Executive Order: Amendment to E.O. 13295 Relating to Certain
Influenza Viruses and Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264(b)), it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Based upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Surgeon General, and for the purpose set forth in section 1 of Executive Order 13295 of April 4, 2003, section 1 of such order is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:GEORGE W. BUSH
"(c) Influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.".Sec. 2. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 1, 2005.
Executive Order: Amendment to E.O. 13295 Relating to Certain Influenza Viruses and Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
World Health Organization
20 March 2006
The Ministry of Health in Egypt has confirmed the country’s first case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
The case occurred in a 30-year-old woman from the Gaiubia governorate near Cairo. She developed symptoms in early March following close contact with diseased chickens, ducks, and a turkey in the household flock. She was hospitalized on 16 March and died the following day.
Monitoring of the woman’s family members and close contacts has found no signs of influenza-like illness.
Testing was conducted by the US Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU-3), which is based in Cairo. Samples are being sent abroad for diagnostic verification and further analysis by a WHO collaborating laboratory. WHO will adjust the figures in its cumulative number of cases following the results of this external verification.
Egypt confirmed its first H5N1 outbreak in poultry on 17 February. The virus has since been reported in 18 of the country’s 26 governorates. In Egypt, poultry are often kept in close proximity to households, also in urban areas.
WHO: 20 March 2006 Avian influenza – situation in Egypt
I know for a fact that I had seen a story floating around somewhere claiming that there had been 5 infected birds found in Canada. I wonder if that turned out to be some kind of misdiagnosis?
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Boston Herald
Scared sick? Not to worry
By Jessica Fargen
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Bird flu, mad cow disease, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), bacterial meningitis, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, avian flu pandemic.
So many diseases of the month, so many ways to die.
But given the media frenzy flogging these exotic afflictions - and in the wake of a top Bush official’s advice that we brace for a possible avian-flu pandemic by stocking up on tuna - how scared should we really be?
The answer, experts say, is hardly at all.
“There’s a gap between our fears and what the facts seem to be as best science knows them,” said David Ropeik, a risk communications instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“A new risk is scary because we don’t have experience to help give us perspective, so we protect ourselves with worry and precaution.”
Take the current strain of avian flu, H5N1. Worldwide it’s killed 93 people - out of 6.5 billion - with no cases yet in the United States.
Mad cow disease, meanwhile, has killed almost 150 people in Great Britain, but only three cases have been detected in U.S. cows.
Between them, EEE and bacterial meningitis killed five people last year in Massachusetts - five out of roughly 6.4 million Bay Staters.
West Nile virus struck six people in Massachusetts last year, killing one.
As for Lyme disease, health officials say it strikes at the rate of 23.7 per 100,000 people, with no fatalities reported in recent years.
On the other hand, experts estimate that a bird-flu pandemic could wipe out 20,000 people in Massachusetts alone.
But first the bird flu would have to mutate into a form that jumps from human to human. No one knows if or when an outbreak like that could strike.
Oddly enough, despite its higher fatality rate, pandemic flu is the one disease many people don’t seem to be worried about.
“We are wrapped up in our day-to-day life,” said Virginia Tritschler, director of risk quality and regulatory affairs at the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, which has worked on flu preparedness. “You’d probably find people more concerned about Katrina or a terrorist attack. Those are things that happened here. The flu has not.”
Heather Kennaway said she tries not to worry about the pandemic flu and wouldn’t even consider stockpiling tuna and powdered milk, as Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt suggested last week.
“It’s not something I think about,” said Kennaway, a 28-year-old South Boston resident. “I just think people get obsessed. I couldn’t live like that.”
An exotic bug like SARS - that’s a different story.
The respiratory disease killed 774 people around the globe in 2003, but failed to reach North America. But that didn’t stop people from being afraid.
“SARS spread as an idea far faster than it spread as an organism,” Harvard’s Ropeik recalled. “You have the first human-to-human case and it can be in New Guinea and people will be lining up at the hospital in Dorchester.”
Victoria Scavo contributed to this report.
Scared sick? Not to worry
Public Health Agency of Canada
The Respiratory Virus Detection Surveillance System reports on respiratory viruses in Canada. Each week, selected laboratories report numbers of tests performed and numbers positive for Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Parainfluenza, and Adenovirus to the Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division (IRID), Public Health Agency of Canada. From these reports are generated the following tables and graphs:
PDF File: Week 10 - Ending March 11, 2006 New 6 Pages - 203 KB
Public Health Agency of Canada: Respiratory Virus Detections/Isolations in Canada
Last Updated: 2006-03-15
Pandemic Flu.gov How Migratory Birds Blanket North America
Get Informed. Be Prepared.
One stop access to U.S. Government avian and pandemic flu information. Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Flyway map demonstrates how migratory birds blanket North America. [Credit: USFWS]
PandemicFlu.gov
[Note: Numbers are confirmed by World Health Organization and may not reflect news or country reports.]
Confirmed Human Cases by Country
PandemicFlu.gov
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Moral to this story; If you choke your chicken, wear gloves and a mask.
As New Orleans flooded, Chertoff discussed avian flu in Atlanta
WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the U.S. official with the power to order a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina, flew to Atlanta for a previously scheduled briefing on avian flu on the morning after the storm swept ashore.
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