Bird Flu Studies to Stay Private for Now

February 21st, 2012

CBS News

By Monica DyBuncio

Bird flu research has sparked controversy in recent months, as experts debated whether to publish two studies that would provide anyone with the information to experiment with the mutant virus, H5N1. The biggest risk is that the virus could, if put in the wrong hands, turn into a human pandemic.

The World Health Organization said Friday that it will extend a moratorium on the research and delay publication of studies so far. The WHO previously called for a 60-day moratorium on research in January, noting the potential negative consequences of the research despite its importance, HealthPop reported.

“Given the high death rate associated with this virus – 60 percent of all humans who have been infected have died – all participants at the meeting emphasized the high level of concern with this flu virus in the scientific community and the need to understand it better with additional research,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of health security and environment for the World Health Organization, said in a written statement.

The WHO called a meeting Feb. 17-18 to settle the issue. Experts at the meeting included lead researchers of the two studies, scientific journals interested in publishing the research, bioethicists, research funders and providers of the virus. The group came to a consensus to delay publication

“There is a preference from a public health perspective for full disclosure of the information in these two studies. However there are significant public concern surrounding this research that should first be addressed,” Fukuda said.

Click here for the full report.

No Way of Stopping Leak of Deadly New Flu, Says Terror Chief

February 9th, 2012

The Independent

By: Steve Connor

The bioterrorism expert responsible for censoring scientific research which could lead to the creation of a devastating pandemic has admitted the information “is going to get out” eventually.

Professor Paul Keim, chairman of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, controversially recommended that researchers be stopped from publishing the precise mutations needed to transform the H5N1 strain of birdflu virus into a human-transmissible version.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, he argued it had been necessary to limit the release of the scientific details because of fears that terrorists may use the information to create their own H5N1 virus that could be spread easily between people.

Professor Keim said that it was necessary to slow down the release of scientific information because it was clear that the world is not yet prepared for a strain of highly lethal H5N1 influenza that can be transmitted by coughs and sneezes.

“We recognised that, in the long term certainly, the information is going to get out, and maybe even in the mid term. But if we can restrict it in the short term and motivate governments to start getting busy in terms of building up the flu-defence infrastructure, then we’ve succeeded at a certain level,” he said.

“If we can slow down the release of the specific information that would enable somebody to reconstruct this virus and do something nefarious, even for a while, then that was a good thing.”

By withholding key details of the mutations needed to make an airborne strain of H5N1, this would give time for governments to prepare for and prevent a possible pandemic, he added.

“The infrastructure to stop a pandemic in this area is not there. We just don’t have the capabilities. The very first time we knew that the swine flu virus [coming out of Mexico] was there, it was already in 18 countries. I’m not confident at all that we have the surveillance capability to spot an emerging virus in time to stop it,” he said.

“And even if we did spot it early on, I don’t think we have sufficient vaccines. The vaccines aren’t good enough, and the drugs are not good enough to stop this emerging and being a pandemic.”

Although H5N1 spreads rapidly between birds, it has so far affected only about 600 people worldwide who have had direct contact with infected poultry. However, two teams of researchers have shown independently that it only requires five mutations for H5N1 to become an airborne pathogen for laboratory ferrets, the standard animal model for human influenza.

Professor Keim said that the biosecurity board was asked by the US Government to review the two independent studies because they had already been submitted to the journals Science and Nature. The board had to make a recommendation on whether any or all of the information should be published.

Scientists involved in showing how the H5N1 birdflu virus can be transmitted in the air between ferrets have criticised the biosecurity board’s decision to part-censor their research on the grounds that it would hinder the development of new vaccines and drugs.

Click here for the full report from The Independent

Deadly Hybrid Flu Possible

February 22, 2010

HealthDay News

Research in mice suggests the avian flu virus and the ordinary seasonal flu virus could combine to create a new deadly kind of flu, researchers say.

A single bit of genetic material from the seasonal virus converted the avian flu — officially known as H5N1 — into a very dangerous form, the scientists report in a study published in the Feb. 22-26 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Some hybrids between H5N1 virus and seasonal influenza viruses were more pathogenic than the original H5N1 viruses. That is worrisome,” study senior author Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a news release.

Avian flu, also known as bird flu, has killed 262 people, according to the World Health Organization, but it hasn’t become very infectious between people.

The researchers warn that swine flu — H1N1 — could also play a role in viral combinations.

“With the new pandemic H1N1 virus, people sort of forgot about H5N1 avian influenza. But the reality is that H5N1 avian virus is still out there,” Kawaoka said. “Our data suggests that it is possible there may be reassortment between H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 that can create a more pathogenic H5N1 virus.”

Click here for the full report

Superbugs Getting Stronger and Stronger

February 11, 2010

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

The steady medical advance against viruses and bacteria that many experts were trumpeting in the early days of vaccines and antibiotics seems to have stalled, if not reversed. The ongoing emergence of new and increasingly drug-resistant diseases is now causing many to question whether the war against microbes is one that can ever be won.

“It is a war of attrition,” said David Livermore of the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency. “There have been points where we have been advancing, and points when we have had to beat a retreat. If we were having this conversation 20 years ago, for instance, we would be celebrating the vaccine for bacterial meningitis.”

The news these days contains less of celebration and more of alarm. Even with H1N1 swine flu now appearing less dangerous than originally thought and infection rates of the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) falling in the United Kingdom, widespread antibiotic use and a globalized world have made the processes of pathogen evolution and spread faster than ever before.

The threat from the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu – a mere mutation away from a highly contagious form – has not abated, and other infectious threats thought long vanquished continue to rear their heads. China, for example, is currently battling an outbreak of pneumonic plague caused by Yersina pestis, the same bacterium that wiped out a third of Europe’s population as the Black Plague. Meanwhile, longer lifespans have encouraged the emergence of suberbugs such as Clostridium difficile, which preferentially targets elderly patients who have already been treated with antibiotics.

“Sensible prescribing is part of the answer, but we also need new antibiotics,” Livermore said. “It’s not one of the most attractive areas for pharmaceutical companies as people don’t take them for very long, unlike treatments for heart disease or cancer.”

“We will always be at war with microbes,” said Primrose Freestone of the University of Leicester. “Their genetic promiscuity is impressive.”

Click here for the full report

WHO: H1N1 Might Take a Year to Conquer

December 29, 2009

Reuters

By Stephanie Nebehay

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan also warned that although countries have shored up their defenses against the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, they remain ill-prepared for mass outbreaks of the deadlier bird flu virus.

“It is still premature and too early for us to say we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide. It would be prudent and appropriate … to continue to monitor the evolution of this pandemic for the next six to 12 months,” Chan told a year-end news conference.

“The one thing we need to guard against is a sense of complacency,” she added.

Countries including Britain, Canada and the United States have passed peaks of a second wave of H1N1, but outbreaks are intensifying in India, Egypt and elsewhere, according to Chan.

H1N1 has now spread to more than 200 countries, with nearly 12,000 deaths confirmed in laboratory, but it will probably take two years to establish the true death toll, she said.

Millions of people have been infected with the virus which emerged in April, most recovering without special treatment.

But young people, pregnant women and people with underlying health conditions such as heart or lung disease are more vulnerable and often require intensive care in hospital.

Influenza viruses are notoriously unpredictable and can mutate into more severe forms, according to the WHO chief.

Chan, who admitted she had not received her own H1N1 flu shot yet but would have it soon, said: “I am a bit more relaxed, but I will never let down my guard.”

VACCINES FOR POOR COUNTRIES

Rich countries and drug companies have pledged to donate 190 million doses of H1N1 vaccine for use in some 90 developing countries, she said.

Her United Nations agency plans to start distributing the first doses in Azerbaijan and Mongolia in early January, to be followed by Afghanistan, she added.

On recalls of some H1N1 vaccine — by AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit and Sanofi-Aventis SA — she said they were because they were not as potent as they should be but posed no risk.

“The recalls are not related to safety of vaccines,” she said, saying the issue had been dealt with in an “ethical way.”

Chan, noting the world’s financial crisis and weak health systems in some countries, said: “The fact that the long overdue influenza pandemic is so moderate in its impact is probably the best health news of the decade.”

But Chan, who fought avian flu and SARS while serving as health director in her native Hong Kong, said the world was still not ready to combat a pandemic of the H5N1 bird flu virus, noting it was “more toxic and deadly.”

“No, the world is not ready for a pandemic to be caused by H5N1,” she said.

Click here for the full report.

Thimerosal Free Vaccines Removed From Market

December 17, 2009

InfoWars.com

By Brandon Turbeville

On December 15, 2009 the CDC released a statement announcing the recall of 800,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine from the market. This was a story that should have received widespread coverage in the national media but, instead, largely died out at the local news level. Although some local stations made the recall their top story, many simply reported it as if it were no big deal and mentioned nothing else about it in subsequent broadcasts. Yet you would think that the recall of close to 1 million vaccines would spark the national interest, especially when the vaccines are for a “pandemic” that was initially supposed to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and disrupt the entire society.

If one chooses to believe the hype about H1N1 then he/she should be quite worried about the reasons given for the recall – that it is not potent enough. The fact that the company who manufactures the vaccine is Sanofi-Pasteur is also significant because Sanofi-Pasteur made a similar mistake with the H5N1 vaccine in 2006. At the time, H5N1 was the virus that was supposed to kill us all. It seems that the lack of potency issue is a recurring theme with this particular company demonstrating, at best, a dangerous level of incompetence.

Since true independent science has never been able to find that vaccines are even effective, let alone safe, potency becomes a non-issue to those of us who do not take Big Pharma’s word as truth. However, there are two peculiar questions regarding this recall that need to be asked.

First, although Sanofi-Pasteur and the CDC cite lack of potency as a reason for the recall, they seem to cast doubt upon their own claims. The “potency” of a vaccine is merely measured by the concentration of the antigen (the active ingredient), and the CDC admits in its’ own statement that the potency of the vaccine is only “slightly below the specified range (CDC FAQ).” Yet they go on to say that “The vaccine in these lots is still expected to be effective in stimulating a protective response despite this slight reduction in the concentration of antigen (CDC FAQ).” If the media and government claim of vaccine shortage is true, it would seem illogical to recall such a large number of them if they were still effective.

Second, and perhaps most disturbing, is the fact that the vaccines being removed from the market are the preservative and thimerosal free versions. In article published by Bloomberg, Tom Randall writes, “The recalled shots are preservative-free syringes of a low-dose version made for children ages 6 months through 25 months, [Anne Shuchat, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC] said. There are no remaining preservative-free shots available for children under 2 years old (Randall).” According to Randall, Schuchat goes on to say that thimerosal has proven safe in different studies even though some parents are leery of it.

The idea that thimerosal, aluminum, monosodium glutamate, or any of other preservatives used in these vaccines is safe is absolutely ludicrous. The fact is, thimerosal is 49.6% mercury. The EPA itself declares .1 mcg of mercury to be toxic yet there is, on average, 25 mcg in a single flu shot. The science that Shuchat refers to is the new brand of welfare science that relies on research grants from Big Pharma, vaccine makers, and eugenics foundations. True independent science has shown just the opposite of her claims.

Regardless of the lack of coverage by the mainstream media (something informed individuals should be used to by now), this is information that needs to be distributed. This recall has effectively removed all preservative-free vaccines off the market for children under two. So, for those parents who at least know to ask for thimerosal-free vaccines, the option is no longer on the table. With only the thimerosal vaccine now available, one has to wonder if potency was ever an issue at all or if the recall was merely an attempt to leave the plebs with only one option. That is, if they are uninformed enough to be vaccinated to begin with.

Click here for the full report

Mutated Flu Comes to China

November 30, 2009

Reuters

By Stefanie McIntyre

China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country, a leading Chinese disease expert said.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province, said the presence of both viruses in China meant they could mix and become a monstrous hybrid — a bug packed with strong killing power that can transmit efficiently among people.

“China, as you know, is different from other countries. Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster,” Zhong said in an interview with Reuters Television.

“This is something we need to monitor, the change, the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting of the death rate must be really transparent.”

The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that H5N1 had erupted in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, posing once again a threat to humans.

“First, it places those in direct contact with birds — usually rural folk and farm workers — at risk of catching the often-fatal disease. Second, the virus could undergo a process of “reassortment” with another influenza virus and produce a completely new strain,” it said.

“The most obvious risk is of H5N1 combining with the pandemic … (H1N1) virus, producing a flu virus that is as deadly as the former and as contagious as the latter.”

Zhong told the Chinese media last week that China may have had more H1N1 flu deaths than it has reported, with some local governments possibly concealing suspect cases.

The doctor is known for his candor and work in fighting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, when nationwide panic and international alarm erupted after it emerged that officials hid or underplayed the spreading epidemic.

Cover-ups by local governments in 2003 during the SARS epidemic led to the sackings of several officials. More than 300 people died in that outbreak.

China, the world’s most populous country, has reported around 70,000 cases of H1N1 and 53 death from the virus.

While some regions simply lack the technology to test for H1N1, other areas have been treating deaths as cases of ordinary pneumonia without a question, Zhong said.

“Some local healthcare authorities are reluctant, unwilling to test patients with severe pneumonia because there’s some latent rule which says the more H1N1 deaths, the less effective the control and prevention work in your area,” Zhong said.

Zhong said China’s health minister Chen Zhu rang him up last week and agreed with his views. A notice then appeared on the ministry’s website threatening severe punishment for officials caught concealing deaths from H1N1 swine flu.

WHO reported more than 526,060 laboratory confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide on November 15, with at least 6,770 deaths. However, it has stressed for months now that the figures were only the tip of the iceberg.

It urged countries to place more resources on mitigating the disease rather then on costly prevention measures or testing everyone. All WHO and the U.S. CDC will say is that “millions” have been infected.

Click here for the full report.

China Concerned H1N1 Might Combine with H5N1 Bird Flu

November 30, 2009

Reuters

By  Stefanie McIntyre

China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country, a leading Chinese disease expert said.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province, said the presence of both viruses in China meant they could mix and become a monstrous hybrid — a bug packed with strong killing power that can transmit efficiently among people.

“China, as you know, is different from other countries. Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster,” Zhong said in an interview with Reuters Television.

“This is something we need to monitor, the change, the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting of the death rate must be really transparent.”

The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that H5N1 had erupted in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, posing once again a threat to humans.

“First, it places those in direct contact with birds — usually rural folk and farm workers — at risk of catching the often-fatal disease. Second, the virus could undergo a process of “reassortment” with another influenza virus and produce a completely new strain,” it said.

“The most obvious risk is of H5N1 combining with the pandemic … (H1N1) virus, producing a flu virus that is as deadly as the former and as contagious as the latter.”

Zhong told the Chinese media last week that China may have had more H1N1 flu deaths than it has reported, with some local governments possibly concealing suspect cases.

The doctor is known for his candor and work in fighting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, when nationwide panic and international alarm erupted after it emerged that officials hid or underplayed the spreading epidemic.

Cover-ups by local governments in 2003 during the SARS epidemic led to the sackings of several officials. More than 300 people died in that outbreak.

China, the world’s most populous country, has reported around 70,000 cases of H1N1 and 53 death from the virus.

While some regions simply lack the technology to test for H1N1, other areas have been treating deaths as cases of ordinary pneumonia without a question, Zhong said.

“Some local healthcare authorities are reluctant, unwilling to test patients with severe pneumonia because there’s some latent rule which says the more H1N1 deaths, the less effective the control and prevention work in your area,” Zhong said.

Zhong said China’s health minister Chen Zhu rang him up last week and agreed with his views. A notice then appeared on the ministry’s website threatening severe punishment for officials caught concealing deaths from H1N1 swine flu.

WHO reported more than 526,060 laboratory confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide on November 15, with at least 6,770 deaths. However, it has stressed for months now that the figures were only the tip of the iceberg.

Click here for the full report

Expert Warns of Pandemic Flu Mutation

November 25, 2009

Reuters

By Stefanie McIntyre

China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country, a leading Chinese disease expert said.

Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province, said the presence of both viruses in China meant they could mix and become a monstrous hybrid — a bug packed with strong killing power that can transmit efficiently among people.

“China, as you know, is different from other countries. Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster,” Zhong said in an interview with Reuters Television.

“This is something we need to monitor, the change, the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting of the death rate must be really transparent.”

The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that H5N1 had erupted in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, posing once again a threat to humans.

“First, it places those in direct contact with birds — usually rural folk and farm workers — at risk of catching the often-fatal disease. Second, the virus could undergo a process of “reassortment” with another influenza virus and produce a completely new strain,” it said.

“The most obvious risk is of H5N1 combining with the pandemic … (H1N1) virus, producing a flu virus that is as deadly as the former and as contagious as the latter.”

Zhong told the Chinese media last week that China may have had more H1N1 flu deaths than it has reported, with some local governments possibly concealing suspect cases.

The doctor is known for his candor and work in fighting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, when nationwide panic and international alarm erupted after it emerged that officials hid or underplayed the spreading epidemic.

Cover-ups by local governments in 2003 during the SARS epidemic led to the sackings of several officials. More than 300 people died in that outbreak.

Click here for full report

Vaccines Tested on Homeless

November 20, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

Three doctors and six nurses from the town of Grudziadz, Poland, are being investigated on charges that they recruited 350 homeless people into a clinical trial of a vaccine for the H5N1 flu virus without informing them what the study was really about.

Twenty-one people died during the course of the study, significantly higher than the average influenza death rate, which would have led to eight deaths.

“It is in the interests of all doctors that those who are responsible for this are punished,” said Poland’s health minister, Ewa Kopacz. She said that while no direct link has been proven between the experimental vaccine and the deaths, she does not believe that any of the health care workers implicated should be allowed to practice medicine further.

Prosecutors claim that the participants – from a homeless shelter – were recruited into the study by being offered £1-£2 ($1.65-$3.00) to undergo a test of a new vaccine for standard, seasonal influenza. Instead, however, the study was meant to test a vaccine of the far more lethal H5N1 virus, which has a death rate of more than 50 percent.

Novartis Vaccines, the pharmaceutical company involved in the trial, claims that it was deceived about the consent procedures that the researchers intended to use.

The scandal is only the latest to hit Poland’s health care sector. In 2002, several ambulance medics were convicted of murdering patients in order to gain kickbacks from funeral homes.

Poland is a global center for health care research, due to a well-trained medical staff, large population and good infrastructure. It also tends to be easy to find patients willing to undergo experimental therapies, as the public health care system tends to pay only for the cheapest, most well-proven generic treatments.

Monika Stefanczyk, a senior pharmaceutical market analyst at the consulting firm PMR, predicted that unless some of these factors change, Poland’s medical research industry will remain largely unaffected by the scandal.

Click here for the full report

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