Bird, Seasonal & Swine Flu

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H5N6 spreading from farm fowl to wildlife...

Bird flu virus spreading in South Korea from farm to wildlife
Dec. 6, 2016 - Investigators recently identified the H5N6 virus among migratory birds.

Cases of bird flu are growing in South Korea where at least six farms have reported the presence of the H5N6 virus. Another cluster of infections was confirmed near a chicken farm in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, South Korean news service Newsis reported Tuesday. The farm in Haenam has already been designated an infected site, but the pathogen is also spreading among migratory birds in a nearby habitat in Kumho Lake, according to the report.

Provincial authorities conducted an investigation on Nov. 30 of 40 birds from the wildlife habitat. Results showed two Eurasian teals and one spoonbill carrying the H5N6 virus. South Korean investigators will know by Wednesday whether the confirmed presence of the virus poses the risk of an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. A different strain of the virus, the H5N1, known to cause the Asian Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, has proven to be fatal for poultry, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus can infect humans, and some infections have resulted in deaths, but human-to-human spread is rare, according to the CDC. The farm near the lake was confirmed an infected site on Nov. 18 and is located less than 10 miles from the wildlife sanctuary. All six farms that have reported outbreaks are located in Sani-myeon, a district in South Jeolla Province. Authorities said they have conducted clinical examinations of 210,000 chickens and ducks but no further infections were found. South Jeolla Province is planning a disinfection of the area.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...?spt=sec&or=tn

[waltky]

Bird flu in Bulgaria a big problem...

Bulgaria reports virulent bird flu at over 50 farms, culling 430,000 poultry
Sunday 15th January, 2017: A virulent bird flu virus has spread to 55 poultry farms in Bulgaria prompting the veterinary authorities to announce a cull of some 430,000 birds since it was first detected in the middle of December, agriculture minister Dessislava Taneva said on Saturday.

The Balkan country has also registered four cases of bird flu in wild ducks since mid-December.

Bulgaria has imposed a nationwide ban on poultry markets and on the hunting of game birds, and has already spent over a million levs (US$543,714) to cull birds in a bid to contain the outbreak. "In Bulgaria, we have usually registered bird flu in wild birds in the past few years. It is the first time we have had so many outbreaks in farms," Taneva told Bulgarian Darik radio.

The southern region of Plovdiv was most affected by the highly pathogenic virus H5N8, she said, pointing out that some 300,000 birds, mainly ducks, were culled and another 130,000 were to be killed on Saturday. The authorities have imposed quarantine zones around the affected farms. Taneva said over 800 bird flu outbreaks have been detected in Europe since October, with Germany and France being most affected.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...0/3438658.html

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Susan Rice includes "pandemic flu" in the list of her biggest nightmares...

‘A Pandemic Flu, Frankly, Is a Major Concern’
January 19, 2017 | Outgoing National Security Adviser Susan Rice includes "pandemic flu" in the list of her biggest nightmares.

In a lengthy interview earlier this week, NPR’s Charlie Rose asked Rice, “What’s your biggest nightmare? What has kept you up of late?” Rice said she has “a number of worries,” and she listed them: “I think anybody in my position would worry about a catastrophic attack on the homeland or on American personnel abroad. So that's nightmare number one. And particularly if it were, God-forbid, to be combined with some form of weapon of mass destruction.” Second, Rice said she worries about the potential for Russia to “miscalculate” and provoke a conflict in Europe.

“And then there are the less probable but catastrophic scenarios,” Rice continued. “A pandemic flu, frankly, is a major concern. North Korea continuing to advance and perfect its nuclear missile program, or even an unforeseen conflict between India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed nations that are constantly skirmishing in Kashmir.” At the end of the interview, Charlie Rose returned to the topic of world instability and threats facing the United States. And Rice once again mentioned pandemic flu: “We have threats that we knew of in 2008, but they could arise at any moment like pandemic flu, which we've also discussed. That's not new, but is persistent and the risk remains.” “How serious do you see that?” Rose asked Rice.

“I think it's a real risk,” Rice said. “It's a fact. It will happen. We have seen it historically over periods of years going back -- the most grave instance was in 1918, where, you know, many, many people died. Hundreds of thousands, millions had the potential to die from something like this because now our world is that much more interconnected through trade, through commerce, through air connectivity. “And therefore, what happens in one part of the world can quickly spread to another. One of the things that this administration has done which is little known, and we did this frankly -- we started this before the Ebola epidemic, was to work with countries around the world to put in place in the weakest links, the poorest, weakest countries of the world, much improved global health infrastructure so they can detect and surveil disease, they can contain it before it spreads.

“We have called this the global health security agenda and we got 50 countries or so that are actively part of this. And that's the kind of long-term effort that we're going to need to build and sustain around the world to diminish the risk of pandemic, but we're not going to eliminate it.” Rice said most of the threat facing the U.S. “are going to require effective collective action. “That means that the United States has to lead. We have to rally other countries to work with us. They need to see it as in their interest to act whether it's to combat the Ebola epidemic where we brought the world together to do that, whether it's to confront aggression through sanctions on Russia when in Annex Crimea, or whether it is dealing with a new emergent terror threat like ISIL.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...-major-concern

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd thinks he got the bird flu `cause his g/f always hen-peckin' him...


WHO warns of worrisome flu in China
Fri, Jan 27, 2017 - CAUSING CONCERN: Avian influenza typically infects people who raise, slaughter, sell or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases

After a spate of deaths from bird flu among patients in China, the WHO has warned all nations to watch for outbreaks in poultry flocks and to promptly report any human cases. Several strains of avian flu are spreading in Europe and Asia this winter, but the most worrisome at present is an H7N9 strain that has circulated in China every winter since 2013. China has reported more than 225 human cases since September last year, an unusually high number. As the nation’s Lunar New Year vacation starts, live poultry shipments increase and holiday travelers often spread the flu.


The fatality rate is not yet known, because some victims are still hospitalized, but WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said this week that China had more than 1,000 cases in the past four years, of which 39 percent were fatal. “All countries must detect and report human cases promptly,” she said. “We cannot afford to miss the early signals.” The flu typically infects people who raise, sell, slaughter or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases that worry health officials.

Travelers rest on a bench at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station ahead of the Lunar New Year in China on Wednesday. China has reported more than 225 human cases of avian flu since September last year and holiday travelers often spread the disease.

Both were older men with a history of poultry contact. One apparently infected a daughter who cared for him and the other his hospital roommate. The Hong Kong Department of Health this week warned residents traveling to mainland China to avoid live poultry markets. More than 9 percent of samples from markets in Guangdong Province contained the H7N9 virus, a “substantial” reading, the department said. The swabs are typically taken from cages, sewage gutters, feeding troughs, and chopping and defeathering machines.


Since November last year, nearly 40 nations have reported finding potentially dangerous flu strains in poultry flocks or in captured or dead wild birds. They include a new H5N6 strain, H5N8 and H5N5. There have also been sporadic cases of H5N1, a strain with a 60 percent fatality rate that caused great alarm more than a decade ago. It has caused almost 400 confirmed deaths since 2003, but has not evolved the ability to transmit easily between people. Since the highly contagious, but relatively mild H1N1 “swine flu” circled the globe in 2009, “the world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic, but not at all well enough,” Chan said.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../27/2003663903

[waltky]

Dat's why Granny tells Uncle Ferd not to be doin' sex with Burmese womens...

Amid Myanmar Swine Flu Outbreak, Atmosphere of Mistrust Prevails
August 04, 2017 — Myanmar’s government has repeatedly appealed for calm in recent weeks as the death toll from an outbreak of swine flu, or H1N1 influenza, has risen to 14 since the first cases were reported last month.

Officials have pointed to the fact that the strain of the virus, which was part of a global pandemic in 2009 that originated in pigs, is now considered a normal seasonal flu, and infections – if not deaths – have occurred in the country as recently as last year. But a lack of faith in the Myanmar government’s ability to handle a health crisis and a seemingly slow initial response have nevertheless created a disconnect, allowing an atmosphere of mistrust to prevail and pushing many to take matters into their own hands. Companies have given surgical face masks to employees, while some entrepreneurs are even selling them on the internet.

Educating the public

Activist Thet Swe Win was one of many volunteers to take part in an awareness effort over the weekend on the streets of Yangon that consisted informing members of the public to wash their hands and wear masks when outdoors. “The reason for doing this campaign is that our government is not announcing any accurate information about this and people are afraid,” he said. The government, however, disputes allegations of passivity and obfuscation.

A street vendor sells masks to motorists to protect against the swine flu, July 25, 2017, in Yangon, Myanmar.

Dr. Than Htun Aung, the deputy director of the public health department with Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and Sports, said the government has made announcements and continued to share protection methods while collaborating with the World Health Organization. “We did risk assessments about this, and responded rapidly to the patients, whether they were severely diagnosed or not,” he said. “We have to wait and see to tell whether it will get larger or disappear.”

The government has also recommended avoiding crowded places, hand washing and recognizing tell-tale symptoms as some of the first lines of defense rather than emphasize the use of face masks, which have not proven to be an always reliable safeguard against the virus. Dr. Than Htun Aung said that people don’t understand how influenza is spread, and they panicked because “they didn’t get correct information about this.” He did not specify what details were wrong or where they were being disseminated, except to say that “social media and media are responsible for providing correct information to people.”

Response to outbreak

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Big bird flu outbreak in Russia...

Russia Reports Virulent H5N2 Bird Flu at 660,000-bird Farm
December 29, 2017 — Russia has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu on a farm in the central region of Kostromskaya Oblast that led to the deaths of more than 660,000 birds, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Friday.

The virus killed more than 44,000 birds in an outbreak first detected on December 17, the OIE said, citing a report from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. The rest of the 663,500 birds on the farm were slaughtered, it said in the report. It did not specify the type of birds that were infected.

Veterinary workers give a lethal injection to chickens at a farm affected by bird flu in Russia

It is the first outbreak of the H5N2 strain in Russia this year, but the country has been facing regular outbreaks of H5N8 since early December last year, with the last one reported to the OIE detected late November.


Bird flu has led to the deaths or culling of more than 2.6 million birds on farms between December last year and November this year, a report posted on the OIE website showed. Neither the H5N2 or H5N8 strains has been found in humans. The virulence of highly pathogenic bird flu viruses has prompted countries to bar poultry imports from infected countries in earlier outbreaks.


https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-vir...s/4185325.html

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Flu Virus Can Trigger A Heart Attack...

Flu Virus Can Trigger A Heart Attack
January 24, 2018 - The flu doesn't just make you feel lousy. A study published Wednesday finds it can increase your risk of having a heart attack, too.

"We found that you're six times more likely to have a heart attack during the week after being diagnosed with influenza, compared to the year before or after the infection," says study author Dr. Jeff Kwong, an epidemiologist and family physician with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health Ontario in Canada. The results appear in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors noticed long ago that there was a connection between seasonal flu and cardiovascular deaths, but the association has been hard to nail down. Part of the challenge is that many people with flu symptoms don't get tested for the virus. So Kwong and his colleagues decided to use test results (from flu tests and other viruses, too) and match them with hospital records. "This is the first time we've had lab-confirmed influenza, so we're certain that these were influenza [viruses] causing the infection," Kwong says.

The body's under a lot of stress during a bout of flu, doctors say. Inflammation is up and oxygen levels and blood pressure can drop. These changes can lead to an increased risk of forming blood clots in the vessels that serve the heart.

There's a lot happening in the body during the flu that can help explain the increased risk of a heart attack. "There's inflammation going on, and your body is under a lot of stress," explains Kwong. Oxygen levels and blood pressure can drop. These changes "can lead to an increased risk of forming blood clots in the vessels that serve your heart." A young person who is normally healthy is very unlikely to have a heart attack during the flu. "It's all about your baseline risk," Kwong says.

In his study, the people who had a heart attack during the flu were older adults. "Most of them were over 65, and a lot of them had risk factors for heart disease," such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, Kwong says. The flu vaccine does not always prevent an infection from a flu virus. Some years, the shot offers more protection than others. And only about 30 percent of the study population had been vaccinated against influenza for that season. But, flu trackers say, some protection against the virus is better than none. "If we can reduce the risk of influenza infection, then we should reduce the risk of heart attacks," Kwong says. So "getting an influenza vaccine is a good idea."

MORE

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Flu Vaccines More Effective for Children Than for Adults...

Flu Vaccines More Effective for Children Than for Adults
March 09, 2018 - So far, 114 children in the U.S. have died from influenza or a flu-related illness, and the flu season is not yet over.

Most of those children had not been vaccinated against the virus, Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. In her testimony Thursday before a House of Representatives subcommittee, Schuchat said that although this year’s vaccine effectiveness was relatively low — the CDC’s preliminary survey shows it is 36 percent effective overall — its effectiveness in children is much higher, at 59 percent.

When asked why, Schuchat acknowledged that infectious disease specialists don’t know, but she offered two theories. “One is, children’s immune response is often better than adults, particularly better than older adults. A second is your response to an influenza vaccine may differ when it’s the first time you’ve been exposed to influenza or the vaccine,” she said.

Flu vaccine's benefits

The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months old and older get a flu vaccine every year, although only about 60 percent of children in the U.S. get that vaccine. Children are more likely to get the virus and spread it, and Schuchat said having more children vaccinated is in the public interest. “We know that flu vaccines can prevent disease and reduce severity, and we know that they can also prevent spread,” she said.

Getting the flu vaccine doesn’t mean someone won’t be hospitalized or even die from the flu, but the vaccine makes it much less likely. One study found that, for healthy children, the flu vaccine reduced the risk of dying by almost two-thirds. For those children whose medical condition put them at greater risk, the vaccine cut their risk of death in half.

Peak flu has passed

Although the peak of the flu season has passed in the U.S., Schuchat said, “There’s still a lot of flu out there.” This year’s flu season started a month earlier than most, and the predominant strain, H2N2, an A strain, is more virulent than the B strains that are also circulating. Another difference from regular flu seasons is that the virus circulated through the entire continental U.S. at the same time.

The virus peaked in early February, but the season has several more weeks to go. Schuchat told the subcommittee that the B strains are more common right now than they were a few weeks ago, which may actually be good news because the CDC found that the vaccine is 42 percent effective against influenza B viruses. She told the subcommittee, “Some vaccine is better than no vaccine protection.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/flu-vaccin...n/4287274.html