Dr. Webster: 'We have Failed' - 02/01/2007

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Dr. Webster: 'We have Failed' - 02/01/2007

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By John Lauerman

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... efer=japan

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The resurgence of avian influenza among poultry and people in Asia and Africa shows international control measures have ``failed,'' a U.S. expert said.

Many countries still lack crucial testing programs to spot the virus as it appears in local flocks, and wait for birds to die before they begin response measures, said Robert Webster, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Each outbreak of the flu in birds, people and animals such as cats and pigs raises the possibility that it will mutate into a form that spreads quickly in people, Webster said. A resurgence of infections in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand confirms that control efforts that appeared effective still need to be strengthened, he said.

``To me it means that we've failed,''
Webster said today in an interview in Washington. ``It's a lack of knowledge and political will to get at the source of the virus.''

Researchers gathered in Washington today at a conference on seasonal and pandemic flu. Health officials have said the bird flu spreading in Asia might become contagious in people, possibly setting off a pandemic as deadly as one that killed about 50 million people in 1918.

The H5N1 virus has infected at least 270 people and killed 164 of them, according to figures released Jan. 29 by the World Health Organization. WHO confirmed a death in Nigeria yesterday, the first human death from the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.

``It's a general failure,'' Webster said. ``I'm not pointing the finger at anyone; I've also failed. We as a whole have failed to understand the ecology of H5N1 well enough to control it.''

Mutating Rapidly

The virus is mutating rapidly as it spreads through birds and a variety of mammals, including cats, tigers, and pigs, Webster said. About 1,600 versions of H5N1 have been isolated, said Michael Perdue, project leader for WHO's global influenza program, at the meeting.

The virus undergoes so many mutations that it may already exist in a form that's transmissible in humans, said Ron Fouchier, a virologist at Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

``Chances are it would be out there somewhere,'' he said yesterday in a telephone interview. ``It just isn't in mammals yet; it's somewhere in a bird or poultry.''

China, Egypt, Nigeria, Hungary and Vietnam have also reported outbreaks in birds, humans or both in the past two months. Health officials around the world have intensified surveillance for the lethal strain, and Indonesia yesterday began a campaign to rid its capital of infected birds.

Indonesia

While Indonesia has made gains in surveillance, vaccination and culling backyard chickens, the country has a long way to go before controlling it in birds, said Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, deputy chief executive of Indonesia's National Committee on Bird Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness.

``We are not able to curb the disease in chickens and that's why the endemnicity is going on,'' she said in an interview today at the conference in Washington. ``Anything can happen if you don't have good control.''

The country also needs a better view of how effectively chickens are being vaccinated and culled in the country's growing poultry industry, she said.

``The big operators that run industrial operations, they are also where the virus is amplifying,'' she said. ``We cannot blame all the mistakes on the backyard birds.''

Tracking the `Reservoir'

Researchers still have to find the animals in which the virus ``hides'' when it's not causing disease, the species that virologists call the ``reservoir.'' The H5N1 reservoir is most likely the duck, Webster said. Ducks often carry flu viruses, showing no symptoms themselves, that are lethal when transmitted to chickens.

Many countries continue to focus their efforts on culling birds to prevent spread in poultry, and more should consider the use of poultry vaccines, Webster said. Countries such as Thailand have said that the vaccines only control symptoms in birds, while allowing the virus to continue spreading.

International standards for poultry vaccines should be created to insure that all those on the market prevent infections in birds, Webster said. Those standards should cover characteristics such as the amount of viral protein, or antigen, in the vaccine.

``We need to have the same kind of standards that regulate the quantity of antigen in the vaccine,'' Webster said. ``Those things are not out there.''

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: February 1, 2007 18:28 EST
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