U.S. Hospitals Told to Be on Lookout for H7N9 Bird Flu

U.S. Hospitals Told to Be on Lookout for H7N9 Bird Flu

www.businessweek.com

U.S. hospitals are being urged to head off a spread of the new H7N9 avian influenza by looking out for people exhibiting flu-like symptoms who have traveled to China or had contact with someone who has the illness.

….Issuing the guidance and holding the clinician calls “would be considered routine preparedness measures for an outbreak with pandemic potential,” Burns said.

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
H7N9 Bird Flu Mysteries
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No poultry contact in some China bird flu cases: WHO

A big step. Especially considering how long it took to get on the ball with the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

The first human infection with H7N9 "bird flu" was reported 3 weeks ago. Now, China's at 92 cases, 17 deaths and counting.

Person-to-persona transmission is limited - but no one knows where the infections are coming from. Only 39 (0.00081%) of almost 50,000 birds tested even had the virus. NOT the most likely source.

The WHO team just released it's first report - all nice and reassuring - but now the US is calling for hospitals to watch out. Interesting.





www.businessweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by soficrow
The WHO team just released it's first report - all nice and reassuring - but now the US is calling for hospitals to watch out. Interesting.

I'm guessing it is just a precautionary measure to notify the hospitals about the detection of this particular strain of the virus.

reply to post by Born2BWildReloaded


There isn't a corporate government in the world that would take such a "precautionary measure" without good reason - or major pressure.

I'm guessing the pandemic potential is much greater than we're being told - OR - US-China trade negotiations aren't going that well and the H7N9 situation is being used as leverage.

BTW - Did you hear about that new course at UCLB? "How to Manipulate Markets: Dicking with Trade, Travel and the Tourist Industry."

its only a matter of time.

Scary facts, Spanish flues death rate was 2% of those infected

H7N9 is estimated at 60%!

Soficrow, In your opinion, is it time to kick preps into high gear for a pandemic if we haven't already? I halfheartedly started preparing for bird flu pandemic a few years ago, but I have more to do/get. One of the things it was advised to do is watch for when it starts to jump human to human. A few times it has, but then died out. Now this strain seems different. Maybe we need to be more concerned now?

reply to post by camaro68ss


True - it IS only a matter of time, and the truth is, we're in the middle of several other pandemics that would truly scare the pants off most people if they took a look around.

The death rate probably isn't that high - seems H7N9 might have been spreading silently, and many cases haven't been diagnosed or reported because there weren't any symptoms. …Of course it DOES depend on how you interpret the data and read the reports.

Gene data show China bird flu mutated "under the radar"

In the US, what happens to people who have no health insurance and cannot afford medical treatment?
Surely, you are at more risk of a pandemic if your poor cannot afford to see a doctor and so carry on spreading the illness in the community until they recover or succumb.

reply to post by Ellie Sagan

Soficrow, In your opinion, is it time to kick preps into high gear for a pandemic if we haven't already? I halfheartedly started preparing for bird flu pandemic a few years ago, but I have more to do/get. One of the things it was advised to do is watch for when it starts to jump human to human. A few times it has, but then died out. Now this strain seems different. Maybe we need to be more concerned now?

We should always be prepared for emergencies - be it a pandemic, earthquake, or whatever.

No doubt there's a big pandemic coming - it's just how life on this planet works and evolves. Will it be H7N9 or MRSA or airborne rabies that takes off first? I don't know.

I'm not too concerned about natural evolutionary processes -it's just life- but I am majorly PO'd about how industry dicks with biology. Talk about opening Pandora's Box! These guys are cutting us off at the pass, the knees and everywhere else. Not too many options left, if any.

reply to post by Elliot

In the US, what happens to people who have no health insurance and cannot afford medical treatment?
Surely, you are at more risk of a pandemic if your poor cannot afford to see a doctor and so carry on spreading the illness in the community until they recover or succumb.

As I understand it, everyone in the US now has medical insurance - everyone's covered for treatment.

As far as H7N9 goes, people seem either to have NO symptoms, or go straight to severe life-threatening illness. No inbetweens. Which means there would be a whole lot of asymptomatic carriers running around.

reply to post by soficrow


Would be an odd time of year for something like this in the US. Could this be transmitted by food from China?

With so many foods now manufactured in China and sold as American products, is it possible it could hit the US?

reply to post by antar

Would be an odd time of year for something like this in the US.

Not really. Remember, the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic hit around May.

Could this be transmitted by food from China?

With so many foods now manufactured in China and sold as American products, is it possible it could hit the US?

It's honestly more likely that the US exported it to China in food (it showed up in turkeys in Minnesota back in 1988 and spread to lots of other countries from there). ...There's so much travel and trade that viruses and other bugs go 'round the world way more than most people.

Hmmm

Shootings,stabbings,bombings, we are past due for a pandemic outbreak

When it rains, it pours.

reply to post by neo96


Mm hmm. Lots of distractions. What is it we are not supposed to see?

H7N9 Cases On Rise, WHO Reports Concern Over New Sources Of Transmission
April 19, 2013

…Another possibility that has been touched on is that the transmissions may not have even come from birds. Investigators, looking at all possibilities, said there were growing concerns that the new strain may have originated in animals other than poultry.

“Right now it is still an animal virus that rarely infects humans,” said Dr. Michael O’Leary, the head of the WHO’s office in Beijing, as cited by CNN. He added that the major goal is to determine the exact source of the H7N9 strain, which was first discovered just three weeks ago.

....China’s poultry industry has recorded losses of more than $1.6 billion US since H7N9 cases began popping up three weeks ago, according to a Reuters report.

A spate of recent headlines claim H7N9 "bird flu" is "mutating under the radar." Here are the facts. H7N9 first appeared in turkeys in Minnesota in 1988 - then it spread to other countries in domestic poultry (trade) and wild birds (migrations). But it only started infecting people about 3 weeks ago, in China. Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier (of H5N1 fame) says H7N9's new mutations show this strain is NOT a "bird flu."

Only 0.00081% of birds and chickens tested had the H7N9 strain infecting humans (39 out of 48,000). None of the pigs and dogs tested positive. So if it's not in birds and chickens, and not in pigs and dogs, where is it hiding? How is it spreading? Where did it come form?
...Was it genetically engineered?

Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier told CNN …the virus is not actually a bird flu. “Known normal bird viruses have to adapt substantially to infect people, but not these,” he said.

Been following this one pretty closely, last I heard there was tests underway to check on possibility of human to human transmission. Honestly, I ended up with swine flu, I'm personally over outbreaks like this.

reply to post by Thefifthmember


genetically engineered? Don't get any vaccine they're pushing on you. Don't go to the hospital. Gigantic volumes of Vitamin C. If you're sick, don't leave the house.

China now reports 102 cases (not including the 4 year-old reported in Taiwan), 20 deaths. Only 12 patients have recovered and been released from hospital; the remaining 70 patients are still undergoing treatment. The first human H7N9 infection was found on March 27, 2013 - with an average of 4 new cases reported each day since..

China confirms 102 H7N9 cases, 20 deaths

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- During the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. on Sunday, China confirmed six new cases of human H7N9 avian influenza, including five in Zhejiang and one in Jiangsu.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its daily update on H7N9 cases that a total of 102 H7N9 cases have been reported in China, including 20 that have ended in death.

Of the total, 12 H7N9 patients have been discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment, and the other 70 patients are being treated in designated hospitals, according to the commission.

A total of 33 cases, including 11 that have ended in death, have been reported in Shanghai. Twenty-four cases, including three deaths, have been reported in Jiangsu Province, and 38 cases, including five deaths, in Zhejiang Province. Anhui Province has reported three cases, with one ending in death. Beijing has reported one case and three have been reported in Henan Province.

reply to post by soficrow


Just wondering if anyone knows the Infection rate and the mortality rate is for this virus, also i thought there was a vaccine for this, my memory is a bit cloudy. any one care to enlighten me.

The bird flu thing is a big deal. I know all of the pharmas are really racing. I asked my husband about it in the car on Saturday. It's NDA stuff to get more detailed, but he could tell me that they're all very concerned, racing to find viable vaccines on every level. There is some big progress.

Now, as to what that would all mean in the shake-out and as to whether or not he would go with actually letting us get any vaccine that might appear or try to bunker us up instead? I don't know. I do know that when they literally rushed the shot out the door with the Swine Flu, he didn't want to have anything to do with it because of the way they pushed it out so fast, and I was pregnant at the time.

Also, it's hard to take early death stats for this thing in China and try to cross apply it. Look at what happened with the Swine Flu in Mexico, it started out with really scary high death rates too. But you don't know for sure how long those people went without treatment, how many others might have had it without it being reported, etc. China is not exactly known as a bastion of openness. We're relying on their numbers here and how they count them.