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Suspect H5N1 Bird Flu Patient in Bulgaria Dies
Recombinomics Commentary
February 20, 2006
The young woman, who was hospitalized at the end of last week in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv after showing symptoms of bird flu, has passed away, local Darik Radio reported.
The 27-year-old patient was admitted to hospital on Friday with bilateral pneumonia and breathlessness.
Initial tests for detecting the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus strain were immediately carried out and gave negative results. Doctors however have sent for confirmation samples to the laboratory in Sofia. The results are still pending.
The death of the suspected bird flu patient described above is cause for concern. Bilateral pneumonia and breathlessness are symptoms of bird flu. Bulgaria has recently reported H5N1. There have been recent outbreaks in Romania and the Crimea peninsula, which could be origins for the H5N1.
Media reports on the H5N1 strain in the Ukraine had indicated it was unique and dangerous to humans, but details have not been forthcoming.
The only confirmed human cases linked to the Qinghai strain have been in Turkey and Iraq, but the recent report of a fatal case in India has suggested that H5N1 could evolve into stains that infect humans via various genetic paths. Small changes, such as S227N can have dramatic effects on the efficiency of H5N1 infections, and all Qinghai strains reported this far have PB2 E627K, including 6 recent isolates from Askatran from mute swans, which have been dying throughout Europe, including neighboring Romania.
The initial negative data on the above patient is not unusual. All of the confirmed fatal H5N1 cases in Turkey were initially negative. Positive results were obtained on lung samples because patients with pneumonia frequently have detectable levels of H5N1 in their lings, but not in their nose or throat.
More details on the patient and tests of lung samples would be useful.
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