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Mesothelioma: A Killer
Lurks in the Lungs |
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WHO Downplays Bird Flu TransmissionFears
By JONATHAN FOWLER
Associated Press Writer
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization Tuesday downplayed fears over human-to-human transmission of bird flu, after authorities in Thailand confirmed that a woman who died of the virus probably contracted it from her daughter.
But countries must remain vigilant because lab tests could show that the deadly H5N1 virus has mutated, said Klaus Stohr, head of WHO's global influenza program. That would increase its chances of leaping the species barrier on a wider scale and raise the specter of a pandemic.
Scientists fear a global outbreak if the virus mutates to mix with human influenza to create a form that could easily jump from one human to another, said Stohr.
"In the past the H5N1 virus has always been transmitted from poultry to humans," Stohr told reporters.
"What is less well-known is that in the past there has also been some inefficient, unsustained, dead-end-street transmission between humans," he said, referring to cases where the virus jumped from one person to another but was defeated by the second person's antibodies before it managed to spread any further.
A bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 killed six people and resulted in limited human-to-human transmission. Those who got the disease from other people experienced only minor symptoms, and there was no evidence the virus had mutated into a highly dangerous form.
Initial research suggests the latest Thai cases also fall into the "dead-end-street" category, said Stohr.
Pranee Thongchan, 26, became the 10th confirmed fatality from the disease in Thailand after tests on a piece of her lung revealed she had the deadly H5N1 virus, health authorities there said Tuesday.
She died Sept. 20 in a hospital, eight days after her 11-year-old daughter Sakuntala passed away. Thailand's Public Health Ministry said Sakuntala was a "probable avian influenza case" who got the virus from chickens in her house.
Pranee had not come into contact with chickens but had "very close and face-to-face exposure" to her daughter while tending to her in the hospital, it said.
Pranee's sister, Pranom, 32, was also confirmed Monday as suffering from bird flu, and is now in a hospital isolation ward. Pranee lived outside Bangkok while her daughter lived in a village in the northern province of Kamphaengphet.
No other members of the village where Sakuntala lived, or health care workers in the hospitals where she and her mother were admitted are so far found to be ill, the ministry statement said.
"We cannot rule out that there might be more cases coming from this village," said Stohr.
An 18-year-old man died in Thailand last month in the latest round of the disease that resurfaced in July. Eight other people died earlier there in the year.
Nineteen human fatalities also were reported in Vietnam this year, and tens of millions of chickens and other poultry have been killed by the disease or culled to curb its spread through much of eastern Asia.
Most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds. Human-to-human transmission was suspected in some Vietnamese cases, but never confirmed.
Samples from the Thai victims have been sent to a WHO-accredited lab at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, with the results expected by the end of this week, he added. "What we need to do to fully understand what's going on is to characterize the virus, because in its genetic information the virus can't hide that it's changing."
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Pregnancy Ups Risk of Restless Leg Syndrome |
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September 27, 2004 02:03:14 PM PDT , HealthDay |
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MONDAY, Sept. 27 (HealthDayNews) -- Pregnancy increases the risk for the occurrence, or worsening, of restless legs syndrome, says an Italian study in the Sept. 28 issue of Neurology.
The study of 606 women found that at least one in four pregnant women experience the syndrome, a movement disorder characterized by an urge to move the legs, generally accompanied by numbness, tingling or burning sensations.
The women were assessed during pregnancy and six months after the birth of their babies. Of the 606 women in the study, 161 (26.6 percent) reported experiencing the problem during pregnancy. For 101 of the women, it was the first time they had experienced RLS. About 25 percent of the women experienced symptoms at least once a week, and 15 percent at least three times a week.
In general, symptoms appeared or worsened around the sixth month of pregnancy and reached a peak during the seventh and eighth months of pregnancy. Rates of restless leg syndrome among the women dropped dramatically around the time of delivery and affected 5 percent to 6 percent of the women six months after delivery.
"The pregnant women most affected by the [restless leg syndrome] were older, had lower values of iron storage indicators, a higher prevalence of insomnia, and snored more than the unaffected group," researcher Dr. Mauro Manconi said in a prepared statement.
This is the first study to show a significant correlation between low iron indicator values and restless leg syndrome risk.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about restless legs syndrome. |
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