I think that's a good idea. There are so many stories now it's hard to keep track. Plus H2H is what we are all watching out for.

I'm adding the following link (posted elsewhere, but I'm trying to place all possible h2h articles in one place. I find this particularly alarming, given Dr. Niman response to it. He says:

"The hospitalization of relatives of the suspected fatal bird flu case in western India is cause for concern.  Initial media reports indicated that the index case tested positive for bird flu.  Later reports indicated he was not a bird flu case because of a lack of contact with birds.

Bird flu is widespread in the area (see map) and dead crows  with H5N1 symptoms were reported in Mumbai last year.  Historically, India has denied H5N1 in poultry and people, even though poultry workers had H5N1 antibodies and the H5N1 positive bar-headed geese at Qinghai Lake winter in India.

More details on testing of the deceased patients and relatives would be useful.  Nose and throat swabs of H5N1 patients in acute respiratory distress are frequently negative."

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=276891&arc hisec=REG&archisubsec=

It's short enough, I'll paste it below. I think that brings to FOUR the number of potential h2h cases we are now watching?

Source: ZEENET News

Here's another one to watch:

www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1631996,001300820000.htm

8 fresh human cases suspected as culling continues

Press Trust of India

Navapur (Maharashtra), February 21, 2006

"There are eleven patients now admitted in the isolated ward for suspected bird flu, including eight who were admitted on Monday following door-to-door survey and three others were admitted on Sunday," Munde said.

Suspected Human-To-Human
Bird Flu Transmission In Vietnam
NewScientist.com
1-22-5

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Posted on Sun, Feb. 19, 2006

India begins mass slaughter of fowl

AJIT SOLANKI

Associated Press

NAVAPUR, India - Health officials and farm workers in protective clothing began slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens in western India on Sunday, hoping to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

Europe stepped up its battle against bird flu as the European Union's top poultry producer, France, grappled with its first reported case of the lethal virus.

European poultry farmers said consumption has fallen and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Germany ordered some birds killed on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. The number of deadly flu cases in Italy rose to 16.

Indian officials reported a 27-year-old poultry farm owner had died of bird-flu-like symptoms, though tests had yet to determine what killed him.

"At this juncture we can only suspect that the cause of his death could be bird flu," Surat district officer Vatsala Vasudev told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Workers in Navapur, a major poultry farming region in western Maharashtra state, dumped bird carcasses and gloves, goggles and blue gowns used by health teams into deep pits at poultry farms.

Bird flu has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 91 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Most human cases of the disease have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Scientists fear that the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted among humans, sparking a pandemic.

Since early Sunday, more than 200,000 chickens had been killed in Navapur of about 500,000 expected to be slaughtered within a 1.5-mile radius, said Anees Ahmed, the Maharashtra state minister for animal husbandry.

Poultry farms were closed to everyone but health officials and workers in protective gear. Chicken shops were shuttered.

The government has banned the sale or transport of chickens from the area, and checkpoints have been set up to inspect trucks.

India exports some $84.4 million worth of poultry products a year to Europe, Japan and the Middle East, and has seen a rise in overseas orders in the past year as countries such as Indonesia struggled to control bird flu outbreaks.

"Now countries will shut us out," said Ajit Ranade of the Bombay Veterinary College.

Neighboring Nepal on Sunday said it was banning imports of all poultry and poultry products from India, while Bangladesh said it would step up surveillance along its border with India to prevent smuggling of birds into the country.

In Egypt, authorities closed the Cairo zoo after six of 83 birds that died there recently tested positive for the H5N1 strain. Health authorities said tests still had not found the disease in humans.

Egyptian officials, meanwhile, pleaded with citizens not to dispose of dead chickens, turkeys or other birds by throwing them in the roads, irrigation canals or the Nile River.

"More than 90 percent of the cases so far have been found in poultry kept in cages on roofs or balconies of apartment buildings. We ask the people to cooperate and not to dump anything into the Nile, please," Health Minister Hatem Mustafa el-Gabaly said.

France on Saturday joined Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine in the ranks of countries with deadly bird flu in Europe.

Some farmers in the southeastern French town of Joyeux, where the infected wild duck was found, began slaughtering their birds as a precaution.

"I panicked," 64-year-old Gabrielle Josserand said after killing her two geese and eight ducks. "But I chose to act right away."

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/13 907638.htm

Summary:

• A 35-year-old woman who tested positive for the bird flu virus died Friday in south Vietnam, medical officials reported Saturday.
• A 17-year-old boy, who died on Jan. 15 in Bac Lieu province, also had the virus, said officials.
• The virus has claimed nine lives in the country since Dec. 30.
• The high number of victims may indicate the coming of a global pandemic that could cause more devastation than last month's tsunami, the World Health Organization says.
• "If we continue to experience these frequent new outbreaks with the virus spread both in poultry and people, it finally might result in an awful virus strain that could become a pandemic with a horrendous outcome," said Hans Troedsson, WHO's representative in Vietnam.
• Three new bird flu deaths were confirmed this week, prompting concerns from WHO about the high fatality rate.
• WHO fears that the H5N1 bird flu virus could mutate into a deadly human form.
• It is urging countries and drug companies to speed development and production of a vaccine.
• So far there are no signs that the virus is being transmitted easily between people.
• However, WHO says recent epidemiological and laboratory studies reveal unusual features suggesting that the virus may be evolving in ways that increasingly favour the start of a pandemic.
• There are another nine suspected human cases of bird flu under investigation, including two in hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and four in Hanoi, two of which are in a critical condition.
• Eighteen of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities have been hit by the new outbreak of bird flu.
• Since the end of 2003, outbreaks of bird flu have killed 38 people: 27 in Vietnam, and another 12 in Thailand.

http://www.newstarget.com/004314.html

gee I wonder why they're pushing everyone into coming up with vaccines for humans

Avian influenza – situation in India – update

23 February 2006

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India has informed WHO that no human cases of H5N1 infection have been detected to date. Tests conducted on samples taken from persons under investigation and their close contacts have yielded no positive results as of today.

Testing has been undertaken at the National Institute of Virology in Pune and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi.

It was not clear if samples from a 27-year-old poultry worker from Gujarat State, said to have died of respiratory disease on 17 February, were among those tested.

In India, as in all countries experiencing their first outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, WHO strongly recommends that patient samples be sent to a WHO collaborating laboratory for diagnostic confirmation. Certainty about the status of human cases in a newly affected country is important for accurate risk assessment.

In addition, analyses conducted by WHO-approved laboratories can yield information about the possible evolution of the virus and clues about how the virus may have arrived in the country. Genetic and antigenic studies of circulating viruses also help ensure that work on the development of a pandemic vaccine stays on track.

this is dangerous, first they say theres human cases then theres none?  So which is it?  They're playing with fire and we're going to get burned for it.  They know something and I got a feeling they're hiding something

From the WHO timeline...Vietnam reports a human case in Nov. 05...so it seems to me as if it NEVER left Vietnam, just not many cases reporting between lulls.  Previous human case was July 05...it's had a lot of time to mutate there...as Joe said, we need to keep our eyes peeled here.  WHO reports no substantial mutation to support H2H, but sounds like the virus is getting closer each day...

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/Timeline_24%2 002.pdf

Great idea NM -- keep our eyes on the birdie 

Three Suspect H5N1 Children Hospitalized in Manisa Turkey

Recombinomics Commentary
February 23, 2006

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02240601/H5N1_Turkey_Manis a_3.html

From Niman:

"...A geographical cluster of three patients is cause for concern.  More information on symptoms and possible relationship between D.A. and H.A. would be useful."

(Posted in News by Rick)

these tests that are being carried out on people with flu, and coming up negative to H5N1 -  yet are still dying because of respiratory illness maybe due to a change in the original H5N1 virus?( maybe now the BF H5N1 has a cousin so to speak?) so does anyone know how H2H testing would be done? since H5N1 is BF then what is H2H flu called?...........would the powers that be, be quick off the mark to tell us?

a few lines out of our local paper dated 25th feb 2006 - waikato times NZ, headline reading, Indonesia lauches war against BF -

South Korea, meanwhile, yesturday confirmed it recorded its first cases of BF spreading to humans in 2003-04. There was no explanation for the delay in reporting the results. - AP.

I would bet right now there are at least 5 hot zones with H2H.  India, Indonesia- Java, Mylasya, Middle Africa, Mid East (namely Turley and Iraq) and I'm sure 3 or 4 more. You say Who knows? well who don't?

All these false negitives and news that is a day late and a dollar short. All we are fed is a steady supply of government news releases writen backwards like "India says 94 out of 95 test negitive." and so on.

This contact with dead bird excuse is getting pretty old.

We're just lucky it's been mostly poor people infected and dying in place and not the rich world travelers. = (because those infected are mostly impoverished. It doesn't get around as fast.)

Five new cases in hospital

Irdiani Mohd Salleh

KUALA LUMPUR, Sat

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/National/20060 226083412/Article/index_html

"Health authorities are conducting house-to-house screenings in the affected area and those found with H5N1 symptoms will be admitted for tests," [Health director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican ]said.

harpmandoodle,

sorry meant to say....... because those infected are mostly impoverished. It doesn't get around as fast. .......How's that? just typing in a hurry. fruedian slip?

This was just reported in the last 20 minutes. I assume these are new infections?

7 more cases of bird flu detected (from Asian Age)

http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=1&cat 2=23&newsid=211087&RF=DefaultMain

"New Delhi: Seven more cases of bird flu have been detected in Navapur in Maharashtra and Uchchal in Gujarat. "

It's very confusing, as there's no detail or date on the article, but according to the newsnow.co site, which updates every five minutes, this was reported at 18:27 today (from India.)

NM

(Hold nose before opening this one...)

CBS News, Feb. 27

WHO: Human Bird Flu Cases Rise

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/health/main1349539 .shtml

"...Almost all human deaths from bird flu have been linked to contact with infected birds.

In Indonesia, investigations carried out by local authorities "found reports of chicken deaths in the woman's neighborhood four days prior to her onset of symptoms," WHO said in a statement.

In China, however, one of the patients came from the eastern province of Zhejiang, where there have been no reported animal outbreaks since 2004, the agency said..."

and:

"...But in China, it is believed the 9-year-old girl developed symptoms after a visit to relatives in the neighboring Chinese province of Anhui, where a 26-year-old female farmer also developed symptoms "following contact with diseased poultry."