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Bird Flu Death of Iraqi Girl ConfirmedBy Jonathan FinerWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, January 30, 2006; 12:36 PMBAGHDAD, Jan. 30 -- Iraqi Health Minister Abdul Mutalib Ali Mohammed Salih said Monday that a 14-year-old girl who died almost two weeks ago in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah was found to have been infected with bird flu.The girl, Tijan Abdel Qadr, died after experiencing severe respiratory symptoms consistent with those present in the disease that has killed more than 80 people, the vast majority in Asia, since it was first diagnosed in 2003. Medical scientists fear that if left unchecked, the disease could spread to broad swaths of the global population."The test of Tijan's blood emphasized that she had bird flu from the kind that kills humans," Ali told reporters Monday in Sulaymaniyah, located in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.The World Health Organization, which had said Jan. 19 that the teenager did not have the disease, told the Reuters news service that its initial assessment had been based only on tests conducted in Iraq. Further testing turned up positive results for the H5N1 strain of the virus, which is highly lethal and can be contracted from close contact with infected poultry, Reuters reported.Mohammed Khoshnaw, health minister for the Kurdistan regional government, said doctors suspected at least two more people currently in a local hospital could be infected. A doctor at the Ranya hospital, northwest of Sulaymaniyah, confirmed that two women there presented symptoms of the disease.The WHO, which is sending a team to Iraq for further investigation, told Reuters it is also testing the infected girl's uncle, who died of the same systems.The Kurdistan regional government called on citizens of the region to help the government cull poultry. The government is particularly concerned about those in outlying villages along the border with Turkey, where bird flu has been blamed for the deaths of four children.The regional government's statement was announced through local Kurdish television stations, newspapers and radio stations."The citizens must not slaughter the birds by themselves," said the government said. "This might be the reason for spreading the disease."
EVERY Australian household should stockpile at least 10 weeks' worth of food rations to prepare for a deadly flu pandemic, a panel of leading nutritionists has warned.World health experts now agree a pandemic is inevitable and will spread rapidly, wiping out up to 7.4 million people globally and triggering rapid food shortages.Australia is expected to be among the first countries hit because of its proximity to Asia and high levels of international traffic.But Woolworths and Coles, the nation's two major supermarket chains, will run out of stock within two to four weeks without a supply chain – or even faster if shoppers panic.This has prompted a team of leading nutritionists and dietitians from the University of Sydney to compile "food lifeboat" guidelines to cover people's nutritional needs for at least 10 weeks.Their advice – published in the Medical Journal of Australia – would allow citizens to stay inside their homes and avoid contact with infected people until a vaccine becomes available.The lifeboat includes affordable long-life staples such as rice, biscuits, milk powder, Vegemite, canned tuna, chocolate, lentils, Milo and Weet-Bix.Jennie Brand-Miller, professor of human nutrition at the University of Sydney and co-leader of the study, believes it is common sense to stockpile food before a pandemic strikes."It's really not a question of if: it's a question of when," she said."We are going to have an epidemic. Chances are it will be avian flu (bird flu) but it might be something else."It will spread very rapidly just like flu does normally because it's a highly contagious organism, except this will be a really lethal one. What we suffer from is a false sense of security that someone else is looking after all this."While there are emergency plans within governments, hospitals and the food industry, individuals will still need to take personal precautions in a disaster, she said.The most important message for the Australian public is to avoid going out in public when the pandemic hits, the research found."We know that once it becomes a highly transmissable virus it will probably fly around the world within three weeks," Prof Brand-Miller said."We know it's got all the right conditions to start in Indonesia or Asia and there have already been human transmissions.
It's coming!Maybe, in another three years, up to 200 people will be dead! I'm not sure, has it outdone deaths from the regular flu yet?
Another animal has been diagnosed with another disease that could potentially infect humans. More than 4.4 million ducks have been found to be infected with a new virus named BYD Virus. It causes reduced mobility, a reduction in the number of eggs produced, a loss of appetite and in many cases, death.
