August 31 Flu Update
The latest in Jacques Chirac's daily calls for world cooperation on bird flu.The CBC has this on France increasing their tamiflu stocks.
Italy is preparing for the bird flu by requesting FAO papers.
Despite warnings, hunters in Australia are goose hunting.
Iran has banned animal feed from bird flu affected countries.
Here's the Iran story from Russia's perspective, with added fears of other countries following suit.
A British biologist warns that the bird flu has the capacity to infect a wider range of animals than just birds, citing the recent civet story, among others.
The FAO warns again about the danger of wild birds spreading the bird flu through migration. This comes as some in the scientific community have been downplaying this risk.
Recombinomics on the same story.
Here's a link to maps on the FAO site.
And here's a link to an excellent map on the Recombinomics site.
Recombinomics on the possibility of wild bird flu in Thailand.
ProMed reports on Mongolia releasing news of bird flu there, praising their transparency and openness.
Crofsblogs has been encouraging people to look at the New Orleans situation as a drill for what happens during the bird flu. This must-read piece may be disturbing to some, but it is fact-driven.
Here's a monthly update from the European Public Health Alliance.So as a preview of how we might cope with a pandemic, New Orleans is discouraging. Even where hospitals are functioning with power and water, they will be overwhelmed with patients. Law enforcement and firefighting will be diverted to protecting goods on shelves instead of people in sickbeds. Just before the drugstores are raided for Tamiflu, the gun shops will be raided for weapons.
Rather than leave the bottom 10 or 20 percent of the population to fend for itself, authorities should recall that the poor we always have with us, and they have just as much right to protection as everyone else. To ignore them is to breach a social contract that gives them little enough, and ensures still more anarchy.
In his book The Great Influenza, John M. Bryan points out that in general, rich and poor alike suffered Spanish flu and received roughly similar care—such as it was. But he also quotes Victor Vaughan, the head of the US Army's Division of Communicable Disease, watching the progress of the disease:
"If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration, civilization could easily disappear...from the face of the earth within a matter of a few more weeks."
Crofsblog also has the news of a mysterious pig die-off in Vietnam.
Silviu at Avian Flu has the news of more infections in Japan.
posted by Orange @ 6:23 AM
1 Comments:
"John M. Bryan"
John M. Barry. Same guy who wrote Rising Tide, the 1927 Mississippi flood history.
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