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In China, the deadly pathogen has killed 623 of the 1,625 people which have been infected. The symptoms of H7N9 include a high fever, cough and shortness of breath which can then develop into pneumonia. Once the disease has developed, those infected develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock and organ failure. Older people, pregnant women and those with existing health problems are most at risk, according to the World Health Organization. Bird flu can spread to people when they have direct contact with the infection

Authorities in eastern China have banned live poultry sales after an increase in the number of people infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu, state media reported Tuesday, with the busy Chinese New Year travel period already under way. So far this year, H7N9 has killed 19 people in China and infected 96, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. …

Ten human H7N9 bird flu, 10 (additional) newly reported on Friday, one in Beijing, one in Guangdong, one in Fujian, and seven in Zhejiang. In the first (of these) in Beijing was confirmed to have contracted H7N9 had bought pigeons and ate them before being admitted to the hospital. A 34-year-old woman in Shenzhen City had contracted the virus. She is also in a critical condition. The health authorities in Guangdong's neighboring province of Fujian also announced that a 46-year-old female in to have been sicken by the H7N9 virus, is in a critical condition. In east China's Zhejiang Province,...

Flu scientists are hoping to vaccinate themselves against another outbreak of a crippling controversy. In a letter published this week by Nature and Science (see p. 612), 22 researchers make their case for launching potentially risky experiments with the H7N9 avian influenza virus, which emerged earlier this year in China and which some scientists fear could spark a deadly human pandemic. The scientists, who mostly work in U.S.-funded labs, also detail the safety and security precautions that they would take to prevent the possibly dangerous viruses they create from escaping from the lab—or falling into the hands of terrorists. In...

LONDON - The first scientific analysis of probable human-to-human transmission of a deadly new strain of bird flu that emerged in China this year gives the strongest evidence yet that the H7N9 virus can pass between people, scientists said on Wednesday. Research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) analyzing a family cluster of cases of H7N9 infection in eastern China found it was very likely the virus "transmitted directly from the index patient (a 60-year-old man) to his daughter." Experts commenting on the research said while it did not necessarily mean H7N9 is any closer to becoming the next...

Enlarge Image Air travel. Ferret studies show that H7N9 can move via respiratory droplets from intentionally infected animals in one cage to their neighbors. Credit: Sander Herfst Since a new bird flu virus began sickening and killing people in China in March, one of the most pressing questions has been whether the virus, H7N9, would easily spread from human to human, possibly kicking off a global pandemic. Fortunately, no convincing signs of such transmission surfaced, and the outbreak—which led affected Chinese cities to close poultry markets and cull birds—seems to have ground to a halt. But three new studies...

Prolog http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-04/22/c_132331148.htm April 22 (Xinhua) -- Lin Yuanzhong has killed more than 40,000 ducklings in the past 10 days. if (it) continues for another 20 days, all the feed manufacturers, breeding farms and poultry raisers will be bankrupt. Even though the fast spread of H7N9 has only hit Shanghai, Beijing and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Henan, the ensuing fear has reached nationwide. {Back to the futuer} WASHINGTON, May 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. researchers said Wednesday they have detected for the first time the H1N1 virus in elephant seals off the coast of central California. The H1N1 strain...

It's time for the world's public health officials to pay very close attention to the new bird flu outbreak in China first detected in March. To put it bluntly, there are now some seriously dangerous developments occurring around the new disease outbreak in China that infectious disease specialists and international public health specialists need to track closely. Let's start with three new developments reported on earlier this week by Jason Koebler, U.S. News & World Report's science and technology correspondent: the first reported case of the new bird flu strain outside China; the fact that any potential vaccine tests in...

A new bird flu strain that has killed 22 people in China is "one of the most lethal" of its kind and transmits more easily to humans than another strain that has killed hundreds since 2003, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Wednesday. The H7N9 flu has infected 108 people in China since it was first detected in March, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Although it is not clear exactly how people are being infected, experts say they see no evidence so far of the most worrisome scenario - sustained transmission between people. An international team of scientists...

AFP - Taiwan on Wednesday reported the first case of the H7N9 bird flu outside of mainland China. The 53-year-old man, who had been working in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, showed symptoms three days after returning to Taiwan via Shanghai, the Centers for Disease Control said, adding that he had been hospitalised since April 16 and was in a critical condition. A passenger (right) has her temperature checked by a Centers for Disease Control staff member at the entrance of Sungshan Airport in Taipei on April 4, 2013. Taiwan on Wednesday reported the first case of the H7N9...

Officials Fear That H7N9 Bird Flu Is Spreading From Person To Person Jennifer WelshApril 19,2013 As new cases of the bird flu H7N9 continue to pop up all over China, officals are getting more and more worried that the virus can spread between humans, or that it will soon develop the ability to spread between humans. If it develops the ability to transfer easily from one human to another it could easily become a pandemic. While the virus has been circulating in the bird population, and many types of birds have tested positive for it. According to the World Health...

Around the world, scientists are now beginning to examine samples of the virus with a significant question in mind: Could this strain of the disease cause a global pandemic? This international network of scientists keeps constant watch for good reason. In 1918 and 1919, a flu pandemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people, more than the total death toll of World War I, more in a year than the Black Death of 1347 to 1351. More recently, an H1N1 swine flu pandemic was blamed for more than 284,500 human deaths worldwide between April 2009 and August 2010. So...

.... With billions of birds hosting an uncountable number of permutations of influenza strains, it’s inevitable that once in a while, one of these combinations will evolve the ability to replicate in humans. This has happened with an influenza type known as H5N1, the “bird flu” that the world has been watching since it was first isolated from human infections in Hong Kong in 1997. In the past 16 years, H5N1 has caused more than 600 infections in humans and almost 400 deaths—killing approximately 60 percent of those who are known to have been infected with this virus. Luckily, H5N1...

The other samples containing the deadly H7N9 virus were collected from two marketplaces selling agricultural products in the down river Yangse delta, Shanghai. After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory concluded that the strain of the H7N9 virus found on those 19 samples was highly congenetic with that found on a pigeon on Thursday. The ministry ordered Shanghai to shut down the marketplace and cull all (living poultry) chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons.

New bird flu strand could be linked to dead pigs in Shanghai river: expert Staff Reporter2013-04-0115:37 (GMT+8) A worker cleaning up dead pigs out of the river. (Photo/Xinhua) The new strand of the bird flu that has already killed two people and left another critically ill in eastern China could be linked to the thousands of dead pigs found floating in a Shanghai river last month, according to a Hong Kong infectious disease expert. China's Ministry of Health and the National Health and Family Planning Commission announced on Sunday the world's first reported cases of the H7N9 virus, a new...