Another Anomaly

Although it apparently occurred on April 17^th, it was only last night that we learned that Pakistani Minister of Health was trying to decide whether to close the public and private schools in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, two major cities in the Punjab province.

The reason given?

To prevent the spread of Bird Flu among students.

Curious measure, I should think, given that efficient Human-to-Human (H2H) transmission has never been documented anywhere in the world. Why bother closing the schools if the only realistic route of infection is from Birds to Humans?

Now, before you go thinking that these are backward people living in a rural setting and know no better, understand that Islamabad is the capitol city, and neighboring Rawalpindi has a population of 1.4 million people. These are, for the most part, modern cities, with modern medicine.

Over the past week several chicken farms have been closed, and quarantined, due to bird flu. Culling of chickens, and the isolation of workers, is ongoing. But so far, no admission of any human infections.

So why close the schools? I would think sending small children home would increase their chances of contact with poultry, and thereby increase their chance of infection. So this move doesn’t make sense. At least, not based on anything we know from official sources.

Now today is Friday, and this is the Moslem Sabbath. News organizations and government offices are closed. So I expect no news for at least 24 hours, maybe longer. And given the slowness of the news to filter out of countries like Pakistan, it could well be next week before we learn more.

But this latest move by Pakistan gets added to the long list of things revolving around H5N1 that make me go, "Hmmmm?"