H5N1: Avian Influenza hits North America - Concerns about global flu pandemic rising

H5N1: Avian Influenza hits North America - Concerns about global flu pandemic rising

The avian influenza virus H5N1 has been detected in North America. "Tests have confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a turkey farm near Vancouver, but it appeared to be a less virulent strain and posed little risk to humans, officials said on Saturday", reports PROMED. However, until now the global death toll is rising - according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 252 people have died since 2003 because of the virulence of H5N1.


First evidence for the global threat comes from China, where a 2 year old girl has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in the northern Shanxi Province, as government officials said receently. The child was found ill on 7th of January in the central Hunan province - the little patient still is in critical condition. According to the test result of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the girl had been tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Meanwhile the Ministry of Health in China has announced 3 new confirmed human cases of H5N1 infection. The 1st, a 31-year-old female from Urumqi, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, had onset of symptoms on 10 Jan 2009. She received treatment in hospital but died on 23 Jan 2009, according to the WHO

On the other site of the globe, the Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt announced a new human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection last week, the case being a 21 month old girl Kerdasa District.

�Infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus was diagnosed by PCR at the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratory and subsequently confirmed by the U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 (NAMRU-3) laboratories�, reports the special wire PROMED. According to PROMED, investigations into the source of her infection indicate a recent history of contact with sick and dead poultry - 23 similar cases in Egypt have been fatal up to date.

Flu alert for the US President

However, the situation in the United States is more alerting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new University of Colorado at Boulder study showed the resistance of the avian flu virus to a major class of antiviral drugs "is increasing through positive evolutionary selection, with researchers documenting the trend in more than 30 percent of the samples tested", as the scientists report. Even if the expected influenza pandemic did not start yet, there is no doubt about the comeback of the lethal virus: The first Pandemic Influenza occurred in three waves in the United States - exactly 90 years ago, between 1918 and 1919.