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WHO warns of bird flu resurgence
Kazakhstan News.Net
Tuesday 24th November, 2009 (IANS)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Tuesday of a possible resurgence of bird flu amid new cases of the disease in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Manila-based WHO Western Pacific Office said the presence of the H5N1 virus in poultry placed those in direct contact with the birds at risk of getting infected with the disease.
It added that it was also closely monitoring the risk of the H5N1 virus combining with the H1N1 swine-flu virus to produce a new and deadlier strain.
'We don't know if this is possible, but we are certainly aware of the risk,' said Shin Young-Soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific. 'We are on alert for this development.'
The WHO noted that the H1N1 virus that killed more than 6,000 people around the world since April was a new strain that resulted from 'reassortment' or combination of the avian, swine and human strains of flu in pigs in Mexico.
Urging countries to remain on alert against bird flu, Shin stressed that influenza viruses were unpredictable.
'In areas where the H1N1 is endemic, we and our partners and national governments are working to build surveillance systems to identify changes in the behaviour of the virus,' he said.
'We are also focusing on early-response capacity to reduce the potential threats to human health,' Shin added.
Since 2003, outbreaks of H5N1 have been reported in poultry flocks in 60 countries in Asia, Europe and North Africa, leading to the culling of millions of birds.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Monikhemra
11-24-09, 09:05 PM |
WHO warns of bird flu resurgence
I am from Kampuchea-Krom (South Vietnam). I think that it is high time Vietnamese Communist Government take care Khmer Krom and ethnics people who are living in Vietnam. AH1N1 and H5N1 now are higher than before and killed many people in this country. So i would like to suggest Vietnamese Authorities to look after them as their residents. On other hand, WHO should give a look to people in Vietnam and ask Vietnam to help all residents need not discrimination.
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waltky
04-09-10, 01:44 AM |
Cold fronts bringin' bird flu?...
:confused:
Cold fronts linked to bird flu outbreaks in Europe
Thu Apr 8, 2010 * Cold snaps caused change in wild bird migration patterns * Freezing forecasts may help predict future outbreaks
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Outbreaks of H5N1 flu among birds in Europe came at the edges of cold fronts that caused wild birds to change migration patterns, scientists said on Thursday, suggesting cold snaps may signal future outbreaks. Dutch and American researchers found European outbreaks of avian influenza during the 2005-2006 winter were driven by collective movements of wild waterbirds to places where the fresh water they need to feed and survive had not frozen.
“This has important implications for surveillance, which should target areas where temperatures are close to freezing in winter, especially in poultry-dense regions close to areas where waterfowl aggregate," the researchers wrote in a study in the Public Library of Science journal PloS Pathogens. It is difficult for people to catch H5N1 bird flu, but when they do it can be deadly. Since 2003 it has infected 492 people and killed 291 of them, according to the World Health Organisation, and experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate at any time into a form easily passed from one person to another.
The virus emerged more than a decade ago in poultry in Southeast Asia. In 2005 it spread outside Asia infecting both poultry and wild birds in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Most human cases have been in Asia but Egypt has had 108 cases and 33 deaths. Romanian officials reported an outbreak of bird flu last month on a poultry farm close to Ukraine in an area on an important migratory pathway for wild birds. Leslie Reperant of Princeton University in the United States and Thijs Kuiken of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands said their findings offered a possible way to predict and control where and when bird flu might erupt again.
More [url:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63621S._CH_.2400[/url]
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