Alaska The Frontier To Guard Against Spread Of ‘Bird Flu’ Flu From Asia Often Lands Here First, Doctors On Lookout

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has chosen Alaska as one of the world’s 150 watchtower sites to gauge whether the deadly “bird flu” lurks anywhere besides Hong Kong.

Alaska’s proximity to Asia and the fact that flu strains often are detected here before other parts of the country are the main reasons the state was selected, said Don Ritter, manager of the state’s virology laboratory.

“Because we’re a major transportation hub for the Pacific Rim, there’s an opportunity for influenza to travel here,” he said.

What’s more, flu bugs thrive in Alaska. Cold weather forces people indoors for long periods, providing plenty of opportunity for the virus to spread.

While your run-of-the-mill flu is all over Alaska right now, Ritter and his staff have been asked to be on the lookout for any unusual strains. The CDC sent Ritter a special diagnostic kit last week.

Doctors are encouraged to take throat swabs of suspected flu sufferers, pack them in vials and send them to the virology lab in Fairbanks. If clinicians there don’t recognize the germ under the microscope, they’ll use the new CDC kit to see if bird flu has made its way to Alaska.

Clinicians will automatically use the kit if the flu sufferer recently traveled from Hong Kong, Ritter said. And if that person had contact with birds, the case goes to the top of the list.

The strain they’re watching out for is A H5N1 - a bird flu not seen in humans until this summer. Scientists believe it originated in southern Chinese chickens sent to Hong Kong, where 17 people are known to have been infected, four of whom died. Six others are suspected of having the flu.

Among the recorded cases, more than half were young children. Alarmed by the viciousness of the virus, the Hong Kong government this week ordered all the territory’s chickens slaughtered.

So far, scientists believe the victims have gotten sick directly from chickens. And while there’s no proof that the virus spreads from person to person, the major concern is that it will mutate, said Anchorage medical officer Bruce Chandler, who gets weekly updates from the World Health Organization.

The question is, has it - or will it - spread from Hong Kong to America? If so, few Americans are closer to that part of the world than Alaskans.

The world’s last two killer influenza outbreaks emerged from the Far East: the Asian flu in 1957, and the Hong Kong flu in 1968. Experts were predicting another deadly epidemic when people started getting sick with A H5N1, Ritter said.

Bird flu symptoms start out similar to those of the common flu - muscle aches, chills, a sore throat and fever. But it often evolves into severe upper respiratory problems like pneumonia, Chandler said.

Until now, most flu strains could be traced to pigs in Asia that caught otherwise harmless viruses from wild ducks and humans, Ritter said. Once the two viruses came together, a new flu strain was born inside the pig.

“How it jumped directly from birds to humans is anyone’s guess,” he said.