MSNBC Can the bird flu be stopped in Asia?

[Guest guest]

Note: The anti-viral drug oseltamivir, trade

name Tamiflu, is effective in treating HN5 avian

flu viruses in humans. The drug must be taken at

the onset of symptoms. It is available in Hong

Kong.

 

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8989233/

Can the bird flu be stopped in Asia?

The deadly virus has killed 62 Asians in the last two years

By George Lewis

Correspondent

NBC News

Updated: 7:57 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2005

 

 

THAI BINH PROVINCE, Vietnam - The most dangerous

strain of influenza to appear in years is working

its way through Asia and some experts fear it

could turn into a huge pandemic on par with the

Spanish flu that killed 40 million people in

1918. Right now, Ground Zero is Vietnam.

 

About 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War,

there's a new battle raging here, pitting man

against a deadly virus that has killed 62 Asians

in the last two years - 42 in Vietnam alone -

from avian influenza or " bird flu. "

 

Most of the human victims came in contact with

infected poultry so health workers are trying to

head off the virus by vaccinating healthy birds

and killing off the sick ones, tens of millions

of them.

 

Southeast Asia is the ideal incubator for a

global outbreak of avian flu. Its an area where

birds and people live in close proximity to one

another and where the virus can mutate into forms

that can be transmitted from human to human.

 

Twenty-one-year-old Nguyen Si Tuan considers

himself lucky to be alive. In February, he was

hospitalized with bird flu but survived, despite

losing more than 30 pounds.

 

During that time, a nurse who treated Tuan also

got the disease. If human transmission becomes

widespread, experts fear that could start a

pandemic - a global spread of deadly flu.

 

" All the alarm signs really are here now, " says

the World Health Organization's Dr. Peter Horby,

" We know that previous pandemics have been

associated with avian viruses. "

 

The disease is being spread by infected migrating

birds. It's already been detected in 13 Asian

countries, including Vietnam, China, Thailand,

Indonesia, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, South

Korea, Laos, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and

Bangladesh, and experts say it's only a matter of

time before it reaches the United States.

 

Scientists in Alaska are on alert for the first

signs of bird flu in North America, while in

Rochester, Baltimore and Los Angeles, testing is

under way on a human avian flu vaccine.

 

" You could likely have enough vaccine if you had

enough time to contain it and nip it in the bud, "

says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute

of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

 

That's a big if - if this deadly virus can be

stopped in Vietnam and other parts of Asia before

it claims millions of human lives.

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

 

© 2005 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8989233/

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