Summary from Indonesia Outbreak as at 20 October 2006
| Cases Discussed | Jun-06 | Jul-06 | Aug-06 | Sep-06 | Oct-06 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Died, no tests | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| Died, tested positive | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Other tested positive | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Suspected symptoms | 4 | 2 | 46 | 38 | 24 | 114 |
| Tested negative | 0 | 6 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 58 |
| Totals | 10 | 14 | 81 | 64 | 35 | 204 |
(From WHO as at 16 Oct - latest update)
Total human cases worldwide 256, deaths 151 (2006 – 109 with 73 deaths)
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Indonesia
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam
India
Russia
Greece
Nigeria
Australia
Brazil
Canada
United States of America
General
Link to news thread for 20 October (link News Reports for October 20 )
(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.
Comment: The link between installing hand sanitizers at schools and possible pandemic flu as part of “a plan” is a bit worrying. Did the CDC really urge this as part of pandemic preparations?
VIRGINIA, USA
Schools to install sanitizer stations to stop flu spread By NICOLE MORGAN, The Virginian-Pilot October 21, 2006 http://tinyurl.com/yd8ng3
Portsmouth is prepping its schools with hand-sanitizing stations in an effort to curb a potential flu pandemic.
The initiative is at the urging of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Education, which has requested that schools make planning for pandemic flu a priority.
Health professionals are concerned that the spread of a flu virus by migratory birds will produce a deadly global threat because many people don’t have immunity to it.
There’s no immediate cause for worry, said Frances Gray, health services supervisor for Portsmouth schools.
“But I want to know that my school system and my city have a plan in place,” she said.
More than 50 hand-sanitizing stations, donated by the Portsmouth Health Department, are being installed in the schools near nurses’ offices and cafeterias.
Hand sanitizers are popular with other local school divisions, which are also busy developing pandemic flu plans.
Virginia Beach and Chesapeake already have hand sanitizers in their schools. Suffolk is in the process of installing the stations, and Norfolk school officials said they are researching the cost of the units. <snip>
Comment: Vaccines and keeping 3 feet between us will save us all. This consultant wasted an enormous opportunity to inform on practical preparedness.
MASSACHUSETTS, USA
Officials briefed on flu outbreak
Friday, October 20, 2006 By CHRIS HAMEL http://tinyurl.com/yf7esv
WARREN - At the Board of Health’s request, a state health consultant last night briefed town officials on a general preparedness plan in the event of an avian flu outbreak.
Stephen Saravara III, program consultant to the state’s Region II Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coalition, said the town is not lacking in its readiness for such a pandemic, when board chairman Robert Downing cited his concern that Warren might be lagging behind.
“You’re not really behind,” Saravara said. “I have other towns that have done zero.”
Saravara was cautious in his remarks about not raising public anxiety about a pandemic. He noted after the meeting that there is no prediction about when a flu pandemic, such as the deadly influenza outbreak of 1918, might occur again. But he said virologists at the Center for Disease Control are monitoring viruses because pandemics tend to happen in cyclical waves.
Saravara has developed a general preparedness plan to assist communities in this region. He cited such needs as establishing an emergency dispensing site for vaccines; the delivery and refrigeration of vaccines, and their securing by police; deciding how to contact residents to be inoculated and then documenting them; the soliciting of volunteers; and the eventual closing and cleaning of the dispensing site.
He explained the possible ways in which such a flu could be spread, including through international travel. He said a most important issue in small town, such as Warren, where there are less than 5,000 residents, is “social distancing,” or keeping people a safe distance apart during their social interactions.
Scientists are estimating that if an avian flu pandemic begins, it likely will start in Europe or Asia, Saravara said. If that proves true, vaccine manufacturers would have more time to prepare supplies for Americans’ immunization. <snip>
COMMENT I love these “experts” who mention international travel as the key (and rapid) spreading agent then in the same breath say “it will start somewhere else and give us plenty of time to get a vaccine prepared and distributed” - give that man the Homer Simpson award! (Doh)
comment
Even Homer isn’t that dumb.
It at leasts sounds promising.
Indonesia says fewer bird flu endemic provinces
The number of Indonesian provinces where bird flu is endemic has nearly halved in the last six months, although all areas on heavily populated Java island remain affected, a health official said on Saturday….
There were 30 provinces where bird flu has been declared endemic in fowl. In the last six months 14 of these provinces have reported no new cases,” Bayu Krisnamurthi, head of the national committee on Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness…”
Saturday, October 21 2006
(software translation)
Jakarta — MIOL: “The area jangkitan the infection of the bird flu virus (Avian influenza/AI) that originally covered 30 provinces in Indonesia currently descended because 14 provinces were among them stated free from the virus infection H5N1 during the last six months.
If the infection in the poultry could be controlled then the poultries will not spread his illness to humankind vice versa if still had the poultry that was sick then the possibility he could spread him to humankind, he said in the evaluation of the achievement of the Department of the Health that was held in Jakarta, on Friday (20/10).
Since July 2005 till October 17 2006 bird flu attacked 72 people in Indonesia and 55 including dying.
The mortality rate (Case Fatality Rate/CFR) resulting from the deadly illness that generally was spread by the poultry, said he, reached 76.39 percent.
In order to overcomes the problem, the Department of the Health distributed Oseltamivir/Tamiflu — medicine antivirus influenza that was recommended in the handling of the patient who was infected by AI — to available health services in the area.
“We have also prepared 44 reconciliation hospitals and will increase him to 100 hospitals,” he said. - excerpt
Missouri, USA
Task force plans how to deal with pandemic scenario
Dead and dying Cape Girardeau County residents. Lots of them.
That’s the nightmare that would face Cape Girardeau County health and emergency preparedness officials in a pandemic flu outbreak.
The Cape Girardeau County Infectious Disease Task Force met for an hour Friday at the county health center to talk about the need for a well-coordinated plan to educate the public about the disaster scenario.
[snip]
A new Medical Reserve Corps unit, just established in Cape Girardeau County, could help the area handle a pandemic, Craig said after the meeting. Twenty-two people have signed up to serve with the unit, which consists of volunteer medical professionals and others willing to respond to emergencies.
[snip]
Those who want to join the unit should contact the county health center, she said.
At the task force meeting, David Hitt, director of emergency operations for Cape Girardeau County, questioned whether local governments could operate if 40 percent of their work force were sick with the flu.
Vietnam
Bird flu vigilance earns high praise
VietNamNet Bridge - Vaccination and poultry culling are Vietnam’s keys to success, said Dr. David Nabarro, chief pandemic flu coordinator for the United Nations, at a press conference in Bangkok on Friday.
[snip]
Hiroyuki Konuma, Deputy FAO Regional Representative, spoke highly of the attention being given to dealing with avian influenza by all branches of government, and stressed the importance of the voluntary work by members of the Vietnamese public in combating the disease.
However, the experts affirmed that the situation in Vietnam as well as other countries in the region remained dangerous and required constant vigilance.
I am just preparing the News Summary then I will start a new thread so please could you hold your post for about 20 minutes. Cheers and thanks