U.S. Flu Epidemic Rises
February 24, 2008
The USA’s flu epidemic continued to grow last week, with cases mounting in every state and a dozen new deaths among children, the government’s leading flu expert said Friday.
Altogether 22 children have died of flu so far, with widespread flu activity reported in 49 states, up from 44 last week, says Nancy Cox, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention influenza division. Only Florida is reporting regional flu activity for the week ending Feb. 16th, according to the CDC.
“Influenza activity has continued to increase, but not quite as dramatically as over the previous two weeks,” she said in her weekly flu update. “We’re within the normal parameters of what we’d expect for an influenza season.”
Some Vietnamese Suspectedly Infected With Bird Flu
February 24, 2008
Vietnam’s Preventive Medicine and Environment Department has said some people hospitalized recently are suspected of having contracted bird flu, local newspaper Youth reported on Friday.
Specimens from the people, including a seven-year-old child from northern Hai Duong province, are being tested for bird flu virus strain H5N1. The child is under treatment at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in capital Hanoi.
To date, Vietnam has confirmed a total of 104 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003.
In mid-February, two local people, a 27-year-old man from northern Ninh Binh province and a 41-year-old man from northern Hai Duong province, died from bird flu. On Jan. 18, a 32-year-old ethnic man from northern Tuyen Quang province died from the disease.
Last December, after detecting no human cases of bird flu infections for nearly four months, the Health Ministry confirmed that a four-year-old boy from northern Son La province died on Dec.16, 2007 from bird flu.
Bird Flu Alert For Human Infections Raised In India
February 24, 2008
A week after lifting the ban on the sale of poultry products, the state government on Monday suddenly issued an alert on the spread of bird flu among human beings.
The health department has asked health officials to keep a watch on possible human contraction of the H5N1 virus. “We will have to be alert to prevent any such cases for the next three months,” an official said after attending a high-level meeting to assess the threat.
Health officials are extremely worried that cullers and civilians who helped out in the culling may have escaped the rigorous quarantine process. The condition of culling team members needs to be monitored very closely, doctors from all flu-hit districts suggested.
“All health officials have been instructed that if anyone comes to government healthcare centres with fever running for more than five days after having come in contact with a dead chicken, he/she should be put through all pathological tests for avian flu,” said Basab Mukherjee, a KMC executive health officer in charge of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) project in the city.
Mukherjee said the civic authorities would remain in close contact with all government hospitals and KMC health clinics for the next three months, as instructed by the state health department.
Though an alert has been sounded, the menu for the high level meeting, among other items, was egg curry. “Perhaps, it was an attempt to bring back confidence among doctors in the post flu period,” said an official who attended the meeting.
