Asia: Post all Asia info here except China & Indonesia

[bikerduck]

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - The World Health Organisation has expressed "great concern" over Cambodia's latest bird flu outbreak after three more suspected cases were hospitalised following last week's death of a child from H5N1.
"It's a great concern, it's a serious problem ... we have to take this as seriously as possible," WHO representative Michael O'Leary told AFP.

Three people -- one adult and two children -- are being treated for fever and respiratory problems at a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, health officials say.

The suspected cases come from a village neighbouring that of three-year-old Mon Vuthy, who died Tuesday after falling ill with the H5N1 strain of the virus.

She was the first bird flu death in Cambodia this year and the fifth since 2003.

Five other people who had contact with the suspected cases are also being tested, said Ly Sovann, head of the health ministry's department of infectious diseases.

It is unknown how the three might have become infected with the deadly virus, he said.

Agriculture ministry officials said tests are being done on poultry in the area, but no traces of H5N1 have been found so far in any birds, despite the deaths of hundreds in the area earlier this month.

This is particularly troubling, O'Leary said, because if the three people are found to have bird flu it would mean they had some exposure to birds that "we are not aware of".

Full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060326/hl_afp/healthflucambodia_060326064521

Originally posted by AvengingAngel


I'd bet that it would take a while for China to get its own sticky. After all, they are very good at hiding things. .

I hope you didn't bet the farm, AA. China just earned its own sticky.

PARIS : Indonesia has become a bird flu "time-bomb" because of its failure to eradicate high numbers of deadly H5N1 sites, the head of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health told AFP on Friday.

"Indonesia is a time-bomb for the region," said organisation head Bernard Vallat, calling the situation a cause for "great concern".

"It is important for the Indonesian government to take the political decision" to step up its controls, with international help, Vallat said in an interview with AFP.

He called for international creditors to "intervene massively" to help stem the spread of the virus, stressing the correlation between the number of infected birds and the number of cases of transmission to humans.

Thirty-three people have been contaminated in Indonesia by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, 24 of whom died, according to the World Health Organisation. - AFP/ch


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...203143/1/.html

[bikerduck]

A fifth member of an Indonesian family has died of bird flu, according to local tests, a senior medical official said yesterday.
The five are part of a large family in Tanah Karo village on Sumatra island in which eight people are suspected to have contracted the virulent H5N1 virus.

Four died from the disease earlier last week, according to local tests, and a fifth was confirmed yesterday, said Nyoman Kandun, head of the health ministry's office of communicable disease control.
Samples from the patients have been sent to a World Health Organisation-accredited lab in Hong Kong.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1774801,00.html

[Deepwater]

Analysis by Dr. Niman

United States Deploys Tamiflu Stockpile to Asia

Recombinomics Commentary
May 22, 2006

The United States has sent a supply of Tamiflu to Asia to help the region prepare for a human outbreak of avian influenza, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said on Monday.

"I am not going to specify the amount or the location, but I want to make clear that we are beginning to deploy it," he said

The deployment of Tamiflu treatment courses to Asia is cause for concern. Tamiflu supplies in the United States are below those of most industrialized countries, so deployment from the US signals a potentially serous situation.

The current H5N1 bird flu outbreak in North Sumatra, Indonesia has recently caused concerned because the number of fatalities in the cluster rose to seven today and the transmission chains appears to have extended through three of four generations.

Today's fatality was the father of a member of a large cluster. The father had left the hospital ad refused Tamiflu treatment prior to being readmitted and dying on Monday. Hs time at home may have exposed additional family members and contacts. Moreover, earlier reports had described three additional family members who began to show H5N1 bird flu symptoms last week. The latest case was withheld from the WHO update as were te disease onset dates. Withholding of this information creates additional concerns..

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05230601/H5N1_Phase_4_Raise.html

[bikerduck]

HONG KONG (AFP) - Bird flu may have become more virulent, increasing the risk to humans, Hong Kong's health chief has warned following the latest infection in a neighbouring Chinese city.
On Thursday, China confirmed its 19th human case of bird flu, a 31-year-old man from the southern economic boom town of Shenzhen bordering Hong Kong who is critically ill in hospital.

Health Secretary York Chow said Friday he was particularly worried about the latest H5N1 infection as it had occurred in a city-dweller with no history of close or prolonged contact with poultry.

The fact that the infection occurred in the summer, rather than the winter like most other outbreaks, was a further cause for concern, Chow said.

"We have a suspicion, but we have not confirmed it yet, that the virus might have become more virulent and more widespread than we have expected. If that is the case, the risk for human to be infected in future is higher," he warned.

Humans are believed to contract the virus mainly from direct contact with infected animals. Scientists fear a global pandemic if the virus mutates and becomes easily transmissible between humans.

Chow said the authorities would continue to monitor the situation for similar cases, warning there might be more outbreaks among poultry and human infections in the coming winter.

The patient, a truck driver who remained critical in hospital, came down with fever and pneumonia-like symptoms on June 3. Test results released Thursday confirmed the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Investigation found he visited a local market where live poultry was sold several times before he became ill. None of the people who were in close contact with him had shown any symptoms, the authorities said.

He was the 19th human to have contracted the strain in China. Twelve of those cases have been fatal.

Hong Kong has been particularly concerned about the case in Shenzhen as thousands of people cross the border daily from Shenzhen and Guangdong province.

The Hong Kong government said it was maintaining temperature screening at immigration for all arrivals, with customs stepping up surveillance to combat smuggling of poultry into the territory.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died and more than two million poultry were culled.

But the southern Chinese territory has remained free of bird flu since early 2003 with stringent border control and reduction of the number of poultry imports from China.

More than 120 people worldwide have died from bird flu since it re-emerged as a threat in 2003, with most of the victims in Asia.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060616/hl_afp/healthfluhongkong_060616113639

[David_Lohr]

S Korea confirms outbreak of bird flu caused by H5N1 strain

www.chinaview.cn
2006-11-25

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government confirmed Saturday that an outbreak of bird flu in Iksan, 230 km south of Seoul, was caused by a highly virulent strain of H5N1 virus.

Tests conducted by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service showed that the outbreak has been caused by the H5N1 virus, said Lee Yang-ho, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The ministry said about 236,000 chickens and other animals within a 500-meter radius of the initially infected farm will be culled and buried, while a tight quarantine has been established around the affected area.

Full story:
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/25/content_5374171.htm

[David_Lohr]

What Can Be Done to Prevent a Bird Flu Epidemic

The Chosun Ilbo
12/07/06

Korea continues to see chickens die of avian influenza, and this time the infection is of a highly virulent strain, giving rise to concern that it could spread to humans. If people come down with the disease, how can they be treated? Is there a way to guard against the disease?

More treatment needed

The H5N1 virus that hit Korea only affects poultry such as ducks and chickens. In theory, it does not infect humans. As of the end of last month, however, 258 people worldwide had been infected with the virus and 153 had died. Scientists focus on the fact that the virus¡¯ RNA mutates more easily than DNA, hinting that it changed into a form that could affect humans as well. If it mutates further and spreads via human respiratory organs just like influenza, it could evolve into a disaster far worse than the Spanish Flu that claimed the lives of tens of millions of people in the early 20th century, some scientist speculate.

Flu treatments such as Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza are available. After bird flu first broke out here in 2003, the government started purchasing Tamiflu and has currently accumulated enough medication for 980,000 people. It is purchasing more for 20,000 people, but that still falls far short of the WHO recommendation of enough for 20 percent of the population, or 10 million in Korea¡¯s case. Fortunately, local drug manufacturer Yuhan was selected by Roche as one of its global licensees in April and is now able to produce Tamiflu here in an emergency.

Full Story:
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200612/200612070001.html

[bikerduck]

HANOI (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed five human bird flu cases in Vietnam, four of them fatal, the U.N. agency said in a statement.
The four, including two women, died between June 21 and August 3 while a fifth person, a 29-year-old man, had recovered, it said.

All five cases, which had been confirmed earlier by Vietnam-based laboratory tests, were from the country's north. They brought the total human infections in the Southeast Asian country since 2003 to 100 with 46 fatalities.

Three of Vietnam's 64 provinces -- two in the southern Mekong delta and one in the north -- are still on the government's current bird flu watchlist, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.

Bird flu has infected seven people in Vietnam so far this year and officials said the H5N1 virus could return in winter, starting in November.

The H5N1 virus remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world, killing millions.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 199 people out of 327 known cases, according to a WHO tally. Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070901/hl_nm/birdflu_vietnam_who_dc