No need to panic, but perhaps there's a need to
stay on top of the still-evolving H5N1 (bird flu) situation.
"
Infections in birds and people are increasing, particularly in Asia,
where the virus was first identified a decade ago. Viet Nam, Hong
Kong, South Korea, Japan and Nigeria reported diseased birds in the
past month, while Indonesia, China and Egypt found new human cases." (quote from
International Society for Infectious Diseases report, Feb. 16, 2007).
If keeping track via
FluWiki or the many
discussion groups isn't your thing, you could just check for the
the flashing red chickens every so often :-)
posted by Quiplash
on Jan 17, 2007 -
25 comments
The 1918 strain of flu lives again. Newsfilter or not, according to a paper published in
Science, a team of U.S. researchers has managed to recreate the Spanish flu. Bits of the original virus were taken from the remains of victims from that outbreak and reconstructed in mice. To the surprise of probably no one, the 1918 flu has several elements common with bird flus and was probably originally avian in origin.
posted by staresbynight
on Oct 5, 2005 -
45 comments
Over the past month, people in
Qinghai province, China have been reporting that migratory birds in the mostly-rural region were dropping dead of an unknown disease, later diagnosed as a few hundred cases of
"an isolated case" [sic] of
influenza strain H5N1, a.k.a.
bird flu. Three weeks later,
the Chinese government admitted that
actually about a thousand birds had died of bird flu in the province. Now there are reports saying
that at least 8,000 animals--not just birds--have died from the flu, including not only breeds of fowl not previously known to be affected by the virus, but non-avian species, too.
Every national park and bird sanctuary in China has been
closed for weeks, since the first reports surfaced of an outbreak. But today, disturbing photos started appearing on Chinese language news websites, supposedly taken at the closed
Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. They appear to show
thousands of dead birds (
warning, disturbing images -
Engrish version via Babelfish here) on the island in the middle of Qinghai Lake, China's largest saltwater lake and a rest-stop for migratory birds from all across southeast Asia. Nervous pandemic-watchers
are debating whether the photos are real or doctored, but compared to
previous photos of the
once-lively birding spot, something definitely seems to be wrong.
[ much more inside >> ]
posted by Asparagirl
on Jun 5, 2005 -
42 comments
