I observe that the threads here are quite messy. I know that bird flu topic will be very common in the years to come. So any topics regarding bird flu can post here so that the related topics will not be all over the place.

The Times January 09, 2006

Attempts to halt bird flu fail as virus heads west
From Suna Erdem in Istanbul

THREE people in Ankara, the Turkish capital, have been found to be suffering from H5N1 bird flu, and dozens of cases are suspected across the country as the virus spreads rapidly westwards towards Turkey’s European provinces.

Doctors were also treating three suspected cases in Istanbul, the most populous city and the Turkey’s gateway to Europe, a week after the first of three children from a family in the eastern town of Dogubeyazit died of the virus. They are the first human victims of the H5N1 virus outside East Asia. Two children and a pensioner being treated in Ankara were taken to city hospitals from nearby Beypazari after contact with dead wildfowl.

In the eastern province of Van, where the three children from the Kocyigit family died after playing with infected chicken, four more cases have been confirmed among the 36 people being treated for suspected bird flu symptoms.

A five-year-old boy has also been admitted to hospital with the symptoms in the central province of Corum, three people are in hospital in Istanbul after eating birds they brought with them from eastern Turkey, and at least 35 other cases are being treated as suspicious in several other provinces.

The bird flu virus has been found in twelve provinces and is suspected in a further seven.

A team from the World Health Organisation is in Turkey to help to investigate the deaths. So far it appears that the disease has been contracted only through direct contact with fowl, but the extensive human exposure to infected birds in eastern Turkey has given rise to concern that an even more infectious mutant strain could emerge.

People have been flooding into hospitals in eastern Turkey since the deaths of the three Kocyigit children, whose six-year-old brother, Ali Hasan, was infected but has so far survived. Many are going for confirmation that their children are suffering from common flu, but in these remote rural provinces a lot of people live cheek-by-jowl with the birds.

Turkish officials worry that this makes it nearly impossible to control the spread of the virus. “Fowl are being kept in houses in the region,” Recep Akdag, the Health Minister, said. “This must be stopped.”

Although transport and sale of birds has been banned in several provinces and at least 50,000 domestic fowl culled, restrictions are routinely flouted.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, has appealed to the public to help in the mass cull and promised adequate compensation.

Bird Flu May Pass From Poultry to Human Easier Than Expected

Monday, January 09, 2006

By Miranda Hitti

Bird flu may pass more easily from poultry to people than expected, according to new research.

The finding comes from an area of Vietnam where poultry have had flu caused by the H5N1 virus. The virus has mostly been seen in birds in Asia and Europe. In rare cases, it has spread to people.

The study appears in the Jan. 9 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Bird Flu May Be More Contagious Than Thought

Global Virus

Vietnamhas been hit hardest by bird flu, with 42 human deaths out of 93 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

New cases have also been reported in Turkey. Two siblings in Turkey recently died of flu caused by the H5N1 virus, according to the WHO. Both victims were children; another child in that family has also died, reportedly of bird flu, but the WHO has not confirmed H5N1’s role in that child’s death. According to news reports, a doctor who treated those children speculated that the kids had probably caught the virus by playing with dead chickens.

The U.S. government has urged Americans to make preparations for a possible outbreak of H5N1 virus among people. So far, the H5N1 virus hasn’t been reported in U.S. birdsand doesn’t seem to be very good at spreading between people.

Flu may spread more easily than thought from birds to people, write Anna Thorson, PhD, and colleagues. Thorson works at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.

However, no medical tests were done to check for the H5N1 virus in the study’s participants or poultry.

When Come Bird Flu Come to the U.S.?

Study in Vietnam

More than 45,400 people in a rural Vietnamese province were studied.

They were asked if they had had any flu-like symptoms within the past six months and whether they had kept or handled any poultry during that time.

Anyone who said “yes” to either question was interviewed in person.

Most people kept poultry at home, and many worked with poultry. For instance:

—84 percent lived in homes where poultry were kept.

—About one in four (26 percent) lived in homes that had had sick or dead birds.

—A third worked with manure made from poultry feces, and almost as many raised poultry for a living.

Bird Flu Vaccine Works in Humans

Biggest Problem: Handling Sick, Dead Birds

Handling sick or dead birds was the riskiest practice studied.

People reporting direct contact with sick or dead birds were most likely to also report flu-like symptoms. Those who had sick or dead birds at home — but didn’t touch those birds — were less likely to report flu. Keeping healthy poultry at home wasn’t linked to flu.

The flu-like illnesses were “much more mild” than confirmed human cases of the H5N1 virus in Vietnam and Thailand in 2004, Thorson and colleagues write.

Sick or dead poultry may have been responsible for 650 to 750 cases of flu-like illnesses in their study, the researchers estimate.

“The results suggest that the symptoms are most often relatively mild and that close contact is needed for transmission to humans,” they write.

Thorson’s team calls for studies that include lab tests to check their findings.

Scientists in Desperate Race With Bird Flu

By Miranda Hitti, reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

SOURCES: Thorson, A. Archives of Internal Medicine, Jan. 9, 2006; vol 166: pp 119-123. WebMD Medical News: “Bird Flu Time Line.” World Health Organization, “Avian Influenza — Situation in Turkey — Update 2.” Associated Press. WebMD Medical News: “Flu Pandemic Guide: Stock Up on Basics.” News release, JAMA/Archives.

Cold weather across the globe...

People getting flu more easily...and if got some people contracted with bird flu...

Originally posted by maggot:

Cold weather across the globe...

People getting flu more easily...and if got some people contracted with bird flu...

Then the global epidemic will begin!

Bird flu virus survives for days in droppings: WHO

Jan 20, 8:03 PM (ET)

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The H5N1 avian influenza virus can survive for more than a month in bird droppings in cold weather and for nearly a week even in hot summer temperatures, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

When people become infected with bird flu, they get a high fever and pneumonia very quickly, according to an updated factsheet from the WHO, posted on the Internet at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avianinfluenza_fa ctsheetJan2006/en/index.html.

The new factsheet incorporates the most recent findings on the avian flu virus, which WHO says is causing by far the worst outbreak among both birds and people ever recorded.

It has been found from South Korea, across Southeast Asia, into Turkey, Ukraine and Romania. It has infected 149 people and killed 80, according to the WHO figures, which do not include the most recent deaths and infections in Turkey.

Bird droppings may be a significant source of its spread to both people and birds, the WHO said.

"For example, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus can survive in bird feces for at least 35 days at low temperature (4 degrees C or 39 degrees F)," the WHO site reads.

"At a much higher temperature (37 degrees C or 98.6 degrees F), H5N1 viruses have been shown to survive, in fecal samples, for six days."

Poultry, especially those kept in small backyard flocks, are the main source of the virus.

"These birds usually roam freely as they scavenge for food and often mingle with wild birds or share water sources with them. Such situations create abundant opportunities for human exposure to the virus, especially when birds enter households or are brought into households during adverse weather, or when they share areas where children play or sleep," WHO says.

H5N1 has different qualities from seasonal flu, the WHO said.

LONG INCUBATION PERIOD

"The incubation period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for normal seasonal influenza, which is around 2 to 3 days. Current data for H5N1 infection indicate an incubation period ranging from 2 to 8 days and possibly as long as 17 days," it said.

"Initial symptoms include a high fever, usually with a temperature higher than 38 degrees C (100.4 degrees F), and influenza-like symptoms. Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and bleeding from the nose and gums have also been reported as early symptoms in some patients."

And with H5N1 infection, all patients have developed pneumonia, and usually very early on the the illness, the WHO said.

"On present evidence, difficulty in breathing develops around five days following the first symptoms. Respiratory distress, a hoarse voice, and a crackling sound when inhaling are commonly seen."

There is bloody sputum, it said.

"Another common feature is multiorgan dysfunction, notably involving the kidney and heart," WHO said.

The WHO recommends using Tamiflu, Roche AG's flu drug known generically as oseltamivir, as soon as possible to treat bird flu.

WHO stresses that H5N1 remains mostly a disease of birds, with tens of millions infected in two years.

"For unknown reasons, most cases have occurred in rural and periurban households where small flocks of poultry are kept. Again for unknown reasons, very few cases have been detected in presumed high-risk groups, such as commercial poultry workers, workers at live poultry markets, cullers, veterinarians, and health staff caring for patients without adequate protective equipment," it adds.

"Also lacking is an explanation for the puzzling concentration of cases in previously healthy children and young adults."

London Scientists Discover H5N1 Mutation

By Kate Walker
Oxford, England (UPI) Jan 23, 2006
London scientists have discovered a mutation that may make H5N1 more transmissible.
The mutation was found in a sample taken from a patient in Turkey and could "signify the virus is trying different things to see if it can more easily infect humans," said World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng. "So far, we haven't seen that the virus has the ability to do this. But it's important that we continue monitoring."

As it is normal for flu viruses to mutate, and it is possible for mutations to lead to increased rates of transmission with decreased virulence, there is no need for increased alarm.

"If we started to see a lot more samples from Turkey with this mutation and saw the virus changing, we'd be more concerned," Cheng said.

"For us to assign public health significance to a genetic change we need to match it to what is happening epidemiologically -- how the virus is behaving -- and clinically -- if it's more or less virulent.

"We would be concerned if we were seeing successive generations of spread of the virus. We haven't so far. All these people (who have been infected) had a very clear history of contact with diseased birds."

Meanwhile:

-- The WHO Saturday confirmed that the deaths of two Indonesian children were a result of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll for the disease to 14.

The siblings from West Java, a 4-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister, died in hospital last week. Their father is believed to be undergoing treatment for avian influenza.

-- China announced its 10th confirmed case of avian flu in humans Monday.

The 29-year-old woman from Jinhua who ran a stall in a farm goods market fell ill Jan. 12 and is currently in critical condition in a Sichuan hospital.

H5N1 confirmation was made by local and national authorities, but the WHO has yet to corroborate the diagnosis.

-- China's eighth human avian-influenza sufferer is said to be recovering.

The 6-year-old boy who suffered severe damage to both lungs and was using an assisted breathing apparatus is now said to be breathing unaided and walking around.

The boy first reported flu-like symptoms Dec. 24 and was confirmed as having H5N1 on Jan. 9.

-- Two Turkish toddlers who had been hospitalized with avian influenza were released Sunday, and a third child is said to be improving.

-- A French woman who fell ill and was hospitalized after returning from a trip to Turkey was not infected with avian influenza, it was confirmed on Sunday.

The woman was tested for H5N1 as a precautionary measure, for while she had been traveling in non-affected regions, she experienced flu-like symptoms upon her return from a country known to have suffered a number of outbreaks in recent weeks.

-- Seven Turkish poultry suppliers distributed free cooked poultry in Batman in an effort to boost poultry sales in the wake of the recent avian-flu outbreaks in the country.

Crowds of Turks filled Meydan Square Sunday, eating the free food.

Bird flu 'could be 21st-century Black Death'

· Economists predict rioting and flight from cities
· Markets not prepared for risks occurring together

Larry Elliott in Davos
Friday January 27, 2006
The Guardian

Avian flu has the potential to develop into a global pandemic that would be as devastating as the Black Death of the 14th century, the World Economic Forum warned yesterday in its assessment of the risks threatening stability and prosperity.
In a worst-case outcome, experts charged with weighing up systemic dangers said there might be riots to gain access to supplies of vaccines, a collapse of public order, a partial flight from the cities and large-scale migration. The report published at the WEF's annual meeting in Davos said there was only a small risk of a return to the economic and social chaos caused by the Black Death, and it would only occur if bird flu conflated with other risks to the global community.

"An outbreak of H5NI [avian flu] human to human transmission could have devastating impacts globally across all social and economic sectors, disrupting efficient processes, severely degrading response capabilities and exacerbating the effects of known weaknesses in different systems," said the report.
The assessment, undertaken by risk experts at the insurance companies Swiss Re and Marsh and McLennan (MMC), and Merrill Lynch, identified terrorism, an oil-price spike, natural disasters and a bird-flu pandemic as the big threats in 2006. It added that the speed at which global risks travelled thanks to globalisation could lead to "rapid and unexpected contagion of global risks across industries and geographical areas. The interplay of multiple global risks and their combined ripple effects can create potentially disastrous "perfect storms" - cumulative events which cause damage far in excess of the sum of each individual risk event."

Avian flu has spread from China as far west as eastern Europe and the number of deaths caused has been relatively small. The WEF report said nevertheless that there was a remote chance that bird flu could have far more dramatic effects. "These impacts might include the disruption of supply chains and trade flows; an exacerbation of financial imbalances and the transformation of intellectual property regimes for pharmaceutical products; rioting to gain access to scarce supplies of antivirals and vaccines; a collapse of public order; partial de-urbanisation as people flee population centres; the extinction of trust in governments; decimation of specific human skill sets; and forced, large-scale migration, associated with the further collapse of already weak states."

It added: "In such a scenario, the impact on society might be as profound as that which followed the Black Death in Europe in 1348. That plague caused a fundamental transformation of socio-economic relations in Europe."

Kevan Watts, chairman of Merrill Lynch International, and one of the authors of the report, said he doubted whether financial markets were prepared for a situation in which all risks conflated. "Markets are not assuming pain in the near term at the severe end of the spectrum."

Drawing a comparison with August 1914, Mr Watts added the markets had been taken completely by surprise by the outbreak of the first world war, failing to spot that hostilities were about to start even on the last day of peace. The report called for international collaboration, with governments, the private sector, inter-governmental organisations and parts of civil society joining together to mitigate risks. Christian Mumenthaler, chief risk officer at Swiss Re, said there was a tendency to spend too little on a problem when it was only a threat and then spending billions solving the problem once it had become fully developed.

Although the WEF report said bird flu was the risk most preoccupying global business and political leaders in early 2006, it stressed that the geo-political landscape was still dominated by the risk (real and perceived) of terrorism. "The capacity of terrorist organisations to act globally in a coordinated way has diminished, but the risks of localised terror remain high. Should an attack incorporate chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or target critical infrastructure, the human and economic costs will bring new pressures to bear on public policy."

The report said there was a "high risk" (above 20%) of the oil price rising above $80 (£45) a barrel this year, and that this could cost the global economy between $250 bn and $1 trillion. There was a less than 1% risk of the price reaching $100.

Bird flu could reach Europe, Africa in spring: FAO

By a correspondent

HYDERABAD: The avian influenza virus could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions through trade and movement of people and animals and could be further spread by migratory birds particularly coming from Africa in the spring, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned.

"The FAO is concerned that with trade, the movement of people and animals and migratory birds, new countries could become infected," said FAO Deputy Director-General David Harcharik in his opening speech at the International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza in Beijing, China according to their advisory received by The News.

"Countries in Africa deserve special attention. In Turkey, the virus has already reached the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa, and there is a real risk of further spread. If it were to become rooted in the African countryside, the consequences for a continent already devastated by hunger and poverty could be truly catastrophic," Harcharik said.

In endemic areas, the movements of animals, products and people should be controlled. FAO also urged all countries along the routes of migratory birds to be highly vigilant and be prepared for a further spread of the disease in animals.

"Fighting the avian influenza virus in animals is the most effective and cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating or reassorting to cause a human flu pandemic," Harcharik said. "Containing bird flu in domestic animals - mostly chickens and ducks - will significantly reduce the risk to humans. Avian influenza should not only be considered as a human health issue, but as a human and animal health issue."

"Such a perception requires close cooperation between health and agricultural and veterinary authorities. Countries that foster close collaboration between the human health and agricultural sectors are likely to be the most successful in battling the disease," Harcharik said. Centrally organised veterinary services are essential for successful bird flu control campaigns.

"Governments will fail in combating avian influenza if they don’t give their veterinary services the political support as well as the technical and financial means to fight the virus. Early warning systems, swift interventions and preventive measures will remain weak and inadequate without strong, centrally organised veterinary services, " Harcharik said.

Improved surveillance and detection will allow farmers and veterinary services to intervene quickly and apply the internationally recommended set of actions, such as culling, biosecurity measures and vaccination.

Risky farming practices such, as mixing poultry species in farms or in live markets, should be changed as quickly as possible. The impact of these changes on the livelihoods of small farmers should be mitigated. The movements of animals, products and people from endemic areas to other regions should be strictly controlled.

"Funding will be needed for compensation schemes for farmers to encourage their participation in control campaigns," Harcharik added.

For the global campaign, it is estimated that several hundred million dollars will be needed to combat the disease in animals. FAO plays a major role in this campaign.

To date, FAO has received about $28 million from donors, and since the onset of the bird flu crisis in 2003 the agency has spent more than $7 million from its own resources to help affected countries to design bird flu control programmes, supporting surveillance and laboratory diagnostics. Socio-economic studies on the impact of the disease and the cost of control programmes, as well as on options for restructuring, have been carried out.

Over the next three years, FAO will require at least $50 million more to continue its support for essential regional and global coordination and cooperation and some $80 million to assist countries to implement their national bird flu control programmes.

Spread of Bird Flu Boosts Pandemic Chances

Bird flu 'could take 142m lives'
Worst case economic cost is $4.4 trillion

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- As many as 142 million people around the world could die if bird flu turns into a "worst case" influenza pandemic, according to a sobering new study of its possible consequences.

And global economic losses could run to $4.4 trillion -- the equivalent of wiping out the Japanese economy's annual output.

The study, prepared for the Sydney, Australia-based Lowy Institute think tank, says there are "enormous uncertainties" about whether a flu pandemic might happen, and where and when it might happen first.

But it says even a mild pandemic could kill 1.4 million people and cost $330 billion.

In its "ultra" or worst-case scenario, Hong Kong's economy is halved, the large-scale collapse of Asian economic activity causes global trade flows to dry up, and money flows out to safe havens in North America and Europe. Deaths could top 28 million in China and 24 million in India.

The report's release in Sydney Thursday comes as two more countries in Europe -- Germany and Austria -- report that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in wild fowl (Full story).

The Lowy Institute's report, titled Global Macroeconomic Consequences of Pandemic Influenza, looks at four possible scenarios:

Mild, in which the pandemic is similar to the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu;

Moderate, similar to the 1957 Asian flu;

Severe, similar to the 1918-19 Spanish flu (which infected an estimated 1 billion people and claimed as many as 50 million lives);

An "ultra" scenario that is worse than the Spanish flu outbreak.
Although the 1918-19 flu outbreak probably originated in Asia, it was known as the Spanish flu because the Spanish media were the first to report on its impact.

Since bird flu first appeared in China's Guangdong province -- which adjoins Hong Kong -- in 1996, the disease has claimed more than 90 human lives -- almost all in Asia, with the most recent deaths in Turkey.

In addition, about 200 million birds around the world have died or been culled.

Outside of Asia, there have been bird flu outbreaks in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Romania in Europe, Iraq and Iran in the Middle East and in Nigeria, Africa. (Full story)

This spread of the disease from Asia to the fringes of Europe in recent weeks has prompted massive global attention on possible prevention measures, with the U.S., the EU and countries such as China and Japan committing hefty financial and human resources to combating the disease.

But the new Lowy Institute report, by the Australian National University's Prof. Warwick McKibbin and research fellow Dr Alexandra Sidorenko, says the major difficulty with influenza vaccine development is "the need to hit the constantly moving target as the virus mutates very rapidly."

Their observation follows a scientific study released last week which said bird flu was much more diverse than previously thought, with at least four distinct types of the deadly H5N1 virus (Full story).

In that study, a group of 29 scientists around the globe found that the virus was both more genetically diverse and able to survive in birds showing no signs of illness.

One of the researchers, Dr. Malik Peiris, professor of microbiology at Hong Kong University, told CNN on February 8 that regional virus types meant there was a need to look for "broad cross-protection" rather than a single vaccine.

Peiris said that while wild birds may contribute to the introduction and spread of bird flu, the perpetuation of the disease was through stocks of domestic poultry. He said no country was fully prepared to combat the disease, which needed to be tracked back and tackled at its source.

Further mutation
So far, all but a handful of cases of human sickness have been caused by direct contact with sick birds, suggesting the virus is unable to move easily among humans.

But health officials have warned that with continued exposure to people, the virus could mutate further and develop that ability.

While scientists scramble to prepare an effective medical response, the Lowy Institute report primarily looks at the macroeconomic impact of a flu pandemic.

It said there would be four main sets of "shocks" for each scenario: shocks to the labor force (through deaths and dislocation to production); additional supply shocks through increased costs; demand shocks; and risk premium shocks, involving financial flows.

In the worst scenario, it said the death toll could reach 28.4 million in China, 24 million in India, 11.4 million in Indonesia, 4.1 million in the Philippines, 2.1 million in Japan, 2.0 million in the United States and 5.6 million in Europe. In the world's least developed countries, the toll could top 33 million.

The study's figure of 142 million possible deaths is similar to an earlier estimate of 150 million deaths by World Health Organization senior official David Nabarro, when he was named as head of the United Nations avian flu response team in September last year.

The Lowy Institute study found that East Asian economies would be proportionately more affected than the United States or Europe. In the "ultra" or worst-case scenario, Hong Kong's economy, for example, would shrink by more than 53 percent.

"This is clearly a major economic catastrophe," the report's authors note.

"The large scale collapse of Asia causes global trade flows to dry up and capital to flow to safe havens in North America and Europe."

Japan would experience a larger shock than other industrialized economies, but a smaller shock than the rest of East Asia. However, its integration with the collapsing East Asian economies means it would take a further shock through declining trade flows.

The authors say a "key part of the story" is the monetary policy response.

"Those countries that tend to focus on preventing exchange rate changes are coincidentally the countries that experience the largest epidemiological shocks," they say.

"This is particularly true of Hong Kong, which receives the largest shocks and has the most rigid exchange rate regime."

The report concludes that a "large investment of resources" should be dedicated to preventing an outbreak of pandemic influenza.

Bird flu risk to humans higher in Europe, spreading across globe
Mar 08 10:39 AM US/Eastern

A German minister claimed that deadly bird flu was moving closer to infecting humans in Europe after two more cats died of the virus, while China reported its 10th human fatality.

And Albania became the latest European country to report an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, as international veterinary experts warned that the United States, Canada and Australia will probably not escape the ever-spreading disease.

China said on Wednesday that a nine-year-old girl had become the 10th person to die from bird flu, bringing the global death toll since 2003 to 96.

In Germany, Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said late on Tuesday the discovery of the dead cats a week after the first feline infection in Germany signalled a heightened risk of infection for humans.

"This means that the virus is not confined to a single case of a mammal but has spread to several cases. Therefore, bird flu has clearly moved closer to humans," he told Bayerischer Rundfunk radio.

The two cats were found in the same area of the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen as a cat discovered dead last week, which proved to be the first mammal in Europe to be infected with the virus. The first cat is believed to have eaten infected birds.

However Germany's national veterinary laboratory, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, said the risk of the first case of human infection in the European Union had not risen as a result of the discovery.

The World Health Organisation has said there is no evidence that cats can be involved in the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile the deadly H5N1 bird flu that has moved from Asia to Europe and Africa will probably extend its reach into other continents, the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), Bernard Vallat, said Wednesday.

"The likelihood that this strain will appear in Australia is very high," Vallat said, adding that "the possibility was also very high in the United States and Canada."

The three countries "had done rather advanced analyses and they are pessimistic" about escaping bird flu contamination, he told French lawmakers during a hearing on bird flu in Paris.

Earlier this week WHO director-general Lee Jong Wook warned again of a global pandemic if the virus mutated into a form that could be easily spread between humans.

Currently, humans are believed to be contracting the virus from poultry.

The girl who died in China was from the eastern province of Zhejiang, which has not recorded any outbreak of bird flu. Reports however said she had gone to a neighbouring area to visit relatives who were keeping infected chickens.

Her death came just days after that of a man in southern China, raising fears of the virus spreading to Hong Kong.

China's vice agriculture minister Yin Chengjie warned that the country faced the danger of more outbreaks of bird flu.

"We are coming into a period where the bird flu will be highly transmissible. As the weather warms up, more wild birds will be migrating and it will be easier for the bird flu to be transmitted to a wider area," Yin said.

Albania's first case was discovered in a chicken near the coastal town of Saranda, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of the Greece, Agriculture Minister Jemin Gjana said.

Four new cases of the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu virus have been confirmed in ducks in Sweden, bringing the total number to 10, the Swedish Board of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

Researchers have however yet to determine whether the Swedish ducks died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the most aggressive form of the virus that has been lethal to humans.

In Poland, authorities have isolated some 50 wild swans and placed them under observation in an aviary some 50 wild swans at Torun, in northern Poland, where three birds were found dead of the H5N1 virus.

The head of the OIE took the European Union to task for not coming through with 122 million dollars in aid for countries affected, particularly in Africa, that was promised at a bird flu China in Beijing in mid-January.

Fears bird flu may have adapted
March 9, 2006

GENEVA: Reports that cats have contracted bird flu could mean the virus is adapting to mammals and poses a potentially higher risk to humans, a World Health Organisation official says.

Michael Perdue, a scientist with the organisation's global influenza program, said more studies were needed on infections in cats, including how they shed the virus.

But Dr Perdue said that there was no evidence that cats were hidden carriers of the virus, which can wipe out poultry flocks in 48 hours and infect people.

Austria said on Monday that a cat in an animal sanctuary in the southern city of Graz had tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus but had yet to show any symptoms of the disease.

However, the virus could take up to a week to strike and it was possible the cat could still develop clinical signs, Dr Perdue said.

"We have to follow up with laboratory studies to see if it [the virus] changed genetically and is not causing clinical signs," he said.

"If it is true, it would imply the virus has changed significantly."

Germany last week reported the first European case of H5N1 bird flu in a domestic cat on the island of Ruegen. A spokeswoman for the German Agriculture Ministry said another two dead cats found there on Monday were confirmed to have had H5N1.

The virus has killed 96 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003. China reported on Tuesday that a nine-year-old girl in the country's east was its latest victim. Most bird flu victims contracted the disease directly from sick poultry.

Animals carrying H5N1 without showing any signs of ill health could make it harder to detect and contain.

The longer the virus remains dormant in a mammal, without it getting sick or dying, the greater the risk of it mutating into a more dangerous form, Dr Perdue said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/198523/1/.html

Egypt announces first human death from H5N1 bird flu...a woman