Man dies of H5N1 avian flu in Indonesia
A fatal case of H5N1 avian flu has been reported in Indonesia, according to a story in the Jakarta Post today. This represents the second confirmed human case of the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza in the country this year.
The patient was a 33-year-old man who was hospitalized and died in Jakarta last month. The diagnosis, confirmed by the country's health ministry yesterday, was made on the basis of real-time and conventional polymerase chain reaction testing.
The first confirmed H5N1 case in Indonesia this year occurred in a 2-year-old in Wonogiri, Central Java, says the story. The child had been exposed to live poultry after some 70 chickens had died in the area.
Indonesia has had 197 cases of avian flu, 165 of them fatal, since the current outbreak began in 2003—the most of any country.
Jun 18 Jakarta Post story
Chinese H7N9 vaccine looks promising in animal study
Chinese researchers found that a hybrid monovalent (single-strain) H7N9 candidate vaccine produced an immune response in mice and ferrets and protected the former against the virus, according to a report yesterday in PLoS One.
The team produced a virus that contained hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes from an H7N9 virus and six genes encoding internal proteins from a non-H7N9 influenza A virus from Puerto Rico.
They found that a monovalent H7N9 split vaccine prepared using the hybrid virus was immunogenic in both mice and ferrets. They also found that two doses given by injection completely protected mice from a normally lethal wild-type H7N9 virus challenge.
Jun 17 PLoS One study
In related news, the World Health Organization (WHO) today provided new details on a fatal H7N9 case reported by Chinese officials yesterday.
The patient, a 42-year-old man from Jiangmen city in Guangdong province, became ill on May 25 and was hospitalized on May 31. He died on Jun 5. Provincial health officials said yesterday that his case was confirmed on Jun 9.
The man had no exposure to live poultry, the WHO said. China has now reported 450 H7N9 cases and at least 158 deaths, according to an ongoing tally posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease message board.
Jun 18 WHO statement
FluTrackers human H7N9 case list