Word: h5n1
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...defend us against that fate? Far too little. Work on the one tool that can make the biggest difference in the severity of a pandemic-an effective vaccine-has been underfunded. Thanks to a new technique called reverse genetics, researchers were able to create a vaccine strain from the H5N1 virus in record time-yet the candidate vaccine is just now entering clinical trials, because drug companies have been loathe to invest in a vaccine that may never be used, and governments have been reluctant to fully fund the work. The vaccine won't be ready for five...
...sent home, and then returned to Bangkok. Less than two weeks later, Pranee died of bird flu, the country's 10th confirmed victim of the disease?but one with a major distinction. On Sept. 28, a joint World Health Organization (WHO) and Thai investigation announced what scientists studying the H5N1 bird-flu virus had long feared: Pranee hadn't contracted the disease from chickens. She had almost certainly caught it in the hospital while nursing her dying daughter. Human-to-human transmission of the virus was possible...
...such a mutation could happen in the future?and the deaths in northwest Thailand demonstrate how unprepared Asia is for an unchecked outbreak. Most nations in the region have minimal stocks of antiviral drugs and no pandemic action plan. H5N1 vaccine, still in development, would not arrive in time to make a difference. If a pandemic occurred tomorrow, says Stohr, Asia would be "playing it by ear," politically improvising even as the death toll rose. "One of the most difficult things to explain to the public after a pandemic would be why we weren't prepared, because there have been...
...avian flu's deadly H5N1 strain claimed its 20th victim in Vietnam? The Vietnamese government doesn't appear particularly eager to know. Officially, the government says it is waiting for the last in a series of tests to confirm that a 14-month-old boy died Sept. 5 of H5N1 bird flu. Yet one Vietnamese health official told TIME the real cause for the delay is the desire to avoid a fresh bird-flu controversy before an Asian-European summit in Hanoi next month. "For the time being, we are just identifying it as flu type...
...Outbreaks surfaced last week in Malaysia and again in Thailand, where an 18-year-old became the country's ninth person to die from the virus. News on the research front has been worrying, too. Recent experiments in the Netherlands have shown that cats can carry and spread the H5N1 virus, while South Korean scientists have linked their outbreak this past winter to migratory ducks. Such ducks have a natural resistance to the flu, so they can potentially spread the virus over wide areas without showing symptoms. "This may explain why the virus has reappeared in divergent areas of Thailand...