will the coming winter be SARS stuff????? Bird Flu Pandemic Concerns International Scientist


PARENTS ARE FROM BBCMF ,,,#Board-3665

Bird Flu Pandemic Concerns International Scientist

CDC link on bird flu
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/

Bird flu may be spread indirectly, WHO says By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Thu Jan 17, 8:22 AM ET



The H5N1 bird flu virus may sometimes stick to surfaces or get kicked up in fertilizer dust to infect people, according to a World Health Organization report published on Wednesday.

The WHO team reviewed all known human cases of avian influenza, which has infected 350 people in 14 countries and killed 217 of them since 2003, and found that 25 percent of cases have no explanation.

Most are passed directly from bird to people, they noted in their report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And very rarely one person can infect another -- always close relatives via intimate physical contact.

"In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible," the researchers, led by WHO's Dr. Frederick Hayden, wrote.

"For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market."

It could be that small particles of virus-contaminated fluid stuck to surfaces, they said. Or perhaps fertilizer made from infected bird feces somehow carried the virus into people's noses or mouths.

"It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract," they wrote.

"In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces."

Government and health officials have stressed that well-cooked chicken cannot infect people. "Drinking potable water and eating properly cooked foods are not considered to be risk factors, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk," the WHO team of bird flu experts noted.

ENDEMIC IN BIRDS

H5N1 is considered entrenched in parts of Asia, including Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East. It pops up frequently in Europe and has prompted the slaughter of hundreds of millions of chickens.

The researchers noted that people only rarely become infected. The fear is that the virus will mutate into a strain that passes easily from one person to another, setting off a pandemic that could kill millions of people in the space of a few months.

"After exposure to infected poultry, the incubation period generally appears to be 7 days or less, and in many cases this period is 2 to 5 days," the WHO team wrote.

"In clusters in which limited, human-to-human transmission has probably occurred, the incubation period appears to be approximately 3 to 5 days, although in one cluster it was estimated to be 8 to 9 days."

It usually causes severe pneumonia and tests suggest that it rarely or never infects people without causing symptoms.

Avian flu kills on average within nine to 10 days and has killed 61 percent of victims.

Quick use of antiviral drugs can save lives, they noted, although some strains of the virus are more treatable than others with Tamiflu, the drug of choice to treat influenza. It is made by Roche Holdings AG and Gilead Sciences under the generic name oseltamivir.

BERLIN (Reuters) - An outbreak of deadly bird flu has been identified in a southern German poultry farm, a spokeswoman for Bavaria's environment ministry said on Saturday.


The spokeswoman said dead ducks from the farm in Wachenroth in Bavaria's Erlangen-Hoechstadt area had tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be lethal for people living in close contact with birds.

All 160,000 birds in the farm would be culled, the ministry spokeswoman said. The farm has been sealed off.

Local authorities had earlier said the farm contained some 44,000 birds. Officials discovered the infection after more than 400 ducks at the farm died over a short period of time.

Germany identified several cases of the deadly H5N1 strain in wild birds in Bavaria in June. A string of bird flu infections were also registered in Germany last year.

Earlier this week, Russia banned poultry imports from Italy to prevent the spread of bird flu after outbreaks there.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 195 people out of 322 known cases, according to the World Health Organization. Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.

The vast majority of bird flu deaths have been in Asia. No deaths have yet been registered in the European Union.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers studying bird flu viruses said on Thursday they may have come up with a way to vaccinate people before a feared influenza pandemic.


Experts have long said there is no way to vaccinate people against a new strain of influenza until that strain evolves. That could mean months or even years of disease and death before a vaccination campaign began.

But a team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland and the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta said they may have found a short-cut.

The vaccine might protect people against the mutation that would change the H5N1 avian flu virus from a germ affecting mostly birds to one that infects people easily, the NIAID's Dr. Gary Nabel and colleagues report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"If we can define what changes need to be made to make that jump then we can target the immune system to that spot on the virus," Nabel said in a telephone interview.

"It gives us a chance to develop vaccines or monoclonal antibodies ... to really work in a preemptive way to be prepared."

Monoclonal antibodies, often used against cancer, are engineered immune system proteins that specifically attack proteins on a tumor or, in this case, on the flu virus.

"While nobody knows if and when H5N1 will jump from birds to humans, they have come up with a way to anticipate how that jump might occur and ways to respond to it," National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said in a statement.

LEARNING FROM DISASTER

H5N1 remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world. It has occasionally infected people, killing 192 people out of 319 known cases since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

To better try and understand the threat, researchers have studied various strains of H5N1 and compared them to the worst known flu virus ever -- the H1N1 virus that killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people in 1918 and 1919.

They found a mutation that makes one strain of the H1N1 virus more easily infect birds, and another one prefer humans. It lies in the part of the virus that attaches to cells in the respiratory tract.

They then made the same alteration in an H5N1 virus, and vaccinated mice with some of this genetically engineered H5N1 DNA.

hi carlos, i updated the ibox.

Grocery industry prepares for bird flu By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 19, 12:07 AM ET



Stocking up on food is as simple as a trip to the grocery store, a veritable land of plenty for Americans. But will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes?

For Becky Jones of Omaha, who stocks up once a week for her family of three, the prospect of not having access to food is frightening. She said most people, herself included, only have food on hand for three or four days.

Unlike other critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and health care, the food industry isn't getting much help from state and federal governments when it comes to disaster planning. That puts the burden on individual supermarket chains and wholesalers to deal with a potentially large number of sick workers that could affect store operations and disrupt the food supply.

"The industry is actively thinking through contingency plans, so if it should happen, our members would be well prepared to deal with it," said Tim Hammonds, president of the Food Marketing Institute, an advocate for grocery wholesalers and retail supermarkets nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates a third of the population could fall ill if the H5N1 strain of the bird flu mutates into a form that spreads easily from person to person. It's not clear if that will ever happen and no human cases of bird flu have ever been traced to eating properly cooked poultry or eggs.

But if a pandemic emerges, the Department of Homeland Security projects worker absenteeism to reach 40 percent or more over a prolonged period. Hammonds said retail food stores would have to contend with worker shortages and disruptions in the supply chain.

The food and agriculture industry is listed among 13 critical-infrastructure sectors that the Department of Homeland Security says must remain functional during a pandemic.

"Having those critical facilities open — like power, water, food — becomes very important" during a national disaster such as a pandemic, said Keith Hanson, an outreach coordinator for Nebraska's Center for Biopreparedness Education.

Hanson works with local businesses, helping test their preparedness plans. He will speak about the importance of that testing at the Public Health Preparedness Summit in Washington, an annual conference designed to help public health workers prepare for emergencies. This year's meeting started Friday and ends Feb. 23.

Hanson said continued operations of power and water utilities are of the utmost importance, but grocery stores rank highly too. That's because people today keep less food on hand, opting instead to make weekly trips to the grocery store.

Americans are also dining out more than they have in the past. Money spent on food prepared outside the home rose from 34 percent of total food costs in 1974 to about 50 percent in 2004, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Food Marketing Institute's Hammonds said a widespread pandemic will likely cause food consumption to shift away from restaurants and fast-food establishments and toward in-home eating, causing a greater demand for groceries.

"That means stores would need to be prepared for an increase in volume," he said.

Hy-Vee, a West Des Moines, Iowa-based supermarket chain that operates more than 200 stores in the Midwest, does not have a disaster plan developed in the event of avian flu. But company spokeswoman Chris Friesleben said the company keeps abreast of the illness through the Food Marketing Institute.

"The food supply is essential to the well-being of the community," said Hammonds. "We've been through a lot about what we need to do as a supermarket."

That includes urging wholesalers and retailers to talk with their suppliers about alternative sources for their products and to anticipate what products will be in high demand in a pandemic situation, such as medicines and food staples.

Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc., said a company task force was formed more than a year ago to develop an operating plan in the event of a national disaster. The plan specifically addresses bird flu, examines areas that could be affected and how the company could respond, she said.

ConAgra is one of the nation's largest food companies, with brand names that include ACT II popcorn, Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Marie Callender's, Egg Beaters and Orville Redenbacher's.

The company employs about 27,000 people, but Homeland Security projections indicate that number could fall to 16,200 during a pandemic.

Childs said such worker shortages and difficulties with suppliers getting their products to ConAgra plants were among the potential problems the company identified. She did not disclose how the company would address those issues.

The federal government and public health agencies are urging people to stock up on nonperishable food, like canned goods and dried fruit, to ensure they have to food to eat during a pandemic.

Jones, the Omaha woman, said that's a proactive approach, but was worried that people with limited incomes may not be able to afford a large stockpile of food.

She stopped short of calling for the government to oversee the food industry's pandemic planning, but said, "If they see a crisis that is on the horizon, they do have to give us some type of warning."

___

On the Net:

Food Marketing Institute: http://www.fmi.org/foodsafety/avian_flu.htm

Center for Biopreparedness Education: http://www.bioprepare.org/

Pandemic flu information from the U.S. government: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

Only a matter of time.....

hi GS, this looks like it is making the rounds. starts in asia, europe and i see the u.k. now.

getting close to home.

hi Cb, good afternoon. u.k. is very serious about this one.

thanx for the article.

Turkeys culled as H5N1 bird flu found at British poultry farm
Feb 03 9:51 PM US/Eastern

Nearly 160,000 turkeys were being culled in Britain on Sunday after the country's first confirmed outbreak of the potentially lethal Asian strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry.
But despite stringent security measures now in place to prevent its spread, newspaper reports claimed farm bosses and the environment ministry did not act quickly enough after the first birds died.



The Sunday Telegraph claimed 71 birds at the farm in Holton, eastern England, died in unexplained circumstances last Tuesday but the matter was not reported to vets until Thursday, when more than 1,000 others had perished.

It also alleged that some of the farm's 1,000-strong workforce were allowed to walk around the site and its 22 turkey sheds for two days before their movements were restricted.

There was no immediate response from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) or the farm's operators Bernard Matthews, which is Europe's biggest turkey producer.

A Defra spokeswoman told AFP that a cull of 159,000 turkeys began late Saturday and was expected to take about two days.

Preliminary tests confirmed the presence of the H5 strain of bird flu late Friday. H5N1 was confirmed early Saturday and the virulent Asian strain similar to that found in Hungary last month later in the day.

Scientists fear that H5N1 -- which has killed more than 160 people globally since 2003, mostly in south-east Asia -- could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.


But British government scientists said the outbreak was being contained and posed no immediate danger to human health. Farmers and public health officials said well-cooked meat was still safe to eat.

As a precaution, farm workers and those involved in the cull have been given anti-viral drugs while vehicles using a neighbouring meat factory were disinfected.

A three-kilometre (1.8-mile) protection zone and 10-kilometre surveillance zone was put in place around the site. All poultry was ordered to be isolated from wild birds and any movement had to be licensed.

Defra widened the restriction zone late Saturday to cover an area of 2,090 square kilometres (810 square miles).

"Targeted surveillance" is also in place across large swathes of England, Wales and Scotland for H5N1 and other avian influenza viruses in wild birds.

Other measures introduced include the withdrawal of licences for bird shows or gatherings and a ban on pigeon racing.

Britain's national emergencies committee COBRA met twice Saturday to discuss the official response, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair's office told AFP.

It is not yet clear how H5N1 infected the animals, although Britain's deputy chief veterinary officer said he believed it had been carried by a wild bird.

The outbreak was found in only one of the turkey houses on the farm, which is in the heart of England's chicken and turkey-rearing region in East Anglia.

Bernard Matthews told customers there were strong biosecurity measures in place and said none of the affected birds had entered the food chain.

Last month's Hungarian outbreak of Asian strain H5N1 was detected among geese and was the first within the European Union since mid-2006.

The discovery led to the slaughter of 9,400 birds and a poultry export embargo from some neighbouring countries.

News of Britain's outbreak prompted the Dutch agriculture ministry to announce extra protective measures, Norway to impose an export ban on British poultry and France to evaluate the risk to its flocks.

In March 2006, a swan found in Cellardyke, on the east Scotland coast, became the first wild bird in Britain to be found to have the H5N1 variant of the virus.

LONDON - Britain confirmed its first outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu in a domestic flock on Saturday, saying the virus has been detected on a farm owned by Europe's largest turkey producer where 2,500 turkeys died.


As a precaution all 159,000 turkeys will be slaughtered on the farm in Holton in Suffolk, about 130 miles northeast of London, said Britain's Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg. He said he expects the outbreak to be contained.

Television news footage showed piles of slaughtered birds being funneled into an open tractor trailer before being taken away for incineration.

Landeg said the virus was detected in only one of 22 turkey sheds on the farm, which is owned by Bernard Matthews PLC.

Workers have been offered antiviral drugs and are wearing protective clothing, said Health Protection Agency virologist Maria Zambon. She added that the virus does not transmit easily to humans and has not been found to be transmitted through food.

Experts stressed the situation did not pose a public health threat.

The is the first instance of H5N1 in Britain since a wild swan in Scotland was found to have the virus in March. Turkeys and chickens are more susceptible to H5N1 than wild birds, who can carry the disease over long distances without showing symptoms.

"This virus is going to be in bird populations for years to come and the way in which we'll deal with it is by implementing the well-rehearsed plan to stamp it out at source," Dr. David Nabarro, the U.N. influenza coordinator, told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Bird flu has killed or prompted the culling of millions of birds worldwide since late 2003 when it first began ravaging Asian poultry stocks. It has killed at least 164 people worldwide, but remains difficult for humans to catch. Experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a global pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.

China Selects Three of Linkwell's Likang Disinfectant Products for Use in Foreign Aid Program
Thursday January 11, 8:30 am ET


SHANGHAI, CHINA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 11, 2007 -- Linkwell Corporation (OTC BB:LWLL.OB - News), a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of healthcare related disinfectants in China, today announced the Ministry of Health of China has selected three of Linkwell's subsidiary Likang's disinfectants for use in the deployment of its medial teams in its foreign aid program. The disinfectant products include 2% glutaraldehyde disinfectant, Dian'erkang Aerosol Disinfectant, and Lvshaxing disinfectant tablet.
Mr. Xuelian Bian, CEO and President of Linkwell Corp., stated, "We are honored that our disinfectant products are chosen by the Ministry of Health of China. This selection is further proof of the superior quality of our products and our leading position in the healthcare related disinfectant sector in China. We believe the selection will enhance our brand name as well as our exporting efforts worldwide. We look forward to closely working with the Ministry of Health of China in our efforts to expand the use of disinfectants in foreign aid as well as through domestic government programs."

About Linkwell Corporation

Linkwell Corporation (OTC BB:LWLL.OB - News) develops, manufactures, and distributes disinfectant healthcare products in China through its 90% owned subsidiary Shanghai Likang Disinfectant High Tech Company ("Likang"). Linkwell's disinfectant healthcare products are a nationally recognized domestic Chinese brand in this market segment. Linkwell products include disinfectants in liquid, tablet, powder and aerosol form. Through Likang, Linkwell has a national marketing and sales presence throughout all 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 special municipalities of China. All inventory and order fulfillment is carried in our 21,500 square foot facility in Shanghai's Jiading district. For more info about the company, please visit http://www.linkwell.us

The speed at which Indonesia has become the country with the most human bird-flu deaths has experts worried, but they say the pace will continue until the problem is tackled at the source. The country's 43 reported deaths in just over a year comes as the H5N1 virus spreads virtually unchecked among the billions of poultry in backyard farms throughout the vast archipelago. Indonesia became the nation hardest hit by bird flu after local tests concluded a 16-year-old boy from Jakarta's outskirts succumbed to the H5N1 virus late Monday.

China confirmed that a man died of bird flu in 2003, two years before the country reported its first human case of the disease. The 24-year-old soldier became ill in November 2003, and the Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site that it has "confirmed the case of H5N1." The death was first disclosed in June in a letter by Chinese researchers to a U.S. medical journal. It has raised questions about whether China failed to detect, or failed to report, an early human infection of bird flu.

I can see that...

hi GS, i sure they didn't want to panic the town people. so not much said about this since then.

Ahead of the Bell: Bird Flu
Wednesday January 10, 8:14 am ET
Companies Working on Bird Flu Treatment May Gain Amid New Concerns in Asia


NEW YORK (AP) -- Bird flu concerns swooped back into the news Wednesday, bringing companies trying to find treatments for the deadly virus back into focus.
The H5N1 bird flu virus typically spreads during traditional flu season as temperatures drop in winter months. The virus is transmitted mostly among birds, but has transferred to humans who are in close contact with them, and health officials fear the H5N1 strain may become pandemic in the future.

Some officials worry this year will be a repeat of last winter when the virus was reported in many countries for the first time, including India, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Niger, France and Egypt.

The virus killed a 14-year-old Indonesian boy on Wednesday, just days after he was hospitalized, and recently resurfaced in Vietnam after a year-long hiatus. China reported Wednesday that a Chinese farmer contracted the deadly H5N1 strain in December, but has recovered and been released from a hospital.

Several companies may see their shares climb on the heightened concerns, including pharmacutical company Novavax Inc., which licensed drug delivery technology last week from IGI Inc. for use in developing a bird flu vaccine.

The disease has claimed at least 157 lives worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

I don't think so...sorry for the late reply but just getting around to them....GLTY

hi GS____i saw this early morning. did they make any futher statements?

bird flu?

#msg-16049461

Kinda scarryyyyyyyyyyy

Bird deaths shut down downtown Austin By JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 39 minutes ago



AUSTIN, Texas - Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown early Monday after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets, but officials said preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the air.

ADVERTISEMENT

As many as 60 dead pigeons, sparrows and grackles were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a main route through downtown. No human injuries or illnesses were reported.

"We do not feel there is a threat to the public health," said Adolfo Valadez, the medical director for Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services. He said preliminary air-quality tests showed no dangerous chemicals and the area should reopen around noon.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said officials had no credible information to suggest any imminent threat to the city.

On Congress Avenue, just outside the state Capitol, emergency workers donned yellow hazardous-material suits Monday morning, and dozens of fire trucks and ambulances were parked nearby.

Workers were testing for any sort of environmental contaminant or gas or chlorine leaks that might have cause the bird deaths, said police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz. At least one bird carcass was being tested locally for other possible causes, and other carcasses were shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Texas A&M University.

Valadez said the tests on the dead birds would likely take several days and look for signs of poisoning or viral infections, though he said officials do not think bird flu is involved.

A 10-block stretch of Congress Avenue, several side streets and all buildings in the area were shut down and declared off-limits as a precaution, Chovanetz said.

The street closure stretched from just outside the Capitol to a section of the Colorado River known as Town Lake. The Capitol opened on schedule Monday, the day before the legislative session was to begin.

On the East Coast, New York City also had a scare Monday morning when a mysterious gas odor moved across Manhattan. It wasn't immediately clear what had caused the odor, and it dissipated fairly quickly. No injuries or damage to wildlife was immediately reported.

hi Cb, nice comments. gotcha this from jokes stuff.

_____http://www.ahajokes.com/new_years_jokes.html

hi Cb, GS, i have a happy new year in the ibox for us with some jokes to read.

Egypt reports third bird flu death in a week

CAIRO (Reuters) - A 26-year-old Egyptian man died of bird flu on Wednesday, the third member of his extended family to die of the virus, a World Health Organization (WHO) official told Reuters.

Brick factory worker Rida Farid Abdel Halim from the Nile Delta province of Gharbia had been in hospital for 10 days, Hassan el-Bushra, WHO regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance, said. The province is some 80 km (50 miles) north of Cairo.

thanx again for your valuable input for a possible pandemic flu breakout one day in the u.s.a.

I hope the but not use it that way....hard telling with them...

No I know of nobody at this time but will let you know if I do rrufff might be one?

me again GS, well said. i couldn't have said it any better.

we been preparing some for the pandemic flu but i don't think we have the antidote.

north korea said they have it.

would it be used as a power thing or something else?

do you know if anyone would like to assist me at this forum?

it ia about land real estate. #board-7770

Hello. I found it interesting and I think this year clould be big for the bird flu later on...I hate that is happening, as with anything like this, but mine as well make some $ on it... I try and avoid all products that uses egs and poultry products...I guess there are strains already in the uS...just not the deadly ones but if you had a strain and got another bad strain and it mutates, kind of like HIV, then you are in trouble IMO...GL and have a great summer holiday out there...cold nasty rainy here now coming...oh well, be in FL before long..gl

very nice article for information for the pandemic flu.

CBPC

#msg-15749428

hi GS, good morning.

Bird flu spreads in Vietnam

WATCH CBPC - http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=6973

HANOI (AFP) - Authorities in Vietnam have announced that bird flu had spread in two provinces in the southern Mekong delta, where massive outbreaks were first reported early this week.

Additional cases of the deadly H5N1 virus were detected in Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces, with nearly 8,300 poultry dead or culled, the national animal health department said on its website.

The two provinces were the first to report major outbreaks of bird flu in the communist nation within the past year. The virus had been identified in different locations in August but only a few storks were said to be killed.

"When poultry showed initial symptoms of bird flu, we culled them immediately without even waiting for the test results," said Dam Duy Thu, deputy head of the Bac Lieu provincial animal health department.

"We are closely monitoring the situation," he told AFP, adding that more than 160 poultry had been culled in Phuoc Long district on Thursday.

Authorities in the two provinces came under intense criticism by the agriculture ministry for failing to quickly detect and report the outbreaks.

Animal health officials in Ca Mau province refused to comment Friday.

The ministry asked all local authorities to step up monitoring for outbreaks of avian influenza and warned officials they could face sanctions if all necessary measures were not taken.

"Local authorities and animal health workers are responsible for monitoring the epidemic situation. Local authorities will bear full responsibility for any late detection of the outbreaks," it said on its website.

Vietnam has reported no human cases of bird flu since November 2005. The disease has killed 42 people in the country between late 2003 and late 2005.

World health experts have warned that the H5N1 virus could trigger a global pandemic if it were to mutate and become easily transmitted between humans.

hi GS, i own some of this GNBT

THEY HAVE A LOT ON THE PIPELINE.

GNBT is already steadily running, but they have their insulin products also...so I like it for both reasons IMO...GLTY

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have identified a gene in the H5N1 bird flu virus which they say is responsible for its virulence in poultry, opening the way for new vaccines.


There are many different strains of H5N1, some of which kill more than half the people they infect, while others do little or no harm.

"We can now understand how this virus becomes lethal and the molecular basis for its pathogenicity," Bu Zhigao at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute told Reuters.

The Chinese researchers zeroed in on the virulent gene after analyzing two closely related strains of the H5N1 obtained from infected geese in southern Guangdong province in 1996 -- one highly pathogenic in chickens and the other harmless.

Differences between the two strains were located in four genes, they found.

The scientists designed four genetically modified viruses each containing one of the four genes in question and tested them on laboratory chickens.

Only chickens infected with the modified virus containing the highly pathogenic gene died. The other chickens had no signs of disease, the scientists wrote in the November issue of the Journal of Virology.

"Now that we know the special role of the (highly pathogenic) NS1 gene, we can think about developing a vaccine," Bu said, adding that a vaccine which neutralizes the gene known as NS1 could be quickly designed.

"Technically, that can happen very soon, but it is the tests and other procedures that will take a long time."

The scientists are from the Ministry of Agriculture's Animal Influenza Laboratory, the National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute.

H5N1 remains largely a disease in birds although it has killed over 150 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. Experts fear that it can spark a pandemic and kill millions of people if it begins to transmit efficiently among humans.

hi GS, good evening. are ya doing any bargain hunting for da bird flu stuff?

Hu...Yes you can and it will just get worse over the next year IMO...GL

hi GS, nice comments and great article for bird flu. ya can tell it's that time of the year again.

#msg-14488769

hi cb, nice updates. been a little busy with some things most of the summer.

kind of down today with medical news from cathy's docs.

we will stay strong through thick and thin.

Drugs and fear: A new bird flu flurry
New strain discovery prompts concern among researchers; may spur languishing biotech treatment investment.
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
November 2 2006: 3:06 PM EST


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Scientists have discovered a new strain of bird flu that has infected humans in China, which could arouse fresh fears of a possible pandemic and spur further interest in experimental drugs and vaccines.

Dr. Robert Webster of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, along with other scientists from the U.S. and China, announced "the emergence and pre-dominance of a previously uncharacterized" sub-strain of bird flu, appearing in Chinese poultry since late 2005.


Related
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The scientists, who published their findings on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website, also reported that the sub-strain of H5N1, also known as bird flu, had "caused recent human infection in China." Researchers noted that some of these cases were residents of urban areas remote from poultry farms.

"The development of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses in poultry in Eurasia accompanied with the increase in human infection in 2006 suggests that the virus has not been effectively contained and that the pandemic threat persists," the researchers concluded.

Bird flu typically emerges in poultry and wild birds, but the often-fatal virus can be spread to humans who are in close contact with the infected birds. The virus emerged in Asia in 2003, and to date it has infected 256 humans and killed 151, with Vietnam and Indonesia accounting for the majority of cases, according to the World Health Organization.

But there have been only limited incidents of human-to-human transmission, with nothing sustainable. Human-to-human transmission is the greatest fear of health workers around the world, because strong cases of human-to-human transmission have the potential to spark a global pandemic, like the strain of influenza that killed tens of millions in 1918. Health and Human Services has estimated that a pandemic outbreak in the U.S. could kill up to 300,000 people.

And with more than 50 known strains of H5N1, the discovery of a new one doesn't necessarily mean the end is nigh, experts point out.

"I don't consider it that worrisome yet," said Ren Benjamin, biotech analyst for Rodman & Renshaw. "Once it mutates or becomes more pathogenic, then it becomes something to worry about. If you make the discovery that there's human-to-human [transmission,] then the red flag will go up."

Boon for biotechs?
Congress has approved $3.3 billion in funding for anti-viral drugs and vaccines to fight avian flu, less than half the $7.1 billion requested by President Bush. As part of this, HHS has allocated at least $300 million to fund development of anti-virals to decrease dependency on vaccines. Also, the agency has awarded $1 billion to drugmakers to develop a better method of making a vaccine.

BioCryst Pharmaceutical (up $0.02 to $11.44, Charts), an Alabama-based biotech, stands to benefit from increased interest in its experimental anti-viral Peramivir, particularly since its stock price has fallen by nearly a third year-to-date.

"The fact that the [BioCryst] stock has been so depressed suggests that avian flu has been mitigated, but that's not the case," said Vinny Jindal, biotech analyst for ThinkEquity. "It appears to be expanding geographically and becoming more pathogenic."

Peramivir is an experimental anti-viral drug, not a vaccine, which means it would be injected as a treatment after the patient is infected. Vaccines are injected prior to infection, with the intention of fighting the virus before it takes effect.

But will Peramivir be effective against the newly discovered strain of H5N1?

"We have actually evaluated Peramivir against 53 H5N1 strains already, and Peramivir is potent against all those strains," said Dr. Shane Arnold, director of Peramivir research for BioCryst. "We believe that Peramivir will be effective [against the new strain,] but until we do the study we can't know for sure."

Roche Holding (Charts), the Swiss drug company that produces the anti-viral Tamiflu, could also benefit from increased interest in H5N1. Tamiflu is the only bird flu treatment currently on the market, though some analysts believe that Peramivir has better potential in fighting the disease.

Sanofi-Aventis (down $0.29 to $42.14, Charts), the French drugmaker, is considered a lead company in developing a bird flu vaccine. But even if a successful vaccine is developed, there is a concern in the health community that it wouldn't be distributed to the population in time to ward off mass infection in the event of a pandemic.

No flu shot shortage ... this year
Other companies working on potential bird flu treatments include Generex Biotechnology (up $0.11 to $2.13, Charts), Novavax (down $0.06 to $4.24, Charts) and Avi Biopharma (Charts).

WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered a new strain of bird flu that appears to sidestep current vaccines. It's infecting people as well as poultry in Asia, and some researchers fear its evolution may have been steered by the vaccination programs designed to protect poultry from earlier types of the H5N1 flu.
The discovery by Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong and colleagues is reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new variant has become the primary version of the bird flu in several provinces of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand, the researchers report. It is being called H5N1 Fujian-like, to distinguish it from earlier Hong Kong and Vietnam variants.

"We don't know what is driving this," report co-author Dr. Robert G. Webster of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said in a telephone interview.

New vaccines will have to be developed, Webster said.

Many scientists are going to think the vaccination program encouraged the virus to evolve resistance, he added, but high-quality vaccines can reduce the level of illness and prevent emergence of variants.

While the new virus has infected people, there is no evidence that it can pass easily from person to person, Webster said.

However, he added, "this virus is continuing to drift."

Dr. Michael L. Perdue, of the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Program in Zurich, Switzerland, said the new variant doesn't indicate any increased risk for people "other than the fact it seems to be pretty widespread."

The virus is continuing to change, he added.

Perdue, who was not part of Webster's research team, said WHO is working with the Chinese Ministry of Health to develop a vaccine for the new form of the virus.

The H5N1 flu has devastated poultry in China and several other southeast Asian countries and also has claimed more than 150 human lives. Most of the people affected lived close to flocks of chickens or other poultry.

Public health authorities fear that the virus will mutate into a form that can spread easily among people, raising the potential for a worldwide pandemic like the one that killed millions in 1918. That worry has spurred efforts to develop vaccines for the virus as well as to test migrating wildfowl in an effort to detect movement of the disease.

Studding the virus' surface are two proteins called hemagglutinin — the H in H5N1 — and neuraminidase, the "N." There are 16 known hemagglutinin versions and nine neuraminidases.

They also trigger the immune system to mount an attack, particularly hemagglutinin, the protein the body aims for when it makes flu-fighting antibodies.

The research was funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation, a Hong Kong group that supports medical, educational and cultural work, and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

___

On the Net:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org

World Health Organization: http://www.who.int

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday called for a multi-billion-dollar drive to make more pandemic flu vaccines, saying bird flu still threatened a global pandemic.


Outlining a plan to protect the world's 6.7 billion people against bird flu, or other flu viruses with pandemic potential, the U.N. health agency said manufacturing capacity would shield only a percentage of the population.

"We are presently several billion doses short of the amount of pandemic influenza vaccine we would need," said Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO's initiative for vaccine research.

Since it re-emerged in 2003, H5N1 bird flu has infected 256 people, killing 151, mainly in southeast Asia. Although it has been difficult for humans to catch, health authorities fear it could evolve into a form more easily passed between people and trigger a pandemic.

"Our assessment continues to be the same. The risk of a pandemic has not gone down," David Heymann, the WHO's acting assistant director-general for communicable diseases, told a news conference to launch the plan.

Pharmaceutical companies have announced promising animal trials for a possible H5N1 vaccine, but the WHO says an effective serum is probably still a year away.

Global output of seasonal flu vaccination -- which could be switched to anti-pandemic production if needed -- stands at 350 million doses, with existing spare capacity for around a further 150 million if needed, the WHO said.

Current expansion plans could see this figure rise to some 780 million doses by 2009, but this was still far short of what might be required in the event of a global epidemic of a killer flu strain.

The plan, drawn up in consultation with 120 experts, urged governments to increase vaccination campaigns against normal seasonal flu in order to give industry an economic incentive to boost their production capacity.

But this would not be enough. States must also encourage the development of capacity specifically for producing pandemic vaccines, even if this meant companies would have to be paid for keeping some capacity idle when such vaccines were not needed.

The third strand of the strategy would see stepped up research into more potent vaccines. These could cut the number of preventive doses needed to one from the two currently forecast, the WHO said.

The agency estimated the cost of the development plan at $3 billion to $10 billion over the next decade.

But besides bringing global protection against pandemic flu viruses, the campaign would help cut the toll from seasonal flu which kills up to 500,000 people worldwide every year.

"Immunization is a critical control strategy for limiting the impact of an influenza pandemic. Immediate, collaborative action to increase vaccine supply could have a massive payoff," Heymann said.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - An experimental vaccine for bird flu using new cell-based manufacturing methods showed promise at combating divergent strains of the virus in an early clinical trial, Baxter International Inc. said on Wednesday.


The health-care products maker said preliminary results from a 270-patient study suggest the vaccine was safe, well-tolerated and may provide wider protection against H5N1 -- the bird flu virus -- for a larger number of people.

H5N1 mainly affects birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a strain easily transmitted from person to person, capable of killing millions of people in a global pandemic.

An H5N1 virus has killed at least 148 people since 2003, mostly in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and China, according to the World Health Organization.

The results are the first data from any bird flu vaccine made using cell-based techniques, according to a Baxter spokeswoman Deb Spak.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company is testing a new and better way for developing vaccines using cell-based manufacturing techniques that hold the promise of producing much larger quantities of vaccine in much less time.

Vaccine makers currently rely on egg-based production methods, which require steady supplies of carefully grown eggs and months of cultivation. The new method grows the vaccines in labs, in batches of cells called cell cultures.

Spak said the early-stage study suggests the vaccine could offer cross-protection from other strains of the virus.

"This is the first clinical demonstration that a candidate H5N1 (bird flu virus) vaccine can induce antibodies that neutralize widely divergent strains of H5N1," said Noel Barrett, vice president of global research and development for Baxter's vaccines business.

Barrett said the results must be confirmed with a larger study. Baxter said the clinical trial of the experimental H5N1 vaccine in healthy adults in Austria and Singapore suggested the vaccine had similar side effects to those reported for seasonal flu vaccines.

LATE-STAGE CLINICAL TRIAL EARLY 2007

The preliminary results suggest the vaccine is highly capable of producing an immune response and can create antibodies to H5N1 even at the lowest dose level, the company said.

A preliminary analysis of serum samples from study subjects showed the vaccine was able to neutralize the virus contained in the vaccine as well as other diverse strains of the H5N1 virus. Baxter plans to begin a late-stage clinical trial of the vaccine early next year and said it will present final results by the end of 2007.

Baxter's H5N1 vaccine candidate was produced using four different concentrations of antigen, the active ingredient. Two of the concentrations were with and without adjuvant, a substance added to vaccines to improve immune response.

Baxter and a number of other companies are working to develop a vaccine to protect against a potential bird flu pandemic. Europe's biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc in July said its egg-based vaccine could be mass produced in 2007.

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis and Swiss drugmaker Novartis are also working on a vaccine.

There is currently no vaccine against the bird flu virus, but for now it is treated with Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, an antiviral drug made by Swiss drugmaker Roche and U.S. biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc..

Glaxo also makes the inhaled drug Relenza under license from Australia's Biota, which also appears to treat both types of flu.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A second round of tests on swans in Michigan confirmed the birds have a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1 and not the deadly avian influenza virus that has killed more than 141 people in Asia, Europe and Africa, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday.


Routine tests conducted in a Michigan gaming area earlier this month found two of about 20 swans had what was believed to be a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1.

"Genetic testing confirms that these swans were not carrying the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian influenza that is circulating overseas," USDA said in a statement.

The swans had shown no sign of sickness, which indicated this was low pathogenicity avian influenza. Pathogenicity refers to the ability of the virus to produce a disease.

A low-pathogenic strain, which produces less disease and mortality in birds than does a high-pathogenic version, poses no threat to human health.

The low-pathogenic strain of H5N1 has been found six other times in the United States since 1975, most recently in 2002. It is common for mild and low pathogenic strains of bird flu to appear in the United States and other countries.

The infected swans were found as part of an increased surveillance program put in place after USDA received $91 million in supplemental funding from Congress for bird flu last December.

The H5N1 bird flu strain, which has killed an estimated 141 people and forced hundreds of millions of birds to be destroyed, has not been found in the United States

BEIJING - A Chinese-developed vaccine against the H5N1 strain of bird flu in humans has been found safe in the first round of tests, a government news agency reported Monday.


Researchers began work on the vaccine last year, and the government said it was ready to start mass production. But any vaccine would face more tests before it could be approved for human use.

Tests were conducted on six human volunteers at a Beijing hospital between November and June, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Researchers said the vaccine "proved initially safe and effective," the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It gave no other details of the results, or of any plans for more testing.

The tests were conducted by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevent and a Chinese drug company, Beijing Sinovac Biotech Co., according to Xinhua.

Chinese authorities say the vaccine is meant for high-risk groups such as poultry workers.

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is also conducting trials on an H5N1 vaccine for humans.

China has suffered 14 human deaths from the H5N1 strain of flu — the latest a farmer who died July 12 — and dozens of outbreaks among its vast poultry flocks.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a new strain that could spread easily from human to human, potentially causing a global pandemic

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HANOI (AFP) - Laos has started a poultry cull in three villages near the capital Vientiane to limit the spread of the bird flu virus detected last week, an official has said.


"There is no new outbreak but we have taken measures in a five-kilometre (three-mile) radius around the farms contaminated," said foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy on Tuesday.

There were many heads of poultry to examine, he added.

It was unclear how many animals would be culled. About 19,000 chickens had been destroyed by July 30, the online edition of the English-language newspaper the Vientiane Times said Tuesday.

The paper said poultry would be culled in three villages located about one kilometre from the infected sites.

"The mass cull will include business farms and poultry among backyard birds," it said.

In late July an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu killed thousands of chickens at two different sites on a state-owned poultry farm, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Vientiane.

It was Laos' first official outbreak of the deadly virus since 2004, although a case involving a single duck was detected earlier this year.

Vientiane's mayor, Dr Sinlavong Khoutphaithoune, was quoted as saying that although poultry were still dying the contamination was "not severe".

"However, we have to increase precautions in order to protect both life and property," he said.

Laos has reported no human deaths from the bird flu virus so far, which has swept across Asia and beyond in several waves since 2003.

But neighbouring Thailand last month reported its 15th human fatality.

Landlocked Laos borders Vietnam to the east, Thailand to the west and China to the north. The latter three countries have suffered large-scale bird flu outbreaks and human deaths in recent years.

LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline may be able to produce a vaccine in mass quantities to protect humans from bird flu by next year, the drugmaker said Wednesday following encouraging results from a clinical trial.


The prototype vaccine, which could potentially be used during a pandemic caused by the H5N1 virus, uses low doses of its active ingredient, meaning that greater quantities could be produced. The vaccine uses an inactivated strain of H5N1 that was isolated in Indonesia last year.

The results were based on a trial conducted on 400 adults in Belgium, using a vaccine including adjuvant, an ingredient added to vaccines to stimulate the immune system and increase the response to the vaccine.

"It's a good and exciting piece of science," Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations' coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza, said. "But as with all new discoveries, quite a lot of work has now got to be done to establish its place in public health and pandemic preparedness."

Adding adjuvant to a vaccine allows makers to use less antigen, a key ingredient in vaccines. Previous attempts to create a pandemic vaccine have been disappointing, as they have required large amounts of antigen to provoke a strong immune response.

Using a proprietary adjuvant, GlaxoSmithKline PLC has apparently succeeded in producing an effective vaccine using a very low dose of antigen.

"This is very significant because it shows the principle that this adjuvant might do the job," said Dr. Albert Osterhaus, head of the virology department at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

According to GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine provoked a strong immune response in more than 80 percent of the people tested. "There is still a lot more work to be done with this program, but this validation of our approach provides us with the confidence to continue developing the vaccine," said J.P. Garnier, GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive officer.

While cautioning that the clinical results are still preliminary, some pandemic influenza experts are optimistic that this may ultimately result in the production of many more doses of pandemic vaccine. "It's still small numbers, but if GSK can corroborate this data, it shows that their adjuvant is good," said Osterhaus.

Because production capacity during a pandemic will be limited, using as little antigen as possible will be essential to mass-producing vaccine.

"With this adjuvant added to the vaccine, provided the rest of the tests are OK, you could make 10 times as much vaccine," said Osterhaus, emphasizing that it is still a two-dose vaccine.

Creating a prototype pandemic vaccine, however, does not guarantee that countries will be protected in the event of a flu pandemic. "This vaccine will only give protection against this particular H5N1 strain and possibly other H5N1 strains," said Osterhaus. Thus, if the next influenza pandemic is sparked by a subtype other than H5, much of this vaccine may prove of little use.

"It's a risk judgment for those potentially purchasing vaccine," said Dr. Angus Nicoll, influenza coordinator at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Because it is impossible to predict which influenza strain will spark the next pandemic, it is equally impossible to produce a vaccine that will be completely effective.

"It's a very difficult decision for a country to decide whether to invest in pandemic vaccines," said Nicoll. "If there is no H5N1 pandemic ... then eventually the vaccine expires and the resources invested in it are lost," he added.