Nigeria, human BF confirmed

[Gert van der Hoek]

Nigeria testing 14 human samples for bird flu
29 Jan 2007 09:15:23 GMT


More ABUJA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Nigeria is testing samples from 14 people, including three who died, for possible bird flu, a senior official at the health ministry said on Monday.

Samples from a mother and daughter who died in Lagos and a woman who died in remote eastern Taraba state after suffering flu-like symptoms are being tested to determine whether the H5N1 strain of bird flu was present.

Authorities gave conflicting information about the mother and daughter, however. Lola Sadiq, in charge of monitoring Nigeria's bird flu crisis at the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Abuja, said they had tested negative for bird flu. (??)
She did not have any information about the Taraba case.

Abdulsalam Nasidi, in charge of efforts to prevent bird flu from spreading to humans in Nigeria, said the three had tested positive for flu which is very common at this time of year due to the seasonal harmattan wind.

"The tests will show if it was common flu or bird flu," Nasisdi said, adding that they were being conducted at a laboratory in the capital Abuja. The other 11 samples are from people who came into contact with those who died.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, was the first on the continent to detect bird flu a year ago. The virus has spread to 17 of the 36 states but no human case has been confirmed so far.

Bird flu has killed at least 163 people around the world, according to the most recent figures from the WHO. There are fears it could spark a pandemic in which millions could die if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2948264.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Nigeria, suspected BF in humans

WHO says Nigeria bird flu tests prove negative

29 Jan 2007 11:45:39 GMT


(Updates with comment from WHO in Geneva)

ABUJA/GENEVA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that initial tests on samples from 14 Nigerians, including three people who died, showed they were not victims of bird flu.
In Geneva, a WHO official said all 14 samples had tested negative for the H5 strain of flu but positive for another type. Samples from the 14 have been sent to London for a second check, the U.N. agency said.

A Nigerian official gave a different account, saying he was awaiting the outcome of tests at a laboratory in the capital Abuja.

Samples have been taken from three people who died of unknown causes and 11 people who came into contact with them.

The H5N1 bird flu virus remains primarily an animal disease but can kill people who have close contact with infected birds.

It has killed 163 people around the globe since 2003 and experts fear it could spark a pandemic in which millions could die if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person.

The samples include ones from a mother and daughter who died in Lagos and from a woman who died in remote eastern Taraba state after suffering flu-like symptoms.

Abdulsalam Nasidi, in charge of efforts to prevent bird flu from spreading to humans in Nigeria, said samples from the three people who died had tested positive for flu which is very common at this time of year due to the seasonal harmattan wind.

"The tests will show if it was common flu or bird flu," Nasidi said.

The director of the Abuja lab could not be reached for comment.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, was the first on the continent to detect bird flu a year ago. The virus has spread to 17 of the 36 states but no human case has been confirmed so far.

Experts warn surveillance in Nigeria may not be completely effective because of poor health services. Many Nigerians die young of a variety of diseases and few families can afford the luxury of a doctor to determine the cause of death.

Nigeria is one of three countries regarded by experts as the weakest areas in the global attempt to stem infections among birds.

The disease was first discovered in the northern state of Kaduna a year ago and despite measures such as culling, quarantine and a transport ban on live birds it spread quickly across the country.

Millions of Nigerians keep live poultry in their backyards and in the absence of refrigerators in most households, birds are transported and sold live and killed just before eating.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29137446.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Nigeria, suspected BF in humans

Nigeria to make announcement on bird flu in humans

Wed 31 Jan 2007 10:35:20 GMT

LAGOS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Nigeria will release the results of tests made on 14 suspected human cases of bird flu later on Wednesday, an official said.

Africa's most populous country, Nigeria was the first on the continent to detect the deadly H5N1 virus in poultry last year but it has not had a confirmed human case.

Scientists declined to comment on the results of four rounds of tests concluded on Tuesday on 14 samples, taken from three people who died of flu symptoms and 11 who came into contact with them.

"The minister of information will make a press release later today," said Abdulsalam Nasidi, a bird flu expert at the Health Ministry.

One scientist involved in the testing said after three rounds of tests that some had produced a positive result for H5N1, but the results were inconsistent and the findings were unreliable. He has declined to comment on the result of the fourth round of testing which ended on Tuesday.

Nigeria is due to send the same samples to two foreign laboratories for confirmation of local findings.

The Mill Hill laboratory in London is one of WHO's Collaborating Centres which meet the U.N. health agency's "gold standard" for testing of samples for the deadly H5N1 virus.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu remains primarily an animal disease but it can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds.

It has killed 164 people around the globe since 2003 and experts fear it could spark a deadly pandemic if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person.

Nigeria detected bird flu in chicken in northern Kaduna state a year ago. The virus has since spread to 17 of Nigeria's 36 states despite measures such as culling, quarantine and bans on transporting live poultry.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L31662371&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-6

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Nigeria, suspected BF in humans

DEAD NIGERIAN GIRL TESTED POSITIVE FOR H5N1 BIRD FLU -

31 Jan 2007 12:56:55 GMT
Source: Reuters

DEAD NIGERIAN GIRL TESTED POSITIVE FOR H5N1 BIRD FLU - INFORMATION MINISTER

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31165269.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Nigeria, suspected BF in humans

Dead Nigerian woman tests positive for bird flu

31 Jan 2007 13:07:11 GMT


LAGOS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A Nigerian woman who died of flu symptoms has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, Information Minister Frank Nweke said on Wednesday, the first reported death from the virus in the West African country.

The woman from Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos is the first confirmed human victim of the H5N1 bird flu in sub-Saharan Africa, after the deadly disease was first found in poultry in Nigeria last February.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31165269.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

Four suspected bird flu deaths in Nigeria, official says

31 Jan 2007 13:35:23 GMT

LAGOS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Four Nigerians are suspected to have died from H5N1 bird flu, but tests on three of the victims were inconclusive and the virus was confirmed scientifically in only one case, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Abdulsalam Nasidi, a bird flu expert at the health ministry, said the three inconclusive cases were the mother of the confirmed case in Lagos, a poultry worker in northeastern Taraba state and one person in far northeastern Borno state.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31736640.htm

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01310701/H5N1_Lagos_Confirmed.html

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

<TABLE width=500 align=center summary="" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle bgColor=#c0c0c0 height=24>Nigeria Reports Bird Flu Cases in Humans </TD></TR><TR><TD>
(AP) -- Health officials reported Nigeria's first cases of bird flu in humans Wednesday, saying one woman had died and a family member had been infected but was responding to treatment. </TD></TR><TR><TD>
The 22-year-old woman died Jan. 17 in Lagos, Information Minister Frank Nweke said. He added that the government was boosting surveillance across Africa's most-populous nation after the infections in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city.

The World Health Organization did not immediately confirm the case.

Nigerian health officials earlier said 14 human samples were being tested. Nweke made no mention of those cases Wednesday.

An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu hit Nigeria last year, but no human infections had been reported until Wednesday. Until the Nigerian report, Egypt and Djibouti were the only African countries that had confirmed infections among people. Eleven people have died in Egypt.

The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but health experts fear H5N1 may mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans and possibly kill millions in a flu pandemic.

Amid a new H5N1 outbreak reported in recent weeks in Nigeria's north, hundreds of miles from Lagos, health workers have begun killing poultry.

Bird flu is generally not harmful to humans, but the H5N1 virus has claimed at least 157 lives worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry in late 2003, according to the WHO.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/16588779.htm

The H5N1 strain had been confirmed in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states.

By September, when the last known case of the virus was found in poultry in a farm near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos, 915,650 birds had been slaughtered nationwide by government veterinary teams under a plan in which owners were promised compensation. However, many Nigerian farmers have yet to be reimbursed in the north of the country, and health officials fear that chicken deaths may be covered up by owners reluctant to kill their animals.

Since bird flu cases were first discovered in Nigeria last year, Cameroon, Djibouti, Niger, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Burkina Faso have also reported the H5N1 strain of bird flu in birds. There are fears that it has spread even farther than is known in Africa because monitoring is difficult on a poor continent with weak infrastructure.

There also is concern that millions of people with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will be particularly vulnerable, especially in rural areas with little access to health facilities. Many people keep chickens for food, even in densely populated urban areas.

By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

<TABLE width=500 align=center summary="" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle bgColor=#c0c0c0 height=24>Nigeria Reports Bird Flu Cases in Humans </TD></TR><TR><TD>
(AP) -- Health officials reported Nigeria's first cases of bird flu in humans Wednesday, saying one woman had died and a family member had been infected but was responding to treatment.
</TD></TR><TR><TD>

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

H2H2H

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

H2H2H

H Index case dies January 4

2

H Daughter of index case dies January 17

2

H Family member responding to treatment January 31

[Theresa42]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

UPDATED AT 18.30 GMT
Govt confirms female's death by bird flu
Jan 31, 2007

The Federal Government on Wednesday confirmed the death of a 22-year-old female in Lagos by the Avian bird flu. It also said that another female member of the victim's household, earlier diagnosed of the virus, is responding to treatment. Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Frank Nweke however, has said there is no cause for alarm as the Federal Government was strengthening surveillance efforts across the country with particular emphasis on monitoring of human contacts with poultry populations to prevent animal-to-human and human-to-human infection. He said that the surveillance system was also being extended to cover all health institutions, including private facilities. In a press statement, Nweke said the committee considered the report of a 13-man team of virologists and laboratory experts that investigated the suspected human cases of Avian Influenza (AI) infection in Lagos.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/breaking_news/article01

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=a18b>Bird flu claims first human life in West Africa
</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->Lagos.? Nigeria confirmed the first human death from the H5N1 virus in sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday after tests on a dead woman showed she had contracted bird flu.

The 22-year-old died after feathering and disemboweling an infected chicken. She was from Lagos, the commercial capital of Africa's most populous country, Information Minister Frank Nweke said.
Test on three other victims, one of them the woman's mother, were inconclusive.
Nigeria was the first African nation to detect the H5N1 virus in poultry last year and had conducted tests on 14 people suspected of having the virus.
Although bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, experts fear it could mutate into a form that could pass easily among humans, possibly killing millions.
In Africa, 11 people have died in Egypt from bird flu since 2003 and there has been a single non-fatal human case in Djibouti, in the eastern Horn.
The H5N1 virus has killed at least 164 people worldwide, most of them in Asia, and Indonesia has the world's highest death toll - 63.
Six Indonesians have died in 2007 from bird flu, which is endemic in poultry in most of the country's provinces, and Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said this flare-up meant bird flu would now be categorized as a national disaster.
This will trigger additional funding for a focused fight against the virus.


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=22017

[HenryN]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

Deaths Caused by Avian Flu Confirmed in Lagos

<TT style="COLOR: black">From Chuka Oditah in Abuja, 02.01.2007</TT>


The multi-sectoral steering committee on Avian Influenza in Nigeria has confirmed that the deaths of two Nigerian women who died during the Christmas holidays in Lagos were caused by the dreaded avian flu virus.
In a statement issued yesterday, the committee said that an emergency meeting at the Avian Influenza Crisis Management Centre was held where it considered a report of virologists and laboratory experts that investigated the suspected human cases of Avian Influenza (AI) infection in Lagos.
The results of the tests conducted by Nigerian scientists using in-country laboratory facilities confirmed the first human case of Avian Influenza fatality in a 22-year old female who died in Lagos, Nigeria on January 17, 2007.
Another female member of the victim's household, earlier diagnosed with the clinical presentation of Avian Influenza virus (A/H5), is however responding to treatment.
The committiee stated that ?as demanded by international protocol the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) have received samples from the fatal case and contacts for independent assessment and confirmation. The outcome of their investigations will be made available as soon as it is available.?
Allaying concerns over the possibility of a pandemic, the committee assured that the Federal Government is strengthening surveillance efforts across the country with particular emphasis on monitoring human contacts with poultry populations to prevent animal-to-human and human-to-human infection. The surveillance system is also being extended to cover all health institutions including private facilities. Public health containment actions, especially risk communication, emergency medical care and infection control measures are being put in place. Training of personnel in the areas of laboratory, surveillance and clinical management is also receiving priority,? added the committee
It urged the general public to immediately report sick chickens to local veterinary and health officials, thoroughly cook chicken meat, wash hands thoroughly after touching chicken and/or other poultry products.
Also state and local governments were advised to strengthen their various committees on the management of Avian Influenza and also restrict intra and inter state movement of poultry as a containment measure.
Poultry were workers further advised to strictly observe appropriate biosafety and biosecurity measures.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=69432&printer_friendly=1

[Mellie]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01310701/H5N1_Lagos_Confirmed.html

Qinghai H5N1 Confirmed in Cluster in Lagos Nigeria
Recombinomics Commentary
January 30, 2007

Four Nigerians are suspected to have died from H5N1 bird flu, but tests on three of the victims were inconclusive and the virus was confirmed scientifically in only one case, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Abdulsalam Nasidi, a bird flu expert at the health ministry, said the three inconclusive cases were the mother of the confirmed case in Lagos, a poultry worker in northeastern Taraba state and one person in far northeastern Borno state.

The above comments describe four suspect H5N1 cases in Nigeria. The confirmed cases (22F) is the daughter of a suspect case. The disease onset dates strongly suggest the index case infected the confirmed case. This cluster was in Lagos, Nigeria.

The other two suspect cases are a distinct locations in Nigeria, suggested human infections may be markedly higher than the four cases described above. Poultry outbreaks have been widespread in Nigeria.

The confirmed case is the first in western Africa. However, sequences of H5N1 from Nigeria, as well as neighboring countries (Niger, Ivory Coast, Burkino Faso, and Cameroon) support multiple introductions of H5N1 into the region. However, many of these sequences carry Qinghai polymorphisms that are found in human and poultry isolates in Egypt and Djibouti, raising serious questions about human H5N1 infections in western Africa.

The above confirmation suggests a significant commitment is needed. Samples have been sent to Mill Hill in London, and the Capua lab in Rome for confirmation. However, the inconclusive results suggests on site testing would be useful.

In the past, the WHO has set up a mobile lab in Azerbaijan, with personal and technical support by NAMRU-3. The description and location of the suspect cases dictate a similar response. Recently the NAMRU-3 lab discovered the Tamiflu resistance marker, N294S, in a family cluster in Gharbiya, Egypt.

The high case fatality rate in Egypt and Nigeria also raise questions about widespread Tamiflu resistance, which can also be addressed by mobile labs at appropriate locations.

The suspect case in Borno state is near Lake Chad, which is adjacent to Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon.

[Laidback Al]

Re: Nigeria, human BF confirmed

WHO UPDATE

Avian influenza - situation in Nigeria
31 January 2007
The government of Nigeria has announced the death from suspected avian influenza infection in a 22-year-old female from Lagos. She died on 16 January 2007. The mother of the 22-year-old died on 4 January with similar symptoms.
Preliminary tests on the samples from the 22-year-old were positive for influenza A/H5. Samples have now been sent to a WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza for confirmation. Results are expected shortly. No samples were taken from the mother.
Contacts have been followed up and have shown no symptoms at twice the incubation period for avian influenza infection. Samples have been tested from these contacts as well as from three other suspected cases, including one fatal case and have all been negative in preliminary tests. These samples have also been sent to a WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza.
It is important to reiterate that properly cooked poultry meat is safe to consume when cooked at temperatures at or above 70?C in all parts, until none of the meat is red. There is no epidemiological evidence to indicate that people have been infected with H5N1 virus following consumption of properly cooked poultry or eggs. The greatest risk of exposure to the virus is through the handling and slaughter of live infected poultry. More detailed recommendations can be found here.
WHO is working with the government of Nigeria to monitor the situation.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_01_31a/en/index.html