Bird flu ‘mutated into more dangerous form’
November 15th, 2005
09:40am 14th November 2005
Bird flu has mutated into a more dangerous form which could breed in humans, according to scientists.
The Vietnamese research has shown the bug is adapting to infect humans in the biggest study of its kind.
The respected Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute in Vietnam said it had decoded 24 samples of the H5N1 virus taken from poultry and humans.
The results showed a significant variation of antigen - any foreign substance that stimulates the body’s immune system to produce antibodies.
“The H5N1 type that infected people and waterfowl in early 2005 has several mutations focusing in the important functional parts of the surface proteins,” the institute said on its website.
“There has been a mutation allowing the virus to breed effectively on mammal tissue and become highly virulent,” it said.
Bird Flu Virus could breed in humans
The study also found a mutation of the PB2 gene in a virus sample from a patient who died in the southern Dong Thap province earlier this year.
Small changes in this gene can make it much easier for the virus to breed in humans making it more deadly.
An Agriculture Ministry report said the H5N1 virus had now hit 10 of Vietnam’s 64 provinces since returning in early October. Vietnam’s death toll since the virus first arrived in late 2003 is 42.
The latest affected area is the northern port of Haiphong where 1,000 ducks and chickens died in four farms last week.
Bui Quang Anh, head of the ministry’s animal health department, has warned provincial authorities that improper quarantine of infected poultry was helping the disease to spread.
Poultry rearing to be banned in Vietnam
Vietnam is gearing up its battle against bird flu with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City officials spreading the word about a November 15 deadline from when poultry raising will be banned in those cities.
The Hanoi’s People Committee said live poultry will be destroyed from Thursday if found in the capital.
Last week, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said police and soldiers would be used to quarantine farms, destroy sick poultry and man checkpoints to control poultry transportation better.
Bird flu has killed at least 64 people in Asia since it arrived in 2003 and became endemic in several countries.
Thirteen people are known to have died of bird flu in Thailand, five in Indonesia and four in Cambodia.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Entry Filed under: Nutrition News
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