EDITED FOR FOLLOW-UP 7/18:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18171921.htm
EDITED FOR FOLLOW-UP 7/12:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/conten...uenza/avianflu/news/jul1206mutate.html
Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated
Link
Indonesia's great bird flu conspiracy
Link
World Health Organization Expands Team Probing Bird Flu Cluster
Link
AVIAN INFLUENZA (117) - INDONESIA (PIGS: SUSPECTED)
Link
Avian influenza ? situation in Indonesia ? update 12
Link
Someone pass me a mask..
😀
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18171921.htm
Get powers ready for bird flu, U.S. governors told
18 Jul 2006 19:52:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - Governors should make sure they have the legal powers they need to impose quarantines, close schools and keep utilities and transport running in case of a bird flu pandemic, according to new primer from the National Governor's Association published on Tuesday.
They should also be working now on clear, simple public messages about the risks of bird flu and what preparations are being made as well as stocking up on food and medical supplies, the document advises.
"Governors should consider creating a state legal team to review current laws and regulations and assess how they would be applied during a pandemic," reads the primer, posted on the Internet at http://www.nga.org.
"For example, decisions on closure of schools, limits on use or practices on mass transit or public transport systems, restrictions on public gatherings, etc., must be determined by state and local officials and supported by local or state policies and law."
The H5N1 avian influenza virus has not yet caused a human pandemic, but it has killed 132 people out of the 230 infected. It has infected birds in about 50 countries and is spreading faster than any other avian influenza ever has.
Many experts believe it may pose the worst threat of an influenza pandemic in 30 years.
"The effects of pandemic flu will be broad, deep and simultaneous," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told reporters by telephone from a National Governor's Association meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.
"Medical response will be limited, restrained and potentially depleted during a pandemic," said Pawlenty, a Republican. Outbreaks in people or birds may have to be met with "a pretty aggressive form of containment" and public gatherings eliminated.
CLOSED LIBRARIES
Flu is highly contagious, but the the 1918 flu pandemic, in which between 40 million and 100 million people died, showed that closing big buildings may help.
"Consequently, public facilities -- schools, government offices, transportation hubs, museums, libraries, and convention centers -- would be the first considered for closing," the primer advises.
"Private facilities -- shopping malls, concert halls, skating rinks, gyms, restaurants, bars, theaters, and grocery stores -- may be closed under general emergency powers or special powers granted during times of public health emergencies."
States would also have responsibility for making sure that utilities keep running when workers stay home either because they are sick, caring for relatives, or simply afraid to come out, the governors said.
"What about the guys that go out and repair power lines? You have to think that you are going to have 40 percent absenteeism for a year or more," said Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, incoming chair of the Association and a Democrat.
Governors should be identifying key personnel and making sure each of them has a trained backup in case they cannot come to work, she said.
Telecommunications should be checked now, the document advises. "Many states or state agencies may find, for example, that they do not have sufficient bandwidth or server capacity to allow large-scale telecommuting of its workforce."
States should "encourage and invest in increased food storage in pantries in government facilities such as schools, prisons, cafeterias, group homes, and state institutions," the primer says. Businesses and individuals should do the same.
EDITED FOR FOLLOW-UP 7/12:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/conten...uenza/avianflu/news/jul1206mutate.html
Report: H5N1 mutated rapidly in Indonesian cluster
Jul 12, 2006 (CIDRAP News) ? Genetic studies show that the H5N1 avian influenza virus mutated multiple times as it spread through an Indonesia family in May, but the significance of the changes is uncertain, according to a news report today in Nature.
The journal, basing its report on confidential genetic sequence data, published a chart showing that a total of 32 mutations were identified in viruses collected from six patients in the family case cluster. Previous reports from the World Health Organization and other experts gave the impression that only a few mutations had been found.
The case cluster in North Sumatra involved a 37-year-old woman who apparently contracted the virus from poultry and then passed it to six relatives before she died. One of those six, a 10-year-old boy, then passed the virus to his father. WHO officials said last month that a specific mutation found in the boy and his father marked the first laboratory confirmation of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
On May 23, the WHO said genetic sequencing of two viruses from the case cluster had shown "no evidence of genetic reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses and no evidence of significant mutations." A month later, at the end of an avian flu conference in Jakarta, WHO officials told reporters the virus had mutated slightly when it infected the 10-year-old boy, and the same mutation showed up in his father. The mutation didn't make the virus more transmissible or virulent, officials said.
The genetic data obtained by Nature came from a presentation by University of Hong Kong virologist Malik Peiris at a closed session of the Jakarta meeting in June, the article says.
The magazine says that 21 mutations were identified in a virus from the father of the 10-year-old boy, involving seven of the virus's eight genes, suggesting that the virus was evolving rapidly as it spread. In addition, from one to four mutations were found in viruses collected from five other patients.
The story says one of the mutations confers resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine, a finding not reported by the WHO.
However, the virus did not spread beyond the extended family, as the article notes. "Many of the genetic changes did not result in the use of different amino acids by the virus," the story says. "And there were no amino-acid changes in key receptor binding sites known to affect pathogenicity and transmissibility."
According to the magazine, viruses from six of the eight cases in the cluster have been sequenced, but the WHO has not shared the findings, saying they belong to Indonesia. The data have been released only to a few researchers linked to the WHO and the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, the story says.
Virologists quoted by the journal asserted that the withholding of sequence data on H5N1 is hindering scientists' understanding of the virus. But WHO staff member Paul Gully replied, according to the article, that the agency's job is investigating outbreaks, not doing academic research, and that labs don't have the time or resources to do "high-quality sequencing" during outbreaks.
See also:
May 23 WHO statement on genetic data from the case cluster
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2006_05_23/en/index.html
Jun 23 CIDRAP News story "H5N1 mutation showed human transmission in Indonesia"
Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated
May 18, 2006
World Health Organization officials are increasingly concerned that a thus far unexplained outbreak of the bird flu virus could mean that a long-feared scenario has been borne out -- that the virus may have mutated so that it can be passed from one human to another.
Link
Indonesia's great bird flu conspiracy
Officials have put the nation at risk by covering up an epidemic for two years to protect farmers, writes Alan Sipress.
Link
World Health Organization Expands Team Probing Bird Flu Cluster
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization sent two officials to Indonesia's North Sumatra province to investigate the largest cluster of human bird flu cases, as a government official said sick animals may have been involved.
Link
AVIAN INFLUENZA (117) - INDONESIA (PIGS: SUSPECTED)
Pigs have tested positive for bird flu in the same village on Indonesia's
Sumatra island where 5 people have been confirmed infected with the H5N1
avian influenza virus, a minister said on Thursday.
The minister's comments are also likely to concern health officials. Pigs
can act as mixing vessels in which human and bird flu viruses can swap
genes, leading to a strain that can easily infect people and pass from
person to person.
Link
Avian influenza ? situation in Indonesia ? update 12
The newly confirmed cases bring the total in Indonesia to 40. Of these cases, 31 have been fatal.
Link
Someone pass me a mask..
😀
