Sally Furniss
Well-known member
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="580"><tbody><tr><td class="text" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 102, 0);">Bird flu heightens fear over emerging infectious diseases
</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text" style="color: rgb(116, 116, 116);">April 29, 2006.</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0);"> By HENRY NEONDO </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Nairobi (AND) Perhaps the world's reaction to the latest round of the bird flu was not so much as on the expected economic losses as on what it portends to human health and well-being.
</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text"> Coming at a time when humanity was just recovering from the devastation of the Mad Cow disease that broke-out in the UK in 1997, researchers and health managers the world over now say that farm animals are an important source for predicting emerging diseases which by no means is increasingly becoming an audous task.
After the discovery of anti-microbial drugs, the increased knowledge in development and spread of diseases, and the improvement of health management, infectious diseases were thought to be a concern restricted to the application of known control measures. However, according to Gwena?l Vourc?h of Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Theix, Franceand Victoria E. Bridges of Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA who were lead authors in the latest work on Detecting Emerging Diseases in Farm Animals through Clinical Observations and published by the Centre for Disease Control, "the dramatic spread of highly pathogenic diseases such as Aids and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections led the scientific community to seriously examine emerging infectious diseases from just not animals but specifically farm animals. ? Additionally, they say, most of the emerging issues for humans are zoonotic diseases (that is diseases spread from animals to man) and site avian influenza, bovine spongiform encephalopathy or [BSE] a.k.a Mad Cow disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus fever as vivid examples.
Consequently, the two say the emerging diseases are now being addressed in domestic animals and wildlife with greater interest. Because diseases will continue to emerge, the potential unexpected or atypical features of future health problems makes surveillance particularly challenging. Compounding the problem, the two researchers say, is that ?no single data source captures all the information required for surveillance.? Early clinical detection is one of the cornerstones regarding unexpected diseases insofar as the surveillance activities of the veterinarians can be focused and systematized. Most surveillance programmes deal with a restricted set of known diseases that fail to address the challenges of looking for the unknown.
However, in the US, many new human infectious diseases have been recognised by examining illnesses without identified cause. Furthermore, in Great Britain, the unusual neurologic clinical signs in cattle forewarned of a new disease, BSE. In Kenya, the understaffed Department of Veterinary Service relies on media reports which in turn depends on community concerns over the unexpected outbreaks before official response is effected. Worrying is that there seems to be no coordination between the two departments of veterinary and medical services under Dr Joseph Musaa and Dr Joseph Nyikal respectively.
The latest strain of Avian Influenza, H5N1 has killed or caused the culling of 200 million poultry birds in the current outbreak that began in December 2003 and has been confirmed in 45 countries on three continents - Asia, Europe and Africa and up to date, the virus has killed 108 people, all in Asia and majority died after handling diseased poultry. Health experts fear that the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form of the virus that spreads easily from human to human, triggering a global avian flu pandemic that might cause the deaths of millions of people. In the UK, the cost of the Mad Cow (BSE) epidemic, both for control measures and through lost trade was estimated more than ?740 million in 1997 alone. In addition, BSE has been implicated in the deaths of 150 persons in the UK to date.
The reasons for EIDs emergence are multiple, but there are two main factors?expansion of the human population and globalisation of trade. They are also fueled by the current issues such as the increasing movement of a variety of animal species, ecological disruption, uncultivatable organisms, and terrorism, all imply that emerging zoonotic diseases will in all probability, not only continue to occur, but will increase in the rate of their emergence.
The recurring nature of the crises dictates that closer integration of veterinary and medical communities is warranted, along with improved education of the general public and policy makers. Emerging diseases in animals, especially farm animals are classified into three namely Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) associated with ?spill-over? from domestic animals to wildlife populations living in proximity; EIDs related directly to human intervention, via host or parasite translocations; and EIDs with no overt human or domestic animal involvement.
Kenya Bureau
http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/recent.titleStory&sp=l32440
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text" style="color: rgb(116, 116, 116);">April 29, 2006.</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text" style="color: rgb(153, 102, 0);"> By HENRY NEONDO </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Nairobi (AND) Perhaps the world's reaction to the latest round of the bird flu was not so much as on the expected economic losses as on what it portends to human health and well-being.
</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="text"> Coming at a time when humanity was just recovering from the devastation of the Mad Cow disease that broke-out in the UK in 1997, researchers and health managers the world over now say that farm animals are an important source for predicting emerging diseases which by no means is increasingly becoming an audous task.
After the discovery of anti-microbial drugs, the increased knowledge in development and spread of diseases, and the improvement of health management, infectious diseases were thought to be a concern restricted to the application of known control measures. However, according to Gwena?l Vourc?h of Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Theix, Franceand Victoria E. Bridges of Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA who were lead authors in the latest work on Detecting Emerging Diseases in Farm Animals through Clinical Observations and published by the Centre for Disease Control, "the dramatic spread of highly pathogenic diseases such as Aids and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections led the scientific community to seriously examine emerging infectious diseases from just not animals but specifically farm animals. ? Additionally, they say, most of the emerging issues for humans are zoonotic diseases (that is diseases spread from animals to man) and site avian influenza, bovine spongiform encephalopathy or [BSE] a.k.a Mad Cow disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus fever as vivid examples.
Consequently, the two say the emerging diseases are now being addressed in domestic animals and wildlife with greater interest. Because diseases will continue to emerge, the potential unexpected or atypical features of future health problems makes surveillance particularly challenging. Compounding the problem, the two researchers say, is that ?no single data source captures all the information required for surveillance.? Early clinical detection is one of the cornerstones regarding unexpected diseases insofar as the surveillance activities of the veterinarians can be focused and systematized. Most surveillance programmes deal with a restricted set of known diseases that fail to address the challenges of looking for the unknown.
However, in the US, many new human infectious diseases have been recognised by examining illnesses without identified cause. Furthermore, in Great Britain, the unusual neurologic clinical signs in cattle forewarned of a new disease, BSE. In Kenya, the understaffed Department of Veterinary Service relies on media reports which in turn depends on community concerns over the unexpected outbreaks before official response is effected. Worrying is that there seems to be no coordination between the two departments of veterinary and medical services under Dr Joseph Musaa and Dr Joseph Nyikal respectively.
The latest strain of Avian Influenza, H5N1 has killed or caused the culling of 200 million poultry birds in the current outbreak that began in December 2003 and has been confirmed in 45 countries on three continents - Asia, Europe and Africa and up to date, the virus has killed 108 people, all in Asia and majority died after handling diseased poultry. Health experts fear that the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form of the virus that spreads easily from human to human, triggering a global avian flu pandemic that might cause the deaths of millions of people. In the UK, the cost of the Mad Cow (BSE) epidemic, both for control measures and through lost trade was estimated more than ?740 million in 1997 alone. In addition, BSE has been implicated in the deaths of 150 persons in the UK to date.
The reasons for EIDs emergence are multiple, but there are two main factors?expansion of the human population and globalisation of trade. They are also fueled by the current issues such as the increasing movement of a variety of animal species, ecological disruption, uncultivatable organisms, and terrorism, all imply that emerging zoonotic diseases will in all probability, not only continue to occur, but will increase in the rate of their emergence.
The recurring nature of the crises dictates that closer integration of veterinary and medical communities is warranted, along with improved education of the general public and policy makers. Emerging diseases in animals, especially farm animals are classified into three namely Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) associated with ?spill-over? from domestic animals to wildlife populations living in proximity; EIDs related directly to human intervention, via host or parasite translocations; and EIDs with no overt human or domestic animal involvement.
Kenya Bureau
http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/recent.titleStory&sp=l32440
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