Bird flu research results

British researchers have used x-ray techology to identify a key enzyme on the surface of the neuraminidase spike of the bird flu H5N1 virus.

This is critical because the drug Tamiflu was designed to work against other types of influenza viruses, NOT this H5N1. Tamiflu has been glorified as the key weapon against avian flu only because the medical establishment has no other weapons.

The researchers found that H5N1 neuraminidase has a cavity next to the site of the enzyme. The cavity closes on the key proteins in the walls of the cell when the newly replicated H5N1 viruses are breaking loose from an infected cell to go infect more cells.

Now that doesn't immediately give me any great ideas, but I'm not a bio-chemical researchers. Apparently people who are can use this information to help design drugs targeted more specifically against H5N1. They can find chemicals that will fill this cavity, inhibiting the H5N1 influenza virus from breaking loose of an infected cells.

This contains the infection in only a few cells so you don't get sick.

Bad news is -- drugs based on this are five years away.

So you still need to boost your own immune system right now. You can't depend on Tamiflu and bird flu is not going to wait for this new drug to be on the market before causing a pandemic.

British researchers identify key neuraminidase enzyme





Bird Flu Research
Bird Flu Research

Good news about Tamiflu and bird flu

The H5N1 bird flu virus is becoming more complex -- and this makes it more difficult to detect by laboratory tests.

Two recent cases in Thailand initially tested negative for avian flu in laboratories, but later were confirmed to be H5N1 infections.

The drug oseltamivir (generic name for Tamiflu) keeps the virus from replicating, and therefore it's not excreted into the portion of the respiratory tract where samples are taken from. The virus is deep in the respiratory tract.

I'm surprised this is not seen as better news than it is. Apparently Tamiflu is actually working. I still would prefer to see people boost their immune systems in healthier ways, but Tamiflu is better than dying from bird flu.

And if the virus is kept deep in the respiratory systems of the victims, that means it's that much harder for it to spread to other people.

Tamiflu causes changes in bird flu virus



What is Bird Flu

Tamiflu and Bird Flu
Tamiflu and Bird Flu

latest bird flu case in Indonesia

A six year girl from Bekasi, a eastern suburb of Jakarta, is the latest bird flu case in Indonesia.

Fortunately, she's still alive and hopefully will stay that way. But she makes the 60th avian flu case in Indonesia -- and 46 so far have proven fatal.

The good news in this article is that the Indonesian government is gearing up for an educational campaign to begin September 1. Let's hope they manage to convince many more of their citizens that chicken flu is a real danger.

latest bird flu case in Indonesia



Indonesian Bird Flu
Indonesian Bird Flu

Bird flu frankenstein experiment by CDC

Here's a fascinating story on bird flu genetic changes.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) actually tried to produce a contagious form of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in a laboratory.

They used the 1997 Hong Kong strain of H5N1 and set up an environment where it could recombine with genetic elements of an ordinary seasonal flu (H3N2). They then exposed ferrets to the resulting virus.

It turns out that the recombined strain of the virus proved no more contagious by aerosol between the ferrets than did the original H5N1.

(Ferrets get ordinary influenza very easily, just as we do, so they are a good experimental substitute for people.)

And yet the new virus was not as lethal as the original H5N1.

Of course, results in nature may not be so wonderful.

It could be that in real life H5N1 could still recombine with genetic elements from ordinary flu to become contagious and still lethal.

Or, as the article points out, the H1N1 strain that caused the 1918 flu arrived at its highly lethal state through a series of small mutatations, not genetic reassortment. (Although reassortment is how the 1957 and 1968 flu pandemic occurred).

Also, the H5N1 strain used was pretty old -- from 1997. New strains are already genetically different. Why don't they use the strain found in the Indonesian family Karo cluster in May 2006?

And of course, the strain of ordinary flu used is just one of many. It's possible that H5N1 could recombine more easily with other strains.

The CDC is going to run additional such experiments.

bird flu experiment

scientific paper itself

How Do You Protect Yourself From Bird Flu

Bird Flu Experiment
Bird Flu Experiment

Bird flu found in Laos

I know Laos seems very remote to most of you, but my ex-wife is a refugee from Laos (it was part of the Indochinese war too along with Vietnam, but we never sent direct combat troops there, and it's still a communist regime), but it points up part of the problem of fighting bird flu.

Laos was extremely poor before the communists took over, and hasn't been developed much since then. So most people live in remote rural areas. Some of the rural areas are extremely remote. Many of the people are actually hill tribes who practice slash and burn agriculture in the mountains.

Or used to -- not sure of the communist government still allows that. But anyway, they don't have the resources to monitor chickens and ducks for bird flu. Or people either for that matter.

It's possible that people have caught it, but no cases have been reported.

And it's also possible that the really remote areas are so separated from the rest of the world that they haven't been exposed to avian flu yet. (But that isolation makes them all the more open to H5N1 from migratory birds.)

bird flu found again in Laos



Bird Flu in Laos
Bird Flu in Laos