**AVIAN FLU Headlines (March 1-14, 2006)\
*Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (TX-26)***

On Thursday, March 9, I participated in the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Congressional
Briefing on Avian Flu in the U.S. Capitol. The meeting included PAHO
Assistant Director Dr. Carissa Etienne and Deputy Director Dr. Joxel
Garcia. I, along with my Texas colleague Representative Silvestre Reyes
addressed the crowd which included representatives of PAHO, WHO, United
Nations and the media. More information on this event and other
important [Avian
Flu](http://burgess.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2095) information is
available on my website. As I continue to update materials, they will
appear on the website. 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 feel free 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

**March 13, 2006**

[**South Dakota Pandemic Influenza Avian Flu Summit a
Success**](http://blackhillsportal.com/npps/story.cfm?id=1519), Black
Hills Today**\
***Gov. Mike Rounds has words of praise for the large number of
community and state leaders who attended a Summit in Sioux Falls to
discuss and share plans in preparation for pandemic influenza. Gov.
Rounds was joined by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary Michael Leavitt, who outlined the federal planning and
response effort. During the Summit, Gov. Rounds and Secretary Leavitt
signed a Memorandum of Agreement for cooperation in the pandemic
influenza planning effort. "Cooperation at all levels is essential to
get our citizens informed and prepared," said Rounds.*

**March 10, 2006\
[SRI wins \$1.4 million in federal grants for flu
research](http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2006/03/06/daily32.html?jst=m_ln_hl&surround=lfn)**,
Birmingham Business Journal

*The [Southern Research
Institute](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="Southern Research Institute"&t=birmingham)
has been awarded more than \$1.4 million in federal funding to develop
new screening tools to accelerate the search for antiviral drugs
effective against influenza, including the H5N1 avian flu strain. The
18-month project will pool the biochemistry, virology, chemistry, and
high-throughput screening groups at Southern Research, along with
researchers from the [University of Alabama at
Birmingham](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="University of Alabama at Birmingham"&t=birmingham),
[Rutgers
University](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="Rutgers University"&t=birmingham),
[Rice
University](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="Rice University"&t=birmingham)
and the [University of Texas at
Austin](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="University of Texas at Austin"&t=birmingham).
The funding was awarded Friday morning by the [National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious
Diseases](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases"&t=birmingham),
an office of the [U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services](http://www.bizjournals.com/search/bin/search?q="US Department of Health and Human Services"&t=birmingham).*

**March 9, 2006\
[Bird Flu Could Appear in U.S. in
Months](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BIRD_FLU_CHERTOFF?SITE=NCASH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)**,
Asheville Citizen-Times**\
***A deadly strain of bird flu could appear in the United States in the
next few months as wild birds migrate from infected nations, Homeland
Security Michael Chertoff said Thursday. Chertoff said \"there will be a
reasonable possibility of a domestic fowl outbreak\" as migrating birds
mix with ducks, chickens and other birds in the U.S. But he cautioned
against panic, noting that the Agriculture Department has dealt with
other strains of bird flu for years.*

**March 8, 2006\
[Del. serves as model for fighting avian
flu](http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/BUSINESS/603090331/1003)**,
The News Journal, Delaware*\
As the threat of avian influenza spreads, some Europeans are looking to
Delaware as a model for how to contain the disease. A delegation of nine
poultry experts from Kosovo is spending three weeks in Delaware learning
about ways to grow their fledgling broiler industry and protect their
chickens from avian flu.*

**March 8, 2006\
[Bird flu kills Chinese
girl](http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/03/08/birdflu.wrap.reut/index.html)**,
CNN**\
***The girl, China\'s 10th known death from bird flu, died on Monday
night in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news
agency said. Her death comes days after the government confirmed that a
32-year-old man had died from the H5N1 virus in the southern province of
Guangdong, near Hong Kong, triggering alarm there.*

**March 8, 2006**

[**Threat of avian flu prompts trucking organization to create task
force**](http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-birdflutruck0806mar08,0,994723.story?coll=orl-business-headlines),
Orlando Sentinel**\
***Truckers who haul food and farm products have formed an avian-flu
task force to prepare for a possible pandemic that could cripple
deliveries nationwide. Fletcher Hall, executive director of the American
Trucking Association\'s Agricultural Food Transporters Conference, said
the conference\'s more than 500 trucking-company members, including big
outfits in Florida, must be prepared for any eventuality if deadly bird
flu becomes widely transmissible among humans. So far, it has not spread
from Asia and Europe to North or South America, but health authorities
and government agencies here are urging industries and families to
follow the issue closely and prepare.\
*

**March 7, 2006**

[**Biopreparedness tested during
drill**](http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=2129090), Omaha
World-Herald

*Dr. Richard Raymond, the nation\'s top food safety official, described
the federal government\'s "farm-to-fork" food safety defense, including
steps being taken to protect against the avian influenza that has
devastated commercial flocks in other countries. Currently, industry
voluntarily tests a large percentage of chickens and turkeys, he said.
The federal government tests wild migratory birds. Federal officials can
shut U.S. borders to poultry from countries that have found the virus.*

**March 6, 2006**

[**WHO: Bird Flu Bigger Challenge Than
AIDS**](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=1692403), ABC
News/Associated Press*\
The lethal strain of bird flu poses a greater challenge to the world
than any infectious disease, including AIDS, and has cost 300 million
farmers more than \$10 billion in its spread through poultry around the
world, the World Health Organization said Monday. Scientists also are
increasingly worried that the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form
easily passed between humans, triggering a global pandemic. It already
is unprecedented as an animal illness in its rapid expansion.*

**March 2006**

[**In Europe, Bird Flu Hits
Home**](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060313/13week.htm)
U.S News and World Report**\
***One dead cat. That\'s all it took to wake up Europeans to the reality
of bird flu. Yes, global health officials have increasingly warned of
the threat posed by the deadly strain of avian influenza, known as the
H5N1 virus, since it re-emerged in Asia three years ago. But it wasn\'t
until a stray cat on the German resort island of Ruegen died of bird flu
last week that those admonitions came home to roost.*

**March 6, 2006**

[**Government Working on New Bird Flu
Vaccine**](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=1692573), ABC
News/Associated Press

*The government has several million doses of an earlier bird flu
vaccine, but it was based on a sample of virus taken from Vietnam in
2004. The germ is believed to have mutated enough since then that the
form now circulating in Africa and Europe may be different, health
officials said. Calls for a second vaccine illustrate the challenge of
coming up with an effective shot to protect humans from a strain of bird
flu that might one day easily jump to humans. So far, that hasn\'t
happened, but if it did, experts fear a worldwide, deadly flu epidemic.*

**March 5, 2006**

[**Fear of avian flu affects poultry markets in
U.S.**](http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/nation/14023131.htm),
Akron Beacon Journal

*\"The people are scared,\" said Tranh, the owner of Mac\'s Poultry. Not
without reason. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture temporarily
closed two of Philadelphia\'s five live-bird markets last year after
mild strains of avian flu virus were detected during routine
inspections. Those strains were different from the lethal H5N1 strain
and posed no threat to humans, the agency said. The heightened
surveillance comes as the United States prepares, beginning in April, to
ramp up avian flu testing of wild birds that are making their seasonal
migration through Alaska after wintering in Asia.*

**March 4, 2006**

[**Bird Flu
Vigilance**](http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBNEHWGDKE.html), Tampa
Tribune

*Valerie Hirvela is used to the noise. Her morning ritual of feeding and
cleaning can mean up to three hours each day tending to her backyard
flock in rural Hillsborough County. Hirvela raises her chickens for
exhibition. Her backyard flock is one of more than 300 statewide that
are tested annually by the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services\' Division of Animal Industry. To prepare, Florida is
stepping up its testing of commercial and domestic poultry. The number
of birds being examined will more than triple this year, Jennifer
Jennings-Glover \[the department\'s agricultural and consumer protection
administrator\] said, from 4,000 sampled in 2004-05 to 15,000 by October
2006.*

**March 3, 2006**

[**Pet-rified**](http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3564064), The
Denver Post

*Karen Goodman has recently found herself coaxing customers through the
doorway of her Denver bird store. While the bird-flu strain found in
parts of Asia and Europe has not been found in the United States,
Goodman, owner of the African Grey bird store in Denver, said fear of
the disease is cutting into her business. \"This is usually our busy
time of year,\" she said. Goodman estimates that monthly sales have
dropped by about a third over the past eight to nine months. The decline
coincides with intense news coverage of the disease. Business picks up
when coverage tapers off, she said.*

**March 1, 2006***\
*[**French Farmers Shudder as Flu Keeps Chickens From Ranging
Free**](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/international/europe/01flu.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin),
New York Times (free subscription required)\
*France, the first European country to suffer an outbreak of the A(H5N1)
strain of avian influenza among its poultry, is hunkering down for a
long, tense haul as the spring migration brings flocks of waterfowl to
its rivers, lakes and ponds. The virus, which killed more than 400
turkeys in a matter of hours on a farm a few miles south of here, is
believed to have arrived with a duck that migrated west from the Black
Sea to escape unusually cold weather there.*

**February 28, 2006***\
*[**Do Migratory Birds Spread Avian
Flu?,**](http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-02-28-voa58.cfm)
Voice of America News\
*There are several possible sources of contagion, according to US
Agriculture Department official Ron DeHaven. \"We\'re looking at all
pathways as potential,\" he says. \"We need to be addressing all of them
\-- whether it be the movement of migratory birds, whether it be the
accidental movement of international passengers bringing poultry or
poultry products, or those who might for business purposes or otherwise,
be smuggling poultry or poultry products.\"*

**February 28, 2006***\
*[**Cat in Germany Has Bird
Flu**](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Germany-Bird-Flu.html?_r=1&oref=slogin),
New York Times (free subscription required)\
*The deadly strain of [bird
flu](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/avianinfluenza/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier)
was confirmed Tuesday in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the
[virus](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/viruses/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier)
has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of the [European
Union](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org).
The cat was on the northern island of Ruegen, where most of the more
than 100 wild birds infected by the H5N1 strain were found, the
Friedrich Loeffler institute said. The cat was found dead over the
weekend and then tested positive for H5N1, laboratory leader Thomas
Mettenleiter said. Mettenleiter said there are no known cases of the
virus moving from cats to humans, but he still cautioned pet owners on
Ruegen to keep their cats inside for now. "An infection of humans, which
theoretically cannot be ruled out, could probably only occur with very
intimate contact to infected animals,"\' Mettenleiter said.*

# 

Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1)
Reported to WHO\
10 March 2006

<table>
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 20%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 8%" />
<col style="width: 6%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
<col style="width: 6%" />
<col style="width: 7%" />
</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>Cambodia</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td>China</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>15</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td>Indonesia</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>28</td>
<td>21</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<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="odd">
<td>Thailand</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<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="odd">
<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="even">
<td>Total</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>46</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>95</td>
<td>41</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>176</td>
<td>97</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

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