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Hong Kong health officials are also monitoring the human swine flu H1N1 outbreak in the United States, Ko said.
"The outbreak of H1N1 human swine flu has claimed lives in the United States and I appeal to the public to get vaccinated if they find any vaccination scheme suitable in Hong Kong," he said.
Four more H7N9 cases reported in China
Chinese health authorities have reported four more H7N9 infections in three different areas of eastern China over the past 3 days, including the first detection in Shanghai since last April.
Also, animal health officials in China have reported more positive H7N9 findings in environmental samples from a live poultry market, supporting the suspicion that such markets are fueling the outbreak in humans.
First N. America H5N1 Bird Flu Death Confirmed in Canada
Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose said the deceased person was an Alberta resident who had recently travelled to Beijing.
Calling the death an "isolated case", Ms Ambrose said the risk to the general population was low.
Ten people have died in Alberta this season from swine flu, or H1N1.
…the infected person first showed symptoms of the flu on an Air Canada flight from Beijing to Vancouver on 27 December, officials said.
The passenger continued on to Edmonton and on 1 January was admitted to hospital where they died two days later.
Canadian federal health officials said they would not identify the patient's sex, age or occupation.
Hong Kong and Guangdong each confirm a new case of H7N9 bird flu
Guangdong and Hong Kong yesterday each confirmed a new case of H7N9 bird flu as Hong Kong government called for stricter testing of poultry imports from the mainland.
...He is the third case - one of them fatal - reported in the city, although all the patients are believed to have contracted the disease during visits to Shenzhen.
Meanwhile, officials in Guangdong confirmed yesterday that a 51-year-old woman had contracted the disease in Foshan, a city of 7.2 million people near Guangzhou. It was the province's third confirmed case this week, with another case in Foshan on Monday and one in Shenzhen on Tuesday.
The latest cases bring to 10 the number of infections confirmed in the province since August. There have been two cases each in Foshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen, and one in Huizhou - cities close to Hong Kong. Three cases have occurred in Yangjiang , about 150 kilometres west of Macau.
New H7N9 case reported in east China
NANJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- A new case of human contraction of H7N9 bird flu has been confirmed in east China's Jiangsu Province, provincial health authorities revealed on Wednesday.
...Human cases of H7N9 have been reported in Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shanghai in January.
Shenzhen in Guangdong reported a new case on Tuesday, raising the total number of such cases in the province to nine since August, said the Guangdong health authority on Wednesday.
One patient in Dongguan City, Guangdong, died of multiple organ failure on Monday after being treated in a local hospital for about three weeks. He tested positive for the virus on Dec. 14.
“Essentially we’ve had one death documented,” said Montana DPHHS State Communicable Disease Epidemiologist Karl Milhon. “Information is preliminary at this point because it is coming into us pretty hot and heavy right now. The thing about it is, since October 1, we’ve had 101 hospitalizations reported, and over half of those have been in the last two weeks.” Read More: Montana Flu Season Spike Results in One Death, More than 100 Hospitalized | newstalkkgvo.com...
...they don't think it will be worse than 2009
CIDRAP. Friday, January 17, 2014. Today's confirmed case announcements lift the H7N9 outbreak total to 194 infections, including 53 deaths.
Three new human H7N9 cases were reported on Friday in east China's Zhejiang Province, bringing the total number to 17 in the region, local authorities said.
Three human H7N9 cases in Guangdong
GUANGZHOU, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Three new cases of human H7N9 were reported Saturday in south China's Guangdong Province, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 21, provincial health authorities said.
Bird Flu Epidemic Dampens Chinese Lunar New Year
H7N9 epidemic unlikely: health watchdog
New cases soar but what risk does H7N9 pose?
With Chinese New Year H7N9 cases soar, but experts struggle to assess the risk
Reported by Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Posted Jan 31, 2014 12:20pm
Human infections of H7N9 bird flu soared in the lead up to Friday's start of the lunar New Year celebrations in China, with fall-winter cases now overtaking the tally from last spring's first explosive outbreak of the new virus.
The Chinese New Year is the single biggest travel event on the global calendar; the movement around the country of hundreds of millions of people and the family feasts associated with the multi-day holiday are expected to raise the infection count higher still.
Scientists who monitor influenza are watching China especially closely now.
"For the current period it is important to remain extra vigilant, I would say," says Dr. Sylvie Briand of the World Health Organization, stretching out the first syllable of "extra" for emphasis.
While Briand and other flu experts are worried, they are in a quandary. They know the new virus poses a pandemic risk, perhaps a greater one than any non-human flu virus that has emerged in recent times. Certainly no bird flu virus has infected people so easily and frequently in known history.
H7N9 kills 2 more as toll hits 25
TWO people were reported yesterday to have died of the H7N9 flu virus in China — bringing the death toll this year to 25.
…As bird flu cases are increasing on a daily basis, public concern over people-to-people transmission of the disease during the Spring Festival is growing, but health experts said inter-human transmission was unlikely.
Canada watching new H7N9 flu, feels risk still low
…Past studies of H7 flu viruses have shown they are poorly immunogenic; without an adjuvant, even large doses produced poor results.
The U.S.-funded studies of H7N9 vaccine have confirmed that two doses per person would be needed to get a protective response, and that an adjuvant would be needed.
CDC Director: China Bird Flu Outbreak Closely Watched
…Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, tells Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson that the outbreak is worrisome, but China is being more transparent than ever.
…“We don’t understand completely how it’s spreading from birds to humans. We do know that the virus itself has certain genetic characteristics that make it relatively easy for it to spread from the birds to people. Fortunately it does not yet have the genetic characteristics to spread from one person to another person, except if there’s very intense close contact, such as someone who is caring for someone who is very sick, or are close in the family. But it’s not spreading person to person – yet.”
Deadly New Bird Flu Strain Spawned by Virus Behind H5N1
The new bird flu that’s infected two people in China, killing one, was spawned by the same pathogen that produced two other deadly flu strains, a study found.
The H10N8 strain, which hasn’t previously been reported in humans, contains six out of eight genes from the H9N2 virus that also provided the genetic foundation for the H5N1 virus that’s killed 386 people since 2003, and the H7N9 strain that led to at least 70 fatalities, Chinese researchers wrote in The Lancet medical journal today.
Mutant bird flu virus worries Bangladeshi scientists
* H5N1 virus found acquiring genes from other bird flu virus strains
* Strains in circulation are different from the one that caused the 2007 bird flu outbreak
* The bird flu virus is adapting to new winged hosts such as crow, quail and duck
....The H5N1 virus acquired a crucial gene from a low disease-causing bird flu virus 'H9N2'; and accumulated single-point genetic changes that have the potential to modify the way the virus gets hinged to the host. The scientists have published details of their research in Avian Pathology and Preventive Veterinary Medicine this month.
Since its first detection in Bangladesh in February 2007, H5N1 has “become entrenched” in the country’s poultry farms, with 548 bird flu outbreaks, and seven human cases including one death, reported till October 2013.
....“Avian influenza is an animal disease but there are new threats from certain strains of virus (H7N9) which kills humans but not its hosts. China, Taiwan and Malaysia have already suffered human casualties from this new type of virus but we (in Bangladesh) have to prepare for wider measures to prevent entry of the virus from those countries,” says Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), in Dhaka.