2006 Human Bird Flu Deaths Higher Than Prior 3 Years Combined

The number of fatalities attributed to H5N1 bird flu in 2006 is higher than the number of deaths in the previous three years combined. Diagnosed and reported cases total 261 people in 10 countries in the past three years, with 157 deaths. The number of deaths caused by bird flu in 2006 is 79. "Six of every 10 reported cases have been fatal and a majority of cases has occurred among children and young adults," reports the World Health Organization (WHO).

Human Bird Flu Deaths in 2006 Exceed Prior Three Years Combined

Bird flu killed three members of a family in Egypt, pushing the number of fatalities worldwide this year to 79, more than reported in the previous three years combined.

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 261 people in 10 countries in the past three years, killing 157 of them, WHO said yesterday. Last year, 42 fatalities were confirmed, after 32 in 2004 and four in 2003. Six of every 10 reported cases have been fatal and a majority of cases has occurred among children and young adults.

"In the second half of 2006, there was a steep decline in the number of case reports, although similar declines occurred in 2004 and 2005, but were then followed by resurgences," the influenza team at the European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control in Stockholm wrote in a Dec. 21 report in Eurosurveillance Weekly.

Accepting that all H5N1 bird flu cases in humans are NOT diagnosed and reported, this report is quite worrisome.

Overall the bird flu news gives pause: Nations around the world have stepped up their pandemic planning; H5N1 is now endemic in parts of Asia and possibly Egypt; and the virus is edging into Africa, via Nigeria.

If this kind of news makes it into the media, we can only wonder what it is we are not being told.