H5N1 Media Spin In Korea Raises Pandemic Concerns
Recombinomics Commentary 03:17
April 23, 2008
The soldier, whose family name is Cho, allegedly had body temperatures of up to 39.8 degrees Celsius, and was in and out of a coma. The high fever dissipated after he was treated with antibiotic and anti-viral drugs.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention says while Cho's symptoms are those of avian influenza, it's also possible that he might be affected with bacterial pneumonia.
The above comments by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention raise serious credibility issues, since the patient has already tested positive for H5 by PCR and the test were done by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the soldier developed symptoms after culling H5N1 positive chickens and ducks, a bacterial infection is of little consequence.
The patient and hospital contacts have been treated with Tamiflu, and the issue of bacterial pneumonia just serves to confuse.
This confusion is similar to earlier reports which tried to make distinctions between confirmed H5N1 and confirmed HPAI H5. The HPAI H5 will be H5N1 when the testing is completed because the sequence of the H5 is the same as the sequence of the H5N1.
These efforts to confuse raise serious credibility issues. Since the patient appears to have responded quickly to treatment, the case will likely be relatively mild. Therefore, detection of additional cases may be influenced by Tamiflu treatment. Such data can be easily affected by agencies that put out confusing statements and press releases.
These confusing statements remain a cause for concern.
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