Wednesday, March 01, 2006

WHO: BIRD FLU NOW SPREADING MUCH FASTER AMONG BIRDS

According to an INDUSTRY NEWS SERVICE:
The deadly bird fu strain H5N1 has spread to 17 new countries in February alone, says the World Health Organisation ...New figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show the virus has spread to birds in countries previously unaffected in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East this month. ...
Then there's this from INDONESIA:
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono declared that Indonesia was experiencing a bird flu emergency. A swift response was needed to break the chain of infection. "The situation in Indonesia is concerning, no ordinary response will do," said Anton in a discussion on Radio Trijaya last Saturday (25 February).

According to Anton, what could be done now was to compel the community to confine their birds. For example, domesticated chickens, previously allowed to roam free around the yard, must now be kept in cages. The government, he said, was mid-way through preparing legislation that would, among other things, cover bird flu issues. The new regulations would address poultry distribution channels and stipulate measures to prevent the further spread of bird flu.
The new legislation, according to Anton, would be an amendment to Law No 6/1967, concerning Essential Stipulations for Animal Husbandry and Livestock Health. However, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said that Indonesia was not in a state of emergency over bird flu. "This might be an emergency for the poultry but given that human to human transmission is yet to be proven, it is not yet an emergency for humans. So far, transmission has only occurred between poultry and humans," said Fadilah who was in Ternate when contacted by Tempo.
JUST IN CASE IT MUTATES AND BECOMES MORE READILY COMMUNICABLE TO HUMNS THERE'S THIS (INN):
Retroscreen Virology, a medical research institute subsidiary of Queen Mary College, University of London, has announced that an Israeli medical preparation, Sambucol, reduced the quantity of cells infected with the avian flu virus by 99%, compared with a control group not treated with the virus. ... Sambucol was found to be effective at significantly neutralizing the infectivity of the virus in cell cultures. These results were presented during the International Conference on Bird Flu: “The First Pandemic of the 21st Century. A Central Role for Antivirals,” held at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on January 19-20, 2006.

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