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Bird flu remains real threat for world and Russia - specialists
22.10.2007,
ST. PETERSBURG, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Bird flu ?remains a real threat for the humankind and for Russia, in particular,? specialists from the St. Petersburg-based National Centre for Influenza of the World Health Organization said on Monday.
The head of the centre, Academician Oleg Kiselyov, stressed that the possibility of ?a bird flu pandemic on the global scope persists?. This is not a corporative point of view of epidemiologists, Kiselyov specified.
According to WHO forecasts, at the present stage ?the world finds itself in the third stage of a pre-epidemic period, while all in all there are sixth such stages,? he said. The present stage is characterized by sporadic cases in which bird flu is passed between humans, he noted.
He said ?According to the WHO, the total number of confirmed H5N1 cases among humans has reached 356, of which 210 cases were lethal?.
(ed: latest update from WHO oct 17: 331 cases and 203 lethal?
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian.../en/index.html )
The biggest number of bird flu victims was registered in Indonesia, where 86 people were killed.
It is a matter of vital necessity ?to unite efforts of European, American, British and Russian scientists, colleagues from other countries to monitor, study, prevent and treat flu in order to raise the level of readiness for a flu pandemic,? he stressed.
Within the framework of a European project for fight against highly pathogenic viruses, the scientific-and-research institute for influenza of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg is taking adequate preventive measures, he reported.
In partnership with foreign scientific centres, ?we have launched large-scale work to create a universal vaccine against highly pathogenic viral infections, including bird flu,? Kiselyov said.
Concrete results are expected in five years, he added. Earlier, the Petersburg institute created and tested a vaccine against the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which will be used in case of an epidemic.
credits Christian
22.10.2007,
ST. PETERSBURG, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Bird flu ?remains a real threat for the humankind and for Russia, in particular,? specialists from the St. Petersburg-based National Centre for Influenza of the World Health Organization said on Monday.
The head of the centre, Academician Oleg Kiselyov, stressed that the possibility of ?a bird flu pandemic on the global scope persists?. This is not a corporative point of view of epidemiologists, Kiselyov specified.
According to WHO forecasts, at the present stage ?the world finds itself in the third stage of a pre-epidemic period, while all in all there are sixth such stages,? he said. The present stage is characterized by sporadic cases in which bird flu is passed between humans, he noted.
He said ?According to the WHO, the total number of confirmed H5N1 cases among humans has reached 356, of which 210 cases were lethal?.
(ed: latest update from WHO oct 17: 331 cases and 203 lethal?
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian.../en/index.html )
The biggest number of bird flu victims was registered in Indonesia, where 86 people were killed.
It is a matter of vital necessity ?to unite efforts of European, American, British and Russian scientists, colleagues from other countries to monitor, study, prevent and treat flu in order to raise the level of readiness for a flu pandemic,? he stressed.
Within the framework of a European project for fight against highly pathogenic viruses, the scientific-and-research institute for influenza of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg is taking adequate preventive measures, he reported.
In partnership with foreign scientific centres, ?we have launched large-scale work to create a universal vaccine against highly pathogenic viral infections, including bird flu,? Kiselyov said.
Concrete results are expected in five years, he added. Earlier, the Petersburg institute created and tested a vaccine against the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which will be used in case of an epidemic.
credits Christian
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