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Indonesia top of the WHO watch list |
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GENEVA, Wed. --- International health experts are worried about the unprecedented spread of bird flu from Asia to Europe and Africa, particularly the high infection rate among people and poultry in Indonesia. Fifteen countries have reported their first cases of birds infected with the deadly H5N1 strain since the beginning of February, the World Health Organization said. “It’s absolutely unprecedented”, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said today. “We’ve never seen so many outbreaks in so many different regions, and our concern is that humans could potentially come into contact with birds infected with H5N1”. The WHO says it remains difficult for humans to catch H5N1. The agency has confirmed 170 human cases, including 92 deaths, since 2003, mostly in East Asia. But its experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, which could set off a pandemic. Cases in India, Egypt and Nigeria are also causing more concern because of the close contact between humans and fowl, increasing the chance of the disease jumping the species barrier. But so far, she noted, there had been no human cases reported in these countries, nor in Nigeria or any western European countries. The WHO said the 15 countries that had had outbreaks since the beginning of February --- in order of reporting --- were Iraq, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Iran, Austria, Germany, Egypt, India, France, Hungary and Malaysia. But Indonesia is a concern because of the high infection rates among birds as well as people. |
The country has recorded 26 human cases and 19 deaths since July. The most recent Indonesian human death was confirmed on Monday. Juan Lubroth, head of the infectious disease group at the United Nations’ Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, said he was concerned about outbreaks in Africa, but “I d not want to lose focus on the situation in Indonesia”. “There is a national strategy in Indonesia. Now we just have to implement it”, he said. Vietnam has the highest number of confined human cases of H5N1 since 2003, with 93 peole infected and 42 deaths. None of Vietnam’s cases have been this year. Indonesia is in second place overall, followed by Thailand with 22 cases and 14 deaths; China, 12 and eight; Turkey 12 and four; Cambodia four and four; and Iraq with one case and one death. --- AP.
ELSEWHERE “The (local) tests of the woman from East Jakarta who died this week show it’s positive”, said Hariadi Wibisono, head of control of animal-borne diseases at the Health Ministry. The woman died on Monday after being admitted to the Sulianti Saroso hospital in Jakarta, which is designated to treat patients showing bird flu symptoms. --- Agencies. |
In India HEALTH workers culled thousands of birds in India yesterday as the nation awaited the first laboratory reports to see whether the bird flu virus had infected people, officials said. Adding to fears, there were reports of more sudden deaths of poultry elsewhere in the country after India’s first known outbreak of bird flu, in the western State of Maharashtra. Twelve people have been quarantined in an isolation ward of a hospital in Navapur town in Maharastra, where the virus was found in poultry on Saturday. Those quarantined either had flu-like symptoms or were kept there as a precautionary measure. --- Reuters. In Hong Kong THREE more birds in Hong Kong are suspected of having been infected by the H5 strain of bird flu, the Government said. Health authorities were conducting further tests to determine whether they had the deadly H5N1 strain. The three dead birds --- a large-billed crow, a munia and a white-backed munia --- were collected on Saturday and Sunday. Hong Kong has confirmed the virus in 10 dead wild birds and chickens since January, the most recent a magpie whose test results were announced on Monday. --- AP. |
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