Sally Furniss
Well-known member
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]W O R L D N E W S S T O R Y [/FONT]
NEW OUTBREAK: An Italian health official stands close to a dead swan in a lake near Tindari in Sicily, southern Italy.
Reuters
Calm urged over EU bird flu outbreak
13 February 2006
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]ROME: Governments urged calm today after H5N1 bird flu made its first appearance in wild birds on European Union soil, while Nigeria was testing what could be the first humans to be infected with the deadly virus in Africa.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]News yesterday that Greece and Italy had found swans with highly pathogenic H5N1 confirmed the arrival in the EU of a virus that has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East and forced the culling of millions of birds. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]The virus claimed two more human lives in Indonesia, raising to 18 the number of deaths in the country from bird flu, a Health Ministry official said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Further suspected outbreaks in birds were reported, with EU member Slovenia saying it had sent samples of avian influenza H5 found in a swan to Britain for further tests to see if it was of the highly pathogenic variety. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]European officials tried to reassure people, stressing there had been no human cases reported in their region. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"I think we have to keep calm," French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told France Info Radio. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"With the information coming from Italy, Greece and Bulgaria as well as Nigeria, we are still dealing with a bird flu, that's to say it affects birds. There has never been a case of human-to-human transmission anywhere." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In Italy, Health Minister Francesco Storace told a meeting of health experts he would prove there was no need for people to be concerned. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Tomorrow, I will be visiting all the regions and all the places where the H5N1 was found precisely to show that there is no reason for worry for humans," Storace told reporters. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain may mutate into a form that can spread between people and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]The Italian Health Ministry, which urged people not to touch dead birds, said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]But that is of no comfort to Nigeria, which last week became the first African country to confirm an H5N1 outbreak. Like in most of Sub Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere there ? in backyards, on city streets, on buses and in crowded markets. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Nigerian health officials were waiting anxiously for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans to be infected with the virus. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"We are suspecting this might be something, but we are trying to get the real case notes," said Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more have been hit with the virus and the problem is compounded by farmers receiving little information on how to handle the disease. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In Brussels, a UN humanitarian official said he was worried that bird flu could spread among displaced people in Africa. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"The ultimate nightmare I suppose (would be) this influenza being transmitted from human to human in overcrowded camps in Africa," U.N Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told reporters in Brussels. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Health officials in the countries with confirmed outbreaks stepped up their checks for further cases, with many making spot checks on poultry in areas where the virus had been found. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Veterinary experts said more than 200,000 birds had been culled in northern Iraq to stem the spread of avian flu ? which has killed one teenager there ? and emphasised the virus posed no serious threat to human health. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Right now this is more of an agricultural issue that's damaging the economy, not yet a serious health hazard," said veterinarian Sam Yingst of the US Naval Medical Research Unit in Egypt.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3571106a12,00.html
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NEW OUTBREAK: An Italian health official stands close to a dead swan in a lake near Tindari in Sicily, southern Italy.
Reuters
Calm urged over EU bird flu outbreak
13 February 2006
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]ROME: Governments urged calm today after H5N1 bird flu made its first appearance in wild birds on European Union soil, while Nigeria was testing what could be the first humans to be infected with the deadly virus in Africa.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]News yesterday that Greece and Italy had found swans with highly pathogenic H5N1 confirmed the arrival in the EU of a virus that has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East and forced the culling of millions of birds. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]The virus claimed two more human lives in Indonesia, raising to 18 the number of deaths in the country from bird flu, a Health Ministry official said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Further suspected outbreaks in birds were reported, with EU member Slovenia saying it had sent samples of avian influenza H5 found in a swan to Britain for further tests to see if it was of the highly pathogenic variety. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]European officials tried to reassure people, stressing there had been no human cases reported in their region. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"I think we have to keep calm," French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told France Info Radio. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"With the information coming from Italy, Greece and Bulgaria as well as Nigeria, we are still dealing with a bird flu, that's to say it affects birds. There has never been a case of human-to-human transmission anywhere." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In Italy, Health Minister Francesco Storace told a meeting of health experts he would prove there was no need for people to be concerned. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Tomorrow, I will be visiting all the regions and all the places where the H5N1 was found precisely to show that there is no reason for worry for humans," Storace told reporters. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain may mutate into a form that can spread between people and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]The Italian Health Ministry, which urged people not to touch dead birds, said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]But that is of no comfort to Nigeria, which last week became the first African country to confirm an H5N1 outbreak. Like in most of Sub Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere there ? in backyards, on city streets, on buses and in crowded markets. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Nigerian health officials were waiting anxiously for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans to be infected with the virus. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"We are suspecting this might be something, but we are trying to get the real case notes," said Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more have been hit with the virus and the problem is compounded by farmers receiving little information on how to handle the disease. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In Brussels, a UN humanitarian official said he was worried that bird flu could spread among displaced people in Africa. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"The ultimate nightmare I suppose (would be) this influenza being transmitted from human to human in overcrowded camps in Africa," U.N Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told reporters in Brussels. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Health officials in the countries with confirmed outbreaks stepped up their checks for further cases, with many making spot checks on poultry in areas where the virus had been found. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Veterinary experts said more than 200,000 birds had been culled in northern Iraq to stem the spread of avian flu ? which has killed one teenager there ? and emphasised the virus posed no serious threat to human health. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Right now this is more of an agricultural issue that's damaging the economy, not yet a serious health hazard," said veterinarian Sam Yingst of the US Naval Medical Research Unit in Egypt.
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3571106a12,00.html
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