Health News
Official claims first human-to-human transmission of bird flu
Apr 4, 2008, 12:08 GMT
Islamabad - A man in northern Pakistan passed the deadly bird flu virus to two of his brothers, and the virus killed one of them, in the first known human-to-human transmission in Pakistan, a health official said Friday.
'It was definitely person-to-person. That is confirmed,' said Maqbool Jan Abbasi, Ministry of Health joint secretary.
He said the World Health Organization confirmed by serological testing from a family in Peshawar, northwest of the capital Islamabad, three brothers had H5N1, the strain of avian influenza that can be deadly in humans.
'Two of the brothers had no contact with birds,' Abbasi said.
One brother who did not have contact with birds died and was buried, and his blood could not be tested. For cultural reasons they did not exhume the body to test him for bird flu, Abbasi said. But he added they feel certain he died of bird flu.
'The other two brothers, including the one who culled birds, did have the virus. Now they are okay, clear of all symptoms,' he said.
Theirs were the first human cases of bird flu in Pakistan and were reported in November 2007.
The human-to-human transmission of the virus raises the concern about the bird flu danger and the country will have to be more careful, Abbasi said.
Pakistan already has quarantine rooms ready for when people are suspected to have bird flu, he said.
'We will have to be more careful in the future,' he said.
Pakistan's poultry population has seen multiple outbreaks of the H5N1 strain since 2006, but still only the one case of humans getting the virus.
The last outbreaks the Pakistani health officials reported was on three farms near the southern city of Karachi last February, they were limited only to fowl with no humans were infected.
Bird flu has killed at least 232 people worldwide from at least 366 cases since 2003. Scientists have long feared the virus may mutate into a form more easily transmissible among humans, possibly killing millions.
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page: 1
It's just like Pakastan to be the breeding ground for such a horribly evil entity. What a hell hole it must be.
Spread of avian flu by drinking water can explain small clusters in households
Proved awareness to ecology and transmission is necessary to understand the spread of avian flu. For this it is insufficient exclusive to test samples from wild birds, poultry and humans for avian flu viruses. Samples from the known abiotic vehicles also have to be analysed. There are plain links between the cold, rainy seasons as well as floods and the spread of avian flu. That is just why abiotic vehicles have to be analysed. The direct biotic transmission from birds, poultry or humans to humans can not depend on the cold, rainy seasons or floods. Water is a very efficient abiotic vehicle for the spread of viruses - in particular of fecal as well as by mouth, nose and eyes excreted viruses.
Infected birds and poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have very intensive contact to drinking water. To prove viruses in water is difficult because of dilution. If you find no viruses you can not be sure that there are not any. On the other hand in water viruses remain viable for a long time. Water has to be tested for influenza viruses by cell culture and in particular by the more sensitive molecular biology method PCR.
There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam.
Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. There is no evidence that influenza primarily is transmitted by saliva droplets.
In hot climates/the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and floods. Virulence of influenza viruses depends on temperature and time. Special in cases of local water supplies with “young” and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels, ponds, rivers or rice paddies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. At 24°C e.g. in the tropics the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 2 days.
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season.
In temperate climates for “older” water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses. At 7°C the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 14 days. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum.
The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann - Free Science Journalist - soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
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skapurApr 4th, 2008 - 17:05:26
the evidence is insufficient to suggest that there was actually a human to human infection. this is more conjecturing.there is no scientific basis without proper testing.
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