H7n9

[Microsoft]

H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Reach 38, Deaths At 10 In China; UN Concerned

Five new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China yesterday, increasing the total in the country to 38, the state-run Shanghai Daily Newspaper reported today. A 74-year-old Shanghai man died yesterday, bringing the overall death total thus far to 10.

Eastern Chinese cities that have been hardest hit have been closing live poultry markets and taking other precautions to limit the spread of the new virus. China was the epicenter of the SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed several hundred people worldwide.

H7N9 has already been hurting affecting China’s poultry and restaurant industries. Shares in Yum!, which runs the big KFC chain, closed up 0.7% yesterday although it said a day earlier same-store KFC sales in China in March fell 16% from a year earlier amid consumer worries about the flu.
In Thailand yesterday, an official from the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations expressed concern about the possible spread of the disease beyond China’s borders, the Shanghai Daily also reported. The organization is initiating surveillance programs in Myanmar, Laos andVietnam, it said.

 

[kopiuncle]

A Chinese vendor washes chicken at a poultry market that in Hefei, central China's Anhui province on April 11, 2013. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has said H7N9 bird flu poses an "exceptional situation" as the outbreak among Chinese poultry claims a 10th human victim.

"Based on the information currently available we are facing a rather exceptional situation," said OIE chief Bernard Vallat, explaining that the virus, while dangerous to humans, was hard to detect in the host, which is farm birds.

"We are dealing with an influenza virus of very low pathogenicity for poultry which has the potential to cause severe disease when it infects humans," Vallat said in a statement.

The Paris-based OIE said that, based on reports sent to it by the Chinese veterinary authorities, infected birds "do not show any visible signs of disease, making it very difficult to detect this virus in poultry."

The OIE is the world's monitor for the health of farm animals traded across borders.

Past food crises it has handled include the mad-cow scare and the H5N1 bird flu, a different strain of avian influenza that first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997.

On Thursday, China said the death toll from H7N9 reached 10 out of 38 confirmed human cases, with another fatality in Shanghai.

The virus is believed to spread to humans from birds, triggering the mass culling of poultry in several Chinese cities.

The fear is that the virus will mutate, making it transmissible from human to human.

The OIE said it had been informed of eight outbreaks of H7N9 in pigeons and chickens at Chinese markets, "all located in Shanghai and neighbouring provinces."

The possible reservoir for the virus in nature is being probed by the China Animal Disease Control Centre and China's animal health service, including a world-standard laboratory, the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute.

"At the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are working together to support China's efforts to manage this new and evolving situation," the OIE statement added.

 

[kopiuncle]

The 51-year-old Jia has been moved to ordinary ward after being treated for H7N9 infection in a hospital in Zhejiang Province.

Premier Li Keqiang said the outbreak was under control. He told a State Council meeting that efforts to prevent and contain the virus were proceeding in an orderly manner and would be extended into areas including standardization of treatment and international cooperation.

In Shanghai, a total of 18 have been infected, six of whom have resulted in death, according to a statement from the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission.

After first being diagnosed with pneumonia, a 74-year-old man surnamed Zheng tested positive for the H7N9 virus on Wednesday night.

Zheng died Thursday afternoon after rescue efforts failed.

Another patient, surnamed Jiang, began showing symptoms of fever and coughing on April 2. She also tested positive for the H7N9 virus on Wednesday.

The 83-year-old woman is receiving medical treatment and is currently in stable condition.

A 68-year-old man, surnamed Tang, also tested positive for the H7N9 virus on Wednesday.

Tang experienced a fever and muscle pain on April 4, he was later taken to the hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia. He is currently in stable condition, the statement said.

Seventy people have had close contact with the three patients, but none of them have exhibited abnormal symptoms, according to the statement.

Also on Thursday, east China's Jiangsu Province reported two new cases of H7N9 bird flu.

A 31-year-old restaurant chef in Yangzhou City and a 56-year-old teacher in Suzhou City both tested positive for the H7N9 virus around noon on Thursday, according to a statement issued by the provincial health department.

Both men are in critical condition, said the statement, noting that 52 people who have had close contact with them have not shown any abnormal symptoms.

A total of 12 cases of H7N9 bird flu have been confirmed in Jiangsu Province, including one that ended in death.

Other cases have been reported in Anhui Province, which confirmed two cases, including one death, and Zhejiang Province, which confirmed six cases, including two deaths.

In order to effectively cope with the new avian influenza, health authorities in Shanghai City and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces have agreed to form a regional mechanism for joint prevention and control of the disease.

Health authorities in these regions will strengthen information sharing and cooperation in prevention and medical treatment.

In the meantime, an expert team on H7N9 infection will be organized to offer technical support for regional prevention and control.

On Wednesday, a four-year-old boy who had tested positive for the H7N9 virus was discharged from a Shanghai hospital after he no longer tested positive for the virus.

He is the first H7N9 patient to recover and be discharged from the hospital.

 

[Microsoft]

Now spread to Beijing leow...



Beijing reports first human case of H7N9 bird flu

BEIJING: A seven-year-old girl is Beijing's first human case of H7N9 bird flu, local authorities said on Saturday as China's outbreak of the disease spread to the capital.
The girl, whose parents are poultry traders, was in a stable condition in hospital, the Beijing health bureau said. Her mother and father had been quarantined for observation but had shown no symptoms so far, it added.
She developed a fever, sore throat and headache on Thursday, it said, and her parents took her to hospital. Samples from her tested positive for H7N9 the following day, and the national disease control centre confirmed the results on Saturday.
Chinese officials announced nearly two weeks ago that they had found the H7N9 strain in humans for the first time, and the girl brought the number of confirmed infections to 44, 11 of whom have died.
All previous cases in the outbreak had been confined to eastern China, hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the capital.
Experts fear the prospect of such viruses mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which would have the potential to trigger a pandemic.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that there was as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of H7N9.
Health authorities in China say they do not know exactly how the virus is spreading, but it is believed to be crossing to humans from birds, triggering mass poultry culls in several cities.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0) has said H7N9 shows "affinity" to humans while causing "very mild or no disease" in infected poultry, making finding the source of transmission more difficult.
The Beijing health bureau statement did not say whether the girl or her family members had recently travelled to any of the areas where H7N9 infections have been identified.
But Cheng Jun, vice-director of Ditan hospital, where the girl was being treated, told state broadcaster CCTV: "Ever since the outbreak started in Shanghai we have been making preparations."
Beijing, which has a population of more than 20 million, has already banned live poultry trading and pigeon releases, the health bureau said.
Authorities have also ordered stepped-up surveillance of wild birds in the city and people at risk of infection, such as poultry farmers, transporters and vendors, it added.
Users of China's hugely popular Twitter-like weibos expressed concern. One urged people to "take more rest and go out less".
"This is the first case in Beijing. It appeared in northern China. This is a bad sign," posted another.
Shanghai has had 20 confirmed cases so far and was the first place to halt live poultry trading and cull birds last week, followed by other cities in eastern China.
In 2003 Chinese authorities were accused of trying to cover up the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which went on to kill about 800 people globally.
But China has been praised for transparency over H7N9, with the WHO saying it was pleased with the level of information sharing and US scientists congratulating it for "the apparent speed with which theH7N9 virus was identified" in a New England Journal of Medicine article.
China has said it expects to have a vaccine ready in seven months but in the article the US experts said developing one could take "many months".
US fast food giant KFC, already hit by an earlier scandal in China over antibiotics in chicken, saw March sales in the country plunge 16 percent, with parent Yum! Brands saying bird flu publicity had "a significant, negative impact".
Japan has given itself new powers aimed at curbing outbreaks of infectious diseases in people as it watches the outbreak spread in its giant neighbour, and Hong Kong has stepped up H7N9 testing in live poultry imported from mainland China.


- AFP/ck

 

[kopiuncle]

look like a biological warfare against the chinese people....

 

[SeaSonicX]

omg umbrella corp really exist?! prep for zombocalypse in china

 

[Romagnum]

I've been warned many times "Be careful what you wish for."

Most of us wish for a smaller sustainable population with comfortable standrad of living now that this island is way overcrowded

What if, touch wood, H7N9 came and wiped out half of the population and does that? Scary shit.

Let's hope this one goes away

 

[Microsoft]

51 kena 11 death...

China H7N9 bird flu spreads to new province


BEIJING: China's H7N9 bird flu virus spread to a new province on Sunday, with state media reporting two human cases in central Henan just west of the area where the disease has been centred.
"Two new cases of H7N9 bird flu infection were reported in central China's Henan province on Sunday," the Xinhua state news agency said.
Until Saturday, when one case was reported in the capital of Beijing, all other instances had occurred in the eastern city of Shanghai and nearby Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces hundreds of miles (kilometres) away.
Altogether 51 people have been infected and 11 have died of the disease since Chinese authorities announced two weeks ago they had found H7N9 in humans for the first time.
Experts fear the prospect of such viruses mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which would have the potential to trigger a pandemic.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week there was as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of H7N9.
Health authorities in China say they do not know exactly how the virus is spreading, but it is believed to be crossing from birds to humans, prompting mass poultry culls in several cities.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has said H7N9 shows "affinity" to humans while causing "very mild or no disease" in infected poultry, making it more difficult to find the source of transmission.
In 2003 Chinese authorities were accused of trying to cover up the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which went on to kill about 800 people worldwide.
But China has been praised for transparency over H7N9, with the WHO saying it was pleased with the level of information sharing and US scientists congratulating it for "the apparent speed with which the H7N9 virus was identified" in a New England Journal of Medicine article.
China has said it expects to have a vaccine ready in seven months but in the article the US experts said developing one could take "many months".

 

[Microsoft]

[h=1]Urgent Warning On New Bird Flu H7N9: Could Pose Global Threat[/h]
As new death reports come in, a team of experts from China published a scary report yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggesting that the new H7N9 avian flu virus is even more deadly than previously believed.
The conclusions: H7N9 causes unusually severe respiratory infection, sepsis and brain damage, and appears to be resistant to vaccination and treatment.
But here’s where it gets really worrisome. In a commentary on “global concerns” pertaining to H7N9, also in the NEJM, influenza experts Timothy Uyeki, MD and Nancy Cox discuss the potential of H7H9 to cause a pandemic (a fast-moving global epidemic) and warn that this possibility is real.

Given the severity and speed with which H7N9 is infecting and killing people, Uyeki and Cox write, “It is possible that these severely ill patients represent the tip of the iceberg and that there are many more as-yet-undetected mild and asymptomatic infections.”
With today’s toll now at 11 deaths and 43 people infected, the threat is getting real.
Previously, concerns about H7N9 centered primarily around whether the virus was capable of human-to-human transmission. Because cases were limited to one area of China and because this type of avian flu appeared to be transmitted solely from bird to human, experts were telling us not to worry, that it should be possible to contain.
However, as early as last week, the CDC warned about the possibility of the virus continuing to mutate in ways that could make it more and more dangerous.

What the Researchers Found
In an analysis of the virological data and circumstances surrounding the first three fatalities, a large team of Chinese researchers found that the patients became ill quickly, developed very severe pneumonia and upper respiratory distress, and their condition deteriorated very quickly with sepsis and failure of multiple organs. Particularly worrying is that two of the three developed encephalopathy, or infection of the membrane surrounding the brain.
Some of the background information in the report also offers reason for concern. Yes, all three of the victims had previously existing health conditions; one had COPD, and two had hepatitis B. One was obese. But while one patient was 87, the other two were only 27 and 35. And while two of the three had had contact with poultry in the weeks before falling ill (one was a butcher, the other had been in a poultry shop), one had no record of contact with birds.
Why Experts Are So Worried
The NEJM report contained extensive data and analysis of the genetic sequence of H7N9 and the history of development of H7 viruses. Here are just a few of the conclusions that might make your hair stand on end:
1. Infected chickens and other birds don’t show symptoms. The H7N9 virus will infect chickens with asymptomatic illness, so that it spreads widely through poultry flocks without farmers’ knowledge. Quote: “H7N9 viruses are a low-pathogenic avian influenza A virus and that infection of wild birds and domestic poultry would therefore result in asymptomatic or mild avian disease, potentially leading to a “silent” widespread epizootic in China and neighboring countries.”
2. The H7N9 spreads more easily to people than similar viruses. Quote: “The gene sequences also indicate that these viruses may be better adapted than other avian influenza viruses to infecting mammals.”
3. Vaccines developed for other H7 viruses aren’t effective. Clinical trials so far have shown that vaccines developed against other H7 strains of influenza are showing extremely limited response against H7N9.
4. Existing flu tests in the U.S. won’t detect the H7N9 virus. Quote: “Since available diagnostic assays used in clinical care (e.g., rapid influenza diagnostic tests) may lack sensitivity to identify H7N9 virus and since existing molecular assays will identify H7N9 virus as a nonsubtypeable influenza A virus, critical public health issue is the rapid development, validation, and deployment of molecular diagnostic assays that can specifically detect H7N9 viral RNA.”
Reassuringly, the researchers go on to say that such a test has already been developed in China and is hopefully on the way here.
5. No Vaccine for months. While news reports have optimistically touted efforts to create a vaccine against H7N9, Cox and Uyeki warn that this will take many months to do. Chinese officials announced yesterday they expect to have a vaccine ready in 7 months.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

could we be witnessing the start of the zionist 'depopulation programme'' ?

 

[po2wq]

...

y u evryday oso post chicken disease? ...

 

[Microsoft]

y u evryday oso post chicken disease? ...

Becoz bery soon we join de chicken getting their flu...dey kena leow boh taichi...we kena up lorry...haizz

No goot meh? At least chiu noe when 2 go buy mask...:p

 

[Microsoft]

[h=1]H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Jump To 60 In China; Shanghai Reports Two New Deaths[/h]

Eleven new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China today, bringing the total in the country to 60, including 13 deaths, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Two of today’s new cases are in Henan province, the first time that H7N9 has been discovered there. Two new deaths were reported in Shanghai, bringing the number of dead in the city to nine, more than any other city, according to Xinhua figures.

Beijing, China’s capital, announced yesterday that it would close markets that sell live poultry and ban live poultry trading in a move to try to halt the spread of the flu after the city’s first H7N9 case was discovered there on Saturday. A seven-year-old girl is Beijing’s first to fall ill; she is hospitalized and reportedly in stable condition.
With the disease spreading northward, a geographical spot between Beijing and Henan of note in the coming days may be Shandong province, an important supplier of chicken meat in the country.
The closure of live poultry markets in Beijing will put new pressure on a poultry industry that is struggling to handle chickens ready to be sold but have no buyers. China is the world’s No. 2 producer of chicken after the United States. Shanghai has up to 600,000 such chickens, and city processors have been deep freezing them. (See earlier post here.)
Eastern Chinese cities where most H7N9 cases have been concentrated have also closed live poultry markets and are taking other precautions to limit the spread of the new virus. China was the epicenter of the SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed several hundred people worldwide.
H7N9 has already been hurting affecting China’s poultry and restaurant industries. Among related New York-traded companies, shares in Yum!, which runs the big KFC chain, managed to close up 0.8% on Friday although it said last week same-store KFC sales in China in March fell 16% from a year earlier amid consumer worries about the flu.

 

[Big Sexy]

ms, why no update from you???

15 April 2013 - As of 15 April 2013 (18:00 CET), the National Health and Family Planning Commission notified WHO of an additional nine laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with influenza A(H7N9) virus. Of the latest laboratory confirmed cases, four are from Zhejiang, three are from Shanghai and two from Jiangsu.

The patients include:

a 64-year-old woman from Zhejiang who became ill on 6 April 2013;
a 62-year-old woman from Zhejiang who became ill on 29 March 2013;
a 75-year-old man from Zhejiang who became ill on 6 April 2013;
a 79-year-old man from Zhejiang who became ill on 9 April 2013;
a 73-year-old man from Shanghai who became ill on 5 April 2013;
a 54-year-old man from Shanghai who became ill on 8 April 2013;
a 78-year-old man from Shanghai who became ill on 4 April 2013;
a 50-year-old man from Jiangsu who became ill on 1 April 2013;
a 26-year-old man from Jiangsu who became ill on 8 April 2013.

Additionally two patients earlier reported from Shanghai have died.

To date, a total of 60 patients have been laboratory-confirmed with influenza A(H7N9) virus in China; including 13 deaths. More than a thousand close contacts of the confirmed cases are being closely monitored.

Investigations into the possible sources of infection and reservoirs of the virus are ongoing. Until the source of infection has been identified, it is expected that there will be further cases of human infection with the virus in China. So far, there is no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission.

WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event, nor does it recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied.
About this Disease Outbreak News

1. WHO is currently publishing information on laboratory confirmed cases received through the official notification from the Chinese National International Health Regulations (IHR) Focal Point once a day. This formal notification and publication follows verification of the information, and may therefore come after, or not include, some cases reported through public media and other sources.

2. To date, there is limited information to determine whether the reported number of cases represents some or all of the cases actually occurring. As some relatively mild cases of illness have now been reported, it is possible that there are other such cases that have not been identified and reported.

3. If the current pattern of sporadic infections continues, WHO will cease frequent reporting of case numbers, and focus its Disease Outbreak News on new developments or changes in the pattern or presentation of infections.

 

[Microsoft]

Ah BS...yesterday de fig neber go up alot..so moi din update...but de report dis morning abit worrying...moi think chiu better avoid fresh atb kok kok kway for the time being...might come with freebies...:p


[h=1]H7N9 bird flu poised to spread[/h]
The H7N9 avian flu virus greatly expanded its geographical range over the weekend, with two new human cases reported in Beijing in the north of China, and another two in Henan province in the centre. Up until now, the virus had been restricted to Shanghai and neighbouring regions on the Eastern seaboard. Experts worry that this new development may be the start of an expansion that may see H7N9 quickly fan out across large areas of China, and beyond.
There is still no evidence of any sustained human-to-human spread of the H7N9 virus. But the World Health Organisation confirmed on Saturday that Chinese authorities are investigating two suspicious clusters of human cases. Though these can arise by infection from a common source, they can also signal that limited human-to-human transmission has occurred.
"I think we need to be very, very concerned" about the latest developments, says Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau also announced today that a 4-year-old contact of a 7-year-old girl who had been hospitalized with the virus tested positive for the virus too, despite showing no symptoms. This is the first asymptomatic case. Along with several mild cases already reported, it suggests that the virus might be more widespread among humans than the numbers of reported cases suggest.
Perhaps counterintuitively, such mild cases are "very worrying", says Farrar. That is because reduced virulence can often point to further genetic adaptation of the virus to infection of human beings — and thus greater potential to spread.
Experts say the surge in human cases is troubling, with 63 infections and 14 deaths reported as of Monday, up from 24 cases barely a week ago. China reported its first cases of H7N9 on 31 March; in just two weeks the number of H7N9 cases has exceeded the 45 H5N1 cases China has reported over the decade since that virus began causing outbreaks.
If that pace keeps up or accelerates, H7N9 "could be a significant public health problem” even if it remains an infection that people catch from animals, says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.
Genetic analyses of the new virus show that it has several mutations making it more adapted to humans than is H5N1. "This looks very different from H5N1," says Farrar. "We never saw this number of presumed avian/animal to human transmissions in such a short space of time."
H7N9 is proving a more difficult foe in other ways too. Concern that the virus would be next to impossible to track or control because it does not cause serious illness in poultry and other birds has been reinforced by the new cases in Beijing and Henan province. These appeared out of the blue.
In the case of H5N1, outbreaks in poultry precede human outbreaks and tell public health workers where the public health threat lies. But with H7N9, it is only the appearance of new human cases that shows where the silent spread in birds or other animal reservoirs is heading, says Vincent Martin, interim head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisations's Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) in Rome.
Chinese authorities have already identified H7N9 in birds in live bird markets in Shanghai and other cities. But despite intensive surveillance of poultry, wild birds, pigs and other animals, the animal reservoirs remain largely unknown. "With so little knowledge of the possible reservoir host, we're a bit walking in the mist here," says Marius Gilbert, an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.
The virus may have reached Beijing and Henan provinces via the poultry trade, which is extensive in China, with trade routes criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country. That could mean that the main reservoir of virus in animals is still restricted to the Shanghai region.
But it is also possible, Gilbert says, that H7N9 has been spreading silently in poultry or other animals over a far greater geographical area than thought. If so, " new cases will keep popping up left right and centre".
Either mechanism could transport the virus far beyond China's borders. "Neighbouring countries need to be on high alert," says Martin, adding that FAO is in daily contact with countries as far away as in Africa, to discuss the surveillance and other measures needed to try to prevent the introduction of the virus.
Nailing down the transmission routes of the virus in China alone is a huge challenge; the country is vast, and home to some 6 billion poultry as well as many migratory and other wild birds that may have a role in spreading the virus. On Wednesday, Martin will convene a meeting of international experts to be at the FAO in Rome to help draw up surveillance guidelines for China and the wider region.
Despite the difficulties of detecting H7N9 in poultry and birds, Martin remains optimistic that so long as the virus does not start to spread among humans the potential number of human cases can be curtailed by taking urgent tough measures — such as keeping poultry flocks away from wild birds and people and restructuring its live bird markets.
"It's too soon to say how big a threat H7N9 poses because we don't know how many animals of which species have it, how genetically diverse it is, or what the geographic extent is," says Lipsitch, "It looks as though it will be at least as challenging as H5N1."

 

[Big Sexy]

nebermind ms, cannot eat ah tiong bu still got siam bu ma.. equally goot

Ah BS...yesterday de fig neber go up alot..so moi din update...but de report dis morning abit worrying...moi think chiu better avoid fresh atb kok kok kway for the time being...might come with freebies...:p

 

[yinyang]

nebermind ms, cannot eat ah tiong bu still got siam bu ma.. equally goot

Nah, MS gone to dark side ...since convert to ah neh bu :p

 

[Big Sexy]

when will he start a thread on TB huh???

Nah, MS gone to dark side ...since convert to ah neh bu :p

 

[saratogas]

During the last bird flu... Gahment took to opportunity to get rid off Ubin farm... If this virus really come, can they use of the opportunity to unwelcomed poor foreigners?

 

[Microsoft]

nebermind ms, cannot eat ah tiong bu still got siam bu ma.. equally goot

Back to de basic...moi still find matlaysia girl bery goot...

Nah, MS gone to dark side ...since convert to ah neh bu :p

Oi...no joke...north indian damn siok...:p