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Bird Flu Kills 39 This Year, Nears 2005 Tally as Virus Spreads
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu is reported to have killed 39 of the 64 people known to have been infected this year, almost as many deaths as in the whole of 2005, as the virus spread across three continents, causing outbreaks in 36 nations.
Avian influenza reappeared in birds in the Ukraine, two months after the East European country said it was free of the disease, Ukrainian TV channel ICTV reported yesterday. A new outbreak was also detected in birds in neighboring Romania, and Djibouti, in East Africa, called on the World Health Organization for urgent support after its first case.
Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden, shares borders with Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. "Surveillance for additional human and animal cases is presently under way, but is hindered by the country's lack of resources and of epidemiological and laboratory capacities,'' the WHO said yesterday on its Web site.
Health officials globally are trying to control the virus in animals. Diseased fowl increase the risk for humans and create opportunities for the virus to mutate into a form that's easily transmitted from person to person. That could spark a pandemic such as one in 1918 that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu virus has killed at least 115 of 208 people known to have been infected since late 2003, the Geneva-based WHO said yesterday. In 2005, 41 deaths were recorded among the 95 reported cases.
Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or taking off the feathers, according to the WHO. Cooking meat and eggs properly kills the virus.
Djibouti Cases
In Djibouti, three siblings of a 2-year-old girl infected with H5N1 are being examined for possible infection, Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the WHO, said yesterday.
The girl is in stable condition in the hospital, Cheng said. Samples from her siblings were sent to a laboratory in Egypt for analysis after some of the family's chickens were found to have been infected, she said.
Preliminary tests on samples collected from birds in the district of Hurezu in the central Romanian county of Brasov tested positive for avian flu and the district has been quarantined, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The last outbreak in Romania ended two weeks ago, newswire Mediafax reported.
In Ukraine, which borders the European Union to the east, veterinary laboratories detected an H5 subtype of the virus in cormorants, a marine diving bird, that were found dead in late April, ICTV reported, citing Serhiy Kolomoyets, the head of the veterinary department in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Veterinarians are testing the bird carcasses for lethal H5N1 strain, the TV channel reported.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale _at_ bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 12, 2006 23:13 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=atLyhgx52XKE
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu is reported to have killed 39 of the 64 people known to have been infected this year, almost as many deaths as in the whole of 2005, as the virus spread across three continents, causing outbreaks in 36 nations.
Avian influenza reappeared in birds in the Ukraine, two months after the East European country said it was free of the disease, Ukrainian TV channel ICTV reported yesterday. A new outbreak was also detected in birds in neighboring Romania, and Djibouti, in East Africa, called on the World Health Organization for urgent support after its first case.
Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden, shares borders with Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. "Surveillance for additional human and animal cases is presently under way, but is hindered by the country's lack of resources and of epidemiological and laboratory capacities,'' the WHO said yesterday on its Web site.
Health officials globally are trying to control the virus in animals. Diseased fowl increase the risk for humans and create opportunities for the virus to mutate into a form that's easily transmitted from person to person. That could spark a pandemic such as one in 1918 that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu virus has killed at least 115 of 208 people known to have been infected since late 2003, the Geneva-based WHO said yesterday. In 2005, 41 deaths were recorded among the 95 reported cases.
Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or taking off the feathers, according to the WHO. Cooking meat and eggs properly kills the virus.
Djibouti Cases
In Djibouti, three siblings of a 2-year-old girl infected with H5N1 are being examined for possible infection, Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the WHO, said yesterday.
The girl is in stable condition in the hospital, Cheng said. Samples from her siblings were sent to a laboratory in Egypt for analysis after some of the family's chickens were found to have been infected, she said.
Preliminary tests on samples collected from birds in the district of Hurezu in the central Romanian county of Brasov tested positive for avian flu and the district has been quarantined, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The last outbreak in Romania ended two weeks ago, newswire Mediafax reported.
In Ukraine, which borders the European Union to the east, veterinary laboratories detected an H5 subtype of the virus in cormorants, a marine diving bird, that were found dead in late April, ICTV reported, citing Serhiy Kolomoyets, the head of the veterinary department in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Veterinarians are testing the bird carcasses for lethal H5N1 strain, the TV channel reported.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale _at_ bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 12, 2006 23:13 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=atLyhgx52XKE