AVIAN FLU UPDATE

[dothedd]

March 12, 2012

Two more human cases of bird flu were reported today


Human infections with H5N1 avian influenza reported in Indonesia and Vietnam


The World Health Organization (WHO) updated the cumulative numbers of human cases of avian influenza, or as it is more commonly known as, bird flu Monday.

As of today, there have been 18 cases of human infection with bird flu in six different countries reported to the WHO in 2012. Of these cases, 10 of them ended as fatalities.

Two of the cases were reported on the WHOs Global Alert and Response (GAR) Monday, one in Indonesia and one in Vietnam.

In the Indonesian case, the Ministry of Health of Indonesia reports of a 24-year-old female from Bengkulu Province who developed fever on 23 February 2012 and was hospitalized on the following day. She had breathing difficulty, her condition deteriorated and she died on 1 March 2012. She was the fourth case and fourth fatality from the virus this year in Indonesia.

Avian influenza was confirmed by the National Institute of Health Research and Development in Jakarta.

An investigation of the case reveals the victim had exposure to a potentially contaminated environment where sudden deaths of poultry had recently occurred.

As of today, Indonesia has reported 187 cases of human infection with bird flu since 2005, of that total, 155 have died.

Public awareness of bird flu in Indonesia is a priority for the Ministry of Health, particularly with Indonesia having such a high fatality rate.

An Avian Flu Talk show was broadcast on Public Corner Metro TV several weeks ago to discuss the crucial points in terms of the importance of prevention and treatment of disease caused by this H5N1 virus.

Also on Monday, a GAR was issued concerning an avian influenza case in Vietnam.

The case, laboratory confirmed by the Pasteur Institute Ho Chi Minh City, is a 31 year-old male from Dak Lak province. He developed symptoms on 29 February 2012 and sought health care on the same day. On 4 March 2012, he was admitted to a hospital and was diagnosed with viral pneumonia. He was transferred to a referral hospital on 5 March 2012, where he is currently being treated.

An investigation of the source of the infection shows that the man was involved in the slaughter and consumption of sick poultry.

He is the fourth case of bird flu in Vietnam in 2012. Two of the cases in Vietnam were fatal.

[dothedd]

Former officials to be summoned over alleged avian flu cover-up

2012/03/12 19:11:05

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Former senior agriculture officials will be summoned this week at the earliest to explain an alleged cover-up of an outbreak of highly contagious avian flu, prosecutors said Monday.

Investigators will question former Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung and Hsu Tien-lai, director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said.

The investigation was launched based on a complaint filed in December by independent film producer Li Hui-ren, who has shot a documentary on bird flu outbreaks at chicken farms in central and southern Taiwan from 2006.

Li accused four BAPHIQ officials of dereliction of duty, forgery and negligence.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Liu Chien-kuo and Chao Tien-lin recently released a recording of a meeting on the epidemic in which Hsu can be heard saying "not urgent" and "it's better to wait until the boss steps down," which led the DPP lawmakers to accuse the Council of Agriculture (COA) of trying to delay announcing the outbreak.

Hsu rebutted the accusations, saying that he meant it was not urgent to determine the nature of the outbreak in the meeting because lab test results were inconsistent with the birds' clinical symptoms and death rates. The "boss" did not refer to Chen, according to Hsu.

Chen stepped down from his post Feb. 6 when the new Cabinet was sworn in, while Hsu resigned March 4, one day after the outbreaks in Changhua and Tainan were publicized.

Prosecutors said they had already obtained recordings of the conference and another from March 1 held by the COA's Animal Health Research Institute in which the outbreaks of the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N2 avian flu virus in Changhua and Tainan were confirmed.

A director of the institute's epidemiology division and a researcher were also questioned, prosecutors said.

[dothedd]

Tue, Mar 13, 2012

DPP links Ma, Wu to alleged cover-up

FLU-GATE?DPP lawmakers said a recording appeared to be more incriminating than previously thought and they condemned Taipei prosecutors¡¯ lack of action

President Ma Ying-jeou (ñRÓ¢¾Å) and former premier Wu Den-yih (…ǶØÁx) may have known about a possible cover-up of an H5N2 avian flu outbreak in January, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday as they urged the judiciary to investigate.

Citing more findings from an audio recording of a Feb. 1 meeting of experts held by the Council of Agriculture, a copy of which was made available to them, the lawmakers said council officials appeared to have mentioned Ma and Wu in the meeting.

DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (ÚwÌì÷ë) said the meeting was held to discuss the risk of an H5N2 bird flu outbreak that had been reported on Dec. 27 last year in Fangyuan Township (·¼Ô·), Changhua County, but had been kept from the public.

The DPP caucus on Friday filed a request with the Supreme Prosecutors¡¯ Office Special Investigation Division to investigate a claim of malfeasance against Ma, Wu and former council minister Chen Wu-hsiung (êÎäÐÛ) for the alleged concealment of the bird-flu outbreak and reporting the high-risk outbreak as a low-risk one.

The caucus filed the case request after reportedly hearing former Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine director Hsu Tien-lai (ÔSÌìí) in the recording saying that the notification of the outbreak should be postponed until ¡°after the boss steps down¡± because ¡°it is not urgent.¡±

Chao said that more of Hsu¡¯s comments appeared suspicious after he dug deeper into the recording.

Hsu could be heard saying ¡°the big boss has not agreed with it¡± and ¡°if it eventually takes compensation we would need approval from the Executive Yuan,¡± Chao said, adding that the ¡°it¡± Hsu mentioned could be a plan to compensate those farmers whose chickens have to be culled due to low-risk avian flu.

DPP lawmakers said on Friday that ¡°the boss¡± could be Chen, Wu or Ma, and the concealment could have been an attempt to benefit Ma¡¯s re-election campaign.

Chao urged the government to declassify all documents or materials related to avian flu outbreaks in the past four years for further investigation.

DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (ÅËÃÏ°²) told a press conference that several ¡°bosses¡± were mentioned in the meeting and Chen, Wu and Ma could all have been involved.

DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo („¢½¨‡ø) said the inaction of the Taipei Prosecutors¡¯ Office since Friday was difficult to fathom.

¡°This incident could very well become a ¡®Flu-gate¡¯ scandal, but no one has been detained over the alleged collusion and no evidence has been secured,¡± Liu said.

¡°The Control Yuan did not do anything about the possible malfeasance either. It is disappointing,¡± the lawmaker said.


Wed, Mar 14, 2012 -
Former officials questioned over bird flu outbreak

After being questioned by Taipei prosecutors yesterday over an alleged cover-up of an H5N2 avian flu outbreak, former Council of Agriculture minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) told the media that there had been no cover-up and stressed that everything had been conducted in line with administrative procedures.

CONTINUED:

www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/03/14/2003527756

[dothedd]

Creation of mutated bird flu 'super virus' divides scientists

Updated March 13, 2012 09:23:00

Scientists who have mutated an airborne version of the killer bird flu virus H5N1 say it's essential their research be published in order to find a cure, but opponents say this would produce a 'how to' manual for terrorists. H5N1 has a mortality rate of more than 50 per cent, while the mutated version raises the possibility of a superbug pandemic. Many, including the US government, say publishing the research poses intolerable biosecurity risks.

AUDIO:

www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-13/creation-of-mutated-bird-flu-super-virus-divides/3885436?section=world

[dothedd]

Bird flu outbreak surprises Agriculture Ministry

Moshav Shalva and Kibbutz Hulit in southern Israel have been hit with bird flu.

13 March 12 10:54

Senior Ministry of Agriculture officials admit that the outbreak of bird flu last week at Moshav Shalva and Kibbutz Hulit in southern Israel has found that the ministry is unprepared to deal with the disease on a massive scale, and that it is necessary to urgently replace equipment. The destruction of birds infected with bird flu requires extreme caution due to concern that the people who are involved could contract the potentially lethal strain of the disease. In an emergency meeting on Sunday, the Ministry of Agriculture considered the option of urgently flying in the poison foam used to destroy the infected birds from the US.
Passing the buck

Following the bird flu breakout in 2006, a designated emergency system was formed by then deputy director of veterinary services, Yehuda Meirovich. The system included special machines that would spray foam into the infected chicken coops, which would strangle the birds quickly. Special protective clothing and decontamination showers for the people involved in the treatment were also provided. Hundreds of foam barrels were imported.

The emergency system was purchased in the US for NIS 17 million, and has been kept in a "dry storage" ministry facility in Beit Dagan. Ministry of Agriculture director general Yossi Yishai subsequently assumed direct responsibility for this emergency system, taking it away from the Veterinary Services.

As "Globes" has reported, over the past two years the Newcastle disease, which is not dangerous for humans, has been raging in Israel. The destruction of birds infected with Newcastle disease does not required stringent cautionary measures like the bird flu does, and usually the birds can be poisoned through their drinking water.

Apparently, Ministry of Agriculture officials permitted the emergency equipment to be used to eliminate birds infected with Newcastle disease. As a result, the foam machines have become run down and new ones were not purchased to replace them. Worse still, the supply of poisonous foam has run out, and replacement foam has not been purchased. As a result, the ministry is not prepared for a massive emergency bird flu breakout.

"In a humane way"

The Ministry of Agriculture said, "These statements are completely baseless. The proof is that if the supply of foam in ministry warehouses had been depleted, then the spread of the disease in poultry in the current breakout would not have been contained."

The ministry also said, "The Ministry of Agriculture holds a regular supply of foam designated only for use in an outbreak of bird flu, and not for any other use. Following usage of the foam in the current outbreak, more foam needs to be bought to replenish the foam that was used so that we will have a full supply on hand."

The Ministry of Agriculture says, "A decision has not yet been made how to replenish the supply. It has not yet been decided to import the foam by air."

However, the Ministry of Agriculture added an interesting comment: "Foam is the most humane way to kill the birds, and despite the fact that it is more expensive than available alternatives, the Ministry of Agriculture uses it in times of need, so when it is necessary to kill birds, this can be accomplished in the most humanitarian way possible."

[dothedd]

Flu Debate Highlights Opacity of Public Health Research

By PLoS Guest Blogger
Posted: March 15, 2012

After weeks of debate, the decision was finally made in February to publish in full two studies that report the cultivation of H5N1 bird flu virus mutants that can pass between mammals. The decision was made with the caveat of delaying publication, in part to settle the anxieties of the public over the dangers of this work. While this caveat shows recognition of the public’s fears from the World Health Organisation, the entire case highlights a considerable problem that divides biomedical research from the public.

Most people would have first heard about the H5N1 research when it reached the headlines for the dilemma it caused; publish the details and risk an increased chance of accidental release and bioterrorism, or withhold the specifics and risk delaying research that could prevent a natural epidemic. Understandably, this caused public concern, not least because it was a situation with huge implications for individuals, but over which these individuals had no control.

This concern was not helped by the contradictory messages conveyed during the debate. A plethora of articles, many published in Nature and Science, have been written on the topic, covering a range of views. However, the most alarming are those bringing into question whether H5N1 poses as much of a risk as estimated, whether the safety provisions for this research were adequate, and whether the research will even be of any benefit.

This level of uncertainty about work that has already been done and that carries significant risks to the population can only form a barrier between the public and the scientific community. Asking the public to then trust this same scientific community to evaluate and decide between two worrying prospects on their behalf is difficult.

There is no doubt that the public could not realistically have been involved in the decision over whether or not to publish the work. There is no possible way that the population at large could be given a full understanding of the research and its implications at this stage so that they could make an informed mass decision. Perhaps, though, more open discussion of the research before it was done may have avoided any barriers, or at least only resulted in transparent ones.

Until publication, most research is kept vigorously from the radar of potential competitors; understandable in a ruthless system of funding and a ‘publish-or-die’ career path. But public health research is surely meant to be for the so-called greater good. Open discussion of research at all stages should surely be encouraged, to maximise efficiency and ensure that what is being done is in the interests of public health.

In the case of the H5N1 mutants, prior discussion in an open arena would likely have raised the issues that were brought up in the high-speed and confusing debate that the results sparked. The value of the research could have been widely assessed and the safety level required could have been agreed. The risk to the public could have been clarified and the action to be taken if a transmittable virus was produced could have been determined before the situation arose. Alongside this, the issue would have been accessible to the public and the population could at least have had their say. There could have been reasonable dialogue along the way to ensure that everyone’s concerns were addressed appropriately.

As biomedical research continues to impact on everybody’s lives, greater transparency must be achieved for future work to retain and bolster public trust. Whether it likes it or not, the scientific community sits amongst every other aspect of our society and must be prepared to listen and take into account the concerns of the public before it ploughs ahead with research that has such huge repercussions. In delaying the publication of the H5N1 studies, the World Health Organisation at least acknowledges this. But in future, the public deserves a lot more a lot earlier.

[dothedd]

March 19, 2012


Nepal: Kathmandu faces H5N1



Via Xinhua: Nepali capital faces peril of bird flu. Excerpt:

After the confirmation of bird flu avian influenza in a farm in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, the alert level among the residents of Kathmandu has been elevated.

More than 15,160 chickens died of avian influenza in the past two weeks in the farm which was later confirmed by the Animal Health Directorate.

The area has been declared as crisis zone and works like disinfecting and dumping the chicken feed has already been carried out.

Talking to Xinhua, director of directorate of National Animal Health Ram Krishna Khatiwada said that preventive measures have been adopted to check the bird flu while the area would be kept under high alert.

Meanwhile, the confirmation of bird flu in the capital has risen concerns among people of every walk of life. Chicken consumption has decreased and people in poultry farms although more cautious have been fearing that their poultry may also be struck with the deadly virus.

Ram Prasad Risal, who owns a small poultry farm in the Bagdole of Kathmandu told Xinhua that he feared that his chicken would conquer the virus. Risal owns a few hundred chickens in his farm and it is his prominent way of earning his daily bread and butter.

"There is a lot of investment in the farm. I earn a living by selling eggs and chicken. If the disaster occurs, all my investment will go in waste and I will be financially devastated," Risal said.

Although bird flu has been traced in Kathmandu, it is yet to confirm whether the bird flu is prominently existing in the capital because the chicken that are available in the poultry farms in capital are usually supplied by the farms outside the valley.

Earlier this month the bird flu had been confirmed at a poultry firm in Pharphing, Kathmandu.

Likewise, on March 12, the government had declared five village development committees of Jhapa district and Sunsari district in eastern Nepal as bird flu affected zone.

Prior to that, the strains were also confirmed in Bhaktapur of the capital.

China's Tibet Autonomous Region has also been placed into a state of alert after Nepal reported an outbreak of bird flu.

crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/

[dothedd]

Antibodies From Humans Receiving Investigational Influenza Vaccine Are Effective Against H5N1 (Avian Influenza) and Might Protect Against a Variety of These Viruses

Researchers in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) have shown that antibodies from people who received high doses of a new type of vaccine against H5N1 (avian influenza or “bird flu”) block the activity of critical parts of this virus. The findings also suggest that the vaccine might protect against a variety of different H5N1 viruses, reducing the need to make new vaccines for each variety of this influenza virus.

Using laboratory tests, the scientists found that these antibodies effectively targeted critical parts of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA)—the two major proteins on the surface of H5N1 virus. Since HA enables influenza viruses to infect cells and NA helps the infection to spread to new cells, antibodies that disrupt their activity could be effective in protecting against infection by this virus.

CBER previously approved an H5N1 vaccine in 2007. The current report by CBER scientists is the first to describe the quality of the antibody responses in humans to a new H5N1 vaccine that is still undergoing clinical trials sponsored by a pharmaceutical company and is not yet available to the public. Unlike vaccines made from weakened or inactivated whole viruses, the H5N1 vaccine used in these clinical trials is an artificial, virus-like particle (VLP) made up of specific viral proteins. These collections of proteins closely resemble the outside of the H5N1 virus but lack the genes needed for the VLP to reproduce.

Importantly, the VLP in this study was designed to produce several copies of the key section HA and NA linked together, much as they appear on the real H5N1 virus. The CBER scientists found that this arrangement appeared to greatly increase the ability of the vaccine to raise protective antibodies against critical parts of the virus.

Successful development of VLPs as influenza vaccines would offer a rapid, economical response to emerging influenza infections that might cause a pandemic, since it does not require growing viruses in eggs for use as vaccines. The results of the CBER study support further development of vaccines against emerging strains of influenza using this technology.

“H5N1 virus-like particle vaccine elicit cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies in humans that preferentially bind to oligomeric form for influenza hemagglutinin”

Journal of Virology 2011; 85:10945-10954

Doi:10.1128/JVI.05406-11

Authors

Ramadevi Raghunandan, Eloi Kpamegan, Steven Pincus, Gale Smith, and Gregory Glenn
Novavax Inc., Rockville, Maryland 20850

Surender Khurana, Jian Wu, Nitin Verma, Swati Verma, Jod Manischewitz, Lisa R. King, Hana Golding.
Division of Viral Products, Office of Vaccines Research and Review, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892

www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/ScienceResearch/ucm276858.htm

[dothedd]

Rank

Status

Study

1

Active, not recruiting

A Study to Evaluate the Immune Response and Safety of a Seasonal Virus-Like Particle Influenza Vaccine in Healthy Young Adults

Condition:

Influenza

Interventions:

Biological: Novavax Quadrivalent vaccine; Biological: Novavax Trivalent vaccine; Biological: cTIV

2

Completed

Safety Study of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)-Fusion (F) Protein Particle Vaccine

Condition:

Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections

Interventions:

Biological: RSV-F Particle Vaccine; Biological: Placebo

3

Completed

Trial to Evaluate Safety and Immunogenicity of Trivalent Seasonal Influenza Virus-Like Particle (VLP) Vaccine (Recombinant)

Condition:

Seasonal Influenza

Interventions:

Biological: Influenza VLP Vaccine; Biological: Placebo

4

Completed

Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a Seasonal Influenza Virus-Like Particle (VLP) Vaccine in Older Adults

Condition:

Influenza

Interventions:

Biological: Influenza VLP Vaccine; Biological: TIV


5

Completed

Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a Seasonal Influenza VLP Vaccine (Recombinant) in Healthy Adults

Condition:

Influenza


Interventions:

Biological: Influenza VLP Vaccine (recombinant); Biological: Placebo

6

Completed

Safety, Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity of an H5N1 VLP


Condition:

Pandemic Influenza

Interventions:

Biological: H5/N1 VLP Vaccine; Biological: Placebo

7

Active, not recruiting

Safety and Immunogenicity of an A (H1N1) 2009 Influenza Virus-like Particle (VLP) Vaccine

Condition:

Seasonal Influenza

Interventions:

Biological: Placebo; Biological: A/H1N1 2009 Influenza VLP Vaccine

[dothedd]

Newsclick Production, 24th March 2012

Dr Satyajith Rath from the National Institute of Immunology explains new findings on transmissibility/ virulence of the H5N1 (Avian/Bird Flu) virus apart from concerns regarding publications about these findings. A Newsclick Production.
newsclick.in/international/satyajit-rath-explaining-new-findings-h5n1-bird-flu-transmissibility

[dothedd]

Bird flu kills Indonesian teenager, raising country’s death toll to 6 this year
By Associated Press, Published: March 27
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A 17-year-old has died of bird flu in Indonesia. He is the country’s sixth fatality from the virus so far this year.

Health ministry spokeswoman Murti Utami said Tuesday the boy from eastern Lombok island developed symptoms early this month after coming into contact with sick chickens.

He died March 9 after one week’s hospitalization.

Utami says laboratory results came back several days ago confirming he had the deadly H5N1 virus.

Bird flu began ravaging poultry in 2003 and has killed 352 people worldwide. It is still present in some areas of Asia and the Middle East. Indonesia has been the hardest-hit country, accounting for 156 of the deaths.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bird-flu-kills-indonesian-teenager-raising-countrys-death-toll-to-6-this-year/2012/03/27/gIQA1TwJdS_print.html

[dothedd]

Bird Flu Studies Getting Another Round Of Scrutiny By Panel
Listen to the Story

Morning Edition
Listen to the Story

www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/26/149357569/bird-flu-studies-getting-another-round-of-scrutiny-by-panel?ps=sh_sthdl

In June of 2009, a committee met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to do a routine safety review of proposed research projects.

One of those projects involved genetically modifying flu viruses. And during the review, the committee brought up the idea of "dual-use" research. "Dual use" means legitimate scientific work that's intended to advance science or medicine, but that also might be misused with the intent to do harm.

Now, nearly three years after that meeting, this flu research — along with similar work done in the Netherlands — has the science community in an uproar. Scientists, security experts, flu virologists and others are arguing over whether the details of experiments with lab-altered forms of bird flu can be made public, or whether that would amount to publishing the recipe for a superflu that could be used as a bioweapon.

This week, a panel of experts that advises the government about dual use issues, called the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, is having a closed-door meeting to once again look at unpublished manuscripts describing the completed experiments. Their deliberations will include a classified briefing from the intelligence community.

Early Warnings

The whole debate has had some people asking why these questions are being asked after-the-fact, instead of before scientists did this work, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health as part of an effort to better understand how influenza viruses in animals can mutate and cause human pandemics.

But it looks like the safety committee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison actually did recognize the work's dual use potential.

"In the meeting minutes it does say that there was a dual use discussion," says Rebecca Moritz, a research compliance specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's biological safety office. "I don't know the specifics of that discussion but there was one."

The June 3, 2009 minutes of the university's Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) describe a review of the "Genetic Engineering of Influenza Viruses" protocol submitted by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka.

In addition to describing lab safety measures that the committee assessed, the minutes state: "The dual-use organism concept and the ethical responsibilities of the IBC were discussed."

Susan West, a University of Wisconsin-Madison microbiologist who chairs the IBC now, was at that meeting. West says she can't recall exactly what was discussed in terms of dual use but thinks they did consider that the flu research probably "would come under that category."

"But we did not see that there were any safety issues associated with doing it with the containment that's present on campus," West says.

In an email, Kawaoka told NPR that he was not present at the IBC meeting. "I heard that dual use was mentioned," he wrote.

"No one other than the IBC raised issues regarding dual use since our NIH grant was approved, and the next level of the oversight is the IBC," he added.

He wrote that it "was not a complete surprise" for him that his manuscript describing the work was referred to the NSABB to get advice on what to do after he submitted it to a science journal for publication

"Most biological research has dual-use potential," Kawaoka noted in the email. "However, to critically evaluate the benefits and risks, the findings and their significance — both as research advances and applications for misuse — need to be clear to those making decisions about dual use."

Federal Oversight

The U. S. government currently does not require institutional biosafety committees to consider the dual use question. These local panels review lab procedures to ensure safety. They are not tasked with asking whether an experiment might produce information that might be dangerous in the wrong hands.

"They had no requirement or obligation to report or to share their concerns if they concluded in the end that the concerns were worthy of further pursuit," says Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University.

Faden served on an influential National Academy of Sciences committee that issued a report on dual-use issues in 2004. It recommended that the government set up a mandatory oversight system. Under its plan, local biosafety committees would be required to screen research to identify projects with dual use potential. For projects of potential concern, an additional review at the national level would determine whether and how to let the research go forward.

But so far, the government hasn't set up any system like that. "In the absence of such a structure, people are going to continue to flounder, and not know what they ought to do," says Faden.

She says the concept of dual use got a lot of attention even before this bird flu controversy. But mere awareness of the concept of dual use doesn't mean scientists, institutions, and funding agencies understand what it is that they should do in any given situation.

"This is not a problem any one person can solve," says Faden. "It's hard to ask people to do the responsible thing if they don't have an environmental system that supports them knowing what is the right thing is to do and then being able to do it."

The other controversial bird flu experiment funded by the NIH took place in the Netherlands. Like the U. S., that country also has no formal system to screen for dual use.

In 2007, however, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences did issue a Code of Conduct for Biosecurity, to help scientists think about this issue.

One of the advisers who helped develop that code was Ron Fouchier, a Dutch virologist at Erasmus Medical Center whose lab later did the bird flu experiment.

An English version of the code calls for researchers and institutions to "screen for possible dual-use aspects during the application and assessment procedure and during the execution of research projects" and "weigh the anticipated results against the risks of the research if possible dual-use aspects are identified."

Fouchier did not respond to an emailed request for comment on whether such a screening was done and, if so, what the conclusion was.

Koos van der Bruggen is an expert on biosecurity and dual-use research in the Netherlands, and he was secretary of the working group that wrote this code. By email, he said: "I am convinced that the researchers have acted in a way that matches the Code of Conduct. I think that the Code could not have prevented this from happening. But let me state that the Code was not developed for such a direct intervention."

He said the academy knew that a code of conduct was not a panacea for the problems of biosecurity and that the main aim of the code was to simply raise awareness of dual use issues. And however this debate over what to do about lab-altered bird flu ends, he added, "awareness raising surely is one of the consequences."

[dothedd]

Fowl play
REPUBLICA

Failing on bird flu again

Bird flu has once again raised its ugly head in Nepal. Not that the threat ever went away completely. It would be foolhardy for any government to rest on its laurels on bird flu, but Nepali health authorities have been caught unawares, once again, as more bird flu incidences are being reported from around the country, the latest of them in Lalitpur. Only four days after the slaughter of 6,000 chicken from a farm in Lalitpur´s Bhaisepati, the virus has been reported in another poultry farm nearby. A month ago it was Bhaktapur farms that were hit by the scourge. According to veterinarians, while the flu virus is fairly innocuous in wild fowl, it spreads rapidly in poultry as it gains in virility. The most alarming prospect is of the virus morphing into a human-infectious form, which is, thankfully, a rare occurrence.

We have been raising this important issue time and again. Although bird-to-human transmission of bird flu virus is rare, if it does come to pass, it could have catastrophic consequences. Once the flu virus makes the jump to humans, its development is hard to track. Such a situation will be akin to sitting on a ticking time bomb. Given such dire consequences, it is baffling why the government has not given the issue deserved attention. What successive governments have done, rather inanely in our view, is time and again declare the country ´bird flu free´ zone, apparently to sooth frayed nerves among the people. In truth, any such declaration is meaningless given the ease with which poultry can be imported through the porous Indo-Nepal border points that are still without any effective monitory mechanism against bird flu.

The government´s lack of preparedness was ignominiously highlighted during the last spread of bird flu among the poultry in Eastern Nepal around a month ago. Bizarrely, culling of infected fowl had to be put off as Tamiflu, the vital anti-viral for those involved in slaughter, was in short supply. This had a devastating effect because the longer the authorities dithered in arranging for the all-important anti-viral, the more the virus spread. Why the government didn’t bother to keep such a vital medicine in stock is anyone’s guess. Yet another major hurdle at curbing the spread of the virus is that Nepal has no labs to confirm reported bird flu cases. Instead, it has been sending samples from dead fowl all the way to London.

Why this has to be the case is not exactly clear. For in the wake of the bird flu epidemic in Europe five years ago, medical firms have been putting out bird flu test kits for as little as US $6 dollars. Surely, this is a pittance considering what is on the line here. Isn´t the government missing a trick? Or are we missing something?


tp://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=33245

[dothedd]

April 30, 2012

Dutch okays mutant bird flu study's publication

The approval for publication came only after a panel of U.S. science and security experts decided two similar papers could be published in the U.S. journal Science. THE HAGUE — The Dutch government on April 27 gave a top scientist the green light to publish a research paper in the United States on a mutant killer flu virus, following approval by a U.S.

THE HAGUE — The Dutch government on Friday gave a top scientist the green light to publish a research paper in the United States on a mutant killer flu virus, following approval by a US panel of experts.
"Deputy Minister Henk Bleker approved a permit for the publication of the research done by professor Ron Fouchier on the H5N1 bird flu virus," his spokeswoman Cindy Heijdra told AFP.

Dutch approval comes after a panel of US science and security experts last month said two papers on the deadly flu should be published in the US-based Science journal, reversing an earlier decision to withhold key details.

Fouchier had to get permission first from the Dutch Department of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation -- in line with EU regulations -- because a risk existed that the H5N1 virus, as well as its research, "could be used for the wrong purposes", the Dutch department said in a statement.

"The minister gave the go-ahead after considering the risks and advantages of publishing the paper including the freedom of science and publication, national health and security," his spokeswoman Heijdra added.

Fouchier's team at Rotterdam's Erasmus Medical Centre last year announced the mutant version which showed how an engineered H5N1 flu virus could pass easily in the air between ferrets. A second team based in Wisconsin came to the same conclusion.
But US experts previously opposed publishing the research over fears it could fall into the wrong hands and unleash a deadly flu epedemic.

Bird flu is believed to kill more than half the people it infects, making it much more lethal than typical strains of the seasonal virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, there have been at least 573 cases of H5N1 bird flu in humans in 15 countries since 2003, with 58.6 percent of those resulting in death.

[dothedd]

Controversial Avian Flu Research Finally Published

May 3, 2012
Pictured is a microscopic view of an unaltered, wild-type avian H5N1 virus. A study by researchers in the lab of Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine shows that just a handful of mutations are required to make the H5N1 virus transmissible in mammals. The study demonstrates that circulating H5N1 virus, such as the ones pictured here, could pose a threat of pandemic flu should the mutations observed in laboratory studies occur in nature. Image: Takeshi Noda, Univ. of Tokyo

After a marathon debate over a pair of studies that show how the avian H5N1 influenza virus could become transmissible in mammals — and an unprecedented recommendation by a government review panel to block publication — one of the studies was finally and fully published in the journal Nature.

Publication caps an epic public conversation that pitted some infectious diseases experts against flu and public health researchers who argued that publication was not only important, but also essential to informing influenza surveillance and preparedness for a virus that could evolve to infect humans and cause a global pandemic.

"Our study shows that relatively few amino acid mutations are sufficient for a virus with an avian H5 hemagglutinin to acquire the ability to transmit in mammals," says Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison flu researcher whose study of H5N1 virus transmissibility was at the center of the debate. "This study has significant public health benefits and contributes to our understanding of this important pathogen. By identifying mutations that facilitate transmission among mammals, those whose job it is to monitor viruses circulating in nature can look for these mutations so measures can be taken to effectively protect human health."

However, Kawaoka cautions there may be other unknown mutations that also enable the virus to transmit in mammals. It is therefore critical, he argues, to continue research to identify additional mutations that have the same effect, and to understand how they work.

The study, conducted by an international team of researchers led by Kawaoka, a UW-Madison professor of pathobiological sciences and a leading expert on influenza, shows that some viruses now circulating in nature require just four mutations to the hemagglutinin protein, which sits on the virus surface and enables it to bind to host cells, to become an even greater threat to human health. A subset of the mutations identified by the Wisconsin group has, in fact, already been detected in some viruses circulating in poultry flocks in Egypt and parts of Southeast Asia, underscoring the urgency of science-based surveillance, Kawaoka says.

In the Nature report, Kawaoka's group describes a laboratory-modified bird flu/human flu hybrid virus that can become transmissible in an animal model for human infection with just a handful of mutations. Because flu viruses in nature are constantly changing as they circulate and easily swap genes with other flu viruses, the possibility of circulating H5N1 viruses hitting the right combination of mutations and becoming a much bigger threat to human health is greater than many experts believed, avers Kawaoka, a faculty member in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

"H5N1 viruses remain a significant threat for humans as a potential pandemic flu strain. We have found that relatively few mutations enable this virus to transmit in mammals. These same mutations have the potential to occur in nature," explains Kawaoka.

Since late 2003, the H5N1 viruses have infected at least 600 humans, mostly in Asia, and killed more than half of the people infected. But the virus, which can be acquired through close contact with domestic fowl, does not easily transmit from human-to-human, a phenomenon that led some scientists to believe H5N1 posed little threat as a potential agent for a global flu pandemic. However, research on transmission of viruses from animal reservoirs was deemed a priority by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) in a 2006 Blue Ribbon Panel report, as well as by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2009 Public Health Research Agenda.

In addition to demonstrating transmissibility, Kawaoka's results showed the experimental mutant virus could be controlled by available medical countermeasures. An H5N1 vaccine as well as oseltamivir, an antiviral drug better known by the trade name Tamiflu, both proved effective.

The study was conducted with scientists from the Univ. of Tokyo, where Kawaoka is also on the faculty, Kobe Univ., and Chubu Univ.

The flu virus depends on an ability to enter and commandeer host cells to make new virus particles, which go on to infect other cells and spread to other hosts. But flu virus, which typically arises in animal reservoirs such as domestic fowl and pigs before spreading to humans, must adapt by changing its surface topography to match those of a new host species. A protein on the surface of the virus known as hemagglutinin is one of the keys that allow the virus to access host cells. It utilizes a bulb-shaped structure called the "globular head" to bind to host cells at the time of infection. The amino acids in this portion of the hemagglutinin protein are like a combination that opens a locked cell. Without the right combination, the virus is unable to enter a host cell and cause infection.

But flu viruses are masters of shape shifting, a characteristic that helps them adapt to new animal hosts. They readily exchange genetic information and mutate to acquire the molecular features that can make them more infectious.

Whether or not the H5N1 viruses currently circulating in the world can easily acquire the additional mutations needed to cause a pandemic is an open question, according to Kawaoka: "It is hard to predict. The additional mutations may emerge as the virus continues to circulate."

The new work will aid those who monitor flu and could provide a critical early warning. "Should surveillance activities identify flu strains accumulating additional key mutations, these emerging viruses should then be priority candidates for vaccine development and antiviral evaluation," says Kawaoka.

One important upshot of the study by Kawaoka's group is the identification of the mechanism by which the H5N1 virus transmits, a basic discovery that could aid in the development of countermeasures, and that contributes to the store of basic knowledge on influenza virus transmission.

The work will also help governments in some countries justify the significant economic hardship imposed by the mass culling of poultry flocks when potentially dangerous mutations are identified in circulating H5N1 viruses.

The new study was conducted using ferrets, a widely accepted model for influenza research because, when infected with the flu virus, they sneeze and cough, generating small droplets that can carry the virus from one animal to another, demonstrating transmissibility. The ferret respiratory tract also has cellular features similar to those found in humans.

In December 2011, a National Institutes of Health advisory panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), recommended redacting critical information from the Kawaoka lab's report, as well as from a similar study conducted in Holland. The unprecedented request was to withhold the methodologies used to make the virus transmissible and to not identify the mutations needed to make the virus transmissible in mammals. This month, the NSABB reversed itself, citing new information and manuscript revisions that more explicitly state the public health rationale for the work as well as the safety and security precautions in place in the labs in Wisconsin and Holland.

It was noted that the virus engineered in Kawaoka's lab was, in fact, of low virulence. The hybrid virus was made by building the H5N1 hemagglutinin gene into the pandemic H1N1 flu virus; the H5-H1N1 hybrid was less pathogenic than pandemic H1N1 virus.

As is the case for all studies of avian influenza transmissibility, the Wisconsin H5N1 work was conducted under strictly controlled conditions with multiple layers of safety and security precautions. Moreover, research involving agents such as highly pathogenic influenza viruses undergoes rigorous federal and institutional oversight including frequent and unannounced inspections. The laboratories such as the one where the new work was conducted are designed to strict specifications and operated to ensure safety.

The animal study of virus infectivity was supported by NIAID, a part of the National Institutes of Health. Other elements of the new study were supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and by ERATO, the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

Source: Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

[dothedd]

Bird Flu Outbreak in Bali
Officials Cull Hundreds of Birds and Close Markets After Death of Bali Child Initially Linked to H5N1 Virus Outbreak

(5/2/2012)
Bali Animal Health Officials have again recorded a new outbreak of Bird Flu among Bali’s poultry populations. Officials warn that Bali, as area endemic to the H5N1 Virus, can expect the disease to sporadically present itself at any location around the island from time to time.

Quoted by Beritabali.com, the head of the Livestock and Animal Health Department for Bali, Putu Sumantra, blamed the appearance of Bird Flu in Bali over the past year on low levels of bio-security, particularly at bird and traditional markets where traders place little importance on following guidelines to eliminate the disease.

“The implementation of bio-security measures, by both traders and consumers, is little considered. Because of this, the disease is sporadically appearing, with 12 cases identified to date,” explained Sumantra.

Another factor making Bali vulnerable to the disease is the widespread tendency to allow poultry to roam freely in areas of human populations.

As many as 230 fighting cocks were rounded up and destroyed by officials at the Satria Bird Market in downtown Denpasar on Thursday, April 26, 2012. The slaughter followed the death of an 8-year-old child from Kintamani identified by preliminary laboratory tests as a victim of the H5N1 Virus and the sudden death of a chicken purchased from the Satria Bird market.

Dr (veterinarian) Wayan Sukandi of the laboratory of the Livestock and Animal Health Department said, “the destruction of hundred of chickens was done to interrupt the cycle of contamination for the H5N1 Virus.”
The mass culling of birds took place after a “rapid test” confirmed the virus was present in the market’s bird population.

The birds, originating from Probolinggo and Jember in East Java, were euthanized through fatal injections before having their remains burned.

In 2012 Bali has recorded two deaths linked to the H5N1 virus. In February a resident of Tabanan died from Bird Flu. The latest death of a child from Bangli, Kintanani on April 24 was tied to the virus, but subsequent confirmatory tests carried out in Jakarta reportedly proved negative for the H5N1 Virus.

[dothedd]

Riau boy: 157th bird flu fatality

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/02/2012 10:43 AM

A two-year old boy, identified only as MAF, died from bird flu last Friday in a state hospital in Riau, the Health Ministry has confirmed.

A ministry team has investigated the boy’s neighborhood and found that he may have had contact with quails’ eggs because his parents sold them, the ministry’s directorate general for disease control and environmental health said in a press statement released on Tuesday night.

The boy, a resident of Siak in Pekanbaru, was brought to a private clinic on April 20 after developing a fever on April 17, the statement said.

He was then rushed to a private hospital on the night of April 20 because his condition had not improved, it said.

On April 21, he was treated in another hospital identified only as EB, where doctors reported the case to the Riau Health Agency’s post command. He was referred to a state hospital, identified only as AA.

“[The boy’s] condition deteriorated and he died on April 27 at 11:45 p.m. at Hospital AA,” the statement said.

The total number of bird flu cases since 2005 now stands at 189, with 157 fatalities after the latest case.

Director general Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama has reported the latest case to the World Health Organization, the statement said.

[dothedd]

Bird Flu Research: Scientists Behind Deadly New H5N1 Strain Granted Right To Publish

Updated: 05/ 1/2012 3:17 pm

The scientist whose research team last year developed a new strain of the H5N1 virus that is easily passed between mammals has been granted an export license for his findings by the Dutch government, according to Science Insider.

The license allows Ron Fouchier, the virologist at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam who led the research team that developed the new strain, to send a revised version of his paper to the academic journal Science.

The license was granted after a closed-door meeting in The Hague in which "government officials discussed the risks and benefits of the research with an international group of scientists and security experts," according to Science Insider. The National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity (NSABB) and the World Health Organization have both recommended publication of Fouchier's research.

"...[The] information in the revised manuscripts has direct applicability to ongoing and future influenza surveillance efforts and does not appear to enable direct misuse of the research in ways that would endanger public health or national security," NIH Director Francis Collins wrote in a statement on April 20.

Scientific American reports that Fouchier first presented his research in September 2011 at a conference in Malta, causing controversy when he sought publication of his paper. Debate centered on the question of whether scientific discourse should be censored if its subject posed a threat to public safety.

In an interview with NPR, Dr. Thomas Inglesby at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center took issue with the research, calling it a "bad idea," and adding that "...it's a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it."

Despite criticism, Fouchier has remained adamant that his research should be published. According to Science Insider, he was even originally opposed to filing for an export license for the paper, believing that it was an inappropriate method of controlling the flow of scientific information.

The H5N1 virus has infected almost 600 people in 15 countries since 2003, and is known to kill about 60 percent of those that become infected, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

WATCH: Concern Over Bird Flu Research

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/bird-flu-dutch-government-grants-release-research_n_1467723.html

[dothedd]

Bird flu can spread in mammals, study finds

The results, showing an engineered flu strain can spread easily between ferrets, derive from a controversial study that stirred debate over fears of a bioterrorism threat.

By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

May 3, 2012
In a long-awaited study that helped prompt a contentious debate over the wisdom of conducting research that has the potential to help as well as harm, scientists reported Wednesday that they had engineered a mutant strain of bird flu that can spread easily between ferrets — a laboratory animal that responds to flu viruses much as people do.

That means that bird flu has "the potential to acquire the ability to transmit in mammals," said University of Wisconsin virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, who led the study.

Only a few mutations were necessary for the transformation, he added, which suggests that a more contagious strain of bird flu could emerge on its own without targeted prodding by scientists in the lab.

Kawaoka's discovery, published online after a months-long delay by the journal Nature, dampens hopes that the deadly H5N1 virus simply wasn't capable of becoming a highly contagious bug in mammals, including humans.

He and his team developed a hybrid bird flu virus that combined an H5 hemagglutinin gene — which helps viruses bind to host cells — with genes from 2009's pandemic H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu.

Using a sort of selective breeding to favor flu strains whose H5 protein could bind with human rather than bird host cells, the researchers developed a version of the virus with four mutations in its H5 that sickened ferrets.

The pathogen traveled in respiratory droplets through the air to infect ferrets in adjacent cages. It did not kill any of the animals used in the study.

Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said that the changes in the virus Kawaoka's team identified had all been seen before, but that scientists had not recognized that together they could make a flu virus spread more easily among mammals.

"It's a great place to start looking for exactly what's going on," he said, noting that researchers still don't understand how changes in host organisms affect transmissibility.

The publication of Kawaoka's paper comes after months of debate over his research and experiments conducted in the lab of Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier, who has also developed strains of bird flu that can pass between ferrets.

The worry, voiced by biosecurity experts, was that nefarious-minded people could use details provided in the papers to turn bird flu into a biological weapon of sorts and inflict widespread harm.

In the last 15 years or so, the H5N1 virus has killed millions of chickens and ducks. Very few people — 602, according to the latest World Health Organization estimate — have been infected since the latest outbreak in 2003, but 355 of them died. That has fueled concerns that a contagious strain of the virus could spawn a pandemic, potentially causing millions of deaths around the world.

Fear that a pandemic strain could emerge in nature prompted scientists to study its potential to mutate, so that they could monitor new variants as they arise and get a head start on developing a vaccine and treatment. The National Institutes of Health helped fund Kawaoka's and Fouchier's studies in high-security labs.

When the scientists were ready to publish their results, critics said the research could be used as a recipe for bioterrorism — assuming a dangerous strain of the virus wasn't stolen directly from a laboratory.

A U.S. government advisory panel recommended in November that Nature as well as Science, the journal that planned to publish Fouchier's research, remove sensitive details from the papers. It was an unprecedented step.

The journals agreed to delay publication and virologists put their H5N1 research on hold while the scientific and security communities debated their next steps. Ultimately, the advisory panel decided the papers were safe to publish, but the release of Kawaoka's research — and the expected publication shortly of Fouchier's — won't mark the end of the conversation, scientists said.

"There are still a lot of unknowns about how this will be dealt with going forward," Webby said.

In the meantime, Kawaoka said he hoped his research would help public health workers trying to fight the spread of H5N1 by suggesting useful mutations to incorporate in vaccines or to track as the virus spreads.

One of the mutations his team identified is already circulating in viruses in the Middle East and Asia, he said.

[dothedd]

Bird flu can transmit in mammals, study finds
Los Angeles Times
A poultry seller in Vietnam, which is still struggling with new cases of bird flu. (Hoang Dinh Nam, AFP/Getty Images / March 30, 2012) By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times In a long-awaited study that helped prompt a contentious debate over the wisdom of ...
See all stories on this topic »
Los Angeles Times

Controversial Deadly Bird Flu Research Finally Published
ABC News (blog)
After months of controversial government assessment, the journal Nature published research Wednesday that discloses methodology behind creating a deadly strain of bird flu that could kill millions. By conducting research in ferrets, a team of Japanese ...
See all stories on this topic »
One of two controversial 'bird flu' papers is published
Washington Post
The journal Nature, after much debate and delay, on Wednesday published a paper in which scientists describe how they engineered a part of the deadly H5N1 “bird flu” virus to become more transmissible in mammals. The research, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka ...
See all stories on this topic »
Bird flu paper that raised bioterrorism fears published
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The journal Nature has published the first of two controversial papers about laboratory-enhanced versions of the deadly bird flu virus that initially sparked fears among US biosecurity experts that it could be used as a recipe for a ...
See all stories on this topic »
First of controversial bird flu papers published
CBS News
(CBS/AP) Controversial bird flu research is now one step closer to being public. One of the two papers on bird flu is being published, with the approval of the US government. Gov't wants bird flu research kept under wraps, away from terrorists Bird flu ...
See all stories on this topic »
CBS News

Controversial Bird-Flu Research Published: How Worried Should We Be?
Huffington Post
By Fred Guteri A highly controversial research paper on bird flu was released today by the journal Nature. It shows that a particularly troublesome strain of avian influenza, designated H5N1, which has been worrying public health officials for more ...
See all stories on this topic »
First of two papers on lab-made bird flu published
San Jose Mercury News
By Malcolm Ritter AP NEW YORK -- Four months ago, the US government sought to block publication of two studies about how scientists created an easily spread form of bird flu. Now a revised version of one paper is seeing the light of day with the ...
See all stories on this topic »
First Of Controversial Bird Flu Studies Is Published
NPR (blog)
by Nell Greenfieldboyce Balinese government officials prepare to cull chickens as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of bird flu at a market in Denpasar on April 26. Today, a scientific journal published a study that some people thought ...
See all stories on this topic »
Once-Banned Bird Flu Study Suggests Pandemic Threat Is Real
U.S. News & World Report
By Denise Mann WEDNESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- Data in a formerly banned study detailing how the H5N1 avian (bird) flu virus can morph -- with the possibility that it could spread from person to person and cause a global pandemic -- may help ...
See all stories on this topic »
Nature releases bird flu infection study
USA TODAY
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Only a handful of genetic mutations can make bird flu infectious among mammals, serving as a warning sign for the deadly virus possibly spreading to people, biologists report. The finding comes after six months of controversy ...
See all stories on this topic »

SORRY, NO LINKS....

[dothedd]

Bird Flu Could Be One Mutation Away From Human Epidemic

5/3/2012 9:10 PM ET
(RTTNews) - H5N1, or the Bird Flu virus, may be closer to human transmission than previously thought. Two teams of researchers purposefully mutated the strain in a lab in order to demonstrate how easily the change might occur.

Both research teams — led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in the Netherlands — submitted their reports to Nature and Science, respectively.

But a federal advisory panel asked that they not be published, fearing terrorist groups might use them as a how-to guide for weaponizing H5N1.

Now, the Kawaoka-led study has been published after a fierce debate in the scientific community.

Kawaoka's study reports that bird flu in nature may be only one mutation away from becoming transmissible in mammals, adding that the mortality rate could be devastating.

"This study has significant public health benefits and contributes to our understanding of this important pathogen. By identifying mutations that facilitate transmission among mammals, those whose job it is to monitor viruses circulating in nature can look for these mutations so measures can be taken to effectively protect human health," contested Kawaoka.

[dothedd]

H5N1 Paper Published: Deadly, Transmissible Bird Flu Could Be Closer than Thought

After an epic debate over whether to release research detailing how scientists created H5N1 in the lab, Nature finally published one of the two controversial papers on Wednesday.

May 3, 2012

You might not have noticed, but the influenza world has been in a bit of an uproar since late last year, when news leaked out that two teams of researchers had purposefully tweaked H5N1 bird flu in the lab to potentially make it more transmissible among human beings. (H5N1 spreads like wildfire among birds ¡ª and usually kills them ¡ª but the virus only rarely seems to jump to human beings, though when it does the infections are often fatal.)

The two scientists ¡ª Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin¨CMadison and TIME 100 honoree Ron Fouchier of Erasmus University in the Netherlands ¡ª had submitted their research to Nature and Science, respectively, with the expectation of swift publication. In December, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) did something unprecedented: they ruled that the two papers should be censored if published, that they should be scrubbed of the complete methods and viral mutations that the researchers studied, in order to head off the risk that terror groups could use the information to craft a deadly bioweapon.

(PHOTOS: The Bird Flu Outbreaks in 2008)

That led to intense fighting within the scientific community. Some researchers wanted the papers published in full, both because they believed the work could help arm us against a future flu pandemic, and because they worried about the chill of government censorship on science. Other scientists were against publication and even the experiments themselves, believing that nothing gleaned from the work could be important enough to offset the risk of creating a potentially deadly flu virus.

In the end, Fouchier explained that his man-made flu virus wasn¡¯t the merciless killer that early media reports had made it out to be ¡ª Kawaoka¡¯s man-made virus was always believed to be less dangerous ¡ª and in March the NSABB took a look at revised papers submitted by the two research teams and voted to recommend that they be published.

On Wednesday, Nature finally published Kawaoka¡¯s research. (We¡¯re still waiting for the Fouchier paper, though the Dutch scientist was recently granted an export license for his work, so it should appear soon.) The sobering takeaway: avian H5N1 flu viruses in nature may be only one mutation away from spreading effectively between mammals, likely including human beings. If that happens ¡ª and if H5N1 retains its apparently sky-high mortality rate ¡ª we could be in for serious trouble.

For all the controversy, the research itself is actually quite fascinating. Kawaoka and his team mutated H5N1¡äs hemagglutinin (HA) gene ¡ª the H in H5N1 ¡ª which produces the protein the virus needs to attach itself to host cells. They produced millions of genes, mimicking the effect of random mutation in nature, and found one version of H5N1 hemagglutinin that seems particularly effective at invading human cells.

(MORE: Dangers of Man-Made Bird Flu Are Exaggerated, Its Creators Say)

The genes for that protein contained four new mutations, three of which altered the shape of the gene, while the fourth one changed the pH level at which the protein attaches to the cell and injects the virus¡¯s genetic material inside. (It¡¯s a bit reminiscent of Alien, if the virus is the face-hugger and this poor guy¡¯s face is the cell.) The team combined the mutated HA gene with seven other genes ¡ª flu viruses have eight genes in all ¡ª from the highly transmissible if not highly deadly H1N1 strain, which caused the 2009 flu pandemic. The result was an H1N1 virus with mutant H5N1 hemagglutinin proteins on the outside.

Kawaoka and co. then introduced the hybrid flu virus into the noses of ferrets ¡ª an animal that has long been used in flu research as stand-ins for human beings ¡ª and the bug replicated within the test subjects. Later the researchers discovered that the mutant flu also spread from ferret to ferret relatively easily, something the real-world H5N1 isn¡¯t yet able to do. It¡¯s not clear whether the mutant virus would spread as easily among human beings as it does between ferrets, however, and the new virus remained vulnerable both to the antiviral Tamiflu and a prototype vaccine against H5N1.

Still, it¡¯s possible that the H5N1 bird flu might naturally be able to hit upon the same mutations that Kawaoka created in the lab, while still retaining its current virulence. In any case, as the virologist Jeremy Farrar of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam told Ed Yong for Nature News: ¡°This work reminds us just how vulnerable we potentially are to relatively small changes.¡± It didn¡¯t take much for this virus to change completely.

Bigger news will likely be made when Fouchier¡¯s paper comes out. That¡¯s because Fouchier introduced mutations directly into an H5N1 virus, then let the new strain spread and evolve inside the ferrets. Those changes eventually turned what had been a bird flu into a mammal flu, albeit one that ended up not to be deadly to the ferrets. But Fouchier¡¯s work would provide a much more direct formula for terrorists to alter H5N1 viruses themselves.

(MORE: A Bus Driver in Southern China Dies of Bird Flu. Could the Deadly Virus Strike Again?)

That¡¯s still not terribly likely, though ¡ª it would require a lot of work on the part of any terrorists, and there¡¯s no guarantee they¡¯d even be able to create anything particularly dangerous. (A bigger threat, in mine and other people¡¯s views, is the possibility of an accidental release of a mutated virus from the lab ¡ª something that has happened in the past.) But the debate goes beyond security concerns. The Nature paper marks a new era in science, as Carl Zimmer wrote on Wednesday for Discover:

This episode is just the start of something much bigger. Roger Brent, a biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, put it into history of modern biology. In the 1970s, biologists discovered how to move individual genes from one organism to another. The power to rewrite the book of life caused a lot of consternation, and led to a gathering called Asilomar in 1975, where scientists tried to work out a system for ensuring that no monstrous new creatures would escape a lab and wreak havoc on the world. At the time, just about everyone on Earth who had the wherewithal to perform genetic engineering could get together at Asilomar. Over the past 37 years, these manipulations have become democratized. A far broader group of researchers now have far more power than anyone did in 1975.

All of the furor over Kawaoka and Fouchier¡¯s research came well after the research had already been completed, the mutant flus created and cooling in the lab. Our ability to manipulate life ¡ª even the those sub-microscopic, sometimes deadly forms of life known as viruses ¡ª grows by the day, but there¡¯s been no concurrent development in how we, as a world, should govern those abilities. It turns out that may be an even bigger challenge then inventing a killer flu from scratch.


Read more: healthland.time.com/2012/05/03/h5n1-paper-published-deadly-transmissible-bird-flu-could-be-closer-than-thought/#ixzz1uCmjnz4X


Read more: healthland.time.com/2012/05/03/h5n1-paper-published-deadly-transmissible-bird-flu-could-be-closer-than-thought/#ixzz1uCmRdw1b

[dothedd]

Researchers tinker with bird flu: Are enough safeguards in place?
Christian Science Monitor
A new study and one to be published soon on Asian bird flu have prompted debate about safeguards during research and how much access others should have to research details. By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / May 4, 2012 A new study involving a genetically ... CONTINUED:
www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0504/Researchers-tinker-with-bird-flu-Are-enough-safeguards-in-place

[dothedd]

Bird Flu Could Become Deadly Pandemic

May 4, 2012 12:51 AM EDT

The first of the two controversial studies on mutated version of deadly bird flu that sparked fears has finally been published on the journal Nature, showing the possibility that virus could be transmitted between humans and become pandemic.

H5N1, commonly known as “bird flu”, is lethal to human. According to World Health Organization, bird flu killed around 60 percent of those who are infected since 2003. The number of infected people remained relatively low at around 602 because transmission of the influenza between humans was rare, if any.

The Wednesday’s paper, however, showed otherwise and that bird flu could spread between humans with some mutations.

And some of the mutations are already starting in Middle East, only one mutation away from becoming deadly.

“If [the mutation] happens — and if H5N1 retains its apparently sky-high mortality rate — we could be in for serious trouble,” reported Bryan Walsh of Time Health Land.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka, virologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, led the study where the team tweaked H5N1 influenza and tested among ferrets. After four mutations, researchers found that the virus could spread between ferrets.

There had been debates about whether this paper, along with a study by Rom Fouchier of Netherlands on the similar topic, should be published or not. Those in favor of publication said it is helpful for research and medication improvement, and those who are against said it could give an opportunity for bioterrorists to spread lethal disease.

The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), an independent advisory board to the government, said details of the two studies should be redacted from any publications in December of 2011. Undoubtedly, this stirred controversies among scientists, saying the government is trying to censor scientific discourse and stifle advancement.

In March, the board revised the decision and allowed publications to happen. Kawaoka’s paper on Nature was published in full, but only the data, methods, and conclusions were recommended for Fouchier’s paper.

When Fouchier’s paper is published, it could stir the biosafety community even more, since the mutant bird flu made in Fouchier’s lab is described to be more dangerous than Kawaoka’s. Fouchier’s paper was submitted to Science and awaiting to be published.

“Fouchier’s work would provide a much more direct formula for terrorists to alter H5N1 viruses themselves,” reported Walsh.

A virology professor at the University of Hong Kong, Malik Peiris, who wrote a commentary accompanying Kawaoka’s paper in Nature, expressed his concerns.

“There are people who say that bird flu has been around for 16, 17 years and never attained human transmissibility and never will,” said Peiris. “What this paper shows is that it certainly can. That is an important public health message, we have to take H5N1 seriously. It doesn't mean it will become a pandemic, but it can.”

However, some said there are more benefits than the risks in publishing the paper.

Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY and a member of NSABB, said scientist will now have better understanding on the mechanism, therefore contribute in preventing.

“We feel the risk is still there, but the benefits now outweigh the risks,” said Casadevall.

None of the infected ferrets in the Kawaoka’s experiment died, according to the study.

[dothedd]

Peru pelican and dolphin deaths prompt warning to stay off beaches

Government issues health alert after more than 1,400 birds are washed up along with 800 dolphins, with the cause unknown


Peruvian officials examine a pelican carcass on the beach of Port Eten.


Peru's government has declared a health alert along its northern coastline and urged residents and tourists to stay away from long stretches of beach as it investigates the unexplained deaths of hundreds of dolphins and pelicans.

At least 1,200 birds, mostly pelicans, have washed up dead along a stretch of Peru's northern Pacific coastline in recent weeks, according to health officials, and an estimated 800 dolphins have died in the same area in recent months.

The health ministry recommended staying away from beaches, although it stopped short of a ban, and called on health officials to use gloves, masks and other protective gear when collecting dead birds.

The peak tourism season around Lima's beaches is over but many surfers are still venturing into the waters near the capital.

The agriculture ministry said preliminary tests on some dead pelicans pointed to malnourishment. Oscar Dominguez, head of the ministry's health department, said experts had ruled out bird flu.

"The health ministry ... calls on the population to abstain from going to the beaches until the health alert is lifted," said a statement accompanied by a photograph of a dead pelican.

The ministry said officials had so far checked 18 beaches in and around Lima for dead birds but gave no details of any findings.

"We're starting from the hypothesis that it's because the birds are young and unable to find enough food for themselves, and also because the sea temperature has risen and anchovies have moved elsewhere," said Juan Rheineck, the deputy agriculture minister.

A mass pelican death along Peru's northern coast in 1997 was blamed at the time on a shortage of their anchovy staple diet due to the El Niño weather pattern.

Some were undeterred by the mysterious deaths. "We eat fresh fish on the quay of Chorrillos every day and no fisherman has died yet, so don't worry, it's nothing," said Gloria Rivera, a seafood restaurant owner.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/06/peru-penguin-dolphin-deaths-beaches?newsfeed=true

[dothedd]

Peru warns against beaches due to bird deaths

Published May 06, 2012


LIMA, Peru – Peru's Health Ministry is urging people to stay away from Pacific beaches from Lima northward after recent large-scale deaths of pelicans and dolphins.

Neither the Health Ministry nor Peru's oceanographic institute has determined the cause of the deaths, and there is no indication the deaths of the birds and the mammals are related.

And Saturday's warning did not indicate why it might be dangerous to visit beaches. Peru's agricultural safety service ruled out Friday that the pelicans could have died of avian flu, which could be contagious to humans.

Since February, some 877 dolphins and, more recently, at least 1,200 pelicans have been found dead on Peruvian beaches for unexplained reasons.

Local fishermen and restaurant owners said Saturday's warning hasn't had much effect on their businesses.

It's the low season for Peruvian beach-goers, in any case.

A check of Lima's beaches found no dead animals on the shore but sanitation crews were cleaning up an unusually large amount of garbage and debris including plastic bags and bottles and pieces of wood.

Read more: www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/06/peru-warns-against-beaches-due-to-bird-deaths/#ixzz1uCq6YR5Z

[dothedd]

May 6, 2012 posted by: Bill Colley WGMD Host
.
Commentary: Solar Storms, Bird Flu & Bob McDonnell


Great, now we’ve got a massive solar storm to worry about. Did you see the link over the weekend at Drudge Report from the Los Angeles Times? A British scientist tells a newspaper reporter from Pakistan working an ocean plus an entire continent away there is much more to fear falling from the sky than just large stones. The storm the scientist envisions takes out communications satellites and wreaks havoc with earthbound electronics.

I was at my friend Murph’s place this evening and he had already put in a long day. The man is a very early riser and was listening to radio at 3:00 A.M., Sunday morning. Coast to Coast is the program he likes when he can’t sleep and I admit I rarely hear the show but when I do I find it greatly entertaining. Avian flu is possibly a serious upcoming threat and a guest on the radio explained the governments of the world are downplaying the potential of a pandemic. Apparently the flu virus mutates easily and is now killing crocodiles in Asia. The croc has a long snout and it must be agonizing but you won’t find me offering a handkerchief.

Mankind is always threatened by unexpected pathogens. Modern fears are some crazies in a mountain cave in South Central Asia will loose a killer bug. Or George Soros, Dr. No and Queen Elizabeth and all with the assistance of the United Nations.

Lest you think my associates and me paranoid a story at the Beacon Equity web site emailed my way this weekend maintains Janet Napolitano and her large spy agency are preparing for civil war. Her Department of Homeland Security was created a decade ago to ensure intelligence agencies better cooperated against foreign enemies. Funny, the country already had a Central Intelligence Agency and none of the other agencies cooperated with an office named Central. Now we’ve got some interlocking and some not so interlocking agencies with nothing to anymore do but apparently attack the host. Don’t bet anyone in government ever believes he or she is a dangerous virus!

Other acronym government agencies are fanning out across the land and “crucifying” opponents. The since sacked regional EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) administrator on a leaked videotape appeared to enjoy his analogy. Do you think he’s alone?

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was a guest on Fox News Sunday and reiterated his support for massive amounts of foreign aid for people that really don’t like you. Admittedly Mr. Rubio is a vigorous looking man and his name ends in a vowel and somewhere there is a marketing specialist at the RNC (Republican National Committee) drooling over a census form minority on the GOP’s (Grand Old Party’s) ticket as VP (Vice President). I think the marketing guy’s grandfather worked in 1930s Hollywood and insisted every film needed a musical number jarringly interrupting the plot in order to bring people into theaters. Rubio is a globalist. Fox’s Chris Wallace asked how plans for global policing would square with foreign aid cuts proposed by Mitt Romney. I nearly fell off my stool when Wallace said Romney is proposing slashing 100 million dollars. Holy mackerel! Janet Napolitano spends as much before breakfast stringing barbed wire around your home.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has been mentioned as a Vice Presidential possibility but the globalists working the op/ed pages at the Wall Street Journal are denouncing the man. McDonnell likes a measure in his state telling the federal government to buzz off. Those of you with memory circuits still intact may recall President Obama’s signing of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act). He can have you carted away without trial or counsel and detained for the remainder of your days. McDonnell and his legislators replied by saying no one working in state law enforcement would cooperate. When Washington whined, the Virginia Governor added no law enforcer in Virginia would “knowingly” engage in violating God given liberties. The change steamed Obama, Napolitano and the Wall Street Journal editors even more than the original language.

Remember, the Journal is capitalist and not conservative. If Chinese style government and slave labor are profitable then what’s the trouble? The Journal editors for years have lobbied for open borders in hopes of increasing the slave labor pool. Virginia, on the other hand, has a history of saying, “Buzz off!” See Lee, Robert E. See Henry, Patrick. See Jefferson, Thomas. See Washington, George.

The Drudge Report had an interesting piece a few days ago. One in 7 Americans told a pollster they believed Armageddon is near. Governor McDonnell is a God fearing man. So is my buddy, Murph, and I’m much the same. Maybe I’m spinning a tale for a novel but there are obvious means of controlling the faithful and those longing to be free.

A pandemic, a Wag the Dog inspired civil war and one morning you rise and Janet says you won’t be able to speak with your friends and neighbors because a belching solar flare wiped out your toys. And coming up the road are the armored vehicles with a popular slogan: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

www.wgmd.com/?p=56156

[dothedd]

Government panel better be right about bird flu

Rates natural mutation a graver threat than terrorists
Comments
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Updated: Sunday, May 6, 2012, 4:00 AM.

CONTINUED:

www.nydailynews.com/opinion/government-panel-better-bird-flu-article-1.1072890?localLinksEnabled=false

[dothedd]

July 17, 2012, 2:12 p.m. EDT

World's Leading Virus Researchers Warn 'We Are Not Prepared for a Global Virus Crisis'
Global Virus Network Conference Identifies Greatest Threats To Public Health

NEW YORK, Jul 17, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Members of the Global Virus Network (GVN), which include foremost experts in every category of virus, and representing more than 20 countries, recently concluded a conference in Naples, Italy. Members presented current research, identified the most serious and imminent global virus threats to public health, and discussed both what is required and how to best deal with these viruses.


The members of the Global Virus Network identified viruses transferred from animals to humans, such as avian and swine influenzas, as the most imminent and potentially pandemic threats to public health. Dr. Ilaria Capua of Italy's Veterinary Public Health Institute (IZSVe), and a leading researcher of animal-borne viruses, warned that the rapid spread of what is presently a mild form of avian flu (H9N2) is combining with a far more virulent and deadly form of avian flu, which could cause the emergence of a lethal chimeric virus. "We are sitting on a ticking time bomb, and it is imperative that the members of the Global Virus Network advocate for funding to increase surveillance and research in this field," said Dr. Capua.


The members of the Global Virus Network also determined that nature, not humans, is the public's foremost bioterrorism threat. Dr. Ab Osterhaus, Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands said, "The recent claim that publishing a paper on bird flu would provide terrorists with a means to kill is absurd, and frankly, just not possible for terrorists to recreate. We must remember that all of these dangerous flu mutations are already present in regions of Southeast Asia." Osterhaus added, "What is most important is that scientists work together on these issues, which is exactly the function the GVN serves. In this way, the relevant mutations in the virus could be spotted in humans as soon as they emerge." Additionally, one of the world's foremost influenza experts, Dr. Peter Palese of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, said, "We must share information and early results so we can develop safe and effective vaccine - anything less is useless."

Dr. Rino Rappuoli, Global Head of Vaccines Research at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics based in Siena, Italy, spoke about his foundation he launched to supply vaccines against diseases that particularly target poor populations. Rappuoli presented an inspiring talk about how vaccines have made the biggest contribution to the increased life expectancy that we enjoy today and to our modern quality of life. He said, "Everyone should be vaccinated. Anything less than total global vaccination could result in the emergence of a catastrophic outbreak from a mutated virus."

"It is only a matter of time before our next virus epidemic or even pandemic," said Dr. Robert C. Gallo, who is Director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is most widely known for co-discovering HIV and developing the HIV blood test. "We are not yet adequately prepared for new and existing viral threats, and our mission at the GVN is to fill that gap. The GVN represents leading experts and researchers in every classification of human virus, and is uniquely capable of assisting governments and organizations in focusing their resources on research and public policy to address viruses which pose a serious and imminent threat to public health."

The GVN was co-founded in March 2011 by Gallo, currently Chair of GVN's Scientific Leadership Board, and by Dr. Reinhard Kurth of the Ernst Schering Foundation in Germany and Dr. William Hall of University College Dublin in Ireland. GVN will seamlessly share information through cutting-edge technology including developing a virtual bio bank and developing a Rapid Action Fund to provide resources for research of the most dangerous, high-risk pathogens. Additionally, the GVN seeks to build and maintain clinics adjoined to bio-containment facilities in six of the world's continents, as well as a Global Rapid Response Research Team, to be mobilized in the event of viral threats. Lastly, the GVN will sponsor fellows who are expected to conduct high-priority research in medical virology at GVN Centers.

"Scholarly exchange is fundamental to international collaborations that will link our activities far into the future," said Gallo. "GVN scientists will also have the unique opportunity to move between centers to implement research programs or bring specific expertise to a local problem."

The GVN will meet again October 17-19 in Baltimore, Maryland and next spring in Munich, Germany.

About the Global Virus Network (GVN)

The Global Virus Network (GVN) is an independent, not for profit organization, comprised of leading medical virologists from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The GVN is a global authority and resource for the identification and investigation, interpretation and explanation, control and suppression, of viral diseases posing threats to mankind. The GVN enhances the international capacity for reactive, proactive and interactive activities that address mankind-threatening viruses. The GVN addresses a global need for coordinated virology training, developing scholarly exchange programs for recruiting and training young scientists in medical virology. The GVN serves as a resource to governments and international organizations seeking advice about viral disease threats, prevention or response strategies. The GVN advocates research and training on virus infections and their many disease manifestations, and acts as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of information to authorities, scientific communities and the world publics.

SOURCE: Global Virus Network (GVN)

[dothedd]

Indonesia reports 9th birdflu death this year

Updated: 2012-08-14 15:21

A 37-year Indonesian man has died of avian influenza in Yogyakarta province of Indonesia, bringing the total fatality to 9 this year, health ministry said on its website on Sunday.

The man from Prambanan of Sleman district died on July 30 after being treated in hospitals, the ministry said.


Two laboratory tests confirmed that he was positive on having H5N1 virus, putting the the total death to 159 out of 191 cases since the viruses first attacked the country in 2005.

The self-employed man first felt the symtomps of the disease on July 24 with having high fever before he went to a hospital in the next day. Two days later, the man was treated in the hospital for his worsening condition and on July 29 he was shifted to another hospital.

An investigation showed that the man had possibly had contact with birds or poultry as it was found pet caged birds kept on his work place, and about 50 meters from his house there was a poulty slaugher house, as well as a cattle farm near it.

Concerns on the bird flu attacks appear in the region following the reports of the death on the H5N1 in Indonesia, Cambodia, China and Vietnam.

Indonesia is striving to produce bird flu vaccine to a sufficient level when the pandemic takes place, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has said.

She said that the country needed over 50,000 units vaccine to be used when pandemic occurred and to help other countries.