Suspect Qinghai H5N1 Patient in Azerbaijan Dies
Recombinomics Commentary
January 28, 2007
A 14-year-old Azeri boy, treated for suspected bird flu in a medical institute in the capital, Baku, died on Sunday before his diagnosis could be finally established, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
"According to information from the institute, the boy died today in the morning," Anar Kadyrly said. "Azeri specialists suspected he had bird flu, but three tests conducted in Baku showed he had acute pneumonia."
The above comments describe the failure to detect H5N1 in three tests of a fatal pneumonia case, who was the brother of a fatal H5N1 case last year. Last year’s case was part of one of two cluster linked to feathers from wild birds.
The death of a 14M with “acute pneumonia” strongly suggests that the negative test results this year were false.
Qinghai H5N1 was recently confirmed in Hungary, and five human cases have been confirmed in Egypt this season. All five cases in Egypt have been fatal this season.
In addition to the cases in Hungary and Egypt, Qinghai H5N1 has been confirmed in birds in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, and a fatal cluster in Nigeria is under investigation.
The recent positive data in Hungary, Egypt, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast raise serious detecting / reporting issues of neighboring countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The H5N1 reporting / detecting failures remain hazardous to the world’s health.
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