West Nile Found in Crow in Elgin
The Courier News
27 July 2006
ELGIN — The first bird to test positive for West Nile virus in Kane County this year has been found on the city's west side, and a human case may not be far off, officials warned Wednesday. The Kane County Health Department said a crow carrying the virus was picked up last Friday and that its positive status was confirmed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Fred Carlson, county environmental health director, said the discovery was not a surprise because 10 Kane County mosquito pools already have tested positive for West Nile, including ones in Elgin and nearby South Elgin and West Dundee. "We have identified that (local) mosquitoes are carrying the virus," Carlson said. "Birds and people are historically the next to show up with it."
West Nile is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on an infected bird. Most people with the virus have no clinical symptoms of illness, but some may become sick with fever or body aches three to 14 days after being bitten. The illness sometimes is fatal.
Flu Roundup: 15th Thai Death Announced
M&C News
26 July 2006
Kate Walker
OXFORD, England (UPI) -- Thailand has reported its 15th confirmed avian-influenza fatality, this time 17-year-old Yongyuth Daengmeesri from the northern Pichit province. Kamnuan Ungchusak, head of the Thai Health Ministry`s epidemiology bureau, announced the death to the media, saying that final laboratory tests had confirmed avian influenza as the cause of death.
A report in the International Herald Tribune said that the government was holding the boy`s family responsible for his death, saying that they had tried to avoid a cull of all their poultry by killing and burying the sick ones themselves, which is when the boy became infected.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said: 'They buried the chickens themselves because they were worried that if they told the authorities, the authorities would cull all their chickens. The hospital learned about the case only after the patient`s condition had deteriorated.'
Yongyuth fell ill July 15 and was admitted to hospital a week later. A week before falling ill he had helped his father bury the family`s sick chickens without any form of gloves or protective clothing.
S.Africa Culls 8,000 Ostriches to Control Bird Flu
Reuters
26 July 2006
OHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has culled 8,000 ostriches to contain an outbreak of a less virulent strain of avian flu in West Cape province, the Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday. While the department reiterated that the H5N2 outbreak was under control it said it suspected that ostriches in other areas may have been exposed to the virus. But it stressed that the disease had not been detected elsewhere.
"The outbreak of avian influenza in ostriches ... has been brought under control by the culling of 8,000 ostriches. Follow up investigations show no sign of disease in the area surrounding the outbreak," it said in a statement. "The routine, ongoing surveillance and blood testing has unfortunately led to the detection of a small number of farms in other areas of the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces, where it is suspected that ostriches may have been exposed to the virus. No signs of disease were observed on these farms," it said.
The H5N2 bird flu is deadly to animals but, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 variety, not humans. The European Union has banned imports of ostriches, emus and their meat from two districts in South Africa because of the outbreak. South Africa has also banned exports from the areas. "All commercially available ostrich and poultry products remain safe for human consumption," the deparment said. South Africa typically compensates farmers for such culls.
Second Plague Death Reported in New Mexico
Associated Press (Posted by NewMexican)
25 July 2006
SANTA FE (AP) - A Torrance County woman hospitalized last week with bubonic plague has died, the second plague fatality in New Mexico this year. The state Department of Health said Tuesday the woman died over the weekend.
The Department of Health is investigating the woman's home to see if there is an ongoing threat of plague to other people. She had contracted the first case of bubonic plague in the central New Mexico county this year. New Mexico's earlier plague death came in May, when a woman from Bernalillo County died of the septicemic form of the plague.
Plague, a bacterial disease, generally is transmitted through the bites of infected fleas, but people also can get it by direct contact with infected rodents, wildlife and pets.
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