Sunday, June 25, 2006

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION CONFIRMS BIRD FLU VIRUS MUTATED

VIRUS THEN PASSED FROM HUMAN TO HUMAN

UK LAB WORKERS STUCK BY NEEDLES FULL OF BIRD FLU VIRUS

After weeks of downplaying the fact that the bird flu virus had passed from one human to another in Indonesia, when seven family members became infected and died with ten days, the World Health Organisation has now confirmed the H5N1 virus has undergone a "basic" mutation.

No threat of a pandemic, the WHO now claim. Had the World Health Organisation not previously claimed there was no mutation of the virus in Indonesia it might be a bit easier to believe them about the non-threat of an incoming pandemic.

There are serious fears now that if the World Health Organisation raises its Pandemic Alert Level the chaos on Asian financial markets could shatter economies across the region, and impact to the tune of many trillions of dollars around the world.

Go Here For More On How The Raising Of Pandemic Alert Levels Can Smash Economies.


While there is no confirmation that the World Health Organisation has done so, there are obvious motivations for the organisation to downplay, or delay, important news about bird flu in humans. Particularly when that news relates to mutations of the virus that may make it more likely to spread from human to human : a necessary early stage in a potential worldwide pandemic.

This from the UN's Co-Ordinator for fighting bird flu on the Indonesian family cluster that led to seven deaths and confirmation of a mutation of the H5N1 virus :
The woman got infected with the bird flu virus, and as a result of her being infected and her close contact with blood relatives, she infected six other people, including a young boy.

That's not uncommon. We have seen human-to-human transmission of this H5N1 virus before, but usually what happens is, that the person who gets the virus then does not pass it to anybody else.

However, one of the people who got to virus was a 10-year-old boy, who apparently then passed it on to his father.

The father did not pass it onto anybody else. But the reason why this is all quite interesting is that the virus appeared to change when it was inside the 10-year-old boy.

The genetic analysis of the virus from samples that were taken from the boy changed over time and that represented therefore a mutation.

Some amazing, shocking news coming out of the UK this morning.

Two female lab technicians are now under quarantine in Surrey, England, after fears surfaced they may have become infected with the bird flu virus.
One of the women caused a panic when she broke quarantine.

One is still confined to her house - and yesterday enraged officials by briefly leaving the property and putting the public at risk.

The other is back at work but is still being regularly tested for the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu virus.

Both work in the avian biology section of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, which analyses samples from diseased creatures. They became suspects within eight days of each other. A source said: "No one can believe that this has happened twice in just over a week.

"There've been accidents in the past, but never in this lab."

One of the more remarkable facts surfacing in this story is the news that experts now believe the H5N1 virus can lay dormant in the human body for years, before circumstances, such as a depressed immune system, can allow the virus to "come alive" and kill the carrier.

Out of all the hundreds of stories I've read through while researching this blog, I can't recall ever having read any reports of the H5N1 virus "surviving in dormancy" within the human body.

The women, aged 25 and 50, are feared to have caught H5N1 after slashing their hands with infected blood stained needles.

The 25-year-old pierced herself on Wednesday while injecting chick embryos with H5N1 during tests.

She must spend 10 days in isolation at her home in Addlestone, Surrey, while blood and saliva are analysed.

She has to take her own DNA swabs to prevent cross-contamination.

The samples are collected from her doorstep by couriers. Nurses keep in regular phone contact. Yesterday, the technician breached Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs rules by leaving her house.

Our source said: "Bosses will be furious she's put people at risk. She'll be kept in isolation for 10 days. If she doesn't fall ill, she'll be allowed back."

...she will continue to be monitored as H5N1 can lie dormant in the body for months.
Bird flu expert Clifford Warwick said yesterday the virus could flare up months after infection. He said: "H5N1 can go undetected in the body for years.

"Stress such as surgery could lower a person's immune system and allow the dormant virus to take hold. The disease would then be strong enough to get into red blood cells and could be passed through the air, in the breath or sneezes."

I'm not an expert on bird flu, but like I said from the hundreds of articles and reports I've read in the past nine months, these are the sorts of details rarely, if ever, reported before in the mainstream media.

That the bird flu virus can be picked up by humans, and then not manifest any physical symptons, and yet lie dormant within the body for months, or years, and then mix with a standard human flu virus and mutate into a form more easily passed from human to human....this is absolutely mind-blowing news.

If true, and taking into consideration the now WHO confirmed mutation of the virus in Indonesia, this means that any number of humans could become infected with bird flu and not know it, as they may not become ill within a short period of time, thus not showing any symptons of being infected.

And yet, they could carry the virus in a dormant state until a later date when it could mutate further and be passed on by close contact with other humans.

Truly remarkable.

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