Fears of bird flu send countries scrambling – OCT 2, 2004 — Here’s something that could kill millions overnight that is under-reported in the US Media. We don’t want to hurt the travel business after all. No need to needlessly alarm anyone.
BANGKOK – A day after Thai and international officials confirmed the first probable human-to-human transmission of a virulent strain of avian influenza in this country, public health systems around the globe were scrambling to prepare for a possible pandemic.
Scientists say they cannot predict how quickly, if at all, the H5N1 strain may develop the ability to spread easily among people, and whether it will remain as lethal as it has proven so far.
The strain has killed 30 of the 42 South-east Asians it infected in the past year, and millions of chickens and wild birds, across Asia, and has infected some pigs, household cats and zoo tigers.
“Underreported” but not ignored. There have been worries
before.
The SARS virus threw a scare as everyone was thinking that it
might be the next Avian flu epidemic.
A good site to monitor would be
Linkname: Main ProMED-mail
URL: http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1000
or simpler
http://www.promedmail.org
#The global electronic reporting system for outbreaks
# of emerging infectious diseases & toxins, open to all sources.
# ProMED-mail, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases,
# is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
Be worried, and be ready with home confinement and hospitalization
being impossible.
However, epidemiology has new strategies, such as for smallpox
to limit its spread, if caught early and identified.