The extremely infectious H5N1 virus has shown its existence in many Asian countries during the last several months, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Thailand. Now Pakistan has become the most recent victim of lethal bird flu virus.
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The extremely infectious H5N1 virus has shown its existence in many Asian countries during the last several months, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Thailand. Now Pakistan has become the most recent victim of lethal bird flu virus.
Pakistan has come under the dark wings of bird flu for the first time. The South Asian country on Saturday reported its first death from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, with five cases of infection.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has infected five people in northern Pakistan last month and has claimed at least one life, the Health Ministry in Pakistan confirmed Saturday.
"Six cases were found positive for H5N1 avian influenza virus," the Ministry of Health said in a statement yesterday. "Five of them have fully recovered."
Health officials are also investigating the death of another person, who had not been tested. The victim was the brother of the patient who died from bird flu on Nov. 25 in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“One of the confirmed cases died in a hospital, while his brother who could not be tested has also died," the Health Ministry added.
Pakistan has though registered 44 bird flu outbreaks in poultry to the World Organization for Animal Health since early 2006, but this is the first time Pakistan has reported cases of humans becoming infected with H5N1 bird flu.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also confirmed that preliminary tests on all six patients were positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. However, the agency said a second round of analysis was being conducted to make certain. If established as true, this would be the first human-bird flu infections in South Asia.
Preliminary analysis was conducted in a national laboratory (Pakistan), and the samples of initial test results have been sent on to the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory for confirmation and further analysis.
The lethal H5N1 virus has so far engulfed more than 200 human lives out of nearly 350 people in 13 countries who have contracted the virus since 2003.
Most human infections have occurred after contact with birds infected with H5N1 virus, which according to the Geneva-based WHO is generally not harmful to humans, but scientists now fear the deadly H5N1 strain could mutate and become easily transmissible among people.
H5N1, also known as A(H5N1), is a subtype of the Influenza A virus that is capable of causing illness in many animal species, including humans, while a bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1", is the causative agent of H5N1 flu, commonly known as "avian influenza" or simply "bird flu", and is endemic in many bird populations, especially in Southeast Asia.
The H5N1 virus though remains primarily a virus of birds, but experts fright that once it starts transmitting from person to person, it would sweep the world, leaving millions more to die and triggering a devastating human pandemic.
H5N1 avian flu: Spread by drinking water into small clusters
H5N1 avian flu: Spread by drinking water into small clusters:
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of Influenza epidemics in Germany recognized clusters are rarely (9% of the cases in the season 2005).
In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 avian flu virus will be transferred to humans strong seasonal in the cold via cold drinking water, as with the birds feb/mar 2006.
Recent research must worry: So far the virus had to reach the bronchi and the lungs in order to infect humans. Now it infects the upper respiratory system (mucous membranes of the throat e.g. when drinking and mucous membranes of the nose and probably also the conjunctiva of the eyes as well as the eardrum e.g. at showering). In a few cases (Viet Nam, Thailand) stomach and intestine by the H5N1 virus were stricken but not the bronchi and the lungs. The virus might been orally taken up, e.g. when drinking contaminated water.
The performance to eliminate viruses of the drinking water processing plants in Germany regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
In temperate climates the strong seasonal waterborne infections like norovirus, rotavirus, salmonellae, campylobacter and - differing from the usual dogma - influenza are mainly triggered by drinking water dependent on the drinking water temperature (in Germany minimum feb/mar – maximum august). There is no evidence that influenza primary is transmitted by saliva droplets. In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can’t be explained with the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from human to human with temperatures of 37.5°C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. There is no other appropriate abiotic vehicle. In Germany about 98% of inhabitants have a central public water supply with older and better protected water. Therefore in Germany cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses.
In hot climates/tropics the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. Virulence of Influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher as in temperate climates.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
eMail [email protected]
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html
Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf