Reuters

The H5N1 bird flu virus may sometimes stick to surfaces or get kicked up in fertilizer dust to infect people, according to a World Health Organization report published on Wednesday.

The WHO team reviewed all known human cases of avian influenza, which has infected 350 people in 14 countries and killed 217 of them since 2003, and found that 25 percent of cases have no explanation.

Most are passed directly from bird to people, they noted in their report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And very rarely one person can infect another — always close relatives via intimate physical contact.

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World Health Organization

Two items from Reuters, France and Germany

France confirms H5N1 flu virus in swans

PARIS, July 5 (Reuters) – Tests have confirmed that three swans found dead in eastern France were killed by the H5N1 bird flu virus, the French agriculture ministry said on Thursday, France’s first cases of the disease in over a year.

The government raised its alert level to “high” as a result, meaning that birds and poultry in mainland France will either have to be locked up or protected by nets to avoid all contact with wild birds, a ministry official said.

Pigeon races and other events where birds are gathered will be forbidden.

“Michel Barnier, minister of agriculture and fishing, is putting in place the risk-prevention measures corresponding to the shift from the ‘moderate’ level to the ‘high’ level,” the ministry said in a statement.

Germany said it was raising its assessment of the risk of bird flu following the French announcement and after officials on Wednesday discovered more birds that had died of the H5N1 virus, this time in the eastern state of Thuringia.

Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on Thursday asked veterinary services to be more vigilant in the outlook for possible bird flu cases.

Spain already bans hunting with decoys, outdoor poultry raising and the isolation of breeding areas for wild aquatic birds in high-risk zones like bird migatory paths and wetlands.

In 98 regions in France classed as at risk — some 15 percent of the country — there will be special veterinary checks at poultry farms.

Germany raises bird flu threat level

BERLIN, July 5 (Reuters) – Germany is raising its assessment of the risk of bird flu after officials in France and Germany discovered more birds which had died of the H5N1 virus, the country’s top state veterinary laboratory said on Thursday. “We will raise the threat level,” said a spokeswoman for the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.

She cited the news from Wednesday that more wild birds had tested positive for the lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu in Germany — this time in the eastern state of Thuringia.

In addition, France confirmed its first cases of the disease in over a year earlier on Thursday, she noted.

The assessment level affects the measures the government and local authorities take to prevent bird flu, such as keeping birds to confined areas.

Germany’s federal states on Thursday agreed they would not ease rules on keeping poultry indoors as had been planned in Friday’s session of the upper house, or Bundesrat, where the states are represented.

It looks like some accomodations have been made by WHO concerning Indonesia.

WHO

WHO can now confirm 15 additional cases, including 13 deaths of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza that occurred in Indonesia from the end of January 2007 up to the present and has updated its table of confirmed human cases accordingly.

Testing for H5N1 influenza virus infections is not done routinely by many laboratories and among the laboratories that do test for H5N1, experience and levels of diagnostic capacities can vary. (see WHO criteria) WHO had previously required external confirmation of laboratory results from Indonesia, but following a formal on-site assessment of the capacity of national laboratory in Jakarta to diagnose H5 avian influenza viruses, WHO will now accept the results from the national laboratory, in collaboration with the Eijkman Institute without further external confirmation.

The assessment was carried out by a WHO team of virologists and laboratory scientists from the WHO Collaborating Centre in Tokyo, Japan, the national influenza centres of India and Thailand, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia and the WHO Country Office of Indonesia.

The following additional cases of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza have been confirmed. Seven of these cases had exposure to sick or dead poultry; the source of infection is unknown for eight cases.

All but two cases were fatal.

Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, can be a poopy head at times, but he is very correct in this Reuters article.

While many health experts see the H5N1 bird flu virus as a likely cause for an influenza pandemic, another influenza virus could just as likely mutate into a global killer, U.S. health experts said on Tuesday.

“You can not accurately predict if and when a given virus will become a pandemic virus,” said Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci said too little is known about exactly how and when a virus will mutate. Focusing too much on one suspect — even a very likely suspect such as H5N1 — may be a mistake.