Oct 05 Health Alerts
Bird flu updates, Vietnam
Monday, 31 October, 2005
In the Vietnam central province of Quang Binh two deaths have been reported with a hospital spokesman saying that the critical symptoms pointed to bird flu. Although there is no confirmation reports of these two deaths have been widely published
Bird flu updates, Greece.
Monday, 31 October, 2005
The good news is that tests on birds suspected of carrying the H5N1 virus on a Greek Aegean island has turned out to be negative prompting Greek authorities to lift restrictions.
Reunion Island case NOT bird flu
Friday, 28 October, 2005
Three residents of the Atlantic island of Reunion who had returned from a holiday in Thailand became sick with a feverish illness. Because they had visited a bird park they were suspected of having the bird flu virus. The results on the first case have now been announced from Paris confirming that it is influenza but not the H5N1 avian influenza. Results on the other two cases are expected today.
With all countries on the alert for outbreaks of avian influenza in birds as well as for cases of human infection we must expect a proliferation of media reports when suspicion arises.
For example bird flu has been suspected on Bali because some birds have dropped dead in a village on the outskirts of Denpasar. This could well be a problem of Newcastle disease but results of tests are awaited.
Avian influenza recent news
Thursday, 27 October, 2005
There have been two confirmed outbreaks in China, one in Anhui notified on 24 October the other reported a day later involving chickens and ducks in the village of Wangtang in Xiantang county. An inactivated vaccine has now been used in China in response to this outbreak. At the other end of the Eurasian continent alarm has arisen in the European Union by finding signs of the virus (as yet unconfirmed) in 2 dead migratory birds at a lake Neuwied in Germany. In France an order now applies in 21 departments to keep all poultry and game birds to be locked indoors.
Bird Flu Europe spread
Monday, 17 October, 2005
The H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza was confirmed earlier this month to be present in poultry in Turkey and almost at the same time the disease was notified from Romania. The genetic makeup of the virus isolated from the Turkey cases was similar to the that of the cases found in the Novosibirsk area of Russia earlier this year. Now a news report on 14 October refers to at least 80 birds dead from an as yet unidentified cause on a farm in the Kosovo village of Vustria. Urgent surveillance of waterfowl is underway in Turkey and Romania. The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health of the European Union met on Friday October 14 and was expected to approve a series of preventive measures.
Avian Influenza Indonesia
Saturday, 8 October, 2005
Indonesia cumulatively has had nearly 90 human cases under observation for suspected bird flu, but most have proved negative. Health officials suspect avian influenza to be the cause of 6 deaths since July 2005 but so far the WHO-designated reference laboratory in Hong Kong has confirmed only 4 of these. The virus has spread to 22 provinces out of 33 in Indonesia, killing more than 10 million domesticated birds since late 2003. One of the difficulties in controlling the disease is that a large number of people in both rural and urban areas of the country keep a few chickens and other livestock.
