PHA-Exchange> Bird flu + human flu: strains that travel the world fast

[Claudio]

 Influenza is a human disease which is caused by a virus. Every
> year, it's estimated that between 10% to 20% of the total population is
> affected by this virus. Some people become sick very seriously. In the US,
> it's estimated that around about 36,000 people die every year from
> influenza. Other people are being hospitalized, many people can sleep the
> disease off. The economic implications are considerable, there have been
> quite a number of studies conducted, the costs for hospitalization, for
> vaccination, for absenteeism from workplace and school, as well as for
> death from the disease, go into the billions. There are studies from
> Germany that the disease costs about  2.2 billion euros.
> The disease is occurring worldwide, it affects all age groups. The age
> group that is most hit by the disease are those over 65, those who have a
> slightly reduced immune system, those who cannot develop antibodies as
> good, perhaps as younger persons. In addition, those over a certain age
> group have more chronic underlying diseases, and influenza causes 95% of
> the death of people over 65 who have chronic underlying diseases, who have
> diabetes, who have asthma, who have cardio-vascular diseases, or who have
> intestinal diseases. It's estimated that globally, up to one million
> people are dying every year from influenza. The best way to protect
> yourself from the disease is to get vaccinate... The risk groups for
> influenza death are those over 65, so we recommend that everyone over 65
> should be vaccinated against influenza, as well as everyone who already
> has a chronic, underlying disease.
>
 Influenza is not only a disease of man, it's also a disease of
> birds and mammals. There are two separate cycles of influenza
> transmission: those which occur in humans and those which occur in
> animals. Normally there is no transmission between these cycles. Now since
> 1997, we know that the avian influenza viruses can cross these species
> barriers, they can go right into persons, they can cause disease, and we
> know that from Hong Kong, one third of those that were affected, died. The
> strain, the influenza strain that we are particularly concerned about, is
> an avian strain, its called H5N1. This strain has been observed worldwide,
> it's responsible for the majority of the disease in chickens. And there
> have been outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in almost
> all continents in the last years. H5N1 is the most important avian
> influenza strain.
>
> Now this is the one that is currently seen in many countries in Asia in
> chickens. There are reports from Japan, from South Korea, from Vietnam and
> there are also indications from other countries that highly pathogenic
> avian influenza is causing disease and death in chickens, and that appears
> to be ongoing for some time. Since early January, we are aware of human
> cases caused by this avian strain in Vietnam, and you know that five
> people have already died. They are confirmed to have died from this H5N1
> strain.
>
> There is an epidemiological link between this death and disease in
> chickens. In addition, the virus which comes from humans, and the ones
> that come from birds, these viruses have been characterized, analyzed. And
> they are identical. That's the case for Vietnam.
>
> We know, we have received reports from Thailand today that there are two
> more cases of H5N1 in humans, in Thailand reported. The virus has not yet
> been characterized because we haven't received it yet.  WHO is concerned
about the outbreaks of avian influenza in
> humans. The reason why we're concerned is of course, there is death and
> disease in people, and that's concern enough. But there's something more
> behind.
>
> The occurrence of avian influenza in humans gives the possibility that
> these avian viruses  recombine with human viruses, and the ensuing virus,
the virus which
> would result from this mating process,will have the human
> transmissibility of virus, the transmissibility of the normal human virus
> as well as the pathogenicity of the chicken virus. It will  travel very
> quickly around the world.
>
 The reason why some
> people start thinking also about food issues in relation to avian
> influenza is maybe that some countries have now stopped imports of certain
> products from areas where you have avian influenza outbreaks, and the
> countries that have done that are doing it because of animal health
> considerations, meaning that they don't want their own herds to be
> contaminated with avian influenza and what would then follow from that. We
> have no indications from epidemiological studies or from data that we have
> in general that avian influenza presents any public health risk in
> relation to processed poultry products or food products in general. That
> is the state of the knowledge at the moment.
>