Update on avian influenza
New reports from Indonesia, Russia, and China, so I'm going to do them in one meta-post. (Hat tip to H5N1 for several of the links).
First, The Guardian has a nice cliff notes version of the infections, deaths, and other issues on a country-by-country basis here. One revelation about China I'd not seen yet:
Yikes. You'd think they would have learned their lesson from SARS...
Note that the situation in China, Vietnam, and Russia are all new. In Russia, avian flu has been found in 2 additional Siberian villages (warning: commercial audio on that site) and 19 more are being investigated. In China, H5N1 is back as well. In Vietnam, more ducks are dead, but the report lists it currently as just an "influenza A" strain. All of the countries claim the outbreaks are local, and have taken measures to stem the spread.
Thailand also has a new death, a 48-year-old man who apparently cooked and ate an infected chicken. His son is currently ill with flu-like symptoms.
Finally, the UK appears to be planning an ambitious project: buying enough H5N1 vaccine to cover every citizen. Best of luck to 'em.
First, The Guardian has a nice cliff notes version of the infections, deaths, and other issues on a country-by-country basis here. One revelation about China I'd not seen yet:
The authorities revealed in August 2004 that the H5N1 virus had been found in pigs but denied claims that they had kept an outbreak of bid flu secret for over a year.
Yikes. You'd think they would have learned their lesson from SARS...
Note that the situation in China, Vietnam, and Russia are all new. In Russia, avian flu has been found in 2 additional Siberian villages (warning: commercial audio on that site) and 19 more are being investigated. In China, H5N1 is back as well. In Vietnam, more ducks are dead, but the report lists it currently as just an "influenza A" strain. All of the countries claim the outbreaks are local, and have taken measures to stem the spread.
Thailand also has a new death, a 48-year-old man who apparently cooked and ate an infected chicken. His son is currently ill with flu-like symptoms.
Finally, the UK appears to be planning an ambitious project: buying enough H5N1 vaccine to cover every citizen. Best of luck to 'em.
