Viet Nam - Suspected case
26 Dec 2007
Reuters News [edited]
Doctors suspect bird flu may have killed a 4-year-old child in northern Viet Nam, state-run radio said on Wed 26 Dec 2007. A Health Ministry official told a government meeting on Tue 25 Dec 2007 the child had a fever and serious pneumonia after eating chicken that had died of unknown causes in the mountainous province of Son La, the Voice of Vietnam radio said. It said the child died in a hospital in Hanoi but gave no gender. Doctors were testing to see whether the H5N1 bird flu virus was the killer, the ministry official was quoted as saying. The Agriculture Ministry said 63 of Viet Nam's 64 provinces had been vaccinating birds against the virus this year [2007].

Viet Nam - H7N3
24 Dec 2007
VietNam Net Bridge [edited]
The dangerous, human-transmissible avian influenza A (H7N3) strain, previously recorded in Korea, Canada and Holland, has reemerged in several Asian countries including Vietnam, according to the National Steering Committee for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control. The committee held a conference on Tuesday in Ha Noi to discuss the country's response to the recent reoccurrence of the deadly bird flu. The H7N3 virus found in Vietnam, however, is classified as low-pathogenic, not readily transmitted to humans. The committee has made plans already to import more H7N3 avian influenza vaccines to prevent possible outbreaks. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the H5N1 strain reappeared in the northern Cao Bang province's Bao Lam District. Lower temperatures and poultry smuggling from China in the northern provinces have also increased the risk of another outbreak of bird flu in several provinces there. The committee is directing local officials to improve environmental sanitation in high-risk areas and tighten their control over the transportation of poultry through borders.

China - H5N1 (Grey Heron) - Mai Po Nature Reserve to close 21 days
13 Dec 2007
Hong Kong SAR government web-site [edited]
Mai Po Nature Reserve will close 21 days after a Grey Heron found in Lok Ma Chau tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza, the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department says. The bird was found sick and was collected on 5 Dec 2007 at the wetland compensation area of the MTR Lok Ma Chau Spurline. The bird was kept in a cage and died the next day. There are no chicken farms within 3 km [1.9 miles] of where the bird was found.

Viet Nam - Bird flu hits one more Vietnamese province
12 Dec 2007
Xinhua [edited]
Bird flu has recurred in Viet Nam's northern Bac Giang province, raising the total number of localities currently affected by the disease to two. Bird flu virus strain H5N1 has killed over 1000 ducks in the two districts of Viet Yen and Yen Dung, local newspaper Saigon Liberation on Wednesday [12 Dec 2007] quoted a report of the country's National Anti-bird Flu Steering Committee. Viet Nam is focusing on intensifying disease surveillance, monitoring of poultry raising, transport and trade, and vaccination among fowls nationwide.

China – Avian Influenza
7 Dec 2007
Physorg.com, Agence France-Presse (AFP) report [edited]
The father of a man in China who died this week of bird flu has also tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the disease, the country's health ministry reported on Friday [7 Dec 2007]. A statement on the ministry website said a 52-year-old man in eastern Jiangsu province, has been confirmed with the virus, just days after his 24-year-old son died on Sunday [2 Dec 2007]. The man developed a fever and pneumonia symptoms on Monday [3 Dec 2007] while under preventive medical observation following his son's death, the statement said. It added that 2 days later, Jiangsu bird flu experts conducted tests to determine whether he had the virus and confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday [6 Dec 2007]. The ministry added that all people who had been in contact with the 52-year-old man were under observation but that no new cases had appeared. The 52-year-old man's son was hospitalised 10 days ago [27 Nov 2007] after being diagnosed with pneumonia, the Xinhua news agency reported at the time, citing the Jiangsu provincial health department. His condition deteriorated in hospital and he died on Sunday [2 Dec 2007], according to the report. Earlier this week, provincial health authorities said they had not determined how the deceased man contracted the virus, saying he was not known to have had contact with dead poultry. The ministry gave no further details on the medical condition of the new patient, nor any information on whether human-to-human transmission was to blame.
Related stories
21 Dec 2007 - China - Avian Influenza
EARTHtimes.org, DPA report [edited]
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday [21 Dec 2007] that it was impossible to say whether a case of bird flu in China in a 52 year old man was due to human-to-human transmission, but, even if it was, it was down to very close contact between the victims. The assistant director-general for health security at WHO, Dr David Heymann, said the only proven transmission of this nature so far, in Indonesia and Thailand, had been as a result of very "close contact" in a "very circumscribed area". WHO was still awaiting final tests results for a recent cluster of cases in the northwest region of Pakistan. The team of WHO experts, who traveled to the area earlier this week, believed though that the first ever human cases in the country were again a result of intimate contact. Heymann said the virus could, on "occasional instances, be transmitted" between humans but that it was not transmittable like influenza with a sneeze. "It's not that kind of transmission". In China, both the man and his 24 year old son, who died on 2 Dec 2007, had been exposed to the same common source. Infection had also occurred during the incubation period. There had also been close contact with another 600 people, but blood tests had confirmed they were free from the virus. Heymann said: "Even if there had been human-to-human transmission, it was limited and did not continue. It was not sustained, and it's that which is very important." However, though the H5N1 strain of bird flu has not jumped the species barrier in a way that would cause a major outbreak so far, the scientific community remains convinced there is a real possibility of an influenza pandemic in the future, but it cannot say whether H5N1 will be the source or another flu variant.

China – Avian Influenza
3 Dec 2007
Xinhua News Agency, China View [edited]
A man in east China's Jiangsu province died of bird flu on Sunday [2 Dec 2007], the provincial health department reported. The 24-year-old man developed fever, chills and other symptoms on 24 Nov 2007 and was hospitalized on 27 Nov 2007 after being diagnosed with "lower left pneumonia." His illness worsened in the hospital, and he died on Sunday [2 Dec 2007]. A respiratory tract sample examination by Jiangsu Provincial Disease Control and Prevention Center on Saturday [1 Dec 2007] showed the man's avian flu virus nucleic acid was H5 positive and N1 positive. However, the man had no contact with dead poultry, the health department said. A test done by the China Disease Control and Prevention Center on Sunday [2 Dec 2007] also indicated that the man was H5N1 positive, and the Chinese Ministry of Health has confirmed he was infected with bird flu.
Related stories
4 Dec 2007 - China - Avian influenza situation
World Health Organization (WHO) Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (EPR) disease outbreak news [edited]
As of Tue 4 Dec 2007, The Ministry of Health in China has reported a new case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case was confirmed by the national laboratory on 2 Dec 2007. The 24-year old male from Jiangsu Province, developed symptoms on 24 Nov 2007, was hospitalized on 27 Nov 2007, and died on 2 Dec 2007. There is no initial indication to suggest he had contact with sick birds prior to becoming unwell. Close contacts have been placed under medical observation and all remain well. Of the 26 cases confirmed to date in China, 17 have been fatal.

South Korea - First bird flu outbreak in 8 months
24 Nov 2007
China Daily [edited]
South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in 8 months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south Saturday [24 Nov 2007], although the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved, the government said. The virus that caused the latest outbreak was a "low pathogenic" H7 strain that has not been known to spread to humans, said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Quarantine workers slaughtered about 17 000 ducks [see commentary] at the farm in Gwangju, about 330 km (205 miles) southwest of the capital, Seoul, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy. The outbreak, South Korea's first since March, was confirmed on Friday [23 Nov 2007], the ministry official said. A total of 7 outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 virus hit poultry farms across South Korea between November 2006 and March this year [2007], resulting in the slaughter of about 2.8 million birds. The country declared itself free of bird flu in June [2007] after reporting no new outbreaks for 3 months. The latest outbreak does not affect South Korea's bird flu-free status because it involves a "low pathogenic" virus, the ministry official said.
Update : 26 Nov 2007 OIE website

Hong Kong – Avian Influenza
21 Nov 2007
Hong Kong government website [edited]
Preliminary testing of a little egret found in Tuen Mun has indicated a suspected H5 avian flu case, the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department says. This is the first wild bird suspected to be infected by the virus at the onset of this winter season [2007-2008]. The bird was collected in Tuen Mun Park 18 Nov 2007 and died the next day. There are no chicken farms within 3 km of where the bird was found. Poultry farmers have been reminded to take precautionary and biosecurity measures against bird flu. Farmers, pet bird shop owners, pet poultry license holders, and racing pigeon owners have been informed to take proper precautions. Update: 24 Nov 2007 The Associated Press [edited]

Vietnam - Avian Influenza
7 Nov 2007
Reuters alertnet [edited]
Bird flu has killed 590 ducks in a northern Viet Nam province, the fifth to have reported outbreaks among poultry within about a month, the government said on Wednesday [7 Nov 2007]. The 2-month-old ducks started dying on Monday [5 Nov 2007] at a farm in Ha Nam province. Tests confirmed on Wednesday [7 Nov 2007] the presence of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Animal Health Department said in its daily report. Further tests also found the H5N1 virus in samples taken from 2 dead chickens dumped in a river in Ha Nam province, 60 km (37 miles) south of Hanoi, the report said. The case in Ha Nam brought to 5 the number of provinces that have confirmed bird flu in poultry since early October 2007. Three of the provinces are in the north, one is in the southern Mekong delta, while the 5th is in the central province of Quang Tri. Floods that affected Quang Tri in the past 2 weeks could help spread the virus to nearby areas, an Agriculture Ministry official said. Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 205 people out of 334 known cases, with most of the deaths in Indonesia, Viet Nam, Thailand and Egypt, the World Health Organisation figures show.

Vietnam - Avian Influenza
7 Nov 2007
Thanhniet News [edited]
A Taiwanese man died of pneumonia in Can Tho city Monday [5 Nov 2007], local doctors, who suspect he had contracted bird flu, said. The man was taken to the city General Hospital at 3:00 am Monday with high fever and breathing problems. He died at 2:00 pm. The doctors have sent his blood samples to Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi MinhCity to test for the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, which has caused 100 infections and 46 deaths in Viet Nam in the last few years. The man's family said his father in Taiwan too was suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms.

Viet Nam – Avian Influenza
26 Oct 2007
ChinaView, Xinhua News Agency report [edited]
Bird flu outbreaks have occurred in Viet Nam's northern Cao Bang Province since 10 Oct 2007, raising the total number of localities currently affected by the disease to 3. The disease has killed or infected 480 ducks and 80 chickens raised by 13 households in Trung Khanh district, the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday [26 Oct 2007], noting that samples from the fowls have been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1. To prevent bird flu spread, local veterinary agencies have culled all ill poultry and isolated the affected areas. Now, bird flu is hitting Cao Bang, central Quang Tri Province, and southern Tra Vinh Province.

Viet Nam – Avian Influenza (TRA VINH)
11 Oct 2007
Reuters Africa [edited]
Bird flu returned to southern Viet Nam this week after an absence of 2 months, and officials warned farmers of more outbreaks as the weather cools. Tests performed at a laboratory for the Mekong delta region confirmed the H5N1 virus in the samples taken from ducks at the farm in Tra Cu district in Tra Vinh province, Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper said. At least 5 ducks were dead among 300 at the farm, officials said. A Tra Vinh Animal Health Department official said by telephone that authorities were contacting the farm owner to get more details. He said the last bird flu outbreak was found among ducks in the same district in late August [2007]. Agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat on Tue [9 Oct 2007] urged animal health authorities to step up vaccinating poultry because bird flu would soon return among unvaccinated birds, especially as the weather cooled in autumn and winter in northern provinces. Bird flu has infected 7 people in Viet Nam so far this year [2007], 4 of whom have died, bringing the death toll since late 2003 to 46.

China – Avian Influenza – Human transplacental transmission
27 Sept 2007
Reuters Foundation AlertNet [edited]
The H5N1 bird flu virus can pass through a pregnant woman's placenta to infect the fetus, researchers reported on Thursday [27 Sept 2007]. They also found evidence of what doctors had long suspected – that the virus not only affects the lungs, but also passes throughout the body into the gastrointestinal tract, the brain, liver, and blood cells.“The work helps us to understand H5N1's high fatality rate, as well as serving as model for global collaboration in the field of emerging infectious diseases," said Dr. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York, who collaborated in the study. A team at Peking University in Beijing studied tissue taken from 2 people killed by H5N1 in China - a 24-year-old pregnant woman and a 35-year-old man. The study is the first to come out of the Infectious Disease Center at Peking University in Beijing, established after the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS. The center is now looking at victims of H5N1 avian influenza. The virus mostly infects birds, but occasionally infects people and has killed 200 out of 328 infected since 2003. Because experts fear it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions, they are studying it in great detail. Jiang Gu and colleagues at Peking University looked at tissue samples from throughout the bodies of the victims. They found genetic material from the virus in the lungs, as expected, but also in the brain, the placenta, the intestines, and in immune system cells in the blood and the liver. The 4-month-old fetus, which died with its mother, was also infected, the researchers reported in the Lancet medical journal. Their findings support the theory of a "cytokine storm" -- the idea that the immune system overreacts to the virus in some cases, and sends out an overwhelming swarm of signaling chemicals that end up killing the patient. "Many people have talked about cytokine storm," Lipkin said in a telephone interview. "Here the lung findings are that the amount of damage appears to be disproportional to the number of cells that were infected. This supports the hypothesis that there might be indirect methods of damage." They also found evidence the virus had damaged immune cells including macrophages, which they said suggests the virus not only over stimulates parts of the immune system but can also suppress other parts. Previous studies of H5N1 victims have produced evidence the virus may have evaded their immune system's defenses by suppressing them. The researchers noted that no one had thought human influenza could cross the placenta and affect unborn babies. "But there just isn't that much information," Lipkin said. Reference: The Lancet 2007; 370:1137-1145 DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61515-3

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