Word: avian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Hong Kong microbiologist Kennedy] Shortridge is convinced that the avian virus is still circulating in the environment. "I don't think we're out of the woods yet," says Shortridge. [Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist Keiji] Fukuda agrees: "You would be a fool to predict what the virus is going to do next. I'm equally prepared for this thing to disappear as I am to hear one day when I walk into the office, 'Oh, did you hear? There's another 10 cases-or 100 cases.'" -TIME...
Poultry was on the lunch menu and on the agenda at World Health Organization (WHO) this week as animal and health experts from 100 countries discussed how to respond to the avian flu virus that has killed 65 people in Asia. The fear, of course, is that the H5N1 virus will kill millions more if it mutates into a form that can be transmitted from human to human-the WHO conservatively estimates that in this worst-case scenario, the virus will infect between one quarter and one third of the world's population, and kill between 2 million...
...number of governments that have put in place pandemic response plans has risen from 20 percent to 60 percent. "We've reached a greater consensus and clarity on what has to be done to control the spread of the H5N1 virus," Dr. David Nabarro, United Nations Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza told TIME. "If we continue to make inroads, we'll end up with a smaller and less virulent pandemic that we expected...
...World Bank estimates that rooting out avian flu will cost up to $1 billion over three years. A conference on financing that operation will be held in Beijing next January. The Geneva gathering hammered out a plan to combat the virus by culling infected poultry, strengthening early warning systems and pandemic preparedness, and building up regional stockpiles of anti-viral drugs and influenza vaccines. The WHO already has a stockpile of three million doses of Tamiflu that can be quickly deployed, while the drug's manufacturer, Roche, this week announced plans to increase production to 300 million treatments...
...Will an avian-flu epidemic lay waste to millions? Will terrorists strike the New York City subway system before Christmas? Where will the next hurricane make landfall? None of us knows the answers to those questions. But we just might have a better idea than the experts, and our predictions on such matters could prove useful in helping us plan our lives, our portfolios or our escape routes...