WASHINGTON - The U.S. government paid scientists to figure out how the deadly bird flu virus might mutate to become a bigger threat to people - and two labs succeeded in creating new strains that are easier to spread. On Tuesday, federal officials took the unprecedented step of asking those scientists not to publicize all the details of how they did it.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government asked scientists Tuesday not to reveal all the details of how to make a version of the deadly bird flu that they created in labs in the U.S. and Europe. The lab-bred virus, being kept under high security, appears to spread more easily among mammals. That's fueled worry that publishing a blueprint could aid terrorists in creating a biological weapon, the National Institutes of Health said.
LOS ANGELES - In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim. It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.
The avian flu, which has struck eight countries in Southeast Asia so far, is thought to have originated in rural hamlets where domestic fowl such as chickens and ducks roam freely about farmers' domiciles. The deadly virus is believed to stem from a pathogen carried in the bird's intestines, which upon excretion, is able to survive for up to two weeks in the form of bird droppings. In addition, chickens brought to the local marketplace were often killed on the spot in less than sanitary conditions, enabling the spread of the deadly virus among the local population. The H5N1 virus, which is the one currently ravaging bird stocks in Southeast Asia, is the most lethal form of 16 known strains of avian flu. Epidemiologists fear that the deadly H5N1 virus, for which there is no proven vacci...
'H5N1 viruses have been found in birds around the world. As the spread of H5N1 infection among bird's increases, so does the opportunity for H5N1 to be transmitted directly from birds to humans. When an influenza virus 'jumps' species from an animal, such as a chicken, to infect a human, the result is usually a 'dead-end' infection that cannot easily spread further in the human population. However, mutations in the virus could develop that allow efficient human-to-human transmission. Recently, human H5N1 infections have occurred in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, [and most recently Turkey], causing great concern among public health officials," stated the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Prevention methods are vast. One method utilized in mos...
In Croatia, the Agriculture Ministry said the country's first cases of bird flu were confirmed in six swans found dead in a national park. British officials said a parrot that had been imported from South America died of bird flu in quarantine. Britain's chief veterinarian, Debby Reynolds, said Friday the diseased parrot, which had been imported from Suriname and held in a quarantine unit with a shipment of birds from Taiwan, had tested positive for a "highly pathogenic" form of bird flu. The EU, which has also taken measures to restrict the import of live birds and feathers from Russia following the spread of bird flu there, said its vets were continuing to carry out tests on samples from suspect birds found in Greece.
I decided to call Johnny McMullin, the manager of Embudo Valley Organics, and gauge his level of alert. McMullin raises about 1,500 turkeys per year organically, and I asked him if he were worried about bird flu. He was quick to point out that the nature of organic poultry production means his birds are naturally healthy. "We're an organic farm," he said, "and we don't crowd our birds into houses that breed disease and weaken their immune systems...Their pens are outdoors and we move them around, so they don't live and eat and sleep in the same spot. McMullin hadn't even considered the threat of migratory birds. He said that the government sent him a packet about bird flu last week, but he's been so busy he hasn't had a chance to look at it yet. "If wild birds became infected," he said...
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- When Indonesia's health minister stopped sending bird flu viruses to a research laboratory in the U.S. for fear Washington could use them to make biological weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard. Yet deep inside an 86-page supplement to United States export regulations is a single sentence that bars U.S. exports of vaccines for avian bird flu and dozens of other viruses to five countries designated "state sponsors of terrorism.
HONG KONG - A leading virus expert urged health authorities around the world Sunday to stay vigilant even though the recent swine flu pandemic was less deadly than expected, warning that bird flu could spark the next global outbreak. A World Health Organization official also defended the U.N.'s health body against accusations that it wasted governments' money and enriched pharmaceutical companies with its strong warnings during the swine flu outbreak's early days last year.
Disasters, terror, bird-flu fears Popular pope, prince among the mourned WILLIAM J. KOLE It was the year that Christendom mourned a pope and America's fallen in Iraq surpassed 2,000. Natural disasters wrought chaos and death, terrorists attacked from Britain to Bali, and an outbreak of bird flu unleashed fears of a pandemic.
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