Altho Tamiflu can be purchased,
with a prescription, over the net from
Canadian & US pharmacies, here's a report that ABC Primetime
recently did on
insufficient supplies of Tamiflu (about the only effective
treatment for
bird flu in humans): HYPERLINK
"
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Investigation/story?id=1130392&page=1"http:
//abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Investigation/story?id=1130392&page=1
A New Deadly, Contagious Dog Flu
Virus Is Detected in 7 States
New York Times
HYPERLINK
"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/national/22canine.html"http://www.nytimes
.com/2005/09/22/national/22canine.html
By Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Carin Rubenstein
Published: September 22, 2005
A new, highly contagious and sometimes deadly canine flu is
spreading in
kennels and at dog tracks around the country, veterinarians said
yesterday.
The virus, which scientists say mutated from an influenza strain
that
affects horses, has killed racing greyhounds in seven states and
has been
found in shelters and pet shops in many places, including the New
York
suburbs, though the extent of its spread is unknown.
Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's
College
of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said that it
spread most
easily where dogs were housed together but that it could also be
passed on
the street, in dog runs or even by a human transferring it from
one dog to
another. Kennel workers have carried the virus home with them,
she said.
How many dogs die from the virus is unclear, but scientists said
the
fatality rate is more than 1 percent and could be as high as 10
percent
among puppies and older dogs.
Dr. Crawford first began investigating greyhound deaths in January
2004 at a
racetrack in Jacksonville, Fla., where 8 of the 24 greyhounds who
contracted
the virus died.
"This is a newly emerging pathogen," she said, "and we have very
little
information to make predictions about it. But I think the fatality
rate is
between 1 and 10 percent."
She added that because
dogs had no natural
immunity to the virus, virtually
every animal exposed would be infected. About 80 percent of dogs
that are
infected with the virus will develop symptoms, Dr. Crawford said.
She added
that the symptoms were often mistaken for "kennel cough," a common
canine
illness that is caused by the bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria.
Both diseases can cause coughing and gagging
for up to three weeks, but dogs
with canine flu may spike fevers as high as 106 degrees and have
runny
noses. A few will develop pneumonia, and some of those cases will
be fatal.
Antibiotics and fluid cut the pneumonia fatality rate, Dr.
Crawford said.
The virus is an H3N8 flu closely related to an equine flu strain.
It is not
related to typical human flus or to the H5N1 avian flu that has
killed about
100 people in Asia.
Experts said there were no known cases of the canine flu infecting
humans.
"The risk of that is low, but we are keeping an eye on it," said
Dr. Ruben
Donis, chief of molecular genetics for the influenza branch of the
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, which is tracking the illness.
But with the approach of the human flu season and fears about bird
flu in
Asia, there is much confusion among some dog owners who have heard
about the
disease.
Dr. Crawford said she was fielding calls from kennels and
veterinarians
across the country worried that they were having outbreaks.
"The hysteria out there is unbelievable, and the misinformation is
incredible," said Dr. Ann E. Hohenhaus, chief of medicine at the
Animal
Medical Center in New York.
Dr. Hohenhaus said she had heard of an alert from a Virginia dog
club
reporting rumors that 10,000 show dogs had died.
"We don't believe that's true," she said, adding that no dogs in
her
Manhattan hospital even had coughs.
Dr. Donis of the disease control centers said that there was
currently no
vaccine for the canine flu. But he said one would be relatively
easy to
develop. The canine flu is less lethal than parvovirus, which
typically
kills puppies but can be prevented by routine vaccination.
Laboratory tests, Dr. Donis said, have shown that the new flu is
susceptible
to the two most common antiviral drugs, amantidine and Tamiflu,
but those
drugs are not licensed for use in dogs.
The flu has killed greyhounds at tracks in Florida, Massachusetts,
Arizona,
West Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas and Iowa. Tracks and kennels have
been
forced to shut down for weeks for disinfection.
In Chestnut Ridge, north of New York City, about 88 dogs became
sick by
early September, and 15 percent of those required hospitalization,
said
Debra Bennetts, a spokeswoman for Best Friends Pet Care, a chain
of boarding
kennels. The kennel was vacated for decontamination by Sept. 17.
About 17 of the infected dogs were treated at the Oradell Animal
Hospital in
Paramus, N.J., where one died and two more were still
hospitalized, a staff
veterinarian said.
The Best Friends chain owns 41 other kennels in 18 states, and no
others
have had an outbreak, Dr. Larry J. Nieman, the company's
veterinarian, said.
In late July, at Gracelane Kennels in Ossining, N.Y., about 35
dogs showed
symptoms, said the owner, Bob Gatti, and he closed the kennel for
three
weeks to disinfect.
About 25 of the dogs were treated by an Ossining veterinarian,
Glenn M.
Zeitz, who said two of them had died.
"The dogs came in very sick, with high fevers and very high white
blood cell
counts," Dr. Zeitz said, making him suspicious that they had
something worse
than kennel cough.
A spokesman for the New York City Health Department said that
there were "a
few confirmed cases" in New York but that the city was not yet
tracking the
disease.
Veterinarians voluntarily sent samples to the Animal Health
Diagnostic
Center at the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine, which was the
only
laboratory doing blood tests.
