Likely H5N1 Patient in Peshawar Pakistan
Recombinomics Commentary 22:03
February 3, 2008
Reportedly, a woman, wife of Meenat Khan from Bara Khyber Agency, suffered from influenza six days back. She was referred to Khyber Teaching Hospital by a local doctor two days back. The KTH doctors were of the view that the symptoms of her disease were the same as those found in the patients of bird flu.
They disclosed that the symptoms of the woman's disease and those of the two boys who died of bird flu last year were identical.
The above comments provide more detail on the suspect case at the Kyber Teaching Hospital. This hospital also treated the earlier cluster from Pakistan late last year, and the two boys cited above are the two brothers who died from H5N1. This additional detail increases the likelihood that the suspect case has been infected with H5N1.
Media reports also describe a cluster of two from Abbottabad. Two were H5N1 confirmed and one died. This cluster does not match earlier clusters in Pakistan (one was larger and had two fatalities, which another had two members but no fatalities). If this media report is accurate then there are multiple cases in northwestern Pakistan. The report also cited 16 districts at risk for future outbreaks (see satellite maps here and here).
This report has not been confirmed, but Pakistan has issued a high alert for the entire country, and these additional reports provide evidence to justify the alerts.
More information on the above case(s) would be useful.
Media Links
Recombinomics Presentations
Recombinomics Publications
Recombinomics Paper at Nature Precedings