Showing posts with label avian flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label avian flu. Show all posts

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Scientists discover astonishing flu that has recombined with swines birds and people, but say: "There's nothing to worry about."

Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

SHOOT: Here's a case of recombination and scientists are saying, "No problem." It's also something researchers haven't seen before. "No problem." The swine flu's symptoms are fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea. Nice.
clipped from health.yahoo.com

All of the seven victims recovered from the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.

Still, health officials said it's not a cause for public alarm: The five in California and two in Texas all recovered, only one person was hospitalized and testing indicates some mainstream antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.

CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.


blog it

Thursday, October 11, 2007

ALERT:Bird flu cases in Vietnam, Indonesia

1 Hour ago:
Hanoi (dpa) - After months of no reported cases of avian influenza, ducks in Vietnam's Mekong Delta have tested positive for the virus, a local official said Thursday.

Samples taken from ducks at a farm in southern Vietnam's Tra Vinh province have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus, said Le Tuyet Hong, head of the animal health department of Tra Vinh province.

"We have culled all the ducks in the farm and put a ban on transporting poultry out of the village," said Hong. "We have also disinfected the area and other farms in the entire village. We are trying to keep the outbreak from expanding to other villages as it is very easy for the virus to spread in cool weather."

The last reported outbreak of the bird flu in Vietnam was in August. The country was declared bird flu-free in September but veterinarians warned that the virus could reappear.

For Indonesia story, click here.
For more click here.
For research progress click here.