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Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Flu crisis

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Dutch Josh View Drop Down
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    Posted: January 07 2022 at 4:55am

[url]https://nltimes.nl/2022/01/07/dead-birds-raise-bird-flu-concerns-dutch-nature-reserve[/url] or https://nltimes.nl/2022/01/07/dead-birds-raise-bird-flu-concerns-dutch-nature-reserve

Several dead water birds have been found in Oostvaardersplassen, raising concerns about bird flu in the nature reserve, forest ranger Hans-Erik Kuypers said to NOS. The cause of the birds' death is not yet clear. They're being examined in Lelystad. 

In addition to the dead birds, rangers also noticed geese acting oddly. Usually, these birds stay in large groups. But rangers have spotted loners who don't take flight when approached. According to Kuypers, this could indicate that the birds are weak and may have a bird flu infection.


So far, the dead birds have only been found in an area off-limits to visitors. Nevertheless, forestry service Staatsbosbeheer warns visitors to stay away from animals and definitely keep their distance from dead or weakened animals. Dog owners are also urged to keep their dogs on leash. According to Kuypers, dogs can become seriously ill if they have contact with animals that have bird flu.

DJ Problem is some animals may eat/come in contact with infected/dead birds AND humans. 

[url]https://www.timesofisrael.com/nearly-3000-hospitalized-with-flu-since-september-says-health-ministry/[/url] or https://www.timesofisrael.com/nearly-3000-hospitalized-with-flu-since-september-says-health-ministry/ ;

The ministry said 2,825 Israelis had been hospitalized with the flu since September 1 as of last week, including 863 children and 181 pregnant women and new mothers. New cases were continuing to rise among both the young and old, the ministry added.

It urged Israelis to get vaccinated against the flu, noting the inoculation being distributed this year protects against the flu strain currently spreading throughout the country. The ministry said anyone over six months old should get the vaccine and noted that those eligible for a COVID-19 shot can do so at the same time.


“The flu virus can cause serious illness, such as pneumonia, other respiratory complications, myocarditis and even death,” a Health Ministry statement said.

Health officials have warned of a so-called “twindemic” of the two diseases. The term refers to fears that large numbers of flu cases and COVID-19 cases could overwhelm hospitals — not that many individuals will be infected with both viruses at once.

-

 Thursday, Israel confirmed its first case of an individual infected with both the seasonal flu and COVID-19 at the same time. The two infections were found in an unvaccinated pregnant woman who had mild symptoms, Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva said.

DJ Flu type not named, H3N2 ? 

[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/asia/h5n1-h5n8-h1n08-tracking/taiwan/931029-taiwan-h5n2-in-poultry-in-changhua-county[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/asia/h5n1-h5n8-h1n08-tracking/taiwan/931029-taiwan-h5n2-in-poultry-in-changhua-county most bird-flu cases reported are H5N1...so H5N2 is a change...

[url]https://www.coronaheadsup.com/europe/uk/uk-first-human-case-of-h5-bird-flu-found-in-south-west-england-h5n1-not-confirmed/[/url] or https://www.coronaheadsup.com/europe/uk/uk-first-human-case-of-h5-bird-flu-found-in-south-west-england-h5n1-not-confirmed/ first UK or Europe H5N1 human case ; 

The first man in Britain to catch the H5N1 strain of bird flu is a 79-year-old former railway worker who kept 20 Muscovy ducks INSIDE his home after befriending a flock of 160 which lived in nearby Devon river

Britain’s ‘patient zero’, Alan Gosling, a 79-year-old grandfather living in Devon, caught the virus from l160 Muscovy ducks living in his home in Buckfastleigh. He befriended them over a number of years, his family say.

The former railway worker is the first ever human case of H5N1 recorded in the UK.  The H5N1 virus can kill up to half of the people it infects.

Daily Mail report

DJ Flu-vaccines do not offer protection against H5N1 (and several other H5-flu's)

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dutch Josh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 07 2022 at 4:57am

China-most-did see a lot of other-less common-H5 flu cases; 

Some lists; H5N6 increasing, also a case in Laos,

[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/china-h5n1-h5n8-h5n6-h5n3-h5n2-h10n8-outbreak-tracking/723926-flutrackers-h5n6-cumulative-case-list[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/china-h5n1-h5n8-h5n6-h5n3-h5n2-h10n8-outbreak-tracking/723926-flutrackers-h5n6-cumulative-case-list 

H9N2 [url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/flutrackers-high-pathogenic-h5n1-h1n08-h5n8-h5n6-h5n3-tracking-outbreaks-spread/745429-flutrackers-global-cumulative-h9n2-partial-case-list-1998-current?view=stream[/url][/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/flutrackers-high-pathogenic-h5n1-h1n08-h5n8-h5n6-h5n3-tracking-outbreaks-spread/745429-flutrackers-global-cumulative-h9n2-partial-case-list-1998-current?view=stream[/url] 

Brazil lots of coinfections of CoViD with H3N2 [url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/south-america/seasonal-flu-2009-2013-1-2-including-h1n1-pandemic-2009-aa/brazil/934118-brazil-health-investigates-deaths-from-hemorrhage-of-patients-with-flu-syndrome-in-camet%C3%A1[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/south-america/seasonal-flu-2009-2013-1-2-including-h1n1-pandemic-2009-aa/brazil/934118-brazil-health-investigates-deaths-from-hemorrhage-of-patients-with-flu-syndrome-in-camet%C3%A1 

See also [url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/south-america/seasonal-flu-2009-2013-1-2-including-h1n1-pandemic-2009-aa/brazil/931516-brazil-2021-seasonal-flu[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/south-america/seasonal-flu-2009-2013-1-2-including-h1n1-pandemic-2009-aa/brazil/931516-brazil-2021-seasonal-flu 

[url]https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---6-january-2022[/url] or https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---6-january-2022 ....

I was hoping to find more global data on both Avian and Seasonal Flu....

[url]https://health.liveuamap.com/[/url] or https://health.liveuamap.com/ may be of help...

DJ-Schools restarting may bring more spread of viral diseases-most in often unprotected unvaccinated children (often in poor ventilated schools allready in problems because of high energy costs). But also teachers, (grand)parents, familymembers very likely will see more diseases.

By now it is getting impossible to keep up with numbers of H5N1 most in birds, limited in other animals...

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza to go back to basic...[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus on most seasonal more risky flu-types...

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_B_virus[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_B_virus  and  [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_C_virus[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_C_virus (not a lot) also in humans...Influenza-D most in cattle and pigs...at least so far...

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virusAfrican swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large, double-stranded DNA virus in the Asfarviridae family.[1] It is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF). The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic pigs; some isolates can cause death of animals as quickly as a week after infection. It persistently infects its natural hosts, warthogsbushpigs, and soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros, which likely act as a vector, with no disease signs.[2] It does not cause disease in humans.[3][4] ASFV is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and exists in the wild through a cycle of infection between ticks and wild pigs, bushpigs, and warthogs. The disease was first described after European settlers brought pigs into areas endemic with ASFV, and as such, is an example of an emerging infectious disease.

DJ "Swine Flu" is NOT an rna- but dna-virus...(still I-DJ-see a link-in-time between [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus#2018-2020_African_swine_fever_panzootic[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_swine_fever_virus#2018-2020_African_swine_fever_panzootic  and the start of CoViD-19....did pigs catch CoViD from bats but die/got killed before testing could detect the risks ? )

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Health[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Health ; One Health is "the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment", as defined by the One Health Initiative Task Force (OHITF).[1] is needed if we want to prevent pandemics..

[url]https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/scientist-and-experts-are-warning-the-probability-of-a-new-bird-flu-strain-transmissible-to-humans-likely-to-emerge-in-2022-due-to-current-kinetics[/url] or https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/scientist-and-experts-are-warning-the-probability-of-a-new-bird-flu-strain-transmissible-to-humans-likely-to-emerge-in-2022-due-to-current-kinetics would like to learn more on those mutations...

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dutch Josh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 13 2022 at 6:06am

[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/internet-communication/avian-flu-diary/935151-netherlands-wbvr-diagnoses-avian-h5n1-in-another-fox[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/internet-communication/avian-flu-diary/935151-netherlands-wbvr-diagnoses-avian-h5n1-in-another-fox ;

Up until the fall of 2016, the HPAI H5N8 virus that emerged in early 2014 in South Korea, and made its way to North America a year later, was primarily a threat only to poultry.

-

But in early January of 2017 we learned H5N8 had reassorted - likely over the previous summer somewhere in Russia or Mongolia - producing new, more virulent virus (see EID Journal: Reassorted HPAI H5N8 Clade 2.3.4.4. - Germany 2016).


As HPAI H5 spread across Europe over the fall of 2016, we were also starting to see spin offs of new subtypes (see HPAI H5N5 Detected In German Poultry Operation), along with reports of Unusual Mortality Among Wild Birds.

Since then, we've seen reassortments of this original H5N8 virus return as H5N6, and this year, H5N1. All belong to a European clade 2.3.4.4b - which is a different lineage than the more dangerous Asian HPAI H5 subtypes. But over time we have seen evidence that this European clade is slowly acquiring mammalian adaptations.

While once just fodder for speculation (see 2017's J. Virulence Editorial: HPAI H5N8 - Should We Be Worried?), over the past year we've seen confirmation on at least 3 separate occasions (Russia, Nigeria & UK) that this H5Nx virus can jump species and infect humans, prompting the CDC to Add Zoonotic Avian A/H5N8 To Their IRAT List.

We've also seen a number of other reports indicating that other land and aquatic mammals are susceptible to infection from this H5 clade 2.3.4.4b virus.

All of this led the ECDC/EFSA to Raise The Zoonotic Risk Potential Of Avian H5Nx in late December, citing both the Russian and Nigerian human infections, and the recent spate of detections among mammalian species.


(Excerpt)

This risk to the general public of human transmission due to avian influenza A(H5N8) is therefore assessed as low and to occupationally exposed people low to moderate. Avian influenza virus transmission to humans is a rare event and the risk is considered very low for viruses adapted to avian species. However, the detection of viruses carrying markers for mammal adaptation, and correlated with increased replication and virulence in mammals, is of concern.

The additional reports of transmission events to mammals, e.g. seals and foxes in several EU countries as well as seroepidemiological evidence of transmission to wild boar and domestic pigs, could indicate evolutionary processes including mammal adaptation with the possibility to acquire the ability to transmit to humans.

All of which brings us to a new report from Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) in the Netherlands, that describes the finding of another wild fox infected with the H5N1 virus, that was exhibiting neurological symptoms.


Bird flu (H5N1) detected in a sick fox
Published on January 7, 2022
Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) has diagnosed bird flu in a fox from Dorst in the province of Brabant. The virus has been classified as highly pathogenic bird flu type H5N1. The fox was found in early December and showed neurological signs such as walking in circles, falling over and was probably blind. The fox was taken in by an animal shelter, and was euthanized there because of the serious symptoms.

WBVR subsequently conducted further research into the genetic makeup of the fox virus. The virus is very similar to the viruses found in infected wild birds in the Netherlands. It is therefore plausible that the fox became infected by eating wild birds infected with bird flu. The virus found in the fox is not related to the zoonotic highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strains that have also infected humans in Asia.

Mammals with bird flu

Infection of foxes with H5N1 virus was previously demonstrated in two fox pups found in Groningen in May 2021. Some H5N1-infected foxes, seals and an otter have also been found elsewhere in Europe. The genetic analysis of the fox virus has also shown that this virus contains a marker important for virus infection of mammals. Similar genetic markers were also found in some viruses from infected mammals in other countries. However, more genetic adjustments are needed before a bird flu virus can spread between humans.

Risk for people is small

The chance that people will become infected with bird flu is very small, and the risk to public health is still estimated by RIVM as low. It is important to be aware of foxes and other mammals with neurological signs that may be caused by bird flu. It is recommended to avoid contact with sick and dead birds or other animals. Dead birds and other wild animals can be reported to the NVWA or to the Dutch Wildlife Health Center (DWHC).

We've previously seen neurological manifestations accompanying infection with some of the more pathogenic H5 subtypes in Asia, like clade 2.3.21.c (see Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Struck Migratory Birds in China in 2015), where the authors wrote:


This suggests that the novel Sanmenxia Clade 2.3.2.1c-like H5N1 viruses possesses tropism for the nervous system in several mammal species, and could pose a significant threat to humans if these viruses develop the ability to bind human-type receptors more effectively.

But these Asian clade 2.3.2.1c-like H5N1 viruses are genetically different from the European H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4b viruses, making these recent reports of neurological presentations unexpected, and worth our attention.


While clade 2.3.4.4b H5Nx viruses currently pose a very low threat to humans, they appear to be slowly getting their act together, prompting a number of cautionary reports over the past 12 months, including:

Last May, in Science: Emerging H5N8 Avian Influenza Viruseswe looked at a review by two well-respected Chinese scientists (Weifeng Shi and George F. Gao) on the evolution, and growing zoonotic threat, of avian H5N8, stating:

  • the ". . . global spread of AIVs, particularly the H5N8 subtype, has become a major concern to poultry farming and wildlife security but, critically, also to global public health."
  • And due to the ". . . long-distance migration of wild birds, the innate capacity for reassortment of AIVs, the increased human-type receptor binding capability, and the constant antigenic variation of HPAIVs the authors warned that it was imperative that " . . . the global spread and potential risk of H5N8 AIVs to poultry farming, avian wildlife, and global public health are not ignored."

And in June, in V. Evolution: Genomic Evolution, Transmission Dynamics, and Pathogenicity of Avian H5N8 Viruses Emerging in China, 2020, we saw Chinese researchers describe the rapid rise in 2020 of an antigenically distinct H5N8 virus that is lethal to chickens and mice, that is similar to the Russian Zoonotic strain, and has shown signs of mammalian adaptation.


So we treat these reports seriously, since we can't know when - or in what direction - the next reassortment event or series of mutations will take this virus subtype.

Meanwhile, the current HPAI H5 epizootic in Europe continues unabated (see Updated Outbreak Assessment #9 Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the UK and Europe 10 January 2022)

https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2022/...vian-h5n1.html


DJ The UK H5N1 human case is part of a bigger problem.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dutch Josh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 15 2022 at 7:24am

[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/welcome-to-the-scientific-library/h7n9-research-studies-papers-academia/935392-j-virol-co-infection-of-chickens-with-h9n2-and-h7n9-avian-influenza-viruses-leads-to-emergence-of-reassortant-h9n9-virus-with-increased-fitness-for-poultry-and-a-zoonotic-potential[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/welcome-to-the-scientific-library/h7n9-research-studies-papers-academia/935392-j-virol-co-infection-of-chickens-with-h9n2-and-h7n9-avian-influenza-viruses-leads-to-emergence-of-reassortant-h9n9-virus-with-increased-fitness-for-poultry-and-a-zoonotic-potential ; Importance We evaluated the consequences of reassortment between the H7N9 and the contemporary H9N2 viruses of G1 lineage that are enzootic in poultry across the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East. 

Co-infection of chickens with these viruses resulted in emergence of novel reassortant H9N9 viruses with genes derived from both H9N2 and H7N9 viruses. 

The '6+2' reassortant H9N9 (having NP and NA from H7N9) virus was shed from contact chickens in a significantly higher proportion compared to most of the reassortant viruses, showed significantly increased replication fitness in human A549 cells, receptor binding towards human (α2,6) and avian (α2,3) sialic acid receptor analogues and the potential to transmit via contact among ferrets. 

This study demonstrated the ability of viruses that already exist in nature to exchange genetic material, highlighting the potential emergence of viruses from these subtypes with zoonotic potential.

DJ "A Flu is born" experiment....link [url]https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01856-21[/url] or https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01856-21

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein
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