11 March 2010

Pandemic H1N1 Persists as Avian Flu Claims Lives in Three Nations

World Health Organization confirms increase in West African H1N1 cases

 

Chinese students at a primary school in Jinjiang city in southeast Fujian province wear masks against H1N1 flu.

Chinese students at a primary school in Jinjiang city in southeast Fujian province wear masks against H1N1 flu.

By Cheryl Pellerin
Science Writer

Washington — A global pandemic is still under way according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 12 months after more than half the population of La Gloria in the Mexican state of Veracruz were sickened by a respiratory disease later identified as type A influenza, subtype H1N1.

And in at least three countries where H1N1 is circulating ― Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam ― highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu is infecting poultry and sickening and sometimes killing people who come into close contact with ill or dead birds.

As of February 28, more than 213 countries and territories have reported laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic H1N1 flu. Millions have been infected and at least 16,455 people have died since the pandemic began in 2009. The illness is generally mild but has been more severe and sometimes deadly for pregnant women, children and young adults, and people of all ages who have chronic diseases.

“An estimated 300 million people or more have been vaccinated against pandemic influenza,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda, special adviser on pandemic flu to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, said February 24, adding that WHO recommends vaccination as a good way to protect against H1N1.

H1N1 AND H5N1: A COMPOUND THREAT

The latest human H5N1 cases have come from nations where H1N1 is also circulating. On February 12, the Ministry of Health of Indonesia announced a new case of human infection of H5N1. The infected 25-year-old female from Jakarta province died January 25.

On March 4, the Ministry of Health of Egypt confirmed five new cases of H5N1, with all of the victims reported in critical to stable condition in February. On the same date, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam confirmed three new cases, including one death.

With pandemic H1N1 and highly pathogenic H5N1 circulating among people in some of the same countries, scientists fear that the viruses’ genetic components could mix, creating a new virus that spreads easily from person to person, as does pandemic H1N1 virus, and that kills nearly 60 percent of the people it infects, as does H5N1.

 

Rows of chickens at a farm in Long An province in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

Rows of chickens at a farm in Long An province in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

WORLDWIDE THREAT CONTINUES

On February 23, an emergency committee of international experts established as part of the International Health Regulations met for the seventh time since the pandemic began to determine if the world is still in the grip of the swine-origin H1N1 virus. The committee studied the situation worldwide.

In the northern temperate zones of the Americas, pandemic flu is circulating at low levels and activity is declining. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that for the week ending February 27, flu activity was relatively low and mostly caused by H1N1. Flu infections are expected to continue for weeks and the nation could experience another wave of flu activity caused by H1N1 or seasonal flu.

Flu levels are back to normal in western Europe, but many eastern European countries (Russia, Bulgaria, Armenia and Moldova) still report higher-than-normal respiratory disease. Pandemic H1N1 is circulating in south and southeast Asian countries. Infections are up in Thailand, and Burma reports regional infections, but infection still is relatively low in both countries.

In East Asia, flu transmission continues at low levels in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and is at normal levels in Japan and South Korea. In Australia and New Zealand, flu infections are low and the island nations of the South Pacific have reported no new H1N1 cases.

Infections are low in North Africa and West Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, where flu surveillance data is limited, several West African countries, including Senegal and Mauritania, report rising numbers of pandemic flu cases. Data from the rest of Africa suggest flu infection levels are low and transmission sporadic.

Because of mixed evidence for declining or low pandemic activity in many countries, new community-level H1N1 transmission in West Africa, and the Southern Hemisphere’s winter months (June, July and August) ― a season that usually promotes flu transmission ― the committee and Chan determined that there has been no change in the pandemic phase, still at the highest level, 6.

THE WAY FORWARD

On April 19–21, high-level government officials responsible for animal and human health from many nations will meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, to participate in the International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza, whose theme is “The Way Forward.”

This is the seventh international meeting since 2005 on the topic of pandemic flu, held to advance cooperation among health and agriculture ministers to confront the global threat.

Read more about pandemic H1N1 and H5N1 at America.gov and at pandemicflu.gov.