H5N1 Summary Part II - Captain Trips?

There have been 108 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans and a total of 54 confirmed deaths in China. By the end of June, the outbreak has also killed over 61 people in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. No information can be obtained from Laos or Burma.

Sources inside of China indicate that the unofficial estimated death toll at this point is 700. Since 2003, 100 million birds in the listed countries have died from the disease or have been killed (“culled”) in order to prevent its spread.

Earlier reports of 10 different H5N1 strains in China is cause for concern. Currently 8 of the 10 different H5N1 strains have been confirmed in humans.

Every familial cluster in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia that has been tested, further confirms widespread human-to-human transmission of the fatal bird flu.

All the strains fournd outside of China, have genetic links to China. The Nature magazine paper described 2005 H5N1 sequences from Yunnan, Hunan, and Fujian Province in addition to Shantou in Guangdong Province.

The most virulent human strain was RK7, which would appear to be the virulent Qinghai Lake strain. RK7 is attributed to sick birds which were discovered on April 30 at Qinghai Lake, a breeding hub for bar-headed geese in West China.

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