Tag Archives: H5N1

Global: WHO reports six human H5N1 avian influenza cases during past weeks

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Accord­ing to a World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO) sum­mary and assess­ment on 26 April 2013, from 12 March to 26 April 2013, there were a total of six new lab­o­ra­tory con­firmed human cases with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infec­tion. The cases were from the fol­low­ing coun­tries: Bangladesh (1), Cam­bo­dia (1), Egypt (2), and Viet Nam (2). The UN agency says that after inves­ti­ga­tion, the six cases are con­sid­ered sporadic.

So far in 2013, Cam­bo­dia has reported 10 cases of the lethal virus in humans, result­ing in eight fatal­i­ties. Health author­i­ties say cases do not seem to be linked directly, and most had con­tact with sick poul­try in their vil­lages. Since 2003, there have been 628 lab­o­ra­tory con­firmed human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infec­tion offi­cially reported to WHO from 15 coun­tries, of which 374 died (about 60%).

Accord­ing to WHO, the H5N1 virus sub­type (dif­fer­ent from the H7N9 strain cir­cu­lat­ing in the cur­rent China out­break) is a highly path­o­genic AI virus, which first infected humans in 1997 dur­ing a poul­try out­break in Hong Kong SAR, China. Since its wide­spread re-emergence in 2003 and 2004, this avian virus has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become entrenched in poul­try in some coun­tries, result­ing in mil­lions of poul­try infec­tions, sev­eral hun­dred human cases, and many human deaths.

The case fatal­ity rate for H5N1 virus infec­tions in peo­ple is much higher than that of sea­sonal influenza infec­tions. Clin­i­cally, in many patients, the dis­ease caused by the H5N1 virus fol­lows an unusu­ally aggres­sive clin­i­cal course, with rapid dete­ri­o­ra­tion and high fatal­ity. Like most emerg­ing dis­ease, H5N1 influenza in humans is poorly understood.

The incu­ba­tion period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for nor­mal sea­sonal influenza, which is around two to three days. Cur­rent data for H5N1 infec­tion indi­cate an incu­ba­tion period rang­ing from two to eight days and pos­si­bly as long as 17 days. WHO cur­rently rec­om­mends that an incu­ba­tion period of seven days be used for field inves­ti­ga­tions and the mon­i­tor­ing of patient contacts.

(The Global Dis­patch 4/28/2013)

Bangladesh: H5N1 influenza outbreaks affect 14,000 poultry

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H5N1 avian flu wiped out almost 4,000 poul­try and led to the culling of 10,000 more in two farm out­breaks in Bangladesh recently, accord­ing to a World Orga­ni­za­tion for Ani­mal Health (OIE). The first out­break, from 27 Feb­ru­ary to 1 March 2013, occurred on a com­mer­cial farm in Rang­pur dis­trict of Rang­pur province, in north­west­ern Bangladesh. It involved 3,420 dead poul­try, and the remain­ing 8,974 were culled to pre­vent dis­ease spread. The sec­ond out­break occurred 9 and 10 March2013 in Rajbari dis­trict in Dhaka province, in west cen­tral Bangladesh. It killed 558 birds, and the remain­ing 1,242 poul­try on the farm were destroyed. Together the virus killed 3,978 birds, and 10,216 were culled to con­tain the out­breaks, for a total of 14,194 poul­try deaths. Offi­cials have dis­in­fected both premises, the OIE said.

(CIDRAP 5/1/2013)

Viet Nam: Salangane birds die of H5N1 avian influenza

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Nearly 5,000 salan­gane birds, which are raised by local peo­ple in Viet Nam’s cen­tral Phan Rang city, were found dead and said to be infected with the avian flu strain H5N1, reported on 13 April 2013. Accord­ing to Vice Chair­woman of Phan Rang City People’s Com­mit­tee Nguyen Thi Hue, from 28 March 2013 to 11 April 2013, about 4,900 salan­gane birds out of the flock’s 10,000 head raised by the Yen Viet Com­pany Lim­ited were found dead in Phan Rang City of Ninh Thuan province. Among the dying birds to be tested at the local Vet­eri­nary Depart­ment No. 6, eight sam­ples were found pos­i­tive to the avian flu strain H5N1.

This is the first time human-raised salan­gane birds were found dead in Viet Nam because of the avian flu strain H5N1, so there are not yet spe­cific mea­sures to con­trol the expan­sion of the dis­ease, except those applied to the H5N1-infected poul­try, said Nguyen Xuan Binh, direc­tor of the Vet­eri­nary Depart­ment 6.

Since the news about the deaths of the H5N1-infected salan­gane birds was reported, local vet­eri­nary agen­cies have brought sam­ples of the young and grown-up salan­gane birds and their manure and nests to be tested, results of which will not be announced until 16 April 2013. Mean­while, strict super­vi­sion is being applied to 54 salan­gane breed­ing houses in Phan Rang City until final results of the tests are reported. Pre­ven­tive mea­sures are also being imple­mented in other local­i­ties where salan­gane birds are breed­ing en mass, includ­ing cen­tral Khanh Hoa province, south­ern Tien Giang province, and Ho Chi Minh City. Specif­i­cally, 12 salan­gane sam­ples from Can Gio dis­trict (HCM City) are now being tested at the HCM City Vet­eri­nary Depart­ment, Phan Xuan Thao, head of the depart­ment, said that in 2012 and dur­ing the first quar­ter of 2013, the depart­ment had tested 94 sam­ples from salan­ganes, and all results showed neg­a­tive to the H5N1 virus.

Salan­gane birds are raised for the highly nutri­tious value of their nests. Cur­rently in Viet Nam, one kg of salan­gane nests is sold for USD 125–158, depend­ing on their quality.

(ProMED 4/13/2013)