Influenza Virus Mashup

Via Antara News: Bird flu in Bogor still restricted to chickens. Excerpt:

Bogor city health authorities have ascertained that no people in a ward where a number of chickens have been dying suddenly since Thursday (Jan 9) have contracted Avian Influenza (AI). 

"We have made on-the-spot checks and taken data and we can say that so far nobody in the neighborhood has been infected with the H5N1 virus," Dwi Susanto, a member of the Bogor City Health Office`s surveillance team, said on Saturday. 

Two people in Kampung Kayu Manis in Bogor city's Tanah Sareal ward where the chickens died were found to be sick but a medical check showed them to be suffering from the common flu, he said.

Thanks to Emmy Fitri for tweeting me the link to this story in The Jakarta Globe: Bird Flu Fears in Indonesia: Flap Over Jakarta Pet Market Move. Excerpt:

Despite lingering fears about the spread of bird flu in the country with the world’s highest number of fatalities from the deadly avian influenza virus, Indonesia’s largest pet market has survived several attempts to relocate it. 

Located in East Jakarta, Pasar Pramuka is one of the 23 pet markets in Jakarta that sell birds. It boasts no fewer than 152 stores selling anything from various pigeon breeds and ducks to ornamental chickens. 

The market, which is popular with many Jakarta shoppers, sits just 5m from the densely populated Pal Meriam residential area — a clear challenge to municipal laws that ban poultry from being reared within 25m of residential areas. 

While the laws specifically refer to farmed poultry and slaughterhouses, it is clear that pet birds would pose similar risks of spreading bird flu to humans. 

But the people living near Pasar Pramuka are not worried. 

“The pet market has been around for 30 years. We haven’t had anyone here catching bird flu,” Evaldi, 46, who lives about 20m from the market, said as his six-year-old son Razaq Gumanti, played with his pet bird. 

His neighbor Damiri, too, told The Straits Times: “They have been keeping Pasar Pramuka market very clean, probably the cleanest market in the country. As long as they keep up with that hygiene work, we should not be worried.” 

It is the kind of response that frustrates Ipih Ruyani, Jakarta’s top bureaucrat overseeing the culling of sick poultry and checking on whether poultry handlers keep to the rules. 

“Their typical argument is: We have been living with live poultry for years. If there were bird flu, we would have caught it a long time ago,” she said, sighing. 

Jakarta’s municipal government has been trying to move Pasar Pramuka for the past four years but has been facing delays from a combination of protests from stallholders and the public, as well as slow bureaucracy. 

The first attempt was made in 2007, the year 37 people died from bird flu in Indonesia. The country accounts for almost half of human bird flu fatalities, and saw 45 people die in 2006.

(Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:42:00 +0000)

# 6108

When I saw the reports on Friday about India’s Health Ministry’s attempts to downplay reports of totally drug resistant tuberculosis, I was immediately reminded of the old joke about the doctor who couldn’t cure you, but for a small fee he’d touch up your X-rays.

Today, Maryn McKenna takes a closer look at India’s denials (which are similar to the official reaction we saw last year over NDM-1)  in her Superbug Blog.

Follow the link to read:

TDR-TB: The Indian Government Denies It

• By Maryn McKenna
• January 29, 2012 

An update to the news two weeks ago of totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, TDR-TB, being identified in India (and earlier in Italy and Iran): The Indian government has announced that it doesn’t exist, and is putting pressure on the physicians who identified it to say they made a mistake.

(Continue . . . )

The February issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases is now online, and this article caught my eye: Pathogenic Responses among Young Adults during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. The abstract, re-paragraphed:

Of the unexplained characteristics of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic, the extreme mortality rate among young adults (W-shaped mortality curve) is the foremost. Lack of a coherent explanation of this and other epidemiologic and clinical manifestations of the pandemic contributes to uncertainty in preparing for future pandemics. 

Contemporaneous records suggest that immunopathologic responses were a critical determinant of the high mortality rate among young adults and other high-risk subgroups. 

Historical records and findings from laboratory animal studies suggest that persons who were exposed to influenza once before 1918 (e.g., A/H3Nx 1890 pandemic strain) were likely to have dysregulated, pathologic cellular immune responses to infections with the A/H1N1 1918 pandemic strain. The immunopathologic effects transiently increased susceptibility to ultimately lethal secondary bacterial pneumonia. 

The extreme mortality rate associated with the 1918–19 pandemic is unlikely to recur naturally. However, T-cell–mediated immunopathologic effects should be carefully monitored in developing and using universal influenza vaccines.

Via ABC News, a slightly confusing report: Crackdown on avian influenza in Victoria. Excerpt:

Victorian authorities are tracing all poultry movements from two duck farms where avian influenza has been found. 

The low pathogenic strain of the disease was discovered on Friday afternoon and 10,000 ducks have already been destroyed. 

The two farms are north west of Melbourne and under one ownership. 

Veterinarian Dr Peter Scott, who advises the egg industry, says this is not bird flu, but is a local disease carried by wild waterfowl.

The Chief Vet of Victoria, Dr Andrew Cameron, says it is not as contagious or harmful as the H5N1 strain that is affecting poultry and people in Asia. 

He says there is no risk to human health from this outbreak.

So it's avian influenza but it's not bird flu, and it's "not as contagious or harmful as the H5N1 strain." What are we dealing with here? 

(Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:24:00 +0000)

Indian House Crow – Photo Credit Wikipedia

# 6107

Roughly two months ago crows by the hundreds (some say thousands) began falling from their perches and dying in Jharkhand, India. 

By mid-December the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bhopal, confirmed that it was the H5N1 virus that was behind these deaths. (see EpiSouth Bulletin eweb_195_15_12__11.pdf).

You can find additional AFD coverage of this event in Media Report: H5N1 Killing Crows In Jharkhand  and several from Crofsblog, including India: ‘New bird flu strain killed Jharkhand crows’.

Today the Times of India is reporting (h/t Emily on FluTrackers) that after ignoring dying crows in the capital city of Kolkata for weeks, West Bengal authorities are finally launching an investigation.

Govt gets cracking on crow deaths

TNN | Jan 29, 2012, 07.36AM IST

 

KOLKATA: After ignoring the mysterious crow deaths in the city for nearly two months, the state government flew into action mode on Saturday and sent scientists to Rabindra Sarovar to gather carcasses and blood samples.

TOI on Friday first reported on crows dropping dead all over the city.

(Continue . . . )

Somewhat remarkably, two weeks after the discovery of H5N1 in Jharkhand crows, India declared itself to be bird flu free, leading to some highly critical media coverage (see Dying crows deny India is bird flu free).

There are other possible causes of the crow deaths in Kolkata; insecticides, accidental poisoning, and Newcastle disease to name a few.

But with the recent positive test results in neighboring Jharkhand positive for H5N1, concerns are running high that the virus may be behind these deaths as well.

The New York Times has published an editorial: The Missing Bird Flu Report. The NYT supports redaction of the reports before they're published.

Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary has a fascinating post on The Kolkata Crow Mystery, reporting that the city authorities are finally looking into local crow deaths.

(Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000)

BLS-4 Lab – Photo Credit CDC PHIL 

# 6106

The weekend edition of the New York Times contains a `dialog’ – well, actually letters to the editor – received over the past few days by some well known academics and researchers on the volatile subject of H5N1 research.

The recent successes in turning the H5N1 virus into a more transmissible virus have raised alarms among many of those in the bio-security field (see The Furor Over H5N1 Research Continues).

At the same time, many scientists are decrying what they see as heavy-handed attempts to halt, or censor what they see as crucial research.

You’ll find a lot of familiar names weighing into the NYTs dialog today, including Tom Inglesby, Philip Alcabes, and Vincent Racaniello.

Sunday Dialogue: Bird Flu Experiments

The World Health Organization has tentatively scheduled a meeting of experts in Geneva in a couple of weeks with hopes of resolving some of the thornier issues involved.

But as we continue to see by the arguments coming from both sides of this debate - there is a sizable chasm separating them – making a workable compromise coming out of this meeting far from assured. 

Stay tuned. 

(Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:05:57 GMT)

Reminder: Please do not post whole articles, just snippets and links, and do not post articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thanks!

China

•  5 dead birds in Causeway Bay tested for virus (Link)

India

•  Bird flu scare spreads to Ganjam as 16 crows found dead (Link)

•  Keep the crows flying to save the environment (Link)

Mexico

•  Additional Cases of Swine Flu in Mexico  (Article & Video) (Link)

Pakistan

•  Last bird flu case reported in July 2008 (Link)

Research

•  CIDRAP: Study finds non-drug flu-fighting benefits (Link)

•  CIDRAP: In ferrets, H5N1 can reach nervous system via olfactory mucosa (Link)

General

•  CIDRAP: Flu season shows signs of life in US, EU (Link)

•  H (Link)

News for January 28, 2012 is here.

Thanks to all of the newshounds! Special thanks to the newshound volunteers who translate international stories - thanks for keeping us all informed!

Other useful links:

WHO A(H1N1) Site

WHO H5N1 human case totals, last updated January 24, 2012
Charts and Graphs on H5N1 from WHO
Google Flu Trends
CDC Weekly Influenza Summary
Map of seasonal influenza in the U.S.
CIDPC (Canada) Weekly FluWatch
UK RCGP Weekly Data on Communicable and Respiratory Diseases
Flu Wiki Main Page