More Flu

Here is a good LAT overview of the state of the H5N1 Avian Flu virus, concentrating on its inevitable spread along wild bird flyways. (Personally I worry a lot more about domestic chickens and ducks in the Asian "bird factories").

And here is a dark view of what could happen, and why "ring vaccination", though perhaps ideal. will likely not work in the countries of origin: "...when a fourteen year old boy became Turkey’s first avian flu mortality last week (followed soon by two siblings), a government spokesman criticized doctors for mentioning the disease because they were “damaging Turkey’s reputation.” This is ominously reminiscent of China’s initial response to SARS in 2003."

Russia says it will ban travel to Turkey this spring if the (not transmissible from human to human) cases there do not go away. Yeah, THAT'll work....