Laboratory capacity building in Asia for infectious disease research: experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN).

Heiman Wertheim and colleagues discuss a network that aims to improve infectious disease management through integrated, collaborative clinical research in South East Asia.

A real-time RT-PCR for detection of clade 1 and 2 H5N1 influenza A virus using locked nucleic acid (LNA) TaqMan probes.

Background: The emergence and co-circulation of two different clades (clade 1 and 2) of H5N1 influenza viruses in Vietnam necessitates the availability of a diagnostic assay that can detect both variants.

Results: We developed a single real-time RT-PCR assay for detection of both clades of H5N1 viruses, directly from clinical specimens, using locked nucleic acid TaqMan probes. Primers and probe used in this assay were designed based on a highly conserved region in the HA gene of H5N1 viruses.

Factors associated with case fatality of human H5N1 virus infections in Indonesia: a case series.

Background: Indonesia has had the most human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) and one of the highest case-fatality rates worldwide. We described the factors associated with H5N1 case-fatality in Indonesia.

Methods: Between June, 2005, and February, 2008, there were 127 confirmed H5N1 infections.

Periodic re-emergence of endemic strains with strong epidemic potential-a proposed explanation for the 2004 Indonesian dengue epidemic.

Indonesia experienced a severe dengue epidemic in the first quarter of 2004 with 58,301 cases and 658 deaths reported to the WHO. All four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes were detected, with DENV-3 the predominant strain. To ascertain the molecular epidemiology of the DENV associated with the epidemic, complete genomes of 15 isolates were sequenced from patient serum collected in Jakarta during the epidemic, and two historical DENV-3 isolates from previous epidemics in 1988 and 1998 were selectively sequenced for comparative studies.

Epidemiology of cases of H5N1 virus infection in Indonesia, July 2005-June 2006.

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus was detected in domestic poultry in Indonesia beginning in 2003 and is now widespread among backyard poultry flocks in many provinces. The first human case of H5N1 virus infection in Indonesia was identified in July 2005.

Methods: Respiratory specimens were collected from persons with suspected H5N1 virus infection and were tested by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and viral culture.

Three Indonesian clusters of H5N1 virus infection in 2005.

Background: Since 2003, the widespread ongoing epizootic of avian influenza A (H5N1) among poultry and birds has resulted in human H5N1 cases in 10 countries. The first case of H5N1 virus infection in Indonesia was identified in July 2005.

Methods: We investigated three clusters of Indonesian cases with at least two ill persons hospitalized with laboratory evidence of H5N1 virus infection from June through October 2005.

Lack of transmission of H5N1 avian-human reassortant influenza viruses in a ferret model.

Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses continue to spread globally among birds, resulting in occasional transmission of virus from infected poultry to humans. Probable human-to-human transmission has been documented rarely, but H5N1 viruses have not yet acquired the ability to transmit efficiently among humans, an essential property of a pandemic virus. The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 were caused by avian-human reassortant influenza viruses that had acquired human virus-like receptor binding properties.

Four dengue virus serotypes found circulating during an outbreak of dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever in Jakarta, Indonesia, during 2004.

Periodic outbreaks of dengue have emerged in Indonesia since 1968, with the severity of resulting disease increasing in subsequent years. In early 2004, a purported dengue outbreak erupted across the archipelago, with over 50,000 cases and 603 deaths reported. To confirm the disease aetiology and to provide an epidemiological framework of this epidemic, an investigation was conducted in ten hospitals within the capital city of Jakarta.