[Centraal] Vogelgriep in Europa

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Bron : Nieuws.nl

'Vogels in Turkije overleden aan vogelpest'
Uitgegeven op 08 oktober 2005 om 21:15 uur

(Novum/AP) - Ongeveer tweeduizend vogels zijn in de nacht van vrijdag op zaterdag in Turkije overleden aan de vogelpest. Dat heeft de tv-zender CNN-Turk zaterdag gemeld. Het zou gaan om kalkoenen op een boerderij in een dorp in de buurt van Balikesir in West-Turkije. De zender baseert zich op een uitspraak van een provinciefunctionaris. Dieren mogen het dorp niet meer in of uit. Het is niet duidelijk aan welke variant van de vogelpest de dieren leden.

Vrijdag maakten de Roemeense autoriteiten bekend dat verscheidene dieren waren overleden aan de vogelgriep. Het was voor het eerst dat het virus toesloeg in Roemenië. Momenteel wordt onderzocht of het gaat om de variant H5N1. Deze variant kan volgens wetenschappers mogelijk dusdanig muteren dat hij overdraagbaar is van mens op mens, met een pandemie als gevolg.

Duitsland liet zaterdag weten dat het mogelijk maatregelen neemt als het het risico dat de vogelpest vanuit Roemenië het land bereikt, in kaart heeft gebracht. Wereldwijd zijn tot nu toe zestig mensen en miljoenen vogels overleden aan de vogelpest.

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Bron : Planet.NL
Meer gevallen vogelgriep Roemenië en Turkije

Gepubliceerd op zaterdag 08 oktober 2005
Roemenië heeft zaterdag bekendgemaakt dat in de Donau-delta nieuwe gevallen van vogelgriep zijn ontdekt bij drie eenden. En Turkije meldde zaterdag gevallen van vogelgriep, voor zover bekend de eerste in dat land.

De autoriteiten zijn begonnen met het ruimen van vogels om verdere uitbreiding te voorkomen, aldus overheidsfunctionarissen in Boekarest. Volgens het hoofd van de veterinaire dienst hebben in het dorpje Smardan drie eenden positief gereageerd op een test.

Vrijdag maakte Roemenië voor het eerst melding van besmetting met vogelgriep. In het drop Ceamurlia de Jos, eveneens in de Donau-delta, werd bij drie eenden vogelgriep geconstateerd. Hier zijn inmiddels ruim tweehonderd vogels geruimd, aldus de zegsman.

Trekvogels
Het is nog niet duidelijk of het om het H5N1-virus gaat dat ook voor mensen besmettelijk is. Aan dit gevreesde virus zijn in Azië sinds 2003 zeker zestig mensen bezweken. Het H5N1-virus is ook geconstateerd in Rusland en Kazachstan. De Donau-delta is een pleisterplaats voor trekvogels die vanuit Rusland en Scandinavië naar het zuiden vliegen.

Vermoedelijk is het virus overgebracht door trekvogels uit Siberië. In Rusland brak eerder dit jaar vogelgriep uit. In Nederland gold daarom korte tijd een ophokplicht voor pluimvee.

Turkije
In Turkije gaat het volgens de Turkse editie van de nieuwszender CNN om een uitbraak onde duizenden kalkoenen in de noordwestelijk provincie Balikesir. De dieren op een kalkoenenfarm zijn waarschijnlijk besmet door trekvogels. Het zou om een geïsoleerde haard'' gaan.

VS
De Amerikaans epresident Bush Heeft producenten van vaccins tegen vogelgriep opgeroepen de productie omhoog te brengen nu er wereldwijd zorgen zijn over de uitbraak van een mogelijke pandemie. Bush ontmoette producenten terwijl functionarissen van tachtig landen en de Verenigde Naties elkaar ontmoeten om plannen te bedenken mocht er een pandemie uitbreken.

Onlangs zei een voormalig medewerker van de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie WHO dat bij een pandemie van de vogelgriep mogelijk tot 150 miljoen mensen om zullen komen.

De VS vinden het belangrijk dat er een informatiecampagne wordt opgestart. De angst bestaat dat informatie over besmettingsgevallen niet naar buiten wordt gebracht, net als drie jaar geleden bij de SARS-epidemie in China.

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Op zondag 9 oktober 2005 00:50 schreef MissHobje het volgende:
Misschien even uitstel als het snel koud wordt en veel vogels wegtrekken..? ( even zomaar gedachte)
Misschien dat de temperatuur ook uitmaakt met deze ziekte ?

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Wat is het verschil tussen vogelpest en vogelgriep ?

Bij zowel vogelpest als vogelgriep wordt het griepvirus Aviaire Influenza bedoeld, een Influenza A-virus. Vogelgriep is eigenlijk een betere benaming, omdat de ziekte wordt veroorzaakt door een griepvirus en niet door de pestbacil. In de volksmond wordt echter vaak vogelpest gebruikt als er veel vogels besmet raken en doodgaan.

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Bush wants more flu vaccine
Bron : CNN.com
President meets with companies to press for expanded capacity

Friday, October 7, 2005; Posted: 9:08 p.m. EDT (01:08 GMT)


Robert Young gets a flu shot Thursday from pharmacy manager Sue Meeker, in Salem, Oregon.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As delegations from around the globe discussed how to limit the threat of a bird flu pandemic, President Bush talked with drug company executives on Friday about what it would take to speed up production of a vaccine.

Representatives from about 80 countries, meeting at the State Department, focused on prevention and containment of the virus. Meanwhile, at the White House, the president made it clear to the executives that he takes the threat of a pandemic seriously, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said.

"We talked about the need for our discussions to not just be about the short-term but the long-term," Leavitt said of the White House meeting. "We talked about the need for us to be looking at pandemic influenzas as well as the annual flu, and ways to integrate our approach to those two public-health problems."

Leavitt said the government's goal is to increase capacity for annual flu vaccines to the point that companies could make a rapid transition to a pandemic flu vaccine if necessary.

Executives were concerned about greater protection from litigation. If healthy people suffer side effects from a vaccine, manufacturers can face huge lawsuits, Leavitt said.

"We're going to have to deal with the indemnity issue," he said. "Also, if we're to build additional capacity with the speed necessary for readiness, we're going to have to create a streamlined regulatory process for the development of new facilities."

Leavitt said the government would also have to assure vaccine manufacturers that they'll have a market for the extra product that they make.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive officer at GlaxoSmithKline, said the administration mainly wanted to hear from the manufacturers about what they could do to help.

"The president was quite happy with what he heard," Garnier said. "There's clearly a spirit of cooperation with the administration and with other governments throughout the world."

This month, vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur begins the first mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu, producing $100 million worth of inoculations for a government stockpile.

But it would take months to create a new vaccine from scratch if a different strain of bird flu than today's emerges. Even if the vaccine works, Sanofi is producing enough to protect anywhere from 2 million to 20 million people -- depending on how much must be put into each dose -- and it's not clear when or where similar large stockpiles could be produced.

Leavitt briefed reporters on the private State Department conference before preparing to leave Saturday on a 10-day trip to Southeast Asia, where he will gauge for himself various countries' capacity to monitor the virus and prevent its spread.

The bird flu so far has killed about 60 people in Asia, mostly poultry workers. Millions of birds have been slaughtered to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

Health officials are concerned about the possibility that the virus will mutate into a form that can be spread easily from person to person. Such a scenario would be catastrophic because people have no natural immunity to it.

"In a world with international travel as prevalent as it is now, if there is a pandemic influenza anywhere, there is risk everywhere," Leavitt said.

He said he was heartened by the willingness of so many countries to participate in the conference and pledge their cooperation.

A group of Democratic senators wrote Leavitt on Friday that they believe the U.S. response to the threat of a pandemic has been inadequate. Specifically, they said the government has not stockpiled enough medication to treat viral infections once they occur.

"While other nations have ordered enough antiviral medication to treat between 20 and 40 percent of their populations, the federal government has only ordered enough to treat less than two percent of Americans," the six lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers asked Leavitt to explain why the U.S. preparations are "behind those of other countries" and to "explain your plan to provide sufficient protection for the American people." The letter was signed by Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois.

The ordinary flu kills 36,000 Americans every year, far more than bird flu has killed anywhere so. The danger is that bird flu virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.

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Bron : Nieuws.nl
Turks pluimvee uit voorzorg geslacht
Uitgegeven op 09 oktober 2005 om 16:55 uur

(Novum/AP) - Op twee boerderijen in de buurt van het dorp Balikesir in het westen van Turkije is zondag een begin gemaakt met het afmaken van pluimvee. Een gebied met een straal van zeven kilometer rond het dorp, waar de afgelopen week volgens het Turkse persbureau Anatolia achttienhonderd kalkoenen bezweken aan vogelpest, staat onder streng toezicht.

Met welke variant van vogelpest de kalkoenen besmet waren is nog onbekend. Ook hoeveel kalkoenen er geslacht zouden worden was niet duidelijk, maar Anatolia berichtte dat om 12.00 uur zeshonderd van 2.500 kalkoenen waren afgemaakt. Niet alleen pluimvee, maar ook duiven en zwerfhonden zullen worden afgemaakt, zei een hoge ambtenaar van het ministerie van landbouw.

Het Turkse ministerie van landbouw vermoedt dat de kalkoenen besmet zijn geraakt via trekvogels die neerstrijken in het vogelreservaat Manyas, dat zich op zo'n tien kilometer van de boerderijen bevindt. De trekvogels zijn afkomstig uit het Oeralgebergte in Rusland, waar recentelijk vogelpest is gesignaleerd.

Vrijdag werd bekend dat in het oosten van Roemenië drie tamme eenden zijn bezweken aan vogelpest. Het is voor het eerst dat de ziekte in Roemenië is gesignaleerd. Momenteel wordt onderzocht of de eenden waren besmet met het vogelpestvirus H5N1, dat op mensen kan worden overgebracht. De Roemeense autoriteiten hebben het sterke vermoeden dat dit inderdaad het geval is. Volgens wetenschappers bestaat de kans dat dit virus zodanig muteert dat het overdraagbaar wordt van mens op mens, met mogelijk een wereldwijde pandemie als gevolg.

Duitsland riep Roemenië en Turkije zondag dringend op de Europese Unie en deskundigen zoveel mogelijk informatie te verschaffen over de besmettingen. Tot nu toe zijn wereldwijd miljoenen vogels bezweken aan vogelpest. In Azië overleden ook tientallen mensen aan de ziekte.

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Bron : CNN.com
Bird flu pandemic risk 'very high'

U.S. official tours Asia to coordinate plans for outbreak


A worker sprinkles disinfectant inside an eagle cage at a zoo in Surabaya, Indonesia this month.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The likelihood of a human flu pandemic is very high, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said as he began a tour of Southeast Asia to coordinate plans to combat bird flu.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003 and jumped to humans, killing 60 people, mostly through direct contact with sick fowl.

While there have been no known cases of person-to-person transmission, World Health Organization officials and other experts have been warning that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. In a worst-case scenario, they say millions of people could die.

Three influenza pandemics have occurred over the last century and "the likelihood of another is very high, some say even certain," Leavitt said Monday after meeting with Thai health officials to review the country's preparations against the disease.

"Whether or not H5N1 is the virus that will ultimately trigger such a pandemic is unknown to us," he told a news conference.

"The probability is uncertain. But the warning signs are troubling. Hence we are responding in a robust way."

Leavitt, accompanied by the director of WHO and other top health professionals, also plans to visit Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to prepare for the anticipated public health emergency.

His tour comes after U.S. President George W. Bush last month established the "International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza" to coordinate a global strategy against bird flu and other types of influenza. (Full story)

Leavitt said "containment" was the first line of defense against the illness, encouraging countries to step up development and production of vaccines and strengthen efforts to detect any cases of human-to-human transmission early.

"Anywhere, the sooner we know, the faster we can respond and the more lives that will be saved," he said.

Thai Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said Thailand would contribute at least 5 percent of its antiviral drug supplies to a proposed Southeast Asian regional stockpile.

So far, 41 people have died of bird flu in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia. Leavitt said he would also visit Indonesia at a date to be announced.

World Heath Organization Director General Dr. Lee Jong-wook said preparation was the key to preventing a flu epidemic such as the one that struck in 1918, killing an estimated 40 million to 50 million people.

"Now we know in advance what is happening and we have to prepare ourselves. That is our duty," he said.

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Bron : CNN.COM
Experts: No quick fix for bird flu

Tuesday, October 11, 2005; Posted: 10:51 p.m. EDT (02:51 GMT)


HHS secretary Mike Leavitt dips his feet in disinfectant after visiting a chicken farm in Thailand on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) -- If vaccines and drugs are available too late to stop bird flu, then what can be done to battle H5N1 avian influenza if it spreads to people? Not a lot, experts say.

If a pandemic emerges in the coming year, there will not be enough supplies of drugs or vaccines to stop it and basic medical equipment that could slow its spread is also lacking.

World leaders have been stepping up their efforts to battle avian influenza in recent weeks, holding meetings, making international visits and ordering vaccines and drugs.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and a contingent of U.S. and World Health Organization flu experts are visiting affected southeast Asian nations this week and diplomats are working to make better alliances for sharing information quickly about any human outbreaks.

But many experts agree that little real progress has been made in stopping the spread of H5N1 bird flu.

"To believe that you can contain this locally is to believe in fairy tales," said Mike Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on avian flu and warned of the danger of a flu pandemic for years.

World Health Organization officials say many countries still seem to be reluctant to share information and to ask for help if the pandemic begins within their borders.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO's assistant director-general for communicable diseases, told Britain's Times newspaper that cooperation had worsened since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed about 800 people before it was contained.

"That was a time when we were really working together as an international community of academics, politicians, public health experts. Everybody really was so focused," the newspaper quoted Chan as saying.
Not scary enough yet

"Everybody was trying to do his or her best to contain the spread of this disease. The thing with avian flu is we are not yet in a pandemic."

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 65 people in four Asian nations since late 2003, and has killed or forced the destruction of tens of millions of chickens, ducks and geese.

Experts say it is mutating steadily and fear it will eventually acquire the changes it needs to spread easily from person to person. If it did, it could sweep around the world in months or even weeks and could kill millions of people.

Even in advanced nations like the United States, little has been done to help provide even basic care for pandemic flu patients, the American College of Emergency Physicians said.

"Many hospital emergency departments in this country are operating at, or over current capacity," said ACEP president Dr. Rick Blum.

"We as a nation, have poured millions of dollars into preparedness, but virtually none of that has gone to the one place that is the true first response to something like a flu epidemic, or a hurricane, or a terrorist attack -- the nation's emergency departments."

And even if the drugs and vaccines were in place, it would take immediate detection of a mutated virus in a group of people and immediate action to contain it.

That would mean having diagnostic tests and experts on hand in rural and remote parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and other countries to immediately test patients with flu-like symptoms and then isolate and treat them and their families.

"If you can't do it with the speed of a smoke alarm and a fire truck, you don't have a chance in hell of stopping this," Osterholm said in a telephone interview.

Animal experts say good hygiene could help contain H5N1 before it spreads to people.

Measures would include penning in ducks and chickens, who often wander freely on Asian farms, allowing the spread of virus from animal to animal and perhaps allowing it to spread in droppings.

Leavitt inspected a Thai farm on Tuesday where a shoe bath, disinfectant room and plastic netting had been installed. (Full story)

But few farms have such equipment, said Alejandro Thiermann, President of the International Animal Health Code at the Paris-based animal health body OIE.

"There is much talk about humans but not about birds," Thiermann said, echoing complaints from other U.S. experts.