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--Forwarded Message Attachment--
Subject: CIDRAP/WHO: H5N1 Chinese Family Shared Bird Contact (not human-to-human)
From: gngreenberg@...
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:55:14 -0500

Reports suggest common source in family H5N1 cases
 
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/dec1007avian.html
 
 Dec 10, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – Chinese officials said today that
analysis of a virus sample from a 24-year-old man who died of H5N1
avian influenza shows no signs of a dangerous mutation, as some news
reports said the man and his father, who is hospitalized with an H5N1
infection, both had eaten undercooked chicken.
 
Mao Qun'an, a spokesman for China's health ministry, told reporters
today that though the son's sample showed no evidence of mutation,
authorities could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human
transmission, Reuters reported.
 
"The virus is still avian and has not undergone a mutation in its
nature," Qun'an said at a press conference. He said the men could have
been infected from the same source or separate sources, according to
Reuters.
 
The 24-year-old man, from Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu province,
died on Nov 27 from an H5N1 infection, according to a previous report
from the World Health Organization (WHO). Six days later his father
was hospitalized, and on Dec 6 China's national laboratory confirmed
the man had an H5N1 infection, according to a WHO statement yesterday.
The father is listed as China's 27th H5N1 case-patient.
 
News of the men's H5N1 infections raised suspicions of human-to-human
transmission after media reports and the WHO said the son had no known
exposure to sick birds.
 
However, Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper controlled by the
mainland, reported today that both men had eaten undercooked chicken
in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu, the Reuters report said. The
claims came from unnamed sources.
 
More details on the men's alleged consumption of undercooked chicken
were reported today by ProMED-mail, the Internet-based reporting
system of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. The
ProMED post consists of an English translation of a news article from
Singtaonet.com, a newspaper based in Hong Kong.
 
The ProMED post says the father and his wife took their son and his
girlfriend to a restaurant at a temple, where the four ate a dish
called "beggar's chicken." According to a 1990 report on beggar's
chicken from the New York Times, the chicken is stuffed with herbs,
wrapped in lotus leaves, packed with "6 pounds of pond mud," and baked
at low heat for several hours.
 
Two days after eating the chicken, the son became feverish and was
hospitalized, the ProMED report said, adding that his father got sick
6 days after eating the meal. Relatives also said the father's
refrigerator was full of butchered chicken. The report speculates that
the son got sick first because his immune system was weakened because
he recently had undergone a series of rabies shots after he was bitten
by one of his girlfriend's dogs.
 
Hans Troedsson, a WHO representative in China, said reports of the men
eating undercooked chicken have not been confirmed, Reuters reported
today.
 
The father is recovering after treatment with oseltamivir at the onset
of symptoms, Troedsson told the Associated Press (AP) today.
 
Eighty-two people who had contact with the father and son are being
monitored, but none appear to have symptoms, he told the AP.
 
The two recent cases serve as a reminder that "the virus is
circulating in the environment, (and) there is a risk that we will see
these isolated cases," Troedsson said.
 
So far, there is no strong evidence of human-to-human transmission of
the H5N1 virus, and the WHO has not received a request to help
officials in Nanjing investigate, he told the AP. "We don't see that
is an imminent risk that these cases would be the start of a
pandemic," he said.
 
See also:
 
Dec 9 WHO statement
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_12_09/en/index.html
 
Dec 4 WHO statement
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_12_04/en/index.html
 
WHO H5N1 case count
 
Dec 10 ProMED post on Chinese H5N1 cases
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1001:11815778098747380489::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,40403
 
Dec 7 CIDRAP News story "Father of Chinese H5N1 fatality has infection"
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/dec0707china.html
 
Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
Academic Health Center -- University of Minnesota
-- 
Gary N. Greenberg, MD MPH Sysop / Moderator Occ-Env-Med-L MailList
Univ. N. Carolina School Public Health
Medical Director http://www.UrbanMin.org
Urban Ministries of Wake County Open Door Clinic http://www.OpenDoorDocs.org
GNGreenberg@... http://occhealthnews.net
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SOURCE: OCC-ENV-MED-L Digest for Tuesday, December 11, 2007