Word: influenza
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...their agenda will be the likelihood that the new virus is a cross-species transmission in which the virus has mutated from its animal carrier so that it can infect humans, who have no immunity from the alien invader. The most obvious examples of this are HIV and influenza, and the latter disease has disturbing parallels with SARS. The flu virus lives usually in the stomachs of waterfowl, and the two are co-adapted?the birds don't get sick. It is widely believed among virologists, however, that with the domestication of ducks in southern China...
...bird flu" was a virus that was part human, part avian. Much luck, hard scientific labor and prompt containment measures prevented that outbreak from turning into a global catastrophe. Next time we might not be so fortunate. Medical records dating back to the 18th century show waves of influenza rolling westward from Asia through Russia into Europe with disturbing regularity. Three or four times a century, a pandemic spreads from flu's heartland. So statistically speaking, since the last reassorted strain emerged in Hong Kong in 1968, we're due for another...
...Speed and accurate information are critical in defeating such outbreaks, and critics say Beijing's silence has had deadly consequences. In 1997, when a previously unknown strain of avian influenza killed nine in Hong Kong, the government's swift move to quarantine patients and cull more than a million chickens was widely credited with halting the spread of the disease. The risks of an uncontrolled viral outbreak are catastrophically high: with its tens of millions of pigs, poultry and people living in close proximity, southern China has long been one of the world's most lethal breeding grounds for killer...
...microbiologist. The 1997 outbreak came in the fall; "We were lucky," says Dr. Paul K.S. Chan, a microbiologist with Chinese University of Hong Kong. But now, in the middle of flu season, there is an increased chance of genetic mixing. With experts from the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Surveillance network on their way, a nervous public is hoping to get lucky again...
...Albert Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, youngest of three brothers; one older sibling was also named Al (Alexander - their parents had a sense of humor too), the other Milton (he died in the influenza epidemic of 1919). Mom worked, Dad stayed home and minded the kids. In 1915, the family moved to New York City, perhaps to get the budding draftsman-craftsman Al(bert) into an artistic milieu. He went to a few art schools and found remuneration in advertising departments of local movie companies. He worked for Samuel Goldwyn and Lewis Selznick (David O.'s father), becoming...