**AVIAN FLU Headlines (February 15-28, 2006)\
*Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (TX-26)***

As Members of Congress we must be more prepared to meet the needs of our
constituents in any situation. Avian Flu is a threat that surrounds the
United States, and it is important that we all have a basic
understanding of the latest developments in this global public health
threat. In an effort to keep awareness of this growing predicament at
your disposal, I plan to bring the latest headlines directly to you in
an email series.

Beginning last November, I produced a series of "Dear Colleagues" to
address some of the basic science regarding avian flu and public health
developments. These documents are available on my website under the
[Avian Flu](http://burgess.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=2095)
section. 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

**February** **28, 2006**\
[**Dutch poultry sales suffers blow from bird
flu**](http://english.people.com.cn/200602/28/eng20060228_246549.html),
People's Daily Online (China)\
*Dutch poultry sales have been hit by
[bird flu](http://english.people.com.cn/zhuanti/Zhuanti_380.html) as
sales in its main exporting markets dropped amid fears of the deadly
H5N1 strain of bird flu. Sales of poultry products have dropped by 70
percent in [Italy](http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/Italy.html)
and by 20 percent in
[Germany](http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/germany.html), Dutch
news agency ANP reported Monday. The
[Netherlands](http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/netherlands.html)
is the second largest poultry producer in the European Union (EU) after
France. About two thirds of all chicken production in the Netherlands is
intended for export, a spokesperson for the Dutch Product Boards for
Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE) said on Monday. Prices for chicks have
fallen from 70 euro cents to 53 cents at a time when many producers are
already loss-making. \"Businesses can\'t bear this indefinitely,\" the
PVE said.*

**February** **27, 2006\
[Bird Flu Worries Being Felt: Fear that deadly virus will spread to U.S.
hurts chicken prices, shares of
producers](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0602270115feb27,1,5839273.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)**,
Chicago Tribune\
*The 69-year-old Illinois farmer \[Tom Klopfenstein\] expects to be
donning gloves, masks and disposable clothing, administering vaccines
and improvising shelter to keep infected wildfowl away from his flock of
nearly 40,000 free-range turkeys.* *\"For a company like us that grows
birds on the open range, it keeps me up at night,\" said Klopfenstein,
general manager of Kauffman Ho-Ka Turkey Farms in Waterman, Ill., 65
miles west of Chicago. \"It\'s scary.\"* *Avian influenza is putting a
fright into consumers around the globe, with consequences now being felt
in the vast U.S. poultry industry. Prices are under pressure,
particularly for leg quarters and other dark-meat chicken cuts, as
demand begins to flag overseas.*

**February** **26, 2006**\
[**Farmers in rural China elude bird flu
dragnet**](http://www.ajc.com/search/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_4410b341b52cf0390091.html),
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution\
*The contradiction between government statements and what villagers said
was actually happening suggested a lack of official coordination and
monitoring and, at worst, inaction or ineptitude on the part of local
officials or vaccination teams.* *While Beijing is \"absolutely
committed to combating bird flu,\" said WHO China spokesman Roy Wadia,
grass-roots enforcement is \"a very mixed picture.\"* *A lack of
government transparency exacerbates the problems. Beijing is anxious to
avoid the kind of negative press it received after covering up the
emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003, and
top officials have called for more openness.*

# 

**February** **25, 2006**

# [States must lead if pandemic hits country, U.S. official says](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-md.flu25feb25,0,3206587.story)**, Baltimore Sun**

# *In contrast to Katrina, an hours-long storm that devastated communities in two states, pandemic flu could sweep the nation and linger for a year - making it \"logistically impossible\" for the federal government to take the lead in public health efforts.* *Instead, Michael O. Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told hundreds of health professionals and planners attending a Maryland \"pandemic flu summit\" that states must be self-sufficient in flu preparedness.*

**February** **24, 2006**

**How academic flap hurt effort on Chinese bird flu**, Wall Street
Journal (subscription required)

*BEIJING China\'s efforts to maintain control over samples of avian flu
taken on its soil, as well as the research done on them, have put it at
odds with international health officials trying to defeat the disease.*
*The standoff pits a high-ranking veterinarian in China\'s Ministry of
Agriculture named Jia Youling against international health authorities
leading the fight against bird flu. Their conflict surfaced after wild
birds began dying by the thousands last spring in a remote region of
western China. At the ministry\'s headquarters in Beijing, officials
from the World Health Organization and the United Nations\' Food and
Agriculture Organization asked Dr. Jia to share with them the samples of
bird flu that scientists under his ministry had collected from the
birds.* *He didn\'t provide them.*

**February** **23, 2006**

[**Adding the Avian Flu to the Be-Prepared
List**](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/business/23sbiz.html?_r=1&oref=login),
New York Times (free subscription required)

*The possibility of an avian flu pandemic is enough to give any small-
business owner nightmares. What if a quarter of your business was
selling home-delivered and takeout chicken across the United States? Or
your sales force in Asia was subject to quarantine? What if your
employees couldn\'t work from home?* *With every passing week, another
instance of avian flu has been documented in birds, most recently in
India, France and Germany. After 9/11, severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, and Hurricane Katrina, small businesses have learned:
be prepared or else. Owners and managers have to develop contingency
plans using limited resources.*

**February** **21, 2006\
[Have we learned our lessons about
pandemics?](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-02-20-pandemic-bl-cover_x.htm)**,
USA Today\
*If a serious flu pandemic occurs, where you live and how well your
community has prepared could mean the difference between life and
death.* *"All emergencies are local and it doesn\'t matter what the
federal stockpile is, if it doesn\'t get out locally it doesn\'t
matter," says Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan. "And it\'s the
local health departments that have to get it out."*

**February** **21, 2006**

[**Bird flu confirmed in swans in
Hungary**](http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13920107.htm), Associated Press

*Test results Tuesday confirmed that three dead swans found in Hungary
were infected with deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, while Malaysia began
killing birds after reporting its first case of the disease in more than
a year.* *Seven EU nations - Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy,
France and Slovenia - have reported the disease\'s lethal H5N1 strain in
wild birds. There have been signs that European consumers are turning
away from poultry.*

**February** **20, 2006**

[**Battling Bird
Flu**](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/20/lt.03.html),
Transcript from CNN Live Today

*DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT:* *Yes, we would still
need drugs like Tamiflu or Relenza, but in much, much smaller amounts.
The new drugs haven\'t been tested on people yet, so we don\'t know if
they will pan out. But, if they do, the current stockpile might be
enough to control even the worst outbreak.* *Now, if these or similar
drugs don\'t pan out, the federal government only has enough medicine
for five million people, leaving almost everyone else unprotected. And
it would be years before we have enough for the whole population. The
search for new drugs and vaccines is important, because it\'s almost
certain that Americans will have to deal with bird flu.* *DR. ANTHONY
FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE:
And I would not be surprised if, within a period of several months to a
year, we would see this, even in the United States.*

**February** **20, 2006**

[**Animal diseases growing threat to humans; Bird flu possibly latest on
list**](http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/13916043.htm),
Associated Press

*Humans risk being overrun by diseases from the animal world, according
to researchers who have documented 38 illnesses that have made that jump
over the past 25 years. That\'s not good news for the spread of bird
flu, which experts fear could mutate and be transmitted easily among
people.*

**February** **19,** **2006**

[**Avian flu crisis tests trust in government, health
care**](http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=452356),
The Times Union (Albany, NY)

*The message from scientists and public health agencies the world over
is clear: A pandemic of avian flu is going to circle the globe, killing
millions, and in an age of air travel there will be little advance
notice of its impending arrival. It is a time when Americans must
believe that their health and safety is in the hands of those whom they
can trust. But they don\'t.*

**February** **17,** **2006**

[**World must invest in bird flu vaccine: WHO
official**](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060217/hl_nm/birdflu_who_vaccine_dc),
Reuters

*The world has spent more than \$3 billion to stockpile anti-virals
against bird flu but is not investing enough to develop an influenza
pandemic vaccine, a top official of the World Health Organization (WHO)
said on Friday.*

**February** **16, 2006**\
[**IBM to battle avian flu with Scripps\'
help**](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2006/02/16/0216ibm.html),
Palm Beach Post\
*IBM Corp. said Thursday it will collaborate with the Scripps Florida
Research Institute in the building of the world\'s largest supercomputer
to battle a potential global outbreak of bird flu.* *The partnership of
IBM and Scripps, which already has begun, will bring together
world-class scientists and top-level computer engineers for what is
being called Project: Checkmate. The supercomputer will be used to
identify the characteristics of the avian flu virus and then anticipate
how it will change and mutate.*

**February** **16, 2006\
[Second Iraqi dies of bird
flu](http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=246022006&format=print)**,
The Scotsman\
*The dead uncle of an Iraqi girl who died last month after contracting
the deadly bird flu virus also had the disease, a US official said,
citing results of samples tested at a UN-certified laboratory in Egypt.*

**February** **15, 2006\
[Europe locks up its chickens as bird flu
spreads](http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=151957+15-Feb-2006+RTRS&srch=Europe+locks+up+its+chickens+as+bird+flu+spreads)**,
Reuters

*European governments ordered farmers to lock up their chickens on
Wednesday after the deadly bird flu virus was found in two new countries
on the continent, dealing another blow to battered poultry sales.*

Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1)\
Reported to [World Health
Organization](http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2006_02_27/en/index.html)
as of February 27, 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>6</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>8</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>10</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>27</td>
<td>20</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>1</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>1</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>29</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>173</td>
<td>93</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

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