Health workers study possibility of avian flu pandemic in the area

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Avian flu is beginning to spread rapidly to countries in Europe, but has affected humans minimally at this point in time.

However, if the virus mutates to a form that can be transmitted from person to person a mutation some scientists are afraid could occur it could become the world's next pandemic disease, killing millions worldwide.

Cibola County Emergency Management Coordinator Peggy Jordan said emergency managers throughout the state and the Department of Health are having meetings about the situation and making plans to deal with it should it hit New Mexico, which seems to be not an "if" but a "when" situation.

"The Department of Health is trying to make a big push with emergency managers to try to figure this situation out before it hits us," Jordan said.

"One thing we figured out is that it will be a major surge of patients into hospitals, and that will be a real challenge."

Not only public hospitals like Cibola General in Cibola County and Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital in McKinley County, but also Indian Health Services hospitals will be inundated with patients, maybe even more, she said.

"The flu shots people are getting this year and every year are for the 'normal' flu virus and will not be effective against the avian flu virus," she said.

No protection
The avian flu is just in birds right now, mostly chickens in Europe, Asia and Southeast Asia, but it has been found in swans, ducks, geese and other migratory birds. It has already mutated among the avian population and as it continues to change, scientists are expecting it to mutate to a form that affects humans.

Since there is no protection from this flu virus, which is powerful and deadly, millions of people worldwide are expected to die from it before a vaccine can be made to combat it, Jordan said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported human cases of avian flu in several countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey and Iraq.

WHO has documented cases of avian flu in the following countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Those people who have contracted the virus and died had direct contact with infected birds.

Currently there is an import ban on birds that are sold commercially, mostly chickens among several European, Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

Deaths
Three cases of avian flu in humans were reported for the first time in Vietnam in 2003. All three of those people died.

The number of cases and deaths has grown exponentially as migratory birds carry the disease from country to country, resulting in 170 cases of avian flu mostly in Southeast Asia and Asia reported so far this year, with 92 of those infected dying.

The Centers for Disease Control Web site states that there is little pre-existing natural immunity among humans to the virus, called H5N1. If the virus mutates and becomes transmissible among humans, a pandemic could occur. A pandemic is an epidemic that breaks out worldwide. There are no barriers to prevent the spread.

The H5N1 has shown resistance to two of the four known anti-virus medications, amandadine and rimantadine, leaving two, oseltamivir and zanamivir, that might be effective.

To produce vaccines from the antivirals will take many months before they will become mass produced and widely available, the CDC states.

Jordan said one of the areas emergency managers have to cope with is biological terrorism and should a pandemic break out from avian flu it would be tantamount to a biological attack on the entire United States.

Prevention techniques
"One thing we can do is to get out more public information about stopping the spread of flu, any flu and that is by washing your hands with soap and water," she said.

"I know we have said this before, but we cannot stress too often that this is the best way, in addition to covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough, to preventing the spread of the flu," Jordan said.

Connie Dixon, deputy director of public health, region one, for the department of health, agreed with that assessment.

"It is low-tech but the most effective way of stopping the flu washing your hands."

"Also, stay away from crowds," she said.

"When a vaccine is developed, it will again be administered to the public in a priority of health risks in both Cibola and McKinley counties.

"Those with respiratory, cardiac, low immune systems and other high risk diseases will be vaccinated first before," she said.

"If the avian flu becomes a pandemic, the public health department will help organize the resources needed to battle the virus. It will be a community effort,"she said.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.