Malaysia reports highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu: OIE
PARIS (Reuters) - Malaysia has reported an outbreak of a highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus in the northern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Wednesday, citing a report from the Malaysian agriculture ministry. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - March 8, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Cambodia reports outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in southeast
PARIS (Reuters) - Cambodia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus among backyard poultry in the southeastern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - January 31, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Indian state orders poultry cull after bird flu outbreak
BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - An eastern Indian state ordered the cull of more than 2,500 chickens and other poultry after four dead crows and three dead poultry tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, officials said on Tuesday. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - December 27, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
[In Depth] New bird flu strain brings death and questions
The avian influenza strain H5N8 has spread from Asia to many countries in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, infecting both wild birds and poultry; hundreds of thousands of birds have been culled to halt the epidemic. H5N8 is a distant descendant of the H5N1 virus that devastated flocks across much of the world and killed hundreds of people more than a decade ago. The good news is that so far, it does not seem to infect humans. But its rapid spread and increasing deadliness to birds have mystified experts. And it underscores that avian influenza, once an occasional crisis, is now endemic in the burgeoning flocks of...
Source: ScienceNOW - December 15, 2016 Category: Science Authors: Kai Kupferschmidt Tags: Infectious Disease Source Type: news
France finds mild bird flu strain in southwest
PARIS (Reuters) - France has found a case of mild H5N1 bird flu in the southwest of the country, an official report showed on Monday, the same region that has been hit this month by a more virulent strain of the disease. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - December 12, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Germany detects H5N1 bird flu on poultry farm in Brandenburg
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany reported a first case of the contagious bird flu strain H5N1 on Friday on a small poultry farm in the northeastern state of Brandenburg, the state's consumer protection ministry said. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - December 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Assessing Fever in Returning Travelers: Part II
Zika continues to be the virus of the day for returning travelers, but there are several other diseases that we need to consider in these patients when they present to us in the emergency department. Chikungunya is epidemic in many of the same countries as Zika and can be even more devastating. And Avian and MERS-CoV is still present in many countries. Unlike patients infected with Zika virus, these patients do require isolation to protect our health care staff from infection.
Chikungunya
Chikungunya, which means “to walk bent over,” was likely endemic but unrecognized in the United States before the mosquito er...
Source: EPMonthly.com - November 25, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Matt McGahen Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Your Flu Risk May Depend On When You Were Born
The year in which you were born may predict your risk of getting some types of the flu, a new study of people in Asia and the Middle East suggests.
Researchers found that the people in this study who were born before 1968 were less susceptible to a certain strain of the flu than those born in 1968 or later, because this older group had been more exposed to a similar strain as children.
In the study, the researchers looked at data from more than 1,400 people, predominantly in Asia and the Middle East, who had been infected at any point in their lives with two strains of the bird flu called H5N1 and H7N9.
The new findings co...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - November 15, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
First time flu infection may affect lifetime immunity
Conclusion
This modelling study shows how the strains of influenza A – "bird flu" – circulating when a person is born give them lifelong protection against new subtypes with the same H protein groups. The researchers call this immune imprinting.
This may help to explain the high severity and mortality rate seen among certain groups. For example, the massive flu pandemic of 1918 was an H1N1 strain.
This had a very high fatality rate among young adults, which the researchers consider may have been because when they were born (between 1880 and 1900), H3 was the dominant strain. Therefore they had no protection w...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Source Type: news
Childhood infections provide lifelong protection against flu viruses that come from animals
Exposure to influenza viruses during childhood gives people partial protection for the rest of their lives against distantly related influenza viruses,according to a new study in the journal Science.Scientists from UCLA and the University of Arizona analyzed data from all known human cases of two types of avian influenza — more than 1,400 people in all — and found evidence of previously unrecognized human immunity against several viruses that circulate in animals but have not previously circulated in humans. They also discovered that people born before 1968 are more susceptible to certain viruses, while people b orn du...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - November 11, 2016 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
[Research Article] Potent protection against H5N1 and H7N9 influenza via childhood hemagglutinin imprinting
Two zoonotic influenza A viruses (IAV) of global concern, H5N1 and H7N9, exhibit unexplained differences in age distribution of human cases. Using data from all known human cases of these viruses, we show that an individual’s first IAV infection confers lifelong protection against severe disease from novel hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes in the same phylogenetic group. Statistical modeling shows that protective HA imprinting is the crucial explanatory factor, and it provides 75% protection against severe infection and 80% protection against death for both H5N1 and H7N9. Our results enable us to predict age distributions of s...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 10, 2016 Category: Science Authors: Katelyn M. Gostic Source Type: news
From linearity to complexity: emergent characteristics of the 2006 Avian Influenza Response System in Turkey - Celik S, Corbacioglu S.
This paper examines inter-organizational coordination to diminish local communities' vulnerability to the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus. Avian Influenza caused an important health crisis in Turkey in early 2006. It was a significant threat to both human and a... (Source: SafetyLit)
Source: SafetyLit - September 9, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Tags: Disaster Preparedness Source Type: news
How Effective is Oseltamivir?
Discussion
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu®) is an oral neuraminidase inhibitor of influenza viruses types A and B. It first came on the market in Switzerland in 1999 and currently is used around the world along with other neuraminidase inhibitors to treat seasonal and pandemic influenza.
Oseltamivir is easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and circulates to the liver where it is converted to its active metabolite oseltamivir carboxylate (OC). In adults approximately 75% of the oral medication is converted and it then travels to the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Unchanged oseltamivir is eliminated in the urine. ...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - September 5, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Togo slaughters 11,500 chickens after H5N1 bird flu outbreak
LOME (Reuters) - Togolese authorities said on Saturday they had slaughtered 11,500 chickens in response to an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu at two farms in the capital Lome and the town of Adetikope, about 25 km north of Lome. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - August 27, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus – China
On 11 August 2016, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China notified WHO of five additional cases of laboratory-confirmed human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus, including one death. (Source: WHO Avian Influenza)
Source: WHO Avian Influenza - August 17, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: avian influenza [subject], bird flu, avian flu, fowl plague, influenza in birds, avian bird flu, h5n1, avian influenza [subject], bird flu, avian flu, fowl plague, influenza in birds, avian bird flu, h5n1, influenza [subject], flu, seasonal influenza, pan Source Type: news
