Bird Flu worst in History (New Scientist)

Bird flu epidemic is 'worst in history'

16:50 26 January 04

NewScientist.com news service

Indonesia has become the latest country to admit that a massive
outbreak of bird flu has been ravaging its chicken farms for months.
The disease has now led to the death of many millions of birds across
south-east Asia, and at least seven people.
The scale of the epidemic is unprecedented, says Klaus Stöhr, a senior
virologist at the World Health Organization. "Never in history have we
seen such outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza over such a
wide area, simultaneously," he told New Scientist.
Stöhr warns that if a person becomes infected simultaneously with both
bird and ordinary human flu, the viruses could hybridise to cause a
deadly global pandemic.
With no end to the spread of the avian virus in sight, that risk will
continue to rise. So on Tuesday, health authorities and drug companies
will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to tackle the daunting task of
agreeing and implementing protective measures.

Drug resistant
The WHO plans to ask countries in the southern hemisphere if they will
give up some of the vaccine against ordinary human flu which they have
ordered for the coming southern winter.
The WHO wants to use it to vaccinate people slaughtering infected
chickens in southeast Asia, to reduce the chance that a person will
contract human flu as well as bird flu.
Another protective measure the WHO wants to pursue is giving anti-flu
drugs to people at high risk. However, the avian virus has now been
found to carry a mutation which confers complete resistance to
rimantidine and amantidine, the cheapest antivirals that work against
flu.
The WHO will also ask companies which of them will offer to test and
mass-produce a vaccine against pandemic flu, if it becomes necessary.

Huge archipelago
On Sunday, Indonesia's Director-General for the Development of Animal
Husbandry, Sofjan Sudardjat, admitted that avian flu had broken out on
Java on 29 August 2003 and had since spread across the huge Indonesian
archipelago.
He had denied the presence of the disease on Saturday. It remains to
be confirmed that it is the virulent H5N1 strain affecting other
countries, but this seems probable.
Thailand has also belatedly admitted to an outbreak of bird flu that
started back in November, joining South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and
probably Laos. A small outbreak in Japan this month has now been
controlled.
In Vietnam and Thailand the virus has caused an unknown number of
human infections. Seven deaths have been confirmed as due to H5N1 so
far, with a six-year-old Thai boy the latest victim. But the number of
cases, and countries affected, is likely to rise.
Dead duck
Pakistan stated on Monday that bird flu has killed four million
chickens in Karachi since November. It blames the H7 and H9 strains,
which pose less threat to humans. But after Thailand and Indonesia
tried for weeks to blame their chicken deaths on other diseases, the
claims are being viewed with some mistrust.
So are claims by China that it is free of the virus. News media in
Hong Kong reported on Monday that "hundreds of ducks" have died in the
southern province of Guangxi, which borders hard-hit Vietnam. There
was no official statement on the cause, but this H5N1 virus -
unusually for a bird flu - kills ducks.
Chinese officials were also said to be culling poultry in the
immediate surrounding area and vaccinating birds, common methods of
containing bird flu.