Scientists to probe possible human-to-human infection

Scientists to probe possible human-to-human infection

Luh De Suriyani, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Wed, 11/02/2011 7:04 AM

 

The provincial health authority dispatched on Tuesday a special team of livestock and human health researchers to Jehem to probe whether a recent human fatality caused by the Avian Influenza virus had involved a human-to-human transmission of the disease.
Jehem is a small village in Bangli regency, where siblings became the first two human casualties of bird flu this year.

The victims, NR, 5, and her older brother WA, 10, passed away on Oct. 9 at Denpasar’s Sanglah central hospital, the island’s main referral facility for bird flu.

Three separate laboratory tests confirmed that the children had been infected by the deadly disease.

A few days later their mother, Ni Wayan Purnami, 28, died after displaying flu-like symptoms, triggering fears among health experts that the mother had contracted the disease directly from her children.

The health authorities have yet to issue the results of laboratory tests conducted on Purnami.

“We have to accurately determine whether a human-to-human transmission took place in this case. It could be a limited human-to-human transmission due to a genetic affinity or a full-scale human-to-human transmission,” provincial livestock agency senior official I Wayan Mardiana said.
So far, the only known infection path involving humans has been from bird to human.

Although there have been a very small number of suspected human-to-human transmissions in the past, the emergence of a strain of the virus that passed easily between humans would pose a major containment problem.

The team collected samples from livestock, including fowl and swine, as well as from people from 25 households in the village.

The team specifically targeted persons with a history of flu-like illnesses or have lived near livestock that recently died in suspicious circumstances.

A few days after the death of the two children, a small team from Udayana University’s veterinary laboratory visited the village and took samples. The team later concluded that a wider research must be carried out to find out possible occurrences of human-to-human transmissions.
As many as 3,000 chickens have been culled in dozens of subdistricts across Bali to contain the spread of the disease.

So far this year, Sanglah Central Hospital has treated 21 patients suspected of suffering avian flu.

A six-year-old boy from Mengwi, Badung regency, is being treated for flu-like illness. The boy reportedly had contact with dead fowl before falling ill.  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/02/scientists-probe-possible-human-human-infection.html