Belgian man: Tests are negative.

[DB]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0308/flu.html
Belgian man may have bird flu

08 March 2006 16:09<?xml:namespace prefix = rte /><rte:body>
A Belgian man who returned from China three days ago has been admitted to hospital with the symptoms of bird flu.

However, Belgian health officials said it was a possible case of bird flu rather than a probable one.

And Albania has become the latest European country to report a case of H5N1. The virus was detected in a chicken in the southern Sarande coastal region, close to the border with Greece.

In China, a nine-year-old girl has died of bird flu. She was the country's tenth known death from the virus.

The World Health Organisation says action is needed now to prepare for a pandemic of flu, before it can mutate into a form that will pass between humans.

This afternoon, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health warned that Australia, Canada and the US stand a very high risk of seeing cases of the current bird flu.

Those three countries have so far escaped being caught up in the spread of the H5N1 strain of avian flu, which originated in Asia in 2003 but which has since spread to the Middle East, Africa, Russia, Turkey and Europe.

Most affected countries have recorded the deadly disease only in birds, though nearly 100 people have died in Asia and Turkey, and a few cats in Germany and Austria have also been diagnosed with it.
</rte:body>

[DB]

Re: Belgian man may have bird flu

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Belgian treated for bird flu symptoms in Brussels
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BRUSSELS March 8, (Reuters) - A Belgian who had been visiting China has been admitted to hospital in Brussels with symptoms of bird flu, the Belgian Food Agency, a government body, said on Wednesday.

The agency said it has begun tests to see if the patient, now in quarantine, has contracted the H5N1 virus but said it was unlikely to be the case.
"Given that the patient does not have breathing difficulties, the chances of contamination by the H5N1 virus are estimated to be weak," said the agency in a statement.
It said the Saint-Pierre hospital, in the south of the capital, had contacted health inspectors after admitting the patient, who has not been identified.
A spokesman for Belgian health minister Rudy Demotte told Reuters that the Scientific Institute for Health, which is carrying out the tests, will announce provisional results on Wednesday evening.
"This test will know 90 percent if it is bird flu or not," said Karim Ibourki.
Further tests will be carried out on Thursday to ascertain for certain if the patient has caught H5N1.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday that bird flu has infected 175 people, killing 96 of them since 2003, with the victims contracting the virus from infected birds.
Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that can pass from human to human, sparking a pandemic.

[DB]

Re: Belgian man may have bird flu

Is anyone else wondering why the Belgian Food Agency is doing the testing of of H5N1 on a human being?

[Waltz]

Belgian press: Negative

http://www.vilt.be/nieuwsarchief/detail.phtml?id=9256

Belg met griepsymptomen test negatief op vogelgriep

08/03/2006

Een Belgische man die vorige week is teruggekeerd van een reis in China werd woensdag in het Brusselse Sint-Pietersziekenhuis opgenomen met griepsymptomen. De pati&#235;nt voelde zich onwel, had spierpijnen, hoest en een lichaamstemperatuur van 39 graden. Aangezien de man in een gebied vertoefde met vogelgriep, werd hij onderzocht op een mogelijke besmetting met H5N1.

Omdat de man geen last had van kortademigheid werd de kans meteen zeer klein geacht dat hij besmet was met het vogelgriepvirus. De eerste analyseresultaten waren dan ook negatief. Voor alle zekerheid worden nog bijkomende testen uitgevoerd, meldt het Interministerieel Commissariaat Influenza.


Eerdere berichtgeving over de vogelgriep:
6/3/06: FAO: "Rijke landen hebben vogelgriep lang onderschat"

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Belgian with influenza symptoms tests negatively on bird influenza

08/03/2006

A Belgian man who has returned last week of a travel in China was incorporated Wednesday in the (hospital) pietersziekenhuispietersziekenhuis of Brussels with influenza symptoms.

The patient felt himself indisposed, had myalgias, coughs and a body temperature of 39 degrees. Since the man in an area stayed with bird influenza, he was examined on a possible contagion with H5N1.

Because the man had no charge of kortademigheid the chance immediately very small was considered that he contaminates was with the bird influenza virus.

The first analysis results were thus negative. For all certainty still additional tests are carried out, communicate to the interministerial Commission influenza. Earlier reporting concerning the bird influenza: 6/3/06: FAO: "rich countries have long underestimated bird influenza"

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Belgian man may have bird flu

BRUSSELS, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A Belgian man who has been admitted to the hospital with flu-like symptoms tested negative on Wednesday for the dangerous H5N1 variant of the avian bird flu virus, local media reported.
The man, whose name or age were not given, returned from a rural Chinese region where bird flu in endemic on Saturday and decided to go to hospital on Monday after getting high fever and strong headaches, it was reported.
"The first tests are negative," a spokeswoman for a Belgian government influenza agency was quoted as saying. "We will do some second tests but we don't expect to find anything positive."
Further tests are due to be carried out on Thursday.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/09/content_4277576.htm

[Waltz]

Re: Belgian man: First tests are negative.

Throat infection suspected
in Brussels bird flu scare


9 March 2006

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=28268&name=Throat+infection+suspected+in+bird+flu+scare+

BRUSSELS ? The Belgian businessman admitted to the Saint Peter Hospital in Brussels probably has a throat infection and not bird flu as initially feared.

The government's bird flu commissionership said on Thursday the 32-year-old man ? who has been in quarantine since Wednesday ? does not have bird flu.

The man was admitted to hospital on 6 March with bird flu symptoms after returning from China, where he had visited a region in which human bird flu victims had been reported.

He had reported to a hospital in the Brussels suburb of Ixelles (Elsene) on Wednesday and because he showed symptoms of bird flu, the man was transferred to the Saint-Pierre (Sint-Pieters) Hospital, which is equipped to handle the virus.

The man felt unwell, had muscle pain, coughed and had a fever of more than 39 degrees Celsius. But an important symptom of bird flu was missing: he was not short of breath.

Bird flu preventative procedures were imposed nevertheless. Tests were conducted and the man was given an anti-viral treatment.

The man had passed through a region in China last week where the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has been confirmed. This strain has already killed 69 people in Asia.

He departed from Beijing on Saturday and returned to Zaventem Airport in Brussels on Sunday. The man started feeling sick on Monday and admitted himself to hospital on Wednesday.

However, initial blood tests on Wednesday night indicated he was not infected with the bird flu virus. Further tests will be carried out on Thursday to diagnose what the man is suffering from. It is suspected he has throat infection.

Had the man been confirmed to be infected with the bird flu virus, he would have been the first European human infection.

No case has been reported in the EU of a human becoming infected with the bird flu virus from infected birds. However, the virus has been found in several EU countries, such as France and Germany.

The Belgian bird flu scare is a reminder of a case in which a Russian freelance journalist reported feeling sick two months ago after returning from making a documentary in a region of Turkey where the bird flu virus was confirmed.

After two days in quarantine, however, it was confirmed that the man was not infected with the bird flu virus. He had instead a normal case of seasonal human flu.

For more information, the inter-ministerial influenza commissionership is available by phone on 0800 99 777. There is also a website www.influenza.be.

[ukcz]

Re: Belgian man: First tests are negative.

Had the man been confirmed to be infected with the bird flu virus, he would have been the first European human infection.

That should read "he would have been the first confirmed European human infection." ;-)