Bird Flu To Hit U.S. Within 3 Weeks

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http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-shawnalaskabirdflu,0,1046423.story?coll=ktla-news-1

Bird Flu To Hit U.S. Within 3 Weeks

By Shawn McGinnis, KTLA News

March 13, 2006, 8:54 PM PST

Washington, D.C. ? The bird flu is coming to the U.S. and experts say there is no way to stop it. In fact, scientists say wild birds infected with the deadly virus could reach Alaska within the next few weeks.

Spy satellites are being used to track the infected flocks on their route from Asia to Alaska. The migratory birds are expected to mingle with North American flocks in Alaska and move on to the lower 48 states as early as August.

But don't count on having a vaccine available that soon. Federal health officials say it will take at least six months after a pandemic breaks out to produce a bird flu vaccine.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says that's because the virus is mutating and there is no way to know in advance which strain might become capable of human to human transmission.

Once the particular strain is identified, Leavitt says it will take time to ensure that a vaccine is safe and to mass-produce it. Until then, it will be up to traditional public health measures to contain the outbreak.

There is no direct evidence that the current strains of bird flu can be transmitted from person to person. To date, people have only been infected after close contact with sick birds.

 

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Re: Bird Flu To Hit U.S. Within 3 Weeks

This would mean that the US will start hearing of Bird Flu cases before April.

 

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Re: Bird Flu To Hit U.S. Within 3 Weeks

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/health/14092874.htm

Avian flu may reach U.S. soon

Official says infected birds could migrate or be imported here by fall

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

Los Angeles Times

<!-- begin body-content -->WASHINGTON - Adding urgency to preparations for a possible influenza pandemic among humans, a top federal official said Monday that wild birds infected with a virulent strain of avian flu are expected to show up on the U.S. mainland later this year.
"We assume wild birds will come to the United States sometime between now and the fall," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in the most specific estimate yet by a senior official.
Finding an infected bird here would not create a public health emergency, officials said, since the avian flu virus has not developed the ability to spread easily among humans. But it would highlight the fact that U.S. preparedness plans are years from completion.
Since it was first identified in 1997, the deadly H5N1 virus has been confined mainly to birds in China and Southeast Asia. In the last few months, it began spreading among birds in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Some scientists believe migratory birds crossing from Asia into Alaska and then down the West Coast could bring the virus to the United States. Others see a threat from illegal imports of exotic birds.
Bird Flu Update
? Myanmar reported its first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu on Monday.
? In Afghanistan, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said that an H5 sub-type of bird flu was found in poultry samples in Kabul and Jalalabad, and that there was a "high risk" further tests could prove the samples to be the H5N1 strain.
? The Cameroon government announced its first case on Sunday, becoming the fourth African country to be struck by the virus.

 

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Re: Bird Flu To Hit U.S. Within 3 Weeks

http://www.kxxv.com/main.cfm?ID=1&NewsID=2791&Type=Full
Mysterious Bird Deaths — (03/14/2006)
West, Tx- The mystery remains over why some birds fell from the sky dead Sunday evening.

We first told you about the birds Sunday night, and that some nearby residents were so worried they locked themselves inside their home. They told us they found about a dozen dead black birds littering the small community of West.

We spent much of the day in West talking to police and Department of Wildlife agents, who are trying to figure out why the birds mysteriously died.

Overnight, residents reported black birds falling out of the sky.

David Coleman a resident of West said, "We thought it was kind of weird, he just fell out of the sky and there was a bunch of them flying over."

Even on Monday, we found the remains of birds throughout the city, and that made some people think the worst.

“You think about the bird flu that's been mentioned recently that was my first thought, that this bird was sick, and we were kind of scared about that," Coleman said.

The good news is it's not the bird flu, according to the Texas Department of Wildlife. But officials say as a precaution, the dead birds should not be handled.

The west police department is also looking into the deaths. And Wildlife experts admit they still don't know what killed the birds, but they're running tests on some of the carcasses they collected. And in the meantime, they warn this could happen again.

The state department of wildlife tells us it’s actually common to see bird deaths this time of year. Most of the dead birds in this case were discovered in a four square block area of west near downtown



It may be sooner than 3 weeks.....