Risk of bird flu mutation increases in winter: WHO

[Shannon Bennett]

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=144159

Risk of bird flu mutation increases in winter: WHO

Published: 9/28/2006


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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>GENEVA - The risk of a mutation of the bird flu virus increases in winter, the season of normal human flu, the World Health Organisation said Thursday.
"The H5N1 virus does not sleep and still constitutes a danger," said Mike Perdue, a doctor from the WHO programme to fight influenza.
Migrating birds carry the virus and can infect poultry that are kept in the open, he said.
With many people infected with regular flu, the risk increases for a genetic adaptation of H5N1 that could be transmitted between humans, he added.
"It's impossible to predict if the virus is going to mutate. For now, it's not the case," he said, underlining that checks had significantly increased since last year.
More than 220 people have caught bird flu in Asia since the end of 2003 and 139 have died from the virus.
09/28/2006 19:19 GMT

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Risk of bird flu mutation increases in winter: WHO

From Romania
10:26 PM, September 28th 2006
by News Staff
http://www.playfuls.com/news_002336_Mutation_Risk_Of_Avian_Flu_Growing_Warns_WHO.html


Mutation Risk Of Avian Flu Growing, Warns WHO

The risk of a mutation of avian flu was increasing, with the disease was showing signs of resistance to the most effective anti-viral drugs available, Dr Mike Perdue of influenza programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

Perdue also warned there was a greater chance of mutation in winter, adding that "the H5N1 strain of the virus does not sleep and always constitutes a danger."

The chance of a genetic adaptation allowing the virus to pass from human to human, opening up the possibility of a worldwide pandemic, was stronger at a time when many people were infected by normal flu.

The latest WHO figures revealed there had been 251 cases of human avian flu since 2003 leading to 148 deaths. The numbers were growing year on year. Ten countries had been affected so far.

The worst hit was Indonesia (52 deaths), followed by Vietnam (42 deaths), Thailand (17) China (14), Cambodia (6), Egypt (6), Azerbaijan (5), Turkey (4), Iraq (2), and Djibouti (0).

© 2006 DPA