- "A 25-year-old Dane has been transferred
to Copenhagen's Royal hospital after testing positive for bird flu in a
local clinic, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported today.
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- On the basis of blood tests in the local
hospital of Nykoebing, southern Denmark, the man was diagnosed with bird
flu, and late yesterday transferred urgently to the Royal hospital, one
of two hospitals in Denmark authorised to treat bird flu. Ritzau said it
was unknown where the man may have contracted the virus."
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- The above comments indicate H5N1 continues
to increase the number of versions that can infect humans. The full
sequence of H5N1 from a buzzard in Denmark was released. It has many
similarities with isolates from Astrakhan, which have North American and
human sequences. Those isolates form two distinct clades, and the
Denmark isolate was most like the smaller clade. However, those isolates
have not previously been shown to cause human infections.
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- The first confirmed human case of H5N1
cause by the Qinghai strain was in Turkey. However, cases were soon
reported in Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Egypt. Sequences from human cases
in Iraq and Egypt did not contain HA S227N, which is a change in the receptor
binding domain that increases affinity for human cells. However,
the isolate from Iraq did have a change, N186S, near the receptor binding
domain. H5N1 flying into Europe could combine with H1N1 in swine
and produce G228S, another change associated with increased affinity.
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- More H5N1 is expected to migrate into
western Europe and northeastern North America from Africa via the East
Atlantic flyway. New sequences recombining with sequences that can
cause H5N1 infections in humans, will likely create new problems.
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- © 2006 Recombinomics. All
rights reserved.
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