Source: Herald Tribune
International health experts have been dispatched to Pakistan to help investigate the cause of South Asia’s first human bird flu cases and determine if the virus was transmitted from person to person, an official and local media said Sunday.
Pakistan’s Health Ministry said Saturday six people last month had tested positive for the H5N1 virus and one man had died, but officials have yet to comment on how the disease was transmitted.
The brother of the dead bird flu victim also died, but he had not been tested.
The H5N1 virus has killed at least 208 people worldwide, mostly in Southeast Asia and China, since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.
So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. There have only been a few reported cases of it spreading from human to human, all among blood relatives.
Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.
The World Health Organization reported on its Web site that it had been informed of eight cases, not six, in Pakistan. Poultry outbreaks had earlier been reported in the area and slaughtering operations took place, WHO said.
The cases involved several family members. The Health Ministry confirmed two brothers died, but specimens were only collected from one. Another case has fully recovered, the WHO statement said. The condition of the other patients and their relationship to each other were not immediately available Sunday.
A WHO team was scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on Sunday and was expected to visit the affected areas to try to determine how the infections occurred and whether human-to-human transmission could have occurred, Khalif Bile, the WHO representative in Pakistan was quoted as saying in the Dawn newspaper.
A man who had been in contact with the Pakistan cases and then traveled to the United States tested negative for the virus in New York and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said CDC spokesman Dave Daigle.
“There was a tie to the suspected human-to-human cases in Pakistan,” he said.
A team from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit in Cairo was being dispatched to Pakistan to help with the investigation, Daigle said.
People who came into contact with those infected in Pakistan are being monitored, the WHO said.
Bile told The Associated Press on Saturday that preliminary tests had been carried out. He said the WHO was encouraging the government to carry out confirmation tests in the same government laboratory and the results should be available by Tuesday.
A brother of the two men who died in Pakistan said Saturday he had been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. Mohammed Ishtiaq said he fell ill last month after slaughtering chickens suspected of carrying bird flu at a farm near Abbottabad.
“I was not aware that this was such a dangerous disease,” said Ishtiaq, a veterinary doctor who works for a government-funded livestock program. He said he wore no protective clothing.
His two brothers did not accompany him to the farm, but visited him in hospital, Ishtiaq told Associated Press Television News in the village of Sukur.
He identified his brothers as Mohammed Ilyas and Mohammed Idrees and said they were both studying at an agriculture college in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
It was unclear if they had other contact with poultry or another potential sources of infection.
Ishtiaq said a fourth brother, a primary school teacher, also fell ill after visiting him but recovered. He said doctors had taken blood samples from him and other relatives but gave them no results.
The Health Ministry said Saturday it was treating people who had been in contact with those infected, setting up isolation wards in hospitals and procuring drugs for treatment and protective clothing for health workers.
Pakistan has grappled with outbreaks of bird flu in poultry for the past two years, but had previously not confirmed cases in humans.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann // Dec 17, 2007 at 11:10 am
H5N1: Spread by drinking water into small clusters
H2H and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In Influenza epidemics in Germany recognized clusters are rarely (9% of the cases in 2005).
In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can’t be explained with the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from H2H with 37.5°C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. As to central public water supplies with older water cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses.
In hot climates the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. Virulence of Influenza viruses depends on temperature and time. If young H5N1 contaminated water from low wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher as in temperate climates.
soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
2 Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann // Dec 17, 2007 at 11:10 am
H5N1 avian flu: Spread by drinking water into small clusters:
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of Influenza epidemics in Germany recognized clusters are rarely (9% of the cases in the season 2005).
In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 avian flu virus will be transferred to humans strong seasonal in the cold via cold drinking water, as with the birds feb/mar 2006.
Recent research must worry: So far the virus had to reach the bronchi and the lungs in order to infect humans. Now it infects the upper respiratory system (mucous membranes of the throat e.g. when drinking and mucous membranes of the nose and probably also the conjunctiva of the eyes as well as the eardrum e.g. at showering). In a few cases (Viet Nam, Thailand) stomach and intestine by the H5N1 virus were stricken but not the bronchi and the lungs. The virus might been orally taken up, e.g. when drinking contaminated water.
The performance to eliminate viruses of the drinking water processing plants in Germany 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.
In temperate climates the strong seasonal waterborne infections like norovirus, rotavirus, salmonellae, campylobacter and - differing from the usual dogma - influenza are mainly triggered by drinking water dependent on the drinking water temperature (in Germany minimum feb/mar – maximum august). There is no evidence that influenza primary is transmitted by saliva droplets. In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can’t be explained with the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from human to human with temperatures of 37.5°C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. There is no other appropriate abiotic vehicle. In Germany about 98% of inhabitants have a central public water supply with older and better protected water. Therefore in Germany cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses.
In hot climates/tropics the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. Virulence of Influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher as in temperate climates.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
eMail soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html
Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf
3 iqbal khan // May 9, 2008 at 9:57 pm
dear sir
i would like to bring into your notice about the environment situation of our beautiful city lahore. there was a time when Lahore was a well known city due to its climate, beauty ,food and healthy environment but i was so disheart to see the air polution in this city and of course it is due to unplaned traffic control and also due to over traffic situation . so please i request you to please solve this problem as soon as possible or other wise our young generation would face serieous health problems.
thank you sir
sincerely
iqbal khan
rawalpindi
mobile 03007075559
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