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Bird flu distinction found in study raises hopes for diagnoses
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-abirdflu11sep11,0,806263.story?coll=sfla-news-health
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-abirdflu11sep11,0,806263.story?coll=sfla-news-health
By Randolph E. Schmid
The Associated Press
Posted September 11 2006
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</td></tr></tbody></table> <!-- End rail --> WASHINGTON ? When bird flu infects people, the virus is more concentrated in the throat than the nose, the opposite of human flu. The finding might help doctors diagnose the bird flu in people faster.
The disease has been linked to the deaths of more than 140 people, mostly among Asian farm families who live in close contact with birds. There have been no reports of infections of people in the United States.
Health officials have monitored the disease as it moves through poultry and other animals. The fear is it could mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.
Researchers are studying the disease to find a way to prevent or block it and treat victims.
Menno de Jong of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, reports in today's issue of Nature Medicine that people with bird flu had much higher levels of the virus in their throats than noses.
That is important in showing doctors a better way to diagnose the disease, he said. It is also important that physicians can detect the virus in diarrhea and other rectal secretions. This is one more way the disease can spread and shows the need for infection-control measures, de Jong wrote in e-mail.
"Our observations suggest that early recognition and early treatment may provide the best benefit. Early recognition and diagnosis will pose a challenge for clinicians," he said.
De Jong and his co-authors studied 18 people infected with bird flu, which is known as H5N1, and compared them with eight people who had common human flu viruses.
"Our observations suggest that H5N1 virus replicates to very high levels -- higher than common human flu -- in the respiratory system and that these high levels of virus ignite an overwhelming intense inflammatory response," he said.
In inflammation, the body's immune system causes blood vessels to allow chemicals and blood cells to leak into an infected area to attack the infection, but an over-response can cause harm.
"Extensive damage to the lungs and possibly other organs are likely caused by both the direct effects of the virus as well as by the intense inflammatory response to the virus by the infected individual," de Jong said.
He said the researchers could detect the bird flu virus in the blood of people who died of the disease, but not in the blood of those who survived infections.
"The virus in the bloodstream most likely is picked up during passage of the blood through the lungs, where most virus replication occurs," he said.
"The presence of virus in the bloodstream may be a direct consequence of high levels of virus in the most important site of infection [lungs] and reflect an overall high `bodyburden' of virus in fatal cases," he said.
The Associated Press
Posted September 11 2006
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</td></tr></tbody></table> <!-- End rail --> WASHINGTON ? When bird flu infects people, the virus is more concentrated in the throat than the nose, the opposite of human flu. The finding might help doctors diagnose the bird flu in people faster.
The disease has been linked to the deaths of more than 140 people, mostly among Asian farm families who live in close contact with birds. There have been no reports of infections of people in the United States.
Health officials have monitored the disease as it moves through poultry and other animals. The fear is it could mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.
Researchers are studying the disease to find a way to prevent or block it and treat victims.
Menno de Jong of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, reports in today's issue of Nature Medicine that people with bird flu had much higher levels of the virus in their throats than noses.
That is important in showing doctors a better way to diagnose the disease, he said. It is also important that physicians can detect the virus in diarrhea and other rectal secretions. This is one more way the disease can spread and shows the need for infection-control measures, de Jong wrote in e-mail.
"Our observations suggest that early recognition and early treatment may provide the best benefit. Early recognition and diagnosis will pose a challenge for clinicians," he said.
De Jong and his co-authors studied 18 people infected with bird flu, which is known as H5N1, and compared them with eight people who had common human flu viruses.
"Our observations suggest that H5N1 virus replicates to very high levels -- higher than common human flu -- in the respiratory system and that these high levels of virus ignite an overwhelming intense inflammatory response," he said.
In inflammation, the body's immune system causes blood vessels to allow chemicals and blood cells to leak into an infected area to attack the infection, but an over-response can cause harm.
"Extensive damage to the lungs and possibly other organs are likely caused by both the direct effects of the virus as well as by the intense inflammatory response to the virus by the infected individual," de Jong said.
He said the researchers could detect the bird flu virus in the blood of people who died of the disease, but not in the blood of those who survived infections.
"The virus in the bloodstream most likely is picked up during passage of the blood through the lungs, where most virus replication occurs," he said.
"The presence of virus in the bloodstream may be a direct consequence of high levels of virus in the most important site of infection [lungs] and reflect an overall high `bodyburden' of virus in fatal cases," he said.
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