Here's your culprit
Posted on 01/24/2004 10:05:45 PM PST by blam
Bird Flu Has Mutated and Is Spreading
Sunday January 25, 2004 5:31 AM
By DANIEL LOVERING
Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The bird flu virus spreading through Asia appears to have mutated and development of a more effective vaccine is not likely for more than six months, the World Health Organization said Sunday.
Vietnam, which reported its sixth death due to the avian influenza virus on Saturday, and Thailand are the only countries this year where the avian influenza virus has been passed onto humans.
But the virus has hit millions of chickens in four other countries as well, raising concerns it might mutate, link with regular influenza and foster the next human flu pandemic.
The WHO, which said earlier it hoped a vaccine for the disease would be ready in four weeks, said on its Web site that it fears that its forecast that the virus would mutate had come true.
``I don't think we're looking at a workable vaccine within six months. That's too late for the influenza season in Asia but it would be available,'' regional WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley told The Associated Press in the Philippines.
``It could be available for next winter's flu season ... It's not promising this year,'' he added.
Human victims so far have been infected directly from chickens and no person-to-person transmissions have been reported.
``Preliminary results indicate that these viruses are significantly different from other H5N1 (bird flu) strains isolated in Asia in the recent past, thus necessitating the development of a new prototype strain for use in vaccine manufacturing,'' the WHO said on its Web site.
Thai officials, following weeks of denial, acknowledged the virus' presence this week after poultry farmers claimed not enough was being done to stop the disease from spreading from nearby countries.
Asia is on a region-wide health alert, with governments slaughtering millions of chickens to contain outbreaks in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The WHO confirmed two new cases of bird flu in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, which previously had not reported any patients.
One of the cases - a 13-year-old-boy - died Jan. 22, while the virus has also sickened an 8-year-old girl, who was in critical condition. Five others died earlier in Vietnam while a 56-year-old Thai man believed to have avian flu died Friday.
In a weekly radio address, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra acknowledged Saturday that the onset of the virus in Thailand could devastate the country's chicken export sector - the world's fourth largest.
Thaksin said the government suspected for ``a couple of weeks'' that the country was facing an outbreak of bird flu and had taken precautionary measures, but declined to tell the public to avoid causing panic.
Thailand shipped about 500,000 tons of chicken worth $1.3 billion in 2003. But on Friday the 15-nation European Union and Japan - Thailand's biggest markets for poultry - announced bans along with a host of countries over fears about the virus spreading.
Thaksin said overall exports could drop by up to 0.4 percent and gross domestic product could slip by as much as 0.1 percent.
``If they are going to stop buying, we have to be deal with it,'' he said. ``This is the worst-case scenario. Whatever we lose, we have to lose.''
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said the government will ``send teams to talk to customers abroad to help build confidence'' and ask Japan to reduce its 90-day ban on Thailand's poultry.
``If we can control this in one month, we think the bird flu losses will be less than 10 billion baht ($256 million),'' he told reporters.
Humans infected with the disease are thought to have caught the disease from fowl. The WHO, however, fears bird flu is highly adaptable and might leap the species barrier. It says anyone exposed to the disease should be quarantined to avoid contact with sufferers of regular human influenza.
``The Thai authorities ... understand,'' said Dr. Somchai Peerapakorn, the WHO's acting representative in Thailand. ``But for family contact they have no quarantine. Only at hospitals they are isolating cases as much as they can.''
A massive slaughter of chickens is under way to stop the spread of the virus. Hundreds of Thai soldiers in protective gear were being bused into hardest-hit Suphanburi province to assist in the chicken slaughter.
But the operation has its own risks. The WHO has warned that workers involved in culling can be exposed.
Vietnam on Saturday reported the disease has been detected in 24 of its 64 provinces, with more than 3 million chickens dead or slaughtered to contain the flu's spread. More than 7 million chickens have been killed in Thailand since November
Can you slaughter all chickens in the Philippines too? Pretty please? You can't be too safe, you know.
There was also a large poultry die-off in Saudi Arabia the last few days... wonder what's up with that?
Just darn! -- wish I had taken notes! These bat creatures have a wing spread of 3-ft and their heads look like small foxes. The problem came about when pig pens were built beneath fruit bearing trees and these bat critters would eat the fruit.
Pieces of the fruit being eaten by infected bats were falling into the pig pens and the pigs were eating them. The pigs would then develop the disease and it was spread among the other pigs and to the nearby humans by a horrific cough.
Anyone else see this documentary and can correct any misstatements?
Just wish I could remember the name of the disease they spread. It was something like phena, or nepa, or grrr...can't remember now.
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