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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="822202" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-Hampshire">New Hampshire</keyword> authorities have solved a 43-year-old mystery after finding <keyword id="726655" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Human-Remains">human remains</keyword> in a car.</li><li>Police said 63-year-old Alberta Leeman went missing on her way home in 1978.</li><li>A conservation officer took interest in her case, and began searching for her in 2018.</li></ul>Underwater search crews in New Hampshire have discovered human remains and a submerged car belonging to a woman who went missing in 1978, according to local and state authorities.Alberta Leeman, 63, went missing 43 years ago, likely on her way home, <a href="https://wset.com/news/nation-world/remains-of-woman-missing-43-years-discovered-in-car-found-in-river-08-07-2021">authorities told WMUR</a>.State authorities in New Hampshire and Vermont are investigating how her 1972 Pontiac Lemans ended up in the Connecticut River, New Hampshire State Police said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NHStatePolice/posts/2870076989911509">statement</a>.The mystery was largely solved by a conservation officer named Joe Canfield, who "learned of a missing woman and her vehicle and took an interest in the case," <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewHampshireOperationGameThief/posts/4353633501395078">according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division</a>.Canfield used regularly scheduled training sessions from the agency's Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)/SONAR Team to focus on "areas that he thought were high-probability areas based on his research of the Leeman case," the agency said.During a recent session, the search team discovered an apparent vehicle underwater in the Connecticut River. A dive team took over on August 5 and identified the car's license plate as one matching Leeman's 1978 Pontiac."The dedication of CO Canfield and the F&amp;G ROV/SONAR Team has solved a 43-year-old mystery and finally given the Leeman family a sense of closure," the agency said.Canfield and his search team were first assigned to the Leeman case in 2018, WMUR reported. Though the human remains found in Leeman's car haven't yet been identified, authorities told the station the Pontiac's license plate was "OB610" - the exact plate registered to Leeman at the time.The agency added that before the Leeman discovery, the ROV/SONAR Team's "most famous find" occurred in 2018 when the crew found the skeletal remains of a man in his vehicle submerged in the Androscoggin River for 20 years.Police said Leeman's disappearance wasn't considered suspicious and added that the public is not in danger.

An underwater search team found human remains and a car belonging to a New Hampshire woman who's been missing for 43 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The H5N1 bird-flu virus has infected a third person in the US, this time with respiratory symptoms.</li><li>The new patient's cough and sore throat could help the virus get better at infecting humans.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">H5N1 bird-flu virus</a> has once again infected a human. But this time, the unlucky patient had a cough and a sore throat, which is a new milestone for the virus's spread in the US.The H5N1 virus has become a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">pandemic among animals</a>, raging through worldwide bird populations and now through US cattle herds.This latest human case, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Thursday, is the third known human case in the US, following one in Texas and another in Michigan.All three people are dairy-farm workers who were exposed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-chickens-cows-human-food-outbreaks-pandemic-2024-5">infected cows</a>, according to the CDC.The first two cases, however, involved only eye symptoms, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/treatments/pink-eye-treatment">conjunctivitis or pink eye</a>. That means the infection was probably limited to their eyes. Now, it has hit someone's lungs.The risk to the general public is still low, the CDC says, but these new symptoms suggest the virus may have entered a new phase of its flirtation with human infection.<h2 id="3e38b128-b335-4d91-85c2-ad38616292d6">Lungs give the virus more opportunity to adapt to humans</h2>The St. Jude virologist Richard Webby is a leading researcher on an H5 group of influenza viruses, which have been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egg-prices-poised-to-spike-again-thanks-to-avian-flu-2023-12">circulating in bird populations</a> for about 25 years.Since 2021, the H5N1 virus has branched out to new frontiers of sustained spread, infecting dolphins and porpoises, migrating to the Americas, culling sea lions and seals, and now spreading through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beef-prices-higher-drought-fewer-cattle-less-meat-2022-8">US cattle herds</a>.<div type="image" title="two people in white biohazard suits with masks and goggles handle a vial on a beach next to a dead porpoise" height="1500" width="2249" msid="110684142" hostid="261"></div>"This virus keeps on turning up surprises," Webby, who directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, told Business Insider. "Had you asked me, beginning of the year, what the chances are of H5 turning up in cows, I would have said exceedingly low."Still, he said, H5N1 is still more of a bird virus than a mammalian virus. That's mainly because of the receptors it binds to in order to enter its hosts' cells and replicate itself."Avian viruses bind to one form of this receptor on the host cell. Mammalian viruses bind to a different form," Webby said.The mucus lining the human eye (where the first farmworker got conjunctivitis) is rich in the receptors that avian viruses grab, he said. There, the H5N1 virus can continue operating as an avian virus, grabbing avian receptors with no need to adapt to human receptors.But our respiratory tracts are full of both forms of this receptor — the form preferred by avian viruses and the one preferred by mammalian viruses. Therefore, being in the lungs gives H5N1 more exposure to the receptors that mammalian viruses use, Webby said.That gives H5N1 more opportunity to sustain a mutation that would allow it to bind to those mammalian receptors, adapting better to human bodies.That's the concern, but it's not clear whether that has actually happened inside this patient's lungs. For such a mutation to be significant, it would then have to spread to other people as well. So far, based on all known cases, the virus has been unable to spread from one person to another.<h2 id="151bdecc-20ab-4244-9dd5-9542f3aca984">Sequencing the virus tests for mutations</h2>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/opinion/bird-flu-case-respiratory.html">New York Times</a> opinion piece on Sunday, the virologist Rick Bright argued that the emergence of respiratory symptoms indicated "a dangerous inflection point" for the virus.After all, he wrote, "coughing can spread viruses more easily than eye irritation can."<div type="image" title="A man coughing" height="1439" width="2084" msid="110684144" hostid="261"></div>But for Webby, the Michigan patient's cough "doesn't change a whole lot."Two previous one-off human cases of H5N1 — one in Chile and one in Ecuador — featured respiratory symptoms.The virus didn't necessarily have to mutate to infect the Michigan farmworker's respiratory system, Webby said. The person could have simply encountered a large amount of virus, maybe an especially ill cow."That's me sort of looking at the crystal ball a little," he said, adding that it was "the most likely explanation for what we're seeing, rather than the other one, which is of course much more scary, that this virus has already changed."Either way, scientists won't know if any scary mutations have occurred until they can examine the virus's genomic RNA sequence from this new case. But Webby said the patient carried such small amounts of the virus that it was possible the CDC wouldn't have enough to get the sequence.Genome sequences are critical. By checking the virus's genes in each new human case, no matter how mild the symptoms, scientists can identify any fresh mutations that help it adapt to humans. If H5N1 becomes a bona fide mammalian virus, they could watch its transformation in real time.<div type="image" title="blue gloved hands in a white lab coat hold a large syringe and a lab tube of fluid" height="1500" width="2250" msid="110684146" hostid="261"></div>"The very first signals we're going to get that this virus is changing are probably going to come from human infections," Webby said.So far, though, the government's monitoring may not be robust enough to spot those mutations early.<h2 id="3c3ea6d6-9c14-4a0d-8a69-ffacd711d1be">Scientists call for more testing so they won't miss mutations</h2>The Food and Drug Administration has detected fragments of the virus in commercial milk and beef. Public-health experts have told BI that though it's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-milk-food-safety-former-surgeon-general-doctor-2024-4">unlikely food will infect you</a>, cautious people can cook their eggs and meats all the way. They said nobody should drink unpasteurized milk, aka raw milk.<div type="image" title="Cattle look at the camera in front of a hay feeder." height="1417" width="2117" msid="110684147" hostid="261"></div>The real risk is to people who work directly with sick animals, especially farmworkers such as the three who have been infected so far.The CDC's principal deputy director, Nirav Shah, told the press in a briefing on Thursday that the government was monitoring about 350 people nationwide who might have been exposed to H5N1, most of them in Michigan. But <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/30/health/bird-flu-infection-farmworker.html">The New York Times</a> reported that only about 40 farmworkers had been tested for the virus."We would like to be doing more testing," Shah said, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/30/bird-flu-third-case-human-infection-caused-respiratory-symptoms/">STAT News</a>.Bright argues that the government's weak testing regime could be allowing farmworker infections to fly under the radar.<div type="image" title="man with turkeys inside coop. sign outside reads 'biosecurity area - no admittance w/o owner permission" height="1400" width="2100" msid="110684148" hostid="261"></div>But undetected cases aren't the same thing as undetected spread.Bright's essay rings alarm bells about unknown human-to-human transmission, but Webby finds that unlikely. Even with its current monitoring, the CDC would probably detect sustained human spread, he said.Rather, the problem with undetected cases is that nobody can sequence their samples. Those are windows into the virus's genome (and possible mutations) that nobody is peeking through.Webby and Bright agree that scientists need more sequences of the virus more quickly. For example, Bright said that despite the ongoing herd spread, the Department of Agriculture hadn't shared a new sequence from a cow infection sample in weeks."Bottom line is we need to have more information from exactly what this virus is doing," Webby said. "The more we can understand about it, I do believe we can properly control it, or at least control it way better than we are."Correction — June 4, 2024: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of genomic sequencing of the H5N1 virus. They are RNA sequences, not DNA.

The 3rd human case of bird flu in the US has 2 new and troubling symptoms

<keyword id="6356806" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="moscow">Moscow</keyword>, <keyword id="6358826" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> has confirmed the first case of human infection with the <keyword id="109029" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="avian-influenza">avian influenza</keyword> A(H5N8) virus in the world, a Russian sanitary official announced on Saturday. Scientists have isolated the genetic material of this <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> virus in seven workers of a poultry farm in south Russia, where an outbreak among fowls was reported in December, said Anna Popova, head of the country's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, say reporters. All the necessary measures were taken immediately to protect humans and animals, and the infection did not spread further, she told a briefing. All of the seven people who were infected are now feeling well, with only mild clinical symptoms, Popova said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/pewdiepies-lyrics-targeting-cocomelon-and-jk-rowling-that-may-have-gotten-youtube-angry-enough-to-pull-the-video-down/articleshow/81102941.cms">PewDiePie's lyrics targeting CocoMelon and JK Rowling may have gotten YouTube angry enough to pull the video down</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-gets-leaner-with-a-300-million-jabong-write-off-as-ceo-kalyan-krishnamurthy-lists-out-the-priorities-for-2021/articleshow/81105083.cms">Flipkart gets leaner with a $300 million Jabong write-off as CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy lists out the priorities for 2021</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/happiest-minds-is-leveraging-its-partnerships-with-big-players-like-google-microsoft-aws-salesforce/articleshow/81105035.cms">Happiest Minds is a smaller company that does the same thing as MindTree and L&amp;T Infotech — but clearly it is doing it a lot better</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-may-require-twitter-facebook-and-others-to-remove-unlawful-content-within-36-hours/articleshow/81104740.cms">India may require Twitter, Facebook and others to remove unlawful content within 36 hours</a>

World's first case of human infection with bird flu in Russia

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 12 (ANI): The World Health Organisation has confirmed the human case of <keyword id="3653784" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-in-india" source="Orion">bird flu in India</keyword>, after the <keyword id="15897682" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H9N2-virus" source="Orion">H9N2 virus</keyword> was detected in a four-year child in West Bengal. Overall, this is the second <keyword id="21166335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection" source="keywords">human infection</keyword> of <keyword id="2663051" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Avian-Influenza-A" source="Orion">avian influenza A</keyword> (H9N2) notified to WHO from India, with the first being done in 2019. The child has recovered and was discharged from the hospital. WHO received a notification from the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) for India, regarding a human case of avian influenza A(H9N2) virus infection in West Bengal, the health body said in a press release. "The patient is a 4-year-old child residing in West Bengal state. The case, previously diagnosed with hyperreactive airway disease, initially presented to the paediatrician with fever and abdominal pain on 26 January 2024. He developed seizures on January 29 after which he was brought to the same paediatrician. The patient was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital due to the persistence of severe respiratory distress, recurrent high-grade fever and abdominal cramps. The patient tested positive for influenza B and adenovirus. He was discharged from the hospital on February 28 but with a recurrence of severe respiratory distress, he was referred to another government hospital and was admitted to the pediatric ICU and intubated on March 3. His nasopharyngeal swab was sent to the Kolkata Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory and tested positive for influenza A (not sub-typed) and rhinovirus. On April 26, the sample was sub-typed as influenza A(H9N2) through a real-time polymerase chain reaction. The patient was discharged from the hospital with oxygen support on May 1. WHO said that the infected patient had exposure to poultry at home and in the surroundings. It, however, also affirmed there were no known persons reporting symptoms of respiratory illness in the family, the neighbourhood, or among healthcare workers at health facilities attended by the case at the time of reporting. The health body further warned that sporadic human cases could occur in the future as this virus is "one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions." Animal influenza viruses normally circulate in animals but can also infect humans. Infections in humans have primarily been acquired through direct contact with infected animals or through indirect contact with contaminated environments. Depending on the original host, influenza A viruses can be classified as avian influenza, swine influenza, or other types of animal influenza viruses, the WHO stated in the release. The health body further said that it is providing continued support to the government of India through technical advice, updates on risk assessment and updating contingency plans- both in the human and animal sectors in line with the global guidance.

WHO confirms human case of bird flu in India! H9N2 virus detected in a four-year child in West Bengal

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse">Photographer: U.S. Army (via Wikipedia)</a></div></div>Ten years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, a rights group Tuesday called for the reopening of a case against a US private military contractor that conducted interrogations at the Iraqi prison.
US soldiers were implicated in the torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison when the US military ran it in 2004, a scandal that first broke when photos showing soldiers abusing detainees were published in US media.
Civilian employees of CACI Premier Technology, Inc., working under government contract, were accused of encouraging soldiers to prepare detainees for interrogation with the controversial practices.
Between 2004 and 2006, 11 soldiers -- including Lynndie England, who was seen smiling beside naked prisoners being subjected to sexual abuse -- were convicted in court martials.
"CACI indisputably played a key role in those atrocities, and it is time for them to be held accountable," Center for Constitutional Rights legal director Baher Azmy said Tuesday.
He called for federal authorities to re-open a case in a Virginia appeals court brought by four Iraqi former detainees.
A federal judge had dismissed the case in June 2013, citing the precedent of a recent Supreme Court decision "Kiobel vs Shell/Royal Dutch Petroleum." In that case, the top US court found that British oil giant Shell couldn't be held accountable in US courts for rights violations committed in Nigeria.
"The Kiobel case should not apply to a case like us," Azmy told AFP.
CACI International "is a US corporation " that was working "in a US-run prison at a time when Abu Ghraib and Iraq were occupied by the US, so it's not really a foreign action."
The Arlington, Virginia-based company, contacted by AFP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But on its website, company chairman Jack London noted that "no CACI employee or former employee has ever been indicted for any misconduct in connection with CACI's work in Iraq.
"While three former employees have been cited in various reports in connection with disputed incidents in Iraq, no CACI employee took part or appears in any of the horrific photos released from Abu Ghraib," he added.
The Richmond court decision is expected within the next several months.
In June 2011, the US Supreme Court refused to hear a complaint from 250 Iraqi prisoners against CACI and Titan Corporation, another private contractor that worked at Abu Ghraib.
<div class="nc_footer">
Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.
</div>

Human Rights Group Wants Abu Ghraib Torture Case Reopened

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The ECHR has ruled that a woman's human rights were violated after she was given a suspended prison sentence. </li><li>Eloise Bouton was charged with sexual exposure after protesting topless in a famous Catholic church.</li></ul>The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fposts%2Fandrew-cutting-coe_echr-press-release-activity-6986255641518428160-PttA%2F%3Futm_source%3Dshare%26utm_medium%3Dmember_desktop">ruled</a> that a woman's human rights were violated after she was given a suspended prison sentence for protesting topless at a Catholic church. On December 20, 2013, Eloïse Bouton, then a member of the Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen, took to the altar of the famed La Madeleine church in Paris to protest the Catholic Church's strict ban on abortion. Her protest performance involved walking to the altar of the church topless, with the words "344 slut" written on her body, a reference to a famous <a href="https://time.com/5459995/manifesto-343-abortion-france/">open letter of 343 French women who admitted to having an abortion in 1971.</a> In the backlash, they were dubbed 'salopes' – translated as "sluts."She also held pieces of calf liver to represent an aborted baby Jesus, according to the court documents. "Christmas is canceled" was also scrawled across her back.In 2014, the French courts gave her a suspended prison sentence for sexual exposure, but this week, the ECHR ruled this sentence violated Bouton's freedom of expression and that the French courts must pay her €9,800 ($9,569.65) in damages, costs, and expenses. The ruling stated, "The Court concluded that the domestic courts had not struck a balance, in an appropriate manner, between the interests at stake and that the interference with the applicant's freedom of expression." Bouton told Insider, "I didn't believe in a positive outcome anymore, but the ruling is historical. It's going to set legal precedents, and what it means for women and militant feminists who use their bodies to protest is that they may now be allowed to do so in France."She said she thinks the EHCR ruling is a sign of progress since 2013, saying, "I don't know if France would have sued me for sexual exposure in 2022. There's still a lot of problems, of course, but we're moving forward."

Catholic church topless 'slut' protester wins human rights case

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <keyword id="13260370" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bird-flu" source="Orion">bird flu</keyword> outbreak that's resulted in the killing of millions of <keyword id="11930900" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="birds" source="Orion">birds</keyword> has resulted in human infection.</li><li>A prison inmate working on a farm was the first US citizen to contract the virus. </li></ul>A prison inmate has tested positive for the bird flu — marking the first human case in the US.The virus outbreak is highly contagious to birds — so much so that <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022">almost 27 million chickens and turkeys have been killed en masse since January 2022 to halt the spread</a> — but the infection risk among humans remains relatively low.The man was exposed to the H5N1 virus as he worked on a Colorado farm culling — or slaughtering — birds suspected to have had the virus, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/highly-contagious-bird-flu-detected-person-first-time-us-health-offici-rcna26581">NBC News reported</a>. The outlet reported that the man was working at a Montrose County farm while taking part in a pre-release employment program. While the other inmates in the program have tested negative, they are still being monitored.The Colorado Department of Public <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword> and Environment <a href="https://cdphe.colorado.gov/press-release/state-health-officials-investigate-a-detection-of-h5-influenza-virus-in-a-human">reported</a> that the man's only symptom was fatigue and that it has since cleared up after taking an influenza antiviral drug known as oseltamivir — or Tamiflu. They identified him as "younger than 40" but provided no additional information on his identity.The department says all birds in the flock were euthanized and maintains that all inmates on the farm were given personal protective equipment."We want to reassure Coloradans that the risk to them is low," said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist with the department. "I am grateful for the seamless collaboration between CDC, Department of Corrections, Department of Agriculture, and CDPHE, as we continue to monitor this virus and protect all Coloradans.""CDC has tracked the health of more than 2,500 people with exposures to H5N1 virus-infected birds and this is the only case that has been found to date. Other people involved in the culling operation in Colorado have tested negative for H5 virus infection, but they are being retested out of an abundance of caution," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html">statement</a> Thursday.He was the second human on record to test positive. The first was in 2021 in the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/influenza-a-(h5)---united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland">according to The World Health Organization</a>.However, the CDC maintains that human risk is still low despite this one infection in the US. "More than 880 human infections with earlier H5N1 viruses have been reported since 2003 worldwide, however, the predominant H5N1 viruses now circulating among birds globally are different from earlier H5N1 viruses," the Center added in their statement.The outbreak has hit more than thirty states and has resulted in an increase in egg prices as the avian influenza strain continues to kill birds across the US, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/highly-contagious-bird-flu-strain-now-spreading-among-bald-eagles-2022-4">Insider previously reported</a>. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-in-birds.htm">The mortality rate sits at 90%</a> for those birds that catch it.The outbreak is hitting the US the hardest it has in seven years, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/28/egg-factory-avian-flu-chickens-culled-workers-fired-iowa?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other">the Guardian reported</a>.One egg factory, Rembrandt Enterprises, the Guardian reported, roasted more than 5 million chickens to contain the virus when just one tested positive for the virus. After burying the chickens in pits, 250 of the workers were laid off, with just a few core members remaining.The factory used a method called ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+) to kill the birds. It requires taking away air and then blasting the heat to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit."They cooked those birds alive," a Rembrandt worker told the Guardian.Animal rights groups such as <a href="https://animaloutlook.org/investigations/newly-uncovered-footage-reveals-cruel-truth-about-ventilation-shutdown/">Animal Outlook</a> have criticized culling as being cruel. "We can now see this widespread inherent cruelty for what it really is, demand accountability under the law, and remove our support from this industry by refusing to buy animal products," the organization's website says.The CDC says that cooking poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165˚F kills off H5N1 viruses.The CDC, Colorado's health department, and Animal Outlook did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

A prison inmate in a pre-release work program was the first recorded human case of the bird flu in the US

New York [US], April 5 (ANI): The <keyword id="10561122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bird-flu-pandemic" source="Orion">bird flu pandemic</keyword> with the potential to be "<keyword id="21202249" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="100-times-worse" source="Orion">100 times worse</keyword> than COVID" may be on the horizon after a rare human case was discovered in Texas, experts have warned, the New York Post reported on Thursday. The <keyword id="21202246" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N1-avian-flu" source="keywords">H5N1 avian flu</keyword> has spread rapidly since a new strain was detected in 2020 affecting wild birds in every state, as well as in commercial poultry and backyard flocks. But the recent cases detected in mammals, with cattle herds across four states becoming infected and on Monday, federal health officials announced that a dairy worker in Texas caught the virus. "This virus [has been] on the top of the pandemic list for many, many years and probably decades," Suresh Kuchipudi, a <keyword id="95867" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="bird-flu" source="Orion">bird flu</keyword> researcher from Pittsburgh, said at a recent panel discussing the issue, the New York Post reported citing the Daily Mail. "And now we're getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic." He noted that the <keyword id="565908" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N1-virus" source="Orion">H5N1 virus</keyword> has already been detected in species throughout the world and "has shown the ability to infect a range of mammalian hosts, including humans." "So therefore, in my view, I think this is a virus that has the greatest pandemic threat [that is] playing out in plain sight and globally present," Kuchipudi said. John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant for vaccines and the founder of Canada-based BioNiagara who organized the meeting, also expressed his concerns, the Mail reports, the New York Post reported. "This appears to be 100 times worse than COVID -- or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate," he said. "Once it's mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops." Around 52 per cent of humans who have contracted H5N1 since 2003 have died, according to the World Health Organization. For comparison, COVID currently kills less than 0.1% of those it infects -- though at the start of the pandemic, the fatality rate was around 20 per cent. Symptoms of the bird flu are similar to those of other flus, including cough, body aches and fever, the New York Post reported. Some people may not develop noticeable symptoms, but others can develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia. The dairy worker in Texas who was infected has reported "eye redness (consistent with conjunctivitis)" as their only symptom, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. "The patient was told to isolate and is being treated with an antiviral drug for [the] flu," the CDC said. The agency and "the whole US government is taking this situation very seriously," CDC Director Mandy Cohen told the Washington Post. She maintained that the virus does not pose much of a risk to the general public, noting that the dairy worker was in direct contact with infected cattle, and the US Department of Agriculture has said there are currently no changes that would make it more transmissible to humans. "While cases among humans in direct contact with infected animals are possible, this indicates that the current risk to the public remains low," the department said in a statement over the weekend. But the fact that the virus has been found in cattle could mean it is starting to mutate, Cohen told the Washington Post. "We had not seen avian flu in cattle prior to last week. That is new," she said. "It is a reservoir for [the] virus to circulate and potentially change." If the virus does mutate enough to infect humans, it could spread rapidly, the European Food Safety Authority warned on Wednesday, according to Fox News. "If avian A [H5N1] influenza viruses acquire the ability to spread efficiently among humans, large-scale transmission could occur due to the lack of immune defences against H5 viruses in humans," the Food Safety Authority said. To prevent any potential spread, the US is already testing components used to create a vaccine for the virus, and two candidate vaccine viruses appear to be well-matched to protect against H5N1, the Washington Post reports. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said the Biden administration is monitoring the threat. "We take the health and safety of the American people seriously," she said at her briefing on Wednesday. "It is very important to this president. Our top priority is to keep communities healthy, safe and informed."

Scientists warn of bird flu pandemic that could be '100 times worse' than COVID after rare human case found in US

China has reported the first case of <keyword id="9496369" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="human-infection">human infection</keyword> with the <keyword id="11359120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="H10N3-strain">H10N3 strain</keyword> of <keyword id="95867" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bird-flu">bird flu</keyword> from the country's eastern Jiangsu province, China's <keyword id="6407801" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-health-commission">National Health Commission</keyword> said on Tuesday. The patient, a 41-year-old man from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the state-run CGTN TV reported. Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low. The patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian <keyword id="6388288" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="influenza">influenza</keyword> virus on May 28, National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating on how the man had got infected with the virus. No other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally, it said. H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low. There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry. <keyword id="2599676" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="H5N8">H5N8</keyword> is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus). While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China's Shenyang city. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-photos-alternatives-are-hardly-any-good/articleshow/83138238.cms">Google Photos alternatives are hardly any good – here’s what made the Google service so good</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/economy/news/indias-gdp-has-contracted-five-times-since-1947-but-never-as-bad-as-7-3/articleshow/83135455.cms">India’s GDP has contracted five times since 1947, but never as bad as 7.3%</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/xiaomis-latest-wired-charging-tech-can-fully-charge-a-phone-in-just-8-minutes-and-wirelessly-in-15-minutes/articleshow/83136172.cms">Xiaomi’s latest wired charging tech can fully charge a phone in just 8 minutes and wirelessly in 15 minutes</a>

China reports first human infection with H10N3 strain of bird flu in the world

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="12616995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="omicron-variant" source="Orion">Omicron variant</keyword> has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-omicron-variant-mutations-are-concerning-2021-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">a strange set of mutations</a>. It doesn't resemble Delta, the dominant strain.</li><li>That has led scientists to wonder about its origin — namely, whether it came from <keyword id="12670487" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="humans" source="Orion">humans</keyword> or <keyword id="11897851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="animals" source="Orion">animals</keyword>.</li></ul>Omicron looks odd, even to scientists who study <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> strains.The variant has spread to nearly 30 countries since it was first detected in Botswana roughly three weeks ago. Scientists are trying to make sense of its concerning number of mutations, which could make Omicron more transmissible than Delta, rendering vaccines less effective, or leading to more severe disease. For now, those answers are pending.Omicron doesn't resemble common coronavirus variants like Alpha or Delta (still the world's dominant strain), and many of its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-omicron-variant-mutations-are-concerning-2021-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">strange mutations</a> haven't been spotted in other variants before. Scientists estimate that Omicron's <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/where-did-weird-omicron-come">closest ancestors date back to mid-2020</a>. "It's not the son or daughter of Delta," Andrew Read, who studies the <keyword id="12109010" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="evolution" source="Orion">evolution</keyword> of infectious diseases at Pennsylvania State University, told Insider. "It branched off earlier from the human lineages, so it has been somewhere for awhile. So where's that reservoir? Was it an individual person or an individual animal or a population of animals or population of people that haven't been properly sampled?"Scientists are debating the answer.One of the most promising theories is that Omicron emerged in an immunocompromised host, such as a person with an untreated HIV infection. People with weakened immune systems are common reservoirs for mutations, since their bodies often struggle to clear viruses, allowing the pathogen to replicate for months.The theory may explain why Omicron contains "such a wacko combination of mutations," Charity Dean, a former official at the California Department of Public Health, told Insider. "It's probably more likely that this was the result of ongoing molecular evolution inside a single host that spilled over into the population," she said.But some scientists aren't ready to rule out the idea that Omicron developed in an animal species. Robert Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane Medical School, <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/02/some-experts-suggest-omicron-variant-may-have-evolved-in-an-animal-host/">noted to STAT News</a> this week that Omicron carries several key mutations that could have helped the coronavirus infect rodents. "It could be that the virus moved into a wild animal population and then we didn't see it for a while and it came back — that's not a crazy hypothesis," Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Insider. "But we don't have as much evidence of that."<h2>Other coronavirus variants likely evolved in immunocompromised people</h2><div type="image" title="syphilis test" height="3072" width="4608" msid="88093752" hostid="261"></div>Omicron contains <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/health/omicron-covid-mutation-epistasis.html">50 mutations in total</a>, more than two dozen of which are brand new. To develop that many mutations, scientists say, the virus needs plenty of opportunities to replicate — a sign that Omicron likely evolved in an immunocompromised host."We don't know at the moment to any great detail how long infections can persist in individual animals of any sort, whereas we do know that immunocompromised humans can have chronic infections," Read said. A <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2031364">2020 case study</a> published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the coronavirus persisted for five months in a 45-year-old man with antiphospholipid syndrome, an immune disorder. During that time, it developed key mutations found in other variants of concern like Delta, Alpha, and Gamma.Researchers also suspect that the Alpha variant developed in an immunocompromised person.Omicron "reminds me a little bit of how the Alpha variant arose in the UK," Hibberd said. "That's why people have thought about this as perhaps originating in a single patient."<h2>The animal theory could explain the variant's early origin</h2><div type="image" title="mink covid-19" height="2000" width="3000" msid="88093754" hostid="261"></div>Still, scientists say it's theoretically possible for the coronavirus to chronically infect animals. Outbreaks in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/47/e2114828118#ref-24">white-tailed deer last winter</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/coronavirus-rips-through-dutch-mink-farms-triggering-culls-prevent-human-infections">Dutch mink farms in June 2020</a> may be evidence of that — though Hibberd and others remain skeptical."I don't see why the virus would have an easier time in an animal than in a human," Hibberd said. "We did see that in Europe a little bit with the mink infection and we were worried about those variants that got passed through the mink outbreak, but in the end they didn't prove to be any more advantageous than the current strains."The animal theory, however, may help explain why scientists detected the first Omicron case on November 9, when the variant's lineage dates back to last year. Had Omicron been lurking in animals, it would have been particularly difficult to spot."The surveillance in humans has only recently ramped up to something that we're not embarrassed about," Read said. "The surveillance in animals is an awful long way away."<h2>It's probably too late to find 'patient zero'</h2><div type="image" title="south africa flight omicron" height="3581" width="5371" msid="88093757" hostid="261"></div>Scientists may never know Omicron's origin."If we actually found the Omicron variant in a wildlife population, that would obviously be a smoking gun," Read said. But, he added that the variant's continued spread increases the odds that it will spill over to animal species eventually, if it hasn't already. That means there's a narrow window to see if animals were indeed the original hosts.Hibberd expressed reservation about scientists doing too much sampling for the variant in wild animals, since our interactions with them increase the odds of new pathogens emerging. "I don't want people going around chasing bats, for example, because we might cause more trouble than where we're trying to fix," he said. Even finding an original human host for the variant would be difficult."If we found an immunocompromised human with Omicron now, we wouldn't know whether that was patient zero," Read said. So scientists are left to wager their best guesses amid a dearth of information."My money's on the immunocompromised person, but not a lot of money," Read said.

Omicron's 'wacko' combination of mutations has scientists split over whether it developed in humans or animals

<ul class="summary-list"><li>At least nine people have died of <keyword id="12103423" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="west-nile-virus" source="Orion">West Nile virus</keyword> in the US this season.</li><li>Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, New Jersey, and Texas have reported deaths linked to the disease.</li><li>West Nile virus is typically mild but can lead to <keyword id="12103425" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="paralysis" source="Orion">paralysis</keyword> or death in severe cases.</li></ul>At least six states have reported deaths due to <a href="https://www.insider.com/states-reporting-west-nile-virus-mosquitoes-paralysis-2021-7">West Nile virus</a>, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause paralysis and swelling in the brain.Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, New Jersey, and Texas have each reported one or two deaths associated with West Nile virus this year, comprising nine deaths total, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/statsmaps/preliminarymapsdata2021/disease-cases-state-2021.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data</a> through September 7.All but seven continental US states have reported some form of West Nile virus activity, which could mean infections in mosquitoes, animals, or humans. Twenty-nine states have seen confirmed or probable human cases with symptoms.<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/index.html">West Nile virus</a> is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental US, but most people who come in contact with the virus don't get sick. About one in five people infected will come down with a fever and flu-like symptoms such as headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rashes.A handful of cases each year result in more severe illness: cases of swelling in the brain, like meningitis or encephalitis, or even paralysis. There have been at least 136 such cases in the US this year, according to the <keyword id="11917544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cdc" source="Orion">CDC</keyword> count, which includes confirmed and probable infections.State <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">health</keyword> officials across the country have issued warnings and tips for staying healthy during West Nile season. Since there is no cure or vaccine for West Nile virus, the best way to avoid infection is by preventing <keyword id="12103424" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mosquito" source="Orion">mosquito</keyword> bites.<h2>Local health departments have reported additional deaths</h2>Some state and county health departments have reported additional West Nile virus-associated deaths ahead of the CDC data.The <a href="https://www.health.nd.gov/news/first-west-nile-virus-related-death-reported-north-dakota">North Dakota Department of Health</a> announced Friday the state's first West Nile virus-related death in 2021, a resident of southwest North Dakota who was more than 60 years old.Nebraska's <a href="https://www.ketv.com/article/nebraskas-first-2021-west-nile-virus-death-reported-in-omaha-metro/37581171#">Three Rivers Health Department</a> also reported a death from West Nile virus this week. It was the first death from the disease in the state this season.Older people are at a higher risk of getting severely ill or dying of the virus, as are people with compromised immune systems, according to the CDC.Even states that have seen only a handful of human infections have cautioned at-risk residents to look out for mosquito bites this season. Massachusetts, with four human cases reported in September, raised the state risk level to "high" based on disease activity and recent rainfall."September is the month when we are most likely to see people get infected with West Nile virus," acting Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke said in a <a href="https://www.mass.gov/news/state-health-officials-announce-west-nile-virus-infection-in-an-alpaca-and-increased-risk-levels-in-massachusetts">statement</a>. "While we advise everyone to take steps to avoid mosquito bites, this is especially important if you are over the age of 50 or have an immune compromising condition."

Health officials raise the alarm about a mosquito-borne virus causing paralysis, meningitis, and death in at least 6 states

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cases of <keyword id="13900629" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="monkeypox" source="Orion">monkeypox</keyword> spreading outside of its normal area in Africa are causing concern.</li><li>The disease was first spotted in monkeys in 1958, which gave it its name.</li></ul>More than a hundred confirmed cases of <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-monkeypox-how-dangerous-symptoms-treatment-transmission-risk-2022-5">monkeypox</a> in humans have been identified outside of African countries since early May.Monkeypox cases outside of Africa are rare, so this <keyword id="12784210" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="outbreak" source="Orion">outbreak</keyword> has raised alarm bells around the world.In spite of its name, monkeypox in humans doesn't have much to do with monkeys. Here's how the disease got its misleading name. <h2>Why is it called monkeypox? </h2>Humans aren't the only primates that can catch monkeypox. Monkeys can catch it, too, and that's where the disease got its name.The virus that causes monkeypox was first spotted in 1958 among a colony of monkeys <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3635111/">used for research</a> that was imported to Denmark. The disease caused lesions that were similar to those seen in smallpox — a cousin of monkeypox — so the scientists called it monkeypox.More than a decade later, in 1970, the first <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/about.html">human case</a> of monkeypox was identified. It <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON385">was diagnosed</a> in a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "The name of this virus is a terrible misnomer. But we're not changing it today," Andrea McCollum told Insider.McCollum is an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has been investigating monkeypox outbreaks for years in several African countries.<div type="image" title="A handler holds a rat undergoing training to detect mines during a training on an inactive landmine field in Siem Reap province July 9, 2015. Gambian pouched rats were deployed to Cambodia from Tanzania in April by a Belgian non-profit organization, APOPO, to help clear mines." height="1837" width="2450" msid="91769569" hostid="261"></div><h2>Are monkeys involved in human monkeypox? </h2>The short answer is no: Monkeys likely have nothing to do with the disease humans are getting.Monkeypox is a <keyword id="14018504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="zoonotic" source="Orion">zoonotic</keyword> disease, which means that humans catch the virus from animals that are sick.Humans are thought to be exposed to the virus occasionally only by close contact with the ill animals — for instance, through <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/transmission.html">scratches, bites, or the preparation of bush meat</a>. Human-to-human transmission can happen, but is thought to be <a href="https://www.insider.com/monkeypox-symptoms-cases-europe-uk-spain-portugal-2022-5">rare</a>. We don't know exactly which species carry monkeypox in the wild. Scientists believe they are contained within West and Central Africa.But primates aren't likely to be the primary source of human infections. <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox"></a>One or several species of small rodents found in West and Central Africa are probably to blame, the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox">World Health Organization</a> said."People who are living in forested areas that come into contact with those small animals occasionally get infected," said Jimmy Whitworth, an infectious-disease expert and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "That's the normal way in which we see human cases."This hypothesis is supported by an outbreak of monkeypox in the US in 2003. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-the-us-handled-its-first-ever-monkeypox-outbreak-2022-5">cases</a> were linked back to prairie dogs that had been exposed to a Gambian pouched rat imported from West Africa.This latest monkeypox outbreak, happening away from identifiable vector animals in West Africa, is concerning officials. Humans in Europe and North America — some with no recent travel history in the countries where monkeypox is endemic — now appear to be transmitting the disease to <a href="https://www.insider.com/monkeypox-gay-bisexual-men-affected-but-who-warns-stigma-2022-5">each other</a>. Transmission seems to be happening via close <a href="https://www.insider.com/cdc-monkeypox-may-have-been-circulating-for-months-2022-5">skin-to-skin contact</a> with infected lesions on their bodies.

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