Indonesian boy dies of bird flu, local test finds

[PhilipShore]

Reuters
Indonesian boy dies of bird flu, local test finds
Mar 4, 2006

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1686394

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A three-year-old boy from Indonesia's Central Java province has died of bird flu, a senior health official said on Saturday, citing the results of a local test.

"A local test of (the boy) who died yesterday or a day before yesterday, was positive," Hariadi Wibisono, director of control of animal-borne diseases at the national health ministry, told Reuters.

Bird flu has killed at least 94 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003 and scientists fear the virus could mutate and spread easily from person to person, triggering a pandemic that could kill millions and cripple economies.

[monktonman]

1. FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR......

[VegasWolf]

2. Great, just great! We have the Katrina administration to protect us

here. Man do I hate killer viruses and this virus does mutate its protein wrapper very rapidly.


From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

"Influenza A viruses have infected many different animals, including ducks, chickens, pigs, whales, horses, and seals. However, certain subtypes of influenza A virus are specific to certain species, except for birds, which are hosts to all known subtypes of influenza A. Subtypes that have caused widespread illness in people either in the past or currently are H3N2, H2N2, H1N1, and H1N2. H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes also have caused outbreaks in pigs, and H7N7 and H3N8 viruses have caused outbreaks in horses.

Influenza A viruses normally seen in one species sometimes can cross over and cause illness in another species. For example, until 1998, only H1N1 viruses circulated widely in the U.S. pig population. However, in 1998, H3N2 viruses from humans were introduced into the pig population and caused widespread disease among pigs. Most recently, H3N8 viruses from horses have crossed over and caused outbreaks in dogs.

Avian influenza A viruses may be transmitted from animals to humans in two main ways:

Directly from birds or from avian virus-contaminated environments to people.
Through an intermediate host, such as a pig.
Influenza A viruses have eight separate gene segments. The segmented genome allows influenza A viruses from different species to mix and create a new influenza A virus if viruses from two different species infect the same person or animal. For example, if a pig were infected with a human influenza A virus and an avian influenza A virus at the same time, the new replicating viruses could mix existing genetic information (reassortment) and produce a new virus that had most of the genes from the human virus, but a hemagglutinin and/or neuraminidase from the avian virus. The resulting new virus might then be able to infect humans and spread from person to person, but it would have surface proteins (hemagglutinin and/or neuraminidase) not previously seen in influenza viruses that infect humans.

This type of major change in the influenza A viruses is known as antigenic shift. Antigenic shift results when a new influenza A subtype to which most people have little or no immune protection infects humans. If this new virus causes illness in people and can be transmitted easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic can occur. "