Bird Flu Monitor: June 2005 Archives

Bird Flu Monitor > June 30, 2005

Today's Front Pages

[WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] concerned about today (birdflu)? Or India (student fees)? Or Chile (flooding)? Or Canada

In Sickness and in more sickness.

[The QC Report] It’s not officially the flu until I have made her bed with one of our top sheets and a beach towel. The public-sector hurl will occur no more than a half hour after eating blueberries, which answers the question “What could possibly be worse than watching your daughter throw up on the carpet at the bank?” Watching your daughter throw up something indelible on the carpet at the bank.

Posted at 12:21 AM

June 30, 2005

Today's Front Pages

[WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] concerned about today (birdflu)? Or India (student fees)? Or Chile (flooding)? Or Canada

Posted at 12:22 AM

In Sickness and in more sickness.

Posted at 12:21 AM

EU gets ready, US doesn't get it

[Effect Measure] The current avian influenza epidemic in Asia is unprecedented. It is caused by a particular strain of virus that has already caused the death or killing and destruction of more than 125 million birds, major economic losses to the countries concerned which have been estimated at â‚¬ 8-12 billion and the death of more than 50 people.

Posted at 12:19 AM

It’s Not Only Security vs. Liberty, But Also Security vs. Security

[Balkinization] "The U.S. lags in pandemic preparations compared to Great Britain and Canada based on an examination of leadership, vaccine development, vaccine and antiviral planning, health care system surge capacity planning, coordination between public and private sectors, and emergency communications planning." .

Posted at 12:18 AM

June 28, 2005

Disease outbreak news in Asia

[CSR Asia - Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia] Avian influenza in Vietnam: Health Ministry officials believe that an absence of any known new bird flu infections since June 17 signals a possible end to the outbreak.

Posted at 10:03 AM

Who’s Right?

[In The Storm] of Homeland Security” From CNN: “The World Health Organization says an H5N1 avian flu pandemic

Read related posts for „Who’s Right?“.

Posted at 10:02 AM

Pundita replies to questions about Muslim Brotherhood essay

[Pundita] It's because they are frightened that Muslim leaders are quietly cooperating to encourage that the practice of genital mutilation be abandoned. I assure the confused questioner that the practice is widespread throughout the Muslim world.

Posted at 10:00 AM

Bird Flu Drug Rendered Useless

[The Great Minnesota Progressive Newswire] HONG KONG -- Chinese farmers, acting with the approval and encouragement of government officials, have tried to suppress major bird flu outbreaks among chickens with an antiviral drug meant for humans, animal health experts said. International researchers now conclude that this is why the drug will no longer protect people in case of a worldwide bird flu epidemic.

Posted at 09:54 AM

June 27, 2005

Kondrackula

[Effect Measure] While Washington, D.C., is consumed by issues ranging from the important to the downright petty, there's something huge lurking out there to really worry about: infectious diseases.

Read related posts for „Kondrackula“.

Posted at 04:27 PM

Death and Destruction!

[Articulatory Loop - Read, Repeat, Remember] While the young, old, and immunocompromised are most at risk, a nasty strain (like the Avian Flu) can take out many healthy people too. We've known for some time that our epidemic response capabilities in the US are sorely lacking, but even under the alleged spectre of bioterrorism, BushCo hasn't demonstrated any interest in improving things.

Posted at 04:25 PM

H5N2 in Japan

[Avian Flu - What we need to know] A weak strain of the H5N2-type avian influenza virus has been detected in chickens at a poultry farm in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture, where about 800 of its 25,000 chickens died between April and June, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Sunday.

Read related posts for „H5N2 in Japan“.

Posted at 04:14 PM

June 27 Supplement

[The Coming Influenza Pandemic?] This H5N1 is silently spreading mild disease in human and asymptomatic infections in poultry, which would more the pandemic to phase 6. The seeding of the human population with H5N1 sets the stage for further recombination in the fall when migratory birds bring in new sequences, which will cause new problems.

Posted at 04:12 PM

June 26, 2005

TIMELINE

[CODE THREE] It is likely that the H5N1 would be carried to Kasakhstan and Russia by the migrating birds, although there have not been reports of H5N1 in the neighboring countries. Thus, at this time it looks like H5N1 is moving from phase 5 to phase 6 in northern Vietnam, and may be doing the same in western China, if reports of human fatalities are accurate.

Read related posts for „TIMELINE“.

Posted at 09:56 AM

June 25, 2005

No surprise (which isn't good)

[Effect Measure] Reuters is quoting Vietnam's agriculture ministry today to the effect that the H5N1 virus was mutating in a way to make human-to-human spread more likely. State-run media were reporting that laboratory results had shown the virus's "antigen structure" had changed and that was why recent major outbreaks in poultry had gone undetected.

Posted at 09:04 AM

Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed in Indonesia

[Science News Blog * Science News and Trends *] Infectious disease experts are very concerned that the bird flu could mutate into a more virulent form that could spread easily from human to human. So far the majority of the cases have involved humans catching the virus directly from poultry and there have only been a couple isolated unconfirmed cases where a human caught the virus from close contact with a sick human.

Posted at 09:01 AM

June 21, 2005

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

[The Horse's Mouth] BEIJING (AFP) - China denied it encouraged farmers to use a drug meant for humans to stop the spread of bird flu in poultry which could render the medicine useless, but said it would investigate.

Posted at 11:40 AM

June 20, 2005

Interesting Rattlesnake Habits

[Science News Blog * Science News and Trends *] The Environmental News Network reports that researchers have discovered rattlesnakes have interesting behaviors like swimming and climbing trees. The researchers tracked 28 different snakes with tiny radio transmitters.

Posted at 09:52 AM

BIRD FLU AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN

[CODE THREE] There has been lots of excellent work over the past couple days at Effect Measure and the rest of the public health/avian flu blogs over the past couple of days. What follows is basically a round up of what's been going on at Effect Measure and the rest.

Posted at 09:51 AM

June 17, 2005

MOST USED BLOG TITLE OF THE DAY: WE'RE SCREWED

[CODE THREE] Food and other essential goods like drugs and surgical masks will be available at best in limited supplies, Osterholm cautioned in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, which devoted a number of articles to the threat of pandemic influenza. He saved his most...

Posted at 08:23 AM

June 13, 2005

BIRD FLU SPREADS

[CODE THREE] It's nice to see that Effect Measure is finding a nice balance. They're staying above the rumor mongering fray, but linking to the best of it and posting when good, hard information becomes available. This news of the bird flu spreading along the migratory route is not surprising, but it is unsettling. Still no definitive reports that it has jumped to humans, thankfully. TECHNORATI TAG: H5N1...

Posted at 09:07 AM

NY TIMES GETS THE FLU

[CODE THREE] Effect Measure directs us to the NY Times' coverage of Bird Flu. It's not much, but it's a start. The NY Times article is worth a skim, but the EM...

Posted at 09:05 AM

June 12, 2005

Ho Chi Minh tropical disease researchers claim no human-to-human bird flu transmission

[Pathogen Alert] In a letter to the CDC, several researchers at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as well as researchers from the Department of Health, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China, claim that they found “no transmission of H5N1 to healthcare workers, despite the lack of infection control measures, which suggests inefficient human-to-human H5N1 transmission; similar results were found in Hanoi .”

Posted at 11:26 AM

Bird flu mutating in unpredictable ways

[Pathogen Alert] Bird flu mutating in unpredictable ways Filed under: H5N1 by site admin @ 6:01 am on 06.10.2005 Evolution is a fact, not a theory. Everything evolves, even bird flu. It has apparently become more pathogenic in China. Details here...

Posted at 11:25 AM

June 11, 2005

Three show bird flu symptoms in Vietnam

[Pathogen Alert] Three show bird flu symptoms in Vietnam Filed under: H5N1 by site admin @ 7:07 am on 06.09.2005 Three more contract bird flu in Vietnam. Details here...

Posted at 12:52 PM

China installs bird flu warning system

[Pathogen Alert] The system will feature a nationwide virus database, epidemic analysis and information sharing among foreign experts and regular information releases to the public, according to this report.

Posted at 12:51 PM

June 10, 2005

China finds bird flu in northwest province

[Pathogen Alert] China finds bird flu in northwest province Filed under: H5N1 by site admin @ 7:09 am on 06.09.2005 13,000 geese culled to contain bird flu in China...

Posted at 07:28 AM

ALL QUIET ON THE BIRD FLU FRONT

[CODE THREE] Possible outbreaks happen all the time, so it would destroy their credibility to cover all of them. If Qinghai turns out to be a false alarm, people will pay even less attention next time. I understand this to be the essential catch-22 of public health.

Posted at 07:27 AM

European Union health commish tries to alert the media

[Pathogen Alert] EU Commissioner Markos Kyprianou launched a new Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in the Swedish capital and took the opportunity to sound off about bird flu. He said:

Posted at 07:24 AM

June 09, 2005

FLU FUN

[CODE THREE] I can't understand why he would want to! Some people think that this could be a hoax to discredit the Chinese government, but I can't see why we wouldn't see lots of counter articles on boxun saying that everything is fine? If everyone can contribute and everything is fine, then why aren't people posting that? I just wish that a) the WHO would get in there and check it out and b) somebody would cough up the couple hundred dollars to get someone to actually translate this stuff coming off of boxun.

Read related posts for „FLU FUN“.

Posted at 01:48 PM

BIRD FLU HITS THE BIG TIME

[CODE THREE] Just a Bump in the Beltway linked to this NYT Editoral by Barack Obamba and Richard Lugar. Two senators with a NYT Editorial. Big time indeed. When we...

Posted at 01:47 PM

Hawaii officials want to screen travelers for bird flu

[Pathogen Alert] A study by Northwestern University researchers released yesterday ranked Hawaii 24th among 3,883 communities as the world’s most vital air travel hubs. More importantly, the study placed Honolulu in the top 1 percent of the world’s major places to watch during a contagious disease outbreak.

Posted at 01:47 PM

China urges citizens not to panic

[Pathogen Alert] “People do not need to panic and should be confident that the new cases will be brought under control as effective measures have been taken by the government,” Cui Shangjin, a bird flu specialist, told the China Daily paper on Monday.

Posted at 01:46 PM

June 08, 2005

MUCH TO MY SURPRISE THEN CHAGRIN

[CODE THREE] My apologies for the light posting over the past day or so. It's been very busy at the hospital, and I was there until 10pm on a Sunday! Grrr. Anyways, I'm here this morning getting coffee in the cafeteria when I looked down and saw this headline on the front page of USA Today: Quick Action May Head Off Global Pandemic.

Posted at 10:56 AM

ONE MORE TIME: H5N1

[CODE THREE] Things are moving a too fast in the public health world to ignore. Anyways, the good people at Effect Measure have posted about Nature's examination of a avian flu pandemic. For non- scientific folks out there, it's hard to describe what a big deal Nature is. It's like the cover of Rolling Stone or something of the sort.

Posted at 10:52 AM

China takes emergency measures against bird flu

[Pathogen Alert] China has ordered emergency measures to prevent an outbreak of avian flu after investigators said migratory birds found dead in the country’s west this month were killed by the virus.

Posted at 10:50 AM

Mad Viet bird flu scientist charged with foolhardiness

[Pathogen Alert] By the time the vaccine is ready, it will no longer be effective against an influenza virus that easily mutates. If the vaccine cannot be updated, she cautioned, Vietnam would be left vulnerable in the face of a mass killer.

Posted at 10:49 AM

June 07, 2005

H5N1: THE HITS KEEP COMING

[CODE THREE] The fatality rate of humans infected by the virus is as high as 60%. Experts warned in Nature that the world was now far more vulnerable to the effects of a pandemic than it was in 1918, when a deadly strain of influenza killed between 20 and 40 million people. An 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), an atypical form of pneumonia killed more than 700 people and illustrated how disease can now spread quickly to other countries, carried by international travellers. An optimistic estimate suggests that the next influenza pandemic could cause 20% of the world's population to fall ill and within a few months, almost 30 million people would need to be hospitalised, a quarter of whom would die.

Posted at 12:03 PM

Second human bird flu case in Vietnam

[Pathogen Alert] Second human bird flu case in Vietnam Filed under: H5N1 by site admin @ 6:20 am on 05.17.2005 A second human case of bird flu has been identified in...

Posted at 11:55 AM

Bird flu pattern suggests virus is evolving

[Pathogen Alert] The pattern of human bird flu infections in Vietnam, the nation hit hardest by the disease, suggests the H5N1 virus that causes the illness is evolving in ways that make it more contagious, according to the World Health Organization.

Posted at 11:54 AM

June 06, 2005

Bird Flu Claims 50th Life

[Science News Blog * Science News and Trends *] The BBC reports that fifty people are now dead from the bird flu outbreak that has plagued Southeast Asia since January, 2004. The bird flu is of special concern to CDC and WHO scientists who feel that the disease has the potential to adapt and gain the ability to pass easily from human to human. Should this occur the world could see a dangeous flu outbreak similar to the Influenza pandemic of 1918 which killed tens of millions. This entry from last month has more details about the potential threat from Bird Flu.

Posted at 03:15 PM

FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PAGE

[CODE THREE] on H5N1. Not that they need a plug from me, but it really is an excellent blog all around. I've been meaning to start reading it for months since many blogs I respect link to it, but for some reason I just never got around to it. I regret it, but better late than never.

Posted at 03:10 PM

IS THIS IT?

[CODE THREE] In the West China Province of Qinghai there is a bird sanctuary used by migratory birds on their way north from south east Asia. According to a report submitted on May 21 by the Chinese government to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), around April 15 an outbreak of H5N1 occurred in birds residing in the bird sanctuary. The report stated that laboratory testing has confirmed H5N1 killed 519 birds of five different species. That number now stands at over 1000 dead birds.

Read related posts for „IS THIS IT?“.

Posted at 03:01 PM

10,000 Chinese come down with flu-like symptoms. Where's the media?

[How Not To Blog â˜…] The story will most likely die with this post. The blogosphere only wants to run with mild media blackouts relating to their own sorry asses.

Posted at 02:54 PM

Bird flu and blundering about by the WHO

[Pathogen Alert] “This is the first time that the FAO, World Organization for Animal Health, and WHO have had to work together on an international crisis of this scale. There was a lot of blundering around at first, and we are still feeling our way but the situation is a lot better now than it was in the early days,” Cordingley told Jane Parry in Hong Kong. That report is published today in the British Medical Journal, 2005;330:1169.

Posted at 02:51 PM

“We believe a pandemic will happen, we don’t know when.”

[Pathogen Alert] That headline quote is from Guenael Rodier, head of communicable diseases surveillance and response at WHO. The H5N1 bird flu virus is apparently mutating, as many scientists expected. A Vietnamese study has shown that there are signs of greater human-to-human transmission of bird flu. The study suggests an evolution.

Posted at 02:49 PM

H5N1: DESTROYER OF EMPIRES

[CODE THREE] WHO recommends enough antiviral (Tamiflu) for one quarter of the population. But the drug is expensive ($39 to treat flu if recognized within 48 hours, the only time the drug is effective for treatment) or about $160 for a 6 week course of prophylaxis. Vietnam, the country with the highest case count and millions of infected birds, has 84 million people but only 2000 treatments. Cambodia's population of 14 million has only 300 courses of treatment, mostly donated.

Posted at 02:46 PM

Bird Flu Monitor > June 30, 2005

Today's Front Pages

In Sickness and in more sickness.

June 30, 2005

Today's Front Pages

In Sickness and in more sickness.

EU gets ready, US doesn't get it

It’s Not Only Security vs. Liberty, But Also Security vs. Security

June 28, 2005

Disease outbreak news in Asia

Who’s Right?

Pundita replies to questions about Muslim Brotherhood essay

Bird Flu Drug Rendered Useless

June 27, 2005

Kondrackula

Death and Destruction!

H5N2 in Japan

June 27 Supplement

June 26, 2005

TIMELINE

June 25, 2005

No surprise (which isn't good)

Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed in Indonesia

June 21, 2005

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

June 20, 2005

Interesting Rattlesnake Habits

BIRD FLU AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN

June 17, 2005

MOST USED BLOG TITLE OF THE DAY: WE'RE SCREWED

June 13, 2005

BIRD FLU SPREADS

NY TIMES GETS THE FLU

June 12, 2005

Ho Chi Minh tropical disease researchers claim no human-to-human bird flu transmission

Bird flu mutating in unpredictable ways

June 11, 2005

Three show bird flu symptoms in Vietnam

China installs bird flu warning system

June 10, 2005

China finds bird flu in northwest province

ALL QUIET ON THE BIRD FLU FRONT

European Union health commish tries to alert the media

June 09, 2005

FLU FUN

BIRD FLU HITS THE BIG TIME

Hawaii officials want to screen travelers for bird flu

China urges citizens not to panic

June 08, 2005

MUCH TO MY SURPRISE THEN CHAGRIN

ONE MORE TIME: H5N1

China takes emergency measures against bird flu

Mad Viet bird flu scientist charged with foolhardiness

June 07, 2005

H5N1: THE HITS KEEP COMING

Second human bird flu case in Vietnam

Bird flu pattern suggests virus is evolving

June 06, 2005

Bird Flu Claims 50th Life

FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PAGE

IS THIS IT?

10,000 Chinese come down with flu-like symptoms. Where's the media?

Bird flu and blundering about by the WHO

“We believe a pandemic will happen, we don’t know when.”

H5N1: DESTROYER OF EMPIRES

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“We believe a pandemic will happen, we don’t know when.”