is Europe second largest poultry producer with many in the industry concerned the news may have serious impacts..

***

Thailand finds another 46 suspected human bird-flu cases

format



[edit on 15-8-2006 by soficrow]

.

H5N1 bird flu is spreading, and evolving, rapidly - yet Evolution Major Vanished From the USA's Approved Federal List.

If students who need it don't get their funding, then the rich control critical information, and the poor stay ignorant, controlled by their ignorance.

For one thing, knowledge of evolutionary biology is necessary to create vaccines - and use them safely.



Evolution: Bird Flu and Education.

UN confirms new bird flu virus strain

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...

"...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.


***

Bird flu viruses diversifying, making vaccine target harder to pick: WHO

"...influenza viruses have evolutionary pressures on them and they evolve. They change. And that's what we're seeing."

***

New data indicate that the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu has been quicky spreading and evolving through a process called recombination.

Recombination occurs when viruses pick up new gene sequences to rapidly proliferate, and experts say both the bird flu and seasonal flu viruses have becoem quite adept at it.

The ability of viruses to achieve recombination makes it more difficult to develop vaccines to combat the bugs and also affects the timing and distribution of the vaccines, experts say.

***

...spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing.

If a major is not on the list, students in that major cannot get grants unless they declare another major...

Dr. Rissing said removing evolutionary biology from the list of acceptable majors would discourage students who needed the grants from pursuing the field, at a time when studies of how genes act and evolve are producing valuable insights into human health.

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List

Bird Flu: Spreading.

14 People Die of Illness Located in Bird Flu Stricken Region

The symptoms of the disease are high fever along with bleeding from nose and mouth at the time of death, which is similar to that of the bird flu virus.

***

Two more districts in Cambodia hit by bird flu

Hospital in Bandung treats more patients suspected of having bird flu

***

Public Health ministry 'drafts' pharmacists to monitor bird flu

Pharmacists and drugstore employees all over Thailand are being 'drafted' - or at least encouraged to enlist in the government effort to contain bird flu - as village public health
volunteers to help monitor the country's bird flu outbreak, Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat said Friday.

"...The symptoms of influenza, dengue fever, and bird flu are similar," Mr. Pinij said, "so the the authorities have to implement strict measures to monitor the bird flu epidemic."


The main locations for special monitoring are the hospitals and villages but they were not enough to ensure control of the outbreak, he said.

Vaccines: Mutation and Evolution.

Bird Flu Vaccine Could Spread Disease

Scientists in Britain say vaccinating poultry against the H5N1 strain of avian influenza could spread the disease faster if it is done badly.

Researchers from the universities of Edinburgh and Warwick found that when flocks are incompletely protected a phenomenon known as "silent spread" occurs. Fewer birds die so the virus is not detected as it spreads from farm to farm.


"If vaccination is to be used it needs to be done extremely well or it could make the problem worse, rather than better." (Nick Savill of the University of Edinburgh.)

***

Bird Flu in Japan Linked to Vaccine

Vaccines cannot completely eliminate infection; they just ease the symptoms - so vaccine use leads to disease outbreaks and new strains. The World Health Organization recommends against using bird flu vaccines in animals.

[edit on 27-8-2006 by soficrow]

[edit on 27-8-2006 by soficrow]

.

...70 of the world's leading scientists are bypassing the knowledge-for-profit system - and sharing their bird flu data. Hopefully, now everyone will put bird flu victims before bird flu profits. ...India and China both announced a new cheap H5N1 bird flu vaccine - and the CDC released a flu test kit that distinguishes between a huge variety of flu sub-types, clades and strains.

Seventy of the world's leading scientists have agreed to create a global database to share genetic data from bird flu cases.

The scientists, including six Nobel laureates, signed a letter published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature announcing the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data. ...The scientists promised to share all data from their individual research, then jointly analyze and publish their results.

The report in Nature says many scientists and research organizations hoard data so they can be the first to publish in scientific journals.

Leading Scientists Pledge Global Bird Flu Database

***

Bhopal lab is ready with bird flu vaccine

Bird Flu Vaccine Safe And Effective For Humans, Say Chinese Researchers

***

Scientists have developed a biological microchip test designed to help laboratories better identify if a person has bird flu.

The Flu Chip test was developed by the University of Colorado and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is detailed in the current issue of a scientific publication, the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

The new test, which takes about 12 hours, can identify the specific subtype of the disease and name the virus's geographic origin. ..."This test ...should help national and international diseases investigators, "who want to track all subtypes of influenza that are infecting people," ...


CDC announces test distinguishing bird flu

At the same time,
Bird Flu is Sweeping Across Indonesia:

Cities in Indonesia are falling like dominos to bird flu: Garut in West Java, then Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi, then Dairi, Serang, and finally Simalungun in North Sumatra.

But perhaps it's not too late to save the world.



.

The Michigan swan had a low-pathogenic virus, sometimes called "North American" H5N1, that is thought to commonly occur in wild birds. It usually causes minor symptoms or no symptoms at all.

More Spin: 8/28/2006

Erm. The problem being that low-path flu mutates into high path flu...


...More on the global bird flu database:

A global initiative has been launched by some of the world's top scientists and health officials to encourage more openness when it comes to sharing data on bird flu.

They want to see more genetic data from bird flu cases being shared and say it is of vital importance in tracking mutations and for a vaccine to be developed to prevent a human pandemic.