Virus H7N9 bermutasi, mampu jangkiti haiwan lain
BEIJING 4 April - Virus selesema burung, H7N9 di China, dipercayai telah bermutasi dan mampu menjangkiti haiwan lain, sekali gus meningkatkan potensi ancaman yang lebih besar kepada manusia, kata saintis, semalam.
Pengarah pusat selesema Pertubuhan Kesihatan Dunia di Hospital Penyelidikan Kanak-kanak St. Jude, di Memphis, Tennessee, Richard Webby berkata, turutan genetik H7N9 menimbulkan kebimbangan tentang potensi penyebaran wabak secara global.
Bagaimanapun, katanya, agak mustahil untuk memberikan anggaran tepat tentang perkara itu.
"Pada peringkat ini, tidak mungkin virus itu menjadi pandemik,'' kata beliau.
Webby menjelaskan bahawa H7N9 mempunyai penanda genetik menunjukkan virus itu mampu menjangkiti manusia.
Katanya, jika itu berlaku, satu wabak besar boleh tersebar, lebih buruk daripada penyebaran virus-virus selesema burung sebelum ini seperti H5N1 yang pernah muncul sedekad lalu.
Buat masa ini, H7N9 di China mengakibatkan empat kematian dan sekurang-kurangnya sembilan orang telah dijangkiti virus itu.
Masih tidak jelas bagaimana mangsa boleh dijangkiti virus itu dan masih tidak ada bukti H7N9 boleh merebak dengan mudah dalam kalangan manusia.
Apa yang pasti, H7N9 boleh berjangkit menerusi ternakan ayam dan itik tanpa membuatkan haiwan itu jatuh sakit, sekali gus menyukarkan saintis mengesan kuman itu dalam ternakan.
No proof China bird flu H7N9 spreading between humans:
World Health Organization
The World Health Organisation said Monday there is no evidence China’s bird flu is spreading between humans, but jitters over the outbreak that has killed six people saw airline and tourism shares slump.
China announced just over a week ago that H7N9 avian influenza had been found in humans for the first time, and the number of confirmed cases has since reached 21.
Like the more common H5N1 variant which typically spreads from birds to humans, experts fear the possibility that such viruses can mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to trigger a pandemic.
“Although we do not know the source of infection, at this time there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission,” Michael O’Leary, the WHO’s representative in China, told a news conference.
“The human cases we know of are very serious. A large proportion have died,” he added.
Fears over the deaths sparked a fall in Shanghai shares, with hotel and tourism shares leading the decline.
China United Travel, a tourism agency based in the eastern city of Nanjing, slumped 3.38 percent and hotel operator Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Development fell 5.21 percent.
Flag carrier Air China was off 3.38 percent and China Eastern Airlines down 3.23 percent. But medical stocks rose.
Concerns over the outbreak were also blamed for a tumble in Hong Kong stocks on Friday, although shares recovered on Monday.
“The major cause of bird flu remains unknown and this will cause panic among people and affect consumption, which may affect market expectations for the trend of the domestic economy,” said BOC International analyst Shen Jun.
The outbreak has so far been confined to China’s developed eastern region, with four deaths in the commercial hub Shanghai and two in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang. Other infections have occurred in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.
A Chinese expert said more H7N9 cases could be found in a wider area.
“We are tracking the source and cannot rule out the possibility of finding the virus in other regions,” said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency office for China’s disease control centre.
Another official, Shu Yuelong, said poultry infected with the H7N9 strain die more slowly than those with H5N1, giving the virus more time in which to infect people.
More than 365 people have died of H5N1 worldwide since a major outbreak in 2003, and it kills about 60 percent of people who develop it, according to WHO statistics.
The first deaths from H7N9 were not reported by Chinese authorities until three weeks after they occurred, prompting criticism the initial announcement was too slow.
But Chinese officials have said the delay in announcing the first results was because it took time to determine the cause of the illness. O’Leary praised China’s transparency, saying the WHO was “very satisfied and pleased with the level of information shared”.
China faced condemnation a decade ago on accusations it covered up the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome which eventually killed about 800 people globally.
Users of China’s popular weibo microblogs have expressed scepticism about official assurances. “Although there is no human transmission, why does the number (of cases) increase daily? This makes people scared,” said user Li Xiao Lei.
The WHO said in a statement that it is possible the virus can spread to humans from animals, such as pigeons.
Shanghai has culled more than 111,000 birds, banned trading in live poultry and shut markets in a bid to curb the outbreak.
Nanjing city followed suit by banning live poultry trading while Hangzhou culled poultry after discovering infected quail.
The China Daily newspaper on Monday called for “high alert” nationwide and urged stronger regulation of the poultry trade.
“The rules for transporting and trading of live poultry in cities should be strengthened, because the bird flu can spread very fast in densely populated cities,” it said in an editorial.
BEIJING 4 April - Virus selesema burung, H7N9 di China, dipercayai telah bermutasi dan mampu menjangkiti haiwan lain, sekali gus meningkatkan potensi ancaman yang lebih besar kepada manusia, kata saintis, semalam.
Pengarah pusat selesema Pertubuhan Kesihatan Dunia di Hospital Penyelidikan Kanak-kanak St. Jude, di Memphis, Tennessee, Richard Webby berkata, turutan genetik H7N9 menimbulkan kebimbangan tentang potensi penyebaran wabak secara global.
Bagaimanapun, katanya, agak mustahil untuk memberikan anggaran tepat tentang perkara itu.
"Pada peringkat ini, tidak mungkin virus itu menjadi pandemik,'' kata beliau.
Webby menjelaskan bahawa H7N9 mempunyai penanda genetik menunjukkan virus itu mampu menjangkiti manusia.
Katanya, jika itu berlaku, satu wabak besar boleh tersebar, lebih buruk daripada penyebaran virus-virus selesema burung sebelum ini seperti H5N1 yang pernah muncul sedekad lalu.
Buat masa ini, H7N9 di China mengakibatkan empat kematian dan sekurang-kurangnya sembilan orang telah dijangkiti virus itu.
Masih tidak jelas bagaimana mangsa boleh dijangkiti virus itu dan masih tidak ada bukti H7N9 boleh merebak dengan mudah dalam kalangan manusia.
Apa yang pasti, H7N9 boleh berjangkit menerusi ternakan ayam dan itik tanpa membuatkan haiwan itu jatuh sakit, sekali gus menyukarkan saintis mengesan kuman itu dalam ternakan.
The World Health Organisation said Monday there is no evidence China’s bird flu is spreading between humans, but jitters over the outbreak that has killed six people saw airline and tourism shares slump.
China announced just over a week ago that H7N9 avian influenza had been found in humans for the first time, and the number of confirmed cases has since reached 21.
Like the more common H5N1 variant which typically spreads from birds to humans, experts fear the possibility that such viruses can mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to trigger a pandemic.
“Although we do not know the source of infection, at this time there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission,” Michael O’Leary, the WHO’s representative in China, told a news conference.
“The human cases we know of are very serious. A large proportion have died,” he added.
Fears over the deaths sparked a fall in Shanghai shares, with hotel and tourism shares leading the decline.
China United Travel, a tourism agency based in the eastern city of Nanjing, slumped 3.38 percent and hotel operator Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Development fell 5.21 percent.
Flag carrier Air China was off 3.38 percent and China Eastern Airlines down 3.23 percent. But medical stocks rose.
Concerns over the outbreak were also blamed for a tumble in Hong Kong stocks on Friday, although shares recovered on Monday.
“The major cause of bird flu remains unknown and this will cause panic among people and affect consumption, which may affect market expectations for the trend of the domestic economy,” said BOC International analyst Shen Jun.
The outbreak has so far been confined to China’s developed eastern region, with four deaths in the commercial hub Shanghai and two in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang. Other infections have occurred in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.
A Chinese expert said more H7N9 cases could be found in a wider area.
“We are tracking the source and cannot rule out the possibility of finding the virus in other regions,” said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency office for China’s disease control centre.
Another official, Shu Yuelong, said poultry infected with the H7N9 strain die more slowly than those with H5N1, giving the virus more time in which to infect people.
More than 365 people have died of H5N1 worldwide since a major outbreak in 2003, and it kills about 60 percent of people who develop it, according to WHO statistics.
The first deaths from H7N9 were not reported by Chinese authorities until three weeks after they occurred, prompting criticism the initial announcement was too slow.
But Chinese officials have said the delay in announcing the first results was because it took time to determine the cause of the illness. O’Leary praised China’s transparency, saying the WHO was “very satisfied and pleased with the level of information shared”.
China faced condemnation a decade ago on accusations it covered up the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome which eventually killed about 800 people globally.
Users of China’s popular weibo microblogs have expressed scepticism about official assurances. “Although there is no human transmission, why does the number (of cases) increase daily? This makes people scared,” said user Li Xiao Lei.
The WHO said in a statement that it is possible the virus can spread to humans from animals, such as pigeons.
Shanghai has culled more than 111,000 birds, banned trading in live poultry and shut markets in a bid to curb the outbreak.
Nanjing city followed suit by banning live poultry trading while Hangzhou culled poultry after discovering infected quail.
The China Daily newspaper on Monday called for “high alert” nationwide and urged stronger regulation of the poultry trade.
“The rules for transporting and trading of live poultry in cities should be strengthened, because the bird flu can spread very fast in densely populated cities,” it said in an editorial.
Hope in fight against H7N9 bird flu deadly virus in China
A Hangzhou man who was close to death is on the mend and a four-year-old boy in Shanghai is recovering well from the H7N9 bird flu
The Hangzhou H7BN9 patient's wife has new hope. Photo: Simon Song
Two H7N9 bird flu patients - a four-year-old boy in Shanghai and a 67-year-old man in Hangzhou - are recovering from the illness, bringing hope in the fight against the deadly new virus strain.
The wife and son of the Hangzhou patient, who was confirmed to be infected a week ago, saw him yesterday via a video telephone link at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. The four-year-old boy in Shanghai has recovered with no sign of respiratory illness, said Wu Fan, director of the municipal Centre for Disease Control.
Now I am the happiest person in the world. Doctors said he is not completely out of danger yet, but he can smile and hear us. We all see the hope
The wife of the Hangzhou patient said: "I could not help but cry when I saw him via television. He was snatched from the jaws of death and I almost lost him. Now I am the happiest person in the world. Doctors said he is not completely out of danger yet, but he can smile and hear us. We all see the hope."
The man had been in an isolation ward for eight days and was once on the verge of respiratory failure. He developed a cough and fever on March 20, a few days after he bought two quail at a local wet market which also sold other poultry including doves and chickens.
Since Friday night, he has been able to urinate again, which his doctors said was a positive signal that his circulatory system was starting to work again.
Twelve doctors and 20 nurses had been busy taking care of him over the past week. His attending doctor, Li Lanjuan, one of the country's top infectious disease experts, told local media that the case could help offer clues to finding an effective therapy for H7N9 bird flu.
Li said the patient was injected with massive doses of antibiotics but only started to get better after her team stopped using antibiotics and turned to traditional therapy methods such as breath work and total parenteral nutrition (TPN).
This avoided further infection and was usually used on critical patients.
TPN is a way of supplying all the nutritional needs of the body by bypassing the digestive system and drip-feeding a nutrient solution directly into a vein.
Fang Qiang , director of the hospital's intensive care unit, told local newspapers that even though the man's condition had improved, they were still trying to clean the virus out of his body.
The patient's wife said she believed the strain of virus could not be transmitted from human to human because she had been with her husband around the clock after he fell ill on March 20. He had also been in contact with many people when seeing doctors on March 22 and March 25.
"We seldom ate poultry," she said. "My husband decided to cook quail for a change as I had lost my appetite. But I can't remember what the exact date was."
She said her husband went to a wet market and bought two slaughtered quail from a stall that also sold ducks, doves and chickens.
"The quail were slaughtered by the vendor," she said. "My husband just cleaned and cooked them for me. He did not even have a bite."
Her husband felt ill on March 20 and had a fever of 39 degrees Celsius. He went to see a doctor on March 22 at a local clinic and then at a hospital on March 25, where he was treated for pneumonia. He was transferred to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University last Tuesday and confirmed to be infected with H7N9 later that day.
"My husband was very healthy before and never touched live poultry," his wife said. "We still have no idea how he got sick."
Click on each balloon for more information on individual patients infected with the avian flu virus: blue, patients infected with the H7N9 virus under treatment; red, those infected with the H7N9 who have died; and pink, those with H1N1 avian flu virus.
This article first appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition on Apr 09, 2013 as Hope in fight against deadly virus
H7N9 virus claims its seventh victim
Chinese officials and the WHO's Michael O'Leary at yesterday's briefing on H7N9 bird flu. Photo: AP
The H7N9 virus claimed another life yesterday, and health authorities said detecting and controlling its spread would be more difficult than other avian flu outbreaks because it has only a relatively mild effect on birds.
A 64-year-old man who developed a high fever on Wednesday was admitted to Ruijin Hospital in Huangpu district on Sunday and died that evening, Shanghai authorities confirmed yesterday.
Meanwhile in Jiangsu , an 85-year-old man in Nanjing and a 25-year-old woman in Zhenjiang were fighting for their lives, authorities said.
By last night, the virus had claimed seven lives and infected at least 24 people.
National Influenza Centre director Shu Yuelong said the challenge of preventing and controlling H7N9 infections was "very great".
Unlike H5N1 bird flu, which made birds very sick, studies indicated H7N9 only affected birds mildly, and they showed few if any visible symptoms. Humans, though, were far more seriously affected, Shu said yesterday at a joint briefing by the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the World Health Organisation.
Feng Zijian , head of emergency response for the national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, advised the public not to buy live poultry and have it butchered at wet markets.
Millions of chickens have been culled since H5N1 jumped the species barrier in 1997 in Hong Kong and killed six of 18 people infected. Since then there have been sporadic outbreaks of H5N1, in which 60 per cent of victims have died, but without any human-to-human transmission.
Noting that H7N9 only recently jumped from poultry to people, Shu said: "It is more likely to infect humans than the H5N1 virus, but it is not as contagious as seasonal flu viruses."
H7N9 had mutated from three viruses, but it remained unclear how it may develop because flu viruses constantly change, Shu said. The country's 500 flu-monitoring hospitals and 400 laboratories would watch closely for changes in the virus.
The WHO said yesterday it did not advise special screening at border crossings, nor imposing travel or trade restrictions.
"So far, we really only have sporadic cases of a rare disease, and perhaps it will remain that way. So this is not a time for overreaction or panic," its representative in Beijing, Dr Michael O'Leary, said. "These are a relatively small number of serious cases with personal health [and] medical implications", but no public health implications.
The WHO had confidence in China's efforts to track and control the outbreak, he said, and was "very satisfied and pleased with the level of information shared".
Click on each balloon for more information on individual patients infected with the avian flu virus: blue, patients infected with the H7N9 virus under treatment; red, those infected with the H7N9 who have died; and pink, those with H1N1 avian flu virus.
Chinese officials and the WHO's Michael O'Leary at yesterday's briefing on H7N9 bird flu. Photo: AP
The H7N9 virus claimed another life yesterday, and health authorities said detecting and controlling its spread would be more difficult than other avian flu outbreaks because it has only a relatively mild effect on birds.
A 64-year-old man who developed a high fever on Wednesday was admitted to Ruijin Hospital in Huangpu district on Sunday and died that evening, Shanghai authorities confirmed yesterday.
Meanwhile in Jiangsu , an 85-year-old man in Nanjing and a 25-year-old woman in Zhenjiang were fighting for their lives, authorities said.
By last night, the virus had claimed seven lives and infected at least 24 people.
National Influenza Centre director Shu Yuelong said the challenge of preventing and controlling H7N9 infections was "very great".
Unlike H5N1 bird flu, which made birds very sick, studies indicated H7N9 only affected birds mildly, and they showed few if any visible symptoms. Humans, though, were far more seriously affected, Shu said yesterday at a joint briefing by the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the World Health Organisation.
Feng Zijian , head of emergency response for the national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, advised the public not to buy live poultry and have it butchered at wet markets.
Millions of chickens have been culled since H5N1 jumped the species barrier in 1997 in Hong Kong and killed six of 18 people infected. Since then there have been sporadic outbreaks of H5N1, in which 60 per cent of victims have died, but without any human-to-human transmission.
Noting that H7N9 only recently jumped from poultry to people, Shu said: "It is more likely to infect humans than the H5N1 virus, but it is not as contagious as seasonal flu viruses."
H7N9 had mutated from three viruses, but it remained unclear how it may develop because flu viruses constantly change, Shu said. The country's 500 flu-monitoring hospitals and 400 laboratories would watch closely for changes in the virus.
The WHO said yesterday it did not advise special screening at border crossings, nor imposing travel or trade restrictions.
"So far, we really only have sporadic cases of a rare disease, and perhaps it will remain that way. So this is not a time for overreaction or panic," its representative in Beijing, Dr Michael O'Leary, said. "These are a relatively small number of serious cases with personal health [and] medical implications", but no public health implications.
The WHO had confidence in China's efforts to track and control the outbreak, he said, and was "very satisfied and pleased with the level of information shared".
Click on each balloon for more information on individual patients infected with the avian flu virus: blue, patients infected with the H7N9 virus under treatment; red, those infected with the H7N9 who have died; and pink, those with H1N1 avian flu virus.
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