Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu - 2008

[Gert van der Hoek]

Bangladesh says first human case of H5N1 bird flu has been found

2008-05-22

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh's Health Ministry says the nation's first human case of H5N1 strain of bird flu infection has been detected.

A health ministry statement says a child was infected by the virus in January.

The statement released by the Directorate General of Health Services on

Thursday did not give the child's name, age, or other details about the case.

The child is recovering after treatment. The statement said the case was diagnosed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Bangladesh in recent months have culled hundreds of thousands of birds after the virus was detected last year.

http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603531.htm

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=padlrt8 colSpan=2>Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu <!-- headline one : end -->
</TD></TR><TR><TD class="georgia11 padcell8" colSpan=2><!-- 7 or less paragraphs so show all paragraphs first --><!-- story content : start -->DHAKA - A 16-MONTH-OLD boy has been confirmed as Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior health ministry official said on Thursday.
'We got the confirmation yesterday from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) yesterday,' said Mahmudur Rahman, a senior health ministry official. The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka 'has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved,' Mr Rahman said. 'Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm,' he said. -- AFP

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_240007.html

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

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Crow connection

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02050804/Dhaka_Crows.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh says child recovers from bird flu

22 May 2008

DHAKA, May 22 (Reuters) - Bangladesh said on Thursday a child infected with bird flu, the country's first reported human case of the virus, had recovered.

"The child was found infected by H5N1 but after treatment he has recovered and is now doing well," Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Dhaka-based Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research, told Reuters.

He said the case was detected recently during a routine check-up, but did not give details.

Bird flu was first detected in Bangladesh in March last year, and since then the authorities have culled around 2 million chickens and destroyed more than 2 million eggs, threatening the impoverished country's growing poultry sector.
(Reporting by Nizam Ahmed and Masud Karim; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Alex Richardson)

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA222370.htm

[Treyfish]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_240007.html
hattip Sand
May 22, 2008

Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu

DHAKA - A 16-MONTH-OLD boy has been confirmed as Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior health ministry official said on Thursday.
'We got the confirmation yesterday from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) yesterday,' said Mahmudur Rahman, a senior health ministry official.

The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka 'has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved,' Mr Rahman said.

'Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm,' he said. -- AFP

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05220804/H5N1_Dhaka_Child.html

[Laidback Al]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu <!-- END HEADLINE -->
<!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->by Shafiq Alam 28 minutes ago

Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu Thursday, saying a 16-month-old boy has been diagnosed with the deadly virus.
The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka "has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved," health ministry official Mahmudur Rahman told AFP.
"Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm," he said.
Tests by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the H5N1 strain of the virus on Wednesday, Rahman said, but he declined to say when the child fell sick.
The health ministry has set up isolation units at all public hospitals across the country to deal with any human cases of bird flu.
While around 800 people were suspected of having flu earlier this year, no one was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain.
Experts fear bird flu could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
Bangladesh, which has a population of 140 million, is the world's most densely populated country with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre (2,600 per square mile).
It was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 near Dhaka, but the disease became dormant.
It made a forceful comeback in January when a clutch of new districts were hit. At the outbreak's peak, some 50 of the country's 64 districts were affected by bird flu, officials said.
But the outbreaks began to subside in March as temperatures started soaring, killing the virus, officials said.
More than a million birds have been slaughtered since the first outbreak.
Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.
Industry officials said the bird flu outbreak at its peak this year led to closure of 40 percent of the nation's poultry farms and left half a million workers jobless.
Earlier this year, one health official told AFP there was "a huge lack of awareness in the countryside" about disposing of poultry hit by bird flu and people were "throwing away dead chickens in open fields, canals and ponds."
Also earlier this year, giant neighbour India suffered its third and worst outbreak of the virus among poultry in West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh.

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in India, which has also carried out massive poultry slaughters. The two nations recently agreed to pool information on bird flu after sparring over the source of the deadly disease.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080522/wl_sthasia_afp/healthflubangladesh_080522141045

[Laidback Al]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Link to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh. However, there is no real time news announcement link from the Ministry and not all of the links are active.

http://www.mohfw.gov.bd/

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh says first human case of deadly H5N1 bird flu has been found
<TABLE class=relmenue cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" bgColor=#f6f6f6 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Refer to a friend </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>? AP

2008-05-22 16:30:42 -

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 strain of [COLOR=#0000cc! important][COLOR=#0000cc! important]bird [COLOR=#0000cc! important]flu[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] has been detected, health officials said Thursday, calling on residents of this impoverished South Asian nation not to panic.
A child from the capital Dhaka was found to be infected by the [COLOR=#0000cc! important][COLOR=#0000cc! important]virus[/COLOR][/COLOR] in January and treated for respiratory trouble, <TABLE style="BORDER-RIGHT: #c1c1c1 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #f6f6f6 1px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: #f6f6f6 1px solid; WIDTH: 300px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #c1c1c1 1px solid; HEIGHT: 250px" height=250 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=300 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>said a statement from the Directorate General of Health Services, adding that the child was recovering.
The details were released after Bangladesh received confirmation from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the statement said.
The child's name, age, or other details about the case were not released.
Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain of [COLOR=#0000cc! important][COLOR=#0000cc! important]bird [COLOR=#0000cc! important]flu [/COLOR][COLOR=#0000cc! important]virus[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] _ which began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 _ could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic that kills millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
In its latest report released at the end of April the World Health Organization said 382 people have come down with bird flu since 2003, and 241 of them have died.
Bangladesh is the 15th country to report a human case of virus, according to the WHO.
Experts say an outbreak could be particularly calamitous for Bangladesh, a nation of some 150 million people.
?It's a very, very bad signal for us,? said M.M. Khan, an adviser to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association.
?Any widespread outbreak could be disastrous for Bangladesh because of high concentration of population and poorly equipped public health care system,? he said.
Nevertheless, Bangladesh's health officials said there was no cause for alarm.
<!--APIMG-->
?There is no reason to panic. The situation is under control,? said the statement, signed by Moazzem Hossain, the director of the Center for Disease Control.
Since the first cases in poultry were reported last year, bird flu has spread to 42 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, including inside Dhaka, a city of 10 million people.
Hundreds of thousands of birds have been slaughtered, severely affecting the country's poultry industry, which is made up 150,000 farms and has an annual turnover of about US$750 million (euro510 million).

http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603764.htm

[Giuseppe]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu
by Shafiq Alam

DHAKA (AFP) -

Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu on Thursday, but said the 16-month-old victim had now recovered from the virus.

The baby boy from a Dhaka slum was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of the disease in January, but this was only confirmed by a US laboratory this week, the government said.

"There is no reason to panic. The child contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in January but we only got confirmation from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control) on Wednesday it was a human bird flu case," said senior government official Saluddin Khan.

Earlier, a health ministry official had said the child was still in hospital.

But Khan, who works for the livestock ministry and is coordinating Bangladesh's battle against bird flu, said the boy "has now made a complete recovery."

Khan said Bangladesh's fight against the virus was "very much under control."

"We're destroying the birds and eggs as soon as we have any report of bird flu at any farm in the country," he said.

Bird flu has killed over 240 people worldwide since late 2003 and experts fear it could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.

Bangladesh has set up isolation units at all public hospitals across the country, and officials said the government had taken adequate safety measures to tackle any new human cases of bird flu.

"Right now everything is under control. We have trained doctors and readied hospitals to tackle any new detection," said Mahmudur Rahman, who heads Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research.

"We successfully tackled the disease when it spread to most parts of the country in January and February. In the last 40 days there has been only one outbreak of the H5N1 virus in a farm in northern Bangladesh," added Khan.

Bangladesh, which has a population of 140 million, is the world's most densely populated country with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre (2,600 per square mile).

It was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 near Dhaka, but the disease became dormant.

It made a forceful comeback in January when a clutch of new districts were hit. At the outbreak's peak, some 50 of the country's 64 districts were affected by bird flu, officials said.

More than a million birds were slaughtered, but the outbreaks began to subside in March as temperatures started soaring, killing the virus, officials said.

Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.

Industry officials said the bird flu outbreak at its peak this year led to closure of 40 percent of the nation's poultry farms and left half a million workers jobless.

Earlier this year, one health official told AFP there was "a huge lack of awareness in the countryside" about disposing of poultry hit by bird flu and people were "throwing away dead chickens in open fields, canals and ponds."

Also earlier this year, giant neighbour India suffered its third and worst outbreak of the virus among poultry in West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh.

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in India, which has also carried out massive poultry slaughters.

The two nations recently agreed to pool information on bird flu after sparring over the source of the deadly disease.
-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080522/wl_sthasia_afp/healthflubangladesh_080522144627;_ylt=Al4WrQInlJAY6m6Qe1mzfnqTvyIi

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[Giuseppe]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

[IT IS NOT POSSIBLE! WHY DO W.H.O. NOT MENTION ONE SINGLE SUSPECTED (POSSIBLE OR PROBABLE) CASE OF H5N1 IN ITS LAST REPORT? - IOH]

12 May 2008 ? Bangladesh

As of 12 May 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, reported that culling of poultry has taken place in 546 farms, spread over 47 districts. (Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayangonj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Jessore, Noakhali, Gaibandha, Magura, Rajbari, Nilfamari, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Joypurhat, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Bogra, Feni, Pabna, Kurigram, Moulvibaza, Barisal, Barguna, Rajshahi, Natore, Patuakhali, Netrokona, Bhola, Kulna, Manikgonj, Gopalgonj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Kustia, Jhinaidah, Norsingdhi, Bagerhat, Chittagong, Kishoreganj, Meherpur, Comilla, Shariatpur, Munshiganj Chandpur, Satkhira and B Baria.) A total of 1,636,303 chickens have been culled.

No human cases have been reported.
-

http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section1027/Section2095/Section2462_13930.asp

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[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

[IT IS NOT POSSIBLE! WHY DO W.H.O. NOT MENTION ONE SINGLE SUSPECTED (POSSIBLE OR PROBABLE) CASE OF H5N1 IN ITS LAST REPORT? - IOH]

12 May 2008 ? Bangladesh

As of 12 May 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, reported that culling of poultry has taken place in 546 farms, spread over 47 districts. (Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayangonj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Jessore, Noakhali, Gaibandha, Magura, Rajbari, Nilfamari, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Joypurhat, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Bogra, Feni, Pabna, Kurigram, Moulvibaza, Barisal, Barguna, Rajshahi, Natore, Patuakhali, Netrokona, Bhola, Kulna, Manikgonj, Gopalgonj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Kustia, Jhinaidah, Norsingdhi, Bagerhat, Chittagong, Kishoreganj, Meherpur, Comilla, Shariatpur, Munshiganj Chandpur, Satkhira and B Baria.) A total of 1,636,303 chickens have been culled.

No human cases have been reported.
-

http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section1027/Section2095/Section2462_13930.asp

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The is little doubt that there are MANY unreported human H5N1 cases in Bangladesh and India. The current case remains confusing. If the positive was just determined yesterday, why was the patient treated in January?
This case raises many questions.

[Giuseppe]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

REUTERS / ALERTNET newswires don't mention ''January'' as onset of illness.

Bangladesh says child recovers from bird flu
22 May 2008 13:48:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
(adds details)

DHAKA, May 22 (Reuters) -
Bangladesh said on Thursday a child infected with bird flu, the country's first reported human case of the virus, had recovered.

"The child was found infected by H5N1 but after treatment he has recovered and is now doing well," Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Dhaka-based Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research, told Reuters.

He said the case was detected recently during a routine check-up, but did not give details.

(...)
-

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA264384.htm

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[sharon sanders]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

I have emails sent out to help illuminate this situation.

There are many questions:

1) Is the reporting accurate?

2) If it is, then when did Bangladesh inform WHO or the CDC of this situation?

3) Were there any other members of the child's family, neighbors, health care workers, etc. tested? Did they exhibit any unusual physical symptoms around the time this child became sick? Since then?

4) Contacts to poultry?

5) Found during a routine check-up???

6) Based on the answers to the above, I have many more questions depending on the responses.

[Treyfish]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

recent warden messages Warden Message

May 21, 2008

Ambassador Moriarty to Host Town Hall Meeting in Chittagong for American Citizens

Saturday, May 24, 2008, at the Peninsula Hotel

Ambassador James F. Moriarty invites all American citizens in Bangladesh, age 18 and over, to attend a Town Hall Meeting. http://dhaka.usembassy.gov/warden_message_may21_08.html
Warden Message

Town Hall Meeting for American Citizens
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at the American Club

Ambassador James F. Moriarty invites all American citizens in Bangladesh, age 18 and over, to attend a Town Hall Meeting.

• Consul Elizabeth Gourlay will introduce Ambassador Moriarty.
• Regional Security Officer Matthew Wolsey will give an update on security issues.
• Regional Medical Officer Dr. John Christensen will give an update on Avian Influenza. http://dhaka.usembassy.gov/warden_message_may07_08.html