Summary from Indonesia Outbreak as at 21 October 2006
| Cases Discussed | Jun-06 | Jul-06 | Aug-06 | Sep-06 | Oct-06 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Died, no tests | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| Died, tested positive | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Other tested positive | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Suspected symptoms | 4 | 2 | 46 | 38 | 26 | 116 |
| Tested negative | 0 | 6 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 58 |
| Totals | 10 | 14 | 81 | 64 | 38 | 207 |
(From WHO as at 16 Oct - latest update) Total human cases worldwide 256, deaths 151 (2006 – 109 with 73 deaths)
(If you want the links to open in a new window, hold down the shift key and then click on the link)
Indonesia
Vietnam
India
United States of America
Link to news thread for 21 October (link News Reports for October 21 )
(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.
All domestic fowls inoculated in Inner Mongolia for bird flu prevention
A total of 42.6 million domestic fowls in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have received compulsory inoculations following an outbreak of bird flu in the region last month, according to local authorities.
The inoculation rate has reached 100 percent in the autonomous region, said the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Regional Bird Flu Control Headquarters Office.
Nearly 1,000 chickens and ducks were reported to have died suddenly on a poultry farm in the Xincheng Village of Jiuyuan District in Baotou City on September 27. The national avian influenza laboratory later confirmed that the H5N1 virus was found in samples of the dead poultry. About 30,000 fowls within three kilometers of the farm were subsequently slaughtered. No human infections were found.
Three million domestic fowls in Baotou had been inoculated by October 11. Poultry and egg products from the bird flu-stricken areas were not put on sale.
Two outbreaks of bird flu have been reported since last month, which killed around 2,000 domestic poultry in the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui.
Source: Xinhua
Alaska villagers living in bird flu’s flight path What has brought the Eskimos sustenance for generations now may carry the deadly virus into North America
THE 800 YUP’IK ESKIMOS in this wet and lonely village knew the situation was serious when government scientists began swooping in on bush planes.
Except for a few doctors that fly in each year to give villagers checkups, outsiders rarely visited this outpost of scattered gray plywood homes and prefab structures plopped in the middle of the tundra.
Soon, latex gloves appeared on store shelves and Wild West-style posters started popping up around town: “Wanted: Birds of the Delta.” Researchers camped out in the town’s tribal council offices, preparing for trips to nearby Kwigluk Island with vials, swabs, nets and needles.
[snip]
ISREAL - Four people die after receiving flu vaccinations in 2 separate clinics
Last update - 20:13 22/10/2006 / Ron Reznik / Haaretz.com / http://tinyurl.com/y2okpo
Four people have died after receiving flu vaccinations, it was announced Sunday. The Leumi health maintenance organization informed the Health Ministry of three victims among its subscribers, and the Meuhedet HMO announced that one of its subscribers had also died.
In response, the Health Ministry has instructed health facilities to immediately stop providing the vaccinations.
Army Radio reported that the first three victims were all vaccinated last week at the same branch in Kiryat Gat. The injections were all performed from the same vaccine pool.
Three of the victims, ages 75, 70 and 52, had been vaccinated in previous years against the flu, and none showed abnormal reactions.
An initial investigation conducted by the Health Ministry discovered that all four had suffered from various illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems.
The first three people died of cardiac arrest - one of them a day after receiving the vaccination, another three days after and the last six days after. The fourth victim, a 67-year-old male from Petah Tikva, died several hours after receiving the immunization.
Ashkelon District physicians are investigating the deaths. The Health Ministry has contacted the manufacturer of the vaccine, Sanofi Aventis of France, whose products are sold worldwide, and requested that it perform extensive examinations of its laboratories.
It is still unclear whether there is a connection between the vaccinations and the fatalities, or the nature of such a connection if it exists.
It is also unclear whether there were complications in the administration of the vaccine, whether related to the method of injection or the vaccine itself.
Poultry farmers warned of bird flu after water declines
The Director-General of the Department of Livestock Development ordered provincial livestock officials in flood-hit areas to spray disinfectants after water declines at the end of November to prevent bird flu outbreak.
Livestock Development Department Director-General Yukol Limlaemthong (ยุคล ลิ้มแหลมทอง) led a team to visit and distribute animal feed to farmers of Tambon Tumplee, in the central district of Ayutthaya. 80% of the farmers are Thai-Muslims raising breeding cows and goats for export. During floods, they have moved over 2,000 heads of their cattle to a space behind earthen dykes along the Ayutthaya-Angthong road.
The Director-General said that floods have affected most of the farm animals in the North, the central region, and the Northeast. 56,308 farmers and 2.7 million animals have been affected, 2.4 million of which are poultry. The Livestock Development Department has provided them with 1,000 tonnes of dried grass and prepared another 1,000 tonnes to be distributed more in the central region. Another 1,000 tonnes have been reserved for the South.
Mr Yukol also ordered all livestock development officials in the provinces to send mobile medical units to inundated areas and to draw up a zoning identifying high places where farmers can evacuate their animals if flood occurs again in the future. Veterinarians will be called to take care of their animals immediately.
However, the most worrying problem after water has declined is the return of bird flu since then winter has already come and the inundation areas are the same areas where bird flu spread last year. As a result, Mr Yukol called for collaborations from residents and all poultry farmers to clean their farms by spraying disinfectants after flood water has reduced.
Sorry — the above story is out of Thailand.
Kenya: Polio case raises fear of cross-border epidemics
[snip]
Elsewhere, Kenyan epidemiologists are now convinced that it is only a matter of time before the bird flu virus, H5N1, is reported in one of the three East African countries following the disease’s outbreak in Southern Sudan. Although less than 150 people have died of bird flu globally, mainly because the disease is hard to transmit from human to human, fears surrounding its outbreak have the potential to seriously undermine the region’s poultry industry, which is valued at over $1 billion.
Sudan’s northern neighbour, Egypt, reported its latest human case of H5N1 on October 10, bringing total infections to 15. Six of the people affected have already died. Egypt first reported H5N1 in poultry in February, and has now reported the highest number of confirmed bird flu cases in both humans and animals in Africa.
In recent weeks, the risk of bird flu’s spread into East Africa has been heightened by the annual southward flight of migratory birds from Europe, which occurs between September and December. Migratory birds were instrumental in transporting the H5N1 virus from China to the rest of Asia and Europe last year, and eventually southwards to several African countries, including Nigeria and Cameroon.
Following the outbreak of the disease in Southern Sudan, where four bird carcasses were in late September found to be infected with H5N1, authorities in both Kenya and Uganda slapped bans on poultry imports from the region two weeks ago. Uganda also announced that all vehicles and machinery entering the country from Southern Sudan would have to be sprayed with disinfectant.
[snip]
NEW ZEALAND
Patients to be kept separate
By Gail Goodger / Monday, 23rd October 2006 / http://tinyurl.com/ydbd3n
Special medical centres solely for people with bird flu will be created in up to 10 places in Otago-Southland if a pandemic strikes across the South.
The aim is to keep people with bird flu away from other patients at family doctors’ practices by having pandemic victims go to the special medical centres instead, according to the Otago and Southland district health boards’ pandemic plan.
If the pandemic peaked in Otago, the region would have three of the community-based assessment centres in Dunedin and one each in Oamaru, Balclutha and Dunstan.
Southland would have four around the region and, because its population is so dispersed, could also have smaller centres in other locations as well, the plan says.
The overall objective is to flatten the pandemic “peak”, by slowing or stopping bird flu (influenza) spreading so fewer people are sick at any one time.
Influenza can exhaust the body’s immune system. Then complications such as pneumonia can develop, making people sicker and even killing them, the plan says. So exposure to the disease should be limited as much as possible until a vaccine is developed and available.
In a pandemic, health services could be swamped, effective treatments would probably not be available immediately, and essential services would be stretched as staff fell ill.
That means individuals and the region need to be as selfsufficient as possible, the plan says.
The most effective tactics to combat a pandemic would include people washing and drying their hands thoroughly, keeping about a metre away from other people, avoiding crowds and staying home when sick.
People also need to have stocks of food, water and other necessities so they could stay at home for some time, the plan says.
Health boards would have antibiotics and antiviral medication stocks specifically for a pandemic, along with stocks of personal protection gear and critical clinical supplies.
Special guidelines for health staff would ensure everyone had the same access to treatment and care.
Organisations caring for people in the community in rest homes, their own homes or other locations have also created plans for continuing that care during a pandemic, the plan says. <snip>
Hallelujah - finally, a major Kentucky paper (the Lexington Herald-Leader) picks up the pandemic story again! (I won’t flatter myself that last week’s plea to 20 Kentucky newspaper editors, with flu flyer attached, had anything at all to do with this, but I’m so happy to see this report, I’ve got tears in my eyes.)
Excerpt -
Media attention drops, but avian flu threat spreads UNITED STATES INTENSIFIES VACCINE RESEARCH By Tony Pugh MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON - Less than a year ago, Americans could barely turn on the television, surf the Internet or pick up a newspaper without finding a doomsday story about deadly avian flu.
By last November, President Bush had asked Congress for $7.1 billion to help develop a vaccine, stockpile antiviral medications and fund state preparations for a possible pandemic.
Now, with the disease still centered in Asia and the failure of migratory birds to spread the illness to Europe and North America, the H5N1 virus has dropped out of the media spotlight. The dearth of coverage has prompted some to think that the threat of a pandemic has passed.
Nothing could be further from the truth, however.
So far this year, a person dies from the disease roughly every four days, compared with about once every nine days last year, according to World Health Organization data. Of the 108 confirmed human cases of bird flu thus far this year, 73 have been fatal. That’s up from 97 cases and 42 deaths in all of last year.
“We’re as worried now as we ever have been,” said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota.
InKy,
I would like to thing that your grass-roots effort paid off. Well Done!
Dr Dave - Whether or not it was a factor in the Herald-Leader picking up this article, militating will not cease ;→. A follow-up article on preparedness will be vital. I’ve written to Tony Pugh, the reporter, to encourage him to write such a piece, and I’ve sent in a letter to the editor of the Herald-Leader, thanking the paper for covering the pandemic flu threat once again, briefly urging preparedness, and asking for further coverage regarding how to prepare.
Americans get worse grade in ‘Clean Hands Report Card’ McClatchy Newspapers (link http://tinyurl.com/ygmfhp)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two years ago, the “Clean Hands Report Card” gave Americans a grade of C in hand-washing habits. That’s hardly a stellar performance considering the risks out there, such as pandemic flu, contagious skin diseases and the annual cold season.
Unfortunately, the hand-washing situation seems to be getting slightly worse. A new report card is out, and our collective grade dropped to C-. <snip>
“We really look at hand washing as being the one key thing that everybody can do not only to keep themselves healthy but to keep from spreading illnesses to others,” said Don Pickard, spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department. The challenge is washing often enough and thoroughly enough to prevent disease. We’re falling short in both categories.
Here are a few of the findings from a September national survey for the Soap and Detergent Association. The survey prompted the sub-par grade.
In addition, while 92 percent say they always wash their hands after using the bathroom, an observational study in 2005 by the association and the American Society of Microbiology found the real figure to be 83 percent.
Sadly, I think this could apply to most countries!
COMMENT With reference the story above about New Zealand .. this specifically states the set-up in Otago and Southland provinces because that is the area of relevance to this specific newspaper, but the same plan has been adopted throughout the country by all the Health Boards - I also understnd many of them will adopt the ‘grid’ system in towns and cities such as proved successful in 1918.
WAY TO GO INKY !!!!!
Inky, the EXACT same story is in today’s “The Olympian” from Olympia, WA. I tried to find on the on-line version so I could give you a link, but I’m not finding it on theolympian.com — but that article is in my hard copy newspaper that was delivered this morning.
Massachusetts, USA
SPRINGFIELD - The city Health and Human Services Department is holding a daylong event Thursday to help people prepare for emergencies like a flu pandemic.
The public event is free, but advance registration is required by calling (413) 787–6740. Lunch will be provided.
The event is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Melanie Kasparian Professional Development Center, 60 Alton St., behind the High School of Science and Technology on State Street.
Virginia, USA
State health officials will simulate a fight against a global outbreak of influenza by holding real mass vaccinations, directing acute-care hospitals to cope with a flood of stricken patients and evaluating how emergency responders and law enforcement interact with health-care providers.
“We need exercises such as these . . . to test our plans” for pandemic flu, said Dr. Lisa G. Kaplowitz, the Virginia Department of Health’s deputy commissioner for emergency preparedness and response. “It’s a little artificial, because unlike other emergencies, this is not a single point-in-time event. The exercise really will be starting in the middle of a pandemic.”
The state will coordinate health, hospital, communications, emergency management, law enforcement, first-responders and other officials who in a real pandemic would respond to the massive illness and deaths that could overwhelm the public-health system. All 35 of Virginia’s health districts are participating in FLUEX 06, which begins tomorrow.
[snip]
On Wednesday, Chesterfield County’s health department will inoculate 1,000 adults 19 and older who registered in advance. Henrico County plans a similar event on Nov. 4 to provide flu shots for adults. It also will offer the nasal spray vaccine, FluMist, to healthy adults under 50 and children 5 and older.
Richmond’s mass-vaccination effort tomorrow is for first-responders only — fire, police and emergency medical services — and is not open to the public.
Some districts are offering vaccinations in drive-throughs this year. On Wednesday, health officials in Stafford County will inoculate adults 18 or older who drive to the government center’s parking lot with a completed consent form, roll down the car windows and roll up their short sleeves.
Comment Yes, the story that Inky referenced must have be a sydicated or wire service story, but I assume the editor did have a choice whether to print it or not.
be=been …sigh!
Olymom - Pugh writes out of Washington for Mcclatchy newspapers, of which the Herald-Leader is one, and posted the story on the 19th. I’m just glad that a Kentucky paper picked it up because we hadn’t had coverage since May here, and lots of people naturally assumed the threat was no more.
NEWS
InKy – at 14:56 --- Here’s the entire article, published by McClatchy Newspapers. They own quite a few news outlets across the US. Our local Sunday paper, the Hampton Roads Daily Press, carried the story. This writer seems to really researching more than just a quick story…this particular piece appeared in Kansas City today:
[snip]
[snip]
[snip]
[snip]
On the web here
COMMENT
Monotreme – at 19:25 --- I spoke last week with one of the people involved with passing on public information about this drill. One of the things this person mentioned was that the Commonwealth of Virginia in no way endorses the use of masks to stave off influenza infection. In fact, they mention nothing in their pandemic plans about the use of masks or gloves, and in fact discourages the use of any masks due to security risks!!
In fact, Tony Pugh’s story may have been printed, under slightly different headlines, in many or all of these places.
Bronco Bill - I agree. Tony Pugh is doing his homework - makes me glad McClatchy owns the Herald-Leader. I hope he’ll pursue the subject further, especially by way of pieces on preparedness. And if you are reading the Hampton Roads Daily Press, you live near my Alma Mater. W&M grad here :→.
Ah…W&M. About 3 miles from my new home.
Bronco Bill – at 19:51
Are you talking about masks for the public or essential workers? The CDC is now recommending N95 respirators for HCWs. Some state plans mention surgical masks for the public. As we all know, wearing a surgical mask won’t protect the wearer from someone who is infected, but it may protect an uninfected person from someone who is infected, if the infected person is wearing the mask. Some doctor’s offices now require patients exhibiting respiratory symptoms to put a mask on. Makes sense to me.
Israel halts bird flu vaccines after three die
“ISRAEL’S Health Ministry halted the administration of flu vaccines yesterday after four people who were inoculated died.
The ministry was investigating whether the deaths are connected to the vaccines”
Heated argument over how flu spreads dividing scientific community
Later this week virologists, infection control specialists and occupational health experts from Canada, the U.S. and Britain will gather in Toronto to start trying to answer a question that is the source of a polarized debate among them.
How does influenza spread from one person to the next in hospitals? Is it mainly transmitted by hand-to-hand contact and virus-laced droplets sneezed or coughed from the respiratory tracts of the infected? Or do those expelled viruses hover in the air for longer periods and over greater distances than heavy droplets, making airborne transmission a factor in flu’s spread?
[snip]
The answer will influence the recommendations governments give hospitals on what masks to stockpile to protect health-care workers. If flu is an airborne virus, costly masks called N-95 respirators are the way to go. If it’s not, simple and inexpensive surgical masks should suffice.
A number of national pandemic plans, including Canada’s, are based on the premise of droplet spread.
The U.S. government’s used to be as well. But last week, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta issued new recommendations telling hospital planners it would be “prudent” for health-care workers to wear an N-95 when treating patients during a pandemic.
“We’re saying that: ‘You might need to use respirators more than you’re thinking. And so for that reason, you should probably be planning on having some on hand, enough to cover . . . (all) direct patient contact,”’ says Dr. Michael Bell, associate director of infection control in the CDC’s division of health-care quality promotion.
4 Die in Israel after getting a flu shot
Health Minister: No direct link between flu shots and deaths
By Ron Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The Health Ministry has stopped the administration of flu vaccines after four people died this week and last week shortly after receiving the inoculations. Three of the four individuals were inoculated at the Leumit Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in Kiryat Gat. All three suffered from several chronic ailments, including heart disease and diabetes.
The fourth recipient, a 67-year-old man, was insured at the Meuhedet HMO in Petah Tikva and suffered from serious heart disease. He was given the shot on Thursday by his wife, a dentist. A few hours later he was found dead on a city street.
The four persons who died are Shimon Amar, 76, from Kiryat Gat; Yitzhak Azoulay, 68, Kiryat Gat; Nadav Yerushalmi, 53, Moshav Shekef; and Ziggo Kalenstein, 67, of Petah Tikva. The Health Ministry said Sunday that all four were inoculated with vaccine from the same series and purchased from the same manufacturer, the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis, which markets the vaccine all over the world.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/777902.html
Comment
It is certainly possible that the flu vaccine had some sort of contaminant that contributed to the deaths of the four individuals Israel. There have been multiple reports of problems with vaccine manufacture within the last few years.
However, one should also consider the possibility of co-inicidence. I remember reading or hearing someone say that if everyone were vaccinated on the same day, with anything, hundreds of people would take two steps after being vaccinated and fall down dead. If this were reported, people would be convinced that the vaccine was very dangerous. However, actuaries would tell you that the number of people who died after receiving the vaccine would be the same number that would have dropped dead without the vaccine. The human brain looks for a good story. A medical intervention followed death naturally results in suspicion regarding the medical intervention. If everyone was told to eat chocolate ice cream at the same time, hundreds would take one bit and fall over dead. Would we blame the ice cream?
Testing finds Australia wildlife free of bird flu
Monday, 23/10/2006 (link http://tinyurl.com/ydkj83)
Ongoing testing across Australia’s most susceptible regions have found no evidence of the new lethal strain of bird flu in wildlife. Last year the H5N1 strain killed thousands of water fowl in China and this year it spread from birds to humans in Indonesia.
Dr John Curran, from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, says continuing trapping and testing of wild birds across northern Australia has so far failed to isolate any live influenza viruses.
“But by the same token we’re still concerned that the global epidemic is continuing and that this has actually come closer to, the epidemic has come closer to Australia through Indonesia,” Dr Curran said.
“So that’s a concern that we have to keep our vigilance and keep monitoring wild birds in through northern Australia.”
I am just finishing the News Summary then I will open a new thread so please hold your posting for a few minutes.
Cheers and thanks