The Coming Influenza Pandemic?: December 2004

Thursday, December 30, 2004

WHO Avian Flu Press Release Leads 12/30 news

WHO Press release on Avian Flu

Young Girl in Vietnam in critical condition with H5N1. Vietnam forced to admit bird flu not under control in that country.

H7 and H9 now reportable in Hong Kong based on WHO consultation. Only now?

China reports basic surveillance as "ringing alarm" against pandemic.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Today's Flu Digest--December 29, 2004

CBC reports that China is increasing its surveillance of its border with Vietnam. Some people believe that flu pandemics have always started in Southern China.

Bird Flu can now be detected faster, helping containment efforts

Birds, Pigs, and now dogs. Researchers are studying how a virus jumped from cats to dogs to see how it might similarly jump from birds to people.

Bird Flu can now be detected faster, helping containment efforts

5:14 Update
Thailand and Vietnam Battle Bird Flu"

Two new bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam"

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

The Race is On

CTV of Canada tells the story of scientists racing a virus. Increasingly alarmed, the race is on to learn how the avian flu could mutate to a human form. If it does, it unleashes a virus which no one on earth would be immune to.

Report from WHO Conference

Who's grim prediction and reliance on Asia

Tet monitoring in Vietnam

Vietnam carerfully monitoring bird flu leading up to Tet, a major holiday that could be a veritable viral mixing bowl.

Thailand.

Thailand is also working on bird flu efforts and could be hampered by the tsunami.

Sri Lankan mystery fever

Sri Lanka says its mystery fever is not the flu. If these is flu in Sri Lanka, what will the severe natural disaster due to complicate efforts to fight its spread or even to monitor its presence?

A New Vaccine Approach?

Husband and Wife Team with new Flu Vaccine approach that doesn't focus on antibodies, but rather on focusing on blocking the receptors to prevent flu attachment at the point of entry.

Politics and the Flu

Politics and the Flu in Taiwan

Monday, December 27, 2004

Japan Bird Flu Case Discovered

Bird Flu in Japan

The BBC and others have reported bird flu in Japan, which is a first.

The Coming Influenza Pandemic?

Is a global influenza pandemic on the way that could kill millions of people? Are we going to relive the horror of 1918? If it happens, are we even remotely prepared to save ourselves? Scientists from around the world are concerned about bird flu...since 2004 our site has tracked news of H5N1 influenza from around the world.

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FluWiki online.
Wikipedia on Influenza
CDC Flu Page
WHO Flu Page
CDC Avian Influenza
New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell on the search for the flu in permafrost
New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell on Flu as our most deadly contagion
The Planning and Politics behind the flu from Greenhammer
Preparing for the Next Pandemic
Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H.
New England Journal of Medicine, May 5, 2005
Is there anything we can do to avoid this course? The answer is a qualified yes that depends on how everyone, from world leaders to local elected officials, decides to respond. We need bold and timely leadership at the highest levels of the governments in the developed world; these governments must recognize the economic, security, and health threats posed by the next influenza pandemic and invest accordingly. The resources needed must be considered in the light of the eventual costs of failing to invest in such an effort. The loss of human life even in a mild pandemic will be devastating, and the cost of a world economy in shambles for several years can only be imagined.
ABC Primetime, September 2005
"Right now in human beings, it kills 55 percent of the people it infects," says Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow on global health policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. "That makes it the most lethal flu we know of that has ever been on planet Earth affecting human beings."
Dr. Robert Webster
Society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. And I think we have to face that possibility," Webster said. "I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role.
Dr. Robert Fedson
"There is nothing in Darwinian evolution that says that our DNA has to survive compared to say the DNA of an earthworm. I mean Darwinian evolution is completely indifferent to which DNA happens to persist. We are not necessarily unique as a species as far as evolution is concerned and we can disappear like other species have already disappeared."

The Coming Influenza Pandemic?