North Korea Contains Bird Flu Outbreak, U.N. Says

[NNN0LHI]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=700278

Apr 25, 2005 — ROME (Reuters) - North Korea has contained an outbreak of bird flu and the virus was not directly related to a deadly strain which can jump from birds to humans, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Monday.

The FAO said the bird flu outbreak in reclusive North Korea was caused by an H7 strain of the virus which causes severe disease in chickens but is not directly related to the H5N1 strain circulating in other parts of Asia.

That strain of birdflu has killed 52 people in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand and has sparked fears of a global pandemic.

[smirkymonkey]

1. What's with Asian countries and bird flu?

Why doesn't it crop up in other countries?

[NNN0LHI]

2. It does - Bird Flu Infects Delaware Chickens - February 9, 2004

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/09/health/main598846.shtml

(AP) Officials in Delaware ordered Friday the destruction of some 12,000 chickens after confirming that the flock was infected by bird flu. The birds have a milder form of the virus that has devastated poultry stocks in Asia.

Still, South Korea's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said in a statement that it will indefinitely halt customs inspections of U.S. poultry “as a precautionary measure.” Last year, South Korea imported 40,107 tons of chicken meat and 87 tons of duck meat from the United States.

Singapore also stopped U.S. poultry imports, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said in a statement. The city-state imported 19,300 tons of frozen chicken meat worth about $19.5 million from the United States last year.

Health officials have said the bird flu is contracted through direct contact with infected birds, but experts have said it's possible the virus jumped to humans through a mammal, like pigs, which have been implicated in past human flu outbreaks.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Yes, but did it ever spread to humans in this country?

The article didn't mention any human cases of bird flu from the Delaware chickens.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Not that I am aware of

Although 36,000 Americans have died from the normal flu and complications every year in the US for the past ten years.

Don

[smirkymonkey]

5. Funny how that doesn't make the news!

:eyes: