Bird flu still a threat 10 years after leap to humans
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bird flu still a threat 10 years after leap to humans
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Blood samples are taken last week from birds in a Jakarta area where a
woman died of bird flu.
14 COUNTRIES, 346 INFECTIONS
Human cases and deaths caused by avian flu, H5N1, since 2002:
Country Cases Deaths
Azerbaijan 8 5
Cambodia 7 7
China 27 17 27 17
Djibouti 1 0
Egypt 41 16
Indonesia 116 94
Iraq 3 2
Lao People's Democratic Republic 2 2
Burma 1 0
Nigeria 1 1
Pakistan 1 1
Thailand 25 17
Turkey 12 4
Vietnam 101 47
Total 346 213
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
In Hong Kong, when a mysterious avian flu virus jumped from poultry to
people for the first time, killing six of the 18 people infected, world
health experts sounded the alarm. They warned that the stage was set for
a global flu pandemic.
That was 10 years ago, and the virus, known as H5N1, has not yet changed
in a way that would allow it to spread easily from person to person. But
health experts say the danger has not diminished.
"It is still a threat as long as we have transmission in poultry," says
flu expert Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan. "We have
absolutely no precedent of having had this transmit in the bird
population in so many different places, and having, almost every week,
reports of another human case."
Among the most recent infections in people reported by the World Health
Organization was the death of a man in Indonesia Dec. 13 and the first
case in Burma, also known as Myanmar, in a child who was hospitalized in
November and has recovered. The first confirmed case in Pakistan
involved the death of a 25-year-old man Nov. 28 whose brother, a
veterinarian, became sick after culling infected poultry. The vet, whose
infection with H5N1 is suspected but not confirmed, recovered.
In 1997, officials in Hong Kong, hoping to stamp out the virus, ordered
all chickens in the territory, more than 1 million, to be slaughtered.
That action, led by the city's health director, Margaret Chan, who is
now director-general of WHO, appeared to work, and the virus receded.
But it re-emerged in China in 2003 and began to spread.
Since 2003, WHO has confirmed 346 infections in 14 countries, and 213
deaths.
The virus has traveled far: It has turned up in countries in Asia,
Africa, Europe and the Middle East, says Tim Uyeki, a medical
epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Just in 2007, we've seen the first reports of human cases in Laos,
Nigeria and Burma," he says. Cases tend to coincide with poultry
outbreaks and spike in winter, he says, "so it would not be surprising
to see cases increasing."
Uyeki says the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 has never turned up in
North America in wild birds, poultry or people. And because of
heightened awareness of the pandemic threat, governments around the
world have started to prepare.
"There has been a lot of progress in this area, but more needs to be
done," Uyeki says. "We need much better collaboration, communication and
sustained funding for strengthening of both animal health surveillance
and public health surveillance."
Scientists are monitoring strains of the ever-evolving virus so if it
does become easily contagious, pandemic preparations can move into high
gear.
Indonesia has the most cases: 116 people infected, of whom 94 have died.
But health officials there have balked at sharing virus samples,
believing they could be used to create a vaccine the country might not
be able to afford. "WHO, in recognition of this problem, is trying to
address this issue," Monto says, "but there has not been a satisfactory
conclusion."
Meanwhile, Uyeki says, preparedness for a flu pandemic should not stop.
"The risk continues, people continue to be infected, we've had new
countries affected and the mortality rate is higher than 60%," he says.
Though human infection with H5N1 is rare, especially compared with
seasonal flu that causes 36,000 deaths each year in the USA, he says,
"the pandemic threat is ongoing."