Here's some cheerful news: EPIDEMIca // H5N1 // M-J Milloy
So are the Chinese covering up a major avian flu outbreak at Qinghai Lake? They concealed how bad the SARS outbreak was until it was out in the world, and couldn't be concealed any more. That makes this story very plausible.
And then there's the story of the "mysterious" bacterial infections from pigs that have killed 24 people so far, with no good treatment available yet. No good treatment for swine strep?
It's going to be an interesting winter.
Update: more from epidemica:
More victims Chinese "mystery disease"
While the number of victims has increased to 27 dead, 21 critical and 131 infected, China's pig disease in Sichuan remains a mystery; Chinese officials have stated the cause is streptococcus suis bacteria (swine flu); still, the high number of victims and the large area in which infections are reported are very unusual for the bacteria, and there are no independent reports, since China refuses to let anyone in; the WHO has nobody on the ground in Sichuan, but a spokesman in the Philippines says "the situation is still very localised", "this doesn't pose a real threat to international public health", "it's not an explosive situation"; how can he be sure of all this, all the way from Manila? the Chinese told him!; in another nice twist, a Chinese daily reports sick pigs being eaten, sold, and even dug up after being buried / RM
Nothing to see here, move along.
Posted on July 27, 2005 09:30 PM