ASSOCIATED PRESS - EU health agency chief says bird flu poses 'minimal' risk to public

By TOMMY GRANDELL
Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM , Sweden (AP) _ Bird Flu poses a "minimal" risk to Europe 's general public, the European Union's new agency for disease prevention said Monday, seeking to calm fears on the continent.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control will present guidelines Friday on how workers who deal with infected animals can protect themselves against infection, agency chief Zsuzsanna Jakab said.

But she urged calm about bird flu, which is difficult for humans to contract and rarely transmitted between people.

"The risk to human health, to public health, at this stage is minimal," Jakab said from Stockholm , Sweden , the EU agency's new headquarters.

"There is a little more risk for those who have directly worked with the infected animals, so our goal must be to further minimize that risk," she said.

The H5N1 bird flu strain was reported last week in Romania and Turkey . The same strain has killed more than 60 people in Asia in two years, most of them poultry workers who were infected directly by birds.

The EU disease prevention agency _ which began operating from its new headquarters on Oct. 1 _ will send a team of experts soon to Romania to advise authorities on health measures, Jakab said. "Should there be a request also from Turkey , we will handle it in the same way."

Though the risk of bird flu to humans is small, experts are worried the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form more easily transmitted between people and spark a pandemic.

Jakab said it was important that countries continue their preparedness for a pandemic of different viruses, not just bird flu.

"Looking at the history of mankind, there have been pandemics on an average every 25 years this century," she said. So "the only thing we know is that there is going to be a pandemic ... but we do not know from which virus" or when it might strike.

The ECDC focuses on communicable disease and outbreaks of diseases of unknown origin, it will also help in monitoring and preparedness planning against bioterrorist attacks, according to the EU Commission.

Jakab , formerly the top official at Hungary 's Health Ministry, said the ECDC had outlined its working priorities. "The first is the influenza; the second one is HIV."

The ECDC's new headquarters at Stockholm 's Karolinska institute is becoming operational in stages. The first 60 work stations were opened Oct. 1. By January 2009 it will employ 140 people, and will coordinate disease response and prevention measures with the U.S. Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

17 Oct 2005

REUTERS - Roche to donate Tamiflu to Romania,sell to Turkey

(Updates with Roche statement, changes slug)

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG <ROG.VX> is donating a small quantity of its anti-influenza drug Tamiflu to Romania and will sell a larger stockpile of the drug to Turkey, the Swiss pharmaceuticals company said on Monday.

Roche would sell 20,000 packs of the drug to the Turkish government and would donate 2,400 packs to Romania , a Roche spokesman said.

The news comes as governments in short supply of drugs to combat avian influenza stock up ahead of a possible epidemic after laboratory tests confirmed that the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus has been found in birds from Turkey and Romania .

Roche, which has said it is increasing production of Tamiflu as quickly as possible, has already said it is giving three million packs to the World Health Organization.

Tamiflu is the most effective anti-viral drug available for avian flu, and governments are rushing to build up stocks amid fears that a virus that has claimed more than 60 lives in Asia since 2003 could mutate into a more deadly form for humans.

Roche said on Wednesday it would outsource some stages of production as it comes under pressure to boost supplies, but added it would not relinquish its patents.

"Roche and its partners fully intend to remain the only manufacturer of Tamiflu and are best qualified to scale up production," spokesman Daniel Piller said on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Zurich )
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17736592.htm

Romania Takes Steps to Prevent Bird Flu

Romania Officials Kill Thousands of Domestic Fowl to Stop Spread of Deadly Strain of Bird Flu

By ALEXANDRU ALEXE
The Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania - Authorities killed thousands of domestic fowl in eastern Romania on Sunday, hoping to prevent the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu that has decimated flocks and killed dozens of people in Asia.

Officials said they were also awaiting test results from a British laboratory on samples from birds found dead in Maliuc, a village about 20 miles from Ceamurlia de Jos in the Danube River delta, where the H5N1 virus was first detected in Romania.

Authorities around the world fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that can be passed among people, leading to a flu pandemic that some say could potentially kill millions. So far, most of the 60 human deaths involving H5N1 have been linked to victims' contact with birds.

Experts say migrating birds have spread the disease since it appeared in Southeast Asia two years ago. The strain has already appeared in Turkey, and the European Union has banned all poultry imports from Turkey and Romania.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday the bloc will not hesitate to propose "drastic measures" to fight the spread of bird flu if current safeguards prove insufficient. Italy said that as of Monday all poultry for sale will have labels identifying its country of origin.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, on a tour of Southeast Asia to discuss the disease, said it would be daunting to identify and contain an outbreak if the virus mutated to a form easily spread among people. It could skip across borders and oceans, killing millions and crippling entire nations.

"Can we create a network of surveillance sufficient enough to find the spark when it happens, to get there fast enough?" he said before leaving Vietnam for Indonesia, where he planned to meet with officials Monday. "The chances of that happening are not good."

Turkish authorities said Sunday that the H5N1 outbreak in the western village of Kiziksa had been contained, while initial lab tests conducted after about 1,000 chickens died in eastern Turkey showed no signs of bird flu. Authorities were on alert across Turkey, however, warning that migratory birds could still spread the disease.

About 10,000 birds have been destroyed in that country.

Romanian officials said all domestic birds in Ceamurlia de Jos were killed and the village was being disinfected, but the area would remain under quarantine for 21 days before it could be declared free of the virus. Authorities said they expected to finish culling birds in Maliuc on Sunday.

Officials in protective suits sprayed disinfectant on people's yards and inside homes in both villages, including kitchens and other areas that might have come into contact with infected birds.

Both Ceamurlia de Jos and Maliuc are in the quarantined eastern province of Dobrogea, which contains a large nature reserve where millions of migratory birds have been arriving from Russia on their way to Africa.

All cars, trucks and trains traveling between Dobrogea and the rest of Romania are being disinfected and authorities are monitoring domestic birds in neighboring areas, Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said.

The two villages were under even stricter regulations, with police restricting access. Authorities have also banned farmers in surrounding areas from leaving birds and animals outside, for fear they could come in contact with migratory birds.

Flutur said anyone not keeping domestic birds confined could face fines. He said he flew over the region by helicopter and saw that some residents were not complying with the order.

About three-fourths of Romania's estimated 100 million birds live on small farms, which makes it more difficult to fight bird flu, he said. Flutur said, however, that tests showed the virus had not spread.

Although H5N1 is highly contagious among birds, it is difficult for humans to contract. Still, stamping out the flu outbreaks in poultry swiftly is important for human health because the further the virus is allowed to spread, the more opportunities it has to mutate, sparking a human flu pandemic.

In 1918, an influenza pandemic believed to have originated in birds killed more than 40 million people around the world. Subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968 had lower death rates but caused disruptions.

Associated Press writer Olimpiu Gheorghiu in Ceamurlia de Jos, Romania, and Benjamin Harvey in Kiziksa, Turkey, contributed to this report.