UPDATED: Apparently my initial concerns with this story were warranted, as media reports this morning now indicate that the 2 patients suspected of H5N6 infection have tested positive for seasonal influenza instead (see report at bottom).
# 9903
With the caveat that we are dealing with a media report, and I’ve yet to locate an official source, today several Vietnamese news sites are carrying a report of two people infected with the recently emerged A/H5N6 avian virus in Nghe An Province.
Giving at least some credence to this report is the fact that just over two weeks ago we saw the virus reported in the adjacent province to the north (see H5N6 Reported In Thanh Hóa Poultry).
First the report, then I’ll be back with a bit more.
Nghe An: Detecting 2 patients infected with influenza A / H5N6
TPO - An outbreak of avian influenza A / H5N6 outbreak in Quy Hop district, Nghe An infection caused two people. Local Veterinary Authority has issued 11,000 doses of vaccine prevention, control the outbreak.
The source of the Pioneer said, outbreaks of avian influenza outbreaks in the neighborhood Dinh Xuan Nghia, Quy Hop district, Nghe An, near the tip. Place of concentrated populated, located on Highway 48A. Following 2 people infected with bird flu.
Talking to reporters dimension 5/4, Director DARD Nghe An Ho Ngoc Sy confirm the source said, adding, after the outbreak, the veterinary authorities in collaboration with the district of Nghe An advanced Quy Hop emergency measures to enclosure, control and extinguish the outbreak.
"There are families raising chickens, 150 children in infected chickens. The province has mobilized 11,000 doses of vaccine against the disease and conduct quarantine, disinfection whole barn area with bird flu. Temporarily banned the sale of poultry in the affected area, "said Ho Ngoc Sy said.
Director of Health Services of Long Bui Dinh Nghe An, said two patients infected with avian influenza A / H5N6 was transferred to Hanoi treatment. The patient was his wife Tr.K.Ch, LTTh. Housing neighbor Dinh Xuan Nghia, Quy Hop district, he Ch. poultry husbandry; His wife has just joined the women in the neighborhood classifieds market has traded Palace.
One of the `new crop’ of HPAI H5 viruses to appear over the past 18 months – H5N6 – unlike H5N8 and H5N2, has shown an ability to infect and seriously sicken humans.
We first saw it appear, infecting poultry and killing one person, last April in Nanchong City (see Sichuan China: 1st Known Human Infection With H5N6 Avian Flu). Since then, two more human cases have been reported in China, of which only one survived.
In early August of 2014 the virus suddenly popped up in widely separated outbreaks in central and northern Vietnam (see OIE: Two Outbreaks Of H5N6 In Vietnamese Poultry), hundreds of kilometers south of its original emergence. Since then there have been at least a half dozen additional reports of outbreaks in Vietnamese poultry.
Over the past few months China has reported more than 2 dozen outbreaks around the country (see OIE Follow-up report No.7) , and two days ago FluTrackers picked up an unconfirmed report from China - Farmer suspected H5N6 bird flu case after outbreak in geese - April 3, 2015.
Although it has not spread as far, or as famously, as H5N8 and H5N2 – H5N6 is viewed with extra caution because it has already demonstrated the ability to infect humans (see FAO Warns on H5N6).
Hopefully we’ll get clarification on both of these incidents in the next couple of days.
UPDATE:
This morning several Vietnamese news outlets are carrying reports indicating that both cases tested positive for regular flu, not H5N6. This from Vietnamplus.
Nghe An confirmed no patients infected with influenza A/H5N6
Dr. Phan Van Cong, head of communicable disease control, biological vaccines, preventive health center of Nghe An province, confirmed the province doesn't have any patients infected influenza A/H5N6 as the communication media has brought.
In mid March, 2015, an outbreak of influenza A/H5N6 were erupting on chickens at communal Sense Spring (district of Nghe An, Where your knees). General Tran Kim's family and her sister Lü BU in A Phoenix neighborhood, civil Sense Spring chickens and there have been dozens of chickens infected and die.
On March 3, Mr Chan Kim Chung caught a cold, high fever. To 31/3, sister Lü BU Thuy (his wife Chung) also have a cold, high fever. Fear before public health situation with the flu have occurred on the adoptive family's chickens, relatives have taken the couple Mr. and Mrs. Chung, Cards out at the Oph parasite Virus, a tropical hospital Central.
After doing tests, the hospital reported two patients with influenza A is common sense. A central tropical hospital has been treating patients with antibiotics, the pill provides reproductive. After six days of treatment at a hospital on the Central Lowland, both Public Health and the patient has stabilized, recovered. Expected in the afternoon of 6/4, British couple, the Cards will be discharged from hospital.
