News Reports for June 26, 2010

Bird flu: In the plumage the secret of virus spread success

International team of Italy-US scientists reports discovery of a new mechanism of avian influenza virus circulation and transmission in nature

A team of scientists, led by Mauro Delogu, virologist from the Veterinary Faculty of the Bologna University and researchers from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee) have discovered a new way of avian influenza transmission. The study, which offers new insights into ecology, surveillance and prevention strategies of avian influenza viruses (AIVs), may ultimately be important in the fight against influenza. The study has been published in a recent issue (June, 25/2010) of PLoS ONE, a highly reputed international Journal.

The scientists actually discovered that the preen oil gland secretions, by which all aquatic birds make their feathers waterproof, support a natural mechanism that concentrates AIVs from water onto birds' bodies. They found that a progressive virus "sticking" on feathers occurs because AIV-contaminated waters interact with the preen oil gland secretion. Since waterbirds use to spread preen oil over their own (self-preening) or other birds' (allo-preening) plumage, it is easily understandable how these preening activities could facilitate the diffusion of the viruses in nature.
(Snip)
(Snip) virus on feathers could escape detection by the current surveillance strategies which assay the virus secreted in the cloacal and tracheal samples only. Lack of detection of these viruses may greatly complicate surveillance and rapid responses to new virus emergence and spread. For this reason, Delogu said, in routine surveillance programs, additional sampling methods could be necessary to detect AIVs on birds' bodies. Our results also suggest that a preened body surface could be the common denominator that explains how AIV infection occurs in different taxonomic groups of aquatic birds and future studies are needed to determine the common uropygial component that could promote interaction with AIVs in all aquatic bird species. Studies to reproduce the preening-mediated AIV infection mechanism in the animal model are in progress.

(Snip) our discovery really opens a door to explain the highly pathogenic H5N1 circulation and persistence in Eurasia, as well as the only recorded human case of fatal infection passed from wild birds in February 2006. All infected humans were involved in defeathering of dead wild swans after a massive die-off of these aquatic birds occurred in Azerbaijan. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 05:46:54 AM UTC

South Africa warns of flu during world cup

Johannesburg, June 26: South Africa, host to thousands of foreign visitors for the soccer world cup, warned Friday of spread of flu during next couple of weeks. The country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases said the number of influenza cases are expected to increase in the next two to three weeks during winter, Xinhua reported. The FIFA World Cup continues until July 11.

The current number of flu cases are "low to moderate", an official at the institute said in a statement. The influenza virus strains identified to date in South Africa are mainly the usual seasonal influenza B strain and influenza A. The official noted that only one case of the H1N1 viral strain, also known as swine-flu, has been isolated so far. She said this is the strain which caused the flu pandemic in the first half of last year and is the predominant seasonal strain for the northern hemisphere winter. Continued: http://www.siasat.com/english/...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 05:51:46 AM UTC

India: Swine flu: special wards set up

SANGAREDDY: Collector S. Suresh Kumar called upon the people to be aware of swine flu and take all precautionary measures to arrest the spread the dangerous epidemic. (Snip) people should be aware of symptoms of swine flu and contact the nearest doctor immediately if they suspect any doubt. Stating that there might be chance of spread of virus due to migration of people from other States, he said that special wards were established at Medak, Siddipet, Zaheerabad and Sangareddy government hospitals. He also cautioned the medical staff to take all measures to arrest the spread of communicable diseases. http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/2...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 05:58:34 AM UTC

India: Swine flu: four test positive

HYDERABAD: Four family members of the 28-year-old woman Vani, who died on Thursday at Gandhi hospital, have tested positive for swine flu. (Snip) the four relatives, that also includes a two-year-old child, have been asked to take home quarantine. (Snip) sufficient doses of Oseltamivir drug have been distributed among the family members. On Friday, another eight samples were sent to IPM, have tested negative. http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/2...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 06:03:01 AM UTC

India: Two children test positive for swine flu

NAGERCOIL: Two children, who were admitted to the swine flu ward of Kanyakumari Government Medical College Hospital, tested positive on Friday.

According to the Department of Health officials, Murugan (43) of Kurunthencode, a three-month-old girl child of Vetturnimadam, 27-day-old male child of Parakkai and five-year-old girl of Arumanai were admitted to the swine flu ward. (Snip) The laboratory test confirmed the presence of A (H1N1) virus in the blood and sputum samples of the three-month-old and five-year-old children.

Anantha Krishnan (16) of Arumanai and Pradeep Kumar (18) of Edaicode are also undergoing treatment in the swine flu ward (Snip) http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/2...

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by: NewsDiary @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 11:50:29 AM UTC

Posted by me.

A sign I am starting today off all wrong! Should be downhill from here. LOL

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 11:59:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

India: H1N1 vaccine, ready-to-sniff form, Swine flu

Pune's own H1N1 vaccine, in intra-nasal, ready-to-sniff form, is set to hit the market in the next 10 days. Cyrus Poonawalla, chief managing director of the Serum Institute of India, one of the lead players in paediatric vaccines, is busy giving free doses of the intra-nasal vaccine against the H1N1 virus to his staff, children, doctors and friends.

"All one has to do is just take a sniff of the liquid vaccine," (Snip) "There was delay in issuing the licence for mass production. Our vaccine will be available in the market within 8-10 days," (Snip) "This is a user-friendly vaccine (Snip) We want to ensure adequate stock of doses of the vaccine and depending on the reaction from the public, will initially manufacture half-a-million doses in July and another one million in August. We will test market conditions before manufacturing on a large scale," (Snip) http://www.indianexpress.com/n...

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by: NewsDiary @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 11:57:23 AM UTC

Posted by me.

Hi, Bronco Bill. LOL

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 12:01:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ukraine: Ministry of Health: the fall may be the epidemic of influenza A/H1N1

Machine translated

Health Minister Zinovy Mytnik not exclude that the fall may be an epidemic of influenza A/H1N1. (Snip) The Minister noted that predicted for the spring wave of influenza A/H1N1 not affected Ukraine, but "it is possible that could be a flu epidemic in the autumn."

"To date, pandemic influenza (A/H1N1) in the world is not canceled - no it did not take off, the World Health Organization pandemic influenza is not removed", said Z. Mytnik. He also noted that last fall and winter in Ukraine, was an epidemic of influenza A/H1N1 and it was made public not because they wanted so badly to the government. Health Minister recalled that Ukraine bought drugs, Tamiflu for prevention and treatment of this disease costs 67 UAH per package shelf-life of 3-4 years. (Snip) Mytnik stressed that doctors are prepared for a possible flu epidemic.     http://news.google.com/news/ur...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 12:35:27 PM UTC

ProMED: Highly pathogenic avian influenza, Russia

Please see Avian influenza (39): Mongolia (AR) wild
birds  http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn... for informative comments from Martin Gilbert of the Wildlife Conservation Society concerning last year's repeating pattern of outbreaks covering multiple locations and countries in central Asia. While we have not yet seen as many OIE reports this year concerning outbreaks in wild birds, outbreaks have occurred in the last month or so in Mongolia and Tibet and now we have an nearby outbreak in Russia.

Also, as was the case last year, Diann Prosser from the US Geological Survey -- see Avian influenza (40): Mongolia, China, wild birds http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn... which points out that the importance of identifying the species of birds in order to get a complete epidemiologic picture of the pattern of ongoing transmission in a region. It is therefore surprising (and the OIE epidemiologic notes points out) that no species identification accompanies this report. Hopefully, it will be included in follow up OIE updates. More info here: http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 12:50:50 PM UTC

India: Four swine flu deaths, 23 infections in Andhra

Hyderabad, June 26: Four people died of swine flu in Andhra Pradesh while 23 were found infected by H1N1 virus this year, officials said Saturday. Three deaths and a majority of the cases were reported during last 10 days. The monsoon is believed to be the main cause for the virus becoming virulent.

Officials have advised people not to use preventive medicines without advice from the doctors. "People should take the medicines only under the supervision of doctors," (Snip) The authorities have urged people to contact the 104 Mobile health service and call toll free number 1056 to clear their doubts about swine flu and seek any assistance.

The health department said arrangements had been made for treatment of swine flu in 17 district hospitals, 11 teaching hospitals and 28 private hospitals across the state. As many as 54 people died of swine flu in the state last year. Nearly 800 cases were reported. (Snip) http://www.siasat.com/english/...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 13:16:00 PM UTC

Mexico: The secretary of Health warns on presence of a lethal virus in Asia

Machine translated

The secretary of Health, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, sent to east Tuesday an alert by the presence in the Asian continent of virus H5N1, considered more lethal than the A-H1N1 which caused to the last year an epidemic of world-wide reach. "At any time it can be recombined with the H1N1 and to become a pandemic much more burdens", noticed the holder of the precise dependency that that the new virus is in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.

Cordova Villalobos needed that the capacity of influenza AH1N1 to recombine itself makes more aggressive and of easy transmission. In agreement with the secretary, the numbers of I infect of virus AH1N1, known like influenza human, go in reduction and indicated that in spite of some isolated deaths, the application of vaccines programmed for 27 million and means of people has been covered in its totality.

The Chamber of Commerce United Mexico-State made delivery to the secretary of Health the prize Double Eagle by his guessed right conduction before the epidemic of influenza in 2009, informed Notimex agency. http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 13:28:35 PM UTC

Hmmmmm, wondering if they know something we don't.........

Warnings in 2 countries (Mexico & Colombia) in 2 days on H5N1 pandemic possibility. See article posted yesterday by readymom: Coumbia: Bogota health authorities on alert for spread of killer flu http://colombiareports.com/col...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 13:34:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I don't think so

I noticed that news stories along these lines started appearing in Latin American press shortly after the announcement by Chinese researchers on June 17 about the hybrid swine influenza virus found in pigs that included swine, human and "avian-like" swine components.

The stories in the Latin American press are a little more sensationalized than those in the English language press, but they seem to be based on the same core information.  The English language stories can be found in the daily news reports beginning June 17 and continuing for about a week.

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by: AlohaOR @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 14:10:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks for the info

The warnings stated in the articles makes more sense now.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 05:15:25 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

(India) 2nd wave H1N1 stumps docs

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/ar...
(Hat Tip: Pandemic Flu Information)
Civic doctors hold emergency meeting to discuss new mutation that affects nervous system and muscle control

Lata Mishra
Posted On Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 05:52:18 AM

That the H1N1 virus - which has claimed six lives in June alone - is mutating is well-known. However, what has caught city doctors unawares is patients' inability to write, type and, in some cases, even stand.

The effect the new mutation is having on patients' nervous system and muscle control prompted civic authorities to call an emergency meeting of 500 doctors from the three major and 16 peripheral hospitals on Friday.

Dr Om Shrivastav, Kasturba Hospital, who is in-charge of the swine flu control unit, said the medical professionals were baffled by the new complications. "The weakening of muscles to the extent that patients can't write is new for medical professionals. We have found the virus, in recent cases, affects the neck, back, spine and even the brain." --- COntinued at link, above ---

www.EmergencyHomePreparation.org -- A 'card-catalog' style of prepping information.   -

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by: Readymom @ Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 01:31:10 AM UTC

Please post new news stories to ...

News Reports for June 27, 2010

Thank you!

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by: AlohaOR @ Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 04:01:02 AM UTC