Posted on 04/22/2003 4:09:31 PM PDT by blam
Dutch bird flu claims first human victim
16:08 22 April 03
NewScientist.com news service
Dutch scientists are urgently checking whether the bird flu virus sweeping the country has mutated into a dangerous human pathogen, after it claimed its first human victim.
A 57-year-old Dutch veterinarian died of pneumonia in the southern city of Den Bosch on Thursday, and the "most likely cause", say investigators, is the bird flu virus.
Concern about the virus has been mounting ever since it became clear that the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza that has been ravaging Dutch poultry farms since 28 February can also infect humans.
So far, 82 people with clinical symptoms have tested positive for the bird virus. Nearly all have had conjunctivitis, a mild eye infection, but six people had typical flu-like symptoms.
Worryingly, there has been "strong evidence" that three of these cases did not catch the virus from sick poultry, but from a family member working on infected poultry farms, says Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. One was a 12-year-old child with classic flu symptoms.
When bird flu has infected humans in the past, outbreaks have been limited by the inability of the virus to spread among people.
Dangerous hybrid
Until now, the main concern was that a human infected with both bird and human flu might breed a dangerous hybrid, to which people would have no immunity. Different influenza viruses that infect the same cell liberally recombine their genetic material.
But there have been no signs of human flu in the people with bird flu infections, including the vet, says Fouchier. This suggests that the bird virus is acquiring the ability to sicken and spread among humans on its own.
The vet came down with a high fever and headache on 4 April, two days after working on an infected farm. He was not taking the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu) as Dutch authorities have told farms workers to do in an effort to prevent infections.
Initial tests did not detect the virus. But a week later the vet developed severe pneumonia, the most common serious complication of influenza in humans. He died six days later.
Compare and contrast
His lungs yielded large amounts of the bird virus but no other viruses that could have caused the symptoms. Scientists at Erasmus University are now searching for mutations by comparing the virus from the vet with virus from chickens.
The chicken flu is still spreading in the Netherlands and has entered Belgium. The spread is despite the slaughter of all birds on farms anywhere near outbreaks - a cull exceeding 16 million so far.
Dutch authorities have also detected signs that pigs on five farms in the Gelders Valley had been infected with the bird flu virus. The pigs have been slaughtered and no other pigs in the region have shown signs of infection.
But pigs, like humans, can hybridise bird and human flu viruses. The movement of pigs and pig manure in affected regions in the Netherlands has now been halted.
Debora MacKenzie
This is the bird virus that was first detected in Hong Kong in 1997, I believe.
avian, as in birds
LOL, hilarious!!!
... and one of those may have been dormant in a host for awhile ...
Bump
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