The Deutsche Press today reported that bird flu claimed its 59th Indonesian. The press reported the second human death from bird flu in as many days, and Japan said it suspected it had discovered its first cases in two years of the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease in poultry as avian influenza makes a resurgence in Asia.
Why worry about 150 or so deaths from bird flu (H5N1)? According to the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, "go back to 1916, to Etaples in northern France, where a form of flu causing heliotrope cyanosis with a case fatalify of 60% was beginning to spread. There were only 143 cases, but at some point in the next two years it became more infectious. Then it killed 50 million people. Doesn't this ring a nasty bell?" He goes on to say that in 1916 they were also too preoccupied with war and too busy to read the warnings in The Lancet that a new disease was lurking. Greger says they could have prepared themselves.
Michale Greger's book is reviewed in December 27/28 issue of Nature and has been ordered for the library. Thanks to Kim Reese, we are acquiring a special collection on infectious diseases and pandemics.
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