PHA-Exchange> WHO: Bird flu not moving human to human

[Claudio]

> February 3, 2004
 AVIAN INFLUENZA: WHO: Bird flu not moving human to human
>
 Health officials are hoping a chicken flu that has killed at least three
> people in Vietnam won't start spreading from person to person, and a
> genetic study has provided encouragement, a health agency spokesman says.
>
> The human infections are thought to have come from contact with the
> droppings of sick birds. The avian flu has killed millions of chickens in
> South Korea, Vietnam and Japan, where officials have ordered mass
> slaughters to try to contain the outbreak.
>
> There has been no sign of person-to-person spread, the World Health
> Organization (WHO) said.
>
> Health officials routinely monitor bird flu closely because once a bird
> flu virus enters humans, it could mix genetic material with a human flu
> virus. The result could be a hybrid that can spread from person to person,
> and which is different enough from previous human flu viruses that people
> would have no natural immunity. That could be the start of a worldwide flu
> outbreak, called a pandemic, which can be very deadly.
>
> But analysis of flu virus recovered from an infected person in the current
> bird flu episode shows all the genetic material is still avian, said Dick
> Thompson, spokesman for the WHO infectious diseases section in Geneva.
> What's more, he said, nobody taking care of people infected with the avian
> virus has contracted the disease.
>
> "The likelihood that it will be human-to-human is low," Thompson said.
>
> Earlier, WHO regional coordinator Peter Cordingley had warned in Manila,
> Philippines, that if the virus does acquire the ability to spread
> person-to-person it could become a bigger problem for the region than
> SARS.
>
> Alan Hay, director of the London-based World Influenza Center, agreed the
> virus could become more potent if mixed with a human virus, but added, "We
> know relatively little about what is actually necessary for that to
> happen."
>
> The three avian flu deaths in Vietnam - an adult and two children - were
> confirmed as Influenza A or the H5N1 strain, the same virus found in sick
> chickens in the country's south, WHO said. The same strain of bird flu
> killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997, when more than 1 million chickens
> and ducks were destroyed.
>
> WHO said tests are being conducted to determine if the deaths of six
> additional people in Vietnam are linked to the bird flu.
>
> "What must be a great concern is the frequency with which we are seeing
> H5N1-like viruses in the human population," Hay said. "The concern is that
> it will become transmissible. The more instances there are of it jumping
> from bird to human, the more likely it is it will acquire that ability."
>
> The bird flu scare comes as China grapples with new cases of severe acute
> respiratory syndrome, another ailment believed to have originated in
> animals and which ravaged the region's economy in a major outbreak in
> 2003.
>
> China confirmed its first SARS case of the season, and has since announced
> two additional suspected cases, all in southern Guangdong province, next
> to Hong Kong.
>
> The bird flu's symptoms in humans include fever and coughing and eventual
> pneumonia - similar to SARS.
>
> Health officials said they believe there is no danger from eating properly
> cooked meat or the eggs of affected chickens. Still, governments and
> businesses in the region sought to bolster consumer confidence in their
> poultry industries.
>
> "There is no case reported of humans infected by taking chicken meat or
> eggs," Japanese Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said. "Therefore, I
> wish for the citizens of Japan to react in a calm manner on this issue."
>
> Japanese officials said 10,000 chickens had died from the bird flu and
> thousands of others would be slaughtered.
>
> The disease is spreading fast among poultry in Vietnam, where more than 1
> million chickens have died in the latest outbreak. Farmers have been
> ordered to destroy all sick birds.
>
> An official at Ho Chi Minh City's only crematorium said the facility has
> been running at full capacity, 24 hours a day, over the past few days,
> incinerating more than 2 tons of dead chickens a day.
>
> Thailand, among the world's largest poultry exporters, declared itself
> free of bird flu.
>
> An outbreak starting in December in South Korea led to the slaughter of
> 1.1 million chickens and ducks in an attempt to contain the disease.
>