Tuesday, April 18, 2006

April 18 Flu Update

Vietnam poster educates on thorough cooking of chicken.


A new country hit---The Sudan reports one human and five bird cases.

A 21M, a Chinese migrant worker, is critically ill with bird flu.

CIDRAP on China and the Sudan.

ProMed on China and Sudan, and a world overview.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread to 20 new countries in just 6 weeks, Nabarro said. "We think it probably went into Cote D'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, in the past few days," he said. [So far, the outbreak in Ivory Coast remains to be confirmed; see further also about suspected outbreaks in Sudan, Africa's largest country. - Mod.AS]


"It's a most extraordinarily rapid movement that we have seen," he told the conference. The virus seems to be carried partly by the poultry trade and partly by migrating birds, Nabarro said.
Recombinomics on the Sudan.

Whatever happened to the migratory bird debate...the EU's Food Safety group issued a statement that settled the whole thing.

According to the AHAW Panel, some species of wild birds (mainly waterfowl such as ducks and swans) are definitely carrying H5N1 and are considered to be responsible for its introduction in the EU. There is increasing evidence that H5N1 can be present in several species of wild birds (e.g. ducks, sparrows, swans) without them showing clinical signs. There is therefore a high probability that the virus could be carried over long distances by wild birds (especially migratory birds).

Paul Wolfowitz says $500M has been set aside at the World Bank to help the bird flu fight, citing potential economic disaster.

Late last year I got some emails from An American living in the Czech Republic...and I fully understood the fear that you could get trapped in a foreign country, unable to travel home. Britain is now sending similar messages to its expat community.

Yesterday, countries were saying that they wondered if they could ever be H5N1 free...yet Indonesia says it will be bird flu free and is winning the battle.

India is continuing its flu control efforts.

International experts are travelling to Vietnam to learn how to fight the bird flu.

Very odd Nigerian fact sheet on bird flu.

CIDRAP on yesterday's report about healthcare workers staying home in a pandemic.

A market study says the flu therapy market is being driven by fear and a constrained market.

Effect Measure on the loss of wetlands, how it relates to the flu, and how it may drive birds closer to people.

Roche revenues up 61% over Q1 05.

$1million was invested in a green vaccine process.

ABC has unveiled is top secret sweeps project....A BIRD FLU MADE FOR TV MOVIE! It will have to work to be as good as the CBC version.

2 Comments:

At 1:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re your American correspondent from the Czech Republic. I'm an ex-pat living in Slovenia and I'm putting money away in order to get my two grown kids and their families from the United States to here before the borders close. There is a sense of community engagement and communal competence here like I never experienced in all my years in the USA.

 
At 1:36 PM, Blogger Orange said...

Thanks for that perspective. Very interesting. And thanks for reading.

 

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