At least it’s not Avian Flu (yet)
I’ve been only semi-functional for the past few days, having gone through three bottles of Robitussin so far in an attempt to fend off some sort of cold.
In the meantime, I see there’s more ominous news about the possibility of an avian flu outbreak. Latest is in CNN:
The latest outbreak, among geese, was in a village in the suburbs of Changtian city in the eastern province of Anhui, Noureddin Mona, of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, told Reuters.
He said the Ministry of Agriculture had told him on Monday 2,100 birds had been infected, 550 had died and 45,000 had been culled.
“We are highly concerned about this,” he said of the outbreak, adding that the area had been sealed off at a radius of 3 miles (5 km).
Bill Bishop points out coverage in Caijing, a Chinese business magazine:
When Chinese scientists identified H5N1 in Guangdong in 1996, however, the authorities denied that China had been substantially affected by the bird flu. As late as 2003, official animal epidemic reports had never listed avian flu. That official stance contradicted scientific research results during the same period, which revealed several cases of avian flu infection.
In 2004, in the wake of the SARS crisis, the animal epidemic became more transparent. Avian flu is no longer a state secret. The 49 H5N1 infection cases among ducks and chickens in early 2004 were publicly disclosed, a move that won widespread applause.
…
On the other hand, Guan Yi, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University, said he and his colleagues have found the avian flu virus in southern China in one province where the authorities claim there is no bird flu. Guan told Caijing that the virus can be found in most of China’s poultry markets, but that “we are not informed of it.”
At this rate, I’ll recover from whatever this is just in time to deal with the flu season.
Tags: avianflu, china, health
