Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Sofi, nice work as usual. 
Isn't there some kind of home test invented yet for the average person to quickly stick a bird with before cooking? Something like, you know, the
typical turkey temperature guage thingy, except to tell if the meat is infected?
Thanks TA. ...Sorry, no test. We're supposed to rely on
voluntary industry surveillance programs - and cook the heck out of our chicken.
...High temps DO kill viruses. BUT.
Regenmacher brought up Mad Cow first so I'll say it. I suspect the real problem with H5N1 is a prion hitchhiking on the virus - and nothing kills
prions, because they're not alive.
FYI - I eat well-cooked chicken anyway, and beef too. ...Basically, when it comes to this stuff, I have more faith in the evolutionary process than
modern medicine or high-tech solutions. IMO, our world is so completely polluted, and our macro and micro environments are so contaminated, that our
best hope at this point is adaptation.
***
Here's what I wrote to post before I came online.
The new study from the USA and Hong Kong called "
Emergence and predominance of an H5N1 influenza variant in China" says there is a new H5N1
"Fujian-like" strain spreading - but China refutes this claim, saying the Fujian-like strain was identified and reported earlier. Chinese
authorities insist they have submitted all the new sequences.
The WHO is taking the high road, saying it's a communications problem. What they want is info on
all outbreaks in birds, not just people, even
if the strain was reported previously - so they can track each strain's spread. ...Apparently, China was only submitting new sequences as they
appeared (16 in all), but not keeping the WHO updated about which strains caused what breakouts.
This confusion highlights what scientists mean when they say, "
Efforts to track
bird flu are hampered by deficiencies in data collection."
New Bird Flu Virus Replacing Other Strains in Southern
China: U.S.-Chinese team calls for sweeping animal, human surveillance in H5N1 regions
A new variant of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, the Fujian-like strain, has replaced most other strains across a large part of southern
China since 2005 despite mass poultry vaccinations, according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
in Tennessee. ...The work was supported in part by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of
Health, and the Li Ka Shing Foundation, a Chinese organization that supports education and medical care. ...According to the study, "Emergence and
predominance of an H5N1 influenza variant in China," in the November online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, H5N1
influenza virus caused poultry outbreaks in China in 12 provinces from October 2005 to August 2006 despite a compulsory poultry vaccination program
that began in September 2005.
"The Fujian virus doesn't appear to be of any more risk to humans," Dr. Michael Perdue, project leader for avian influenza in the Global Influenza
Programme at the World Health Organization, told the Washington File November 2, "other than the fact that maybe it's a little more widespread and
it seems to be supplanting the other strains in the region." ...As far as scientists know, he added, "there's no increased - or decreased -
likelihood of human transmission. It's basically the same overall genetic content of the other H5N1 viruses."
Since November 2005, some 22 human cases have been confirmed in 14 Chinese provinces, and some of these victims lived in metropolitan areas far from
poultry farms. ..."Whether those people were infected locally and directly from affected poultry or other sources, including humans," the study
said, "is still unknown." ...The emergence and rapid distribution of the Fujian strain, despite the vaccination program that began in September
2005, suggests that H5N1 control measures are inadequate, said study co-author Robert Webster, a member of the St. Jude Infectious Diseases
Department, in a statement. ..."Given the lack of systematic influenza surveillance in poultry at a national level," the authors wrote, "the timely
identification of the source of human infection is almost impossible."
***
Experts refute new bird flu strain claim
(China's) leading bird flu experts Sunday refuted a report that a new strain of bird flu had emerged in southern China, published by a foreign
publication and widely cited by foreign media recently. ..."The so-called 'Fujian-like virus' is not a new variant of the virus," she said "Gene
sequence analysis of the virus shows that it shares high conformity with the H5N1 virus that was isolated in Hunan when bird flu broke out in early
2004." ...Samples from every domestic bird flu outbreak are sent for isolation and gene sequence analysis at Chen's lab. Chen said that in 2005 and
2006, the lab had isolated some viruses in waterfowl in southern China which was reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World
Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
"These viruses all remain steady in gene type and there is no marked change in their biological characteristics," she said. ...Chen said there was
only one new variant of the virus, which was isolated in North China's Shanxi Province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region at the beginning of this
year and has been reported to FAO and OIE. ...Experimental results show that the variant is weak in triggering disease in mammals and a new vaccine,
which has been put into use in these areas, has effectively brought it under control. ...Chen also defended the effectiveness of China's bird flu
vaccine, saying that it had a "good effect," in response to the report's surmise that the current vaccine was less effective for the "Fujian-like
virus."
Shu Yuelong, director of the National Influenza Centre at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, also refuted the report's allegation
that five people in southern China were actually infected by the new "Fujian-like virus." ...Shu said that altogether 16 variants of bird flu
viruses have been found in the 20 confirmed cases of human infections on the Chinese mainland since October 2005 seven in 2005 and 13 in 2006.
"Fifteen out of the 16 variants were isolated from cases in southern China and they belong to the same gene type," Shu said. "There is no proof
that five of them were infected by a new mutated virus."
Given that China likely is
trying to cooperate, and does have resources allocated to monitor the epidemics - one hates to think what might be
happening in the poorer undeveloped nations with little infrastructure and few resources.
Disease surveillance takes a LOT of money - not to mention high-tech labs. Indonesia and Africa, for example, just don't have what it takes to do the
job.
***
Meanwhile, the WHO says some people may have a "genetic disposition" for infection with bird flu. This could explain why some people get it and
others don't, and why it seems to be relatively rare in humans.
Genetic disposition suspected for human
bird flu-WHO
Scientists suspect some people have a "genetic disposition" for infection with bird flu, which may explain why some get it and others don't, and
why it remains relatively rare, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. ...Evidence, mainly from a family cluster of cases last May in North
Sumatra, Indonesia - when seven people in an extended family died - showed genetic factors might influence human susceptibility to the H5N1 virus, it
said. ...Only blood relatives were infected in the Karo district of North Sumatra, the largest cluster known to date worldwide, "despite multiple
opportunities for the virus to spread to spouses or into the general community," it added.
The theory - which it said merited further study - was contained in WHO's report issued on Thursday, on a closed-door meeting of 35 scientific
experts held in late September.
"A genetic predisposition for infection is suspected based on data from rare instances of human-to-human transmission in genetically-related
persons," the WHO said. ..."This possibility, if more fully explored, might help explain why human cases are comparatively rare and why the virus is
not spreading easily from animals to humans or from human to human," it added.
***
Bird flu spreads among blood relatives
Healthcare workers in Indonesia are noticing that outbreaks of the deadly bird flu seem to come in family clusters, mostly affecting those linked by
blood.
Indonesia is battling one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in the world, with four reported dead only in the last month, said USA Today.
Diana Ginting, head of a local health district office in Sumatra, where seven people died in May, told the newspaper, "No husbands and wives are
infected; it's all brothers and sisters, mothers and children."
At the same time, the WHO
also warns that high death rates are still possible if the virus goes pandemic.
If bird flu virus
becomes pandemic, high death rates possible: WHO report
There is no guarantee the H5N1 avian flu virus will become less deadly to people if it evolves to the point where it is able to trigger a pandemic,
warns a report released Thursday
.
This is actually funny, but you missed the fact that religion and Westy mix. 
