| Bird Flu and South Africa
Helen
I've spoken to South Africa's chief virologist, Prof Barry Schoub, who was taught by the man who identified the H5N3 strain in terns in 1961. I've attached his comments and references. I am in the process of informing the CDC, Reuters and other organisations of their error.
cheers
Paul Richardson
"The 1961 avian flu outbreak in common terns in the Cape, describe by Wally Becker in 1966(1) was probably the first outbreak of avian flu in wild birds with high mortality. The subtype of that avian flu virus was not mentioned in that article but has been subsequently referenced as H5N3(2) – see page 8952. The origin of the present HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) H5N1 probably originated from an isolate Goose/Guangdong/1/96 (Gs/Gd), which subsequently evolved by a genetic change called reassortment to the HPAI H5N1 which caused the first H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 and subsequent cases in 2003 to the present(3)."
References:
(1). Becker WB. The isolation and classification of Tern virus: Influenza Virus A/Tern/South Africa/1961. J Hyg Camb 1966; 64: 309-320
(2). Lipatov AS, Govorkova EA, Webby RJ, Ozaki H, Peiris M, Guan Y, Poon L, Webster RG. Influenza: Emergence and Control. J Virol 2004; 78(17): 8951-8959
(3). Li KS, Guan Y, Wang J, Smith GJD, Xu KM, Duan L, Rahardjo AP, Puthavathana P, Buranathai C, Nguyen TD, Estoepangestie ATS, Chaisingh A, Auewarakul P, Long HT, Hanh NTH, Webby RJ, Poon LLM, Chen H, Shortridge KF, Yuen KY, Webster RG, Peiris JSM. Genesis of a highly pathogenic and potentially pandemic H5N1 influenza virus in eastern Asia. Nature 2004; 430: 209-  |