January 10 Flu Update
The 14 year old boy in Indonesia has died of bird flu.CIDRAP with bird flu news from Asia.
WHO on China.
ProMed with reports from Asia.
ProMed also reports from China. Note mod comment on unclear infection source...
Although the source of the avian influenza virus infecting the farmer in Anhui province remains obscure, it is clear from the complete recovery of the patient and the lack of secondary cases that this particular virus has not evolved any potential for person-to-person transmission.The International Herald Tribune says reports that bird flu is raging back for winter, and it could be worse than last winter.
Vietnam has its first mobile bird flu lab. It says samples can be tested in a week or two.
Indonesia says 16 of its 30 regions are flu free.
In Vietnam, the Central Region is said to be at risk for flu.
The World Bank has given grants for $28M to various nations.
NIH is touting a DNA vaccine for bird flu.
Revere looks at a recent report from a commission in Canada that looks at the SARS situation--and like many people Revere extrapolates to bird flu.
Illinois has a guide for school pandemic planning.
Sweet Briar College (no kidding) is ready for the bird flu.
In Thailand, they are wondering if a bird flu disinfectant isn't more dangerous than the bird flu.
The USAID has a new spokesperson in the fight against pandemic flu in Asia--"Superchicken."
posted by Orange @ 11:04 PM
1 Comments:
Orange;
A couple of quick observations this evening about the Canadian “Campbell Commission Report” on the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto and the evidentiary breakdown in the public health system there. First is that fact that Revere points out two very critical points on this SARS subject, later in response to a blogger’s comment: We are not absolutely sure that SARS has disappeared entirely, and secondly, SARS is not nearly as contagious as say, avian influenza would be. So, could the episode repeat itself ? Yep, throughout North America and the entire world for that matter – many times over. Reports like this are not about denial - they should be truthful and ethical, and highlight specific areas of ineptness, safety breakdown, proper preparation and officials taking responsibility. Yes, mention peoples names and maybe things will get corrected.
I absolutely agree with columnist Campbell’s position that “Judge Campbell” declined to place blame on any individuals and hold them accountable – but deflected blame on millions of people who use the health care system. But hey, that seems to be the modern way these days: hold nobody accountable, blame the problem on the system, or the process (gee it was broken, kind of statement), or the general environment.
Now on to Asia situation and the spreading virus infestation there. ProMed’s statement about China is rather preposterous and naïve, to the point of being ridiculous (“it is clear…complete recovery of the patient and lack of secondary cases…that this particular virus has not evolved any potential for person-to-person transmission”). Because of the fuzzy, late and inconsistent reports of patients, vague number of suspected family members, undiagnosed number of deaths being reported – throughout all of Asia - this statement is presently absurd, because nobody at this point really knows what’s transpiring. For example, are the widespread poultry inoculation campaigns in China, Vietnam, etc, really just masking the spread of the virus ? Are the birds and humans now really carrying the virus asymptomatically, hence making it harder to spot ? There is now evidence of this all over Asia and the virus has gone “underground”.
Nobody wants to be the country to be known as the “ground zero” in this game.
But the game isn’t over until the fat lady sings, or somebody draws a short straw.
Wulfgang
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