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February 12, 2006
Swan, swan, hummingbird
It finally made it. It made it and I mean here. 21 swans out of a flock of 18 (which is, there's going to be more) found dead by the so-far-deadly H5N1, a.k.a. bird flu, within the range of this province. The event, predictable and in fact predicted, with Sicily main route for these birds to and from Russia on an average path that goes thru Southern Italy (Calabria and Puglia, 3 swans reported dead today), Albania and Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Romania and Bulgaria and, finally, indeed, Russia.
Reasons to be concerned? Cool it there maybe. Several different formulas are being final-tested for a working vaccine, including an Italian and an Israeli, the latter, apparently, very effective. The more the virus is learning from us the more we learning from him. Meanwhile avoid that swan-brushing...
I found Repubblica's special, also outlined by Zib, to be x-specially ineffective and confusing as it tries to merge a forum with structured ambientation. A better source for non-Italian readers may be this.
Did you know that the H5N1 flu virus has been circulating continuously in poultry in south-eastern China for a decade?
A massive genetic analysis shows the virus has mainly been spread by poultry, but also that wild birds carried it from southeast China to Turkey. Yi Guan and colleagues at Shantou University, plus scientists in Xiamen and Hong Kong, say the only way to stop the virus is to control it in southeast China. The Chinese authorities have denied the country is the epicenter of the virus and opposed independent flu research.
One overshadowed aspect so far is the impact bird flu is having in Africa, as detailed in a report from Nigeria, where birds are being toasted by the tens of thousands, indiscriminately. In a strange twist the Nigerian government now claims H5N1 did not reach the country via migratory birds, but through smuggled "pets and birds". Which is???
Small poultry farmers in Nigeria close to where the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus was detected said on Thursday birds were dying in large numbers and they did not know why.
The west African state is the first country on the continent to report the virus that is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and has killed at least 88 people since late 2003.
The unexplained poultry deaths raise the possibility that the virus has already spread from four big commercial farms to small farms and even households in Africa's most populous country, posing a greater threat to human health.
[...] The Agriculture Ministry said 45,000 chickens had died at Sambawa Farms in Kaduna state, and confirmed cases of H5N1 had also been found at two farms in the neighboring Kano state and at one farm in Plateau state, which also borders Kaduna.
We still lack a single case of human-2-human transmission that we can demonstrate beyond doubt. Viruses, in their struggle for new flesh, can be very patient. Unless they can not figure it out.
Detailing the first significant outbreak (of a disease believed to be deadly) in the country with a constellation of mp3 audio and video galleries that most times break depending on your PC platform and plug-in type is a very unprofessional approach. Italian press is using flash video and WMV and intermixed. Let's hope next time they will get the story in a more old-fashioned way than this.
I can still count on North Korea for the best in denial arts. NK may deny Earth orbits around the Sun along with a sleuth of fancier things, like Microsoft's own anti-virus product (still in beta but being distributed as if it was not) tagging Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus as a virus and prompting you to delete it. Which is crazy enough to an already busy IT staff. But the best is that it is indeed possible (practically) to travel at near-speed-of-light, no headaches. Available here and quickly getting into mainstream. And for once NK would be with the wise guys.
Beam me up.
Posted by lck at February 12, 2006 12:41 AM
Comments
This, from my Chinese husband: "Of course the Chinese deny that it can be controlled from their country or that it originated nearby. Basically, they have no governing body to oversee these things. It is the farmers who bring their poulty to market. And basically, the country is unhygenic." (And, I know this because he drags me to every unhygenic eating place out there because, he says, the food's more authentic.)
So, there you go. (But I didn't say it; he did.)
Also, the comments don't seem to work well with my computer, so if words are cut off, sorry!
Posted by: Wendy at February 18, 2006 06:14 AM
It is one of those few remaining mystery states. Not as bad as that one that had no communication with the rest of the world post tsunami but still a mystery. You'd think they have something along the lines of the CDC there. Boh (that's Sicilian for a verbalized shrug) if my country had freaky virii lurking about I'd be more than happy to let researchers come in. Bugs of any size...yeck!
Posted by: zib at February 18, 2006 11:34 AM
