Outbreak of H5N1 Confirmed In Germany

Germany has confirmed its first outbreak this year of H5N1. The outbreak occurred on a poultry farm in the German state of Saxony, close to the border with Poland.

All of the poultry on the farm including 800 geese and 550 ducks were destroyed in order to prevent the spread of the deadly disease to other farms.

Areas around the outbreak are being monitored carefully and South Korea announced that it would halt imports from Germany.

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CDC Chief Warns Pandemic Flu Is Coming

During a a national conference Thursday Dr. Julie Gerberding director of the CDC says "ready or not, a flu pandemic is coming."

"No one knows when the pandemic is coming or what strain of flu virus will cause it, but it is overdue", she said.

She was also correct in her statement in which she said, "politicians are not talking about a flu pandemic or the bird flu virus, which may or may not be the virus that causes the next pandemic. No one is talking about it, and it’s not on their radar screen.”

At the conference she also made mention that critical products and services including food, and water and basic drugs will be unavailable due to transportation and energy problems.

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Guidance on Pandemic Vaccination Allocation Announced Today From DHS, And HHS

Press Release below:

Release Date: July 23, 2008

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Homeland Security (DHS) released guidance on allocating and targeting pandemic influenza vaccine. The guidance provides a planning framework to help state, tribal, local and community leaders ensure that vaccine allocation and use will reduce the impact of a pandemic on public health and minimize disruption to society and the economy.

"This guidance is the result of a deliberative democratic process," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "All interested parties took part in the dialogue; we are confident that this document represents the best of shared responsibility and decision-making."

"A severe pandemic has the potential to disrupt our everyday way of life," said DHS Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeffrey Runge. "This guidance was developed to ensure that our nation's critical infrastructure remains up and running and we address the needs of all of our citizens, enabling the country to recover from a pandemic more quickly."

As part of developing the guidance, HHS held day-long public engagement and stakeholder meetings throughout the country and received more than 200 written public comments on the goals and objectives of pandemic vaccination. In all the meetings, stakeholders and the public identified the same four vaccination program objectives as the most important:

• Protect persons critical to the pandemic response and who provide care for persons with pandemic illness;
• Protect persons who provide essential community services;
• Protect persons who are at high risk of infection because of their occupation; and
• Protect children.

The guidance is also firmly rooted in the most up-to-date scientific information available and directly considers the values of our society and the ethical issues involved in planning a phased approach to pandemic vaccination.

The ultimate goal of the pandemic vaccination program is to vaccinate every person in the United States who wants to be vaccinated. Because pandemic vaccine cannot be made fast enough for everyone to be vaccinated at once, federal, state, local and tribal governments, communities, and the private sector can use the guidance to decide who should be vaccinated during this early stage to best protect people and communities.

The guidance's vaccination structure defines four broad target groups: people who 1) maintain homeland and national security, 2) provide health care and community support services, 3) maintain critical infrastructure and 4) are in the general population.

Everyone in the United States is included in at least one vaccination target group. People who are not included in any occupational group would be vaccinated as part of the general population based on their age and health status.

While vaccines are an important resource in a pandemic, vaccination will only be one of several tools to fight the spread of influenza if and when a pandemic emerges. Other tools include community public health measures, antiviral medications, facemasks and respirators, washing hands, and covering coughs and sneezes.

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Leading Experts Say World Not Yet Prepared for Flu Pandemic

A Leading United States expert on infectious diseases spoke out today saying that the world is not fully prepared for a flu pandemic.

Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. CDC said, "We are a long way from being fully prepared. We do not have a vaccine that will provide universal protection. We don't have surveillance in every country. We don't have control of the virus in animal reservoirs."

She also added that, "We have huge gaps in our basic understanding of influenza and what will be the trigger that allows it to move onto its next host and potentially become more transmissible to humans," she told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of an infectious diseases conference.

According to in WHO current figures H5N1 has infected a total of 385 people since late 2003 and has killed 243 of them.

In some troubling news Indonesia which has had the highest human casualty rate from the disease also recently announced that the country would not be as forth coming with the sharing of H5N1 data with the rest of the world. other

In other news experts are also saying that the H5N1 virus may worsen the global food shortage crisis as well.

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Bird Flu Hits United States, Tyson Foods Chickens Test Positive

About 15,000 chickens from Tyson Foods, Inc. in Arkansas have tested positive for H7N3, also known as Bird Flu or Avian Influenza. H7N3 is another low pathogenic strain of the disease similar to H5N1 which is more highly pathogenic.

The birds in question showed no signs of illness and the company says there was little risk to humans. A company spokes person said the incident was very low risk.

Tyson Foods said it will step up its testing for bird flu in response.

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