20 October 2005

It's getting closer!

China, Europe report new bird flu outbreaks
Last Updated Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:49:24 EDT
CBC News

Now, the claims are that hoarding Tamiflu is an exercise in futility since it won't be effective on a newly-mutated H5N1 strain that would move from human to human (whether air- or water-borne). China is just now releasing it's reports on numbers of affected livestock, etc. Who knows for sure what the numbers actually are?

China reported a fresh outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu on Wednesday amid new reports of the avian illness in Russia, Romania and Macedonia.

China's state news agency, Xinhua, reported Wednesday that 2,600 birds died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the country's northern region.

Xinhua said the birds were discovered in a breeding facility near the village of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. The news agency didn't provide any details other than to say that the "epidemic is under control."

China had earlier outbreaks of bird flu this year in Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet.

In neighbouring Russia, agricultural officials are waiting for final confirmation of the H5N1 strain in wild ducks near Moscow. Hundreds of birds died suddenly in the country's Tula region, about 200 kilometres south of the capital.

If the tests are positive, it would be the first time the virus has shown up west of the Ural Mountains, in what is European Russia. Authorities have already killed 60,000 birds to stop the spread of the disease in earlier outbreaks.

European Union officials said Wednesday that bird flu is suspected in a small village in southern Macedonia. Macedonia borders Greece, where another bird flu outbreak is under investigation.

Macedonia officials plan to kill 10,000 chickens to contain the outbreak.

In Romania, tests have confirmed the deadly H5N1 virus in a second location in the eastern Danube Delta region.

The strain was first confirmed in the same region last weekend. As many as 45,000 birds were destroyed.

The Danube delta is Europe's largest wetlands and a major migratory area for wild birds between Europe and Africa.

Health officials stress that the H5N1 strain of avian flu is not easily transmitted between human beings, and that all human cases have taken place in Asia among people are in close contact with birds on a regular basis.

The illness has killed 60 people in Asia since 2003.

Scientists fear the H5N1 could mutate into a form that could be passed between humans, causing a global flu pandemic.

7 comments:

MB said...

"Scientists fear the H5N1 could mutate into a form that could be passed between humans, causing a global flu pandemic." -- I've heard from my knowledgable friends on this that it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

MB said...

I think it's pretty presumptuous of humans to think they can eradicate something as insidious as a virus. There's no way they can destroy it, but maybe the hope is that they can either isolate it or contain it. The virus' entire existence is based on replication and mutation as survival instruments. They've been around since the beginning of time and this speaks volumes of their survival techniques. Back when our species wasn't very mobile, these outbreaks could be contained to small regions, but now with globalization, jet travel and overpopulation, these things can move around more quickly than the authorities can contain them.

MB said...

Viruses are nature's population regulators.

mrs the experience said...

I hope nature regulates my ex husband while he's visiting Shanghai this month. I keep emailing him, "Are you feeling achey? Go eat some chicken. Any phlegm? Yeah, try some undercooked poultry, it's great in China."

MB said...

good....steer those who do you wrong into dangerous situations so they hopefully do themselves in. Effective AND legal.

Martijn said...

When places get crowded, nature send in the troops to regulate.

MB said...

So true, Martijn. That's the way the system's worked for millions of years.