- "The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus
has been found in backyard poultry and at a commercial farm in Lagos, Africa's
largest city which is home to about 13 million people, health officials
said on Thursday. The latest discovery of the virus hundreds of miles
from Nigeria's first infection indicates the disease is defeating measures
to contain it and raises the prospect of much wider human contact with
infected birds."
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- The above confirmation of H5N1 bird
flu in Lagos, Nigeria is not a surprise. Media reports of two months
ago suggested H5N1 had already migrated into Lagos. Delays in reporting
H5N1 in adjacent Burkina Faso have also been noted. Although surveillance
in these African countries is lagging media reports, the lack of confirmation
in most African countries is cause for additional concern. The number
of reported and confirmed human cases in Egypt continues to rise, suggesting
human cases linked to the Qinghai strain in other African countries are
likely.
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- Sequence analysis of H5N1 migrating
into western Europe via the East Atlantic flyway will likely confirm additional
evolution of H5N1 in Africa, Lagos is well into the East Atlantic flyway,
which will soon be producing additional H5N1 infections in western Europe
and northeastern Canada.
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- The poor surveillance in Africa is cause
for concern.
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- © 2006 Recombinomics. All
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