We’re too late.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/31/nflu31.xml
Now it will happen.
We’re too late.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/31/nflu31.xml
Now it will happen.
I read this article earler today (honest-to-God, my first thought was, “I bet Bosda will post about this”). I don’t really see how this is any different from the other times they’ve said this. . .and I couldn’t find anywhere in the article that said that H2H transmission was regularly occurring. . .but, to be fair, I could have missed it.
How do you get from
to
:dubious:
All this means is that the virus mutated again. Not surprising, since it’s a flu virus and that’s pretty much what they do. Yes, eventually a mutation might arise which allows the virus to spread between humans, but it’s not like each mutation and new strain we hear about is leading to that eventuality. It’ll happen when and if it happens. There’s also a chance that other mutations will come along in the meantime to make it less virulent.
No sense in panicking too early. Yes, we need a flu-control program, and we should all be prepared in case it the big bad flu pandemic does happen. In the meantime, wash your hands a lot, get your flu shot, and read scary news articles carefully.
There was nothing there about human-to-human transmission. This was mainly about spread of a new vaccine-resistant strain among birds. Your take-home message here is: oh crap, another setback in controlling the H5N1 epidemic in Asia…among birds. As a side-note this particular strain is also occasionally transmitted to humans…from birds. It might have been a bright spot if the new strain had shown no affinity for humans.
FYI there have already been a couple of cases of probable (though not definite) human to human transmission. But these have been between family members and have not spread further. The thinking is that these are likely to be cases of transmission between people who are both particularly genetically susceptible to the disease and not so much the disease becoming more dangerous.