Bird flu spreading again, WHO warns

Straits Times 18 Dec 07;
Team heads to Pakistan to probe S. Asia's first human cases as outbreaks pop up elsewhere

ISLAMABAD - THE World Health Organisation warned yesterday that countries should be on the alert for bird flu because it is on the move again, with Pakistan reporting new infections and Myanmar logging its first human case.

A three-member WHO team headed for the city of Abbottabad in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province yesterday to investigate how eight people were infected with bird flu, after the country reported its first human death due to the virus.

Health officials confirmed at the weekend that eight people had tested positive for H5N1 in the province since late October, of which one person, who worked in a poultry farm, died.

A brother of the dead person, who had not been tested, also died. It was not clear if he was a victim of bird flu.

The cases are South Asia's first human infections from the virus.

'The team will investigate who the affected people were in contact with, whether they visited poultry farms or affected persons,' Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said.

The team will also visit Peshawar, where patients were treated.

In Geneva, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said on Sunday that human-to-human transmission had not been ruled out, but added that poultry outbreaks had earlier been reported in the area, and it was unclear if all patients had links to sick birds or infected surroundings.

With fresh poultry outbreaks reported in a number of countries, including Germany at the weekend, WHO urged countries to be vigilant in identifying and reporting cases in both birds and humans.

'The key to the public health response is surveillance,' said Mr Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO Western Pacific region in Manila. 'If we do actually get to the cases with antivirals early on, the health outcome is a lot better.'

Myanmar's first human case was reported last Friday in a seven-year-old girl who fell ill last month and survived, while Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the virus, announced its 93rd death from the virus.

Two human cases were also recently confirmed in China, one of whom died.

The H5N1 virus often flares up during the winter months. In some countries such as Indonesia, poultry outbreaks and human cases are reported year round. But many other countries experience a flurry of activity when temperatures drop.

'It starts to pop up at this time of the year, not just in this region where it is endemic, but it starts to appear in the West,' Mr Cordingley said. 'Between now and April is a very dangerous time of the year.'

At least 208 people have died from the virus which began plaguing Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Humans rarely contract H5N1, which is mainly an animal disease. But experts fear the strain could spark a global pandemic and kill millions if it mutates to a form that spreads more easily.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS