December 2 Flu Update
Man in China dies of bird flu.ProMed on this as well. China says no other outbreaks are known in this area. Family members are said to be not sick.
Culling in Poland after H5N1 outbreak.
ProMed on Suffolk, Poland and Bangladesh. Note:
Poland: In the Pomorze region, 480 kg of turkey meat has been found to
contain the bird flu virus.
UK: (vii) The results of the epidemiological investigations to date
provide no evidence that infection was introduced via imported
poultry or poultry products or any activities associated with such
importations.
Revere notes two blogs on this topic, and says that if bird flu is in the food supply, there isn't much we can do about it.
Bird flu leaves goose fat shortage in Britain.
In addition, there's a egg shortage in Abu Dhabi.
The Cayman Islands are implementing their flu program.
posted by Orange @ 11:44 AM
2 Comments:
Orange;
I see from your articles today that “credibility” has become the central issue on reporting bird flu deaths from China. Let’s see if I have the facts correct here…
Fact 1: a 24 year old man (Lu) from Jiangsu province in China dies from highly pathogenic bird flu, over a six day illness period. Bang – he’s sick and dies – that’s essentially it, as reported from the worlds third largest economy.
Fact 2: the government says “he had no contact with dead poultry”
Fact 3: 69 people who had close contact with “LU” were put under strict medical observation and “they have shown no signs of symptoms”.
Fact 4: the “Jiangsu Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau said there was no bird flu epidemic in the provinces so far”.
None of this makes sense, nor is it even logical. Ask the obvious: where and how did this individual contract bird flu infection, if not from an infected poultry source at some undisclosed location? If he did not contract the illness from infected poultry, then we have to assume we have a clear case of human-to-human transmission, which the Chinese government is not admitting to. The Communista’s there are just going to have to manipulate their news articles a lot better than they have been, or point the fingers at other surrounding countries, if they want to disguise the fact that they have a significant endemic bird flu and swine infection problems.
Since I’m on the credibility kick, in your ProMED report which summarizes the UK, Poland and Bangladesh bird flu outbreaks and activities – there also seems to be a little reporting glitch which also bugs the heck out of me. On page four of the report, they list the 27 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, who have reported H5N1 in wild birds or poultry during 2007, so far. I noticed that Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria were countries whose names were noticeably absent from the list. So what gives with these three ?
Seems to me we have some more government credibility issues here, since these three countries do in fact have reported cases of bird flu in poultry, and even human deaths in some instances in 2007. Man, who’s going to place the needed pressure on these countries to disclose the truth – or does the WHO just keep sending them free money bags and blank checks, in hopes they’ll have a public health epiphany down the road some day ? Is that how the whole WHO arrangement is supposed to work with transparency ?
On a positive note, I have very little doubt there is a critical goose fat shortage in the United Kingdom. I found that article very credible and believable.
Nobody I know of could ever have the imagination to dream up a dilemma like that.
Wulfgang
Personally, I wouldn't be going to China for the 08 Olympics even if someone gave me free tickets and airline flights!
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