[IWAR] CDC Asian flu

From: Michael Wilson (MWILSON/0005514706at_private)
Date: Thu Dec 04 1997 - 10:13:21 PST

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                         CDC sends team to probe Asian bird flu
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          Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
          Copyright ) 1997 Reuters
          
       ATLANTA(December 3, 1997 8:23 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - The
       Centers for Disease Control is sending a team of epidemiologists to Hong
       Kong Friday to investigate a strain of flu that usually afflicts birds
       but has infected humans for the first time.
       
       A CDC spokeswoman said the agency did not believe there was a link
       between the two flu victims, both children and both from Hong Kong. The
       likely source of the virus was chickens.
       
       "The only thing we know is they (the two flu cases) are not similar in
       terms of coming from the same source," Barbara Reynolds told Reuters
       Wednesday.
       
       She said Hong Kong had experienced a flu epidemic among ducks and
       chickens.
       
       The World Health Organization confirmed the second case of influenza A,
       strain H5N1 in a human Tuesday.
       
       That case involved a 2-year-old boy hospitalized in November who has
       since recovered. The first victim, a 3-year-old boy, died in May of
       complications associated with Reye's syndrome.
       
       Reynolds said the CDC has no records on whether the same strain of avian
       flu affects birds in other areas of the world.
       
       "We don't study animals unless they start messing with humans," she
       said. "Our concern here is to keep track of any new or emerging viruses
       that have undergone an antigenic shift."
       
       She said the CDC was vigilant about investigating new viruses and those
       that cross from animals into humans because "we have a world population
       not immune to them."
       
       Reynolds stressed there was no indication the avian virus has yet been
       transmitted by human-to-human contact, but the CDC epidemiologists would
       examine whether that could happen because of the potential for a
       pandemic, or worldwide flu epidemic.
    



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