Blog 10 China Escalates Its Response to Outbreak of Avian Flu

With a sixth death being confirmed from an avian-borne virus, Chinese officials have increased their response on Friday, warning people to avoid live poultry, sending virologists to chicken farms across the country and slaughtering more than 20,000 birds at a wholesale market in Shanghai where the virus, known as H7N9, was detected in a pigeon. Health officials around the world are monitoring the outbreak, which has killed almost half of the fourteen people that were diagnosed with the virus. What they fear most is that the disease will mutate so that it can spread from human to human; there has not been a confirmed case of transmission between humans. John Oxford, a professor of virology at Queen Mary, University of London, warned of a potential pandemic should H7N9 become mutated therefore allowing human-to-human transmission. “On my earthquake scale, I’m quite concerned because influenzas have a greater history of emerging and spreading.”

The importance of this article is to raise awareness to this disease and hopefully prevent the spread of it.  As the article stated influenzas can be very dangerous because they have the potential to spread so easily. Hopefully China will gain control of the virus before it can spread any further throughout the country and before it can spread to individuals in other countries.  The article was flawed in that it did not present any solutions to treat the virus, potential solutions may help other countries if the virus was to spread outside of China. If a solution is not found then the virus will spread to other individuals in China and eventually to other countries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/world/asia/china-escalates-response-to-avian-flu-outbreak.html?ref=health&_r=0

Bria Gill
4/7/13
12:53