Nature Reports Avian Flu Blog

A WHO team have been sent to Pakistan to investigate the potential human-human transmission of H5N1. A cluster of 8 cases started in mid-November following a culling operation to control poultry outbreaks, but was only reported to the WHO on December 15.

In the interim, a man returned to his home in New York after attending the funeral of family members confirmed to be part of the cluster. Although he quarantined himself and subsequently tested negative for H5N1 – should he have been allowed to travel?

Read more at Nature News.

Posted by Jen Middleton on December 18, 2007
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That is the call from Walter Boyce, the co-director of the NIH Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Research, in his Nature Commentary about the global surveillance of avian flu infections.

"..dead birds do not tell us about the birds that don’t get sick when infected – those that could spread H5N1 over longer distances"

He highlights three steps to improve the current approach to tracking avian flu infections:

1.Greater sharing of data and virus samples.
2.Greater surveillance of wild birds, particularly in endemic regions.
3.Better characterisation and diagnoses of all virus sub-types - remembering that H5N1 is not the only strain that poses a pandemic threat…

In light of the continuing stand-off with Indonesia, how realistic are these suggestions?

The Commentary is currently available free here.

Posted by Jen Middleton on December 05, 2007
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