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| Southeast Asia |
| Alarm at human bird flu cluster |
| 2006-05-24 |
| The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is extremely worried about a cluster of recent human deaths from the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. Seven people from the same family in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, died from the disease earlier this month. Peter Cordingley, a WHO spokesman, said there was no sign of diseased poultry in the immediate area. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the virus was spread between humans, Mr Cordingley said. But he emphasised that there was no indication the virus had mutated. Experts are worried that if it does mutate, it could become more easily transmitted between humans. There are several other points of interest the article doesn't cover. Yesterday, here was another confirmed bird flu death in Bandung, Java, which has been a hotspot for bird flu cases. There is a lot of talk in the bird flu forums that there is a mammalian vector involved, possibly cats. The 'the virus hasn't mutated' statement is pure fluff for the masses. The bird flu virus mutates all the time and WHO actually said 'there are no significant mutations', which is another way of saying 'we have no idea how significant the 'mutations' that have occured, are'. Most significant of all, in Sumatra we appear to have a chain of 3 or 4 H2H transmissions. I speculated elsewhere that a (i.e. just one) chain of 10 H2H transmissions is required to start the pandemic. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #5 A Man fed his family on an infected chicken that was dead, or was dead for a while. Here in Guam, our local ranchers have known about Bird Flu since forever - we know enough to cut off any infected or discolored parts from a fresh live bird, usually a discolored head or head-neck, and cook the rest at very high heat. In my lifetime and memory, I know of no one whom has ever gotten sick, or ever came down wid any human form of the disease. FOR ME, THIS BIRD FLU PARANOIA IS JUST A PC REASON WHY GOVT HAS TO TAKE DE FACTO SOCIALIST OR HYPER-REGULATORY CONTROL OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY. Iff Socialists whom don't want to reform or share starve, proper Lefty Universlism-Equalism says everyone must starve as well, just for the heck of it. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-05-24 21:43 |
| #4 The significance of the no poultry link is that birds and mammals have evolved separately for 200 million years, as a result birds have significantly different biochemistry. A virus adapted to infect birds is not well adapted to infect mammals and humans. If the virus has become established in a mammal population, then it is that much closer to being able to efficiently transmit in humans, which this cluster appears to show. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-05-24 17:43 |
| #3 if it happens it happens excessivly worrying about it probably will age you faster. |
| Posted by: bk 2006-05-24 11:41 |
| #2 A wet bird never flies at night. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-05-24 11:37 |
| #1 Phil, yeah, maybe. A cluster of H2H transmission only creaetes a pandemic if it involves a significant number of unrelated people. This cluster is an extended family, who were all present at a family event on April 29. I'm thinking of this cluster as similar to a food poisoning outbreak after a family reunion. And, regardless of any H2H transmission, the index case had to have been exposed in some manner to infected poultry or to an infected something. Is it possible that the reason no sick poultry have been found is that the family ate them [it]? The pattern in other cases has been that sick poultry are immediately slaughtered for food. It's possible that everyone who knows what happened is dead. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-05-24 08:48 |