soulxtc
March 6th, 2006, 07:47 PM
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu swept into Poland, a laboratory confirmed, as world health experts prepared for a feared mutation of the virus that could kill millions.
Tests on two swans in Poland confirmed the presence of disease, which has killed at least 94 people since 2003 as it raced through Asia, then into Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"Yes, we have confirmed that it is definitely H5N1," said Poland's national Pulawy laboratory deputy director laboratory Jan Zmudzinksi.
Samples were being sent for further examination in the European Union's laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, he said.
Poland set up a crisis unit in the northern city of Torun where the outbreak was detected. A hygiene-security zone has been erected over a three-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius.
The highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 has spread on rare occasions from birds to humans and has proven deadly in about half of those cases, most of them in Asia where it is still claiming lives.
In Indonesia's capital Jakarata, a 25-year-old woman who was five months pregnant died Monday with symptoms of bird flu after being in close contact with chickens, hospital officials said.
The deepest fear is that the bird flu virus could mix with a human influenza and acquire the capacity to jump from human to human, sparking off the next global flu pandemic.
READ ARTICLE (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/06/060306124130.kzhcju7v.html)
Tests on two swans in Poland confirmed the presence of disease, which has killed at least 94 people since 2003 as it raced through Asia, then into Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"Yes, we have confirmed that it is definitely H5N1," said Poland's national Pulawy laboratory deputy director laboratory Jan Zmudzinksi.
Samples were being sent for further examination in the European Union's laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, he said.
Poland set up a crisis unit in the northern city of Torun where the outbreak was detected. A hygiene-security zone has been erected over a three-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius.
The highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 has spread on rare occasions from birds to humans and has proven deadly in about half of those cases, most of them in Asia where it is still claiming lives.
In Indonesia's capital Jakarata, a 25-year-old woman who was five months pregnant died Monday with symptoms of bird flu after being in close contact with chickens, hospital officials said.
The deepest fear is that the bird flu virus could mix with a human influenza and acquire the capacity to jump from human to human, sparking off the next global flu pandemic.
READ ARTICLE (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/06/060306124130.kzhcju7v.html)