Deadly bird flu virus shows unique gene: study

Last Updated Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:30:46 EST
CBC News

The H5N1 strain of avian flu may be so deadly to bird cells because of a protein it produces, a genetic study suggests.

Researchers in the U.S. performed the first major genetic analysis of more than 300 flu viruses that have infected people, birds and pigs on four continents.

The H5N1 virus has killed 83 people, according to the World Health Organization, and has forced countries to cull millions of birds.

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Indonesian man dies of bird flu

JAKARTA, Jan. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Local test results have shown that an Indonesian man died of the avian influenza after being treated at a hospital here, a spokesman from the hospital said Thursday.

The latest death could bring total bird flu fatalities to 15 in the country if confirmed by the World Health Organization-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong.

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Firms at bird flu summit are urged to plan for the worst

The World Health Organisation says that the threat is imminent and we must all prepare. By Tracey Boles

ORTAKABINS for stranded staff to sleep in, the closure of canteens and workplace gyms, and setting up employees so they can workP from home are some of the emergency measures British companies would have to take in an outbreak of bird flu. It could even become a disciplinary offence to come into work once infected with the deadly bug.

The first human case of H5N1 avian flu was reported in 1997 but many businesses are only now starting to plan how they would cope with a pandemic that could result in 30% of their staff being off work sick for six months.

British Airways, which began studying the effects of a pandemic in April last year, is ahead of many other companies. But the airline is still working out how it would keep flying with a quarter of its staff struck down by flu. A spokeswoman said: “We are looking at what it means and how we would use our resources.” Glaxo Smith Kline says it is making preparations but has “no grand plan” yet.

Last week, the Royal College of Surgeons hosted an “avian flu summit” designed to shock business into action. Delegates from 300 firms in the financial, transport, retail and manufacturing sectors heard what they should be including in their “disaster plans”. The keynote speaker, David Salisbury, head of immunisation at the Department of Health, said businesses should be planning for the “worst case scenario” in which 25% of the population, or 14.6m people, would come down with the flu. Judging by previous influenza pandemics, between 0.2% and 2% of the population would die, according to the World Health Organisation.

Small firms could be particularly hard hit as workers fall ill or stay off to look after sick relatives, scientific models by the independent Health Protection Agency show.

Firms would have to act swiftly to halt the spread of the disease if they wanted to keep trading. But many have yet to put contingency measures in place, and are hungry for guidance. Thursday’s conference — called Pre-Pandemic Planning, Preparation & Policy for Business — sold out so quickly that another one is planned for the end of February by the organiser, the risk-management training group Business Forums International (BFI).

Elizabeth Smith at BFI said most firms’ bird-flu action plans were “at the embryonic stage”. But many of the delegates she saw last week were from companies with developed plans ensuring that they were on the right track, as well as those that wanted to update their information on the virus.

There are 15 different types of bird flu. Spanish flu, which killed up to 30m people between 1918 and 1919, was a bird flu. H5N1 is the strain now causing worldwide alarm because of its ability to jump from birds to several other species. Transported by migratory birds, it is lethal to poultry and has infected many people who have been in close contact with sick birds, killing 79, most of them in southeast Asia. But it has yet to mutate into a form that can jump from person to person. If it does, the result is likely to be a global pandemic.
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Flu-hit Turkey reports 21st human case, as boy's health worsens

AFP
17 Jan 2006

Turkey announced that another child was diagnosed with bird flu, raising to 21 the total number of human cases in the country, among them four teenagers already dead and a small boy in worsening condition.

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With the lethal virus now raging at the threshold of Europe, officials from half of the world's nations gathered in Beijing for a two-day meeting aimed at raising 1.5 billion dollars to help fight the disease.

The Turkish health ministry identified the new case of H5N1 infection as a child from the remote eastern town of Dogubeyazit, near the border with Iran, from where the four dead also hailed.

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Scientific Puzzle: Some Turks Have Bird Flu but Aren't Sick

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
International Herald Tribune

ANKARA, Turkey, Jan. 10 - Two young brothers, ages 4 and 5, who have tested positive for the dreaded A(H5N1) avian virus but shown no symptoms of the disease were being closely watched at Kecioren Hospital here on Tuesday. Doctors are unsure whether they are for the first time seeing human bird flu in its earliest stages or if they are discovering that infection with the A(H5N1) virus does not always lead to illness.

In any case, the highly unusual cluster of five cases detected here in Turkey's capital over the last three days - all traceable to contact with sick birds - is challenging some of the doctors' assumptions about bird flu and giving them new insights into how it spreads and causes disease. Since none of the five have died, it is raising the possibility that human bird flu is not as deadly as currently thought, and that many mild cases in Asian countries may have gone unreported.

"The two brothers are a very interesting finding that may for the first time give us a chance to monitor the human response to the disease," said Dr. Guénaël Rodier, who is leading a World Health Organization Team now in Turkey.

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Bird flu mutatuion raises threat to humans

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
UK Independent
13 January 2006

The first sign that the avian flu virus H5N1 may be mutating into a form more infectious to humans has been reported by scientists. Researchers from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Mill Hill, north London, have analysed viruses from two children who died of bird flu in eastern Turkey.

In one case, the analysis revealed mutations in the virus that made it more prone to infect humans. In a joint statement, Sir John Skehel, director of the institute, run by the Medical research Council, and the World Health Organisation, said a mutation had been traced in viruses isolated in Hong Kong in 2003 and in Vietnam last year.

"Research has indicated the Hong Kong 2003 viruses preferred to bind to human cell receptors more than to avian receptors, and it is expected that the Turkish virus will also have this characteristic."

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Bird flu kills third child in Turkey

AFP
January 6, 2006

DOGUBEYAZIT, Turkey - Turkey said a third child from the same family had died of bird flu, in a sign that the deadly disease that has already killed scores in Southeast Asia and China has now spread westwards closer to Europe.

The successive deaths triggered accusations that the government had failed to prevent the spread of the virus, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted the authorities had not delayed taking the necessary action.

The latest victim, 11-year-old Hulya Kocyigit, died early Friday in a hospital in the eastern city of Van after spending several days in intensive care, said Huseyin Avni Sahin, the chief doctor at the hospital.

Her death comes a day after her 15-year-old sister Fatma succumbed to the disease in the same hospital.

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Bird flu claims 2nd Turkish Child

ANKARA, Turkey --
CNN
Thursday, January 5, 2006

A 15-year-old girl has died of bird flu in Turkey, becoming the country's second person to succumb to the virus, health officials said Thursda

Fatma Kocyigit's brother, Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, died of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza Sunday.

Test results confirming the lethal strain came back late Wednesday from a facility in Istanbul, Health Minister Recep Akdag said.

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