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medpundit |
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Monday, April 28, 2003International health authorities are unnerved by the discovery that a bird flu circulating in Belgium and the Netherlands can infect humans and be passed from person to person. The flu outbreak, which began in late February and is being caused by a strain named H7N7, has led to the slaughter of more than 20 million chickens in the two countries, according to the European Union. And it was responsible for the death last week of a 57-year-old Dutch veterinarian, not named by health authorities, who developed severe pneumonia several days after visiting a farm where the disease had cropped up. In addition, 83 Belgian and Dutch residents have developed mild symptoms indicating viral infection, either mild flulike illness or conjunctivitis, an eye infection. But in a troubling development, the World Health Organization said Thursday that three family members of two poultry workers have developed respiratory symptoms without having direct contract with poultry, suggesting the flu strain has developed the ability to pass between people rather than jumping only from birds to humans. It's too early to tell what kind of disease this virus will produce, although the death of that veterinarian is troubling. The SARS virus was orignally thought to be one of these "bird flu" cases, too. However, this one is pretty clearly from the birds since there have been documented illnesses among the poultry before the human illnesses began. Killing all of those birds will be bad for business, but it should stop the spread of the disease. posted by Sydney on 4/28/2003 07:38:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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