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Avian Influenza Daily Digest
August 15, 2008 14:00 GMT
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Article Summaries ...
Quid Novi
Vietnam: Duck die-offs reported in multiple locations in Ben Tre Province
Indonesia: Rapid testing detects H5N1 in chickens in Tangerang
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
OIE: Korea follow up #5 (Final Report)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, Korea (Rep. of) Information received on 14/08/2008 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, CVO & Director , Animal Health Team, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry (MIFAFF), Gwacheon-city, Korea (Rep. of) Summary Report type Follow-up report No. 5 (Final...
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia: Jakarta Post Editorial/Reader Comments
Bird flu alert Your comments on the reappearance of bird flu cases in North Sumatra in which at least 13 suspected patients of the disease are hospitalized The government program does not work well due to lack of funds and...
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Nigeria: Official advises poultry farmers on bird flu surveillance
8/15/08 Vanguard--Dr Ezekiel Pam, Desk Officer, (Animal Health), Avian Influenza Preparedness Project, has advised poultry farmers in Plateau to make effective use of the 17 surveillance facilities provided for their operations.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
FAO recommends cost-sharing to deliver bird flu vaccinations
8/15/08 VNS--The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) recommended yesterday that Viet Nam consider moving from a fully publicly-funded bird flu mass-vaccination campaign, to a public-private funded one to ease the burden on the State as donations are on the decline, according to FAO?s senior avian influenza technical consultant Dr Tony Forman.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Japan Donates over 740,000 Tablets of Tamiflu to Vietnam
8/15/08 Vietnam News Brief Service--The Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MoH) August 14 received 743,600 tablets of Tamiflu, the most effective bird flu fighter among humans worldwide so far, funded by the Japanese Government, said local media.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Health officials to watch for bird flu in the weeks following the Beijing Olympics
8/15/08 The Canadian Press--Medical officials will be extra vigilant monitoring patients for symptoms of the bird flu in the weeks following the Beijing Olympics, says an Edmonton health official. Although the predicted pandemic has waned from public consciousness in recent years, Dr. Louis Francescutti warns the threat is still real.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Ghana calls for urgent meeting to control avian flu
8/15/08 Afrol News--Ghana is seeking a meeting with its western African neighbours to discuss a common measure to prevent incursions of Avian Influenza. A call follows reports on an outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria's remote states of Katsina and Kano last month.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Africa: Unable to Put Beef And Fish On the Table, Continent Courts Animal-Spread Diseases
8/15/08 All Africa--Last year's outbreaks of the deadly Marburg and Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever viruses in southwestern Uganda and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo's province of Kasai Occidental and the sporadic outbreaks of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) across the continent once again bring to light the threat zoonotic diseases pose to sub-Saharan Africa in particular and the world generally.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Science and Technology
Influenza Virus Protecting RNA: an Effective Prophylactic and Therapeutic Antiviral
8/15/08 Journal of Virology--Abstract--Another influenza pandemic is inevitable, and new measures to combat this and seasonal influenza are urgently needed. Here we describe a new concept in antivirals based on a defined, naturally occurring defective influenza virus RNA that has the potential to protect against any influenza A virus in any animal host. This "protecting RNA" (244 RNA) is incorporated into virions which, although noninfectious, deliver the RNA to those cells of the respiratory tract that are naturally targeted by infectious influenza virus. A 120-ng intranasal dose of this 244 protecting virus completely protected mice against a simultaneous challenge of 10 50% lethal doses with influenza A/WSN (H1N1) virus. The 244 virus also protected mice against strong challenge doses of all other subtypes tested (i.e., H2N2, H3N2, and H3N8). This prophylactic activity was maintained in the animal for at least 1 week prior to challenge. The 244 virus was 10- to 100-fold more active than previously characterized defective influenza A viruses, and the protecting activity was confirmed to reside in the 244 RNA molecule by recovering a protecting virus entirely from cloned cDNA. There was a clear therapeutic benefit when the 244 virus was administered 24 to 48 h after a lethal challenge, an effect which has not been previously observed with any defective virus. Protecting virus reduced, but did not abolish, replication of challenge virus in mouse lungs during both prophylactic and therapeutic treatments. Protecting virus is a novel antiviral, having the potential to combat human influenza virus infections, particularly when the infecting strain is not known or is resistant to antiviral drugs.
AI Research
Researchers probe pandemic potential of H9N2 virus
8/15/08 CIDRAP--Scientists have warned it's impossible to predict which avian influenza virus will spark the next pandemic, and while most of the attention has been on highly pathogenic H5N1, one research group is reporting new findings that raise concerns about the threat from the low-pathogenic H9N2 virus.
AI Research
H9N2 bird flu threat understated in humans
8/15/08 Reuters--The H9N2 bird flu strain, identified as a possible pandemic threat, could be infecting more humans than commonly thought but its mild symptoms mean it often goes undetected, a leading Hong Kong bird flu expert said.
AI Research
Full Text of Articles follow ...
Quid Novi
Vietnam: Duck die-offs reported in multiple locations in Ben Tre Province
8/15/08 ARGUS--The Vietnamese Department of Animal Health reported that outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza have been detected in multiple localities in Ben Tre province from 6 August to 14 August that include a household in Cau Vi hamlet (My Chanh commune) and 3 households in Giong Gach hamlet (An Hiep commune). All sample tests of duck flocks from these households were confirmed for H5N1 virus by the Veterinary Department for Zone VI. So far, the disease has reportedly spread to 6 households in 3 communes: An Binh Tay, My Chanh and An Hiep, affecting 1,960 out of a total of 2,865 ducks including 905 ducks that died. All remaining ducks were reportedly culled.
Article URL(s)
http://www.cucthuy.gov.vn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1189&Itemid=64
Quid Novi
Indonesia: Rapid testing detects H5N1 in chickens in Tangerang
8/15/08 ARGUS--A national source reported a bird die-off of 184 chickens in Suradita village (Cisauk district, Tangerang regency). Rapid testing confirmed avian influenza in at least 3 of these chickens. The local livestock agency has sprayed disinfectant in the area. It is unclear whether culling procedures were implemented.
Article URL(s)
http://news.okezone.com/index.php/ReadStory/2008/08/13/1/136442/disnak-tangerang-gelar-penyemprotan-flu-burung
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
OIE: Korea follow up #5 (Final Report)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza,
Korea (Rep. of)
Information received on 14/08/2008 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, CVO & Director , Animal Health Team, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry (MIFAFF), Gwacheon-city, Korea (Rep. of)
Summary
Report type Follow-up report No. 5 (Final report)
Start date 01/04/2008
Date of first confirmation of the event 03/04/2008
Report date 14/08/2008
Date submitted to OIE 14/08/2008
Date event resolved 15/05/2008
Reason for notification Reoccurrence of a listed disease
Date of previous occurrence 06/03/2007
Causal agent Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Serotype H5N1
Nature of diagnosis Clinical, Laboratory (basic), Laboratory (advanced)
This event pertains to a defined zone within the country
Related reports
* Immediate notification (02/04/2008)
* Follow-up report No. 1 (04/04/2008)
* Follow-up report No. 2 (07/04/2008)
* Follow-up report No. 3 (15/04/2008)
* Follow-up report No. 4 (20/05/2008)
* Follow-up report No. 5 (14/08/2008)
Outbreaks There are no new outbreaks in this report
Epidemiology
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection
* Unknown or inconclusive
Epidemiological comments The Republic of Korea declares that it has met the requirements for the recognition as a country free from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) as of 15 August 2008 in accordance with Article 2.7.12.4 of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (2006).
Control measures
Measures applied
* Stamping out
* Quarantine
* Movement control inside the country
* Screening
* Zoning
* Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
* Vaccination prohibited
* No treatment of affected animals
Measures to be applied
* No other measures
Future Reporting
The event is resolved. No more reports will be submitted.
AI Research
Influenza Virus Protecting RNA: an Effective Prophylactic and Therapeutic Antiviral
8/15/08 Journal of Virology--Abstract--
Nigel J. Dimmock, Edward W. Rainsford,{dagger} Paul D. Scott, and Anthony C. Marriott*
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Received 4 April 2008/ Accepted 16 June 2008
Another influenza pandemic is inevitable, and new measures to combat this and seasonal influenza are urgently needed. Here we describe a new concept in antivirals based on a defined, naturally occurring defective influenza virus RNA that has the potential to protect against any influenza A virus in any animal host. This "protecting RNA" (244 RNA) is incorporated into virions which, although noninfectious, deliver the RNA to those cells of the respiratory tract that are naturally targeted by infectious influenza virus. A 120-ng intranasal dose of this 244 protecting virus completely protected mice against a simultaneous challenge of 10 50% lethal doses with influenza A/WSN (H1N1) virus. The 244 virus also protected mice against strong challenge doses of all other subtypes tested (i.e., H2N2, H3N2, and H3N8). This prophylactic activity was maintained in the animal for at least 1 week prior to challenge. The 244 virus was 10- to 100-fold more active than previously characterized defective influenza A viruses, and the protecting activity was confirmed to reside in the 244 RNA molecule by recovering a protecting virus entirely from cloned cDNA. There was a clear therapeutic benefit when the 244 virus was administered 24 to 48 h after a lethal challenge, an effect which has not been previously observed with any defective virus. Protecting virus reduced, but did not abolish, replication of challenge virus in mouse lungs during both prophylactic and therapeutic treatments. Protecting virus is a novel antiviral, having the potential to combat human influenza virus infections, particularly when the infecting strain is not known or is resistant to antiviral drugs.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Phone: 442476523565. Fax: 442476523701. E-mail: a.c.marriott@warwick.ac.uk
{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 25 June 2008.
{dagger} Present address: Department of Pathology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0904.
AI Research
Researchers probe pandemic potential of H9N2 virus
8/15/08 CIDRAP--Scientists have warned it's impossible to predict which avian influenza virus will spark the next pandemic, and while most of the attention has been on highly pathogenic H5N1, one research group is reporting new findings that raise concerns about the threat from the low-pathogenic H9N2 virus.
The international group of researchers, mainly from the University of Maryland, published their findings in the August issue of PLoS One (Public Library of Science One). They used ferrets, which have sialic acid receptors in their respiratory tracts resembling those in humans, to explore how H9N2 viruses replicate and transmit.
The H9N2 subtype has been found in many avian species in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa over the past decade, the authors write. The virus can cause mild-to-moderate disease in humans. In March 2007, Hong Kong officials reported that a 9-month-old girl was infected with the strain, the fourth time since 1999 that the virus was found in a child from that city.
US officials have worried that H9N2 could evolve into a pandemic strain. In 2004, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) contracted with Chiron Corp. (now part of Novartis) to produce a vaccine against the virus. In Sept 2006 researchers reported that the experimental vaccine generated a good immune response in a phase 1 clinical trial. The contract tapped Chiron to produce 40,000 doses of a vaccine containing an inactivated strain of H9N2 developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The PLoS One report says that many H9N2 isolates have acquired human virus?like receptor specificity, preferentially binding alpha 2-6 sialic acid receptors.
The authors write that three other factors also fuel concerns about the potential of H9N2 to evolve into a pandemic strain. Some studies have shown that H9N2 viruses extensively evolve and reassort, while others have shown that the viruses have spread to pigs, which could provide a "mixing vessel" with influenza viruses that are more likely to infect humans. Also, serologic studies have suggested that there may be more human cases of H9N2 than have been detected and reported so far.
"Therefore, avian H9N2 viruses are in an ideal position to undergo further adaptation for more efficient transmission among mammals and humans," they write.
In their study, the searchers first evaluated whether five wild-type H9N2 viruses could infect ferrets and whether infected animals could spread the disease to other ferrets through direct contact and through the air. Lethargy, anorexia, and temperature elevations were noted in some of the ferrets that were inoculated with the virus, and the virus was found in nasal washes from all the inoculated ferrets. Most of the ferrets caged with the inoculated animals showed evidence of viral shedding and had H9 antibodies.
The authors write that the results suggest H9N2 infections in ferrets are similar to those in humans and pigs. "Our findings suggest that the ferret represents a good animal model to study the potential changes that could lead to efficient transmission of avian H9N2 viruses in humans," they state.
Next, they investigated whether one of the H9N2 viruses they used could be transmitted by aerosol to ferrets. Though the virus was found in the inoculated and direct-contact ferrets, they found no seroconversion in ferrets that were kept separate but shared the same air as the other animals. "Taken together, these data indicate that although some H9N2 viruses can transmit to direct contacts, they lack successful aerosol transmission," the report says.
The study also explored genetic-level aspects of H9N2 transmission in ferrets. For example, they found that:
* A single change of glycine (Gln) to leucine (Leu) at amino acid position 226 in the hemagglutinin receptor binding site enhanced H9N2 replication
* Leucine residue at position 226 of the hemagglutinin receptor binding site appears to select for human virus?like receptor specificity that enhances replication and direct contact transmission
Another goal was to determine if an H9N2 avian-human reassortment would enhance transmission of H9N2 strains that contained Leu226. Using reverse genetics, they recovered a reassortant that combined surface protein genes from H9N2 with internal genes from an H3N2 virus. Ferrets that were inoculated with the virus, as well as their direct contacts, had high H9 antibody titers, but the aerosol contacts did not.
The authors report that the reassortant virus showed enhanced shedding and transmission, but it lacked the ability to infect aerosol contacts. The reassortant also caused more severe damage in the lungs, replicating in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts, than a wild-type H9N2 virus.
The group concluded that H9N2 viruses are poised for further adaptation that could make transmission more efficient among mammals and humans. Though they did not find aerosol transmission, a key feature of a pandemic influenza strain, an abundance of other risk factors, such as the human virus-like specificity in some avian and swine isolates, build a strong case for H9N2 as a potential public health threat , they assert.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia: Jakarta Post Editorial/Reader Comments
Bird flu alert
Your comments on the reappearance of bird flu cases in North Sumatra in which at least 13 suspected patients of the disease are hospitalized
The government program does not work well due to lack of funds and lack of enthusiasm on the part of health officers fighting the disease. But, in any program to deal with the problem, please do not destroy chickens. We don't want that chicken meat will disappear from our dining tables.
IKHSAN
Jakarta
What do you expect, the government is so corrupt, that is why Indonesia isn't growing.
NIKKI WIDJAJA
Jakarta
The health minister shouldn't treat this problem like business as usual.
YEFTA TANDIYO
Magelang, Central Java
The government must help poor people so they don't have to live with or near chickens.
SUSAN
Jakarta
That Indonesia has been the worst hit by the bird flu epidemic is not a surprise to most of us because many of our people disobey city ordinances or are just indifferent to them.
Even the upper class is strangely proud to show off their pet birds. Is it any wonder we still find pasar burung (bird markets) in our supposedly educated capital city of Jakarta?
8/15/08 Jakarta Post/Reader Comments--
There should be reciprocal encouragement between the government and its citizens to eliminate bird flu in Indonesia. Government policy minus people's support equals to zero.
YEANNE
Jakarta
The problem is the government is withholding bird flu samples from international testing agencies. What happens when a pandemic breaks out?
MIKE
Jakarta
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Nigeria: Official advises poultry farmers on bird flu surveillance
8/15/08 Vanguard--Dr Ezekiel Pam, Desk Officer, (Animal Health), Avian Influenza Preparedness Project, has advised poultry farmers in Plateau to make effective use of the 17 surveillance facilities provided for their operations.
He gave the advice yesterday in Jos in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos.
Pam said the facilities were to ensure the control of Avian Influenza in the event of an outbreak of the disease.
He also advised them to promptly report suspected cases of the disease to the local government desk officers in their areas.
Pam gave the assurance that the country was well equipped to contain the new strain of the disease reported to have been discovered in Nigeria.
According to him,?the level of preparedness in the country today is more than what it was in 2006 and 2007, when the disease first broke out in the country??.
Pam said relevant authorities had beefed up surveillance on the disease, and urged poultry farmers to also increase their bio-security measures.
The measures, he added, include preventing the entry of unauthorised vehicles into poultry farms and disinfecting borrowed equipment before use.
Others are keeping all poultry farms clean, separating birds according to age, breed and species, as well as protecting their birds from coming in contact with wild birds.
The first outbreak of the disease in 2006 affected 97 local governments spread across 25 states.
The new outbreak was confirmed in Fagen-Kawo and Kagarko in Kano and Katsina states respectively.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
FAO recommends cost-sharing to deliver bird flu vaccinations
8/15/08 VNS--The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) recommended yesterday that Viet Nam consider moving from a fully publicly-funded bird flu mass-vaccination campaign, to a public-private funded one to ease the burden on the State as donations are on the decline, according to FAO?s senior avian influenza technical consultant Dr Tony Forman.
"We have to recognise that this disease is going to continue for a long time. One thing that the Government and FAO are concerned about is that the strategies we have for controlling bird flu be sustainable," said the animal health expert on the sidelines of a two-day meeting to review the Strategy for Control and Prevention of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in the Agriculture Sector in Ha Noi.
Cost-sharing was one of strategies being discussed in a bid to sustain control as donations drop, he said.
Viet Nam has spent around US$20 million a year on bird flu vaccinations, including about 500 million doses of vaccines since the disease first broke out in the country in 2003; this fund comes mostly from donors.
Free Tamiflu
The Government of Japan will provide Viet Nam with Tamiflu, enough to help about 74,000 people.
The donation ceremony was held yesterday in Ha Noi between the Japanese Embassy and the Ministry of Health.
According to Forman, the level of funds from major donors is still good, the US Agency for International Development being the largest one, but support from other donors have already started dropping off.
He explained the problem was that a lot of international support came from various governments? emergency funding for Viet Nam. But the country had escaped being one of the bird flu centres in the world, said Agriculture and Rural Development Deputy Minister Bui Ba Bong.
Forman said Viet Nam was without question, doing a much better job in controlling the disease than other countries in the world thanks to the Government?s strong commitment, but it was very expensive to undertake control in this way.
Le Thanh Binh, a farmer in Vinh Phuc Province, said if she had to pay for vaccinations, she would only vaccinate her family?s small chicken flock in case there was an outbreak in her area.
Some believe the new mechanism might discourage farmers from vaccinating their birds, because ironically, the Government?s success in controlling the disease had led to a drop in their awareness of the dangers.
The FAO agreed it was a risk and a challenge to encourage cost sharing. Therefore, they recommended implementing the mechanism on a trial basis to see what level of support from the Government would be appropriate, said Forman.
"That is why the Government will continue one mass vaccination each year [instead of the current two] in October and November, to ensure that the birds are covered over this high risk period of Tet (Lunar New Year), in case the funding fails."
According to the FAO representative in Viet Nam, Andrew Speedy, public-private cost sharing will not only enable the Government at the central, provincial and district levels to have some budgetary reserves for supporting other key disease prevention and control programmes, but is also likely to bring about a sense of ownership and stronger participation in the vaccination policy by all those involved in the poultry business. ? VNS
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Japan Donates over 740,000 Tablets of Tamiflu to Vietnam
8/15/08 Vietnam News Brief Service--The Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MoH) August 14 received 743,600 tablets of Tamiflu, the most effective bird flu fighter among humans worldwide so far, funded by the Japanese Government, said local media.
This is part of Japan's commitment to provide Tamiflu for 500,000 people in Southeast Asian countries through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), said the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam.
The medicine package is capable to treat around 74,000 Vietnamese, the embassy added.
At the presenting ceremony, Deputy Head of Mission and Minister of Japanese Embassy in Vietnam Daisuke Matsunaga said Japan supports are very important to Vietnam in preventing avian and human influenza. It has helped Vietnam build new bio-safety level 3 laboratories at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, he added.
Additionally, the country has actively facilitated Vietnam in this field via international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Fund for Children (UNICEP), the World Bank (WB), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Since early this year, Vietnam has reported four H5N1 human infections and all of patients died after hospitalization, raising the country's total infections and deaths since November 2003 to 105 and 51, respectively.
The country has also found out 73 bird flu outbreaks in 71 communes of 49 districts, 26 provinces in Vietnam during the time, with total number of poultry dying and being destroyed reaching 60,000.
Currently, bird flu remains in central Quang Ngai province and Mekong Delta Dong Thap, Ben Tre and Kien Giang provinces.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Health officials to watch for bird flu in the weeks following the Beijing Olympics
8/15/08 The Canadian Press--Medical officials will be extra vigilant monitoring patients for symptoms of the bird flu in the weeks following the Beijing Olympics, says an Edmonton health official.
Although the predicted pandemic has waned from public consciousness in recent years, Dr. Louis Francescutti warns the threat is still real.
``We know the flu originates in the Far East, so if there is a strain that's implicated with any pandemic, the likelihood of people who are visiting increases the odds of something happening,'' said Francescutti, a University of Alberta professor and emergency room doctor.
``There are people who are far smarter than I who haven't raised alarm bells. There are others who have said we've got to do some monitoring.''
Health officials around the world sounded the alarm when the flu first spread around several Asian countries in 2004.
Media coverage exploded shortly after, warning the public to be prepared for an outbreak that could kill up to 50,000 Canadians.
But with no immediate danger in sight, both the media and public have lost interest, Francescutti said.
However, he added, people need to be prepared for any type of emergency that could arise.
Everyone should have enough water, cash, food and other necessities for their family to last at least three days, he recommended.
There have been nearly 240 recorded fatalities worldwide from bird flu. Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry that the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, possibly triggering a pandemic that could kill millions. So far most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Ghana calls for urgent meeting to control avian flu
8/15/08 Afrol News--Ghana is seeking a meeting with its western African neighbours to discuss a common measure to prevent incursions of Avian Influenza. A call follows reports on an outbreak of bird flu in Nigeria's remote states of Katsina and Kano last month.
Acting Director of Veterinary Directorate, Dr Enoch Koney said he has called on Togo and Benin, further saying a similar meeting is also planned for Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
He said having realised dangers of bird flu the Directorate had notified all regional directors of agriculture as well as veterinary officers about the new cases in Nigeria.
Dr Koney urged stakeholders to have constant check at all live bird markets and monitor staging posts of migratory wild birds at wetlands while they strictly enforced import permits for poultry and poultry products.
Douglas Akrofi Asiedu, co-ordinator, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said the outbreak of the avian influenza was a real threat to the whole world, especially their region.
He stressed the need for the nation to commit resources to educate and sensitise public on its prevention and how to manage it if it does occur.
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said strain of avian influenza recently found in Nigeria was genetically different from strains in previous African outbreaks in Nigeria in 2006 and 2007.
It pointed to other avenues for the virus to have emerged in Nigeria, such as international trade or illegal and unreported movement of poultry. "This increases the risk of an avian influenza spread to other countries in Western Africa," said FAO in a statement.
The virus which is said to rarely infect people, has killed 243 out of 385 known to have been infected since 2003, according to World Health Organisation, while it has also killed or forced slaughter of 300 million birds.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Africa: Unable to Put Beef And Fish On the Table, Continent Courts Animal-Spread Diseases
8/15/08 All Africa--Last year's outbreaks of the deadly Marburg and Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever viruses in southwestern Uganda and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo's province of Kasai Occidental and the sporadic outbreaks of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) across the continent once again bring to light the threat zoonotic diseases pose to sub-Saharan Africa in particular and the world generally.
According to recent analysis more than 60 per cent of the estimated 1,415 infectious diseases known to modern medicine are capable of infecting both animals and humans. Most of these diseases such as anthrax, Rift Valley fever and monkey pox are zoonotic, meaning they originated in animals but have crossed the species barrier to infect people.
It is estimated that about 75 per cent of the new diseases that have affected humans over the past 10 years have been caused by pathogens (infective agents) originating from animals or animal products. This was the case of the HIV-- the virus that causes Aids, which experts believe jumped the Darwinian divide from apes to humans.
Such diseases are of course not confined to the developing world. In 2003 there was an outbreak of human monkey-pox in the American states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Human monkey-pox is a rare zoonotic viral disease that occurs primarily in equatorial West and central Africa.
The outbreak in America occurred when a Wisconsin prairie-dog dealer allowed several of his animals to mix with rodents recently imported from Ghana that happened to be carrying the Monkey-pox virus. Luckily, no one died despite there being 71 reported cases of the disease in six mid-western states.
And it isn't only humans who are at risk of disease. Domestic animals, as the bird flu (H5N10) or Avian Influenza outbreaks in Asia, Europe and Africa have proven, are equally vulnerable to infectious ailments.
Livestock agriculture is the most important industry across sub-Saharan Africa, and disease is its biggest enemy. Overall, the industry represents 25 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the region, and, in certain countries, provides enough stock for export.
However, compared with other parts of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa has the heaviest burden of animal diseases. For example, 12 out of the 15 diseases that were considered by the Office Internationale des Epizooties as the most contagious are found in Africa.
According to experts, Africa is not threatened by a single malaise such as HIV and Aids or Avian Influenza but by a combination of various human, plant and animal diseases, which can have potentially devastating social, environmental and economic effects.
But why has there been a rise of new zoonotic diseases such as West Nile Fever, Rift Valley Fever, Marburg and the emergence of new virulent organisms when health care throughout the world is arguably the best it has ever been in the history of humanity?
The misuse of antibiotics by Sub-Saharan Africans is one key consideration. Patients in poor areas of the continent have poor prescriptions habits by not taking the full dosage of their prescribed medications. Furthermore, even if the patient in question is taking the proper dosages, many Africans are unable to afford the necessary full course antibiotic prescriptions. There is also the lack of government regulation of pharmacies many of which sell drugs without a physician's prescription.
Rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is also another important factor. Along with population increase comes the need for more arable and grazing land and the exploration of new forest, swamp and cave habitats. This raises the likelihood of exposure to 'new' infectious agents in those environments, and could result in the emergence of new disease pathogens.
As population grows there is also an increase in the demand for food. In sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, people are more and more turning to wild animals for food. This high demand for bush meat in the countries of the Congo Basin is helping to fuel the increase in outbreaks of such illnesses as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. Ebola, like the HIV virus that causes Aids, passed into the human population through contact with blood from infected primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees as well as other primates like monkeys who regularly from part of the bush meat trade.
However, the multi-billion dollar bush meat industry is a key contributor to local economies throughout the developing world. It is also among the most immediate threats to tropical wildlife.
The consumption of bush meat is particularly acute across west and central Africa where there are still large equatorial forests. In fact, the Congo River Basin is home to one of the biggest expanse of tropical rainforest in the world. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo have a combined forest area of 1,856,207 kilometres squared -- one of the largest in the world. Add to this the estimated combined forest and urban population of the Congo Basin of 5432,945,932 who consume an astonishing 1,196,395,911 kilograms (one million to five million tones) of bush meat annually. You now appreciate why wildlife conservationist call it the Bush meat crisis.
These vast forest areas harbour various monkey and antelope species. But its Africa's highly endangered Great Apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos whose very existence is being severely affected by the bush meat trade.
Recent scientific surveys of great ape populations in Gabon, which has one of the largest populations, indicates that the numbers of gorillas and chimpanzees declined by more than half between 1983 and 2000. But it is not only the bush meat trade that has decimated the ape population of West and Central Africa. Ebola has killed tens of thousands of gorillas and chimpanzees.
But the bush meat trade in sub-Saharan Africa has also been linked to the decline of fish stocks in West Africa. According to experts people substitute wildlife for fish in ears of fish scarcity. In 2005 researchers found that declining fish stocks were fuelling a multibillion- dollar meat trade in West Africa.
In Ghana more than half of the country's 20 million people reside within 100 kilometres of the coast, where fish is the primary source of protein and income. However, using 30-year data collected monthly by rangers in six nature reserves in Ghana, researchers have found a direct link between fish supply and the demand for bush meat in Ghanaian villages.
Looking at data for the years 1970 to 1998, researchers found that in 14 local food markets, residents substituted bush meat as an alternative to fish and the number of poachers observed by rangers in parks increased when fish supply was limited or its price increased.
During the same period trawler surveys conducted in the Gulf of Guinea, off Ghana's coast, since 1970 along with other regional stock assessments, estimate that fish biomass in near-shore and off-shore waters has declined by at least 50 per cent.
In the same period, there has been a threefold increase in human population in the region. The researchers suspect the decline in the availability of fish at local Ghanaian markets is linked to heavy over-fishing in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Gulf of Guinea is one of the most over fished areas of the world. Declines in fish stocks in waters off West Africa have coincided with more than ten-fold increases in regional fish harvests by foreign and domestic fleets since 1950.
Shipping fleets subsided by the European Union (EU) have consistently had the largest foreign presence off West Africa, with EU fish harvests there increasing 20 times from 1950 to 2001.
As the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases increase, indigenous Africans (and others communities in developing countries) might hold the key to disease prevention and containment.
Some pioneers in the field of modern medical anthropology agree that the global fight against emerging zoonotic diseases as well as re-emerging contagious and infectious ailments in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere has failed to incorporate traditional African medicine for disease control and prevention.
This negative attitude towards indigenous notions of contagious diseases stems largely from the assumption that African health beliefs are primarily based on witchcraft, sorcery or black magic. Experts have indeed found this to be true in the realm of mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa (perhaps due to a superficial likeness between possession by spirits and symptoms of some mental illnesses) but curiously not so when it comes to infectious diseases.
"Western medical science has long dismissed African indigenous (and by extension, other indigenous) medical theories as superstitious gibberish, unworthy of serious consideration," writes anthropologist Edward C. Green, now a Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.
The attitudes of the Western medical fraternity as well as Western-trained African healthcare workers will only hamper current efforts to control and prevention of the spread of the latest zoonotic threat to the African continent, Avian Influenza. So far only 40 Africans are known to have been infected with the potentially fatal disease.
However, a recent report by Folorunso O. Fasina and colleagues in The Lancet Infectious Diseases says that Africa is incapable of fighting an Avian Influenza epidemic. According to the report the African strain of H5N1 has acquired "troubling" properties such as respiratory rather than faecal transmission in poultry and a mutation associated with increased spread of disease in mammals, including humans. Furthermore, the possibility of human infection on the continent is increased by inefficient diagnosis, denial of outbreaks, inter-ethnic crisis, politicisation of the issue, poor reporting surveillance and communication risks.
A large-scale epidemic of Avian Influenza could happen in Africa if the virus changes so that human to human transmission occurs, say experts. If it does millions of people could die as a result. In fact, some observers predict that such an epidemic could be just as devastating to the continent as the rinderpest epidemic was back in the 1890s and the HIV and Aids epidemic of today.
For starters, surveillance systems in Africa are notoriously weak and are unable to detect early H5N1 outbreaks in poultry or wild birds.
Control remains difficult because of the continent's ineffective border controls, overtaxed health-care systems and inadequate biosecurity. Furthermore, the crowding of poultry farms and the blossoming of live poultry markets promote the rapid spread of the disease, as do high-risk conditions and practices like the slaughter of sick birds in homes.
The result of such an epidemic would have devastating socio-economic consequences. For example, African women might be particularly at risk. Epidemiological studies have shown that there is a higher likelihood of the transmission of Avian Influenza from poultry to humans through contact with infected poultry.
As poultry in Africa is predominately managed by women, they may have a higher incidence of contracting H5N1 with the possibility of them passing it on to their children were the virus ever to make the big leap form bird to human transmission to human-to-human transmission.
An epidemic outbreak of H5N1 could also lead to widespread micronutrient deficiencies, say experts. Even small reductions in meat and egg consumption can lead to large reductions of micronutrient intake. Therefore, there may be negative impacts on nutrition of people at risk such as children, women and people living with HIV and Aids.
Against such a background, the International Food and Policy Research Institute in cooperation with the International Livestock Research Institute is assisting developing regions to protect their economic livelihood in case of an H5N1 epidemic outbreak. In May a $7.8 million (Sh560 million) project was launched to assist poor farmers in developing countries to protect their livelihoods in the event of an avian flu outbreak.
Research is being conducted in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, and Nigeria, where experts will identify strategies, such as farmer compensation schemes, that can both control the disease and protect poor households from losing critical sources of income.
The consequences for failed infectious disease control and eradication programs in Africa and elsewhere are alarming. Mark E.J Woolhouse and Sonya Gowtage-Sequeria of the Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Edinburgh cite the failure of public health programs as one of the 10 drivers associated with the emergence and re-emergence of human pathogens.
CURTIS ABRAHAM writes on development and internal affairs from Kampala
AI Research
H9N2 bird flu threat understated in humans
8/15/08 Reuters--The H9N2 bird flu strain, identified as a possible pandemic threat, could be infecting more humans than commonly thought but its mild symptoms mean it often goes undetected, a leading Hong Kong bird flu expert said.
"It's quite possible ... H9N2 is infecting humans quite a lot, much (more) than we appreciate merely because it is beyond the radar," Malik Peiris, a Hong Kong-based microbiologist, told Reuters.
"In humans, it is very mild, so most of the time it's probably not even recognized or biologically tested," said Peiris, who has co-authored several papers on the strain in recent years.
So far, only a handful of human H9N2 cases have been documented worldwide, including four children in Hong Kong in 2003 who suffered from mild fevers and coughs -- as well as a batch in China's Guangdong province, where people often live in close proximity to poultry, Peiris said.
The Hong Kong cases were only picked up by chance given the city's rigorous influenza testing regime, Peiris said.
"It's quite a silent virus, it's not highly pathogenic ... and sometimes it causes some morbidity in poultry but by and large it is just there and it's unnoticed," Peiris said of the H9N2 strain.
The strain occurs mostly in birds, although it has also affected pigs and other animals in Europe and Asia.
Most influenza experts agree that a pandemic -- a deadly global epidemic -- of some kind of flu is inevitable.
No one can predict what kind but the chief suspect is the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has infected 385 people and killed 243 of them since 2003.
However, flu experts at the University of Maryland, St. Jude's Children's Research hospital in Memphis and elsewhere recently wrote in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE that the H9N2 strain posed a "significant threat for humans."
They found that just a few mutations could turn it into a virus that people catch and transmit easily.
Peiris said that while the H9N2 strain might be more transmissible, its effects would be far less devastating than a possible H5N1 pandemic.
"There are other viruses out there besides H5N1 that could be the next pandemic," Peiris said. "But I suspect (H9N2) will not be so severe in its outcome."
Peiris pointed out that the last three major pandemics vastly differed in their severity, with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide, whereas the "Hong Kong" flu in 1968 killed around one million.
There are hundreds of strains of avian influenza virus but only four -- H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, and H9N2 - are known to have caused human infections, according to the World Health Organization.
