China's secret bird flu 'puts world at risk'

London Daily Telegraph ^ | 1-18-2004 | Adam Luck

[Prince Charles]

China's secret bird flu 'puts world at risk'

By Adam Luck in Hong Kong
(Filed: 18/01/2004)

China is refusing to disclose the origins of a "bird flu" virus lethal to humans which could make Sars look like "a puff of smoke", say angry scientists and World Health Organisation officials.

They fear that the country's notorious Guangdong province, from where the Sars virus began to spread last winter, could be the source of the flu, which has killed at least 13 people, most of them children, in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan in recent weeks.

The Chinese authorities deny that the country harbours the virus, even though it has been discovered in poultry meat exported to its neighbours. An outbreak of bird flu in Taiwan earlier this month was traced to duck meat, smuggled from China. The virus - known officially as H5N1 - spreads swiftly among bird populations and has been transmitted to humans.

The WHO is reluctant to criticise Beijing publicly, but one regional official said: "We are very unhappy at the fact that China is refusing to play ball on this. We need to get in there and we need to know what is going on, but despite repeated requests China has failed to be forthcoming.

"We are very afraid that their attitude to avian flu is the same as it was to Sars last winter - and that we are heading for a repetition of that fiasco."

China came under heavy criticism for refusing to acknowledge the existence of the Sars outbreak, thereby allowing it to spread unchecked for several months.

Southern China, where ducks, geese, chickens and pigs are raised alongside each other in high-density farms, is a reservoir of mutating viruses. In the past, H5N1 killed only chickens but wild birds, ducks and geese are all dying in the fresh outbreak.

Professor Robert Webster, a WHO adviser and leading virologist, said of the outbreaks: "There is a vital need for information from mainland China. The only thing one can do is put two and two together - where the hell are all these viruses coming from?

"What is going on in Vietnam is of very great concern. If H5N1 gets out of control it will make Sars look quite trivial - like a puff of smoke."

Prof Webster likened the possible consequences to the effects of the lethal "Spanish flu" virus in 1918. The virus, which microbiologists believe also originated in Guangdong province, killed at least 20 million people worldwide.

One leading scientist, who did not want to be named lest he was blacklisted by the Chinese authorities, said: "Flu is an economic problem. If China admitted having it, its exports would be hit."

[Prince Charles]

Ping!

[Flavius]

just wow...

general tso no more

[cricket]

Food practices from the 'Dark Ages' can only bring one back to the diseases of the dark ages as well.

Instead of worrying about the 'ozone layers' and the heating of our planet; why don't the greenies worry about some real threats to our planet and take on China as a special education project.

[flutters]

"Flu is an economic problem. If China admitted having it, its exports would be hit."

Cha-ching.

BTW, I like your idea cricket.

[Cicero]

Well, when people live in the midst of pigs and ducks, and use human fertilizer in their fields, there are bound to be problems.

The flu comes out of China every year for exactly that reason.

[etcetera]

Nuke southern China.

[tet68]

The virus, which microbiologists believe also originated in Guangdong province, killed at least 20 million people worldwide.



Interesting, I hadn't heard this before.

[_Jim]

China is refusing to disclose the ...

deja vu - didn't we just go through this LAST year?

[irish guard]

What I hate are the dip$hit media who tell you the sky is falling, don't tell you a darn thing about the symptoms of this flu, how easily it is transmitted and how it is treated. Just like the flu the media has hyped here in the U.S......I have not heard anything other than the word "flu". I am sure this thing is deadly, but sheesh I hate their way of telling us about it.

[goodnesswins]

"general tso no more".....I think it's more to do with LIVING WITH poultry (and breathing their, um, detritus, etc.) than eating them.

[Kirkwood]

Virtually all influenzas come from birds and pigs in China. Nothing new here.

[woofer]

Interesting, I hadn't heard this before.

What? About the Spanish (swine) Flu pandemic or that it originated in China in 1917? Swept thru Europe in 1918 and was brought to the US by returning soldiers. A couple of hundred thousand Americans died from it. Nasty stuff.

[genefromjersey]

I've been following this on ProMed,and the Society for (the identification and tratment of )Infectious Diseases is a mite less alarmed than WHO.

As I understand it, WHO is worried that the avian flu and the human variety may cross paths,and mutate into something brand new. The Society doubts this is much of a risk.

Of course, WHO is the organization that attempts every year to guess which new strain of influenza will visit us. So far,their accuracy has been on the order of a coin toss.This year's vaccine,for example,is for one of last year's "flu contenders"-which had the bad manners to mutate into something different.

[FreedomCalls]

The estimate is 675,000 died in the United States from flu in 1918.

[genefromjersey]

Sorry ! Getting kind of elderly here !

The avian flu,as far as I know, isn't even in China. Vietnam-yes; South Korea-yes;Japan-maybe.

China is scarey enough without this being tacked on !

ps:I guess the "correspondent" who wrote the original article didn't bother checking facts,or decided it would make a "sexier" story if he identified the secretive Dr. Fu Manchu as the villain...

[firebrand]

Southern China . . . is a reservoir of mutating viruses.

Makes it sound sort of like that restaurant stockpot that Jean Shepard used to talk about.

[tet68]

That it originated in Guandong china.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Not to panic, everybody dies from something. If one were to ponder the exact nature of their demise it would lead to anxiety attacks. Wash your hands, avoid obviously sick people and feel healthy! No one is getting out of here alive!

[flutters]

A few months ago someone posted information about H5N1, was it Fair Opinion or someone else?

[Fishing-guy]

If I remembered it correctly, the Spanish Flu epidemic originated from Kansas. It started in an army base. Apparently, back then, soldiers had to raise pigs for food. It then spread to Europe when the soldiers were shipped there for WWI. Subsequently, it was brought back to US by the returning soldiers.

It was called the Spanish Flu, because it spread to Spain and killed millions of people. The Spanish were the first to identify it.

[flutters]

I remember that same story. Excuse me, but I've just gotta...back then, soldiers had to raise pigs for food... *gasp* The horror. I did too, way back then. lol ;)

[per loin]

If I remembered it correctly, the Spanish Flu epidemic originated from Kansas. It started in an army base.

Nope. It didn't get to Kansas until the Spring of 1918. It had already hit China over the winter.

[txhurl]

Relevant post from kdono, excerpted 12/13/03: Highly pathogenic avian influenza in Korea Emergency report

Highly pathogenic avian influenza in Korea (Rep. of ~) Suspected outbreak

(Disease never reported before in the Republic of Korea).

Emergency report

Information received on 12 Dec 2003 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, Chief Veterinary Officer, Animal Health Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Gwacheon:

Date of the report: 12 Dec 2003.

Date of initial detection of animal health incident: 11 Dec 2003.

Outbreaks:

Location Eumsung district, Chungcheong-buk province, in the central part of the country) No. of outbreaks: 1 farm

[This is not good news, as recent outbreaks of Avian Influenza have been in the southeastern most part of China in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, beginning with the now historic outbreak of bird-to-human H5N1 in 1997. OIE indicates South Korea has never had the disease before, and Japan has not had an outbreak since 1925. Several outbreaks have been reported in Europe and United States over the past few years. Eradication is usually is a difficult process and costly in the best of circumstances.

Generally chickens and turkeys exhibit severe depression, inappetence, significant drops in egg production, edema of the head, and cyanotic combs and wattles. Mortality is usually high, sometimes reaching 100 percent. The postmortem picture contains many features, the most notable of which include edema of the head and neck area, severe congestion of conjunctiva and hemorrhages in the intestines, particularly on the mucosal surface of the proventriculus (part of the cranial stomach of birds that secretes acid and is located between the crop and gizzard). Necrosis of intestinal lymphoid tissue is also a prominent postmortem feature. - Mod.PC]

[flutters]

per loin, I trust your word on this, but where did you hear that? Everything I've seen says it started in Kansas. Here's one thread about it:< SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) not that unusual. ‘Spanish Flu” of 1918 worse.

[flutters]

Great find. I remembered seeing info about this before. Thanks!

[blam]

"China is refusing to disclose the origins of a "bird flu" virus lethal to humans which could make Sars look like "a puff of smoke", say angry scientists and World Health Organisation officials."

Quarantine China and all it's products until they come clean.

[Prince Charles]

This thread has good info on the "Spanish Flu": The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

[txhurl]

But you still have the smugglers.

[per loin]

I've not got a source at hand, but as memory has it, Kolata in her "Flu", while discussing the probability that the 1918 virus route was bird to pig to human, mentions the severe flu in China and Tibet of the previous Winter. I've run across that info elsewhere, as well. I'd not say the case is completely proven; it probably can't be. But that earlier flu in China was the most probable source of the flu that swept the rest of the world.

[cricket]

Hmmm; economic problem

. . .the flu requires some serious hygiene 'down on the farm'. . .and it should not cost much; and whatever it should cost; the alternatives are potentially devastating for that cha-ching'; cha-ching.

Short of that; seems to me the economic problem is when the buyers/traders stop going to China because it is a health hazard.

Of course, I could be missing something re the economics of it all. :^). . . .

[Zechariah11]