**AVIAN FLU Headlines (July 26, 2006 -- August 29, 2006)\
Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (TX-26)**

During this August District Work Period, I have continued to monitor the
avian flu outbreaks and the integrated efforts of federal, state and
local governments to work together in monitoring and preparing for a
potential pandemic.

On Tuesday, September 5^th^, I will be hosting an Avian Flu Roundtable
with leaders from the county health department, medical society,
emergency management office, as well as with local hospital CEOs and
their staff, and staff from infectious disease control. The roundtable
is an opportunity for local entities to explain their current emergency
plans and to insure that each group is not working in a silo apart from
the others. I look forward to hosting this meeting and reporting back to
you on its outcome. I encourage you to conduct a similar roundtable back
home.

Please feel free to forward this email to interested parties or have
them reply to this sender to be added to the distribution list. Should
you have questions concerning avian flu, please do not hesitate to
contact my office at (202) 225-7772.

Sincerely,\
![](media/image1.png){width="1.8090277777777777in"
height="0.7173611111111111in"}\
Michael C. Burgess, M.D.\
Member of Congress

[Under-reporting of flu in
Thailand](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=atM9J5TuwHwo&refer=japan),
Bloomberg**\
**A 17-year-man who died of bird flu in Thailand last week, the
country\'s first case this year, suggests the virus is being
under-reported in poultry, the influenza team at the European Centre for
Disease Surveillance and Control said. The youth from a northern
province was hospitalized on July 18 suffering fever, cough and headache
and died six days later, the Thai Bureau of General Communicable
Diseases said in a July 26 report. A week before his symptoms appeared
he buried 10 dead chickens, touching the carcasses with his bare hands.
His phlegm tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu strain.

[Monitoring for bird flu expands to all of
U.S.](http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/15246943.htm),
Associated Press

The monitoring of wild migratory birds to prevent a deadly bird flu
virus is expanding to cover the entire nation and U.S. territories in
the Pacific. The testing will be done by scientists in the lower 48
states, Hawaii and other Pacific islands. They will begin keeping an eye
out for the H5N1 strain of the avian flu, which has killed more than 100
people, mostly in Asia. In Alaska, where the first migratory birds began
arriving, monitoring started just before summer.

[Carrollton patient spurs avian flu scare, WFFA News 8,
Dallas](http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/jstjames/stories/wfaa060725_mo_birdflu.3183e43.html)

Even closer to home, North Texans heard little when health authorities
quietly investigated a likely case of bird flu. On a Friday morning, an
elderly woman stumbled through the doors of Trinity Medical Center in
Carrollton. But when Westmoreland looked down at the admission forms,
she said alarm bells registered.

\"She had been out of the country for a month and had been in Vietnam,\"
said Michele Cross, a triage nurse.

The patient had been visiting relatives on a farm in Vietnam where
chickens roamed freely and in an area dozens of people had been
diagnosed with or died from bird flu. The signs were something experts
believed could point to a scary possibility. A News 8 investigation
found the Carrollton scare was one of only two legitimate avian flu
investigations in Texas so far. Pandemic influenza planners from across
the country have taken a close look at the case and another recently in
Houston. Hospital workers said training paid off.

[CDC Releasing Gene
Blueprints](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-CDC-Flu-Genes.html),
New York Times

U.S. health officials have placed the genetic blueprints of more than
650 flu viruses into a public database, in an attempt to increase flu
research and set an example for other nations. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention deposited the information last week, CDC
officials said Tuesday. The genetic information is only for naturally
circulating viruses isolated in the United States. It includes data from
the annual U.S. flu season, animal flu viruses that infect humans, and
new strains that may emerge in this country, such as the H5N1 bird flu.

['Significant' Changes May Be Needed in H5N1 Virus to Cause Pandemic,
Study
Says](http://www.cq.com/display.do?fL=3&docid=2351751&productId=5&binderName=healthbeat-20060731),
CQ HealthBeat

Study results announced Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention suggest that "significant genetic changes would likely be
needed to create a strain that could cause a pandemic," the agency said.
However, it cautioned that the finding was based only on the specific
viruses used in the study, in which a hybrid virus was made combining
the deadly H5N1 virus and an easily transmitted human influenza virus
called H3N2. "This study provides for the first time an assessment of
the risk of an H5N1 pandemic strain emerging through reassortment with a
human influenza virus," said Dr. Jackie Katz, a branch chief in CDC's
Influenza Division who was one of the lead authors of the study. The
research was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, a scientific journal.

[Diagnoses at the click of a
mouse](http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-08-07-visualdx-bird-flu_x.htm),
USA Today

Rapid diagnosis could help save the patient\'s life and prevent the
disease from spreading through the hospital and out into the community.
But most American medical workers have never seen a case of bird flu.
The deadly strain that emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 and has spread in
Asia and Europe since 2003 has not been found in the USA, but health
officials are urging doctors to be on alert for it. Now, a new tool
being used in hundreds of hospitals and clinics in the USA could help
doctors and nurses quickly differentiate between infection with the bird
flu virus H5N1 and 40 other respiratory diseases, from SARS to
Legionnaires\' disease to run-of-the-mill flu.

[FDA Approves Influenza Vaccines To Be Manufactured for Upcoming Flu
Season](http://www.fda.gov/), FDA News

Each year influenza vaccine manufacturers submit information and samples
to FDA of their virus strains being manufactured for the upcoming
seasonal influenza season for review and testing in FDA laboratories.
Because different influenza virus strains may appear each year, one or
more of the strains in the vaccine may need to be changed to protect
against what public health experts think are the strains most likely to
infect people that year. This season\'s approved formulation for the
U.S. vaccine is identical to that recommended by both the World Health
Organization and FDA\'s Advisory Committee. The formulation includes one
strain that was used in last year\'s vaccine and two new strains.
Seasonal flu vaccines do not protect against avian flu, which is caused
by different viral strains.

[First bird flu death in 2003, admits China, The
Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1839753,00.html)

China today admitted that its first human case of bird flu occurred two
years earlier than previously reported, a disclosure that rewrites the
history of the disease and raises questions about Beijing\'s willingness
to share data about the epidemic. A 24-year-old soldier identified only
by his surname, Shi, died of the H5N1 virus at a military hospital in
Beijing in November 2003, the health ministry said on its website. The
government blamed the long delay in reporting the case on the initial
confusion about the causes of the man\'s illness. After treatment for
pneumonia failed, Shi was tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome
(Sars), which shares many avian flu symptoms. He died four days after
being admitted to hospital. It was only in February 2004 - amid an
outbreak of avian flu - that researchers took his samples out of the
freezer and checked them for the H5N1 virus. The ministry said it took
more than a year for the results to be confirmed. In other countries
diagnosis takes just days or weeks.

[Flu Pandemic Impact Can Be Mitigated in Cities: Study, New York
Times](http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-birdflu-ities.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

A densely populated city like Hong Kong can cut by half the number of
infections in the first year of a flu pandemic using home quarantine,
hospital isolation and antivirals, a study suggests. \`\`We showed that
with the combination of tried, tested public health interventions such
as quarantine, isolation and antivirals, you could conceivably reduce
the symptomatic attack rate from 49 percent all the way down to 27
percent,\'\' said Gabriel Leung, an associate professor at the
university\'s School of Public Health.

[PanAfrica: Avian Flu - Global Sharing of Virus
Samples](http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000374/index.html),
FAO Newsroom

OFFLU, the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health)/FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) joint network of
expertise on avian influenza, will systematically make avian influenza
virus sequences accessible to the entire scientific community. With this
gesture OFFLU reiterates its call to the world\'s scientists,
international organizations and countries for a global sharing of virus
strains and sequences. Sharing virus strains, samples and sequences is a
critical part of the global work on the surveillance and control of the
highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, and supports the preparation of human
vaccines. Avian influenza brings long-term implications for human
health, and therefore OFFLU works closely with the World Health
Organization Working Group on Influenza Research at the human-animal
interface.

[New shot for bird flu
promising](http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/dmn/stories/072706dnnatbirdflu.34c97bf.html),
New York Times

A new vaccine against bird flu developed by GlaxoSmithKline is more
effective than any previous version and works at a far smaller dose, the
company reported Wednesday. The development greatly increases the
possibility that there will be vaccine to protect much of the population
if a bird flu pandemic breaks out.

[Bird Flu? We're On
It!](http://www.cq.com/display.do?docid=2358612&productId=5&binderName=healthbeat-20060814),
CQ HealthBeat

A Monday announcement that two swans in southeast Michigan tested
positive for a non-threatening form of the H5N1 virus came from no less
elevated a news perch than the White House. While the Michigan birds
were local, the chances that the high-path virus will be introduced in
U.S. birds later this year by migratory birds are good. To deal with
that health threat, officials from USDA and Interior on Aug. 9 announced
expanded monitoring of wild birds migrating south this fall from Alaska
and Canada. Birds will be tested for the virus in every state, they
said.

[Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Flu Virus Evolution,
Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a6S3ZQwqZkS4&refer=latin_america)

Scientists tracking bird flu moved closer to understanding the evolution
of the viruses and the genes that make them more infectious to people in
a new study. About 52 key genetic changes distinguish avian influenza
strains from those that spread easily among people, according to
researchers in Taiwan, who analyzed the genes of more than 400 A- type
flu viruses. The analysis will help scientists trace the mechanism for
infection and how the viruses replicate in different species, according
to a report appearing in the September edition of Emerging Infectious
Diseases.

[Americas must prepare for bird flu, UN agencies and partners urge in
new drive, United
Nations](http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19304&Cr=&Cr1=)

Though no cases of avian flu or its H5N1 virus have been reported yet in
birds or humans anywhere in the Americas, United Nations health agencies
and other partners today launched a new preparedness campaign for the
disease, which they say could reach the hemisphere at any time and
possibly mutate into a human pandemic. The new Inter-Agency
Communication Framework for Avian and Human Influenza in the Americas
sets forth a common approach for communicating with the media,
government officials, the private sector and the general public, as part
of ongoing efforts to prevent and prepare for avian and pandemic flu.

[Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1)
Reported to
WHO](http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2006_08_23/en/index.html)

**23 August 2006**

<table>
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 20%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
<col style="width: 6%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
<col style="width: 6%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td rowspan="2"><p>Country</p>
<p> </p></td>
<td colspan="2">2003</td>
<td colspan="2">2004</td>
<td colspan="2">2005</td>
<td colspan="2">2006</td>
<td colspan="2">Total</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>cases</td>
<td>deaths</td>
<td>cases</td>
<td>deaths</td>
<td>cases</td>
<td>deaths</td>
<td>cases</td>
<td>deaths</td>
<td>cases</td>
<td>deaths</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Azerbaijan</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>Cambodia</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>China</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>Djibouti</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Egypt</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>Indonesia</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>43</td>
<td>35</td>
<td>60</td>
<td>46</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Iraq</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>Thailand</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>24</td>
<td>16</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Turkey</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>Viet Nam</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>29</td>
<td>20</td>
<td>61</td>
<td>19</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>93</td>
<td>42</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Total</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>46</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>95</td>
<td>41</td>
<td>96</td>
<td>64</td>
<td>241</td>
<td>141</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Total number of cases includes number of deaths.\
WHO reports only laboratory-confirmed cases.