Alarming Explosion of Mild H5N1 Toddler Cases in Egypt

Alarming Explosion of Mild H5N1 Toddler Cases in Egypt

www.recombinomics.com

There is no obvious explanation for the explosion in toddler cases this year. In the prior three years there were only six toddler cases, which represented 12% of H5N1 confirmed cases. The frequency in 2009 is almost 10 fold higher. Moreover, since these cases are mild, and are largely limited to those with known poultry links, the number of actual infections is likely much higher.

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This seems like both bad news and giood news on the surface. The good side is the cases are mild and pneumonia is not involved, meaning the virus is not taking hold deep in the lungs like other fatal cases.

The obvious bad news is the following:

The 10 fold jump in toddler cases this year raises concerns that undetected cases are also 10 fold higher than prior outbreaks, signaling a major spread of H5N1 in the human population

A strain of H5N1 that runs wild in the human population greatly increasing the chance of a deadly strain appearing or hybridising with H1N1 which is now largely tamiflu resistant across the globe.

I hope we are not seeing the birth of the next Spanish flu here...

www.recombinomics.com
(visit the link for the full news article)