Worries about H5N1 multiply as strain proves adaptive, fast-spreading

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" Zepp " <zepp

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:14:47 -0800

[Zepps_News] Worries about H5N1 multiply as strain proves

adaptive, fast-spreading

 

 

http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/world/Full_Story/did-sgIiF2j7HjvAAsg0aewF\

BADppk.asp

 

 

 

Bird flu a bigger challenge than AIDS, warns WHO

By Alexander Higgins, Geneva

 

THE lethal strain of bird flu poses a greater challenge to the world

than any infectious disease, including AIDS, and has cost 300 million

farmers over $10 billion in its spread through poultry around the

world, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

 

Scientists also are increasingly worried that the H5N1 strain could

mutate into a form easily passed between humans, triggering a global

pandemic. It already is unprecedented as an animal illness in its

rapid expansion.

 

Since February, the virus has spread to birds in 17 countries in

Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, said the WHO's Dr Margaret

Chan, citing UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates of the

toll on farmers.

 

" Concern has mounted progressively, and events in recent weeks justify

that concern, " Dr Chan, who is leading WHO's efforts against bird flu,

told a meeting in Geneva on global efforts to prepare for the

possibility of the flu mutating into a form easily transmitted among

humans.

 

 

 

In Austria, state authorities said Monday that three cats have tested

positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in the country's first

reported case of the disease spreading to an animal other than a bird.

 

The cats had been living at an animal shelter where the disease

already was detected in chickens, authorities said.

 

In Poland, a third wild swan has tested positive for the H5N1 strain

of bird flu, a lab announced. The swan was found dead Saturday in

Torun, about 120 miles north-west of Warsaw - the same place where the

first two cases were detected.

 

Dr Chan told over 30 experts in Geneva that the agency's top priority

was to keep the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu from mutating.

 

" Should this effort fail, we want to ensure that measures are in place

to mitigate the high levels of morbidity, mortality and social and

economic disruption that a pandemic can bring to this world, " she said.

 

WHO says 175 people are confirmed to have caught bird flu, and 95 of

them have died.

 

Global influenza pandemics - as opposed to annual recurrences of

seasonal flu - tend to strike periodically. In the 20th century, there

were pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 1968.

 

Bird flu could potentially cause more deaths than those from the

global flu pandemics. Because the H5N1 virus is airborne, it is easier

to transmit and more contagious than HIV/AIDS, WHO officials said.

 

Dr Mike Ryan, director of epidemic and pandemic alert and response at

WHO, said: " We truly feel that this present threat is likely to

stretch our global systems to the point of collapse. "

 

This is the first time world health authorities have tried to stop a

global influenza pandemic before it begins. Dr Chan referred to the

spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, as evidence of

" how much the world has changed. "

 

SARS infected 8,000 people, killing 800 of them.

 

WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said experts hope to isolate areas where

there is a bird flu outbreak and establish agreements allowing

international health authorities to respond quickly, testing viruses

and implementing containment measures.

 

Public health measures to quarantine areas, isolate people or help

give antiviral medicine to those infected with bird flu also are on

the agenda of the meeting, which ends today.

 

--

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government

talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court

order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about

chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order

before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004