ABC News/Reuters: Deadly bird flu detected in Nigerian outbreak

[PhilipShore]

ABC News/Reuters
Deadly bird flu detected in Nigerian outbreak
Feb 8, 2006

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1593301

ABUJA (Reuters) - An outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Nigeria is the H5N1 strain that can kill people, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said in a statement on Wednesday, the first time the virus has been found in Africa.

The OIE said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua. Suspicions about bird flu were raised after the deaths of thousands of birds in northern Nigeria in recent days.

An outbreak could have devastating consequences in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where millions of people have chickens in their backyards.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had not previously been detected in Africa, though other strains have.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. Oh, yay, it's in Africa.

Where it will no doubt find fertile grounds for reproduction and mutation.

[Itchinjim]

2. This is not good news.

Not good news at all.

[phusion]

3. it's slowly making its way across the globe n/t

[Mojorabbit]

4. How are they going to cull chickens there

with so many on the verge of starvation on that continent as it spreads. A major disaster.

[ECH1969]

5. Nigeria reports Africa’s first bird flu outbreak

A “highly pathogenic” strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in poultry stocks in Nigeria — the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.

Nigeria reported the outbreak in Jaji, a village in the northern Kaduna state, according to the organization known by the acronym OIE. OIE spokeswoman Maria Zampaglione said the outbreak was the first reported case of H5N1 in Africa.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11232657/

[kineneb]

6. oh, wonderful.

And so many people of Africa are not in the best of health to begin with. Those poor folks...:-(

Now they will have to get rid of one of their food sources.

[FormerRepublican]

7. I was just reading about this and you beat me to the post.

Lordie, as if African nations didn't already have their hands full with the AIDS crisis - now this. I read an article a while back that talked about the impact of dual HIV and bird flu infections - as you might think, an HIV positive person would be less likely to fight off a deadly bird flu virus. What a bad situation all around.

[henslee]

8. I suspect there are hundreds of undiagnosed Bird flu cases right here in

the U.S. I mean how could there not be? Statistically, it just seems impossible that its not so.

[SaveElmer]

10. Not likely...

Even if the bird flu is more prevelent than the number of hospitalized indicate, some percentage are always going to get very ill. If what you say were true, there would at least be some number of very ill people and we would most definietly have heard of that. Also there are no reports anywhere in the country of poultry dying of influenza.

[gimama]

9. 2 in Iraq confirmed deaths from bird flu

There's so much other crap in the air in Iraq, I'm sure this is the least of their worries. Our Soldiers are cycled in & out of there with little screening, so if it isn't here yet, it will be.
These dismanteling policies of OUR VA & healthcare systems will cost US even more needless deaths & suffering.
I believe this (nyt)report re Iraq bird flu deaths was on the Veterans for Common Sense newsletter, which also reported 2 other alarming stories:
~Pentagon report admitted 20,000 Troops had been hospitalized for reactions to anthrax vaccinations. This vaccine is highly controversial, & Congress ok'd its use only with the stipulation that ALL adverse effects be reported. These 20,000 Soldiers had effects serious enough to require hospital care.
~50,000 US Soldiers have been stop-lossed,again. www.veteransforcommonsense.org
I'm trying to get the links, can't access my yahoo mailbox this mornin'..(mr.bush,go cheney y'self)

[Gelliebeans]

11. I hope this is monitored carefully

although I doubt it. My doctor volunteers in Nigeria every year for a couple of weeks in an AIDS
clinic. This will dampen the resources of volunteers that go to these countries if this outbreak is left to fester.