Somali refugees (and others) enter Google Earth via humanitarian.info
Immediately after we launched the Darfur layers, somebody pointed out that Google Earth isn’t accessible in Sudan. It’s not because of the Sudanese government (for a change) but because of US sanctions - much more detail at the Export Law Blog, and of course at Ogle Earth. This was something that I had mentioned earlier in the development of the project, but hopefully more people now realise how much OFAC sanctions affect very basic humanitarian projects.
A couple of other interesting Google Earth humanitarian projects are also out there, using the tools in slightly different ways. A new paper on Genomic Analysis and Geographic Visualization of the Spread of Avian Influenza (H5N1) is accompanied by a kmz file from the Society of Systematic Biologists that shows the spread...
Suspected Bird Flu Case in Nigeria via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
It's worrisome that a Nigerian woman who died recently has tested positive for infection with H5N1 or the bird flu virus. But I'm still waiting to hear confirmation from the World Health Organization.
We won't learn anything that's really significant--such as how much the viral genome has mutated--until more sophisticated testing can be done. And even that may data may not be widely shared for a while due to concerns over who gets legal and or academic credit for various discoveries.
At any rate, this particular case of bird flu in a person brings us no closer to a global pandemic of human-to-human flu than we were yesterday or will be tomorrow. Whenever a flu virus mutates that is easily transmitted from one person to the next and to which we have no immunity gets going, we...
Pricing a Pandemic via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Dr. Harvey Feinberg, the president of the Institute of Medicine, once told me that a serious flu pandemic was a bit like an asteroid hitting the Earth—in any given year there was a very low probability cosmic disaster would strike, but if it did, the consequences for the world would be, well, catastrophic. The problem is that human beings and the governments they run aren't very good at preparing for low-probability, high-consequence events.
That might be why it's been so hard for the global health community to raise the necessary funds to really combat avian influenza, and prepare for the pandemic that will be coming one day.
Today the World Bank reported that an additional $1.2 to $1.5 billion would be needed over the next two to three years to fight avian flu as it spreads...
H5N1 Returns to Korea via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
It's easy to forget, but the first country to report avian cases of H5N1 avian flu during the serious winter 2003 outbreak was not Vietnam or China or Thailand, but modern South Korea. Unlike many of their regional neighbors, who hid or ignored evidence of the disease, the South Koreans were quick to report the outbreak to international health authorities and implement strict control procedures.That's why South Korea was able to bring its initial outbreak to a relatively quick close—albeit at the cost of nearly 6 million chickens and $1.6 billion—while in much of the rest of Asia, the disease continues to spread today.
But avian flu is hard to eradicate, and this weekend the South Korean government confirmed a new outbreak of H5N1 at a chicken farm about 100 miles outside of Seoul....
New Bird Flu Threat via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Avian flu surveillance is hard, dirty, unpleasant work—and no one does it better than Dr. Guan Yi and his team at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Shantou University in Guangdong province, China. Every day, Guan's technicians scour live-animal markets in cities throughout southern China, taking throat and rectal swabs and blood samples from chickens, ducks and geese that will later end up as someone's dinner. The samples are taken back to the labs in Shantou and Hong Kong, where they are analyzed and catalogued. Guan's team has tested tens of thousands of birds over the years, and their work, often done in conjunction with Guan's mentor Robert Webster at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, has mapped the spread and evolution of the H5N1 virus.
That work paid off...
Why Bird Flu Kills via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Unless you're very old, very young or very sick, your chances of dying from an average bout of the flu are extremely low. But avian flu seems to be a disease of an entirely different sort—143 of the 244 WHO-confirmed cases since 2003 have been fatal.
Though it hasn't been clear exactly why the H5N1 avian flu virus seems to be so much more lethal than the normal human variety, a new study by doctors in Vietnam is helping to clarify the difference.
Menno de Jong of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, reports in the latest issue of Nature Medicine that the H5N1 virus seems to replicate in much higher numbers in victims than normal flu does, and that bird flu seems to trigger a massive immune reaction. The...
Fighting Flu: Data for All via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced yesterday that for the fist time, they will make their extensive database of influenza viruses available to the public through a specially designed website.
For some, the announcement was a long time coming. The CDC receives sequences of flu strains from all over the world, and many flu researchers have criticized the agency for “hoarding” the data. In the past, the CDC had cited both security and lack of time as reasons for not making its database accessible to all but a few select researchers, but now it seems to have changed its tune.
The database, which will contain the genetic blueprint of all influenza strains detected and isolated in the U.S., will include the annual flu viruses that give millions the sniffles each year, any...
New Bird Flu Shot via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Some rare good news on the bird flu front: the British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline announced that it has developed a human vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu strain.
The magic number here is 3.8 micrograms. That's the size of the vaccine dose found to be effective in clinical trials held in Belgium, according to GSK. (Two doses were used in the trials.) GSK's vaccine seems to require significantly less than the dose size needed for an earlier H5N1 vaccine, produced by the French company Sanofi-Aventis.
A Lancet study in May found that the Sanofi vaccine needed up to two doses at 30 micrograms each to offer definite protection against the H5N1 virus. By contrast, the usual seasonal flu shot requires just one dose of 15 micrograms.
The size of the vaccine dose is important because global...
Bird Flu Reappears in Thailand via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
The report that a teenager in Thailand has just died of bird flu follows a depressingly familiar pattern: news about local poultry die-offs had been circulating in the neighborhood for some time.
The boy had buried a number of sick birds. But no one wanted to report that several fighting cocks had died for fear that the surviving birds, which are worth as much as $13,000, might be confiscated and destroyed.
This is the first case of bird flu in Thailand so far in 2006. The country's efforts to combat the disease--by aggressively culling domestic poultry, reimbursing farmers for their losses and being very open about their endeavors--have made it a model for other nations to follow. (See Indonesia for a text book example of what not to do.)
Even model efforts, however, may not be...
Bird Flu Reappears in Thailand via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
The report that a teenager in Thailand has just died of bird flu follows a depressingly familiar pattern: news about local poultry die-offs had been circulating in the neighborhood for some time.
The boy had buried a number of sick birds. But no one wanted to report that several fighting cocks had died for fear that the surviving birds, which are worth as much as $13,000, might be confiscated and destroyed.
This is the first case of bird flu in Thailand so far in 2006. The country's efforts to combat the disease--by aggressively culling domestic poultry, reimbursing farmers for their losses and being very open about their endeavors--have made it a model for other nations to follow. (See Indonesia for a text book example of what not to do.)
Even model efforts, however, may not be...
New Bird Flu Shot via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Some rare good news on the bird flu front: the British drug firm GlaxoSmithKilne announced that it has developed a human vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu strain.
The magic number here is 3.8 micrograms. That's the size of the vaccine dose found to be effective in clinical trials held in Belgium, according to GSK. (Two doses were used in the trials.) GSK's vaccine seems to require significantly less than the dose size needed for an earlier H5N1 vaccine, produced by the French company Sanofi-Aventis.
A Lancet study in May found that the Sanofi vaccine needed up to two doses at 30 micrograms each to offer definite protection against the H5N1 virus. By contrast, the usual seasonal flu shot requires just one dose of 15 mircograms.
The size of the vaccine dose is important because global...
Secret Sequences via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
When H5N1 avian influenza hit a family in rural Indonesia in May, killing seven of eight people infected, it marked the most serious known incidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
The most immediate response involved examining and tracking anyone who had come into contact with the infected, to make sure that the virus hadn't spread beyond the family, which could have marked the beginning of a pandemic. But scientists were also quick to obtain virus samples taken from the outbreak and genetically sequence the isolates back in labs in Hong Kong and Atlanta. By comparing the genetic code of viruses taken from the new outbreak to past strains of H5N1, scientists could hope to see if the bird flu virus had mutated in such a way that could make it more likely to pass from person...
Secret Sequences via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
When H5N1 avian influenza hit a family in rural Indonesia in May, killing seven of eight people infected, it marked the most serious known incidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
The most immediate response involved examining and tracking anyone who had come into contact with the infected, to make sure that the virus hadn't spread beyond the family, which could have marked the beginning of a pandemic. But scientists were also quick to obtain virus samples taken from the outbreak and genetically sequence the isolates back in labs in Hong Kong and Atlanta. By comparing the genetic code of viruses taken from the new outbreak to past strains of H5N1, scientists could hope to see if the bird flu virus had mutated in such a way that could make it more likely to pass from person...
Human-to-Human via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
We're all worried about avian flu going human-to-human. Scientists suspect that the H5N1 virus has already shown that it is capable of being transmitted from one person to another—albeit only in limited cases and seemingly within families. But those transmissions have never been fully documented.
Until now. World Health Organization investigators announced on Thursday the first-ever laboratory-confirmed case of human-to-human transmission, from a 10-year-old Indonesia boy to his father. Both died of avian flu part of the largest known family cluster of bird flu infection. Seven members of an Indonesian family in a remote part of the island of Sumatra came down with the disease in the first couple of weeks in May; all but one died.
Because no one in the family was known to...
The China Syndrome via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 228 confirmed human cases of avian flu since the end of 2003. But among experts it's a given that officials are almost certainly underestimating the number. Bird flu can be difficult to diagnose even in top-notch laboratories, and most of the cases have occurred in rural regions of poor countries where death from a respiratory disease isn't that uncommon.
But there has also been concern about countries actively covering up bird flu cases, and much of that suspicion has centered on China because of its deliberate deception during the beginning of the SARS outbreak in 2003. WHO officials insist that China learned its lesson from SARS, and frequently praise the country's comparative openness in dealing with avian flu.
Still,...
How Avian Flu Kills via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
One of the first questions that occurred to me when I began reporting on avian flu more than two years ago was a basic one: what's so dangerous about influenza? After all, most of us have been unlucky enough to come down with the flu a few times in our lives, and we know to expect nothing worse than a week or so of bed-ridden misery. How does such a garden-variety disease suddenly become a global threat that could potentially kill tens of millions of people, according to some estimates?
The reality is that the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu can damage the human body to a far greater degree than a normal human influenza virus—and thanks to the efforts of scientists at the University of Hong Kong, we're beginning to understand why.
Writing in the July 1 issue of the Journal of...
Indonesia: Bird Flu Update via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
My colleague Bryan Walsh in Hong Kong has a detailed update on the family in northern Sumatra that has been struck down by bird flu. As he reports, the next week and a half will be critical. If there are no more cases of avian flu among the people who came in contact with ailing family members, "then the outbreak at Kubu Sembilang will likely be judged contained."
--Christine...
Bird Flu Cluster in Indonesia via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
More worrisome news from Indonesia. It's starting to look as though
a 32-year old man who died recently was infected with avian flu while caring for his 10-year-old son, who also died of the disease.
If confirmed, this would NOT be the first case of human-to-human
transmission of H5N1. In those other cases, the virus was transmitted
from one person to another but did not continue beyond that.
The 32-year-old man is, however, one of a group of at least seven
family members in northern Sumatra who developed avian flu over the
past several weeks and six of whom have died. This is the largest largest avian flu cluster
that has been identified anywhere in the world to dateand health
officials are still uncertain how the members became infected.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Secretary Mike...
Defending Migratory Birds via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Curiouser and curiouser. First the migratiory birds from Africa failed to show up with the H5N1 avian flu virus in Europe. Now, Declan Butler at Nature is reporting that the migratory birds may have played less of a role than was believed in Qinghai Lake, China. (A tip of the hat to Aetiology's Tara Smith).
Butler writes:. . . The hypothesis that migratory birds are responsible for spreading avian flu over long distances has taken another knock. Last year, an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain in thousands of migratory birds at Qinghai Lake in western China provided what seemed the first firm evidence for the idea. Because the lake is so remote, experts assumed infected birds had flown up from southern China.But it has now emerged that, since 2003, one of the key migratory species...
Computers vs. Bird Flu via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
IBM and 20 academic and public health organizations today announced a computer-based, collaborative effort to fight bird flu and other potential emerging disease threats. As part of the effort, IBM will contibute some software elements to the open-source community to help share information and make predictions about how a pandemic will develop and how best to respond to one.
Some day, we're going to wake up to the news that there is a suspected cluster of human-to-human transmission of bird flu, or some other newly emerging infectious disease. It may not be this year. It may not be next year. But whenever that day dawns, you'd better hope that we already know who has the best computer models for predicting how quickly the pandemic will spread, what actions, if any, need to be taken,...
Look Who’s Catching Bird Flu Fever via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
As my colleague Simon Robinson in Johannesburg says, this one is hard to pass up.
Club goers on the Ivory Coast have invented a new dance, a sort of "bird flu flop" to chase away their fears of avian flu. "It's like a chicken with Parkinson's disease trying to dance to hip-hop," an onlooker told the BBC's James Copnall. So far, however, the H5N1 virus has spread farther than the dance craze.
—Christine...
Planning for a Pandemic via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Preparing for a flu pandemic is not necessarily something that’s best left to the experts—doctors, nurses, government officials and the like. Even if you are lucky enough not to be infected, you are likely to be affected by a...
Could A Pandemic Take Down the Internet? via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
An influenza pandemic could bring telephone and e-mail communications to a screeching halt within two-to-four days after the start of a global outbreak. That’s one of several sobering conclusions of a table-top exercise conducted by 30 CEOs and...
Shame and Bird Flu Make a Lethal Mix via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
We all know that stigma has played a role in the spread of AIDS around the world. But fear and shame are also at work in the transmission of bird flu. At a breakfast meeting this morning, Dr. David...
Officials to Decide On Bird Flu Data-Sharing in May via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
The logjam on sharing of avian flu data may finally be starting to break. Health officials, government representatives and scientists plan to tackle the topic at the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, being held in Geneva next...
Can Cats Spread Bird Flu? via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
An article in Nature suggests health authorities are overlooking the role that domestic cats could play in the spread of avian flu. Ever since 2004, researchers have known that the H5N1 avian flu virus can infect and kill domestic...
Bird Flu on Scarborough Country via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Look for me on MSNBC's Scarborough Country tonight between 10 PM and 11 PM, Eastern time. I'll be talking about avian flu with Joe Scarborough and Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health. How real...
The Sandman Principles via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Anyone who has covered bird flu for a while has heard of Peter Sandman, a risk communications consultant based in Princeton, N.J. Sandman has appeared at several seminars on how businesses can prepare for a possible pandemic of avian...
And Then There Were Two via TIME.com: The TIME Global Health Blog
Scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Monday reported further evidence that there are now two distinct subgroups of the H5N1 avian flu virus that have infected humans. Previous research established that the first subgroup, or clade,...