Bangladesh: first human case of H5N1 bird flu
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2008-05-22
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh's Health Ministry says the nation's first human case of H5N1 strain of bird flu infection has been detected.
A health ministry statement says a child was infected by the virus in January.
The statement released by the Directorate General of Health Services on
Thursday did not give the child's name, age, or other details about the case.
The child is recovering after treatment. The statement said the case was diagnosed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Bangladesh in recent months have culled hundreds of thousands of birds after the virus was detected last year.
http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603531.htm
BANGLADESH: Human Bird Flu Case Deadly for Poultry Industry
By Farid Ahmed
DHAKA, May 24 (IPS) - Authorities here have stepped up surveillance against avian influenza after the case of a 16-month-old boy, who took ill in January, was diagnosed as one of infection with the deadly H5N1 virus.
Bangladesh become the 15th country to report a case of human infection after the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO), citing results from laboratories at the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, confirmed the infection on Thursday.
Since 2003, when bird flu first surfaced, 15 countries have reported a total of 382 human cases, with 241 of them turning fatal. WHO has now confirmed human cases in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Burma, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Prof. Mahmudur Rahman, a director at Bangladesh’s Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told IPS that although the boy was totally cured well before the confirmation, surveillance has been stepped up across the country.
Since the H5N1 virus was first detected in Bangladesh, at a state-run poultry farm on the outskirts of the capital, authorities have culled more than two million birds, causing losses estimated at 700 million US dollars.
With 47 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts affected, the poultry industry, introduced two decades ago to help this impoverished country, is now facing its biggest ever challenge. Affected are more than 1.5 million people employed in one of the world's largest poultry industries that produces producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.
According to the South Asia Enterprise Development Facility, a multi-donor facility managed by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, the poultry sector supports five million people directly or indirectly through 150,000 poultry farms, constituting 1.6 percent of Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP).
In recent years, the poultry industry has been growing at an annual rate of about 20 percent, recording a turnover of 25 -1.5 billion dollars in 2006. Analysts say the figures for 2007 may fall below that mark thanks to drastic culling.
Battered by the culling, monsoon floods and a devastating cyclone in November, the country's once booming poultry industry is now seriously threatened. Businessmen say the outbreak has already caused the closure of more than a third of the country’s poultry farms.
As the virus spread, the state-owned Bangladesh TV and a dozen or so private cable TV channels often broadcast programmes on avian influenza making people aware of the deadly virus, but observers said impact is minimal.
‘’Street vendors are still selling live chickens in Dhaka, although the city corporation authority has imposed a ban on selling live chickens in the open,’’ said Dhaka school teacher Sharif Ahmed.
Without disclosing the identity of the affected boy, Rahman said he lived in a crowded slum in Dhaka. His parents had bought a live chicken from a nearby market which they kept in their house for some days before slaughtering it for a meal.
The boy was among the more than 3,000 people suspected of being infected with bird flu in Bangladesh, but his was the only case that tested positive, a health department official said.
After the Bangladesh government was informed of the test results by the WHO, the national advisory committee on avian influenza met on Thursday to step up measures.
Rahman said IEDCR was already conducting surveillance measures in the districts affected by bird flu and that people who were in direct contact with poultry birds and products were being kept under observation by epidemiologists. As part of the new measures, Bangladesh will set up isolation units in all public hospitals, he said.
"Right now everything is under control. We have trained doctors and readied hospitals to tackle any new detection," Rahman said. ‘’We also have trained volunteers in the villages.’’
Bangladesh, which has a population of nearly 150 million, is the world's most densely populated country with nearly 1,000 people per sq km. With poultry farms set up everywhere in the country the risk of the virus spreading fast is high.
Earlier this year, India’s West Bengal state which shares a long border with Bangladesh suffered the neighbouring country’s worst outbreak of the virus among poultry. But no human cases of bird flu have been reported in India, which has also carried out massive poultry culling.
Bird flu was thought only to infect birds until the first human cases were detected in Hong Kong in 1997. Though rare, humans catch the disease through close contact with infected birds.
Experts consider vigilance and speedy action such as isolation of human cases important because of a fear that the H5N1 strain could mutate to become capable of human-to-human transmission and set off a deadly pandemic. Densely populated countries like Bangladesh, where people live in close proximity to backyard poultry or keep birds in their homes, are seen as particularly risky.
(END/2008)
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05230803/H5N1_Dhaka_Delay.html
May 21, 2008
Ambassador Moriarty to Host Town Hall Meeting in Chittagong for American Citizens
Saturday, May 24, 2008, at the Peninsula Hotel
Ambassador James F. Moriarty invites all American citizens in Bangladesh, age 18 and over, to attend a Town Hall Meeting.:tiphat: http://dhaka.usembassy.gov/warden_message_may21_08.html:yinyang:
Warden Message
Town Hall Meeting for American Citizens
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at the American Club
Ambassador James F. Moriarty invites all American citizens in Bangladesh, age 18 and over, to attend a Town Hall Meeting.
Consul Elizabeth Gourlay will introduce Ambassador Moriarty.
Regional Security Officer Matthew Wolsey will give an update on security issues.
Regional Medical Officer Dr. John Christensen will give an update on Avian Influenza.:tiphat: http://dhaka.usembassy.gov/warden_message_may07_08.html
12 May 2008 – Bangladesh
As of 12 May 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, reported that culling of poultry has taken place in 546 farms, spread over 47 districts. (Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayangonj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Jessore, Noakhali, Gaibandha, Magura, Rajbari, Nilfamari, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Joypurhat, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Bogra, Feni, Pabna, Kurigram, Moulvibaza, Barisal, Barguna, Rajshahi, Natore, Patuakhali, Netrokona, Bhola, Kulna, Manikgonj, Gopalgonj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Kustia, Jhinaidah, Norsingdhi, Bagerhat, Chittagong, Kishoreganj, Meherpur, Comilla, Shariatpur, Munshiganj Chandpur, Satkhira and B Baria.) A total of 1,636,303 chickens have been culled.
No human cases have been reported.
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http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section1027/Section2095/Section2462_13930.asp
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The is little doubt that there are MANY unreported human H5N1 cases in Bangladesh and India. The current case remains confusing. If the positive was just determined yesterday, why was the patient treated in January?
This case raises many questions.
28 May 2008 15:54:27 GMT
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, May 28 (Reuters) - An infant in Bangladesh contracted H5N1 bird flu and survived, in the South Asian country's first human infection with the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.
In a statement released in Geneva, the United Nations agency said a 16 month-old boy from Komalapur, Dhaka, developed symptoms in late January and then recovered.
"The case was exposed to live and slaughtered chickens at his home," the WHO said. "Specimens have been collected from his family members and neighbours. All remain healthy to date."
The H5N1 virus has infected millions of birds in much of Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Public health experts fear it could spark a human pandemic if it mutates into a form that passes easily between people.
A total of 383 humans are known to have been infected with the virus since 2003, and 241 have died, according to the WHO.
The Bangladeshi infection was flagged during surveillance activities by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh, the WHO said. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28760423.htm
Bangladesh says child recovers from bird flu
22 May 2008 13:48:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
(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.
(...)
-
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA264384.htm
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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.
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
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2008-05-22 16:30:42 -
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu (http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603764.htm#) has been detected, health officials said Thursday, calling on residents of this impoverished South Asian nation not to panic.
A child from the capital Dhaka was found to be infected by the virus (http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603764.htm#) in January and treated for respiratory trouble,
| |
The details were released after Bangladesh received confirmation from the Center 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 (http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603764.htm#) _ 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 Organization 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 Center for Disease Control.
Since the first cases in poultry were reported last year, bird flu has spread to 42 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, including inside Dhaka, a city of 10 million people.
Hundreds of thousands of birds have been slaughtered, severely affecting the country's poultry industry, which is made up 150,000 farms and has an annual turnover of about US$750 million (euro510 million).
http://www.pr-inside.com/bangladesh-says-first-human-case-of-r603764.htm
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05220806/H5N1_Dhaka_Mild.html
The case is a 16-month-old male from Komalapur, Dhaka. He developed symptoms on 27th January 2008 and subsequently recovered. The case was confirmed as being infected with A(H5N1) by the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The case was exposed to live and slaughtered chickens at his home. Specimens have been collected from his family members and neighbours. All remain healthy to date.
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_05_28/en/index.html
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
| By Mark Dummett BBC News, Dhaka |
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
Alpha Arzu
The government plans to introduce isolation units at 33 district level public hospitals to treat patients infected with avian influenza by June, as the viral infection has already been detected in a child in Dhaka.
Besides establishing the 33 units with at least four beds each, the government will also start surveillance at 18 more district hospitals with the existing 12 where surveillance started amid the first outbreak of bird flu in March 2007, said Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
The initiatives were taken before detection of the first case of bird flue infection in human body on Wednesday, said director of disease control of the directorate general of health services, Moazzem Hossain. ‘Now all the steps will be swift.’
As part of the preparedness of tackling human infection of H5N1, the government has also stocked up a large number of anti-viral drug and protective equipments, said Mahmudur Rahman.
The government has already established an 8-bed avian influenza ward at the chest diseases instate and hospital in Mohakhali with artificial ventilation system, and all drugs and facilities to treat such patients.
To diagnose the infection, the government has established a laboratory with real-time polymerase chain reaction, a rapid method for diagnosis of all kinds of influenza viruses, on the second floor of the IEDCR building at Mohakhali and invited international tenders for procurement of machinery for the laboratory, said an official of the IEDCR.
Mahmud told New Age on Saturday, ‘The PCR is a method for amplifying a small amount of deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid into large quantities in a few hours. Real-time PCR lets a scientist view the increase in DNA as it is amplified, and allows rapid screening of samples for diagnosis and disease tracking.’
The government also ordered installing a Bio Safety Level 3 Laboratory on the IEDCR premises to tackle incidence of influenza and other dangerous pathogens within four to five months. The BSL 3 Lab will be brought in from the Hong Kong.
With the assistance of international financial institutions and lending agencies, the government has already trained a large number of health professionals and people.
There are 12-member teams in districts and four-member teams at the upazila level for rapid response that have been working around the country.
Besides there are about 2,26,100 volunteers at the union that working to raise the awareness of the people. They are visiting the door to door with messages and leaflets, said health officials.
The first bird flu in human body was detected on May 21. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, diagnosed a 16-month-old Bangladeshi child as being infected with H5N1, the virus that causes avian influenza.
The country’s first bird flu case was detected in March 2007 in poultry. About 287 farms with confirmed H5N1 virus cases were reported in 47 districts till May 21 in 2008, according to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.
The government has so far exterminated more than 16,37,266 fowl and destroyed about 22 lakh eggs in 505 commercial and 42 backyard farms in the country.
The symptoms are similar to other types of flu — fever, malaise, sore throat and coughing. Humans can also develop conjunctivitis because of the virus.
The World Health Organization confirmed 382 cases of H5N1 in humans in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, leading to 241 deaths, between 2003 and April 30, 2008.
http://www.newagebd.com/front.html#16
credits Ter
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02050804/Dhaka_Crows.html
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/05220804/H5N1_Dhaka_Child.html
| Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu | |
| DHAKA - A 16-MONTH-OLD boy has been confirmed as Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior health ministry official said on Thursday. 'We got the confirmation yesterday from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) yesterday,' said Mahmudur Rahman, a senior health ministry official. The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka 'has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved,' Mr Rahman said. 'Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm,' he said. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Asia/STIStory_240007.html |
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
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.:tiphat: http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/05/22/news0402.htm
by Shafiq Alam
DHAKA (AFP) -
Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu on Thursday, but said the 16-month-old victim had now recovered from the virus.
The baby boy from a Dhaka slum was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of the disease in January, but this was only confirmed by a US laboratory this week, the government said.
"There is no reason to panic. The child contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in January but we only got confirmation from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control) on Wednesday it was a human bird flu case," said senior government official Saluddin Khan.
Earlier, a health ministry official had said the child was still in hospital.
But Khan, who works for the livestock ministry and is coordinating Bangladesh's battle against bird flu, said the boy "has now made a complete recovery."
Khan said Bangladesh's fight against the virus was "very much under control."
"We're destroying the birds and eggs as soon as we have any report of bird flu at any farm in the country," he said.
Bird flu has killed over 240 people worldwide since late 2003 and experts fear it could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
Bangladesh has set up isolation units at all public hospitals across the country, and officials said the government had taken adequate safety measures to tackle any new human cases of bird flu.
"Right now everything is under control. We have trained doctors and readied hospitals to tackle any new detection," said Mahmudur Rahman, who heads Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology and Disease Control and Research.
"We successfully tackled the disease when it spread to most parts of the country in January and February. In the last 40 days there has been only one outbreak of the H5N1 virus in a farm in northern Bangladesh," added Khan.
Bangladesh, which has a population of 140 million, is the world's most densely populated country with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre (2,600 per square mile).
It was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 near Dhaka, but the disease became dormant.
It made a forceful comeback in January when a clutch of new districts were hit. At the outbreak's peak, some 50 of the country's 64 districts were affected by bird flu, officials said.
More than a million birds were slaughtered, but the outbreaks began to subside in March as temperatures started soaring, killing the virus, officials said.
Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.
Industry officials said the bird flu outbreak at its peak this year led to closure of 40 percent of the nation's poultry farms and left half a million workers jobless.
Earlier this year, one health official told AFP there was "a huge lack of awareness in the countryside" about disposing of poultry hit by bird flu and people were "throwing away dead chickens in open fields, canals and ponds."
Also earlier this year, giant neighbour India suffered its third and worst outbreak of the virus among poultry in West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh.
No human cases of bird flu have been reported in India, which has also carried out massive poultry slaughters.
The two nations recently agreed to pool information on bird flu after sparring over the source of the deadly disease.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080522/wl_sthasia_afp/healthflubangladesh_080522144627;_ylt=Al4WrQInlJAY 6m6Qe1mzfnqTvyIi
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http://www.mohfw.gov.bd/
The child was recovering... for months? If no accurate informations are available for this case, why do Directorate talk about?
partial report from http://www.whoban.org/pdf/SitRep%20on%20AI%20on%2024%20April%202008.pdf (http://www.whoban.org/pdf/SitRep%20on%20AI%20on%2024%20April%202008.pdf)
2459
Could the 1 fever case from January be the current confirmed case? What about the 5 from February?
22 May 2008
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, threatening the impoverished country's growing poultry sector.
(Reporting by Nizam Ahmed and Masud Karim; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Alex Richardson)
http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA222370.htm
hattip Sand:tiphat:
May 22, 2008
Bangladesh reports first human case of bird flu
DHAKA - A 16-MONTH-OLD boy has been confirmed as Bangladesh's first human case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior health ministry official said on Thursday.
'We got the confirmation yesterday from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) yesterday,' said Mahmudur Rahman, a senior health ministry official.
The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka 'has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved,' Mr Rahman said.
'Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm,' he said. -- AFP
29 May 2008 – Bangladesh
Outbreaks of Avian Influenza in Indonesia, India, Myanmar and Thailand have been reported among poultry.
Human cases of Avian Influenza have been reported from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.
Thailand has reported 25 cases with 17 deaths since December 2003.
The last human case in Thailand was reported in September, 2006.
WHO has reported 133 laboratory confirmed human cases of avian influenza in Indonesia, with 108 deaths since July 2005.
Bangladesh has confirmed its first case of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza, the case is a 16-month-old male from Komalapur, Dhaka.
The case is a 16-month-old male from Komalapur, Dhaka. He developed symptoms on 27th January 2008 and subsequently recovered.
The case was confirmed as being infected with A(H5N1) by the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The case was exposed to live and slaughtered chickens at his home. Specimens have been collected from his family members and neighbours. All remain healthy to date.
As of 28 May 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, reported that culling of poultry has taken place in 547 farms, spread over 47 districts.
Dhaka,
Gazipur,
Narayangonj,
Tangail,
Jamalpur,
Jessore,
Noakhali,
Gaibandha,
Magura,
Rajbari,
Nilfamari,
Dinajpur,
Rangpur,
Joypurhat,
Lalmonirhat,
Thakurgaon,
Naogaon,
Bogra,
Feni,
Pabna,
Kurigram,
Moulvibaza,
Barisal,
Barguna,
Rajshahi,
Natore,
Patuakhali,
Netrokona,
Bhola,
Kulna,
Manikgonj,
Gopalgonj,
Mymensingh,
Sylhet,
Kustia,
Jhinaidah,
Norsingdhi,
Bagerhat,
Chittagong,
Kishoreganj,
Meherpur,
Comilla,
Shariatpur,
Munshiganj
Chandpur,
Satkhira and
B Baria.
A total of 1,637,266 chickens have been culled.
-
http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section1027/Section2095/Section2462_13930.asp
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12 May 2008 – Bangladesh
As of 12 May 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Government of Bangladesh, reported that culling of poultry has taken place in 546 farms, spread over 47 districts. (Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayangonj, Tangail, Jamalpur, Jessore, Noakhali, Gaibandha, Magura, Rajbari, Nilfamari, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Joypurhat, Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Bogra, Feni, Pabna, Kurigram, Moulvibaza, Barisal, Barguna, Rajshahi, Natore, Patuakhali, Netrokona, Bhola, Kulna, Manikgonj, Gopalgonj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Kustia, Jhinaidah, Norsingdhi, Bagerhat, Chittagong, Kishoreganj, Meherpur, Comilla, Shariatpur, Munshiganj Chandpur, Satkhira and B Baria.) A total of 1,636,303 chickens have been culled.
No human cases have been reported.
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http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section1027/Section2095/Section2462_13930.asp
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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.
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
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.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2008_04_30/en/index.html)
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/may2208avian.html
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
by Shafiq Alam 28 minutes ago
Bangladesh reported its first confirmed case of human bird flu Thursday, saying a 16-month-old boy has been diagnosed with the deadly virus.
The boy from a slum in the capital Dhaka "has survived. He has been quarantined and his condition has improved," health ministry official Mahmudur Rahman told AFP.
"Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm," he said.
Tests by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the H5N1 strain of the virus on Wednesday, Rahman said, but he declined to say when the child fell sick.
The health ministry has set up isolation units at all public hospitals across the country to deal with any human cases of bird flu.
While around 800 people were suspected of having flu earlier this year, no one was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain.
Experts fear bird flu could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
Bangladesh, which has a population of 140 million, is the world's most densely populated country with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre (2,600 per square mile).
It was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 near Dhaka, but the disease became dormant.
It made a forceful comeback in January when a clutch of new districts were hit. At the outbreak's peak, some 50 of the country's 64 districts were affected by bird flu, officials said.
But the outbreaks began to subside in March as temperatures started soaring, killing the virus, officials said.
More than a million birds have been slaughtered since the first outbreak.
Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.
Industry officials said the bird flu outbreak at its peak this year led to closure of 40 percent of the nation's poultry farms and left half a million workers jobless.
Earlier this year, one health official told AFP there was "a huge lack of awareness in the countryside" about disposing of poultry hit by bird flu and people were "throwing away dead chickens in open fields, canals and ponds."
Also earlier this year, giant neighbour India suffered its third and worst outbreak of the virus among poultry in West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh.
No human cases of bird flu have been reported in India, which has also carried out massive poultry slaughters. The two nations recently agreed to pool information on bird flu after sparring over the source of the deadly disease.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080522/wl_sthasia_afp/healthflubangladesh_080522141045
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.
| Bangladesh confirms first human bird flu case |
| 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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