Feb 11, 2013
H5N1 strikes more poultry farms in Nepal
Livestock officials in Nepal today confirmed an H5N1 avian flu outbreak at a poultry farm in Manmaiju village in the Kathmandu valley, according to a Himalayan Times report. About 6,060 chickens as well as the farm's poultry feed were destroyed to curb the spread of the virus. Surveillance activities are under way to determine the source of the outbreaks, which have now hit nine farms in the Kathmandu valley, the Times reported. Over the past few days H5N1 findings have prompted culling at farms in two other villages in the area, Nayapati and Jitpurphedi.
Feb 11 Himalayan Times story
Danish study: H1N1 in 2010-11 more severe than during pandemic
Pandemic 2009 H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza in northern Denmark was more severe, as determined by admission to intensive care units (ICUs) and 30-day mortality, in the flu season immediately following the pandemic, says a Danish study in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. The authors reviewed the charts of all patients hospitalized with confirmed pH1N1 from a mixed urban and rural community of 579,000 people in northern Denmark from July 2009 through February 2011. The total number hospitalized was 273. During the first pandemic wave, July through August 2009, three patients were admitted, none of whom needed care in the ICU. The second wave, October 2009 through January 2010, saw 158 patients hospitalized, with 9 (5.7%) admitted to the ICU. From December 2010 through February 2011, in contrast, 25 (22%) of the 112 hospitalized patients needed ICU care. The incidence of pH1N1-related hospitalization per 100,000 population was 111 for children 14 years old and younger, 39 for persons 15 through 64 years of age, and 17 for those 65 and older. Overall, 14 patients (5%) died within 30 days of diagnosis, and 7 more (2.6%) died within a year. The incidence of hospitalization and clinical severity of disease in younger adults showed no decline from the second pandemic wave to the 2010-11 flu season.
Feb 9 Influenza Other Respi Viruses abstract
