‘Advances needed’ in bird flu reaction

Health officials have been urged to do more to speed up the identification of bird flu cases in humans.

Research conducted in Indonesia has shown the benefit of improved diagnostic methods and improved case management to diagnose patients with H5N1 influenza.

Research published in health journal the Lancet hails the combined effect of antiviral drugs – oseltamivir – and better case management.

Dr Toni Wandra of the Indonesian ministry of health and colleagues analysed the factors associated with bird flu fatality in the south-east Asian country.

Between June 2005 and February 2008 127 confirmed bird flu infections were recorded.

Investigation teams were deployed to investigate and manage each confirmed case; they obtained epidemiological and clinical data from case-investigation reports when possible and through interviews with patients, family members and key individuals.

The researchers found that 81 per cent of infected patients died, with patients taking an average of six days to be taken to hospital.

Starting treatment within two days was associated with significantly lower mortality than was starting treatment at days five to six or later.

Professor Sheila Bird from the Medical Research Council and Oxford University professor of tropical medicine Jeremy Farrar said: “Consideration needs to be given now – not in the teeth of a pandemic, and not deflected by either proprietary defensiveness or opportunistic profiteering – to gauging the comprehensiveness of national surveillance for human H5N1 cases.”