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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Rara Aviana

I was actually only aiming for alarmism, talking of the 'flu winging it over to civilised parts.

I didn't mean for the pythonesque Brits to wheel out the old dead parrot sketch ...

Nor is it reassuring when the usually sober Financial Times comes up with a headline about human 'flu preparation looking like costing billions.

So ... the "global community will need to spend at least 'several hundred million dollars' to prepare for a human flu pandemic in the months ahead", eh?

All eyes, I guess, on that Nov 7 Genève meeting of

  • The WHO
  • World Bank
  • Food and Agriculture Organisation
  • World Organisation for Animal Health
  • 300 experts and political figures "deciding how to respond to the threat."

    Impressive. Widest ranging meeting on preparations, neatly timed for the aviating 'flu's spread from Asia to Europe, alerting "the world to the risk of a variant of the virus mutating into a form lethal to humans."

    Ulp.

  • Sixty people confirmed dead from the H5N1 virus.
  • Experts saying it's "only a matter of time before a pandemic based on the current strain or a different one emerges, which could kill millions and cause widespread economic disruption."

    That's all right then - at least the field's narrowed somewhat: "the current strain or a different one."

    Irony: The first sighting of Avian flu occurred next door to where the first foot-n-mouth disease was uncovered.

    Look out for Europe banning live-bird imports

    International Herald Tribune: Every state for itself.


    // posted by Corfucius @ 5:45 pm
    • Comments:
    Chris, you never told me you had a blog. When blogs were an issue some time back I thought it was your work blog. So, today, Sunday in Hyderabad, I'm massaging my ego by googling myself, and who do I come across but you! A new favorite for my ever increasing list of non-work related favorites.
    # posted by Blogger Richard Wells : 8:15 am
     
    It *was* my work blog that delivered me into the hands of the Philistines. Doesn't stop me noodling around on my own, albeit somewhat more carefully (not that you'd spot it).
    # posted by Blogger Corfucius : 4:29 pm
     
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