Monday, January 15, 2007
Something was strange about a little brown bird found dead with bird flu on New Year's Eve in one of Hong Kong's busiest shopping districts.
The bird - a scaly-breasted munia - usually lives in rural areas. So what was it and five others doing flitting around in such a bustling, crowded area - possibly exposing some of the thousands of locals and tourists to the deadly virus?
Experts think the bird may have been a prop in a Buddhist ritual that involves freeing hundreds of birds to improve one's karma. As the threat of bird flu reemerges in Asia, the government finds itself in the awkward position of urging that the religious practice be stopped to protect the public's health.
The fear deepened Saturday when the government disclosed a dead crested goshawk - which preyed on small birds including the scaly-breasted munia - found on a hill in Shek Kip Mei January 9 also tested positive to the H5 avian flu strain.
Hong Kong is extremely alert about potential disease outbreaks - especially bird flu. The illness first appeared here in 1997 when it jumped to humans and killed six people. That prompted the government to slaughter the entire poultry population of 1.5 million birds.
Since then, the disease has largely spared this city of 6.9 million people.
When health officials discovered that the scaly-breasted munia found on New Year's Eve tested positive for the H5 virus, they held a televised news conference. A few days later, they said further tests showed the bird had the deadly H5N1 strain.
The scaly-breasted munia is native to Hong Kong, but it is usually found in tussocks in rural areas, said Lew Young, a manager at the Mai Po bird sanctuary.
"Six scaly-breasted munias being found dead at the same spot at one time easily leads one to suspect whether they were being released," he said.
The birds are commonly used in the Buddhist ceremonies, Young added.
"They are usually transported to Hong Kong from the mainland in boxes. If one of the birds is sick, the rest are likely to be sick as well since they are crammed in one box," he said.
Aidia Chan, a postgraduate student in ecology, said the bird-freeing ritual is held often. Chan studied the releases for her thesis last year at Hong Kong University.
She contacted 229 religious groups and 48 admitted they released birds to seek blessings. The groups practiced the ritual one to 18 times each year, releasing as many as 3,000 birds each time.
"Based on the figures they gave me, I estimate they have released a range of 400,000 to 600,000 birds in 2006," Chan said.
"There are also people who buy and release birds individually, and there's no way for me to quantify them. There should be more than 48 groups."
Figures from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department showed 38,000 munia species - including white-backed munia and scaly- breasted munia - were imported into Hong Kong last year.
Hong Kong tested 11,000 birds for the H5 strain of bird flu last year and 17 were positive.
One Buddhist group said many of its followers had stopped releasing birds since the outbreak of bird flu in the city.
"Some of the followers do not feel comfortable getting in touch with birds since bird flu cases were reported. They were worried the birds might be infected," said Winnie Lam of the Hong Kong Buddhist Cultural Association.
Lam recalled they would free more than 1,000 birds at one time as part of the ritual, but have now switched to releasing hundreds of fish into the sea each month. "We believe releasing life can build up one's benevolence and life belongs to nature," Lam said.
The government has called on the public not to release birds as they have little chance of surviving in the wild. But it declined to comment whether the administration has considered a complete ban on releasing birds.
Young said while releasing life is a virtuous deed, people should realize the birds were caught somewhere else before they could be released to perform the ritual.
"It may take more than 150 [caught birds] to provide 100 birds," he said.
"Many might have died before they were delivered in Hong Kong. So are they doing a good cause?"
Bird flu 'buddies' plan
Jo Revill, health editor
Sunday January 14, 2007
The Observer
Everyone in Britain will be asked to name a friend or relative who would be willing to bring them life-saving medication in the event of a flu pandemic.
Under a national pandemic plan being unveiled this week, patients who fall ill with symptoms of a highly virulent form will rely on their 'bird flu buddies' to bring them emergency Tamiflu tablets, rather than a doctor or nurse.
Government planners believe the NHS would soon be overwhelmed if healthcare staff had to see every sick person before handing out packets of the antiviral medication that can lessen the complications of pandemic flu.
The tablets need to be given ideally within 12 hours of the appearance of symptoms, which include a very high temperature and difficulties with breathing.
The bird flu virus, H5N1, is endemic in many parts of the Far East, but has not yet changed into a form capable of spreading easily between people, which would then cause a global pandemic.
However, Margaret Chan, the new head of the World Health Organisation, has warned that the risk is higher than ever given recent deaths in Indonesia, and that countries need to look at how to ensure that treatment would reach people easily.
The new model of care would come into action if H5N1 starts to mutate and shows signs of spreading between people. Everyone in Britain will be asked by their local primary care trust to name a friend or relative who could be called on for help in a pandemic.
If or when the pandemic arrives in Britain, people who fall ill would ring a helpline and, if their symptoms match those of pandemic flu, the 'buddy' would be contacted and asked to collect the medication from a central depot and deliver it as quickly as possible to their friend.
Anyone who is seriously ill would either receive a home visit or be sent to an influenza centre - a new medical facility which would deal only with those suffering from complications, which could include people with heart disease or diabetes, or young children.
Under current predictions that around 35 per cent of people would catch the virus, the numbers falling ill are likely to run into several million. Although most would recover, around a third of those affected would have a complication and a further 3 per cent would need hospital care.
A Department of Health spokeswoman confirmed that it was looking at a new model of emergency care. 'This would be a unique situation for the country, and we will be asking people to take a personal and social responsibility for their care.
The NHS won't be able to do everything, so we would ask people to identify a friend or member of their family to collect the medication if they are symptomatic.'