Chinese bird flu: rare scare?
By: Sandy Dechert NewsApril 1, 2013
The China Health and Family Planning Commission notified the World Health Organization about three cases of influenza A (H7N9). Two were in Shanghai, and the other, in the Anhui province of China.
The H7N9 flu strain had not infected humans previously. Although scientists do not yet know how the people were infected, there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. The Chinese are actively looking into the source of this new disease. Laboratory testing for three prevalent strains of influenza A (H3N2, H1N1(pdm09), and H5N1) came out negative, as did the tests for lookalike novel coronavirus.All three of the patients came down with respiratory tract infections that progressed to severe pneumonia and acute breathing distress. The first onset was on February 19. Two of the three patients (men 27 and 87 years old) have died, and the third, a 35-year-old woman, is in critical condition.
Besides the apparent lethality of H7N9 in humans, researchers fear this flu strain because they have found a change in it (Q226L, not found in H5N1 or any other H7 flu sequence) in two of the three cases that increases its affinity for mammals. The change could signal a potential for pandemic. Dr. Craig Pringle, virology expert and emeritus professor from the University of Warwick, finds the situation "novel and alarming," especially because humans probably have no innate immunity to either H7 or N9 antigens, having never been exposed to them in the past.
However, investigators have found no epidemiological link between cases so far: the three patients appear to have contracted the disease independently. Also, none of 88 people exposed to the three who had H7N9 have come down with it in the past two weeks. Human-to-human transmission appears unlikely unless the virus mutates.
"The risk to public health would appear to be low," says regional WHO spokesman Timothy O'Leary from Manila. "WHO is in contact with the [Chinese] national authorities and is following the event closely." A CDC Influenza Division spokesperson, Erin Burns, said the American agency was involved, but that "at this time, it is too soon to speculate regarding the significance of these cases."
Based in Chicago, Sandy Dechert has been covering women's healthcare for Examiner.com since the webzine's official startup. She has followed the 2012-2013 influenza epidemic since its inception. Sandy has also reported on the fungal meningitis outbreaks, other top women's health stories of 2012, and the creation and progress of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
China announces four new rare bird flu cases
By AP 2:25PM BST 02 Apr 2013
China reported on Tuesday that four more people in one province were seriously ill with a bird flu virus new to humans, following two previous deaths.
The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said in a notice on its website that three women, aged 45, 48 and 32, and an 83-year-old retired man, from different cities in the province, were all critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the provincial disease prevention centre.
Based on the bureau's statement, only one of the patients appeared to come into daily contact with birds – the 45-year-old woman, who was described as a poultry butcher.
The four cases did not appear to be connected, and people who have had close contact with the patients have not reported having fevers or respiratory problems, it said.
The provincial health bureau said it was strengthening measures to monitor suspicious cases and urged the public to stay calm, joining Beijing and China's financial capital, Shanghai, in rolling out new steps to respond to the relatively unknown virus.
The four latest cases follow three earlier ones reported on Sunday, including two men who died in Shanghai, resulting in the city activating an emergency plan that calls for heightened monitoring of suspicious flu cases.
China Announces 4 New Bird Flu Cases
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: April 2, 2013
SHANGHAI — China said Tuesday that four more people in the coastal part of the country had been infected with a new strain of bird flu, which is believed to have killed two Shanghai residents last month and left one person in critical condition.
The four new patients, ages 32 to 83, are hospitalized and critically ill, according to a government Web site that cited the authorities in the city of Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province northwest of Shanghai. The officials said laboratory tests had confirmed that all four were infected with a strain of bird flu identified as H7N9, which was not found in humans before the Shanghai cases.
The cases are troubling because there is no vaccine for the H7N9 strain and because another strain of bird flu, identified as H5N1, killed hundreds of people in Asia beginning in 2003.
The World Health Organization says that most H5N1 cases had involved contact with infected poultry. One of the four people in Nanjing infected with the H7N9 virus is a poultry butcher. Health authorities had previously reported that H7N9 could not easily be contracted by humans, and officials said that no one who had contact with the four infected patients had developed symptoms.
The government said Monday in Shanghai that no link was found between the bird flu virus and the 15,000 dead pigs found recently in the Huangpu River.
Xu Yan contributed research.
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