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Re: Cambodia - 2 confirmed H5N1 deaths infected in Prey Veng province - contacts monitored in Banteay Meanchey Province
Cambodian mother and baby die from bird flu
Cambodian bird flu
deaths show ongoing threat
Friday, 25 February 2011
Radio Australia
Updated February 24, 2011
An expert in global diseases says the death of a Cambodian mother and her baby from bird flu are a timely reminder that the world must not forget about animal influenza. Earlier this month a 5 year old Cambodian girl also died from bird flu - it was the first such death worldwide since early 2010. But it's not just Cambodia that is at risk. Many Asian countries remain vulnerable to animal diseases crossing over to humans.
Reporter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Dr Nima Asgari, public health specialist, World Health Organisation, Cambodia; Dr Subhash Morzaria, regional manager, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
ASGARI: Our understanding is that the initial symptoms were basically fever, cough, breathlessness, so your classical respiratory infection.
COCHRANE: That's Dr Nima Asgari, a public health specialist with the World Health Organisation in Cambodia. He says only after the Prak Sophorn died on February 12 did doctors check her baby son for bird flu and found both mother and child had contracted H5N1, a strain of bird flu.
Dr Subhash Morzaria, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's regional manager of the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, based in Bangkok.
MORZARIA: This is not unusual. When we get outbreaks of disease there are still very poor people who eat sick birds, sometimes not very well cooked and would likely be infected. And this is what's happened in this case.
COCHRANE: Dr Morzaria says any human infection is a concern as it suggests a lack of awareness about handling sick birds. In fact, while the urgent threat of bird flu may have fallen off the global media agenda, several countries remain endemic, meaning the disease is entrenched and sporadic outbreaks are expected to continue.
In Asia, the hotspots are Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and West Bengal.
:magnify:
Dr Subhash Morzaria says Japan has emerged as a new risk.
MORZARIA: The virus is being actually spread by wild birds. So we now know that wild birds are infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1 virus. And [the wild birds] then shed the virus when they're migrating to Japan. Somehow the virus is then jumping to the poultry and causes these huge outbreaks.
COCHRANE: Bird flu was initially controlled in Japan and this reemergence in a developed nation is a major concern to health workers. But, Dr Subhash Morzaria from the FAO, says most transmissions of bird flu still occur through raising or trading in poultry and he says that is where the resources should stay.
MORZARIA: Moving from that into wild birds is a red herring, I think. We have to be aware that wild birds carry. We have to be aware of the need for biosecurity. But most of the infection and focus of control has to be in endemic countries where there's the transmission from poultry to poultry.
COCHRANE: Dr Morzaria says it is important to maintain a watch for emerging diseases and to make sure existing ones do not reemerge. Developing countries in Asia, with their dependence on agriculture are particularly at risk, says Dr Morzaria, citing the nipah virus transmitted by bats in South Asia, rabid dogs in Bali and anthrax in bangladesh. In fact, Dr Morzaria says bird flu is part of wider trend of globalised human behaviour opening the doors for animal diseases.
MORZARIA: About 70 per cent of the animal diseases that emerge are infective to human beings. This particular trend is going to continue because of the human activity. We are intensifying our farming systems, so there is a high population of domestic animals for food consumption. There is high population of human beings. There is increased deforestation. There is greater contact between different animal species and human beings, and this is really going to enhance opportunities for pathogens to jump from one species to another.
COCHRANE: Dr Subhash Morzaria says the most effective prevention will occur if governments work together.
:tiphat:http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2011/02/cambodian-mother-and-baby-die-from-bird.html
Cambodian mother and baby die from bird flu
Cambodian bird flu
deaths show ongoing threat
Friday, 25 February 2011
Radio Australia
Updated February 24, 2011
An expert in global diseases says the death of a Cambodian mother and her baby from bird flu are a timely reminder that the world must not forget about animal influenza. Earlier this month a 5 year old Cambodian girl also died from bird flu - it was the first such death worldwide since early 2010. But it's not just Cambodia that is at risk. Many Asian countries remain vulnerable to animal diseases crossing over to humans.
Reporter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Dr Nima Asgari, public health specialist, World Health Organisation, Cambodia; Dr Subhash Morzaria, regional manager, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
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ASGARI: Our understanding is that the initial symptoms were basically fever, cough, breathlessness, so your classical respiratory infection.
COCHRANE: That's Dr Nima Asgari, a public health specialist with the World Health Organisation in Cambodia. He says only after the Prak Sophorn died on February 12 did doctors check her baby son for bird flu and found both mother and child had contracted H5N1, a strain of bird flu.
Dr Subhash Morzaria, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's regional manager of the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, based in Bangkok.
MORZARIA: This is not unusual. When we get outbreaks of disease there are still very poor people who eat sick birds, sometimes not very well cooked and would likely be infected. And this is what's happened in this case.
COCHRANE: Dr Morzaria says any human infection is a concern as it suggests a lack of awareness about handling sick birds. In fact, while the urgent threat of bird flu may have fallen off the global media agenda, several countries remain endemic, meaning the disease is entrenched and sporadic outbreaks are expected to continue.
In Asia, the hotspots are Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and West Bengal.
:magnify:
Dr Subhash Morzaria says Japan has emerged as a new risk.
MORZARIA: The virus is being actually spread by wild birds. So we now know that wild birds are infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1 virus. And [the wild birds] then shed the virus when they're migrating to Japan. Somehow the virus is then jumping to the poultry and causes these huge outbreaks.
COCHRANE: Bird flu was initially controlled in Japan and this reemergence in a developed nation is a major concern to health workers. But, Dr Subhash Morzaria from the FAO, says most transmissions of bird flu still occur through raising or trading in poultry and he says that is where the resources should stay.
MORZARIA: Moving from that into wild birds is a red herring, I think. We have to be aware that wild birds carry. We have to be aware of the need for biosecurity. But most of the infection and focus of control has to be in endemic countries where there's the transmission from poultry to poultry.
COCHRANE: Dr Morzaria says it is important to maintain a watch for emerging diseases and to make sure existing ones do not reemerge. Developing countries in Asia, with their dependence on agriculture are particularly at risk, says Dr Morzaria, citing the nipah virus transmitted by bats in South Asia, rabid dogs in Bali and anthrax in bangladesh. In fact, Dr Morzaria says bird flu is part of wider trend of globalised human behaviour opening the doors for animal diseases.
MORZARIA: About 70 per cent of the animal diseases that emerge are infective to human beings. This particular trend is going to continue because of the human activity. We are intensifying our farming systems, so there is a high population of domestic animals for food consumption. There is high population of human beings. There is increased deforestation. There is greater contact between different animal species and human beings, and this is really going to enhance opportunities for pathogens to jump from one species to another.
COCHRANE: Dr Subhash Morzaria says the most effective prevention will occur if governments work together.
:tiphat:http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2011/02/cambodian-mother-and-baby-die-from-bird.html
