Tuesday 16 March 2010

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Bird Flu

Contributors of the day

Torrance Stephens - All-Mi-T

Torrance Stephens - All-Mi-T

Staffjam

Halfway To Concord

Halfway To Concord

Jon Newton

Bensred

bubul01

Liberally Conservative

Liberally Conservative

Enigma4ever

openDemocracy

James Joiner

A take away menu of global food issues

A take away menu of global food issues

Climate Change and Biofules have a direct influence on world food supplies. This is the theme of the FAO World Food Day (16 October) but the problem is bigger than simply making food available to 862 million people. I try to show how big is the problem (...)

15 Oct. 2008 | | lawlang

The insect based flu vaccine

The insect based flu vaccine

The newswires are on it again. This one has a good hook. A flu vaccine made in insect cells. So I read the paper. And in truth, it’s pretty interesting. Genetically engineered flu vaccine made from yellow striped caterpillars instead of hen (...)

13 avr. 2007 | | Effect Measure

Bird flu in water. How big a problem ?

One of the unanswered questions about the transmission of influenza H5N1 is the mode. We presume, probably correctly, that person to person spread is the main mode, mediated by coughing, breathing, sneezing. Whether the infective material is small enough (...)

5 jan. 2007 | | Effect Measure

Dogs and Cats Killed in Attempt to Thwart a Bird Flu Outbreak

Dog Culling

A second outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed in a poultry farm in Iksan 155 miles south of Seoul, South Korea. In an attempt to thwart an outbreak similar to the devastating outbreak of 2003 an aggressive culling of poultry and animals is underway. (...)

29 Nov. 2006 | 1 comment | Bird Flu Smart

Impact of a bird flu pandemic hits home

Individuals will need to prepare.

If the avian flu virus mutates so that the disease can be transmitted from one human to another, we will face a pandemic with the potential to kill a billion people worldwide. It is important for people to educate themselves, their family and their (...)

30 Oct. 2006 | 1 comment | Bird Flu Smart

Bombs, bullets, billions

An urgent communication from the World Health Organization (WHO) expresses concisely how far behind we are in being prepared for a global pandemic of influenza. Currently there are a number of vaccines under development, some of which might protect (...)

24 oct. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Worldwide Bird Flu Death Toll is Rising

The avian influenza death toll is rising. Some countries have been able to slow the diseases progress and reduce risk to their population. However, the battle to prevent a catastrophic worldwide pandemic continues and the outcome is far from settled. The (...)

21 Sep. 2006 | 2 comments | Bird Flu Smart

The global struggle for public health and bird flu

Nick Zamiska had an interesting piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about the difficulty WHO is having encouraging a sense of urgency about a possible pandemic of avian influenza and the many other programs and problems with which they are (...)

20 sep. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

India Declared Bird Flu Free

It is now official: India is a free country. The Indian government declared itself on Saturday that India is a "bird-flu free country" based on the report of the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL). The report has been sent to the (...)

17 Aug. 2006 | | Ahmad Qisa’i

Cats in Iraq with H5N1

Avian influenza is capable of infecting mammals other than humans. Like domestic cats. Cats are companion animals (’pets’) in Europe and North America and live as closely with humans as birds do in Indonesia, southeast asia and China, perhaps (...)

25 jui. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

Poultry and human bird flu

One of the most repeated ’facts’ about the human cases of bird flu is that virtually all cases to date come from intimate contact with sick poultry. But the evidence does not show this. One third of the Vietnamese cases are said to be without (...)

22 mai. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Transmission through the gut ?

It is usual to think of influenza as a respiratory disease because that’s how it appears in humans. But in birds it is a disease of the intestinal tract, and the current H5N1 subtype as well as the 1918 variety invaded organ systems outside the (...)

10 mai. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

No surprise unfunded pandemic response

David over at Greenhammer has collected commentary links for the new US Flu Plan. Yesterday I said I liked the tone of the document and I think the assessment of what the feds are capable of substantively is realistic and sober (as well as sobering for (...)

5 mai. 2006 | | Effect Measure

’Benign’ bird flu in the UK

Three poultry farms in eastern England (Norfolk county) have been afflicted with avian influenza, subtype H7N3. Since this is not the H5N1 subtype now rampant in birds in some 40 countries and over 200 cases and 100+ deaths in people, it is being (...)

2 mai. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

Prostitutes, drug pushers and Congress

Prostitutes, drug pushers and Congress

Lots of bad news these days, but some people are pretty happy : "After years of pumping millions of dollars into election campaigns, the pharmaceutical industry is reaping the benefits of a vastly improved political climate on Capitol Hill, the (...)

21 avr. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Not the plan but the planning

Nick Zamiska has an interesting story in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about a forthcoming medical article (to appear in The Lancet) surveying the state of bird flu planning across the European Union. Of 21 national plans examined, seven (...)

14 avr. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

Is there a risk from eating food contaminated with bird flu virus ?

Lurking on the margin of discussions about bird flu is the question whether oral transmission is a likely, or even possible, route of infection. The question has both medical and economic importance. Fear of eating infected poultry is one of the driving (...)

12 avr. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

’Tastes like chicken’

It is achieving the status of a mantra. The Wikipedia tells us mantras are constantly repeated poems or phrases "used as spiritual conduits, words or vibrations that instill one-pointed concentration in the devotee. Other purposes have included religious (...)

28 mar. 2006 | 1 comment | Effect Measure

Homework time again

Among the many vexing issues we will face if a pandemic materializes is what to do about schools — daycare, elementary, highschools, colleges. Previous data from Boston’s Children’s Hospital indicated school age children might be the (...)

23 mar. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Unethical science by dedicated scientists

Unethical science by dedicated scientists

This week one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, Nature, published an Editorial of great importance. It was Nature you may recall, that also sounded a high profile warning that avian influenza needed attention. They have now done (...)

17 mar. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Holding pattern

Here’s something that will surprise you : our airports aren’t ready for bird flu. Not surprised ? Gee, I’m surprised. But I guess people have gotten so cynical these days. I wonder why ? Anyway, USA Today reports that if a planeload of (...)

10 mar. 2006 | | Effect Measure

Chicken protests in Egypt

Egyptians are taking the streets in protest against the government...over its policies to contain the ’birdflu epidemic’. The protesters are poultery breeders and merchants, who got really hit hard by the mass slaughter of all live chickens in (...)

2 mar. 2006 | | The Sandmonkey

Massive Outbreak of Bird Flu in China

The Chinese never, ever overreport health problems in that nation. It was a major factor in fact in the spread of SARS that the Chinese deliberately slowed the pace of dissemination of information. So when I read that "China today warned the public (...)

28 fév. 2006 | 1 comment | Bioethics.net

Egypt Goes Bombastic

In less than one hour I got phone calls, emails, and text messages on my cell phone warning me to avoid drinking or even using tap water because peasants in Egypt threw dead birds in the Nile River. You can’t believe what happened at my workplace. (...)

21 fév. 2006 | | The Big Pharaoh

Using Glycan Arrays To Monitor Emergence of Flu Strains

The Consortium for Functional Glycomics has developed a technique for detecting changes in flu viruses that could serve as an early warning system for detecting deadly flu strains. In a study published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, scientists (...)

16 jan. 2006 | 1 comment | Ruth Schaffer

China fact of the day — life insurance for bird flu

Some Chinese insurance companies are taking a big chance on the possible spread of avian influenza among humans as an opportunity to expand their business. Beijing Minsheng Life Insurance on November 7th was first to launch a policy that would pay the (...)

25 nov. 2005 | | Marginal Revolution

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