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A deadly strain of avian influenza virus has killed more than 1,500 ostriches on two farms in South Africa in recent days and health officials are preparing to kill 30,000 ostriches to stop transmission elsewhere, South African and United Nations health officials said yesterday. The strain affecting ostriches has never been known to infect humans, Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's chief influenza specialist, said by telephone from its headquarters in Geneva. Nevertheless, United Nations officials are urging South Africa to impose strict biosafety measures to prevent spread of the virus and to closely monitor people for possible A(H5N2) infections. The A(H5N2) strain was detected at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South Africa by identifying certain amino acids in the virus that characterize it as highly pathogenic, or deadly strain, Dr. Stohr said. The findings were confirmed at the Veterinary Public Health Laboratory in Weybridge, England, which is part of an international network

The ostrich outbreak was detected on Aug. 2 in Eastern Cape Province, but infection probably began on July 21. Of 9,000 susceptible ostriches on the two farms, 1,500 became ill and 1,000 died, said Dr. Emily Mmamakgaba Mogajane, assistant director general in National Regulatory Services of the National Department of Agriculture. United Nations officials have warned that the strain found in Southeast Asia is a potential threat to human health. In a worst-case situation, if an individual became infected with both the A(H5N1) avian virus and a human influenza virus, the viruses could swap genes to create a new virus and cause a global epidemic

The spread of polio to Guinea and Mali brings to 12 the number of previously polio-free African countries that have experienced an outbreak of the disease since January 2003. The spread also deals another serious setback to the agency's efforts to eradicate the disease by year's end, a goal that is hampered by a funding gap of $100 million. Guinea and Mali are outside a ring of countries that conducted synchronized polio vaccination programs last winter in an attempt to create an immunologic firewall to limit the spread of the disease from Nigeria and Niger. Polio was last reported from Guinea in October 1999 and from Mali in January 1999. In addition to Guinea and Mali, the countries to which polio has spread from Nigeria are: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Togo

Guinea and Mali are outside a ring of countries that had conducted synchronized polio vaccination programs last winter in an attempt to limit the spread of the disease from Nigeria and Niger. Polio was last reported from Guinea in October 1999 and from Mali in January 1999. In addition to Guinea and Mali, the countries to which polio has spread from Nigeria are: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Togo. Map of Africa highlighting polio-endemic countries (Niger and Nigeria) and countries reporting new cases (Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Sudan, Central African Rep. and Botswana)

Guinea's last polio case was in October of 1999; Mali's was in January 1999. Before the latest cases were confirmed, the World Health Organization had planned additional synchronized vaccination programs in 22 countries, including Guinea and Mali, in October and November. The program aims to immunize 74 million children younger than 5 years old. The outbreak originated in northern Nigeria, where the government of the Kano state had banned polio immunizations, the health organization said. Religious and political leaders there opposed polio immunization, contending that the vaccine made girls sterile and could spread the AIDS virus. As of Aug. 24, there were 602 polio cases worldwide. Of them, 476, or 80 percent, were in Nigeria. Ninety percent were in Africa, where all but two countries Nigeria and Niger had been freed of polio

Whether cats can transmit the virus strain, A(H5N1), to humans is not known. The World Health Organization of the United Nations has received no reports that cats played a role in afflicting the 35 people who have developed A(H5N1) infection, all in Thailand and Vietnam, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the agency in Geneva. Those cases were traced chiefly to direct contact with sick birds. Many influenza experts and health officials fear a worst-case occurrence in which a person becomes infected with both an avian influenza virus and a human one. Under such a circumstance, the viruses might swap genes, creating a new virus that could cause an epidemic all over the planet. The laboratory that reported the new findings, which is in Rotterdam, has done research on A(H5N1) since 1997, when its scientists detected the strain in a child who had died of the disease in Hong Kong. A month later, scientists identified the A(H5N1) virus in three dead cats, and in a white tiger that recovered after becoming ill in the same zoo where the leopard died. The cats belonged to a Thai woman who had 15 in all, 14 of which apparently died of avian flu, although the remains of only those three could be found for testing. The woman did not develop bird flu

Whether cats can transmit the virus strain, A(H5N1), to humans is not known. The World Health Organization has received no reports that cats played a role in afflicting the 35 people who have developed A(H5N1) infection, all in Thailand and Vietnam, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the agency in Geneva. Those cases were traced chiefly to direct contact with sick birds. A month later, scientists identified the A(H5N1) virus in three dead cats, and in a white tiger that recovered after becoming ill in the same zoo where the leopard died. The cats belonged to a Thai woman who had 15 in all, 14 of which apparently died of avian flu, although the remains of only those 3 could be found for testing. The woman did not develop bird flu. First, Dr. [Thijs Kuiken]'s team introduced the Vietnamese virus into the airways of three European shorthair cats, the breed generally used in animal experiments. All three became sick beginning the next day, and one died on the sixth day of illness. In comparison, none of three cats infected with the most common type of human influenza virus became ill

In a coronary bypass operation, cardiac surgeons open the chest. Though procedures vary according to different factors, surgeons in many cases then isolate one or two internal mammary arteries from beneath the breastbone and connect the cut end to a point beyond the blockage in a coronary artery. In addition, the surgeons may take a vein or artery from elsewhere in the body, connect one end to the aorta, the main artery emerging from the heart, then connect the other end at a point beyond the blocked coronary artery. There, doctors advised him to undergo bypass surgery after he underwent a procedure known as a coronary angiogram. In it, doctors insert a thin tube into an artery near the groin and thread it up to the coronary arteries. Then doctors inject a dye to determine the contour of the coronary arteries and the location of any blockages. ''I think it's unlikely the diet would have had any major impact on his developing the coronary artery disease,'' said Dr. Robert Robbins, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. ''Obviously, it's been developing over a period of many years and is related to his genetic predisposition for coronary artery disease and environmental factors such as his heavy weight and his proclivity for McDonald's and junk food.''

In the Dutch study, some cats with the infection died of it, while others survived. A few did not even show any symptoms that they were carrying the disease. Whether cats can transmit the virus strain, A(H5N1), to humans is not known. The World Health Organization of the United Nations has received no reports that cats played a role in afflicting the 35 people who have developed A(H5N1) infection, all in Thailand and Vietnam, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the agency in Geneva. Those cases were traced chiefly to direct contact with sick birds. Many influenza experts and health officials fear a worst-case occurrence in which a person becomes infected with both an avian influenza virus and a human one. Under such a circumstance, the viruses might swap genes, creating a new virus that could cause an epidemic all over the planet much like that of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which killed more than 20 million around the world, including 675,000 in the United States

The vaccine problems raise concern because Chiron, the world's fifth-largest vaccine manufacturer, is under contract with the United States government to produce pilot supplies of human vaccines against two strains of avian influenza, which has spread widely in Asia. The pilot vaccines are needed because health officials around the world have expressed fears that in a worst-case scenario, the avian strains could mutate to cause a human pandemic. The rates of adverse reactions were significantly higher among the children receiving the Chiron vaccine, which is made in Italy, than among children who received a vaccine made by another company, the Brazilian representative of the Pan American Health Organization said. The organization, part of the World Health Organization, supplies the vaccine. Chiron's vaccine against the three childhood diseases is sold in Italy, Asia and South America, but not in the United States, said Ms. [Alison Marquiss]. She said the episode in Brazil was the first time any problems had been reported from Chiron's MMR vaccine