Suspect H5N1 Cases Hospitalized Near Moscow
Recombinomics Commentary
February 16, 2007
Meanwhile became known about the hospitalization of workers two farmer the economy of the Moscow area. How many men they fell ill and than - thus far it does not communicate. It is known only that the symptoms resemble precisely bird influenza.
The above translation describes farm workers at two locations that have bird flu symptoms. English language media reports indicate H5N1 has been confirmed in the poultry and the workers have pneumonia. If there are several workers and/or workers at multiple locations with pneumonia and other bird flu symptoms, there is cause for concern’
The H5N1 is almost certainly the Qinghai strain, which has spread throughput Europe, the Middle East, and Africa this season and last season. Although the Qinghai isolates have regional markers, the number of countries with confirmed H5N1 is significant. Confirmed cases were first identified in Turkey at the beginning of 2006. These cases were quickly followed by cases in Iraq, Egypt, Djibouti, and Azerbaijan. This season there have been confirmed cases in Egypt and Nigeria. Although the H5N1 from the human cases have changes in the receptor binding domain (S227N in Turkey and Egypt, V223I in Egypt, M230I in Egypt, N186K in Azerbaijan, N186S and Q196R in Iraq.
However, not all human isolates have these changes, and the human cases involve a number of regional changes. Therefore, human cases near Moscow would not be a surprise.
More information on the number of hospitalized patients as well as sequence information would be useful.
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Phylogenetic Trees