[Centraal] Vogelgriep in Europa

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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.