Bird flu kills another Indonesian boy
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:46:42 GMTBy ALI KOTARUMALOS, Associated Press Reporter
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 3-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, a health official said Saturday, announcing the country's second death from the illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the southern part of the capital, Jakarta, radio El-Shinta reported. It said he died Friday at a hospital in the city.
Senior Health Ministry official Nyoman Kandun confirmed the report and said laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. It was not clear how he was infected, and Kandun gave no further details.
Earlier Saturday, the Health Ministry said a 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province died of bird flu. The boy, whose name was not disclosed, became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web site.
He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo about 280 miles southeast of Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like he many Indonesians, he goes by one name.
Tests confirmed the boy had H5N1, the ministry's Web site said.
The 16-year-old victim's neighbors had sick chickens on their property and the boy apparently slaughtered some of them before he became ill, the ministry said.
Indonesia has regularly recorded human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.
Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans and trigger a pandemic. So far most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.
More than 225 people have died worldwide from the virus, according to the World Health Organization's Web site.
2 SoCal men charged with abusing cattle
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:14:35 GMTBy GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Two former slaughterhouse workers were charged Friday with abusing ailing cattle in a case based on undercover video footage showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.
Bench warrants for the arrest of Daniel Navarro and Luis Sanchez were issued after they failed to appear for arraignment. Prosecutors did not know if they had retained lawyers.
Authorities said Navarro and Sanchez were seen in the Humane Society video, which showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said.
"The facts of this case are horrendous," Ramos said. "It makes your stomach turn to see what they did to these cows."
Navarro and Sanchez were fired and their supervisor was suspended.
Navarro, 49, was charged with five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanors. Sanchez, 32, was charged with three misdemeanor counts. The misdemeanors allege illegal movement of a nonambulatory animal.
Navarro, of Pomona, would face up to eight years in prison if convicted; Sanchez, of Chino, would face up to three years.
The slaughterhouse in Chino is operated by Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to major hamburger chains. The U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after the video surfaced earlier this year, and lawmakers in Washington called Thursday for an investigation.
Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of E. coli, salmonella contamination or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak.
USDA officials have put a hold on meat products from the Westland/Hallmark facility until Tuesday, though investigations have found no evidence that meat from disabled animals has entered the food supply.
Westland President Steve Mendell said in a letter posted on the company's Web site that he was "shocked and horrified" by the video.
The USDA inspector general is looking into Westland's procedures and could turn over information to the Justice Department for criminal charges, though no charges have been filed against the company or its management.
The district attorney said prosecutors would have to show management had knowledge of the activities and that had not been determined.
The video was shot by a person working undercover for The Humane Society of the United States.
Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of The Humane Society, said he couldn't estimate how many animals were mistreated at the plant. Regardless, the case should be a wake-up call to the government to do better monitoring; a USDA inspector was only at the plant for about two hours each day, he said.
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On the Net:
Humane Society video:
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/CA_2008_investigation
Flu season and vaccine looking worse
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:34:48 GMTBy MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA - The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs. The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs.
Infections from an unexpected strain have been booming, and now are the main agent behind most of the nation's lab-confirmed flu cases, said Dr. Joe Bresee, the CDC's chief of influenza epidemiology.
It's too soon to know whether this will prove to be a bad flu season overall, but it's fair to say a lot of people are suffering at the moment. "Every area of the country is experiencing lots of flu right now," Bresee said.
This week, 44 states reported widespread flu activity, up from 31 last week. The number children who have died from the flu has risen to 10 since the flu season's official Sept. 30 start.
Those numbers aren't considered alarming. Early February is the time of year when flu cases tend to peak. The 10 pediatric deaths, though tragic, are about the same number as was reported at this time in the last two flu seasons, Bresee said.
The biggest surprise has been how poorly the vaccine has performed.
Each winter, experts try to predict which strains of flu will circulate so they can develop an appropriate vaccine for the following season. They choose three strains_ two from the Type A family of influenza, and one from Type B.
Usually, the guesswork is pretty good: The vaccines have been a good match in 16 of the last 19 flu seasons, Bresee has said.
But the vaccine's Type B component turned out not to be a good match for the B virus that has been most common this winter. And one of the Type A components turned out to be poorly suited for the Type A H3N2/Brisbane-like strain that now accounts for the largest portion of lab-confirmed cases.
Over the years, the H3N2 flu has tended to cause more deaths, Bresee said.
This week, the World Health Organization took the unusual step of recommending that next season's flu vaccine have a completely different makeup from this year's. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make its decision about the U.S. vaccine next week.
H3N2 strains are treatable by Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs, but the other, H1N1 Type A strains are more resistant. Of all flu samples tested this year, 4.6 percent have been resistant to antiviral medications. That's up from fewer than 1 percent last year.
"This represents a real increase in resistance," Bresee said.
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On the Net:
The CDC's flu season update: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
