Welcome to the Microbiology Information

Bird flu has again struck another victim in Egypt bringing the toll to 14. Marianna Kameel Mikhail who was 15 years old contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus last week.

She was admitted to hospital in Cairo on Thursday and died of respiratory failure on Tuesday evening. Although being treated in hospital with the antiviral Tamiflu, it was too late as she was admitted 7 - 10 days after developing advance symptoms. None of her family members were found to have the virus.

With a total of 34 humans who have caught bird flu in Egypt, 14 have died and 19 have recovered. A two-year-old girl from central Egypt is under treatment and is in good condition.

Egypt has the highest number of confirmed human bird flu cases outside Asia.

According to AM New York, the Japanese authorities in Tokyo has confirmed the country’s fourth outbreak of the virulent H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus at a poultry farm in Southern Japan.

About two dozen chickens were found dead at the farm in Shintomi, southwestern Miyazaki state, last month. The birds had been infected with the H5N1 strain deadly to humans, the Agricultural Ministry said.

The case marks Japan’s fourth H5N1 outbreak incident this year and the third to hit poultry farms in Miyazaki, Japan’s largest chicken-producing region.

Officials began slaughtering the approximately 93,000 chickens at the Shintomi farm earlier this week.

The farm also has been quarantined, and chicken ranchers within a six-mile radius are banned from transporting poultry or eggs out of the area while officials check that the infection has not spread.

The H5N1 virus has killed or prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, and caused the deaths of at least 164 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Japan has confirmed only one human H5N1 infection and no human deaths.

Bird flu remains hard for humans to catch, but international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions around the world.

Source

Bird Flu or the Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. The influenza viruses occur naturally among birds especially wild birds that carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them.

Avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them. Birds infected with the virus shed the influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Susceptible birds then become infected when they have contact with contaminated secretions or excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds.

Domesticated birds may become infected with avian influenza virus through direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, or through contact with surfaces (such as dirt or cages) or materials (such as water or feed) that have been contaminated with the virus.

Infection with avian influenza viruses in domestic poultry causes two main forms of disease that are distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence. The “low pathogenic” form may go undetected and usually causes only mild symptoms (such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production). Unfortunately, the highly pathogenic form spreads more rapidly through flocks of poultry. This form may cause disease that affects multiple internal organs and has a mortality rate that can reach 90 - 100% often within 48 hours.

The U.S. Government’s War on Bird Flu: Speeches, Testimony and Advisories Documenting the Official Response to a Potential Avian Influenza Pandemic The U.S. Government’s War on Bird Flu: Speeches, Testimony and Advisories Documenting the Official Response to a Potential Avian Influenza Pandemic

An avian flu vaccine will be developed by The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the prestigious Bionostra Group of Spain . The vaccine will protect against the lethal infection of the H5N1 virus.

Founded in 2000, Bionostra - in collaboration with members of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient?cas (CSIC) which is the Spanish High Council of Scientific Research - has developed a new technology based on virus-like-particles to provide a new generation of vaccines for human and animal health. These novel technology, will offer researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine a great jumping off point in the creation of the vaccine.

“We are enthusiastic with this promising collaboration between Bionostra and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine which is renowned for its prestigious scientific research,” said Juan Carlos del Castillo Tamayo, CEO of Bionostra. “This is the first step for a revolutionary new generation of vaccines against the influenza virus.”

Mount Sinai School of Medicine has been at the forefront in the study of the influenza virus. The reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus, a recent scientific breakthrough, was made possible by a technique developed and patented by Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers. The virus was reconstructed using reverse genetics, a technique developed by Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Peter Palese, PhD, Professor and Chairman of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The collaboration with Bionostra will offer Mount Sinai’s researchers an even greater understanding of the pathology of the H5N1 virus and will result in the development of a novel vaccine that combats this burgeoning pandemic.

Source: News Medical

The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have designed a vaccine that successfully fought the bird flu virus in mice and chickens.

Findings from their collaboration with investigators at the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Virology, a publication of the Washington, D.C.-based American Society for Microbiology.

The researchers tested slightly different viruses that contained either the whole, part of or none of a bird flu protein called hemagglutinin (HA).

They injected mice with the viruses to see which offered protection from H5N1 infection. The mice were then inspected for any signs of illness (i.e., weight loss and death) and for antiviral antibodies and other immunity markers in their blood.

Most of the mice immunized with the virus containing either the whole or part of the HA protein showed only mild and short-lived weight loss, and they survived.

Those exposed to the common H5N1 virus died within six to nine days of exposure.

Researchers determined that the genetically engineered versions of the vaccine stimulated several lines of defense against the H5N1 virus, and they suggested that even if H5N1 mutates or changes its structure rapidly, the vaccine would still likely be effective.

There is one caveat, though. The researchers determined that the vaccines were only effective when delivered through the skin, not inhaled nasally. They aren’t sure why, but suggested that it may be because the virus they used had limited infectivity in the nose and respiratory tract.

After testing mice, the researchers moved onto chickens, where they tested a dose of the virus that was 10,000 times greater. They saw no signs of bird flu.

Researchers said these findings suggest that adding their vaccine to the traditionally inactivated flu vaccines in chickens could successfully render the bird flu harmless.

Flu vaccines currently are prepared in fertilized chicken eggs, a process developed more than 50 years ago that requires millions of eggs. The U.S. and the world would be in short supply of such a volume of eggs if a pandemic were to occur.

“Although the development of a vaccine for H5N1 in humans has been difficult, the recent study suggests it should be possible,” said Tony Mazzulli, M.D., of Mount Sinai Hospital Department of Microbiology in Toronto. “The overall process of producing the vaccine and ensuring that it not only works, but that it is also safe, may take some time.”

He added:”Although measuring a person’s antibody response following vaccination is a good way of determining if a vaccine can stimulate an immune response, it is impossible to know if the response will be protective against the wild type virus.”

Mazzulli said given the high death rate of H5N1, it will not be possible to determine by exposure if people are protected by the vaccine. “Even if the vaccine works initially, how will a person’s immune response protect them from infection?” he asked. “Will the response fade with time, in which case repeated vaccination will be needed - but at what frequency or at what intervals?”

The researchers are working on a small clinical trial of the vaccine in humans in the very near future.

Source: myDNA