First Bird Flu Cases Confirmed in Pakistan and Myanmar

The World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland) sent experts to help investigate the cause of the first bird flu cases in people in Pakistan and Myanmar and find out if the virus was transmitted through human contact, according to media reports December 17, 2007 from Xinhuanet (Beijing, China). Pakistan and Myanmar were praised by the WHO for swiftly reporting the cases after the outbreak.

Two brothers, who were brought to a hospital from Mansehra in North West Frontier Province on suspicion of carrying H5N1 virus, died of bird flu in Pakistan December 13, 2007. "The two brothers have been confirmed as bird flu victims and are the first human sufferers of the disease in our country,” said Dr. Siddiqur Rahman, acting chief executive of the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar (Pakistan).

In Myanmar, the first human infection of bird flu was announced to the public on December 16, 2007. A seven-year old girl was found to be infected with bird flu virus among four suspected of carrying the virus in the previous month and was subsequently kept in quarantine and successfully treated with Oseltamivir (tamiflu).

Specimens of the four suspected were first sent to a lab in Yangon, which confirmed the girl's infection on November 26, 2007. The human samples of the four were also sent to a lab in Bangkok as well as the WHO lab in Tokyo and those laboratory tests further confirmed the status.

Khalif Bile, the WHO representative in Pakistan, reported that preliminary tests had been carried out, and added that the organization encouraged the governments to perform confirmation tests. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds.

"Priority is to be given to the prevention of bird flu virus strain as mortality rate is much higher than that caused by [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] SARS,” warned deputy health minister Dr. Mya Oo in a discussion on the current human bird flu infection in the country's border area with senior health officials in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.

The first outbreak of the highly pathogenic influenza A H5N1 virus--the agent responsible for bird flu--in humans occurred in Hong Kong in 1997, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA, USA) reported. Pakistan is the 14th country to announce a case of human infection with the potentially deadly virus.


Related Links:
World Health Organization
Xinhuanet
U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention