Harbinger of bird flu pandemic

The Washington Post reports that a mystery illness has killed nine farmers and sickened others in Sichuan, China. These deaths may be linked to the deadly strain of influenza that has killed nearly 60 people in Southeast Asia.

Disturbingly, the Chinese authorities may not be cooperating fully with global public health authorities.

U.N. officials and independent researchers have complained that the Chinese government has not fully responded to urgent requests by the World Health Organization and other international health groups for information about the three outbreaks, including samples of the virus found, analyses of its genetic makeup and details about the extent of the infection and efforts to contain it.

It's not like global public health authorities are being models of proactivity, either.

If you're interested in the bird flu issue, The Flu Wiki is an invaluable resource.

Comments

[Njorl]

Saw on the news this evening that 3 Indonesians (father and 2 sons) died of bird flu, with no evidence that they contracted it from birds.

[njorl]

Found it in the Times. Was father and 2 daughters, not sons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/international/asia/21flu.html?oref=login

[njorl]

Oh, in case it wasn't obvious, bird-human strains of flu are bad. Human-Human strains of flu are much, much worse.

[Craig Shergold]

This disease outbreak actually looks like Congo-Crimean fever, a sibling of Ebola and Marburg that is known in China.

[Flint]

Mother nature would seem about to cull the herd. It is over due from a statistical point of view. Like the "big One" that they have predicted on the San Andreas fault... virologist have also saying that we are long over due for a major pandemic plague.

One program that I watched on the subject had the head of the CDC and the US Armys biological warfare unit both saying that in the last thirty years we have seen a rather large spike in the number of Phase Four viruses (airborne) and they are increasing their rate of mutation. They speculated about it and high on the list was ozone layer depletion and increases in solar radiation.

There has been an Ebola outbreak in the US, although it was never made public. A friend who is a hospital VP and specializes in infectious diseases told me that a primate lab in Washington was effected and they showed up with flame throwers and torched the place.

They were projecting 100 million dead if it makes the jump to airborne for the bird flu. They also seem certain that it will make this jump. Pretty scarey stuff if true.

[Global Citizen]

It gets worse. Apparently, the Chinese have been feeding their chickens Tamiflu, leading to a resistance of the virus to the only known treatment. The Brits gave us MRSA (flesh eating bacteria) and the Chinese are giving us a virus that could kill millions, and it will mutate and make the jump. Viruses are brutal little DNA fragments in a hard chitin shell just waiting to plug into a cellular substrate and replicate until the cell literally explodes. Everyone should be scared, and everyone should have a supply of N-95 respirator masks. If I sound paranoid, it is because I am terrified. I've been a medical lab professional for too long not to be.

[mlah]

i've heard estimates as high as 300 million deaths.

[BritGirlSF]

From an epidemiological perspective we are overdue for a pandemic. Bird flu might just be it. That is if global warming doesn't get us first.
It's sad to say but I'm almost completely convinced that the human race won't make it to the next millenia. We've been abusing nature for too long, at some point the bill is going to arrive and it won't be pretty.

[Michèle]

I read your stupid comment at Washington Monthly about Boom Town. I don't think people dying is funny in any way. Why do you? Are you a sociopath or just a psychopath?

[BritGirlSF]

Michele, who are you talking to? It's not at all clear from your comment.

[Marc]

Michele: cross-blog stalking is in bad form too.
Satire can be in bad taste. Bad taste does not make you a lunatic.

[Eli (creepandblink)]

I'm not sure if the relevant pun was really satire. But it certainly wasn't evidence of sociopathy, either, so you're right there.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Michele, why don't you email me directly? I'm always happy to listen to readers' opinions. This is a thread about H5N1 influenza, or maybe about Congo-Crimean fever.

[Michele]

Bad taste is making fun of people dying.

[disco]

disco
dewane@yahoo.com
http://www.dummy.com
its really good

[King George]

I, in my search for the David Lynch comic: "the angriest dog in world", have inadvertantly staggered onto a website full of moronic, what i would assume to be, college students. Rather then vacate the the site and search for some porn, i lingered awhile and realised, after the hysteria had subsided, that college students, particularily american ones, are clearly not as smart as i once thought.

"If Global Warming doesn't get us first"??? What the fuck!!!??

There are at least 5 posts debating the intentions of one post, as to whether or not it can be regarded as satire. Then one post goes as far as to delve in the realms of sociopathy. The guy made a joke. Take your pompous, self-righteous, pseudo intellectual fingers out of your puckered anuses. Then read it again. See now it's funny.

Ok. My fingers are tired, my point was not made as succintly as i had hoped. But it has been made.

POST SCRIPT: Fuck you all :-) lol! lol! lol! lamfo!!!

[King George]

People die. It's the one progression that unites all living things on this earth. Possibly the only thing that all ethnic and cultural groups have in common. We die. Should it not be obvious then, in light (excuse the pun) of the fact the death is the "great leveller", that we make fun of it. It scares us all, so we make a joke or two, take the edge off it's severity. This point is hightened when one takes the context of the joke - in the face of an impending fucking epidemic. Can you blame anyone for wanting to take the edge off that?