Maria Cheng
Maria Cheng
announced cases turkish
These are all cases that have already been announced (by Turkish authorities).
alert cases couple elevate global last needs pandemic phase risk
Right now these new cases in Turkey, they don't elevate the global risk assessment, so we're still in the same pandemic alert phase that we've been in for the last couple of years. But it's something that needs to be monitored very closely.
cases gaps given human humans isolated points seeing serious situation surprised
We shouldn't be seeing human cases first, and this points to serious gaps in surveillance. But given the situation in Turkey, I don't think we'd be surprised to see isolated humans cases in surrounding areas.
cases information
We don't have any information about cases actually in the capital.
cases determine exposure mode rapidly seen situation source whether
We'd like to see all these cases investigated rapidly so that we can determine what the mode of transmission was, what the source of exposure was, and whether or not there were any characteristics of the situation that are different from what we've seen in Asia.
boy cases confirmed include south suspect three
There is one confirmed case, the girl, and three suspect cases under investigation who have died. They include her uncle, the boy in the south and another case.
beijing cases exposure history human identified informed office province seems somebody
Our office in Beijing was informed of this today. It is in a province that hasn't identified human cases before but it is somebody who seems to have a history of exposure to poultry.
cases contain identify might rapidly spread
If we are able to identify cases rapidly enough so that we could put in these measures, they might effectively contain the spread of a pandemic,
evidence spread surprising
It would not be surprising if it had spread from Turkey, but at the same time, we have no evidence yet that it has.
fast response
The response has been very fast and very transparent.
extensive good information moment
At the moment we don't have very good information about how extensive these outbreaks are.
infected mammals means
We know that mammals can be infected by H5N1, but we don't know what this means for humans.
keen obviously samples sent
We are obviously keen to have the samples sent abroad.
changing health indication people virus workers
I think really, (illness in) people like health-care workers and first responders would be our first indication that something is changing in the virus to make it more transmissible.