Shannon Bourret
Blog 2
January 27, 2009
6:05 pm
China has reported its fifth bird flu death this year. The 18 year old patient was admitted to a hospital in January 24. Last December, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that poultry in the Jiansgsu province tested positive for bird flu. The 18 year old patient did have contact with dead poultry before getting sick. On a positive note, people who had contact with the patient have not shown and signs of the illness. As of now, the flu is still largely just a virus among birds, but experts are concerned that it will eventually turn into a form that is easily transmitted among humans. When, and if, that happens, it has the potential to kill millions of people world wide. Since 2003, the virus has infected 399 people worldwide and killed 252 of them. Because the bird flu deaths in China this month have been so scattered across the country, scientists are worried that virus may be present but masked by vaccination. There are two other known cases, one on the Guizhou province where the 29 year old patient is in stable condition, the other in Shanxi where the two year old patient is now recovering.
Personally, I am scared to death of the bird flu. The fact that is has the potential to become a pandemic and kill millions of people is really scary. From what I have read before, experts say that the best protection from the virus is to wash your hands!! It is a shame that there is not a better survival rate for those infected. Hopefully, we have enough time to find an effective vaccine for the world before the virus mutates and is easily transmitted among humans.
link
I have to say, that I am also pretty scared of the bird flu. We always think that this cannot happen to us-however the danger is right next to us. With regards to the amount of imports coming from Asia these days, the risk is there and we all should be aware of that.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there should a greater awareness in public of this topic.
Sandra
This is definitley a scary epidemic. You always see movies or hear stories in history when a disease epidemic occured and never think it could happen to the U.S. today. But it is rediculous how we think just because we're in the U.S. we are protected from these diseases. We should definitley be more aware of the crazy diseases and the ability for it to become an epidemic.
ReplyDelete