This afternoon, the Rochester New York area experienced a foreshadowing of what medical care might be like during a pandemic. It wasn’t pretty.
Rochester and Monroe County are in the grips of influenza. The local hospitals are overflowing with folks complaining of cough, fatigue, aches and pains and for many elderly, confusion and disorientation.
As the demand [...]

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Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, can be a poopy head at times, but he is very correct in this Reuters article.
While many health experts see the H5N1 bird flu virus as a likely cause for an influenza pandemic, another influenza virus could just as likely mutate into [...]

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WHO
The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population has announced a new human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection. The case was confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratory and by the US Naval Medical Research Unit No.3 (NAMRU-3).
The 5-year-old boy from Sharkia Governorate was admitted to hospital with symptoms on 14 February, [...]

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Here are some snips from the article. Worth a look. The usual doomsayers, Osterholm and Webster, get the big quotes. My take at the end of the piece.
IHT
“I’ve gotten at least 10 media calls in the last few months asking me to deliver the death sentence for avian flu,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the [...]

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WHO
18 January 2007
Viruses with a genetic mutation, linked in laboratory testing to moderately reduced susceptibility to oseltamivir, have been discovered in two persons previously reported with H5N1 infections in Egypt. Both patients had been on treatment with oseltamivir for two days before the clinical samples that yielded the viruses were taken.
The two patients from [...]

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UPDATE: Look after the fold for the interesting visitor I got this evening.

WHO
265 cases, 159 deaths
WHO January 10 2007
The Ministry of Health in China has confirmed a case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case is a 37 years old man from Tunxi in Anhui Province. He became symptomatic on [...]

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Michael Fumento comments.

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Here is a little analysis of the current bird flu stats, timeframe and geography.

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Bird flu update

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The World Health Organization working group on avian flu has issued a report. Here is the executive summary.

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