NEWS: Bird Flu News, page 6

News Update = Tamiflu

Gilead and Roche the dreater and manufacturer of tamiflu respectively, have come to an agreement over money and royalties for the drug.

sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com...
Foster City-based Gilead won't pay Roche any more for making the drug, but Roche will keep paying Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) royalties of 14 percent to 22 percent on sales of the drug.
Gilead said in June it would end its deal with Roche. It fought to get back rights to the drug, saying Roche hadn't lived up to its end of the deal and was behind on royalty payments. The two companies went into mediation three months later.
As part of the deal announced Wednesday, Gilead has also gotten an option to co-promote Tamiflu in some parts of the United States, though it won't do so in 2006

Meanwhile scientists are calling out for more investigation and testing of Tamiflu after some alarming cases came to light this week of suicides and other possible side affects of the drug

www.alertnet.org...
LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - More research is needed to find the optimal dose of anti-flu drug Tamiflu for use in the event of a possible pandemic triggered by bird flu, a U.S. expert on the disease said on Wednesday.
Dr John Beigel of the National Institutes of Health said Roche Holding AG's medicine remained the best available treatment but doctors needed better evidence-based guidance on its use.
"Good rigorous data is lacking," Beigel told a bird flu conference organised by investment bank UBS.
Beigel said he was currently working with Roche to develop a new clinical trial programme designed to ascertain optimal dosing.
The current recommended dose is two 75 milligram pills a day for five days.
All the clinical studies so far on Tamiflu have been conducted in developed countries among relatively healthy people, leaving it unclear whether critically ill patients should receive a different dose, Beigel said.
Some animal research suggested that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu now circulating in parts of Asia might require more of the drug to bring it under control than flu types found in 1997, he added.

=====================================================

News Update = China

China has reported that the brotehr of the 12 year old girl who died last month of suspected Bird Flu has tested positive to the disease. China has also reported other human cases, the first reports of human cases within the country.

Monsters And Critics
The H5N1 virus was detected in three patients, two in the central province of Hunan and one in the eastern province of Anhui, the ministry said.
The infected patient from Anhui was not one of those previously suspected of having the virus.
All three were believed to have caught the virus through contact with sick birds.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had investigated three suspected cases of bird flu in Hunan with the authorities. One of the three, a 12-year-old girl, died.
The girl was cremated before enough blood was taken to confirm if she had the virus, WHO spokesman Roy Wadia said.
WHO said that blood taken from the nine-year-old brother contained bird-flu antibodies, a 'clear sign' of an infection with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
The third person suspected of having bird flu in Hunan was a male teacher, 36, who, like the brother and sister, had close contact with infected chickens.

[edit on 16-11-2005 by Mayet]

Alert Tamiflu

The number of deaths reported in children taking Tamiflu in japan since 2000 has risen to twelve with other cases suspected. The deaths occured after in some cases dangerous psychiatric conditions were dsiplayed as well as cardiac arrest being responsible in four of the deaths

www.timesonline.co.uk...
THE death in Japan of 12 children who were taking Tamiflu has prompted an American government investigation of the only drug thought to be effective in treating bird flu.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was concerned that 32 psychiatric events, such as hallucinations and abnormal behaviour, had also been reported in children who took Tamiflu, all but one of them in Japan.
“Any time you get a report of a death or a serious occurrence, you want to look into it,” Dr Murray Lumpkin, the deputy commissioner of the FDA, said.
The deaths of 12 children, aged 1 to 9, included one suicide, four cases of sudden death and four cases of cardiac arrest, as well as single cases of pneumonia, asphyxiation and acute pancreatitis. They all took place since 2000.

[edit on 18-11-2005 by Mayet]

Mayet,
This was released this morning
The FDA has found no evidence that Tamiflu caused the deathe of 12 children in Japan. news.yahoo.com...

As far as the US (and any country we share medical technology with) is concerned, it really is, pretty much, under control.

I recently posted a thread relating the facts my girlfriend (a medical researcher at NIH/NIAID (National Institute of Health / National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease), who is involved with a joint project with the CDC (Center for Disease Control)), working on cures for the Avian Flu for both birds and humans.

The short version is that this will never become the flu epidemic we saw with the Spanish Flu in 1918 because of current sanitation standards, and medical technology. Very few of you (regardless of nation of residence) are at risk, unless you handle poultry.

For the full article, look here: Avian Flu Largely Overblown in the US (And Other First World Nations)

News Update = China

China seems to have changed it's policy of denial and silence and appears to be co operating with the reporting of Bird Flu events within that country. More outbreaks and deaths have been announced by China.

news.scotsman.com...
China has reported its second confirmed human death from bird flu, while tests showed a teacher who fell ill elsewhere in the country does not have the H5N1 bird flu virus.
China's Health Ministry said that the latest fatality - a 35-year-old farmer identified only by her surname, Xu - died on Tuesday after developing a fever and pneumonia-like symptoms following contact with sick and dead poultry.
The woman tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The woman lived in Xiuning County in the eastern province of Anhui, Xinhua said. It gave no further details.
China's first confirmed bird flu death was also a woman from Anhui.

www.cbsnews.com...
China on Wednesday reported its second confirmed human death from bird flu, while tests showed a teacher who fell ill elsewhere in the country does not have the H5N1 bird flu virus.
China's Health Ministry said Wednesday that the latest fatality _ a 35-year-old farmer identified only by her surname, Xu _ died Tuesday after developing a fever and pneumonia-like symptoms following contact with sick and dead poultry.

Bloomberg
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- China reported three new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry, bringing to 24 the number of cases in the country this year.
The western provinces of Xinjiang and Yunnan reported cases in which poultry died on Nov. 16 and Nov. 17 and the northern province of Ningxia reported poultry died on Nov. 18, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement posted on its Web site last night. China's National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed the birds were infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, the statement said.
The outbreaks are the first to be reported after China on Nov. 21 ordered local governments to report cases of avian influenza and other animal diseases within four hours of discovery to China's cabinet, the State Council, as bird flu spreads in the country.

Originally posted by Mayet
News Update = China

China seems to have changed it's policy of denial and silence and appears to be co operating with the reporting of Bird Flu events within that country. More outbreaks and deaths have been announced by China.

news.scotsman.com...
China has reported its second confirmed human death from bird flu, while tests showed a teacher who fell ill elsewhere in the country does not have the H5N1 bird flu virus.
China's Health Ministry said that the latest fatality - a 35-year-old farmer identified only by her surname, Xu - died on Tuesday after developing a fever and pneumonia-like symptoms following contact with sick and dead poultry.
The woman tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The woman lived in Xiuning County in the eastern province of Anhui, Xinhua said. It gave no further details.
China's first confirmed bird flu death was also a woman from Anhui.

(... and other sources reporting on the story...)

This really doesn't surprise me that the number of cases in China is rising, since much of the rural and farm area in China is still quite primitive, regarding sanitation and health codes. It's tragic that it's happening at all, but it's still not too surprising.

As I said in a prior post, a massive outbreak in areas with good sanitation practices is pretty unlikely, as the animals are cared for better, there's less room for the disease to take root, and there's better systems for disposing of waste products (which is one of the best breeding/transmission grounds for a disease such as this, outside of a living body). I don't expect to see such an outbreak in the US, England, France, Germany, Austrailia or any number of other nations with similar health and sanitation practices.

I still stand by my statement that the actual human threat presented by the Avian Flu is still extremely overblown.

Alert- Australia

Australia has reported a bird that has tested to a lower strain of Bird Flu on the NSW Vctorian border today. This is the second case of avian flu reported in Australia ever with a previous case of imported birds testing positive for a lesser strain that H5N1. Early tests on the current case show that the bird does not have HPAI avian flu of which H5N1 is a strain.

www.news.com.au...
AUTHORITIES have quarantined a property near the New South Wales and Victorian border after one of the birds recorded a weak reaction to an avian influenza test.
It is the first time Australian officials have isolated a property in response to concerns about avian flu, which has killed more than 70 people through Asia since 2003.

Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran today said the quarantining of the property, near Wentworth, a town on the Murray-Darling River junction just north of Mildura, was a precautionary measure.

The chicken was originally tested by the state laboratory because it was suspected of having the common Marek's disease.

Mr McGauran said tests had excluded the highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) form of bird flu, of which the deadly H5N1 is a strain.

He said samples had been sent to the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) for further testing.

Turkey

A second person has died in Turkey from H5N1. A 15 year old girl died today after a 14 year old boy died earlier this week from the same strain of the disease. The children are believed to have been siblings.

www.abc.net.au...
The Turkish Government has announced a second person, a 15-year-old girl, has died there from the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Fatma Kocyigit is thought to be the sister of 14-year-old farm boy Mehmet, who died in a hospital in eastern Turkey earlier this week.
The boy's death marked the first confirmed bird flu fatality outside Asia, where more than 70 people have died from the disease since 2003.

[edit on 5-1-2006 by Mayet]

Bird flu mutation raises threat to humans

The first sign that the avian flu virus H5N1 may be mutating into a form more infectious to humans has been reported by scientists. Researchers from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Mill Hill, north London, have analysed viruses from two children who died of bird flu in eastern Turkey.

In one case, the analysis revealed mutations in the virus that made it more prone to infect humans. In a joint statement, Sir John Skehel, director of the institute, run by the Medical research Council, and the World Health Organisation, said a mutation had been traced in viruses isolated in Hong Kong in 2003 and in Vietnam last year.

"Research has indicated the Hong Kong 2003 viruses preferred to bind to human cell receptors more than to avian receptors, and it is expected that the Turkish virus will also have this characteristic."

This is NOT good news.

From Turkey to Brussels

A man has been hospitalized in Brussels, Belguim with suspected Bird Flu after returning from a Bird Flu infected region in Turkey

www.abc.net.au...
A person has been admitted to hospital in Brussels with suspected bird flu, after visiting a region of Turkey hit by the disease.
"It is a suspected case, the diagnosis of bird flu is not confirmed for the moment," Inge Yooris, a member of a Belgian government committee on bird flu told AFP.
The unidentified person taken to hospital had returned Thursday from a trip to Turkey.

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