Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

[T. ModestoPhD]

Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Bird Flu Spreads In South East Asia
Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu News
Article Date: 31 Oct 2006 - 9:00am (PST)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=55492&nfid=al

Eemerged in China and is spreading in southeast Asia - a new H5N1 bird flu strain which is highly resistant to current vaccines. The way this virus is evolving means our current measures are probably ineffective, according to Dr. Yi Guan, Director, State Key Laboratory of Emerging Diseases, Hong Kong, in a new report.

You can see the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Guan, and team, say the new strain is gradually becoming the dominant one in south east Asia. They believe the new strain has started a third H5N1 infection wave in southern China, as well as making headway into Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand. The new strain is taking hold because current vaccines used to protect poultry from H5 infection are much less effective against it.

Several humans have been infected with this new strain, says the report. At the moment it is spreading from rural into urban areas, where efforts to stem its spread will be much more challenging.

The report states that current poultry vaccination methods must be addressed. We cannot rely on a single vaccine over a number of years, as has been the case. Even though the vaccination of all chickens in China is mandatory, the program will not stop the spread of this new strain, which could easily make its way to other parts of the world. If more chickens become infected, so will more humans.

Guan stressed that systemic influenza surveillance of poultry over affected regions must be thorough. "By doing this, we will be able to determine the dynamics of the spread of this virus," he said. "It is also possible that poultry vaccines may need to be tailored to effectively neutralize the particular strain of virus that is present in a particular region."

Several scientists say that thorough surveillance programs will help us eventually come up with a broad-spectrum vaccine - one that may work for many H5 strains.

"Emergence and predominance of an H5N1 influenza variant in China"
G. J. D. Smith , X. H. Fan , J. Wang , K. S. Li , K. Qin , J. X. Zhang , D. Vijaykrishna , C. L. Cheung , K. Huang , J. M. Rayner , J. S. M. Peiris , H. Chen , R. G. Webster , and Y. Guan
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0608157103

 

[GaudiaRay]

Re: Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

Based on what Niman posted in April, at Recombinomics, he knew and thus we must assume that all these people knew, that the virus was different.

The first thing that every one of those virologists had to have asked, if they were competent, and they hold themselves out as such, was, "Is this new clade/strain so different that the current vax will not be effective?"

This question is asked all the time in the area of influenza virology. We all receive annually new vax because the virologists ask this question.

Not one of these people posted public notice or informed any of the effected countries, publicly, that the vax that they've been buying and using in Egypt and in Indonesia is NOT EFFECTIVE against the Fujian-like virus. The sequencing has shown repeatedly that the majority of the virus transmitting worldwide is Fujian-like.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

Based on what Niman posted in April, at Recombinomics, he knew and thus we must assume that all these people knew, that the virus was different.

The first thing that every one of those virologists had to have asked, if they were competent, and they hold themselves out as such, was, "Is this new clade/strain so different that the current vax will not be effective?"

This question is asked all the time in the area of influenza virology. We all receive annually new vax because the virologists ask this question.

Not one of these people posted public notice or informed any of the effected countries, publicly, that the vax that they've been buying and using in Egypt and in Indonesia is NOT EFFECTIVE against the Fujian-like virus. The sequencing has shown repeatedly that the majority of the virus transmitting worldwide is Fujian-like.

Actually, they have known for some time that there is a vaccine problem. WHO issued a phylogenetic tree and comments in August

http://www.recombinomics.com/phylo/HA_Vaccine.html

Fujian is spreading in Asia, but Qinghai and the Indonesian strain are still around also and still recombining. H5N1 doesn't read PNAS or media reports. It still has MANY tricks up its sleeve.

The Qinghai isolate from Shantou is not mentioned in the paper, and it looks like it is alive and well in Shantou and nearby regions. Although 404 isolates were described, they were not informly distributed.

Fujian is a problem, but not the only H5N1 problem.

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

Which strain is in Africa? Qinghai?

Found thread:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11964&highlight=strain+africa

 

[GaudiaRay]

Re: Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

I stand corrected and am QUICKLY responsible to post the facts as I know them.

From another poster who's following this area as well, I immediately come forward with information as I know it and stand corrected,

> Hong Kong did publish the original sequence and did publish the sequences from Malaysia and Laos in the spring (as well as Hong Kong a few months ago).

> WHO issued a statement in August that 4 separate vaccines would be necessary one Clade 1 and three Clade 2 (Fujian, Qinghai, and Indonesia).

> So far, Fujian is in China and SE Asia. No Fujian has been reported elsewhere and although it is spreading in China, it may just provide more diversity for exchanges with Qinghai. The exchange is probably happening in both directions (Qinghai adding some Fujian, and Fujian adding some Qinghai).

 

[HenryN]

Re: Vaccine Resistant H5N1 Spreads in South East Asia

Which strain is in Africa? Qinghai?

Found thread:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11964&highlight=strain+africa

Everything west of China (Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Afghanistan, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) is Qinghai (and at least some of the Fujian isolates have Qinghai mixed in and one of the Shantou sequences is Qinghai).

The amount of Qinghai mixed in is still being evaluated, and most of the sequence data has NOT been released (there should be 3232 sequneces from 404 isolates, but only 556 have been release - 404 HA, many of which are partial, and 152 PB2 sequences)