New Bird Flu Cluster May Signal Change in H5N1 Virus (Update2)

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New Bird Flu Cluster May

Signal Change in H5N1 Virus (Update2)

By

Gale

Jan. 15

(Bloomberg) -- A new cluster of bird flu infections involving at least two

members of a family in Indonesia

may indicate a change in the virus's ability to sicken people, researchers

studying the disease said.

The H5N1

avian influenza strain was confirmed yesterday to have infected an 18-year-old

man whose mother died of the disease four days ago, said Mukhtar Ikhsan, a

doctor treating the teenager and his father in Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital.

Tests on

the 42-year-old father are pending. If confirmed, the family from a western

part of Java may represent the first incidence of H5N1 in a husband and wife,

and indicate the virus can infect those without genetic susceptibility to

infection, a theory doctors have used to explain previous clusters among blood

relatives. The virus could spark a pandemic if it spreads among humans as

easily as seasonal flu.

The

concern is that the virus may eventually overcome a ``genetic component'' that

has appeared so far to limit its ability to infect humans, Osterholm,

director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease

Research and Policy in Minneapolis, said in a Jan. 12 interview. ``If that

happens, then to me that is the really first worrisome piece of information

that the pandemic may be pending.''

Avian flu

has killed four people in Indonesia

since Jan. 10 after a hiatus of almost two months. World health officials say

H5N1 may touch off a pandemic capable of killing millions if it mutates to

become easily transmissible between humans.

The H5N1

strain is known to have infected 265 people in 10 countries since 2003, killing

159 of them, the World Health Organization said on Jan. 12. Indonesia has

recorded at least 59 fatalities, it said.

Sumatra Cluster

The

southeast Asian nation attracted international attention in May when blood

relatives from the island

of Sumatra contracted the

H5N1 virus, six of them fatally. The cases represented the largest reported

cluster of infections and the first laboratory-proven instance of

human-to-human transmission.

``We have

had enough proof from these clusters that there is something about at least

certain genetically related individuals in whom the virus does fairly well,''

Osterholm said. ``That, to me, is not necessarily a big barrier to cross.''

Infections

in birds and people are increasing, particularly in Asia,

where the virus was first identified a decade ago. Hong

Kong, Japan, Vietnam, South

Korea and Nigeria

have reported diseased birds in the past month, while China and Egypt also found new human cases.

New Thai

Outbreak?

In Thailand, which

reported three H5N1 fatalities in July and August, Agriculture Ministry

officials are testing dead poultry found on a duck farm in Phitsanulok province

earlier this month, the Krungthep Thurakit newspaper reported today, without

saying where it obtained the information. The results of laboratory tests may

be released today, it said.

The Thai

ministry intensified monitoring for avian flu after it reemerged in Vietnam, where

it spread to at seven southern Vietnamese provinces.

The H5N1

virus killed 66 ducks in My Tu district of Soc Trang province, the Vietnamese

Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development's department for animal health

said yesterday. The remaining 134 ducks in the infected flock were culled, the

department said in a statement on its Web site, adding that the poultry hadn't

been properly vaccinated against avian flu.

Almost

all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead birds,

such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking

feathers.

Japan

Outbreak

Veterinary

officials in Japan are

culling fowl on a farm on the southern island of Kyushu,

where H5N1 was confirmed Jan. 13, the country's first outbreak in almost three

years.

The

administrative vice minister of agriculture will brief reporters in Tokyo later today on the

outbreak.

A

suspected avian flu outbreak was recorded in northern Nigeria's

Sokoto state a day after the disease was reportedly found to have infected

5,000 birds in nearby Kastina state, Agence France-Presse said yesterday,

citing Forestry and Animal Health Commissioner Abdulkadir Junaidu.

Nigeria reported

an initial H5N1 outbreak in poultry in February last year, the first recorded

infection of the virus in Africa. The disease

was later found in 17 of Nigeria's

36 states as well as the Federal

Capital Territory,

reaching every corner of the country. No human infections were reported.

``We

continue to be very concerned about Africa,''

Underwood, the World's Bank's avian flu adviser, said in a Jan. 9

statement. ``The disease has become widespread in Nigeria, and there are several

other countries where the threat is pretty big.''

To

contact the reporter on this story: Gale in Singapore at j.gale@...

Last Updated: January 15, 2007 00:49

EST

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