From the Nando net
CDC says new flu strain shows
epidemic risk -
By MIKE COOPER, Reuters:
A child in Hong Kong who died after being infected with an influenza virus previously seen only in animals is likely an isolated case, but it illustrates the risk of a sudden flu epidemic, U.S. health experts said Thursday. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they still do not know how a child who died in Hong Kong in May became infected with the type A (H5N1) flu strain previously seen only in birds and pigs. "Fortunately for us, the H5N1 virus does not appear to have the ability to spread from person to person," Dr. Nancy Cox, the chief of the CDC's influenza branch, told an advisory committee on immunization practices.
The three-year-old child in Hong Kong died May 21, only 12 days after he began suffering from a fever, sore throat and cough. Researchers said they are not sure if the child's illness is linked to outbreaks of the flu virus on poultry farms between March and May. "We know that the child was in contact with or proximate to ill chickens shortly before he became sick," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the chief of the CDC's influenza epidemiology section, said. "What we have been unable to establish, but are trying to establish, is whether those chickens had any evidence of H5N1 infections. "
CDC researchers, working with the Hong Kong Department of Health, said they have found no other human traces of the flu strain. They are developing a more precise laboratory test for 2,000 serum samples taken from family members, school children, neighbors and health care workers who came into contact with the victim. "There have been no reported unusual increases in influenza-like illness cases" in Hong Kong or south China, where surveillance was stepped up after the child's death, Fukuda said. However, health experts warn that the influenza virus can suddenly change through "antigenic shifts" where gene segments are exchanged between human and avian or swine influenza viruses.
Officials are preparing a contingency plan for the next time a sudden outbreak of Type A flu occurs, such as the 1968 epidemic of Hong Kong flu that killed 46,500 people, or the 1957 epidemic of Asian flu that caused 98,000 deaths. Dr. Raymond Strikas, co-chair of a working group on influenza preparedness and emergency response, said it is a question of "when....not if" a flu strain will suddenly infect all age groups on a global scale. -- Dr. James Chin Natural Health and Alternative Therapies....