Nigeria has suffered as having the fastest growing spread of the bird flu virus in Africa. A weak monitoring system and unqualified health personnel are being blamed for the uncontrolled outbreaks.

Nigeria Veterinary Association President Garba Sharabutu:

“Up till now, the populace has not come to terms with the issue of movement of birds,” he said. “And the second thing is that, we are also trying to caution members of our profession and the quack doctors that move about, because by the time people engage people who do not know the implication of moving from one farm to another without taking necessary precautions, it is possible to have these [new infections].”

[source: VOANews]

Tags: bird flu, outbreak, Africa

Post from: Blisstree

Nigerian outbreak confirmed

He goes hunting, deep in the African jungles of Cameroon, Yaound.

The Doctor, as villagers call him, investigates sudden die-offs of primates in the jungles, collects blood from hunters and their kills, tests wild and domestic birds for avian flu and a vast range of fiel research all in the quest to discover viruses originating in the wild with the potential to mutate into pandemic forms.

Animal-to-human invaders or zoonoses – malaria, HIV, smallpox, West Nile, Ebola, SARS, avian influenza – have plagued recent centuries with devastating consequences, and yet very little has been understood about the way they enter and spread among humans or the range of potential carriers in the animals kingdom.

Wolfe, and an increasing number of biologists and epidemiologists have begun going after these killer viruses more intensely in the last few decades. With promising results.

Three years ago, Wolfe and his team discovered primate retroviruses in the blood of three African hunters. Until his findings, nobody had demonstrated that retroviruses could cross directly from jungle primates to indigenous hunters. He believes that viruses are constantly spilling over from animals to humans all the time, and his vision is to look for viruses that are emerging this way.

“Imagine how different the AIDS epidemic might have been if we’d had three to five years of advance warning. I’ve been convinced for a long time that we need to challenge the old model of the ‘fire brigade response’ to pandemics. We need a new disease forecasting model that could help us prevent them, not just respond to them.”

Read more of Nathan Wolfe and his work at both Wired and Stanford magazines.

[sources: stanfordmagazine; wired; image]

Tags: killer viruses, plagues, Nathan Wolfe, bushmeat hunters

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Fighting plague: On the hunt for killer viruses

Egyptian toddler tests positive for H5N1. A two-year old Egyptian girl tested positive for the bird flu virus, bringing the total human victims in Egypt to 33. [Reuters AlertNews]

Cambodian girl dies of bird flu. A 13-year old girl from Ponhea Kreak died on bird flu Thursday, only three days after getting ill from the virus. [People's Daily Online]

Indonesian girl dies of bird flu . A 15-year old girl from Jakarta died of bird flu, bringing the total human fatality to 73. [Reuters AlertNews]

Turkey declares country as bird-flu free. After seeing no bird flu incidence in more than a year, Turkey lifted off all quarantine and declared itself free of the disease. [AFP News]

Global vaccine reserve set up for developing countries. The World Health Organization will begin stockpiling a global vaccine reserve for developing countries. This developed in response to Indonesia’s calls for a fair distribution of the vaccine among all nations. [Andhracafe.com]

Tags: bird flu, influenza, Indonesia, Turkey, WHO, Cambodia

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Newsbriefs on bird flu – Friday April 6

Bird Flu Expert Warns of More Outbreaks in Nigeria. Nineteen states and Abuja, the Nigerian capital, have reporte bird flu outbreaks in poultry in the past days, amidst news of the first human case of H5N1. Concerns abound that Nigeria risks becoming a permanent host to the virus. Already considered one of the weakest links in the campaign to curb the disease, Nigeria suffers from overcrowded cities, endemic poverty, weak surveillance and greater animal-to-human contact especially among the numerous backyard farmers. [via VoA]

England reports first H5N1 poultry outbreak. A confirmed H5N1 outbreak was reported at a large turkey farm in Suffolk, England that began on January 27 and affected 2,500 turkeys being raised for meat production. The strain is similar to the one detected on a goose farm in southeastern Hungary in late January. [via CIDRAP]

In a related development, 160,000 birds now culled after H5N1 avian flu outbreak. Experts are working on finding the source of the H5N1 strain. A Suffolk farm worker was admitted to the hospital with a mild respiratory illness but England’s Health Protection agency said it could not yet confirm if the person was exposed to H5N1. [via 24dash, Manchester Online]

Tags: bird flu, H5N1, outbreak, Egypt, Nigeria, England, UK, human case, human fatality

Post from: Blisstree

Express news on bird flu (February 6, 2007)

Junaid Maina, Nigeria’s national director of livestock, said new cases of the virus were confirmed this week in northwestern Sokoto and nearby in Katsina state, 800 kilometres northeast of Abuja. “Our teams are out there now culling birds,” Maina said.

Sokoto’s cases are the first ever in the state, while Katsina is among 14 of Nigeria’s 36 states struck last year. More than 18,000 birds have been culled in the two states since the beginning of the week, with more than 15,000 killed in Sokoto alone, an official involved in the operation told IRIN.

More than 200,000 birds were slaughtered in 2005, but the bird flu has almost become endemic to the nation after states continued to report suspected cases. The last reported case of bird flu infection was in September 2006.

Sources:

• Nigeria Confirms Fresh Outbreak Of Bird Flu
• NIGERIA: Bird flu re-emerges, culling underway

Tags: Nigeria, bird flu, flu, avian flu, culling, influenza

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Fresh bird flu outbreak in Nigeria

All three victims lived in the same house, along with 27 other relatives, said Egyptian authorities. The backyard of the house had a large number of ducks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the family members became ill after slaughtering the ducks in an attempt to stem the spread of bird flu in the area. Tests revealed that at least three of the ducks were infected with the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus strain.

A spokesperson for the Egyptian Health Ministry admitted the situation was dangerous but under control. If the current outbreak is not stopped in time, there may be more serious problems in the spring when birds migrate through Egypt on their way to Africa.

[Sources: Medical News Today; China View Xinhua]

Tags: bird flu, H5N1, outbreak, Egypt

Post from: Blisstree

Bird flu breaks out in Egypt

The Kingdom of Jordan is experiencing one of the worst flu epidemics in recent years, admits physicians as reports are coming in of a conspicuously larnge number pf people falling ill.

Dr. Ahmad Irani, an internist in Amman, said he has treated three times the number of flu stricken patients this year. “My patients say this is the worst flu they have had in their lives.”

Symptoms of this year’s strain – sore throat, achy joints, and fever, are more intense and last longer and include an unusual occurrence of “temporary asthma-like” episodes. People had to take a week or more days off from work.

Unfortunately, the government does not have accurate estimates of affected individuals since Jordan does have facilities for tracking the flu. The flu vaccines, only 100,000 doses, were also inadequate and did not cover the whole population. These vaccines were designated only for the higher-risk groups or about 3 per cent of the population. Although more people demanded for vaccinations, the supply had run out by October.

According to the news I read, pharmaceutical companies determined the supply for flu vaccines based on demand from previous years and without any real forecasting provided by the government, and this is the big mistake. The kingdom of Jordan can only learn from this, and especially with the bird flu spreading across the middle eastern countries.

[source: Jordan Times]

Tags: seasonal flu, kingdom of Jordan, epidemic

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Worst flu epidemic in Kingdom of Jordan

Already $1.9 billion has been pledged by countries all over the world at the January World Bank conference, but only a small portion of that has been allotted for Africa.

However, the H5N1 virus has spread into Africa and began affecting some of the poorest countries in the continent – Uganda, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Djibouti, as well as Egypt. That money pledged in January was spent rapidly and is not enough to prepare for a pandemic. So the World Bank is asking for another $1.3 billion in pledges are needed, and hopes $500 M will go to African nations.

[Source: Reuters]

Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, Africa, World Bank

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$500 M needed for African bird flu funds

Gossip reports say he got the African flu, no less, when he honeymooned with bride Celebrity Big Brother co-star CHANTELLE in Morocco six weeks ago.

Here’s the scoop:

Preston wakes up in the middle of Tuesday night having a 20-minute FIT.

A pal says the singer fears he has the African Flu.

But – his doctors lost a urine sample that he gave for testing.

Now – he’s been ordered by his doctors to rest while they do more tests on him.

So – he can’t promote his new single ‘Lonely At The Top’.

Poor kid.

[Sources: Entertainmentwise; The Sun.uk]

Tags: Samuel Preston, Ordinary Boys, Celebrity Big Brother, flu, African Flu

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Big Brother’s Preston has the African flu?

MENA reported that the newly infected woman had raised a flock of 11 ducks from her home north of the Egyptian capital. Two became sick and died, and she then slaughtered the rest before she was hospitalised.

She would be the fifteenth human case since the avian flu virus was first detected in February, but the first since May. All other 14 cases were detected between March and May but the African government had taken massive steps to stop the spread of the virus and no human case has been reported since May. Unfortunately in September, several backyard chickens in Edfu were found to have bird flu , prompting concerns of a new outbreak.

Most of the people infected with bird flu in Egypt became ill after coming into contact with so-called “backyard” birds, officials say. Egypt has culled 30 million birds since February to contain the virus.

Chickens on rooftops may be particularly susceptible to catching the virus from infected migrant birds, which fly along the densely populated Nile valley during migration, experts have suggested.

Two separate officials said the onset of warm weather, combined with Egyptian government measures, may have helped keep the virus at bay during the summer months.

But an official from the Food and Agriculture Organisation has said that the onset of cooler weather could still cause a flare-up of cases in poultry, and has urged increased surveillance accompanied by a fair compensation scheme.

More from Reuters Alert Net here.

Tags: Africa, avian flu, culling, flu outbreak, H5N1, poultry, bird flu

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Bird flu watch: New human case in Egypt