Maria Cheng
Maria Cheng
extensive good information moment
At the moment we don't have very good information about how extensive these outbreaks are.
common draw either exposure human hypothesis information possible poultry sick
It is possible that they all had common exposure to sick poultry but it is also possible there may have been human to human transmission. We don't have enough information to draw a hypothesis either way.
information
We don't have enough information to make any kind of hypothesis.
dangerous information suggest virus
We don't have any information to suggest that this virus is more pathogenic or dangerous than other viruses.
cases information
We don't have any information about cases actually in the capital.
including people similar somewhat symptoms three
There have been three deaths, with symptoms somewhat similar to H5N1 infection. Other people are still in hospital, including one who is very sick.
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.
birds concern contact humans infected mean obviously seen virus worldwide
We've never seen so many outbreaks of the same virus in so many different regions. Our concern obviously is that humans could potentially come into contact with birds infected with H5N1, which would mean populations worldwide are potentially at risk.
cats exposed fall means people role virus
But we don't know what this means for humans. We don't know if they would play a role in transmitting the disease. We don't know how much virus the cats would excrete, how much people would need to be exposed to before they would fall ill.
across difficult larger matter opportunity rapidly short spread start stop surprised window within worldwide
But this is a very short window of opportunity here. Because influenza spreads so rapidly we wouldn't be surprised to see this spread worldwide within a matter of weeks.Ê.Ê.Ê. Once we start to see this in a larger area, across borders, then it will be very difficult to stop it.
changed gone largely moment reason situation team virus whether
But at the moment we don't know enough about the situation to tell whether or not the virus has changed in some way. And that's largely the reason the team has gone in.
clinical course died illness laboratory probable prove similar symptoms test
She had similar symptoms and the clinical course of her illness was the same. So it would be very probable that she died of H5N1, but right now we don't have the laboratory test to prove that.
given since talking
Since we've been talking about this containment strategy, we've given the very big qualifier that we think it may fail.