This is truly scary, when you consider it’s the director of the CDC who’s talking pandemic:
After smoldering through the summer and fall, avian flu has erupted again in Southeast Asia with 12 confirmed deaths since late December, the latest a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who died Sunday.
The growing number of cases suggests that the virus may be mutating into a form that is more easily transmitted to and among humans, increasing the possibility of a pandemic.
Thailand has reported widespread outbreaks among farm poultry, and Vietnam, where all the fatalities have occurred in the last month, now counts bird or human infections in nearly half of its provinces
“The situation in Southeast Asia right now is the most significant setup for a very serious public health crisis that I’ve seen in my 30 years in this business,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “We’re sitting on a time bomb.”
They say we are way overdue for the next big pandemic. What a nightmare it will be if Dr. Osterholm is right.
Via Kevin Drum.
1
By no name
just fuckin nuk asia and destory eveerything that will take care of it
February 25, 2005 @ 9:07 pm | Comment