Posted on 10/20/2005 11:36:05 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A 48-year-old Thai man has become the 67th person known to have been killed by a bird flu virus that has been moving steadily from Asia into Europe since re-emerging in South Korea in 2003, officials said on Thursday.
Concern about the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu centers on scientists' fears that it may mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a pandemic that may kill millions.
Possible clusters of bird flu among members of one family in Indonesia have raised concern among health experts that this feared mutation may be happening.
"With the increase of clusters the possibility has to be thoroughly examined that the virus might have changed and could possibly spread from human to human," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari was quoted as saying by the state news agency.
A father and son are being treated at a Jakarta hospital for symptoms of the virus but the diagnosis has not been confirmed.
All the human deaths from avian flu have so far been in Asia but the H5N1 strain, carried by migrating birds, was detected this month in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania.
In Brussels, the European Union said more tests on samples from dead birds were needed to determine whether Greece had become the first EU country to be hit by the virus.
Both France and Italian poultry producers tried to reassure consumers on Thursday, after a food industry body said poultry sales had fallen by 20 percent because of fears of bird flu.
"There is absolutely no danger from eating poultry products in France," France's Farm Ministry said in a statement. "The Asian (bird flu) virus is not present in France."
"Our country is self-sufficient -- it produces more than it consumes and it does not import from areas hit by the virus," said Aldo Muraro, head of the Italian poultry producers union.
"And -- as international and Italian experts have said, the virus is transmitted through contact with infected animals, not by eating chicken," Muraro added.
Germany has ordered poultry to be kept in pens and Poland has said domestic fowl must be kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds.
COPING WITH PANDEMIC
In Ottawa, Canada's top public health expert said the world was both better and worse equipped to cope with a pandemic now than it was for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million people worldwide.
"... we are better prepared, we have better knowledge, we are -- at least in our part of the world -- healthier than people were in 1918," chief public health officer David Butler-Jones told a news conference.
"The challenges lie in the rapidity of travel and ability of diseases to move quickly around the world..." he said.
Major drug companies have drawn up plans to produce large quantities of vaccine as soon as possible after any mutation of the virus into a form that moves easily between humans.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told a news conference the latest human death was in Kanchanaburi province, which reported new outbreaks of avian influenza this week.
"The guy was infected with bird flu because he took a sick chicken, slaughtered it and then ate it," Thaksin said.
Health authorities do not consider eating well-cooked chicken meat to be a risk, but contact with infected chickens or ducks is a known method of transmission.
Bang-on Benpad was the first Thai killed by the disease in a year, and the first human fatality since an Indonesian woman died last month. The virus has killed at least 44 people in Vietnam, 13 in Thailand, six in Indonesia and four Cambodians.
Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general at the Department of Disease Control, said the dead man's son, who had been in close contact with chickens, had so far not tested positive.
The H5N1 strain appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, re-emerged in 2003 in South Korea and spread through Asia to Europe's borders.
In Africa, Sudan and Tanzania joined Kenya and Comoros in banning some or all poultry imports. But experts say migrating birds could soon bring bird flu to East Africa's Rift Valley lakes, where rural poor are already hit by AIDS and malaria.
While countries in Europe and Africa struggle to keep the disease out, Asian nations have been battling new outbreaks.
Vietnam, which has been vaccinating millions of poultry, reported its first outbreak in poultry since July.
"We have just slaughtered and buried all the 180 ducks after tests showed they had the bird flu virus," said Nguyen Van Giam, chairman of the People's Committee in Ninh Quoi A commune.
In China, where there have been no human cases, the Foreign Ministry confirmed H5N1 in 2,600 birds at a poultry farm in Inner Mongolia, but said the outbreak had been wiped out.
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi of the World Health Organization in Beijing told Reuters China had culled 91,100 birds and vaccinated 166,000 more.
Taiwan's Agriculture Council said it had found infected birds in a container smuggled from China, the island's first case since late 2003.
(Additional reporting by bureaux in Jakarta, Hanoi, Beijing, Taipei, Paris, London, Belgrade, Khartoum and Dar Es Salaam)
This thread is for the birds.
You could put "fears mutation" into every avian flu headline.
Possible clusters of bird flu among members of one family in Indonesia have raised concern among health experts that this feared mutation may be happening.
Here we go the sky is falling.
Then it is confirmed: We are all going to die.
That IS chilling. The fear was that mutation is more likely to occur in Asia.
Poland has said domestic fowl must be kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds.
ping
I'm betting his friends call him "Pan Gump".
Chicken Little;)
When a household comes down with this strain of flu where no members have physical contact with chickens or other fowl, then will be the time to worry.
I was thinging "Pan Fried Rat"
Nope...too many syllables...but for some reason I'm suddenly hungry.
"I will punish him with plague and bloodshed and send torrential rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone against him and his hordes and against the many nations with him. I mean to display my greatness and holiness and to compel the many nations to acknowledge me; this is how I will teach them that I am God." (Ez.38:22-23).
I don't know, there are a few things missing.
Yes, the sluicegates above will open, and the foundations of the earth will rock. The earth will split into fragments. So heavy will be its sin on it, it will fall never to rise again." (Is.24:18-19).
"I will punish the world for its evil-doing, and the wicked for their crimes...This is why I am going to shake the heavens -- and make the earth reel from its place." (Is.13:11-13).
No brimestone, fire, earth splitting. Nope, this isn't the plague just yet.
If you switch the "n" and "d", and consider he was sick before he died, you have "bang-on bedpan".
ROFLMAO
>>>That IS chilling. The fear was that mutation is more likely to occur in Asia.>>>
I think it's because the virus would have existed there longer since it basically started there.
Seems like we have a bird flu 'fear' every few years or so. A few years ago we had a 'foot and mouth disease' fear. And SARS. The media, keeping our blood pressure up as usual.
They do eat chickens feet over there..go figure.
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