# 6041
Via Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, we get the latest on the recent detection of H5N1 in poultry (see Hong Kong: CHP Enhances Human Surveillance For H5N1 for earlier reports) that led to an increase in their alert level to `serious’.
The following report comes from this week’s Communicable Diseases Watch dated December 29th.
Communicable Diseases Watch Volume 8, Number 26, Week 51-52 (Dec 11, 2011 – Dec 24, 2011)
A few excerpts, but follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Update on H5N1 avian influenza
Reported by MISS AMY LI, Scientific Officer, and DR ALICE WONG, Senior Medical Officer, Surveillance and Epidemiology Branch, CHP.
Hong Kong has raised the response level under the Government’s preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic from Alert to Serious on December 20, 2011. This followed the confirmation of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in a chicken carcass sample taken from the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market (Wholesale Poultry Market) on December 20, 2011.
The Government is tracing the source of the chicken carcass and it is not certain at this stage whether the chicken came from local farm or was imported. All the poultry at the concerned market have been culled on the following day. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) has worked with public and private hospitals to enhance the detection of suspected human cases. So far, no human cases have been detected in Hong Kong.
Avian influenza infection in human is caused by influenza viruses, such as influenza A H5N1, that mainly affect birds and poultry. Severe infection can result in severe respiratory failure, multi-organ failure and even death. Human infection with H5N1 is a rare event. Most cases recorded to date were sporadic infection, with limited human-to-human transmission in some cases. Below we summarize the latest global and local situation of human H5N1 avian influenza infection.
Global SituationFigure 1 shows the annual trend of human cases.
As is evidenced by the chart above, the number of reported human cases in 2011 is running slightly ahead of what we saw in both 2010 and 2008, with the bulk of the detections coming from Egypt.
It is probable that some number of human cases have gone undetected, and so the exact global burden and incidence of the disease in humans is not precisely known.
Nevertheless, for now H5N1 is primarily a threat to poultry.
The virus remains poorly adapted to human physiology, and despite ample opportunities in places like Egypt, Cambodia, and Indonesia - only appears to cause rare, sporadic infections.
The concern, of course, is that over time that may change. And so the world remains at Pre-pandemic Phase III for the H5N1 virus, and we continue to watch for signs that the virus is adapting to humans.
