Posted on 01/23/2004 4:12:30 PM PST by blam
'Chicken flu poses threat to humanity'
(Filed: 23/01/2004)
A virus the World Health Organisation fears could set off an epidemic worse than Sars has spread further into Asia, with Thailand confirming several cases after the death of a chicken butcher.
A patient suffering from 'bird 'flu'
After declaring the country free of the bird 'flu, the Thai government said two boys, aged six and seven, were "critical but stable" with the disease. Three more people are being tested.
At least five people in Vietnam, four of them children, are now known to have died in the latest outbreak of the influenza carried by birds.
The European Commission has joined Japan in banning all imports of poultry from Thailand as a precaution.
The WHO said the near simultaneous bird flu outbreaks in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and now Thailand and Cambodia were "historically unprecedented" and it was worried a new, virulent strain of influenza could sweep around the world
The Lancet medical journal described the bird 'flu as posing a "massively frightening" potential threat to humanity and warned in an editorial that standard vaccines would be useless against the virus if it started spreading through human communities.
At present the avian influenza strain, known as H5N1, is not thought capable of passing from person to person. But experts fear it might acquire the ability if its DNA mingles with that of a human 'flu virus.
Such "reassortment" is a well-known feature of viruses. If this were to happen, the scene could be set for a major world-scale disaster like the Spanish 'Flu pandemic of 1918, which killed up to 40 million people.
It's not spread human to human, just chicken/bird to human.
"I am still cracking up on that woman with the BIG tumor thread, I went to reply and it got pulled, LOL"
She was operated on yesterday and came through the operation just fine. I saw a picture of her sitting up in bed...but, I wasn't about to post it, lol.
Someone a lot smarter than me will be along in a bit to answer that for you. Ahem, I just found out a few months ago that the 'common cold' was a virus. lol.
I'm never gonna be able to get over my cold...I'm doomed.
DIE-OFF, POULTRY - SAUDI ARABIA: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
**************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: 23 Jan 2004
From: ProMED-mail
Source: Okad ,Tues 20 Jan 2004, Issue NO 947 [in Arabic, translation by a ProMED reader; edited]
Losses in the Millions for Farmers and no Proof of Influenza
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Sources related to the poultry industry in the Eastern Province [of Saudi Arabia] revealed that 5 farms in Damamm, Al- Ehsaa, and Riyadh have lost between 30 to 40 percent of the total of their poultry to disease, resulting in a loss of millions [what currency?] for the farmers. Sources avoided associating the mass deaths with avian influenza, which is currently sweeping through South East Asia, especially since winter is considered a fertile season for the emergence of a number of farm diseases, such as Newcastle disease, which wipes out a large percentage of poultry when it is rampant.
Furthermore, mass deaths in poultry are not new to the Kingdom. In recent months similar cases were seen in some areas (western, central, and eastern), which resulted in 40 to 60 percent losses in those areas. Sources emphasized that confirming influenza infection requires specialized labs, which the Kingdom does not have. Therefore, discussing the presence or spread of the disease is premature. Sources confirmed that the poultry industry in different parts of the world is not immune from avian influenza; besides, the disease requires suitable environmental conditions to spread, and specific diagnostic information is necessary to confirm its presence. Some seek to attribute the mass deaths to avian influenza, which is very dangerous to the poultry industry in general, since confirmation of the infection means eradication of entire poultry farms.
Sources added that mass poultry deaths at some farms in the Kingdom are not [as likely to be?] related to avian influenza as to other diseases -- one of which is Newcastle disease, which does not represent a threat to human health. Newcastle disease has several forms, 2 of which are gastrointestinal and neurological. [Losses] from these diseases vary from 10 to 100 percent, depending on type, severity, and intervention during the disease.
Sources also confirmed that transportation used to market poultry is a major factor in the transmission of the disease. Minimum hygienic requirements for the vehicles are non-existent, which promotes the transmission of the virus between farms.
Sources from the Ministry of Agriculture in Eastern Province explain that the Ministry has not received any credible information related to avian influenza in the last few years. In fact, reports sent to the Ministry from the poultry farms in the Eastern Province have made no mention of concerns regarding the flu. In addition, poultry farms in the Kingdom do not rely on the South-East Asian market for their supply for breeding eggs used for layers, which reduces the likelihood of direct transmission of the disease.
Sources indicate that a case of avian flu has occurred in one of the poultry farms in the Eastern Province. This case was completely confined to the farm, which made it easy to eliminate the virus using various preventive methods.
The period of incubation for the avian flu is short. It varies from 3-14 days. The symptoms consist of respiratory inflammation in the chicken, which lead to asphyxia and death. The disease appears to attack white chickens as well as old chickens (aged 1.5-2 years), probably because the latter birds remain longer on-site.
The best way to [approach] the disease is to conduct preventive vaccination when chickens are one week old, without relying on the use of antibiotics. In addition, it is important to clean the hatcheries by spraying efficient disinfectants and quickly removing dead chickens and determining the causes of their death.
[Byline: Mohammed Abde-Allah]
-- ProMED-mail
[As might have been expected, the recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) news from Eastern Asia is inspiring rumors, allegations, and suspicions of similar disease incidents in various parts of the globe. The above news item does not provide a clear picture of the situation in Saudi Arabia, but the description does not necessarily fit HPAI. Among other disease agents, Low pathogenic avian influenza (e.g. A/H9N2; see references) and Newcastle disease are known to circulate in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has reported Newcastle disease in recent years; HPAI was last reported there in 2001.
Colleagues in Saudi Arabia are welcome to add their observations. - Mod.AS]
[see also:
Avian influenza H9 virus - USA ex Saudi Arabia, 1988 (illegal)
20040105.0044]
......................arn/pg/dk
((With the Hajj going on let us all pray the is not Bird Flu)) C.R.
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