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Bird Flu Secrecy May Lift
Has the H5N1 bird flu developed a mutation that makes it more easily transmitted between humans? Stay tuned — we may finally have an answer later this week.
A few weeks ago, the British scientific journal Nature suggested that the Indonesian government was making it difficult for the global community to learn what has killed most members of a single family in the Kubu Simbelang village of North Sumatra.
In almost every case, bird flu has been caught directly from birds. But it appeared that in the case of this one family, the members might have caught it from each other.
An unidentified source told Nature that a mutation to H5N1 has appeared which could make the virus better able to survive in the cooler nasal passages, possibly enabling its spread from person to person. If that’s the variant that had sickened the Indonesian family, it would be a key indicator that H5N1 was making the shift from outbreak to pandemic in humans.
Neither Indonesia nor the World Health Organization would confirm whether that mutation was involved in the family cluster.
In the mean time, WHO scientists have quarantined those in contact with the unfortunate family, and put them on the antiviral drug Tamiflu. They found evidence that sickened birds had been slaughtered by a woman in one of the households. No one else in contact with that group has fallen ill since the last person died on May 22. None of the hospital care givers in contact with them became ill with the strain. All signs that the family members might have been uniquely susceptible to the disease — genetically unlucky.
Meanwhile, though, the bird flu body count in Indonesia rises. A 13-year-old boy from South Jakarta became ill June 9 after helping slaughter chickens. Five days later he died. It brings the number of dead in Indonesia to 39 out of 51 confirmed cases. Globally, there have been 228 confirmed cases and 130 deaths.
In its latest update, issued on Tuesday, June 20, The World Health Organization said the Indonesian government was now working more closely with the international community, and had asked for a meeting with global bird flu experts. That meeting will begin Wednesday, June 21, and continue through June 23. At the end of that consultation, key information about the family cluster will be shared with the rest of us.
The health organization said its scientists have isolated viruses from seven members of the family. They have sequenced the genetic material from those viruses, and will present the information to the Indonesian officials. Then, and only then, it will release the information to the rest of us.
Surely there must be valid geopolitical reasons for keeping this information close to the vest. What do you think of the WHO’s kid-glove treatment of the situation? Smart tactics, or dangerous delays?
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