[Kabar-indonesia] Bird Flu Mutations Identified by Wisconsin Researchers

[Joyo3]

also: More action needed in fight against bird flu in Asia-
Pacific: APEC ministers

Wisconsin Univ Researchers Identify Bird Flu Mutations

MADISON, Wis., Nov. 16 (AP)--A University of Wisconsin-
Madison researcher is part of a team that has identified
changes in two viral building blocks called amino acids that
allow the bird flu virus to recognize human flu virus
receptors in people's cells.

The two amino acid changes "can be used as a genetic marker
for predicting a potential dangerous virus," Yoshihiro
Kawaoka, a flu researcher at UW's School of Veterinary
Medicine, said of their study published in Thursday's
edition of the journal Nature.

Kawaoka and a team from Vietnam, the United Kingdom,
Indonesia and Japan looked for mutations in avian H5N1
viruses that had jumped from birds to people.

Kawaoka said scientists could test bird flu virus samples
for the changes. If the changes start to be found
frequently, that might signal that a pandemic is drawing
near, he said.

They compared H5N1 viruses isolated from infected people in
Vietnam and Indonesia with H5N1 viruses isolated from birds.
They found that the viruses isolated from people could
recognize both human and bird receptors, while those taken
from chickens and ducks could recognize only receptors on
bird cells.

"We identified two important (genetic) changes," Kawaoka
said. "Both changes are needed for H5N1 to recognize human
receptors."

The changes haven't yet allowed the virus to become an
efficient human infector, with other changes necessary
before the virus can fully adapt to humans.

"This is really nice work that helps to explain the sorts of
mutations that are necessary" to make a flu jump from one
species to another, said William Schaffner of Vanderbilt
University.

"But aren't we lucky that it takes a whole series of
changes" to give the virus the ability to easily transfer
into humans, and then pass from human-to-human with ease, he
said.

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Xinhua Nov. 16, 2006

More action needed in fight against bird flu in Asia-
Pacific: APEC ministers

An APEC ministerial meeting on Thursday called for further
action in fight against bird flu as there is still potential
threat of H5N1 virus to mutate into a pandemic strain in the
Asia-Pacific region as well as the world.

At the 18th Ministerial Meeting of the Asian-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), the ministers and
representatives noted in a statement that "the potential for
the highly pathogenic avian influenza/H5N1 virus to mutate
into a pandemic strain remains a continued threat to the
APEC region and the world."

Therefore, they stressed the continuing need for vigilance
and action to prevent the disease from outbreak.

They renewed their commitment to transparent communication
of outbreak and the sharing of samples for research to
improve preparedness.

The member economies agreed to continue to collaborate with
International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza
and to maintain cooperation with specialized international
organizations for global preparedness and emergency response
capacities.

In the past year, the APEC members have collectively and
individually worked hard to control the spread of the bird
flu virus and progress has been achieved.

However, World Health Organization officials said that avian
influenza remains the No. 1 danger for global public health.

Over the last one year, the avian influenza has gone global,
spreading rapidly beyond its East Asian stronghold to the
countries in South Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

So far, more than 50 countries have reported H5N1 outbreaks,
most of them since January 2006, causing an estimate of 220
million bird deaths and significant damage to rural
livelihoods, especially in the poorest areas, according to
the World Bank.

Asia has been hit the hardest by bird flu with more than 130
human deaths since 2003 when the disease occurred in East
Asian countries.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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