[kdono]

Interestingly, last February it was a report of fatal H5N1 infections in Hong Kong in a family that had visited Fujian Province, that initiated the investigation that subsequently discovered SARS.

This outbreak is in Korea and is the same subtype (H5N1) as the fatal infection in Hong Kong last year. This outbreak clearly has had a major inpact on the chickens (19,000 died and the remaining 5,000 were destroyed).

Fujian Province is just north of Guangdong Province, the origin and epicenter for SARS, but it is quite some distance from Korea.

As noted above, ProMed editor was not particularly pleased with the development.

[kdono]

From last years report

http://www.who.int/docstore/wer/pdf/2003/wer7809.pdf

Influenza A(H5N1), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China – update 1

As of 20 February 2003, the Department of Health in Hong Kong SAR confirmed that a 33-year-old man, who died in hospital in Hong Kong on 17 February, had been infected with a strain of the influenza A(H5N1)virus.

A nasopharyngeal swab taken from the man and tested in the Government Virus Unit was positive for influenza A(H5N1). The 33-year-old man is the second confirmed case of influ-enza A(H5N1) virus related to this outbreak in Hong Kong SAR. The man is known to have been the father of the 9-year-old boy reported as testing positive for influenza A(H5N1) on 19 February. Both cases had travelled to Fujian Province (China) in January. Two other members of the family who accompanied them to Fujian in January have also been unwell. The mother of the family has now made a full recovery; the other affected member of the family (an 8-year-old girl) died on 4 February in Fujian Province. The health authorities in Hong Kong SAR are continuing labo-atory and epidemiological investigations to determine the source of infection of this outbreak. Further laboratory tests, including gene sequencing, are being conducted. The Department of Health in Hong Kong has reported that no unusual increase in influenza activity has been detected over the past few weeks.

WHO is in close contact with the health authorities in Beijing, China and in Hong Kong, SAR. The WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network has been alerted, and additional reagents for laboratory diagnosis are being made available to National Influenza Centres and other members of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

[tsmith130]

Generally chickens and turkeys exhibit severe depression...

Huh!?

[kdono]

FYI

[Justa]

"Date of initial detection of... animal health incident: 11 Dec 2003.

Isn't this better suited for posting on PETA's website?

[txhurl]

Thank you. Stands to reason that any fatal bug transmissible to humans is also transmissible back to birds, the canaries in the coalmines.

Also raises some interesting evolutionary questions, but we'll leave that alone.. :)

[11B3]

Quick, open the borders!!! That'll help us avoid any of these pandemics.