Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu - 2008

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

I have emails sent out to help illuminate this situation.

There are many questions:

1) Is the reporting accurate?

2) If it is, then when did Bangladesh inform WHO or the CDC of this situation?

3) Were there any other members of the child's family, neighbors, health care workers, etc. tested? Did they exhibit any unusual physical symptoms around the time this child became sick? Since then?

4) Contacts to poultry?

5) Found during a routine check-up???

6) Based on the answers to the above, I have many more questions depending on the responses.

There have been several reports and little conflicting data. The most likely scenario is the child presented in January, along with many other suspect cases. He recovered (with or without Tamiflu treatment). Samples were collected and eventually sent to the CDC for additional testing, and the CDC just found the positive, so it was announced today. Media reports inidicate the family bought chickens, which of course says little. In January crows were dropping dead in Dhaka, and such birds could be a likely source. My guess is that there will be little more data than the above speculation.

[Treyfish]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh elected to WHO Executive Board




UNB, Dhaka



Bangladesh has been elected to the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization (WHO) as a member for the period 2008-11.

The election took place on Tuesday in Geneva during the on-going session of the World Health Assembly, the highest governing body of the WHO.

The EB, comprises of thirty-four members, follows up on the decisions of the World Health Assembly and discusses various topics, including health policy, health services, access to medicine and tropical and emerging diseases.

The EB also looks after the programme budget of the WHO. http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/200...2/news0402.htm

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

First human case of H5N1 Bird flu found in Bangladesh

22/05/2008 - 4:33:25 PM

Bangladesh’s first human case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected, health officials said today, calling on residents not to panic.

A child from the capital Dhaka was found to be infected by the virus in January and treated for respiratory trouble, said a statement from the Directorate General of Health Services, adding that the child was recovering.

The details were released after Bangladesh received confirmation from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the statement said.

The child’s name, age, or other details about the case were not released.
Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus – which began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 – could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic that kills millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

In its latest report released at the end of April the World Health Organisation said 382 people have come down with bird flu since 2003, and 241 of them have died.

Bangladesh is the 15th country to report a human case of virus, according to the WHO.

Experts say an outbreak could be particularly calamitous for Bangladesh, a nation of some 150 million people.

“It’s a very, very bad signal for us,” said M.M. Khan, an adviser to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association.

“Any widespread outbreak could be disastrous for Bangladesh because of high concentration of population and poorly equipped public health care system,” he said.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh’s health officials said there was no cause for alarm.

“There is no reason to panic. The situation is under control,” said the statement, signed by Moazzem Hossain, the director of the Centre for Disease Control.

http://www.eecho.ie/news/story/?trs=mhgbmhauidmh

[Giuseppe]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

A child from the capital Dhaka was found to be infected by the virus in January and treated for respiratory trouble, said a statement from the Directorate General of Health Services, adding that the child was recovering.

The child was recovering... for months? If no accurate informations are available for this case, why do Directorate talk about?

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh says child recovers from bird flu

Thu May 22, 2008 9:48am EDT
(adds details)

DHAKA, May 22 (Reuters) - Bangladesh said on Thursday a child infected with bird flu, the country's first reported human case of the virus, had recovered.

"The child was found infected by H5N1 but after treatment he has recovered and is now doing well," Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Dhaka-based Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research, told Reuters.

He said the case was detected recently during a routine check-up, but did not give details.

Bird flu was first detected in Bangladesh in March last year, and since then the authorities have culled around 2 million chickens and destroyed more than 2 million eggs.

Avian influenza has spread through 47 of Bangladesh's 64 districts causing losses of about 45 billion taka ($650 million) to the growing poultry sector, which accounts for 1.6 percent of the impoverished nation's gross domestic product.

But there had been no report of further spread of the virus in the country since early April this year.

About 60 percent of the country's more than 150,000 poultry farms have been closed, making more than 1.5 million people jobless.

Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic, especially in countries such as Bangladesh where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry.

The virus rarely infects people, but there have been 382 human cases worldwide since 2003, including 241 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed, Masud Karim and Ruma Paul; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Alex Richardson)

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USDHA264384

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Child infected with bird flu virus cured

Staff Correspondent


The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday said a child was infected with the deadly H5N1, the strain of bird flu that infects people, in January this year and was cured before diagnosis.

The DGHS, as part of its routine surveillance, sent a swab with samples from naso-pharyngeal of the 16-month-old boy to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta which confirmed the H5N1 infection Wednesday.

"When the child came to us it was diagnosed with strain A positive but the H5 was found negative. However, one and a half months later when we sent the sample to Atlanta, as part of our routine surveillance, it was confirmed after culturing the virus that it was H5 positive," said Prof Mahmudur Rahman, director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). He said Bangladesh has no proper facilities to culture viruses.

The boy, who lives in Kamalapur in Dhaka, was cured without any medicine for Influenza. He was provided with medicines for respiratory infection for 14 days, he said adding that perhaps the infection was not that strong. The chances of survival after H5N1 strain infection is 40 percent across the globe, he said.

As the particular child was not considered a suspected H5N1 infection case, its samples was not sent abroad at that time, he added.

A press statement from the DGHS yesterday said following an investigation of DGHS and ICDDR,B, it was confirmed that the child is now totally cured.

The National Advisory Committee meeting on Avian Influenza yesterday reviewed the overall bird flu situation in the country. The meeting decided to strengthen DGHS's steps to combat Avian Influenza.

Experts in the meeting also said the Avian Influenza situation of the country is under control and there is nothing to be worried about.

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=37815

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05220806/H5N1_Dhaka_Mild.html

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh toddler 'has bird flu'
<!--Smvb--><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom><!--Smvb-->By Mark Dummett
BBC News, Dhaka <!--Emvb--></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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The Bangladeshi health ministry says that a 16-month-old boy has been confirmed as the country's first human case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
It said that the boy, who lives in a slum in the capital Dhaka, had recovered after treatment.
The government has always seen it as simply a matter of time before a person here was infected by the H5N1 virus.
But still, the troubling thing is that the unnamed youngster was infected in the first place.
Alarming rate
The authorities say that he does not live on, or near a chicken farm, but in one of the capital's crowded and unhygienic slums.
The health ministry says it will step up its monitoring of such places.
After being first discovered in Bangladesh just over a year ago, bird flu has spread at an alarming rate - infecting chickens, ducks and wild birds in more than two-thirds of country's districts, as well as neighbouring parts of India.
The impact has been massive, but until now, largely economic.
According to government figures more than a million birds have been culled, $60m lost, and more than one and a half million people put out of work.
Bird flu has been able to spread so quickly simply because there are so many people, and so many chicken farms squeezed together into this relatively small country.
Some farmers complain that the government response has been hindered by a lack of resources and corruption. It says it has done all it can - and that there is no reason for people to be alarmed.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7415553.stm

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday said that a child was infected with H5N1, a deadly strain of the bird flu virus, in January but recovered after 14 days of treatment.

The DGHS and the ICDDR, B have confirmed that the child is doing well.

The child was not named in the statement and was diagnosed with having the deadly virus by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.



An advisory committee on avian influenza discussed overall management of bird flu.

Experts at the meeting said the situation was "fully under control".

"There is nothing to panic," the statement said.

Meanwhile, in the recent days the Government culled hundreds of thousands of birds after the detection of avian influenza last year.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/05/23/news0407.htm

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Bangladesh reports its first human H5N1 case

May 22, 2008 (CIDRAP News) ? Bangladesh has become the 15th country to have a human case of H5N1 avian influenza, this one in a 16-month-old boy who became ill in January but recovered, according to news services.
The boy's case was confirmed only yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report quoting Saluddin Khan, a government official. The child is from Dhaka, the capital, the story said.
Bangladesh, which had its first H5N1 poultry outbreaks in February 2007, weathered widespread outbreaks in poultry during the past winter. Fifty of the country's 64 districts were affected and 40% of its poultry farms were closed at the peak of the outbreaks, AFP reported. Bangladesh filed its latest report of poultry outbreaks with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in late April.
West Bengal province of India, which neighbors Bangladesh, has also battled numerous poultry outbreaks of H5N1 in recent months. India has not yet reported any human cases.
The AFP story said Bangladesh has set up isolation units at all public hospitals to prepare for possible H5N1 cases. "Right now everything is under control. We have trained doctors and readied hospitals to tackle any new detection," Mahmurdur Rahman, head of the country's Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research, told AFP.
In other developments, Indonesia's National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Influenza recently confirmed that a 15-year-old girl from South Jakarta who died May 12 had an H5N1 infection.
The girl was admitted to Gandaria Hospital on May 8 with a fever and cough, said a statement on the committee's Web site. She was referred to Persahabatan Hospital May 11. Including her case, Indonesia has had 134 H5N1 cases and 109 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet included either of the new cases in its global H5N1 count, which stands at 382 cases with 241 deaths.
See also:
WHO's H5N1 case count

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/may2208avian.html

[Snowy Owl]

Bangladesh confirms first human bird flu case

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Bangladesh confirms first human bird flu case

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http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/engli...nt_8230397.htm

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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="lt14" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="97%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="lt14"> DHAKA, May 22 (Xinhua)

Bangladesh's Health Ministry Thursday confirmed the country's first human case of bird flu as tests on a sixteen-month-old female baby proved H5N1 positive.

A Health Ministry release said the girl aged 16 months was attacked by the virus in the capital Dhaka in January this year. She developed respiratory problem but got cured through normal treatment.


The child recovered after 14 days of treatment, a senior official of the Health Ministry told Xinhua.


Officials of the health ministry have confirmed that the child is now doing well.


However, doctors suspected the case and her blood sample was sent to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, the United States, the release said.


The CDC Wednesday reported to the Bangladesh government that it is a confirmed case of H5N1, a deadly strain of the bird flu virus.

As per World Health Organization rules, the Bangladesh government announced the detection within 24 hours of the medical finding.

Earlier totally 3736 people were suspected to have been infected by bird flu virus, but tests on them all proved negative.


The avian influenza virus was first detected in a poultry farm near capital city Dhaka in March 2007.


The situation deteriorated early this year as the virus spreaded fast across the country with the H5NI virus outbreaks reported in 47 out of the country's 64 districts between December 2007 and February 2008.


About 50 percent of the country's 150,000 poultry farms were closed and more than 1.5 million chickens, ducks and pigeons were culled as of the end of March this year.


With the rise of temperature in March and April, bird flu started to ease off, experts said.

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

WHO confirms first bird flu case in Bangladesh

23 May 2008

Source: Reuters

GENEVA, May 23 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday confirmed the first human case of bird flu in Bangladesh, a baby boy who has recovered, bringing the number of countries which have recorded human infections to 15.

Bangladesh authorities announced the case on Thursday, and the WHO said it had been confirmed by a laboratory at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

"The case was confirmed by CDC in Atlanta. It is the first in Bangladesh," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.

The 16-month-old boy was infected in January and has since recovered, he said. Bangladesh authorities informed the United Nations agency promptly about the case but it took time for the international laboratory testing to be completed, Hartl said.

The H5N1 virus was first detected in Bangladesh in March last year and since then the authorities have culled around 2 million chickens and destroyed more than 2 million eggs.

Avian influenza has spread through 47 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, causing losses of about 45 billion taka ($650 million) for the growing poultry sector, which accounts for 1.6 percent of the impoverished nation's gross domestic product.

"When a disease is so widespread in poultry, it is really a matter of time before you get a human case. It shows the need to control the disease in animals if you are going to reduce the chances of transmission to humans," Hartl said.

The virus rarely infects people but experts fear it could mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic, which could kill millions of people.

Prior to the Bangladesh case, 14 countries had reported 382 cases including 241 fatalities since 2003, according to the WHO. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2353545.htm

[Laidback Al]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Situation reports from WHO Bangladesh: http://www.whoban.org/

partial report from http://www.whoban.org/pdf/SitRep%20on%20AI%20on%2024%20April%202008.pdf



Could the 1 fever case from January be the current confirmed case? What about the 5 from February?

[HenryN]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05230803/H5N1_Dhaka_Delay.html

[gsgs]

Re: Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu

tests completed/contacts:
----------------------------
Mar07-Dec07 : 0/130
Jan08 : 167/620
Feb08 : 1244/1961
Mar08 : 1133/923
Apr08 : 207/78


so, most open tests seem to be from Mar-Jan, while most later tests are already completed.
Presumably including most of the 5 fever-cases from February.
Seems that they first tested the later cases and now go backward.