H5N1

Still more B2B H5N1 in Vietnam

Via Thanh Nien Daily: Bird flu ravages central Vietnam province.

An outbreak of bird flu is sweeping through the central province of Quang Nam, felling fowls and forcing authorities to cull a further 26,660 birds.

They destroyed 7,000 eggs and 1,250 ducks Monday after finding signs of the H5N1 virus that causes the disease.

Seven communes in four districts – Nui Thanh, Thang Binh, Dai Loc and Tien Phuoc – have been affected.

Nguyen Ngoc Quang, vice chairman of the Quang Nam People’s Committee, instructed local authorities to focus on disinfecting affected areas and containing the spread of the disease.

Until mid-March only Nui Thanh had reported outbreaks.

New strategies for new disasters

Via Computerworld.com.au: New strategies for new disasters. Excerpt:

Here's a tricky question: Could your company operate during a flu pandemic?

Nearly 3,000 financial services organizations tested their answers to that question with a disaster drill last September. The exercise showed that the financial sector could continue to operate during a pandemic, but it also revealed stress points throughout the industry.

For instance, many recovery plans laid the groundwork for employees to telecommute -- a smart move in a scenario that could leave thousands homebound -- but the existing infrastructure couldn't handle the increased traffic.

"When you have [so many more] people working from home, the Internet is going to slow to a crawl, and that's if it's even recoverable in all parts of the country," says Nick Benvenuto, managing director and global head of business continuity at Protiviti, a risk management consulting firm.

That drill highlights the status of many companies vis-a-vis disaster recovery: They have disaster plans, but those plans aren't adequately designed to handle an actual event.

Instead, many business executives, including top IT managers, are relying on old procedures and technologies that might work for small-scale, brief disasters -- a regional power outage, for example -- but would fall woefully short during a catastrophe like another major hurricane or terrorist attack.

As far as I can tell, information technology and insurance are the only industries thinking seriously about surviving a pandemic. CIDRAP and a few other organizations are trying to raise corporate consciousness, but most businesses seem to prefer denial; they just call it optimism.

CIDRAP on Indonesia

Via CIDRAP: Three cases raise Indonesia's H5N1 count to 132. Excerpt:

Indonesia's health ministry today announced fatal H5N1 avian influenza infections in two young people, aged 11 and 15, and said a 22-month-old girl is hospitalized with an H5N1 infection.

If the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the three cases, its human H5N1 count for Indonesia will reach 132 cases with 107 deaths.

Nyoman Kandun, director general of communicable diseases for Indonesia's health ministry, said one of the patients is a 15-year-old boy from Subang, West Java province, who died on Mar 26, according to a Reuters report today.

The boy's brother died recently, but Kandun told Reuters the deaths do not represent a family case cluster, because the brother died of dengue fever. No other details were available about the brother, such as whether health officials obtained and tested samples for the H5N1 virus.

Kandun said the 11-year-old girl died Mar 28 and was from Bekasi, east of Jakarta, according to the Reuters report. Some media outlets are reporting the girl's age as 12.

Kandun said dead chickens were found in the boy's neighborhood, but officials weren't sure if the girl had been exposed to sick or dead birds, Reuters reported.

The health ministry said today that a 22-month-old girl from Bukit Tinggi in West Sumatra has tested positive for an H5N1 infection, according to Reuters.

She was transferred to a bird flu specialty hospital on Mar 24 after she experienced a high fever and other suspicious symptoms, Agence France-Presse reported today.

Lily Sulistyowati, spokeswoman for Indonesia's health ministry, told Reuters the girl got sick on Mar 19 and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Padang, where her condition is improving.

Dispute over Jalpaiguri culling figures

As Shakespeare might have put it, "The course of true culling never did run smooth." Via The Times of India: Dispute over Jalpaiguri culling figures.

Contradictory figures given by the Jalpaiguri district authorities on the culling of chicken have left the people guessing.

It was claimed that between Friday evening and Monday morning, 40 teams engaged in culling operations had already killed 49,988 chickens and the number was expected to cross 60,000 by Monday evening.

Culling started after it was confirmed that bird flu had spread in the Mondolghat gram panchayat area of Jalpaiguri sadar block. Last Thursday, after a daylong meeting, the district administration fixed a target to cull 48,000 poultry birds in the affected area.

But on Friday, the district administration had revised the target to 31,000. "The earlier target had been set in accordance with the 2003 census. Now, the number of chickens in the area has come down to 31,000," district magistrate R Ranjit said.

On Friday, due to the daylong delay in starting the culling operation, only 600 chickens were culled. Soon after that, the administration whittled down the target to 31,000. But on Monday, it was claimed that nearly 50,000 chickens had been culled by 10.30 am.

"How can 50,000 birds be culled when there were only 31,000 in the affected areas? The entire thing is shrouded in mystery," said a local resident. "The administration may have tried to hide facts after only 600 chickens were culled on the first day of the operation," he added.

The teams will begin mopping up from Tuesday. The total number, therefore, is expected to rise further.

Pakistan: Price of chicken soars

It sounds like a paradox in a hot-zone country, but this story in Daily Times explains why Chicken rates reach record level. Excerpt:

Chicken meat demand has sharply decline in wholesale and retail markets of Karachi after its rates touched the record high levels of Rs 205 per kg, traders said.

The unprecedented rise in chicken rates was attributed by the traders to prevailing massive demand and supply gap in the market pushing its prices beyond the purchasing power of common consumers.

“An overwhelming majority of consumers are finding it difficult to cope with the enormous increase, which has fast spiraled out of their purchasing capacity,” claimed a major poultry industry trader.

Chicken live birds are currently priced at Rs 110-112 per kg in the wholesale markets while in the retail, it is available at Rs 113-115 per kg. Representatives of Poultry Association told Daily Times on Monday that the emerging situation owing to discovery of deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in some of Karachi’s poultry farms about two and half months ago is the main cause of shortage of supply.

At that time, due to virus scare, the chicken meat demand had plunged sharply as the people had stopped its consumption, which spelled financial disaster for the traders and farmers. According to poultry the traders suffered an estimated loss of Rs 6 to 7 billion since then posing serious financial hardship to them.

Abdul Maroof Siddiqui, convener of Karachi Wholesalers Poultry Association, informed the reporter that after suffering massive monetary losses and unable to sustain further losses, more than 40 percent of the owners of poultry farms located in areas of Dhabjee, Pipri, Hub Chowki, Gharo, Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Dunba Goth, Nooriabad and super highway closed down their trades.

Moreover, a large number of traders avoided hatchery process for the fear of further financial losses and in view of that the supply has declined. Siddiqui said prevailing situation is clearly indicative of the fact that short chicken supply from farms is the major cause of shortage of the chicken meat sending its prices up at the record level.

He said despite extremely high price of the chicken meat, major buyers including caterers are buying it to fulfill orders of marriage halls, fast food restaurants, road side and five start hotels. Demand from the household consumers has plunged by more than 50 percent since the upsurge in price.

West Bengal: Culling almost over in Jalpaiguri

Via The Statesman: Culling almost over in Jalpaiguri. Excerpt:

The culling of fowls in the Bird Flu hit Maynaguri and Sadar Blocks in Jalpaiguri, is nearing completion.

According to the Jalpaiguri district magistrate, Mr R Ranjit, 49,300 birds have been culled till this afternoon and the estimated target of 50,000 would be achieved by 10 pm tonight.

“The figure of birds culled could go a beyond the estimated target at the end of the exercise,” the district magistrate said.

Mr Ranjit further added that 40 teams of the animal resource development department would start a mopping up drive in the affected villages in search affected birds, if any.

“The mopping up drive would continue for two days and police personnel would accompany the teams where required,” the DM added.

He also said that once the process was over, the district administration would send a proposal to the state government for additional compensation to the affected households.

The state government had in the previous cases granted an additional compensation of Rs 500 per household, whose livelihood was affected by the outbreak of Bird Flu elsewhere in the state.

Meanwhile, to prevent the Avian Flu from spreading to Siliguri, the ARD personnel here are disinfecting vehicles entering the sub-division at Nauka Ghat in the town and near the Coronation Bridge at Sevoke.

West Bengal: Squabbles over compensation

Via The Statesman: Flu compensation faces Central hurdle. Excerpt:

The West Bengal government had to face more embarrassment for its failure to contain Bird Flu after the Union Cabinet secretary asked the state to show the reasons behind its failure to stop the spread of the virus when the state lobbied for funds to provide compensation to the affected families on 28 March.

Senior animal resources development (ARD) officials hinted that the state has become desperate to provide interim relief and a sheep or goat to the affected families as a rehabilitation package as the panchayat polls are fast approaching.

Officials from the state led by the chief secretary, Mr Amit Kiran Deb, met the Union Cabinet secretary, Mr KM Chandrasekhar, in Delhi on 28 March to ensure that the Centre releases its share for compensating the affected poultry farmers as early as possible.

A few animal resources development department officials said the Centre appeared to be unhappy over the re-emergence of the virus when the state urged the Centre to release its share for compensation. The officials from the state were asked to point out the actual reason behind the failure.

A senior official said: “The state has started giving Rs 500 to each of the affected families as interim relief. The Centre is supposed to give 50 per cent of the amount required for interim relief. This apart, as a part of an alternative rehabilitation package, we have plans to give sheep or goat to the affected families as the amount of interim relief is not sufficient. The Centre is yet to okay the rehabilitation proposal.”

Getting the message to Jakarta's kids

The Jakarta Post has a photo from a student-produced play about bird flu. According to the caption, over 200,000 Jakarta schoolchildren have seen the play.

Two teenagers die of bird flu in Indonesia

Very bad news from Xinhua: Two teenagers die of bird flu in Indonesia, toll hits 107.

A 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl have died of bird flu in recent days in Indonesia, bringing the total death toll from the H5N1 strain to 107, the Health Ministry said in a statement here Monday.

The boy from the West Java town of Subang died on March 26, the same day he arrived at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in the provincial capital of Bandung, after about a week of treatment at a smaller hospital in Subang.

A day later, a girl from the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi died at the Persahabatan Hospital, which is among major hospitals to become the center of treatment for bird flu patients.

Indonesia has so far confirmed 132 bird flu cases in human with 107 deaths, becoming the worst affected country.

Here's the story in Reuters and the International Herald Tribune.

Indonesia: Call for study to determine resistance to antiviral drugs

Dr. Ngurah Mahardika, mentioned here on March 29, is back in the news. Via The Jakarta Post: Study on bird flu medication needed to detect resistance. Excerpt:

The government must conduct a thorough study on the effectiveness of Osetamivir, the current avian influenza medicine, after cases of viral resistance to the drug were reported in Vietnam and Hong Kong, an expert said Sunday.

"The study is important as it will determine what measures should be taken next," German-trained virologist Dr. I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika told The Jakarta Post.

Mahardika is one of the country's leading avian influenza researchers and a member of the National Commission on Avian Influenza and Pandemic Influenza.

He praised a bird flu summit held earlier this week, saying it would compel the government to examine the virus and to discern the threat of resistance in bird flu patients in Indonesia.

He said the government's last examination on the virus had been conducted in March last year.

"Therefore we need to know whether the virus has been able to adapt to current medicines. We can't always depend on reports made in other countries, as each country may have different situations that trigger resistance," he said.

He said laboratories with equipment to examine the virus were available in some cities in the country but the call to use them had never been made.

"The government's seriousness in eradicating the disease is now being put to the test," he said.