Efficient Human to Human Transmission of Bird Flu in The Philippines?
Recombinomics Commentary
January 11, 2005
>>Dayrit said the command post would be manned by 15 epidemiologists and communications experts from the DOH and the Baguio health department. It would be set up at the city health office.
"There will be four posts. The first and second posts will work on the data analysis, screening, epidemiological investigation and contact tracing. The third and fourth will work in the field, giving prophylaxis to affected communities, specifically in the markets," Dayrit said.
...
Dayrit said there is a need to be cautious because "the person-to-person transmission is still happening and we're still finding cases."
He stressed the need to set up a laboratory in Baguio because some of the deaths attributed to meningococcemia may have been a case of misdiagnosis.<<
The command post being set up in Baguio City in The Philippines sounds like a major operation and again notes that some of the meningococcemia deaths may be misdiagnosed.
The sequence of events from the command post, the WHO warning on bird flu followed by a press release calling the previously diagnosed cases meningococcemia-like illnesses (because the case fatality rate was too high), and the unusual clinical presentation points more and more toward avian influenza.
This is a major concern because the case fatality rate for the meningococcemia-like illness is 58% and it is quite transmissible human to human. Since it has been present since last season and the number of cases now seem to be growing quickly more information on the influenza A status of the "misdiagnosed" patents is urgently needed.
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