UNCLASSIFIED
Avian Influenza Daily Digest
September 5, 2008 14:00 GMT
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Article Summaries ...
Quid Novi
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
FAO H5N1 HPAI Global Overview July 2008
The FAO H5N1 HPAI Global Overview issue for July 2008 has been published. If you would like a copy, please send an email to claudinne.r.roe@ugov.gov with your request....
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia hopes agreement on bird flu virus specimen to be settled
9/5/08 Xinhua--Indonesia hopes negotiations on the material transfer agreement for bird flu virus specimen could be finished in the inter-governmental meeting of WHO members in November, health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
USA: Idaho officials monitor farm where pheasants got sick
9/5/08 Idaho Statesman--A mild form of bird flu that hit the game bird operation poses no threat to people but could change into a more harmful version.Health officials are closely watching a Treasure Valley game bird farm after two pheasants from a pen were diagnosed with a form of bird flu that humans virtually never catch.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia: Jailed for bird smuggling
9/5/08 Straits Times--LEE Sui Sea became the first bird smuggler to be jailed on fears of bird flu.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
USA: Idaho bird farm quarantined after LPAI bird virus found
9/5/08 Idaho Statesman--A southwestern Idaho bird farm has been quarantined after a bird there was found to have a low-pathogenic bird flu, but Idaho Department of Agriculture officials say it is not the same bird flu virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Pandemic Preparedness
Many GP surgeries unprepared for a flu pandemic, finds risk survey
9/5/08 Risk Management--General practice has an uneven level of pandemic flu preparedness, with 38% of practice managers admitting to having no plans in place for such an eventuality.
Pandemic Preparedness
Full Text of Articles follow ...
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
FAO H5N1 HPAI Global Overview July 2008
The FAO H5N1 HPAI Global Overview issue for July 2008 has been published. If you would like a copy, please send an email to claudinne.r.roe@ugov.gov with your request.
Quid Novi
FAO GLEWS: Indonesia
FAO field officer (01/09/08): Outbreaks of HPAI
H5N1 were reported in five villages: Air Bening,
Bermani Ulu Raya sub district, Curup, Curup
Utara sub district, Karang Jaya, Selupu Rejang
sub district, Mojorejo, Sindang Kelingi sub
district, Bengkulu province and Pokoh Kidul
village in Wonogiri district, Central Java
province. The chickens in the villages were
tested positive in the rapid test. The traditional
market for Ramadhan (month preparation) is the
source of infection. For the first four villages,Rejang Lebong is the port of entrance of poultry
movement from South Sumatra, West Sumatra
and North Sumatra.
Quid Novi
FAO GLEWS: Afghanistan Update
FAO field officer (31/08/08): The HPAI H5N1 outbreak reported in Khwost province has been denied. Only H5 was positive, not N1. Samples will be sent to Padova, FAO/OIE reference laboratory in Italy for further testing.
Quid Novi
FAO GLEWS: Egypt Update
FAO field officer (02/09/08): HPAI outbreaks
occurred in ducks and unknown species in Al
Minya Governorate in Egypt with 4 confirmed
outbreaks reported between 26 July 2008 to 2
September 2008. Under active surveillance
program, 84 samples were taken from 10
households in 4 different villages in this
governorate.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia hopes agreement on bird flu virus specimen to be settled
9/5/08 Xinhua--Indonesia hopes negotiations on the material transfer agreement for bird flu virus specimen could be finished in the inter-governmental meeting of WHO members in November, health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said.
Indonesia hopes the agreement could be made simple but able to accommodate the interests of the developing countries, Antara news agency on Friday quoted the minister as saying.
"We wish our property right to the virus would receive recognition and we had access to information on where the virus had been taken to and how it had been handled," she said here on Thursday.
She said the agreement must also cover deals on benefit sharing both financially or otherwise that come from the result of researches on specimen sent by affected countries.
Talks on mechanism of avian flu virus sharing was started early in 2007 after the Indonesian government protested the unfair mechanism of virus sharing and exchange of the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN).
Since then several rounds of meeting had been held by members of the World Health Organization affected by the H5N1 virus aimed at formulating the framework of a fair, transparent and equal virus sharing mechanism.
Indonesia is the bird flu hardest hit country with more than 100 people killed by the H5N1 virus. ?
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
USA: Idaho officials monitor farm where pheasants got sick
9/5/08 Idaho Statesman--A mild form of bird flu that hit the game bird operation poses no threat to people but could change into a more harmful version.Health officials are closely watching a Treasure Valley game bird farm after two pheasants from a pen were diagnosed with a form of bird flu that humans virtually never catch.
The farm has thousands of pheasants, ducks, chukars and quail, none meant for people to eat. ?None of the birds from this facility entered the food chain,? state veterinarian Bill Barton said.
About 300 birds were shipped from the farm to a bird dog sporting event at Prado Regional Park in Chino, Calif., just before the virus was detected, and all of those birds were quarantined and euthanized, said Larry Hawkins, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Sacramento, Calif.
The trucks used to transport the birds were disinfected and the suits and other materials used to collect them were incinerated, Hawkins said.
The birds, which are raised for bird-dog trials and other sporting events across the Northwest, do not carry the same headline-grabbing form of the virus that has killed scores of people worldwide.
But the virus does pose an extremely remote chance of mutating into a form that could be more harmful to birds or people.
Medical experts ?still don?t know everything? about how bird viruses that are not very contagious to start with can cause human illness, said Emily Simnitt, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
That?s why state health officials are keeping an eye on people who came into contact with the birds.
No other cases of this particular form of avian flu have been seen at Idaho bird farms before.
The virus is not uncommon in wild birds, however, Barton said. It is transmitted mainly through bird feces.
The captive birds may have been infected when wild birds flew over their netted enclosures and dropped feces.
?The facility will remain under quarantine until further testing is completed and we have determined that the facility has been adequately cleaned and disinfected and there is no further virus found,? Barton said. Quarantine means no birds come or go.
Barton was uncertain how long that will take, but he praised the owners of the farm, whose livelihood is at stake. ?They have done everything right,? he said.
Authorities declined to identify the farm, saying they want to make sure the public stays away during the investigation. ?We want to keep people away from the premises until we determine the extent of the problem,? Barton said.
Pandemic Preparedness
Many GP surgeries unprepared for a flu pandemic, finds risk survey
9/5/08 Risk Management--General practice has an uneven level of pandemic flu preparedness, with 38% of practice managers admitting to having no plans in place for such an eventuality.
The government's recently published National Risk Register stated that a flu pandemic could pose the greatest threat to national security and could claim up to 750,000 lives.
However, in a survey conducted by Management in Practice, only 62% of GP managers said their surgeries had specific contingency plans in place for such an event.
While many of the remaining 38% who did not have such a plan in place said they were currently arranging this, a significant proportion of managers said they were relying on guidance from PCTs on this issue ? but in many cases this was not forthcoming.
"The PCT promised to be involved with this, using some software they had, but this never came to fruition," said one practice manager.
A Department of Health (DH) spokesperson was nonetheless upbeat. "Patients need healthcare, whatever the circumstances, and it's important that GPs are prepared for any emergency ? including pandemic flu," he said.
"I'm encouraged by these results, which show that most practices are already working on this, and I hope that every practice will soon have robust plans in place. Most PCTs are taking the matter very seriously indeed, and a number of areas have purchased web-based pandemic flu continuity planners to assist local practices."
The finding was one result from the survey's broader focus on risk management. This also revealed that one in ten managers had no emergency recovery plans in place for their medical practices.
"While the majority have plans in place and need to be congratulated for their foresight, the minority group gives rise for concern," said Jane Bonehill, a member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, Europe's leading body for health and safety professionals.
"The implications of not having major disaster plans in place could severely disrupt the operation of the business, the care provided, the employment of staff and the knock-on effects within the local community. It may at first appear that a less than 10% minority is insignificant, but consideration must be given to how many people will be affected."
In addition, nearly a third of respondents (30.2%) said their practice does not have a risk management policy in place.
"If over 30% don't have a risk management policy in place, then risks relating to the entire practice operation cannot be suitably and sufficiently addressed, assessed and controlled," said Jane Bonehill. "Again, this could have a direct effect on the level of patient care."
The survey suggests that many practice managers are undertrained in health and safety issues. A quarter (24.5%) said they had not received any risk management training. Most said they had received "moderate" (29%) or "a little" (41%) training.
The vast majority (94%) said they would benefit from risk management training. One practice manager said: "I have had some fire risk assessment training, but nothing else. I feel this would help me feel more confident in what I do."
According to Wendy Garcarz, a primary care training director and author of Statutory and Mandatory Training in Health and Social Care, practices could suffer if they do not have rigorous risk management procedures in place.
"In a closed NHS market, the threat of closing a practice for safety reasons was always treated as a hollow threat," she said. "But in a competitive market, where world class commissioning requires commissioners to decommission services with poor standards or achievements, and with alternative providers waiting in the wings to pick up extra business, the threat has real resonance."
She added: "It seems a pragmatic solution would be for managers to learn about risk assessment and integrate it into business processes as soon as possible."
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Indonesia: Jailed for bird smuggling
9/5/08 Straits Times--LEE Sui Sea became the first bird smuggler to be jailed on fears of bird flu.
The 60-year-old businessman pleaded guilty on Friday to bringing in 32 Oriental White Eyes in April 2008 and another 33 in June 2008 from Tanjong Pinang.
He was jailed a total of four weeks as importation of birds from Indonesia is presently prohibited.
Up to this June, Indonesia had 135 confirmed cases of humans catching bird flu, of which 110 proved fatal.
AVA prosecutor Yap Teck Chuan asked for a deterrent sentence as this was the highest in the world.
A district court heard that officers from the Agri-Food Veterinary Services (AVA) ambushed Lee at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal on June 13, 2008 after receiving a tip-off.
The singing birds, also known as Mata Puteh, were packed in green nylon netting, and stuffed in the two front pockets of Lee's pants.
He then confessed to the earlier offence.
Previously, bird smugglers were merely fined.
In January 2007, a man was fined $7,000 for bringing in five Mata Puteh birds from Batam.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
USA: Idaho bird farm quarantined after LPAI bird virus found
9/5/08 Idaho Statesman--A southwestern Idaho bird farm has been quarantined after a bird there was found to have a low-pathogenic bird flu, but Idaho Department of Agriculture officials say it is not the same bird flu virus that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa.
According to a statement from the Agriculture Department, the type of virus found in the Idaho game bird is commonly found in wild birds and normally causes only minor illness in the animals. The statement said the virus poses little or no risk to human health and it?s not believed that any people have gotten sick in connection with the ill bird.
The Agriculture Department quarantined the farm and will test the flock, investigate the source of the illness and notify neighboring gamebird and poultry farms.
