Not only is there one confirmed human case of H5N1 in Iraq...
... they the New York Times says they think there are more. (Remember, you can use BugMeNot's logins for the New York Times if you don't want to do the free registration thing.) And, an (the?) Iraq health minister says that some of those other suspected cases of H5N1 are in other parts of Iraq.
From the Times:
"We shouldn't be seeing human cases first, and this points to serious gaps in surveillance," a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, Maria Cheng, said in Geneva. "But given the situation in Turkey, I don't think we'd be surprised to see isolated humans cases in surrounding areas."
*shivers*
So at what stage in the development of a pandemic are we? The CDC says 3 (virtually no human-to-human spread), but the editor(s) of Effect Measure say 4 (small, localized clusters indicating the virus is not well-adapted to humans yet).
I do like Effect Measure quite a lot, but...
The Fourth Horse of the Apolcalypse is cantering towards a war torn area with a destroyed civil infrastructure, overwhelmed medical facilities and 160,000 foreign occupiers poised to become global vectors.
Uh... guys? Nice anonymous public health scientists? On the short list of images I never want to see you reference, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is RIGHT UP THERE.
Another flu blog I recently found is on Crofsblog, and it seems to update several times a day with the latest H5N1 news. In case anyone besides me is getting a wee bit obsessive. ;-)
ETA: The BBC is reporting there are now twelve more suspected cases of H5N1 in Iraq. It sounds like they're all in the same town?
From the Times:
"We shouldn't be seeing human cases first, and this points to serious gaps in surveillance," a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, Maria Cheng, said in Geneva. "But given the situation in Turkey, I don't think we'd be surprised to see isolated humans cases in surrounding areas."
*shivers*
So at what stage in the development of a pandemic are we? The CDC says 3 (virtually no human-to-human spread), but the editor(s) of Effect Measure say 4 (small, localized clusters indicating the virus is not well-adapted to humans yet).
I do like Effect Measure quite a lot, but...
The Fourth Horse of the Apolcalypse is cantering towards a war torn area with a destroyed civil infrastructure, overwhelmed medical facilities and 160,000 foreign occupiers poised to become global vectors.
Uh... guys? Nice anonymous public health scientists? On the short list of images I never want to see you reference, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is RIGHT UP THERE.
Another flu blog I recently found is on Crofsblog, and it seems to update several times a day with the latest H5N1 news. In case anyone besides me is getting a wee bit obsessive. ;-)
ETA: The BBC is reporting there are now twelve more suspected cases of H5N1 in Iraq. It sounds like they're all in the same town?