Summary from Indonesia Outbreak tracking as at 19 September 2006
| Cases Discussed | Jun-06 | Jul-06 | Aug-06 | Sep-06 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Died, no tests | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Died, tested positive | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Other tested positive | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Suspected symptoms | 4 | 2 | 46 | 25 | 77 |
| Tested negative | 0 | 6 | 25 | 5 | 36 |
| Totals | 10 | 14 | 80 | 31 | 136 |
(From WHO as at 19 Sep – latest update on their site)
Total human cases worldwide 247, deaths 144 (2006 – 100 with 66 deaths)
(If you want the links to open in a new window, hold down the shift key and then click on the link)
Indonesia
Singapore
Asia-Pacific Region
Iraq
Uganda
Europe
United Kingdom
Canada
United States of America
General
Link to news thread for 19 September (link News Reports for Sept 19 )
(Usual disclaimer about may not have captured everything. Feel free to add your own where omissions have occurred.)
Please note that I copy the links directly from the thread so if they don’t work you may need to re-visit the Thread.
Thanks AnnieB for your great summaries. Much appreciated!
(USA Fort Wayne) 200 attend forum for pandemic flu
By Michael Schroeder The Journal Gazette
With her daughter Anne close behind, Sharon Hoffman went from one informational booth to another Tuesday night clutching pamphlets related to pandemic flu.
“I’ve been following it very closely,” Hoffman said, as 5-year-old Anne’s attention strayed to the next thing. The two were among about 200 on hand in Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Walb Student Union Ballroom for the first in a series of pandemic flu forums.
While the current strain of H5N1 does not pass easily between humans, the bird flu’s high mortality rate has raised alarm. Although it has not reached U.S. shores, it has caused deaths in Asia and eastern Africa.
“So it doesn’t hurt to get prepared,” Hoffman said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Link (with times of more forums) http://tinyurl.com/zp9r8
COMMENT I venture to suggest that this is a great turnout for such a forum - we Wikians are not as ‘alone’ as we might have thought :-)
AnnieB – at 05:23, I’ve been wondering if any lurkers have quietly been attending the panflu conferences. I hope so.
Indonesia
Much more must be done to fight bird flu from The Jakarta Post
The UN special envoy for avian influenza, David Nabarro, met last week with senior government officials and discussed the problems fighting the disease in the country. He outlined the issues at hand in an interview with The Jakarta Post’s Hera Diani. [Interview transcript available - see link]]
Is bird flu here getting worse?
One of the things that happens when you improve the surveillance of the country is that you also likely to report more avian flu because you’re finding more cases. So, at the moment we’re certainly have information that tells us that avian flu is quite widespread in more than 290 districts out of 444.
You should not then say that the situation is getting worse. It’s probably because now we know more about this situation. So, I can’t tell you if the situation is getting better or worse, but I can tell you that it’s a serious situation, which is a concern to me and to others.
Europe
Avian flu - yesterday panic, today forgotten from Euractiv.com
The current “nothing’s going to happen” attitude vis-à-vis the potential of a bird-flu pandemic is “completely unacceptable”, argues the president of the European Health Forum Gastein…One year after the ‘first’ bird-flu crisis, there is no real improvement in EU pandemic prevention, argues EHFG. The results of the study will presented in detail at the European Health Forum Gastein on 4–7 October 2006. The EHFG will hold a special session on the issue of Facing the threat of modern pandemics to discuss what Europe is facing and to highlight the fact that communicable diseases remain a significant threat to public health…
Comment: Not familiar with this news source.
AnnieB – at 05:23 I venture to suggest that this is a great turnout for such a forum - we Wikians are not as ‘alone’ as we might have thought :-)
COMMENT
AnnieB, I think you may be right. I found this article very hopeful. I posted on another thread this a.m. something else that I found interesting and hopeful. My local news station is running a series of bird flu stories on air this week during the a.m. and dinner broadcasts. I went to their web site, which has a poll asking viewers how concerned they are about avian flu. Nearly 9,000 people responded with 82% saying they are very or somewhat concerned and only 28% saying they aren’t concerned at all. Now granted, the people who sought out the avian flu page on the site were a self-selecting group, but the fact that 9,000 people answered the poll is, in itself, significant in my mind.
South Dakota
Avian flu plans not yet ready in the Plains from Indian Country Today
Tribes in North and South Dakota have partnered with the states to establish plans for any possible flu pandemic…The feds are not as organized as everyone thinks; they are relying on states to set up points of distribution once an emergency is declared and there is an outbreak… Should the movement of individuals be restricted, law enforcement will play a critical role. On the Standing Rock Reservation, only eight police officers are available to cover the 1-million-acre reservation. Cheyenne River does not have adequate law enforcement; nor do the other large land-based reservations in both states. The reservation plans must rely heavily on volunteers from each district…
Switzerland
Law amended to deal with pandemic threat from Swiss Info
Parliament has approved a revision of Switzerland’s epidemic law, allowing the government to stock up on vaccines in preparation for a threat of an outbreak. The Senate on Wednesday followed the House of Representatives in unanimously passing the amendment, which the cabinet had described as urgent in light of the bird flu pandemic in Asia…[more]
South Dakota, USA
Mohawks take lead in pandemic plans from Indian Country Today
…The Akwesasne Mohawk community is used to relying on itself in emergencies…With experience in being isolated, they’ve put a remarkable degree of advance planning into the potential disaster of an avian flu pandemic…Diabo said their planning focused on keeping flu victims in home quarantine, to avoid a spread of the disease through visits to medical centers…The planning also has a dark side. We have to think of the worst scenarios, Diabo said. Health officials estimated a very severe pandemic could cause a possible casualty rate of 10 to 20 percent among the very young and very old, so the tribe also had to arrange a mass morgue… [more]
Yesterday on WNYC (NY Public Radio); depressing interview with the authors of “Are We Ready? America’s Public Health Since 9/11″ Their basic take was that right after 9/11 there was a tremendous push and opportunity to improve the US public health system. But then in the lead up to the Iraq war the shift went to bilogical weapons, especially small pox, and the focus got too narrow on the wrong things. Health care and public health officials are very frustrated that the momentum has been lost and there are so many lingering crises out there that could overwhem systems. They know they are totally underpreppared for even a minor crisis, let alone if H5N1 goes H2H.
The authors are David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Delaware Wave
(excerpts)
GEORGETOWN — “An avian flu outbreak could devastate Deleware’s economy, officials from the Delaware, Maryland and United States agriculture departments said Thursday, Sept. 14.
That’s why the departments of agriculture in Delaware and Maryland have joined with poultry companies and federal agencies to create a joint task force to be prepared in the event of an epidemic.
Delmarva is in an “aggressive state of readiness,” said Michael Scuse, Delaware Secretary of Agriculture. The cornerstones of the plan are prevention, control and eradication. Birds are routinely tested for the disease, and response teams conduct periodic field tests.
‘’‘There’s going to be more H5N1 low path in the United States,” Clifford said, referring to the less dangerous strain of the avian flu virus. “It’s important to publicize and educate, remain transparent.”
… said Dr. John Clifford, a deputy administrator at the USDA and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.’‘’
Connecticut, USA
Trauma In The ER from The Hartford Courant
…Gridlock has made long waits in emergency rooms common. Doctors blame a confluence of factors, from jammed hospital inpatient units to nurse and doctor shortages to a population that is living longer but requires more medical attention…”There is a crisis that has been here so long that we don’t even recognize it as a crisis anymore…” But hospital administrators say emergency room crowding is just a symptom of a far more complex crisis in the nation’s health care and social service systems…You talk about Katrina or a flu pandemic,” Shangold said. “What about a bus crash down the street with 10 patients? We can’t even care for them…”
follow up on Uganda from a few days ago,
Uganda: Bird Flu Threat Nearer Home
“A POSSIBLE outbreak of the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza (bird flu) in Uganda is now real, public health experts have warned. On September 5, authorities in southern Sudan confirmed the presence of the deadly virus in poultry in the capital city, Khartoum as well as Juba, 180km from the Uganda boarder… The teams are in Northern Uganda to help border districts put up rapid response mechanism in the event of an outbreak.
Six more rapid response teams from the agriculture ministry have been strengthened to give support to other “higher-risk” districts bordering water bodies.
Already six species of migratory birds have been cited at Queen Elizabeth National Park, instilling more fears that the risky birds could be returning into the country. Uganda lies on major migratory routes of birds moving to southern Africa from Europe and West Africa…
China
Silent Games from Newsweek
In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is expanding its crackdown on the information that reaches its citizens…Less than two years before Beijing hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics, authorities are in the midst of a concerted—and disturbing—effort to slam stricter controls on what Chinese know and how they know it. The aim of the recent crackdown is not only to silence individual “troublemakers,” but also to beef up institutional controls over the free flow of information…
…[In addition to the media] today’s targets now include those people who are part of the free flow of information itself. They include judges and other court officials, who last week were publicly warned in a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency that “severe sanctions” would ensue if they violated a ban on talking directly to the press…They include mapmakers…They include corporate honchos…[more]
Reports from the global campaign
19 September 2006 - FAO’s new booklet on the global avian influenza crisis looks at the situation one year after the publication of Enemy at the gate, which covered three countries hit hard by the disease - Indonesia, Thailand and Viet Nam. Since then, avian influenza has spread to Africa and Europe. United against bird flu goes back to Thailand and Viet Nam, but also reports from two new outbreak spots - Nigeria and Turkey.
Click here to read more.
Indonesia feeling the economic impact. http://tinyurl.com/l5ktc
The plague of bird flu menonjok unequivocal the sector of poultry breeding.
Resulting from the virus avian influenza that began to become an epidemic since 2003 this, the businessman ran at a loss to Rp 13 trillion.
Therefore, the businessmen that was bundled into the Chamber Of Commerce and the Indonesian Industry (Kadin) in Jakarta, on Wednesday (20/9), asked for the government have an attitude more was directed handled bird flu, in part through the role of the National Commission Bird Flu.
The Ministry’s data of the Economy showed since bird flu became an epidemic in Indonesia, more than 28 million tails of the poultry were destroyed to interrupt the chain of the spreading of this deadly illness.
Totalling 23 million poultries including being destroyed by the perpetrators of the industry without getting compensation or the replacement from the government.
Apart from the loss from the side of the industry, the illness resulting from the virus avian this influenza struck hard the small scale and middle poultry breeder.
They ran at a loss because the selling price of the chicken and the egg declined since 2003.
In the Kadin calculation, approximately 2.5 million souls of sector manpower of poultry breeding were threatened with losing the work if bird flu continued to spread.
Now the world Bank some time set said the potential for the loss resulting from bird flu all over the world reached US$ 2 trillion.
The loss as big as that happened if bird flu changed to the pandemic.
Do my eyes deceive me? Are they going to start testing wild animals as well as migratory birds? http://tinyurl.com/nkj58
To anticipate expanded him the spreading of the bird flu virus, the Department of Forestry through Minister’s Decision of No. SK. 203/Menhut-II/2006 formed the Task Force the Control of Bird Flu to Wild birds and the Other Wild Animal. The action plan of this Bird Flu of the Control Task Force in 6 (six) this first month covered the study or the survey breakingprep early to the locations of the place stopped over migrant birds that had interaction access with the settlement of the community or cluster that terindikasi the virus H5N1. In the strengthening program of the human resources capacity was held by the training (training course) knew kinds of migrant birds (bio-ecology) and taking techniques of the sample including equipment that was used. The other action plan was the Standart Operation Procedure compilation for the taking of the specimen and test/the analysis of the bird flu laboratory. The study or the survey also towards the handling of the wild animal was determined, the mechanism pelaporan, and concrete steps that must be done to the positive location were affected by bird flu resulting from the virus H5N1 from wild birds/the migrant. Further was done by the production of the map of the spreading of migrant birds all over Indonesia, especially in the category site and the route flew migrant birds, apart from for the data collection and information, also as the material predicted the possibility of migrant birds brought the plague H5N1. To support communication and the ease of the data collection and information from respectively the member the Task Force, was formed by the centre of communication or the secretariat/the command post in the Directorate General’s PHKA office, Street Juanda No. 15 Bogor.
My post at 15:39: When you get to the site, click on this article:
Dephut Bentuk Satgas Pengendalian Flu Burung Pada …
U.S. Migratory Bird Testing Reveals No High Threat
“….Of the 13,000 birds sampled, more than 110 birds have tested positive for some form of avian influenza, but this is a predictable finding, according to USDA, given that 144 subtypes of bird flu viruses circulate among wild bird species, often without adverse effect.”
The Rand Review, Summer 2006, has a report on Public Health Preparedness, by Nicole Lurie. (Portions of this article appeared in the July 2006 issue of Health Affairs.)
Tabletop exercises have shown that “strong leadership repeatedly trumped all other factors in determining how jurisdictions fared when presented with a wide range of scenarios related to infectious disease outbreaks. The performance of health departments whose leaders were willing to take responsibility and make decisions in a hypothetical situation was far better than the performance of departments whose leaders said they would be willing to be coleaders with others.”
Also, “Most health departments are facing difficulties related to staff availability and budgets.”
To paraphrase, assessing a locality’s plans is difficult because real mass emergencies are rare, and exercises are expensive. The Rand team is “developing a model of relatively small-scale drills and exercises that focus on the most important preparedness components…”
http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/summer2006/pubhealth.html
comment I’m glad Rand is doing this, but I have a sick feeling in my stomach and keep thinking, we’re screwed (in many (most?) places, if bold leadership is a necessity). Leadership has to be strong as well as intelligent, nimble, trained, and it wouldn’t hurt to know some history.
Does legionnaires look much like BF in its early symptoms? I would think that they could “quickly” check for the bacteria.
Mercer County courthouse in Trenton, N.J-possible Legionnaires’ Disease.
“Newspaper has learned that a woman working at the Mercer County courthouse in Trenton, N.J., may have Legionnaires’ Disease. The facility is now closed as official prepare to disinfect the courthouse…case is still under investigation …
presumption that the patient does have Legionnaire’s disease ..”
UPI
LONDON, Sept. 20 (UPI) — “One of the major concerns inherent in the possible avian-influenza pandemic is the disease’s extraordinarily high death rate, which is more than half of known cases. But officials are now questioning whether this is indeed the case.
Both South Korea and Indonesia have recently announced cases of avian-influenza infection in humans that were not identified until after the person in question had been infected by, and had recovered from, the disease.
At the moment, experts say, there has not been enough evidence of mild avian-influenza infection to drastically reduce the disease’s mortality rate, nor even to revise it. But, they concur, the possibility merits further study.
Reduced virulence is a possible indicator that avian influenza is preparing itself to become more transmissible — as this column has noted for the past 11 months, reduced virulence can lead to increased transmissibility, as diseases are less able to infect large swaths of people when they kill their host before the infection has been passed on — and it is this fact that health officials wish to monitor more closely, especially as the rainy season in Southeast Asia and the autumnal bird migrations are likely to lead to increased reports of both avian and human infections.
‘’‘Speaking over the weekend and cited by Canada’s CBCNews, Dr. Michael Osterholm, avian-influenza expert and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy, said: “We need to keep monitoring it.
“Because, frankly, one of the indications that there may be a changing epidemiology with this is, in fact, if we start seeing larger and larger percentages of individuals who are asymptomatic or only mildly ill that we can clearly confirm as having H5N1 infection.” - excerpt’‘’
Nepal-viral influenza among others
“More than 1000 people are suffering from various diseases including malaria, typhoid and viral influenza at remote Jogbudha village of Dadeldhura district in far-west Nepal, local media reported on Thursday. “Above 1000 people are suffering from these diseases at a dozen areas including Sadani, Bhaurkunda, Karali, Tatapani, Lamigada and Jamerani of the village, some 700 km west of Kathmandu,” Nepal Samarchar Patra, a Nepali language daily reported. “The condition of most of the patients is upsetting,” the daily quoted a health worker Hikmat Bahadur Dhami, as saying. “We also don’t have adequate medicines for treatment,” he added. “As many as eight people of single family are suffering from the diseases,” Dhami said, adding the number of patients has increased due to lack of timely medical intervention. Mandhir Singh Bhandari, former village chief of Jogbudha said that nobody remained there to help the patients in some cases when the entire family members turned sick. People also failed to go to neighboring Indian cities including Tanakpur, Poligunj and Pilbhit for treatment due to rising water level in the Mahakali river that separate the two countries. District Health Office of Dadeldhura said that it had already sent additional medical team to the village with medicines.”
oh yes, that Nepel item is some what dated. (14th) but I had not seen that they had cases of “viral influenza” before.
HOT OFF THE PRESS - COME AND GET IT
New Zealand has just released its latest version of the Influenza Pandemic Action Plan
Information at this website
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/nz-influenza-pandemic-action-plan-2006
(Thanks!) New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan, Version 16: Appendix J, Care of the Deceased
IMHO, WHO sounds increasing nervous about the current ‘increasing’ state of pre-panflu…
USA
Global community not sharing enough of bird flu battle burden: CDC flu czar
The international community is not bearing enough of the burden of combating H5N1 avian flu, leaving too much of the work to some of the world’s poorer countries, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s outgoing flu czar said Wednesday.
Dr. Jim LeDuc said countries like Vietnam have paid a huge price to try to lower the risk that the virus will spark a human flu pandemic, without adequate compensation from developing countries in the form of guarantees of access to antiviral drugs or vaccines that might be created to protect against the virus.
“We as a global community have asked the least developed nations of the world to bear the brunt of controlling this,” LeDuc told participants at a conference on the legal and ethical issues of mitigating pandemic disease hosted by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.
Liberia
Liberia: Gov’t. Prepares to Combat Bird Flu
The government of Liberia, through the National Task Force on the control and prevention of Avian Influenza (bird flu), has announced series of mechanisms to battle the virus, which is mainly found in birds.
Making the disclosure recently in Monrovia, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Chris Toe, said the government has developed a national contingency plan for the eventual prevention and control of Avian Influenza in the country.
Minister Toe said the plan is designed within the context of a national preparedness strategy to deal effectively and efficiently with any outbreak in Liberia, adding that the plan has been submitted to international donors including the United States Aid for International Development for funding.
[snip]
He said the government has established hotlines to report suspected cases of dead or sick birds and the numbers are: LoneStar GSM 190; Libercell’s 0479000; and Cellcom’s 180555; Commium’s 1425 and other networks to Cellcom −071800555.
Massachusetts, USA
Plans to cage bird flu in effect
According to Weymouth Health Director Richard Marino, officials would have to impose quarantines if avian flu reached pandemic levels in the state.
“There would have to be a shutdown of society to keep the disease from spreading,” he said at a Sept. 14 “Are You Ready?” health forum at Abigail Adams Middle School. “We would have to isolate people while the disease is in its infectious stages.”
[snip]
“Existing medical facilities would be overwhelmed,” she said. “Vaccine, anti-virals, and antibiotics would be in short supply. Dare care centers would have to close, and public transportation would be limited or stopped.”
Maine, USA
Conference Addresses Avian Flu Threat
Maine health officials are looking back 88 years as they complete their plans for a possible pandemic. That’s the word on Wednesday from the director of the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills spoke as 1,100 health experts and people from all levels of government gathered in Augusta for a state summit on pandemic influenza and avian flu.
Mills said researchers gathered hundreds of pages of published reports and records from Maine’s last major flu outbreak in 1918 to see how public agencies responded. Mills said a lot of the procedures are similar to what’s being put into place today, such as where to house patients when the hospitals fill up.
[snip]
Mills said the state, counties and hospitals are working on pandemic response plans in preparation for a new influenza outbreak. She said the goal is to have finalized plans in 2007
Comment
Hope they have that long.
Georgia, USA
Simple precautions can help prepare against flu germs
LAWRENCEVILLE — The avian flu, known by most as bird flu, is a hot topic for media worldwide, but local residents should also be aware of the potential danger of a deadly pandemic flu.
“That is a big, big subject for us and is our priority right now,” said Vernon Goins, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Health Department. “We had a countywide pandemic flu summit back in May, where we brought in the civic and business leaders. … (and) started discussion about how to prepare by developing a strategic plan and a tactical plan for responding to an influenza pandemic, which is a worldwide epidemic from which no community would be safe.”
[snip]
“No one will be left untouched by a pandemic,” he said. “Only those who are prepared will experience its minimal effects. Those who are not prepared could be devastated.”
COMMENT
“No one will be left untouched by a pandemic,” he said. “Only those who are prepared will experience its minimal effects. Those who are not prepared could be devastated.”
That has got to be the most straight-forward, succinct comment I’ve ever seen or heard! If people don’t understand that, they’ve got their heads buried in the sand all the way up to their ankles!
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/296/11/1345-b Journal of American Medical Association (subscription), IL - Sep 19, 2006 … from the National Institute for Medical Research in London have discovered a structural element in a key enzyme of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that presents…
This is an article from the JAMA on Targeting Avian Influenza. It would be interesting to see what the recommended treatment is for doctors. Do we have anyone with access to the JAMA articles that could read and relay this to us? You must be a subscriber to get the article.
United Nations
Statement by Mike Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
On the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, United Nations General Assembly
[snip]
“Earlier this year, we recently awarded $1.0 billion in contracts to develop cell-based vaccines against both seasonal and pandemic influenza with the goal of having sufficient domestic vaccine production capacity to vaccinate all Americans within 6 months of the declaration of a pandemic. In addition, we are working on dose-sparing measures to enable us to produce more treatment courses for more people and are developing a library of live virus vaccine candidates against all known influenza strains with pandemic potential. In addition, we have developed rapid diagnostic testing for H5 strains that shorten testing time. We are also looking at mitigation strategies should a pandemic break out.
But responding to a pandemic will demand the cooperation of the world community. No nation can go it alone. If a country is to protect its own people, it must work together with other nations to protect the people of the world.
I believe there are four principles of preparedness, and I have spoken of them before: transparency, rapid reporting, sharing of data, and scientific cooperation. The United States will do its part to advance those principles.
We are funding the Specimen Transport Fund, managed by the Secretariat of the World Health Organization (WHO). It is a key innovation in getting samples from affected countries in a timely and secure fashion. We also support early, voluntary compliance with the revised International Health Regulations. We also have made sizeable investments in creating a worldwide network of influenza surveillance, through bilateral assistance, work with the WHO Secretariat and its Regional Offices, and through partnerships with a number of international labs. Furthermore, in response to President Bush’s commitment to forward-positioning a portion of U.S. antiviral stocks for use in a human pandemic containment effort, we have deployed treatment courses of Tamiflu to a secure location in Asia.”
more…
Please Note: Secretary Leavitt does not indicate how far we are from that “vaccinate all Americans within 6 months of the declaration of a pandemic.”
Warning - Be advised, consider the source here - PETA and “disinformation” I have not gotten a second confirmation about monkeys acquiring the avian flu- Tom DVM do you have any comments.
“….Last year alone, 20,151 nonhuman primates entered the U.S. from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia—four countries that have suffered dozens of human deaths from avian flu. Laboratory studies show that monkeys can acquire avian flu as easily as humans and that monkeys also become infected with human strains of influenza. If monkeys can host both avian and human influenza simultaneously, it could lead to viral mixing. This is what epidemiologists and public health officials fear most— a mutation of avian flu that will enable it to pass from person to person. “
DennisC. My only comment would be what could possibly create the need to import 20,151 monkeys into the USA?
There is always a risk to deciminate zoonoses.
They will not be a risk for H5N1 until the day H5N1 becomes a pandemic ready virus…and with 55 nonhuman primates a day entering the USA…that will be a pretty good wick to get a pandemic seeded nicely…
…tell me again that Globalization was a good thing…
…more and more it seems common sense has left us as a species.
WHO, Indonesia disagree on bird flu diagnosis
Based on the new guidelines, patients can be considered possible bird flu victims when they are suffering from acute lower respiratory problems with fever and cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. … Based on the new case definition, the WHO retroactively added two bird flu victims to Indonesia’s case list last week.
The first was a five-year-old child from East Bekasi, West Java. He developed bird flu symptoms on March 5 and died two weeks later. The second was a 27-year-old man from Solok, West Sumatra, who took care of his sister when she fell ill with bird flu. She died in May. The man survived. The two retrospectively confirmed cases bring the total in Indonesia to 65. Of these cases, 49 were fatal…
Switzerland amends law to deal with pandemic threat
“The Swiss parliament approved a revision of the country’s epidemic law on Wednesday, allowing the federal government to stock up on vaccines in preparation for a threat of an outbreak. The Senate followed the House of Representatives in unanimously passing the amendment, which the cabinet had described as urgent in light of the bird flu pandemic in Asia.
The federal government can now finance the acquisition of vaccines and drugs before a pandemic breaks out or even before threat levels get serious, Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin was quoted as saying by Swiss Radio International …”
How about importing stray homeless and abandoned dogs from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, Romania, Columbia?
This article outlines what is happening, and why — it provides a opportunity and publicity to people in the not-for-profit shelters to expand their operations, and how it undermines the bona fide taxpayer supported rescue operations in the U.S.
National Animal Interest Alliance Trust says:
“Given that many dogs living in third world countries have been exposed to rabies or carry exotic diseases and parasites not typically found in the US, shouldn’t our concern for public health in the US trump concerns about third world strays?.”
Saskatchewan, Canada
Pandemic topic at recent Chamber luncheon
In the most recent of many speaking engagements concerning the topic of the Avian influenza pandemic, Dr. Mohammad Khan, Medical Health Officer based in Melfort, met with 25 members of the Nipawin Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, September 13. The luncheon sought to better educate the business community on the pandemic as well as advise business owners what they can do in the event that a pandemic affect our area.
[snip]
Concerns were also raised given the recent discovery of a bird found in Michigan that had the H5N1 influenza virus. Dr. Khan noted that the general public has nothing to worry about in light of this discovery.
“They found H5N1 virus, but it’s not the infective type,” he said, adding that surveilance on the east and west coast of the Canada catches and tests birds for Avian influenza. Should a pandemic threaten the region, Dr. Khan would give the official word in relation to school closures and banning public events in the public interest.
California, USA
Educators Discuss Flu Pandemic Plan
Monterey County health officials met Wednesday with area educators in an effort to make sure schools are ready if bird flu starts making people sick on the Central Coast.
[snip]
One of the nation’s leading public health advocates said if a pandemic hits, its effects could force health officials to close schools.
“School superintendents and principals are going to have to be prepared to decide on when to make a decision to close. What they may also be wanting to think about is if they could continue a student’s education at home so they don’t lose all the momentum they’ve developed,” Secretary of Health & Human Services Michael Leavitt said.
Florida, USA
Businesses invited to pandemic flu seminar
Area businesses are invited to learn how to survive a global outbreak of serious illness, at “Pandemic Flu: What Your Business Needs to Know” from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Indian River Community College Kight Center for Emerging Technologies at the main campus in Fort Pierce. The event will focus on the importance of a contingency plan, for businesses from small to large, and how to minimize the impact on the business.
For information, call the IRCC Corporate and Community Training Institute at (888) 283–1177 or visit: at www.ircc.edu/ccti .
Bermuda
Avian flu: Coping with a pandemic
Bermuda’s dockworkers could become the Island’s most important citizens in the wake of a pandemic such as the avian flu. That was the opinion yesterday of Dr. Graham Sher, the chief executive officer of Canadian Blood Services, the company that manages Canada’s blood supply.
Dr. Sher was speaking on the morning of the second day of the Bermuda Captive Conference being held at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel. Dr. Sher had been selected to speak on a panel addressing preparedness for a pandemic because his company has a Bermuda captive, without which, he said last year, Canada could not manage its blood supply.
[snip]
The third panellist, Mark Baker, is head of global markets at HSBC, having transferred to Bermuda from New York. He ran down the scenario of how the financial markets might cope with a pandemic. “The markets are incredibly flexible and good at adapting,” he said, “but economic activity could severely decline. Investments may be postponed. Asset prices and operational disruptions are the two main areas of concern.” Mr. Baker forecast that although “cash would be popular, as would gold”, the markets would survive a pandemic similar to the 1918 flu outbreak.
An audience member asked how Dr. Sher thought Bermuda might deal with the effects of a pandemic, particularly if the US suffered from disruption and the Bermuda food supply were threatened as a result.
In response, Dr. Sher said: “I think it would force the Bermuda Government to look at its workforce.
Dockworkers would become more important than bankers; in fact they might become the most important citizens. In preparing for pandemics, organisations have to look right down to the front line and determine the weak links in the system.”
So if food gets tight, sorry bankers, dockworkers need to keep their strength up. There will be alot of reprioritization like that.
USA
U.S. Food Supply Exposed to Terrorists?
This isn’t the good old days, when every town and all these corner groceries, and you bought off the — the (inaudible) brought the truck around. Now it’s all supermarkets, massive warehouses.
And so disrupting our food chain is a possibility. And my even bigger worry, even bigger than terrorism, is if we ever had a true pandemic, a deadly one like the World War I era influenza epidemic, highly contagious and deadly, the centralization of food supplies could make it very hard to feed people if you had quarantines, if you had disruption of interstate commerce and trucking. Supermarkets…
This is from The Big Story with John Gibson on Fox. The guest was RET. U.S. ARMY LT. COL. RALPH PETERS. What’s interesting is that although Gibson wanted to talk about the spinach outbreak and terrorism, Lt. Col. Peters wanted to talk about a pandemic. Gibson cut him off however. Gibson missed the real Big Story.
PETA is a political group which is a front organization for vicious terrorists. Please don’t quote them. They are liars. No politics on this site, please.
USA
Kleiner Perkins boosts greentech, health funds
Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB) announced three new greentech and pandemic preparedness and global health commitments at the Clinton Global Initiative annual conference.
[snip]
In addition, KPCB announced that its $200 million Pandemic Preparedness Fund has backed three ventures to combat global infectious disease, including Biocryst (BCRX), Novavax (NVAX) and a rapid diagnostic technology.
Fiji
Pacific Island Countries and territories are “unprepared” in the event of introduction of either bird flu or SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) into the region, regional expert Dr Ken Cokanasiga warned.
But all is not doom and gloom for the region as Australia and New Zealand have jointly committed over $10.3million ($A8m) to help Pacific nations set up emergency response plans to counter any pandemic.
[snip]
Dr Cokanasiga told Pacnews the four-year Pacific Regional Influenza Preparedness Project (PRIPPS) would work to set up emergency response units.
Nebraska, USA
Public meetings to focus on flu
So what happens if a pandemic is declared? How will the city and its businesses keep functioning? What are ways to limit the spread of the virus? How will people deal with possible shortages of food, gasoline or medicines?
Health departments across the state are working with local entities to help develop plans to implement if a pandemic happens.
Laura McDougall of the Four Corners Health Department said town hall meetings scheduled around the region are designed to help build those plans. Two meetings are planned for Seward County-one at the Seward Civic Center on Monday, Sept. 25, at 6:30 p.m. and one at the Milford Fire Hall on Monday, Oct. 9, at 6:30 p.m.
World
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/sep2006oie.htmlOIE launches Japan-funded project to fight avian flu A new project to help improve control strategies for avian influenza has been initiated in eight Asian countries, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) announced yesterday.
The project, funded by a $7.7 million grant from the Japanese government, will be implemented in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The OIE said the effort has shifted into “full operational mode.”
The “OIE/Japan Special Trust Fund Project on Avian Influenza Control in Asia” includes plans to boost early warning and rapid response systems by developing national disease information sharing systems and to update national and regional contingency plans for controlling H5N1 avian influenza.
Correct link for the story at 23:52
Maryland, USA
Public invited to GBMC pandemic flu roundtable
Greater Baltimore Medical Center hosts a roundtable on pandemic flu 4:30–6:30 p.m. Oct.13.
The forum will offer community members an opportunity to learn from clinical experts and emergency preparedness officials how to prepare against a flu pandemic.
The roundtable, sponsored by the Maryland Hospital Association as one of a series of such events around the state, will be held in GBMC’s Conference Center in Physicians Pavilion East.
The pandemic flu roundtable is free to the public; RSVPs are not required. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information, call 443–849–3036.
date: 20 09, 2006
Baghdad Sept. 20 (BNA) “Iraqi Health Minister Dr Ali Al Shammari said claims on the discovery of a new case of bird flu in Baghdad were ‘baseless’.
Iraq is free of the disease due to the extraordinary efforts and scientific programmes of the higher central committee for tracking bird flu, the minister said in a statement transmitted by Al Iraqia TV station today. He said reports carried by some newspapers are not based on accurate information and that they aim at shaking citizens’ confidence in Iraqi health establishments and the services they offer. “
NTQ/ 20-Sep-2006 16:00