Chinese officials say that deaths from the H7N9 will likely be on the rise in the coming months.
BEIJING, CHINA: A screen showing a seven-year-old girl, who has been infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu, receiving medical treatment in the Beijing Ditan Hospital on April 13, 2013 in Beijing, China. A seven year-old girl has been infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu. China reports 44 H7N9 bird flu cases with 11 deaths so far. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
by Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub
April 15, 2013
BEIJING — There has now been 82 confirmed cases of the H7N9 bird flu in China, as officials say most of the contact was from live healthy looking animals. As of yet there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. However, some do question if things will ramp up as 17 of the people who died from the virus progressed from onset to death in just 11 days.
The virus attacks the respiratory system.
Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a press conference Wednesday that, “This is an unusually dangerous virus for humans” as is is more easily transmitted than H5N1
The Los Angeles Times reported today, “To date, the mortality rate is 21%, but since many of [sic] patients with confirmed H7N9 virus infection remain critically ill, we suspect that the mortality may increase,” they wrote in their study, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. “Since this H7N9 virus appears to have emerged recently to infect humans, population immunity is expected to be low, and persons of any age may be susceptible to infection.”
The report paints a fuller picture of the outbreak, which hascaused Chinese people to become so panicked that one motorist felt the need to flag down police after a bird dropping landed on her car.
Cases of H7N9 infection have been confirmed in six provinces: Shanghai (31 cases), Zhejiang (25), Jiangsu (20), Anhui (three), Henan (two) and Beijing (one). The statistics paint a picture of the typical bird flu victim as an older urban male.
Chinese health officials tested 664 pneumonia patients who were sick enough to be hospitalized between March 25 and April 17. Of these patients, 81, or 12%, tested positive for H7N9 infection. In addition, 5,551 unhospitalized people withflu-like symptoms were tested, and one of them was confirmed to have H7N9.
The 82 confirmed patients ranged in age from 2 to 89 years old, but most were at the higher end of that range and 46% were at least 65. The report said that 73% of patients were men and 84% lived in urban areas.”
Case studies have been performed. Kate Kelland writes, “Yuen’s team conducted detailed cases studies on four H7N9 flu patients from Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province south of the commercial hub Shanghai.
All four patients had been exposed to poultry, either through their work or through visiting poultry markets.
To find out whether there was transmission of the virus from poultry to humans, the researchers took swabs from 20 chickens, four quails, five pigeons and 57 ducks, all from six markets likely to have been visited by the patients.
Two of the five pigeons and four of the 20 chickens tested positive for H7N9, but none of the ducks or quails.
After analyzing the genetic makeup of H7N9 virus in a sample isolated from one patient and comparing it to a sample from one of the chickens, the researchers said similarities suggest the virus is being transmitted directly to humans from poultry.
The team also checked more than 300 people who had had close contact with the four patients and found that none showed any symptoms of H7N9 infection within 14 days from the beginning of surveillance. This suggests the virus is not currently able to transmit between people, they said.
But they noted that previous genetic analysis shows H7N9 has already acquired some gene mutations that adapt it specifically to being more able to infect mammals – raising the risk that it could one day cause a human pandemic.
“Further adaptation of the virus could lead to infections with less severe symptoms and more efficient person-to-person transmission,” the scientists wrote.”
Officials continue to monitor the situation.
Sources:
^http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1304617?query=featured_home&
^http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-confirm-h7n9-bird-flu-come-chickens-134334449.html
^http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/04/h7n9-is-an-unusually-dangerous-v.html
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Shepard Ambellas is the founder & director of Intellihub.com (a popular alternative news website), researcher, investigative journalist, radio talk show host, and filmmaker.
For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author email: shepard@intellihub.com
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WHO: China’s H7N9 Bird Flu Outbreak ‘Unusually Dangerous For Humans’
