april 08 Health Alerts
Egypt Update
16/04/08
The Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt has announced a new human case of avian influenza. The case is a 30-year-old female from Al-Matarya, Cairo Governorate. She developed symptoms on 2 April, was hospitalized and died on 11 April. The case was confirmed as being infected with A(H5N1) by the Central Public Health Laboratories and by Cairo-based US Naval Medical Research Unit 3. Investigations into the source of her infection indicate a history of contact with sick and dead poultry.
Of the 49 cases confirmed to date in Egypt , 22 have been fatal.
Human to human transmission of H5N1 virus infection
14/04/08
An interim statement.
There is good evidence from two recent reports that limited transmission of the bird flu virus between humans does occur. This was first suspected in clusters of cases in Sumatra and in Thailand and Cambodia two years ago, and again in Vietnam last year, but the possibility then that patients had actually been infected from poultry could not be excluded. In the situation in Peshawar , Pakistan referred to in the Alert posted on this site on 3 rd April it is apparent that there was no contact with sick birds in three confirmed cases who were in direct close contact with a family member who had acquired the infection from poultry. Now in a report released on Tuesday 7 th April (and published in The Lancet ) Chinese health officials have shown from detailed history and virological studies that a father caught bird flu from his son last December in Jiangsu province. At the time officials from the World Health Organization said they could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human transmission; the current Chinese report has confirmed that this happened.
Follow up of contacts of the Pakistan and China cases beyond the known incubation period of avian influenza has shown that no further spread of infection has occurred
Another Indian state infected
08/04/08
As well as West Bengal the state of Tripura has now shown to be infected , the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal confirming a positive result for Avian Influenza in a sample collected from poultry in a village in Tripura just half a kilometer from the international border with Bangladesh
More trouble in Tibet
07/04/08
An outbreak of bird flu has occurred at a poultry farm in Tibet , resulting in the deaths of at least 268 fowl, China 's Ministry of Agriculture said Monday [7 April]. Tests on dead birds at the farm in the village of Zhuba in Qamdo county revealed the virus was the H5N1 strain, according to an announcement on the ministry's website. The outbreak was reported to authorities last Friday [4 April], the ministry said, adding that it had been contained but providing no further details.
Human cases in Indonesia - WHO update
02/04/08
The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced three new cases of human H5N1 avian influenza infection. The cases are not linked epidemiologically. The first is a 15-year-old male student from Subang District, West Java Province who developed symptoms on 19 March, was hospitalized on 22 March and died on 26 March .
The second case is an 11-year-old female student from Bekasi City , West Java Province who developed symptoms on 19 March, was hospitalized on 23 March and died on 28 March.
The third case is a 21-month-old female from Bukit Tinggi, West Sumatra Province who developed symptoms on 17 March, and was hospitalized on 22 March. She is presently recovering in hospital.
The source of infection for all three cases is still under investigation.
Of the 132 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia , 107 have been fatal.
WHO UPDATE situation in Pakistan - update 2
03/04/08
Two additional H5N1 cases were confirmed by serological testing, thus providing final H5N1 infection test results on a previously reported family cluster in Peshawar.
These tests were conducted by the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory in Cairo , Egypt and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Atlanta , USA . The table below summarises the testing results of the confirmed/probable cases in the family cluster.
• The preliminary risk assessment found no evidence of sustained or community human to human transmission.
• All identified close contacts including the other members of the affected family and involved health care workers remain asymptomatic and have been removed from close medical observation.
These laboratory test results support the epidemiological findings from the outbreak investigation in December 2007, and the final risk assessment that suggested limited human to human transmission likely occurred among some of the family members which is consistent with some human-to-human transmission events reported previously. This outbreak did not extend into the community, and appropriate steps were taken to reduce future risks of human infections.
Relationship |
Onset Date |
Outcome |
Exposure |
Status |
Case 1 |
29 Oct 07 |
Fully recovered |
Direct contact sick/dead poultry |
Confirmed (serology) |
Case 2 |
12 Nov 07 |
Dead (19 Nov 07) |
Close contact with Case 1, |
Probable |
Case 3 |
21 Nov 07 |
Dead (28 Nov 07) |
Close contact with Case 1 and 2, |
|
Case 4 |
21 Nov 07 |
Fully recovered |
Close contact with Case 1 and 2, |
Confirmed (serology) |
South Korea confirms new outbreak
03/04/08
South Korea has confirmed that an outbreak of bird flu that killed poultry at a farm in Gimje, 260 kilometres south of capital Seoul is the deadly H5N1 strain according to the Yonhap news agency report late Thursday 3 rd April.
The owner began reporting the deaths to health authorities on Monday. Authorities immediately sealed off the location and barred any shipment of chickens or eggs to and from the farm, as well as to 12 other nearby farms.
South Korea reported seven outbreaks of infection by the H5N1 strain between November 2006 and March last year but last June the World Organisation for Animal Health classified the country free from the disease. There have been no reports of human infection in South Korea.
