Bird Flu Monitor: May 2006 Archives

Bird Flu Monitor > May 31, 2006

US poultry experts using Google to beat bird flu

[Enflu] Poultry experts are turning to sophisticated computer imaging to help them prepare for the expected arrival of the deadly bird flu virus in the United...

W.H.O's Bird Flu Outbreak Plan

[Firefighter Blog] "The success of a strategy for containing an emerging pandemic virus is strictly time dependent," the WHO said in its latest containment report, based on recommendations by 70 international experts who held closed-door talks in March. "Mathematical models have indicated that a containment strategy, based on the mass administration of antiviral drugs, has a chance of success only when drugs are administered within 21 days following the timely detection of the first case representing improved human-to-human transmission of...

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 31, 2006

US poultry experts using Google to beat bird flu

[Enflu] Poultry experts are turning to sophisticated computer imaging to help them prepare for the expected arrival of the deadly bird flu virus in the United...

Posted at 12:09 AM

W.H.O's Bird Flu Outbreak Plan

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 30, 2006

Comedian Rick Mercer is among the 2006 Public Affairs award winners

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Accepting their Arthur Kroeger College Awards for Public Affairs are, from left to right, Keith Martell, chair of First Nations Bank of Canada; Rick Mercer, host of Rick Mercer Report;

Posted at 12:08 AM

First vaccine to fight bird flu is here

[Enflu] NEW DELHI: A single vaccine can now protect poultry against two of the deadliest killers - bird flu and Newcastle disease.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 29, 2006

Bangladesh to get $2m from donors to fight bird flu

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] "The World Bank (WB) and other donors are providing Bangladesh assistance worth $2 million to help initiate activities to check Avian Influenza (AI).

Posted at 12:18 AM

Vietnamese: Province holds drill to prepare for H2H

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] A rehearsal on a potential influenza pandemic among humans was carried out in northern Vinh Phuc province on May 28, with the participation of over 1,300 people.

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 28, 2006

Death by Abstinence

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] BASED policies are killing people in Uganda .The Bush operatives downrange in Uganda applied financial pressure to stop the teaching of the correct use of condoms.

Posted at 12:08 AM

The Six Phases of Pandemic Alert

[Health News Blog * Health News and Information *] Also today, the WHO reiterated that it will not raise its global pandemic alert level from phase 3 (human infection, but no or only rare human-to-human spread) to phase 4 (small clusters with limited human-to-human transmission, but spread is highly localized). The agency said this week that human-to-human-to-human (two-generation) transmission might have occurred in the North Sumatra cluster.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 27, 2006

Bird Flu Blog: - Human-to-human infection of...

[Bird Flu News Digest] ???, China - 10 hours agoJAKARTA, May 26 (Xinhua) — Indonesian bird flu researcher CA Nidom MS said he was convinced that human-to-human bird flu infection had been taking place in …

Posted at 12:08 AM

Children missing out on HIV drugs

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Children missing out on HIV drugs BBC News - May 25, 2006 http://www.aegis.org/news/bbc/2006/BB060531.html Only one HIV-positive child in 20 in developing countries receives the treatment they need, a report by children's campaigners has found. Coming tog .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 26, 2006

UAE: Bird flu fears halve chicken sales

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Bird flu fears have seen chicken consumption plunge nearly 50 percent in the United Arab Emirates forcing several poultry farms to close, an industry official said. "Consumption has gone down between 45 and 50 percent," Sheikh Hamed al-Hamed, who heads the UAE's poultry association, told reporters at one of his farms outside Abu Dhabi.

Posted at 12:09 AM

Bulgaria bans Romanian poultry over bird flu

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Bulgaria said it would ban poultry products from its northern Black Sea neighbour Romania on Thursday after the discovery of dozens of new cases of avian flu there. Romanian officials have culled domestic birds and temporarily quarantined populated areas, including part of the capital Bucharest, after detecting over 40 cases of the potentially

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 25, 2006

Bird Flu Mutation?

[The Horse's Mouth] Limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu may have occurred in an Indonesian family which lost seven members to the virus but there was no evidence it had mutated into an easily transmissible form, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

Posted at 12:09 AM

If this is your first time here”¦

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Traffic today is much heavier than usual””no doubt because of the Sumatra outbreak””and some visitors may be here for the first time. If so, here's a short description of H5N1's organization and purpose.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 24, 2006

Avian Flu Rapidly Spreading in Birds Around World

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Egypt’s Minister of Health, Mostafa El-Gabaly describes how even a developing country, with limited resources, can get control of the H5N1 virus if it responds immediately to the threat. He says after Egypt’s first reported cases of H5N1 in birds and humans, his government sprang into action.

Posted at 12:08 AM

Human-to Human Bird Flu in Indonesia?

[historymike's musings] Given the fact that at leat three of the victims spent the night of April 29 in a room with the index case, a 10-yeqr old boy, and the other victims lived nearby, the likelihood is strong that the H5N1 virus is developing more efficient means of spreading to humans. 218 cass of bird flu have been recorded by WHO since 2003, most of which can be traced to direct contact with infected or dead birds.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 23, 2006

Bird Flu Pandemic High on World Health Assembly...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] The 192-nation World Health Assembly will consider ways to speed up efforts to contain a potential pandemic resulting from bird flu. More than 100 health ministers are attending the World Health Organization's annual conference to lay out the public health agenda for the group's work in the coming year.

Posted at 12:09 AM

Local health officials seek bird flu aid - San Jose Mercury News

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] WASHINGTON - Local health officials presented a bird flu shopping list to the federal government Monday that included face masks, oxygen equipment, IVs and .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 22, 2006

Romania Confirms Presence of Bird Flu in Bucharest Residential Area

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] "Romanian authorities have confirmed the presence of the bird flu virus in a domestic bird found in a yard in a suburban area of the Romanian capital Bucharest, AFP reported. It was not announced whether the strain of the virus was the highly contagious H5N1 strain of the virus."

Posted at 12:08 AM

China's ability to detect bird flu outbreak in poultry still too ”¦ - Canada.com

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] (CP) - China's ability to detect H5N1 avian flu in poultry flocks across its vast geographic expanse remains a weak link in efforts to contain global spread of .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 21, 2006

Branswell: Bird flu cases in Indonesia raise...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] But the outbreak in Indonesia, where disease investigators have been met with fear and suspicion, illuminates the enormous challenges the pandemic SWAT team would face in trying to snuff out a nascent pandemic strain before it could spread from its place of origin to sweep the globe.

Posted at 12:08 AM

Bird Flu Blog: - WHO Probes Bird Flu...

[Bird Flu News Digest] An international team of health investigators arrived on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday to determine whether an unusually large cluster of human bird flu cases indicates that the highly lethal virus has

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 20, 2006

China’s Bird Flu Credibility Issue

[fluFactor] The Chinese would have us believe that the people administering the vaccination program in Dalian killed 5% of a very large flock before anyone noticed that they could use a little more training! Don’t you think that someone in management might have though there was a problem when they had only killed off 5 or 10 thousand birds?

Posted at 12:08 AM

UN calls for more funds to tackle bird flu - Financial Times

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] The United Nations is to launch an emergency appeal to governments for urgent extra financing to tackle bird flu, because of slow action by donors in releasing .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 19, 2006

Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] World Health Organization officials are increasingly concerned that a thus far unexplained outbreak of the bird flu virus could mean that a long-feared scenario has been borne out -- that the virus may have mutated so that it can be passed from one human to another.

Posted at 12:08 AM

Many states said not ready for bird flu - Seattle Post Intelligencer

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] WASHINGTON -- States so far have a spotty record in preparing for bird flu before it hits the United States, the Homeland Security Department's top doctor said .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 18, 2006

Aspen to Provide Roche’s Bird Flu Drug to Africa

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] The deal would give Aspen access to Roche’s active pharmaceutical ingredients and technical know-how, an arrangement that the companies said would expedite registration with the Medicines Control Council, a prerequisite for local sales.

Posted at 12:18 AM

Rumenia: Boy From Codlea Still Suspect Of Bird...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] The boy from Codlea, Brasov county, where the bird flu virus was detected at a poultry farm, committed Wednesday evening at the Matei Bals Institute of Bucharest, is still suspect of infection with the bird flu virus, although the first trests came out negative. hi sister, however, has been released, the institute director Adrian Streinu Cercel told MEDIAFAX.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 16, 2006

Ethical debate? What ethical debate?

[MedBlog] The Washington Post reports: In the event of a global flu pandemic, federal officials have said they intend to give vaccine first to health-care workers, followed by the oldest, sickest patients -- a policy aimed at saving the most lives. But one of the government's top medical ethicists is challenging that approach, arguing it is more appropriate to give young adults priority because they are at higher risk of dying in a flu pandemic and still have many productive years left.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 15, 2006

Doctors challenge claims of Vioxx study.

[ Bird Cause Flu] People who took the painkiller Vioxx were at increased risk of heart attack and stroke for at least a year after they stopped taking the drug, several doctors said, challenging claims the drug's maker had made.[News Source]

Posted at 12:12 AM

Fears Of Bird Flu In Asia Wane

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] "The virulent bird flu that raised fears of a human pandemic has been largely snuffed out in Southeast Asia where it claimed its first victims. 'In Thailand and Vietnam, we've had the most fabulous success stories,' said Dr.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 13, 2006

Generics work against bird flu.

[ Bird Cause Flu] A pair of generic drugs that are plentiful and cheaper than Tamiflu could gain further credibility as a bird-flu treatment because of a study in a prominent U.S. scientific journal.[News Source]

Posted at 12:08 AM

Bird Flu Blog: - World Health Organization Warns...

[Bird Flu News Digest] a severe warning that another influenza pandemic based on avian influenza or Asian bird flu is fast approaching … Avian flu or bird flu, emerged in Asia in late 2003 and …

Posted at 12:06 AM

May 12, 2006

Experts Argue Over Allocation of Bird Flu Vaccine

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Two U.S. bodies -- the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy (ACIP) -- have helped craft the nation's flu vaccine allocation strategy in the event of a pandemic.

Posted at 12:10 AM

Paging HIV vaccine volunteers

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Paging HIV vaccine volunteers Bay Windows - May 11, 2006 Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com http://www.aegis.org/news/bayw/2006/BY060503.html Three community health organizations will mark the ninth annual National HIV Vaccine Aware .

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 11, 2006

Health workers object to movie’s view of bird flu.

[ Bird Cause Flu] Public health workers fear Tuesday night's airing of a made-for-TV movie about mass panic during a bird-flu outbreak might ignite a real panic.[News Source]

Posted at 12:16 AM

French H5N1 bird flu vaccine clears phase I test...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] vaccine, based on a modified strain of the virus, produced protective antibodies in a phase I trial involving 300 healthy volunteers, and was well tolerated with only a few cases of severe reactions, it said.

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 10, 2006

Bird flu comes home to roost on TV

[Watcher Magazine] Cops, Dobbs: Radical groups taking control of immigrant movement, Morales nationalizes oil and gas in Bolivia, U.S. borders will remain open in flu pandemic, Would-Be NSA Whistleblower Can’t Get Congress’ Attention, Moscow hires US PR firm for image revamp, Earthquakes continue to rock Russia’s Far East, World Bank surprised at Chirac plan to pay Palestinians, Turkish govt approves oil pipeline from Black Sea to Mediterranean, Turkey and Israel to build four underwater oil and gas pipelines, “666″

Posted at 12:12 AM

Egypt poultry industry in supply crunch after...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Egyptians turned away from poultry when the deadly bird flu virus hit the country in February, but the panic which drove thousands of people to jam phone lines with reports of the disease has since subsided, industry experts said.

Posted at 12:09 AM

May 09, 2006

WHO: Only half of human bird flu cases reported within two weeks of detection.

[ Bird Cause Flu] issues series of ads aimed at calming fears about bird flu., Drug shows promise against bird flu., $1 billion awarded for flu vaccine., Bird flu expert says H5N1 worst he’s seen., Bird flu emergency teaching plan gets skeptical reception., APEC ministerial meeting on bird flu opens in Vietnam., Bird flu outbreak confirmed in China., $1 billion paid to speed up vaccines in case of pandemic., Investing in vaccines., A federal flu plan that’s for the birds.">5

Posted at 12:09 AM

Lesson From Katrina: Fighting for the Tiniest Survivors

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Gershanik could barely see the baby, nor could he hear it: "The only way I could figure out he was alive, I feel bad about it, but I pinched his foot and he moved his foot and we knew he was alive."

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 08, 2006

Bird Flu Strikes Florida Trailer Park!

[The Bullwinkle Blog] Tags: Bird Flu, Untrue News...

Posted at 12:08 AM

Bird Flu Blog: - Q&A: Prepare, don t panic about bird flu -

[Bird Flu News Digest] Q&A: Prepare, don t panic about bird flu - Bird Flu - MSNBC.com Have a question about bird flu? We’ll answer it in a future experts column.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 07, 2006

Deadly virus is killing birds and people around...

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Sooner or later, a new influenza virus will sweep the globe, public health experts say. Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about bird flu becoming the next virus to become widespread.

Posted at 12:10 AM

Air Travel Restrictions Not Effective Against...

[ Morning Orbit] Researchers of the Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency, UK. Computer models that predict the speed of spread show that because of the expected ease of transmission person to person, bird flu would already be past any barrier we could hope to place before it.

Posted at 12:08 AM

May 06, 2006

Investing in vaccines.

Posted at 12:08 AM

Seven Russian villages still hit by bird flu

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Seven villages in Russia have recently registered cases of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said, citing the Russian government veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor.

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 05, 2006

Hospital Concerned by Unsterilized Tools

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] Hospital Concerned by Unsterilized Tools Associated Press - May 3, 2006http://www.aegis.org/news/ap/2006/AP060507.html SAN DIEGO - A hospital nurse who failed to clean surgical instruments may have exposed nearly 300 patients to hepatitis or HIV, officials said .

Posted at 12:39 AM

Poultry farmers averse to culling domestic...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Asking them to kill their poultry, and then dispose of them, is jsut a bit too much to ask this group of people. The authorities must offer up compensation that makes it possible for these people to survive.

Posted at 12:31 AM

May 04, 2006

National avian influenza plan includes specific...

[Pandemic Virus Facts and Information] National avian influenza plan includes specific steps for USDA Agriculture Online - 16 minutes ago .federal agencies to carry out 324 specific actions within prescribed amounts of time, should the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza be discovered .

Posted at 12:08 AM

Flu Pandemic Would Put Homeland Security in...

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] The plan puts the Department of Homeland Security in charge of government operations during a pandemic, giving a secondary role to the nation's public health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. The plan may also outline what steps businesses should be taking to prepare for a worst-case scenario, in which a third of the U.S. workforce - or more - could be idled by illness at the peak of a pandemic."

Posted at 12:07 AM

May 03, 2006

Asia, Africa weak on bird flu control - WHO

[Pandemic Flu from Europe] Migratory birds are partly responsible for the dramatic recent spread to new areas, bringing to 48 the number of countries with H5N1 virus in domestic or wild birds, according to the WHO. This had complicated control measures in animals as eliminating it in wild birds was "considered impossible".

Posted at 12:07 AM