H5N1 Human death in NanJing. 3rd December 07

Watching the news now in Hong Kong!

Somewhere in Jiangsu Province. A guy who has not had any known contact with birds/poultry has died from the H5N1 virus.

Searching!!

It's on the BBC!!

Bird Flu Latest

69 people are under medical observation.

This really isn't going to go away people.

yea and a friend of mine just told me that she saw in the news recently that all the vaccines that the u.s created and stock piled are now deemed ineffective because the strain has mutated.

however, i dont think this flu is a big threat to us. i used to...but now it seems like a bunch of hype. but i could be wrong

Notice how all these plague-like bugs since medieval times seem to originate from China? One would've thought that with their medical expertise (compared to the rest of the region), these sort of things should have been contained...

Originally posted by DigitalGrl
all the vaccines that the u.s created and stock piled are now deemed ineffective because the strain has mutated.

I'm guessing you mean the Tamilflu vaccines?

If so, that should work out to be a nice little earner for the shareholders (*cough* rumsfeld) if a whole new stockpile needs to be made

Last I heard about the mutations was that the virus was very close to being able to remain effective in the upper area of the respiratory track.

BC - I pretty sure you already know the answer to the China question.

The wealth/health/education gap in China is second to none! That's why they can develop the worst health issues and the most beautiful birds nest stadiums!

MonKey

I guess the good news is that unless someone handles infected birds directly there really isn't much danger to the general population yet. Avian Influenza H5N1 has yet to alter its Hemagglutinin proteins and/or Neuraminidase enzymes in such a way as to allow human to human infection. However, in comparison to other serotypes of Influenza A it shares most of its genome with other known avian viruses, which appear to cause the most damage when humans are infected. Case in point, when the surface glycoproteins and genome of H1N1 antigenically shifted back in 1918 it of course caused a pandemic, but also shared a majority of its genome with avian viruses as well. This shows that should H5N1 retain a majority of genes associated with avian viruses upon antigenic shift it will more than likely cause a large scale human infection. Should it drift to the point where it retains a distinct majority of genes shared with humans then we will probably not see the large scale infection rates that could otherwise be expected.

On a larger scale the most interesting thing about H5N1 is that it's the only Avian influenza virus to alter its RNA polymerase enzyme from Glutamic Acid into Amino Acid, which in turn gives it that ability to interfer with human Lysine bases. Unlike other serotypes of Influenza A, which tend to infect only one species per mutation, H5N1 has the ability to cross the species barrier. In fact, most of the Orthomyxoviridae family of viruses share either Lysine or Glutamic Acid in common, making H5N1 the odd one out, and why it may become more of a problem than previously thought.

As ChiKeyMonKey pointed out the virus dwells in the upper respiratory tract in humans. This is essentially because there are only some areas in the body that will allow H5N1 to bind with cellular surface receptors, and in birds these receptors share binding factors with a sugar known as Galactose found primarily in the brain of birds. On the other hand in humans these receptors are few and far between, so much so that the only place the are located at in the human body are around the Aveoli in the lungs. Once they bind, the virus becomes hard to expel because the Aveoli are are so deep in lung tissue that they do not easily allow a normal cough to expel the virus.

As for the medications...

Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) is a Neuraminidase enzyme inhibitor that breaks down the process of Neuraminidase cleavage with sialic acid and thus prevents viral budding from a host cell. Now, the best medication would be something that essentially disallows the virus from binding with the cellular receptors. However, with Influenza this becomes virtually impossible as fast mutating RNA viruses like Influenza tend to alter their surface glycoprotein structure enough to negate the effects of Entry Inhibitor medications. Currently, and sadly, only Tamiflu and Relenza can do anything against the virus as they do not block surface binding.

well the father of the deceased has it and is supposedly recovering but i also read that the father is dying and that the mother and girlfriedn of the deceased Chniese man have it........what do you think about this?

sorry about those typos....

This is a strange one!

I saw on the news last night that the relatives of the sick father have been allowed to visit him without wearing any form of protective clothing !

While at the same time an official somebody said they were looking in to a chance that it could jump between people with similar DNA i.e. families.

China is one crazy place!!

MonKey

Does china want it to spread?! How interesting of a find! good job!