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Avian Influenza Daily Digest
September 2, 2008 14:00 GMT
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Article Summaries ...
Quid Novi
Indonesia: Media reports that a woman tests positive for bird flu in Malang
Kenya: Country on Bird Flu Alert
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Vietnam: Uphill battle to raise awareness of bird flu
9/2/08 IntellAsia--The key message that needs to be heard is that Avian Influenza (AI) is endemic in Vietnam and needs to be controlled, say UN officials involved in the battle to identify and contain avian influenza outbreaks.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Vietnam: Mekong birds duck away from avian flu
9/2/08 Farming UK--The Government is urging farmers to switch from raising free-range ducks, offering them incentives to incorporate bio-safety measures to help prevent another H5N1epidemic.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Iraq: Precautionary Measures to Prevent Entry of Avian Influenza Contaminated Eggs to Al Basrah
9/2/08 ARGUS--A local source reported that precautionary measures at border points, seaports, and the airport have been taken by the Health and Environment Committee (HEC) to prevent entry of avian influenza-contaminated eggs to Al Basrah province. The source added that the measures were taken following information received by HEC that a shipment of AI-contaminated eggs has been rejected at Al Shuwaikhi port in Kuwait. The Chairman of the HEC indicated that forged documents for the shipment showed Brazil was the source of the eggs. The source reported that the precautionary measures being taken include requesting the government to coordinate with the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry to prevent entry of the contaminated shipment to Iraq, holding an emergency meeting for the directors of the border points on the issue, tightening monitoring and control over imported materials and conduction of laboratory tests.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Japan: Hospitals to get special suits to fight flu outbreak
9/2/08 Yomiuri Shimbun--The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will purchase 40,000 phylactic suits for doctors and nurses to prepare for a future flu pandemic expected to be caused by a possible new strain of influenza.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Science and Technology
Bird flu vaccine gives strong protection in mice
9/2/08 Reuters--An experimental bird flu vaccine that uses DNA from various strains of the H5N1 virus appears to trigger a strong immune response in mice after it is injected straight into the muscles, a study has shown.
Vaccines
Monitoring For 'Pandemic' Mutations By Examining Bird Flu Infections
9/2/08 Medical News Today--Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust are to examine what is preventing the H5N1 avian influenza virus from causing a human pandemic and what mutations are required to realise its deadly potential. The research could hold the key to early identification of a potential influenza pandemic, and to developing drugs and a vaccine.
AI Research
Pandemic Preparedness
The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers? Retail Purchase
9/2/08 USDA--To better understand how information about potential health hazards influences food demand, this case study examines consumers? responses to newspaper articles on avian influenza, informally referred to as bird flu. The focus here is on the response to bird flu information in Italy as news about highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) unfolded in the period October 2004 through October 2006, beginning after reports of the first outbreaks in Southeast Asia, and extending beyond the point at which outbreaks were reported in Western Europe. Estimated poultry demand, as influenced by the volume of newspaper reports on bird flu, reveals the magnitude and duration of newspaper articles? impacts on consumers? food choices. Larger numbers of bird flu news reports led to larger reductions in poultry purchases. Most impacts were of limited duration, and all began to diminish within 5 weeks.
Pandemic Preparedness
Full Text of Articles follow ...
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Vietnam: Uphill battle to raise awareness of bird flu
9/2/08 IntellAsia--The key message that needs to be heard is that Avian Influenza (AI) is endemic in Vietnam and needs to be controlled, say UN officials involved in the battle to identify and contain avian influenza outbreaks.
According to the Vietnam Partnership for Avian and Human Influenza (PAHI) [http://www.avianinfluenza.org.vn], three provinces have reported new outbreaks in recent weeks. Since the start of 2008, 44 districts in 26 of Vietnam's 64 provinces have reported outbreaks, highlighting the challenge the country faces in controlling the disease. Overall since 2003, Vietnam has had 106 cases of human avian flu and 52 deaths.
Yet compared to 2004 and 2005, when 90 cases of human infection occurred with 39 deaths, [http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2008_06_19/en/index.html] Vietnam has made huge strides, according to David Payne, the UN Development Programme avian influenza specialist in Hanoi, "with only five infections since March 2008, all of whom died".
Payne gives the Vietnamese government high marks for recognising early on the severity of the AI problem and turning to the UN and the humanitarian community for advice and support.
"The office of the UN resident representative for Vietnam -with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) taking the lead -has worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant ministries," said Payne, adding that UN agencies have taken a united approach to assisting the government.
The key strategy of the government and UN agencies in confronting avian influenza is the Vietnam Integrated National Operational Programme for Avian and Human Influenza 2006-2010, known as the "Greenbook". [http://www.avianinfluenza.org.vn/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&id=29&Itemid=59]
It is a US$250 million five-year programme funded initially principally by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) but now including the World Bank and other donors. It includes improving surveillance abilities, culling and market controls and the goal of vaccinating 30 million poultry twice a year. It is also designed to strengthen overall health capacity, train epidemiologists and establish laboratories.
Awareness raising efforts
An aggressive public awareness programme overseen by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) is integral to the strategy.
Unicef has supported the rental of mobile vans equipped with loudspeakers that travelled around key districts in eight high-risk provinces in the north in Mar/April 2008, informing residents of ways to safeguard against avian influenza transmission. They have also distributed posters and brochures.
According to Tran Minh Thu, Unicef's avian influenza communications officer in Hanoi, Unicef is working with the National Centre of Heath and Education on a variety of awareness raising efforts.
"In May 2007, we provided support for a mass radio and TV awareness campaign and also helped to train provincial and district level health staff on safeguards against AI and human avian influenza and in honing their communication skills," said Thu.
The key messages include hand washing, safe and sanitary slaughter of poultry, thorough cooking of meat, and keeping children away from contact with poultry and their faeces.
Ha Nam Province
In Ha Nam Province, just south of Hanoi, the director of its Centre of Health Education, Pham Quang Mae, told IRIN that since 2003 the province had had five outbreaks of avian influenza with mass culling, and five human deaths.
Mae praised Unicef's efforts but told IRIN: "We think people have become complacent. They still throw dead chickens into the rivers and the canals? "People are aware of the need to wash their hands but many don't? I believe that things will change, but it will take time."
Unicef is currently evaluating with the government the next steps in raising community awareness, but Do Thi Dung, vice-director for communications for Ha Nam Province's Centre of Health Education said: "I think the campaign should now involve community health workers at the commune level, not just the provincial and district levels."
In one project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Unicef is helping to do just that.
Tran Thi Cham, chairwoman of the Women's Union in Ha Nam Province, told IRIN, "Since 2007, with the help of Unicef, we've been training the women's union staff down to the commune level on avian influenza, organising and raising awareness. We do it through poems, singing and plays." The Women's Union in Ha Nam Province has 24 "clubs" -groupings of 60 women -and hopes to expand the number to address the avian influenza problem.
Bui Thi Hang, Ha NaKim Bang District Women's Communication head, said: "Women are the ones who are directly involved in raising poultry so the Women's Union is the most effective means in reaching women with the key messages."
Unicef acknowledges behaviour change is a long-term challenge. This was demonstrated on a visit to Hoang Thi Tien's duck farm in Que Commune, Kim Bang District.
"I sell the birds and slaughter them at home." Tien told IRIN. She says she vaccinates her chicks, which she buys from a safe hatchery, and even cleanses her motorbike after transporting the chickens and washes her boots with detergent. Nonetheless, her protective gloves are well-worn with tears all over. Worst of all, she lives no more than 100 metres from Le Thi Qanh's farm, and their ducks share a common waterway. Only recently Qanh's flock of 130 ducks were culled because of an AI outbreak.
"I just don't think I will have an avian flu outbreak here, Tien told IRIN. "It happens to others."
Vaccines
Bird flu vaccine gives strong protection in mice
9/2/08 Reuters--An experimental bird flu vaccine that uses DNA from various strains of the H5N1 virus appears to trigger a strong immune response in mice after it is injected straight into the muscles, a study has shown.
In the journal Cell Research, scientists in Taiwan and the United States said the vaccine protected mice fully against H5N1 strains from Vietnam, Turkey and China's eastern Anhui province.
"We injected it into mice and after more than a week, the mice were immunized and we challenged the mice with live virus strains from Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and Anhui," Chi-Huey Wong from The Genomics Research Center in Taiwan's Academia Sinica told Reuters by telephone.
"The mice were fully protected from the strains from Vietnam, Turkey and Anhui, while 80 percent (of mice) were protected from the Indonesian strain, but that's still very high."
Another group of mice which were not immunized all died within days of being infected with lethal doses of the virus.
Vaccines using DNA are a departure from the traditional way vaccines are made -- painstakingly grown in chicken eggs, which could well be in very short supply in the case of a pandemic.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus currently mostly affects birds and is endemic in flocks in many parts of Asia. It has also swept through flocks in Africa and occasionally in Europe.
It rarely infects humans but when it does, the casualty toll is heavy. Since 2003, it has infected 385 people, killing 243 of them, according to the World Health Organization.
At least 16 companies are working on vaccines to prevent bird flu infection in people, but the process is problematic. Flu vaccines are hard to make because they must be grown in chicken eggs for months, and viruses mutate all the time.
Wong said their vaccine was designed using a "consensus DNA sequence" that was based on varieties of H5N1 viruses found since 1997, when the virus first infected people in Hong Kong.
The scientists hope to take their experiment a step further into human clinical trials once approval is given.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Vietnam: Mekong birds duck away from avian flu
9/2/08 Farming UK--The Government is urging farmers to switch from raising free-range ducks, offering them incentives to incorporate bio-safety measures to help prevent another H5N1epidemic.
On a 50sq.m yard in My Hoa Commune, Thap Muoi District, Dong Thap Province, three local veterinary workers are inoculating Le Minh Doi?s ducks against the H5N1 virus.
"This is the second time they?ve got the vaccine. The first was 15 days after the eggs hatched," Doi said. "Before vaccination, they were given drops of vitamins to build up their resistance against the vaccine?s side effects."
"We also vaccinated them for cholera and flu according to the schedule set by local vets."
The 48-year-old farmer is among many in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta incorporating bio-safety measures into the work of breeding ducks.
"My birds are raised on a closed farm. This is in keeping with experts? advice to watch where animals stay and live, to prevent them from mixing with wild birds, and to keep different animal species separate," Doi said. "We give the ducks industrially-processed food and clean water sources that are changed every four days."
"Using the safe farming model brings us a lot of benefits, like money," he said.
To raise 1,000 ducks, Doi needs a VND30 million investment, but reaps a VND15-20 million profit in addition to a fish pond worth about the same amount after 60 days.
A duck brought up with bio-safety measures usually weighs 3 to 3.5kg, and is sold for VND35,000 per kilo. Meanwhile, ducks raised the traditional, free-range way end up weighing only 1.5 to 2kg, go for VND20,000 and 22,000 per kilo.
Thanks to a closed farm, Doi does not need to rely on others to raise up to 2,000 birds.
"Now, I not only make more money, but have more time to do housework like gardening and helping my kids? with their schoolwork," he said. "Plus, duck droppings can be used in raising fish and that?s good for the environment."
When his ducks wandered free range on the paddy fields, two or three people had to be hired to watch over them. He also had to pay landowners VND220,000-250,000 for each hectare of harvested paddy to let the ducks feed on them.
Free-range birds face higher risks of infections from migratory birds and ingesting pesticides or chemical fertilisers. Doi?s ducks were dropping like flies.
"In 2003, I quit farming after losing over VND100 million when more than 4,000 of my ducks were culled because of bird flu. But then I restocked and went back to breeding ducks in late 2005 since I had no other career options," he said.
Huynh Tan Man of Long An Province?s Chau Thanh District has also reformed his ways. "I changed my farming methods in early 2007. Now the flock stays in a fenced area on a section of a canal for at least 10 days before they?re moved somewhere else."
"I always check the new field carefully in advance to make sure it?s epidemic-free. I also do all the necessary preventive measures, like vaccinations," he said.
"After more than a year of using the bio-safe method, I made a profit of VND100 million, along with almost VND50 million from raising fish with duck droppings," he said. The extra money has been used to take care of Man?s family of six as well as more ducks. He recently bought an incubator.
"The bio-safety measures really helped us avoid the nightmares that bird flu caused last time," he said.
In the last five years, six outbreaks of the H5N1 virus were responsible for the culling of 46 million birds in Viet Nam. Bird flu claimed the lives of 104 people in the country as well.
During the scare, the Government banned duck breeding temporarily as waterfowl are less resistant to infections than other kinds of poultry.
Soon after the outbreaks ended, farmers resumed raising ducks. Local authorities imposed several preventive measures to protect flocks from contracting the disease, including the promotion of new duck breeding methods. Dry breeding and breeding in closed farms became more and more popular across the Mekong Delta.
An Giang Province leads the delta in developing safe farming models. Over 13 per cent of the total duck raising households have closed farms. The figure is expected to jump 50 per cent by the end of the year.
In Tay Ninh Province, more than 20,000 ducks are now raised on closed farms, while farmers in Dong Thap Province use fenced trenches, fish ponds and rice fields to raise ducks. So far the new models have proven to be effective.
Many still left behind
Though the benefits of bio-safety are evident, the new methods are still out of the reach for most duck breeders in the Mekong Delta.
On a rough dirt road winding through green rice paddies, Nguyen Van Hoi of Phu Loi District, Soc Trang Province threw unhusked rice mixed with mash and dried fish to thousands of ducks wading around this thin legs.
Hoi still uses the traditional free-range model.
"I have been raising ducks for more than 20 years. I know all the advantages the bio-safety method can bring. However, I have neither the knowledge nor the cash or land to apply the new method so I?m using the traditional one," he said.
"I recognise that free-range farming is out of line with official policy but I cannot give up my means of living," said the father of five.
"The bio-safe model would cost us more money because I?d have to buy feed for the ducks and find enough land to enclose them," Hoi said. "My ducks now eat snails and insects because they roam freely."
Duong Van Chenh, a duck breeder in Soc Trang City, said: "Changing models is hard. The new one requires a big investment, and most of our capital sources limited."
According to him, most breeders don?t have the training to apply the new techniques. "We can only apply the bio-safety measures unless the Government and relevant agencies offer technical and financial support."
Richer resources
Dr Duong Xuan Tuyen, an expert from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry, attributes the Mekong Delta?s ideal natural conditions to why raising ducks is a main source of livelihood for a lot of farming households, especially poor ones, in the area.
"The region now has 10 provinces that are raising more than 20 million ducks, accounting for 34 per cent of the country?s total," according to Tuyen.
"Many still use free-range techniques because they require modest investments and no breeding facilities. Between 65 to 70 per cent of ducks in the Mekong are raised that way," he said.
In addition to cutting costs, letting ducks loose benefits rice crops because they eat pests like brown plant hoppers and yellow snails, provide manure, and clean fields.
"However, the traditional free-range model creates opportunities for epidemics to break out. It?s difficult to contain their spread once they do," said Tuyen.
"To ensure sustainable development of the local duck industry, we have to augment the application of bio-safety models on a large scale and minimise small scale production with drastic measures."
Nguyen Ba Thanh, director of the Region 7 Veterinary Centre, said: "Farmers should be familiarised with preventive steps like vaccinations, bio-safety measures or epidemic surveillance. Local veterinary workers should have opportunities to participate in training courses to improve their professional skills.
"It?s easy to adopt such measures against epidemics at industrial or closed farms, but small scale ones are hard to keep track of," Thanh said.
Bui Xuan Men, head of Can Tho University?s Agriculture Faculty, said: "Developing duck breeding is developing the delta?s strengths since it would utilise available natural resources and give resource-poor farmers bigger profits, gainful employment and better dietary standards."
Men suggests that the new models be promoted via mass media so all farmers can apply them and that poor breeders receive low-interest loans to do so.
The Government has approved a breeding development strategy until 2020 under which the country?s breeding industry will shift to industrial production, said Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy director of the Livestock Production Department.
"The main objective is to have farm-based breeding increase from the current 20 per cent to 33 per cent in 2010, 49 per cent in 2015 and 60 per cent in 2020," Son said.
The Government has enacted policies and measures to reach its goals. For example, a master plan for zoning of commercial poultry farms to ensure they are right for their ecological conditions is in the works, he said.
Preferential policies have also been granted to individuals and corporations investing in central breeding and processing operations.
"Breeders using closed farms can get complete financial support from the State to build infrastructure facilities off the farms, and enjoy other perks dealing with land lease times and fees," Son said. ? VNS
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Iraq: Precautionary Measures to Prevent Entry of Avian Influenza Contaminated Eggs to Al Basrah
9/2/08 ARGUS--A local source reported that precautionary measures at border points, seaports, and the airport have been taken by the Health and Environment Committee (HEC) to prevent entry of avian influenza-contaminated eggs to Al Basrah province. The source added that the measures were taken following information received by HEC that a shipment of AI-contaminated eggs has been rejected at Al Shuwaikhi port in Kuwait. The Chairman of the HEC indicated that forged documents for the shipment showed Brazil was the source of the eggs. The source reported that the precautionary measures being taken include requesting the government to coordinate with the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry to prevent entry of the contaminated shipment to Iraq, holding an emergency meeting for the directors of the border points on the issue, tightening monitoring and control over imported materials and conduction of laboratory tests.
Article URL(s)
http://hewarat.dk/cat200.php?sid=9803#TOP
Quid Novi
Indonesia: Media reports that a woman tests positive for bird flu in Malang
9/2/08 Tempo, contributed by email--A 54-year-old woman named Sulastri from Bululawang Sub-district, Malang District, East Java, has tested positive for Avian influenza. She is currently undergoing treatment at the isolation ward at the Dr Sjaiful Anwar Regional Hospital in Malang Municipality.
According to Endy Kusaeri, Head of the Malang Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Health Office, 2,196 birds had been culled so far in 2008, 1,755 of them in August.
The number of birds culled in each location in August is shown below:
Mojosari Village, Kepanjen Sub-district: 714 birds (12 August)
Sukosari Village, Gondanglegi Sub-district: 310 birds (17 August)
Karangsuko Village, Pagelaran Sub-district: 216 birds (17 August)
Sumbertempur Villa ge, Wonosari Sub-district: 105 birds (18 August)
Sumberdem Village, Wonosari Sub-district: 93 birds (18 August)
Dusun Gubukgrajan, Pandanrejo Village, Pagak Sub-district: 34 birds
Dusun Tamiajeng, Pandanajeng Village, Tumpang Sub-district: 112 birds
Dusun Dawuhan, Sambigede Village, Pakisaji Sub-district: 114 birds (24 August)
Dilem Village, Kepanjen Sub-district: 16 birds (26 August)
Bululawang Village, Bululawang Sub-district: 40 birds (27 August)
To guard against the virus spreading further, the Agriculture Health has readied 90,000 bird flu vaccines and a 10-person strong investigation team.
Source: Tempo website, Jakarta, in Indonesian 30 Aug 08
Quid Novi
Kenya: Country on Bird Flu Alert
9/2/08 All Africa--KENYA Government has banned with immediate effect the transportation of live birds and chicken by long distance trucks entering the country through Malaba and Busia as a caution to avian influenza which it said had reached Southern Sudan.
Kenya has also banned transportation of cattle horns from Uganda and other Great Lakes countries by buses saying passengers risked contacting zoonotic diseases related to the horns.
Livestock development ministry officials have been put on high alert at Malaba and Busia in Kenya to ensure that the order is observed.
Ministry officials said the entry of bird flu into the country was imminent considering that it had been detected in Southern Sudan, thus the institution of the tough measures.
"No cases of Birds Flu have been detected in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but we are worried that trucks coming from beyond Uganda and carrying live birds and chicken could be putting the country at risk of the pandemic," he said.
Similarly, an official in Malaba told Saturday Vision that research had revealed horns of the Ankole cattle contained a virus which could easily be spread to human beings if transported in the same bus with passengers.
Relevant Links
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Food, Agriculture and Rural Issues
Health and Medicine
Kenya
Sustainable Development
"We have no problem if these horns were transported by trucks, from the country of origin to the Port of Mombasa for onward export but not by buses," he said
AI Research
Monitoring For 'Pandemic' Mutations By Examining Bird Flu Infections
9/2/08 Medical News Today--Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust are to examine what is preventing the H5N1 avian influenza virus from causing a human pandemic and what mutations are required to realise its deadly potential. The research could hold the key to early identification of a potential influenza pandemic, and to developing drugs and a vaccine.
Since its reappearance in 1997, the H5N1 influenza virus has caused disease and death in millions of birds around the globe. The number of infections in humans is still relatively small, however: from 2003 to the end of June 2008 there had been 385 known cases in humans, 243 of them fatal(1). So far, there appear to have been very few cases of human-to-human transmission.
Professor Ten Feizi at Imperial College London believes one reason why H5N1 has not yet evolved into an effective pathogen capable of widespread transmission between humans lies in how the virus attaches itself to the respiratory tract. She is leading an international research project which has received over £720,000 from the Wellcome Trust to identify the receptor molecules in the human respiratory tract to which viruses attach and to look at how changes in the binding protein on the surface of the virus might increase its ability to attach to the tract and cause infection.
Professor Feizi will work with Professors Menno de Jong and Jeremy Farrar from the Wellcome Trust's South East Asia Programme in Vietnam, Dr Alan Hay and Dr Steve Gamblin at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research, London, and Dr Mikhail Matrosovich at the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
"Over the last few years particularly in Asia we have seen just how deadly the H5N1 virus can be," says Professor Farrar from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where a number of people have been treated for infection by the virus. "So far, we have been relatively fortunate and there has been only limited evidence of the virus transmitting from human to human. The more we understand about the virus, how it interacts with the body, the better we will be prepared for any serious mutations that may arise."
In humans, influenza infection occurs via the respiratory tract, or airway. In order to cause disease, the virus must enter the body's cells where it can replicate and spread, but it must first find a site to which it can attach, known as a receptor. The virus can only attach to and enter the cells if the receptor fits into the binding proteins, or haemagglutinins (the "H" in H5N1), on the surface of the virus.
Previous research has shown that the haemagglutinin on H5N1 favours a particular form of receptor known as a "2,3 receptor". These are abundant on cells of birds, but in humans are found mostly on cells of the lower respiratory tract (the lungs). Professor Feizi and colleagues have shown that mucus in the upper airway in humans also contains 2,3 receptors, but here the mucus acts as a defence mechanism to which the virus binds, blocking its progress and enabling the body to "sweep out" the virus. Both factors suggest that huge doses of the virus are required in order to infect humans, a theory supported by evidence that those who have become infected have spent large amounts of time in close proximity to infected fowl.
As with all viruses, H5N1 is continually mutating, and it is changes that allow the virus to attach to "2,6 receptors" in the human upper airway which may enable the virus to become more infectious to humans.
"If the bird flu virus evolves to favour the receptors in our nose and throat like normal flu, the results could be devastating," says Professor Feizi from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. "We could have a virus which is not only highly infectious but is easily transmissible by coughing and sneezing."
Dr Hay and Dr Gamblin will isolate haemagglutinin from samples of the virus taken from the patients in Vietnam, and Dr Matrosovich will grow cultures of human airway cells and isolate cell-membrane receptors and secreted mucus. Then, using a technique known as neoglycolipid (NGL) microarray analysis developed by Professor Feizi and her colleagues, the team at Imperial College will identify which of the various receptor structures the haemagglutinins bind most strongly to. Dr Gamblin's team will then use X-ray crystallography to probe, at the molecular level, how mutations might cause the bird virus to change into a human virus.
"If we can find out which mutations of haemagglutinin prefer which receptors, we may be able to identify quickly or even predict which mutations give the virus pandemic potential," says Professor Feizi.
Current antiviral treatments for influenza, such as Tamiflu, target neuraminidase (the "N" in H5N1), which is responsible for allowing the virus to jump off receptors on one cell and bind to those on another cell, and to replicate and spread once inside the body.
"Targeting the virus's ability to bind to the receptors - which until now has proved far more difficult - may provide an alternative, more effective way of preventing infection," says Professor Feizi. "We hope that our work will make this process simpler and faster."
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Japan: Hospitals to get special suits to fight flu outbreak
9/2/08 Yomiuri Shimbun--The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will purchase 40,000 phylactic suits for doctors and nurses to prepare for a future flu pandemic expected to be caused by a possible new strain of influenza.
Drugs and medical supplies also will be stockpiled as part of the government's plan to enhance preparations to combat a flu pandemic.
The suits will be purchased in fiscal 2009 and 2010, ministry sources said.
The ministry has appropriated 3.1 billion yen for the protective suits, and special baby beds and respirators, in its budget request for fiscal 2009.
The ministry will urge medical institutions to set up an outpatient department for people with a fever should there be an influenza outbreak, so people anywhere in the nation can reach the nearest such clinic within 30 minutes.
Pandemic Preparedness
The Effects of Avian Influenza News on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: A Case Study of Italian Consumers? Retail Purchase
9/2/08 USDA--To better understand how information about potential health hazards influences food demand, this case study examines consumers? responses to newspaper articles on avian influenza, informally referred to as bird flu. The focus here is on the response to bird flu information in Italy as news about highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) unfolded in the period October 2004 through October 2006, beginning after reports of the first outbreaks in Southeast Asia, and extending beyond the point at which outbreaks were reported in Western Europe. Estimated poultry demand, as influenced by the volume of newspaper reports on bird flu, reveals the magnitude and duration of newspaper articles? impacts on consumers? food choices. Larger numbers of bird flu news reports led to larger reductions in poultry purchases. Most impacts were of limited duration, and all began to diminish within 5 weeks.
- Report summary, 108 kb.
- Entire report, 440 kb.
