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The economic reality of avian influenza

Picture yourself in a tiny village in a developing country, say in Southeast Asia. One of your chickens die. Before you know it, government troops are getting off the back of lorries and swarming into your compound – slaughtering the rest of your chickens.

This may in fact be happening more often than you might think. Read the rest of this entry →

In a paper from Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1.

Their study of 36 genomes of the virus collected from wild birds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA), and Vietnam confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. Read the rest of this entry →

An interesting report has been released from Indonesia, by far the worst hit country from H5N1 or Avian Bird Flu. The report admits the governments handling of bird flu as “unsatisfactory”. Lack of funds and lack of cooperation from the public were called into focus. What was omitted was Jakarta’s fight with the World Health Organization (WHO) over how an avian flu vaccine should be developed and distributed. Here is the report:

For 50 years, countries around the world have shared new flu strains with the WHO. This is done to help scientists track genetic changes in virus as it mutates. Last year, Indonesia suddenly stopped Read the rest of this entry →

Shock as H5N1 wipes out UK turkey farm

Confusion and criticism have been sparked after Europe’s largest turkey producer was hit hard by the deadly H5N1 virus. Nearly 160,000 birds were packed into trucks to be gassed 200 miles away at a facility in Cheddleton, England. Officials say the bird flu virus has been contained to the farm in rural Holton in Suffolk county on the UK’s eastern coast.
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Bird flu has killed again in Indonesia and is picking up speed elsewhere in Asia, with fresh outbreaks in Vietnam and a new human case reported in China. The bird flu or Avian Influenza (H5N1) A virus is now rampant again. Here is a break down:

THAILAND
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A 26-year-old Egyptian man has died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the third member of his extended family to die of the virus, a World Health Organisation official says. All three cases belong to one extended family in Gharbiyah province, 80 kilometres northwest of the capital city, Cairo.

The patients had all been in contact with sick ducks, WHO said. Egypt has struggled to control H5N1 outbreaks in poultry, first reported in February, leading to at least 18 human cases, including 10 deaths. Read the rest of this entry →

If any country faces an epedimic with only limited amounts of vaccine or anti-virals, who should get treated?

Most guidelines (national) – and conventional wisdom – give priority to health-care workers, the youngest, the frail and the elderly.

But in the USA, Minnesota to be exact, they are re-writing the rules. A panel including government officials, doctors and ethicists concluded that inoculations should be given first to key workers like police and nurses, then to those who respond best to treatment – Read the rest of this entry →