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  • CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

    [Curiously, IHT emphasizes the eight Chinese recent human bird flu cases lack of epidemiological linkage whereas Deutsche Press Agentur highlights the enzootic nature of H5N1 in Chinese poultry stocks ...! H5N1 IS CLEARLY ENDEMIC IN CHINESE POULTRY, AND SINCE YEARS! VERY BREAKING NEWS TODAY! - IOH]

    WHO: China's bird flu cases don't signal pandemic
    The Associated Press
    Published: February 18, 2009

    BEIJING:

    China's eight bird flu cases last month do not constitute an immediate public health problem, U.N. health officials said Wednesday, but the country needs to step up its vigilance to combat the disease.

    Hans Troedsson, head of the World Health Organization in China, said the H5N1 flu infections, which included five deaths, have followed a historic pattern of increasing during the cold season.
    About 83 percent of China's 38 total cases since 2003 were reported from November to March, he said.

    "Why we don't suspect this is the beginning of a pandemic is that you have these cases geographically distributed and there are no links between them," he said in Beijing.
    "All of them have been exposed to sick or dead poultry or wet markets, so there is a plausible explanation on how they can be transmitted."

    He added there was no indication of human-to-human transmission.

    Scientists have long feared that the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has devastated poultry stock across Asia, could mutate and become highly infectious among people, triggering a deadly global pandemic.

    Still, the cases in China have raised concerns because there were no large outbreaks of the flu among poultry in areas where humans fell ill, Troedsson said.

    "It is of great concern for us. It's something we are raising, both with WHO and FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization), with the government," Troedsson said.

    China has taken steps to control and monitor its poultry population in the last four years, said Vincent Martin of the Rome-based FAO, but there remain big "gaps" in its ability to monitor its poultry, he said.

    "Definitely the Ministry of Agriculture is aware of this problem. They are taking millions of samples to check on the status of the poultry population but it's a huge task and a huge challenge for them," he said.

    In addition, China's centuries-old method of "backyard farming," with small farmers living amid and raising livestock together creates immense obstacles to wiping out the bird flu virus completely, he said.

    Worldwide, avian influenza has spread across 15 countries, with 407 human cases reported, 254 of them fatal.
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    UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in China

    Submitted by Sahil Nagpal on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 09:03.

    UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in ChinaBeijing -

    The bird-flu virus is nearly entrenched in China's poultry population and represents a threat to world health, UN experts said Wednesday.

    "It has the potential for a pandemic," said Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organization's (WHO's) representative in China, which has the world's largest poultry population.
    He told journalists in Beijing after China reported five human bird-flu deaths so far this year that health experts were concerned about the breadth and intensity in China of poultry infections of H5N1, the strain of bird flu that can be deadly in humans.

    Most human H5N1 infections have occurred after patients have had close contact with infected birds, but health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could easily be passed between humans and cause a worldwide pandemic.

    "It is posing a pandemic risk," Troedsson said of the bird-flu outbreak in China's poultry.

    "No one can escape it," he added. "It will strike the whole world."

    A warning to China of a pandemic also came from another UN agency, the Food and Agricultural Organization.

    "We should not be complacent," said Vincent Martin, an animal health adviser from the organization. "If it happens, it will be very scary for everyone."

    He called for bird-flu prevention and investigations into how the virus spreads, warning that it was evolving.

    The experts said they were also concerned that the most recent human infections in China were widely distributed across the country and could not be linked to nearby outbreaks of bird flu among poultry.

    WHO has confirmed 407 human bird-flu cases since 2003 in 15 Asian and African countries, 254 of which were fatal. China has seen 26 deaths from 39 cases, eight of which occurred this year. (dpa)
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  • #2
    Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

    [Another variation, from Vietnam - IOH]

    China bird flu not pandemic, but be prepared: UN

    A recent string of bird flu infections in humans in China posed no pandemic risk as the cases were unrelated, but authorities need to remain alert, UN experts said on Wednesday.

    "The strain we see now is not a pandemic threat," Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) representative in China, told journalists.

    Troedsson spoke at a press conference in the wake of eight human cases of infection with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu reported in China so far this year. Five of those infected died from the disease.
    Though the number of cases was up from three in China for all of 2008, Troedsson said the numbers remained too low for great concern, especially as they came during winter months when the virus temporarily gains strength.

    "The eight cases do not really represent anything.... What it only says is that we have a number of cases occurring during a period when we could expect that there should be cases," he said.

    With the latest deaths, 25 of the 38 people infected with the H5N1 virus in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003 have succumbed to the illness, adding to fears of an eventual pandemic.

    A pandemic, or a global outbreak of a fatal disease, usually occurs every 25-30 years, Troedsson said.

    "What is important is that governments make preparedness plans," he said.

    Troedsson also noted that human-to-human transmission, which would signal the virus had mutated to a form easily transmissible between people, had yet to be seen.

    According to the WHO, there have been 407 cases of human bird flu and 254 deaths in 15 countries since the strain re-emerged in 2003, with most occurring in Vietnam and Indonesia.

    All recorded human infections of avian influenza are believed to have been directly transmitted from either diseased or dead birds, he said.

    Still, much remains to be learned about the virus and governments should remain vigilant, said Vincent Martin, an avian flu expert with the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.

    "The virus is entrenched .. you cannot deny that there is infection," Martin said at the same briefing.

    "What we are lacking today is a complete and full understanding of the epidemiology of the disease."
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    • #3
      Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

      Expert Advises China - "Minimize Contact with Poultry"

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="645"><tbody><tr><td class="style2" align="center">Bird flu cases not start of pandemic: WHO</td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#cccccc" height="1">
        </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" height="25">Adjust font size: <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> <!-- drawline1(); //--> </script><script langage="javascript"> printResizeButton(); </script> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!--enpproperty <url>http://www.china.org.cn/health/2009-02/18/content_17298769.htm</url><domainname>www.china.org.cn</domainname><abstract>World Health Organization and UN Food and Agriculture Organization representatives said that the recent spike in human cases of bird flu in China did not mark the start of a flu pandemic.</abstract><date>2009-02-18 16:45:42.0</date><author>何珊</author><title>Bird flu cases not start of pandemic: WHO</title><keyword>bird flu,pandemic,WHO,H5N1</keyword><subtitle>Bird flu cases not start of pandemic: WHO</subtitle><introtitle>Bird flu cases not start of pandemic: WHO</introtitle><siteid>1007</siteid><nodeid>1184115</nodeid><nodename>News</nodename>/enpproperty--> <!--enpcontent-->At a Beijing press briefing today World Health Organization and UN Food and Agriculture Organization representatives said that the recent spike in human cases of bird flu in China did not mark the start of a flu pandemic. But they pointed to problems in China's agricultural sector, and said they had asked the government to agree to joint investigations into the causes of the infections.
        Risk assessment unchanged
        "Our risk assessment of the January outbreak is that nothing has really changed. There are a high number of cases, eight cases, but it follows the seasonal pattern that we see in the first quarter of every year," said Dr Hans Troedsson, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in China.
        "There's no indication this is the beginning of a pandemic. The cases are geographically distributed and there are no links between them, and all of them had been exposed to sick or dead poultry or animal markets. There's no indication of human to human transmission."
        Dr Troedsson said the H5N1 virus responsible for the bird flu cases fulfilled two out of three conditions for a pandemic in that most of the human population is susceptible and it causes severe illness, but it so far lacks the crucial third condition - ease of transmission between humans.
        But he warned against complacency, pointing out that in recent years the size and intensity of outbreaks among animals had been growing, and that the range of species affected had broadened to include, for example, cats and tigers.
        Dangers of backyard farming
        Dr Edith Marshall and Dr Vincent Martin of the UN Food and Agriculture Program (FAO) said the danger was that virus would recombine with other viruses to produce a new strain with high infectivity between humans. They said the danger is heightened by the widespread existence in China, as in most Asian countries, of "backyard farming" in which several species of livestock are kept in close proximity with each other and with humans.
        "Ducks and chickens should not be mixed because they have different susceptibilities to the virus and by mixing these species it gives more opportunities to the virus to evolve," said Dr Marshall.
        She pointed out the wild bird population is the main reservoir of bird flu viruses. Flu viruses are endemic among wild birds and in most cases do not cause severe symptoms. Apparently healthy wild birds, however, can infect the more susceptible domestic poultry.
        Request for joint investigations
        Dr Troedsson said the causes of human outbreaks in China were not well understood and needed further investigation. "China is unique in one way. In most countries we can link human cases to poultry outbreaks. In China out of the 38 it's just two or three cases where you actually had a poultry outbreak precede the human cases."
        "It's something both WHO and FAO are raising with the government and we have tried to get them to do joint investigations. That has been efficient in other countries and we suggest that they apply the same approach in China."
        All three experts pointed out that the virus may be present in poultry and other livestock without causing any obvious symptoms. Vaccination programs that have been widely used in China may suppress symptoms and cut the overall viral load in the livestock population, without entirely eliminating the virus.
        Move to industrial scale farming
        Dr Troedsson called for a move away from backyard farming to large scale agriculture over the long term. "When you have industrial production of poultry it's so much easier to have surveillance and if there is an outbreak, confine it. Another factor is that backyard farming can't meet the needs of economic growth."
        Need for continued vigilance
        Dr Troedsson said that although the H5N1 virus may not mutate and cause a pandemic, whatever the eventual source, a flu pandemic is inevitable and overdue as one occurs on average every 25 to 30 years. "There is less interest among the media because this story has been going on for some time, but it is important that governments continue to do their preparedness planning."
        (China.org.cn by John Sexton February 18, 2009)

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        • #5
          Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

          WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2009

          <!-- ****************** BEGIN STORY ****************** --> <!--HL1-->Story 2.0: Avian flu pandemic still a risk, as public attention wanes <!--END_HL1-->
          | Bird flu is still a big story in Asia

          Trudeau Institute searches for a vaccine

          A scientist at the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake will receive $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to continue studying the effects of aging on vulnerability to the influenza virus. The Trudeau Institute is one of the leading infectious-disease laboratories in the world. Six years ago, researchers first started raising alarms when a dangerous strain of influenza known as "avian" or "bird flu" first started killing people in Asia. Since then, the threat of a flu pandemic has dropped off the front pages.

          Last week, lawmakers in Washington cut more than $800 million from the Federal stimulus bill that had been slated for influenza research. But scientists say the threat of bird flu is as great as ever. People are still dying in Asia and researchers still haven't perfected a vaccine. This morning, Brian Mann revisits the influenza issue, as part of a series we call Story 2.0.

          A scientist at the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake will receive $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to continue studying the effects of aging on vulnerability to the influenza virus. The Trudeau Institute is one of the leading...
          Last edited by AlaskaDenise; February 28, 2009, 08:39 PM. Reason: remove one photo

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

            This Story is also from the Deutsche Press Agentur
            UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in China (Roundup)

            Beijing - The bird-flu virus is nearly entrenched in China's poultry population and represents a threat to world health, UN experts said Wednesday.

            'It has the potential for a pandemic,' said Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organization's (WHO's) representative in China, which has the world's largest poultry population.

            He told journalists in Beijing after China reported five human bird-flu deaths so far this year that health experts were concerned about the breadth and intensity in China of poultry infections of H5N1, the strain of bird flu that can be deadly in humans.

            Most human H5N1 infections have occurred after patients have had close contact with infected birds, but health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could easily be passed between humans and cause a worldwide pandemic.

            Vincent Martin, an animal health adviser from the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, called for bird-flu prevention and investigations into how the virus spreads, warning that it was evolving.

            'We should not be complacent,' he said. 'If it [a pandemic] happens, it will be very scary for everyone.'

            Martin lauded Chinese authorities for their efforts but said more should be done, including keeping different species separated in breeding operations, a change that would be hard to implement in farming households in China.

            Since the beginning of the year, China has reported eight human bird-flu infections, but experts said they believe the number of cases is higher and other infections have gone undiagnosed.

            Experts said they were particularly concerned that the most recent human infections were widely distributed across China and could not be linked to nearby outbreaks of bird flu in poultry.

            The UN experts attributed the low number of outbreaks in birds to a sweeping immunization programme but said that while vaccinations raise animals' immunity, they also cause livestock to show fewer or no symptoms when they do become infected.

            The H5N1 virus can also survive for several weeks outside sick animals under cold, damp conditions, the experts warned, adding that the virus 'circulates.'

            Even when the virus is not making headlines, governments around the world need to make preparations for a pandemic, Troedsson said.

            'No one can escape it,' he added. 'It will strike the whole world.'

            He noted that historically, worldwide flu epidemics have occurred every 20 to 30 years and the globe was long overdue for another because four decades had passed since the last one.

            The Hong Kong flu killed 800,000 people worldwide from 1968 to 1970.

            WHO has confirmed 407 human bird-flu cases since 2003 in 15 Asian and African countries, 254 of which were fatal. China has seen 26 deaths from 39 cases.

            http://www.monstersandcritics.com/ne...ina__Roundup__

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            • #7
              Re: CHINA: UN rings alarm bells over bird flu in poultry

              Sadly, nothing new in Troedsson words.

              Since the start of H5N1 panzootics in Asia and elsewhere the statement ''backyard poultry farming should switch toward large - intensive - closed farming'' has been pursued as possible escape way either to protect people and proteins income.

              But without internationally and coordinated moves, with technical and financial support it is almost impossible to achieve in mid-term time-frame.

              In the meantime, H5N1 has known an unprecedented spread among three continents.

              Words we heard today are clearly insufficient to reassure public opinion and people in search for a solution to H5N1 panzootics.

              If nearly all the 38 Chinese human cases so far had not contact with frankly diseased poultry, what is the sense for WHO Spokesman statement after five years?

              It is hardly understandable.

              I.O.H.

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