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Those measures may no longer be enough. This week's outbreak is particularly alarming because some of the chickens killed by the virus appear to have been vaccinated against it, according to the government. Lo Wing-lok, president of the Hong Kong Medical Association and an expert on infectious disease, says that Hong Kong uses an older version of the H5 vaccine than mainland China, where there are more frequent outbreaks and farmers vaccinate poultry specifically against the H5N1 strain of the virus. (See pictures of Hong Kong from...
While the older, umbrella vaccine has proven effective in the past, Dr. Lo says it may be losing its potency as newer strains of the virus spread around the region. A new study by University of Hong Kong microbiologists of a virus outbreak earlier this year found that chickens that had been vaccinated against the H5 virus had only one-quarter as many antibodies as those vaccinated in 2001. Yuen Kwok-yung, head of the University's microbiology department and an expert on avian flu, warned recently that the vaccine may be approaching total failure...
...dire prediction given that further outbreaks are expected throughout Asia in the coming months, according to Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the World Health Organization. Cordingley says he's not surprised that the virus, which spreads most readily via wild birds migrating during the winter months, has struck Hong Kong again. "I'm disappointed because Hong Kong has done so well since this outbreak started," Cordingley says. "But this is a very versatile virus. It's on tractor wheels and in wild birds. It may be found on a farmer's boots. We've seen this virus embedded right across...
Given that another flu outbreak among humans in densely populated Hong Kong could quickly turn into an epidemic, many health experts suggest that it is well past time to update the vaccine to meet the evolving threat. "When the time arrives that the old vaccine no longer works, I believe we should have another to put in its place," Dr. Lo says. "Apparently...
...writers who are actively working and publishing also signed, giving Charter 08 more clout than it would carry if it were the work of only politically isolated dissidents. "It seems like a varied bunch, and I think the Internet helped bring these people together," says Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based official with the Dui Hua Foundation, a human-rights group. "It's not simply what many people call dissidents. There are a number of well-known liberal intellectuals and lawyers...