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  Straits Times 17 Jan 07
Rash of bird flu cases across Asia raises alarm
Health officials fear repeat of last year's resurgence, when virus hit 30 countries

Today Online 15 Jan 07
Flu fears

Straits Times 18 Jan 07
Asia battles bird flu Measures include ban on backyard poultry and monitoring of fowl deaths

Channel NewsAsia 14 Jan 07
Asia on high alert for bird flu resurgence

Today Online 13 Jan 07
WHO warns of bird-flu resurgence

Agencies Jakarta — The lethal bird flu virus has resurfaced across Asia, putting governments around the region on high alert. On Friday, the H5N1 avian influenza virus killed a 37-year-old woman in Indonesia's Banten province in Java — bringing to 59 the death toll from bird flu across the archipelago, the highest in the world. A 22-year-old man from the same province also reportedly tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, Japan is probing a suspected bird flu outbreak after some 750 chickens died at a poultry farm in the south of the country. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has isolated fowl on the farm and asked other poultry farmers within a 10-kilometre radius not to move their produce until tests are completed.

"This case is very likely to be highly pathogenic bird flu virus," said a manager from the ministry's animal sanitation department, adding that migrant birds may have been responsible for the infection.

Against this backdrop, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a global resurgence of the deadly disease. Mr Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO's Manila-based Western Pacific office, said: "We're just going into the colder months in the northern hemisphere. We expect a repeat of last year, when the virus suddenly became very active. Everybody should be on their toes."

Scientists warn that the resurgence of bird flu opens the door again for the H5N1 virus to mutate into a variant that could spread more easily from human to human and trigger a pandemic.

"It makes biologic sense that where there is more virus activity, there is a greater likelihood of some type of genetic change," said Mr Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Today Online 15 Jan 07
Flu fears

A recent spate of new poultry outbreaks in Asia are signs the bird flu virus could make a resurgence this winter, health experts warn. While most Asian countries are better prepared than they were a year ago to prevent or contain the spread of avian influenza, epidemiologists say there is no room for complacency about the virus that remains widespread in the region.

Experts warn that the risk will increase when China, Vietnam and other countries celebrate the Lunar New Year in the middle of next month, when the movement of both poultry and people traditionally increases sharply. Migratory birds also pose a risk.

Bird flu has killed 161 people worldwide since late 2003. Scientists fear it could mutate and trigger a deadly, global pandemic.--AFP

Vietnam

Bird flu has spread to a sixth province in southern Vietnam, officials said yesterday, after the virus killed over 800 ducks on a farm in Tra Vinh province in the Mekong Delta. Last month (December), after a one-year hiatus, bird flu struck scores of poultry farms in the southern provinces.

Japan

Japan has confirmed a fresh bird flu outbreak but officials said it was not clear if it involved the H5N1 strain. The confirmation came after about 2,400 chickens died at a farm in the south of the country. Officials will cull the remaining 9,600 chickens at the affected farm. Japan confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in January 2004.

China

China last week reported its first human case of bird flu in six months, but the farmer who fell ill made a full recovery. Hong Kong A dead wild bird found in Hong Kong has tested positive for a milder strain of the bird flu virus. Further tests are now being carried out on the carcass of the Crested Hoshawk.

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died of a then-unknown mutation of the avian flu virus.

Indonesia

Bird flu has killed two young women in Indonesia, taking fatalities in the past week to four in the country worst-hit by the disease. The women bought live chickens--which later died suddenly--from a market, and were admitted a few days later to hospital, where they died of acute pneumonia. A 37-year-old woman and a teenage boy were the first reported fatalities in Indonesia last week since November last year.

Channel NewsAsia 14 Jan 07
Asia on high alert for bird flu resurgence

HANOI - Four bird flu deaths in Indonesia and a spate of new poultry outbreaks in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia are signs the virus could make a resurgence this northern winter, health experts warn.

While most Asian countries are better prepared than they were a year ago to prevent or contain the spread of avian influenza, epidemiologists say there is no room for complacency about the virus that remains widespread in the region.

"The concern is still there," said Hans Troedsson, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam, where after a one-year hiatus bird flu has spread across dozens of farms in six southern provinces in recent weeks.

"What we see an indication of -- not only in Vietnam with the poultry outbreaks, but also with the human cases in China and Indonesia and so on -- is that the virus is still here," he said.

"And it still has the potential capability to change, and to change in the worst scenario into a virus strain that could cause a pandemic through being easily transmitted from human to human."

Asian nations have raised their alert level as four people died of bird flu in Indonesia last week, China and South Korea reported new human infections, and the virus has spread across farms in Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta.

"There is a seasonal pattern of the influenza virus," said Troedsson. "It is more active when it's colder. When the temperature goes down, usually all the respiratory infection viruses get more active.

"People's behaviour during winter time also changes. They spend more time inside homes, and homes are more crowded, so they expose each other to the risk of spreading the virus."

For now, experts say, there is no evidence the lethal virus has mutated to spread easily among humans, and no cause for alarm.

China last week reported its first human case of bird flu in six months, but the farmer who fell ill made a full recovery. "We need to be vigilant all year round, but this case shouldn't be seen as particular cause for alarm," said WHO spokeswoman Joanna Brent. "One isolated case in six months is certainly not a sign for worry, and the threat level to humans remains unchanged."

But experts also warn that the risk will increase when China, Vietnam and other Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year in mid-February, when the movement of both poultry and people sharply increases.

Migratory birds also continue to pose a risk, warned York Chow, the health secretary of Hong Kong, where a dead wild bird has just tested positive for a milder strain of the bird flu virus. "This is the real risk that the whole world is facing," Chow said Saturday.

Since bird flu swept from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa last winter, UN agencies and governments have improved surveillance and vaccinations, boosted health services and stockpiled anti-viral drugs.

But gaps remain, both in vaccination drives and in spreading information about the virus to small poultry farmers in many remote Asian regions.

In Indonesia, which last year overtook Vietnam as the worst hit country and has now recorded 61 human deaths, government health official I Nyoman Kandun said education remained the priority in the fight against bird flu.

"The people need to be involved," he said. "It is (the government's) job to package the information such that it is easily understood by everyone. "Indonesia is vast and we have a culture of keeping poultry and other animals near the home," said Kandun. "This needs to change, or extra precautions need to be practised."

Officials in the archipelago maintain that vaccination drives have proven effective, but they also say they only have enough doses to effectively vaccinate about 10 percent of backyard poultry this year.

In Thailand, disease control chief Thawat Sunthrajarn said there was cause for neither alarm nor complacency, but added that the kingdom was "on high alert after the reported resurgence in Vietnam and China." "We still implement the same measures and frequently hold drills for officials across the country," Thawat said, with 900,000 volunteers now spraying disinfectant around poultry farms every three months.

Bird flu does not easily infect humans and has so far killed 161 people worldwide since 2003, a relatively small number compared to many diseases. But the flu pandemic threat is real, say experts. - AFP/ir

Straits Times 17 Jan 07
Rash of bird flu cases across Asia raises alarm
Health officials fear repeat of last year's resurgence, when virus hit 30 countries

A RESURGENCE of bird flu cases across Asia has set off ripples of fear and put health officials on alert.

The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has been confirmed in Japan, has resurfaced in Thailand, and is spreading in Vietnam. Hong Kong, South Korea and Nigeria also reported diseased birds in the past month, while Indonesia, China and Egypt found new human cases.

Already, four people have died from the virus in Indonesia this year. The country has the most fatalities from the disease in the world. Yesterday, a hospital in Jakarta was overwhelmed with patients showing bird flu symptoms. Doctors at the Persahabatan Hospital were treating nine people, including a five-year-old girl in intensive care, leaving its isolation wards overwhelmed.

'If we get more patients, we will send them to Sulianti Saroso,' CNN quoted Mr Muchtar Ichsan, the head of the bird flu ward, as saying. He was referring to the country's main bird flu treatment centre in north Jakarta.

The apparent resurgence in the disease was most stark in Japan, where more than 4,000 chickens died of the disease in Miyazaki prefecture in the southwestern part of the country. Another 8,000 birds have been culled to prevent the disease from spreading. It was the first time in three years that bird flu has been reported in Japan.

In Vietnam, meanwhile, the disease appeared to be racing through fowl in the country's southern Mekong Delta, threatening to engulf the major rice-growing region.

The duck population in Thailand's northern province of Phitsanulok was also hit hard, with close to 2,000 birds being culled after some of them had tested positive for the disease. It was the first time since last July that bird flu had shown up in Thailand.

The cases have raised fears among health officials that a repeat of last year's resurgence, when the virus spread to 30 countries, is on the cards.

Diseased birds risk infecting humans and provide chances for H5N1 to mutate into a pandemic form. Millions may die if the virus becomes more contagious and starts spreading as easily as seasonal flu.

Human and poultry H5N1 infections have tended to increase during the Northern Hemisphere winter months. 'This is a pattern that we are seeing this year,' said Mr Keiji Fukuda, coordinator of the World Health Organisation's global influenza programme, in Geneva yesterday.

'In many ways, we don't understand all of the factors which allow H5N1 to spread.' Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them.

'The more people that the virus infects, the more likely it is to reach people who are also infected with seasonal flu,' said Mr John Weaver, an adviser on avian flu with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. This would create opportunities for 'a third virus, the pandemic strain, appearing', Mr Weaver said last week.

The concern is that the virus may eventually overcome a 'genetic component' that has appeared to limit its ability to infect people, said Mr Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis, last week.

'If that happens, then to me that is the really first worrisome piece of information that the pandemic may be pending,' he said. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG

Straits Times 18 Jan 07
Asia battles bird flu Measures include ban on backyard poultry and monitoring of fowl deaths

BEIJING - ASIAN countries hit by a fresh outbreak of bird flu have stepped up measures to prevent a spread of the disease. China, which last week confirmed its first case of H5N1 virus in months, announced it would spend more than US$1 billion (S$1.5 billion) to stamp out animal-borne diseases, including bird flu.

Indonesia prepared more hospitals, and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso set a deadline of Feb 1 for imposing a ban on backyard poultry. Meanwhile, Japan ordered poultry farms nationwide to provide weekly updates on the health of their flocks. These measures were announced yesterday amid growing concern over a fresh flare-up of bird flu cases in Asia.

Apart from China, Indonesia and Japan, new cases have surfaced in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam in Asia.

The authorities in Hong Kong yesterday began a campaign to remind residents to observe good personal hygiene after confirming that a bird found dead on Jan 9 had the H5N1 virus, the city's second infection in two weeks. People should avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry, and clean their hands thoroughly after coming into contact with them, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement.

In Beijing, state media reported that China would spend US$1 billion over the next two years on animal-borne diseases. China has reported 22 human cases of bird flu, and it has the world's largest stock of poultry, making it an important centre in the fight against the virus.

'The authorities hope to control or even eradicate severe animal diseases like bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease by 2015,' the China Daily said. China will set up a national animal epidemic-prevention system, expand supervision and train more vets as part of a plan issued by five government departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Agriculture Ministry, the newspaper said.

In Indonesia, Mr Nyoman Kandun, the Indonesian Health Ministry's director-general of communicable disease control, said they were preparing an inventory of medical needs, with the number of avian influenza cases going up. Indonesia has recorded the highest number of bird flu deaths, with the toll now at 61. The vast majority of bird flu cases occurred after contact with infected poultry.

Announcing a ban on backyard poultry from Jan 1, Mr Sutiyoso said people have two weeks to dispose of their birds. It was not immediately clear if a similar ban would be imposed in the provinces of West Java and Banten, which have also been designated high-risk areas by the Indonesian government.

In Japan, the Farm Ministry said designated veterinary centres must be notified each week of dead fowl on the country's 8,197 poultry farms until the avian flu threat has receded. The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed about 3,900 chickens in the past week on a farm on the southern island of Kyushu. It was Japan's first outbreak of the virus in almost three years. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
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