# 894
Usually by 0700 hrs, if there's any real news, it's started to peek over the transom on the news wires. So far, though, this morning has been unusually quiet.
Well, at least the reporting.
Nothing has changed (that we know of in) in Vietnam, where the outbreaks in Poultry are extensive and growing, and several people are hospitalized with the virus. Next week is Vietnam's Tet Doan Ngo festival, where poultry and duck are traditional dishes, and large numbers of people travel and gather.
The authorities there are visibly worried.
In Indonesia the number of poultry outbreaks is so great, and the culling is so extensive, they no longer bother reporting it to international agencies, and the local news is our only source of information. We continue to get media reports of `suspect flu burung' patients being hospitalized around the country.
Officially, we usually only hear when someone dies.
We are also seeing more reports in the local media of scientists and researchers (apparently) speculating on viral mutations. These reports are written in Bahasa, and machine translated to English, making them difficult to decipher. But obviously, `recent changes to the virus' are in the news over there. The discussion indicates a movement towards a more `human-like virus'.
With a Hat tip to bgw in Mt on the Wiki, a bit of one such article reads:
The case of Bird Flu to-100 - The virus to the potential poultry raged
Jakarta – the Expert in Microbiology of the Bogor agricultural Institute of I Wayan of the Health Faculty Firm Wibawan said that the bird flu virus to the potential poultry raged. From results of his research with the team of the expert in the health of the animal from the Gajah Mada University (UGM), the Udhayana University, and the Airlangga University were found that the gene of the bird flu virus to the poultry changed the form resembled the form of the virus to humankind.
Results of these findings were known since the last month, through results of the test of the laboratory test that showed that the code or the framer's code hemaglutinin (the functioning substance invested in thevirus cell-red), the bird flu virus that previously put forward the identity of the RRER amino acid, currently changed put forward RRES like the available code to humankind.
Accordingly, poultry workers are now being urged to take greater precautions, including the use of masks and gloves. Most won't, of course.
We've heard no follow up from the Trenggalek district, where 6 people where hospitalized and `dozens more' reported flu-like symptoms earlier this week. Perhaps this was just another false alarm, or poor reporting, or local hysteria. Without follow up reporting, it's impossible to know.
In Egypt, we know of a least one young girl from Qena, the second in two-weeks, is hospitalized with H5N1, and there are media reports of others suspected, but there is little official news being released.
And as if all that isn't enough, we are watching reports coming out of India of a `viral fever' infecting as many as 500,000 people. Some have died, and the diagnosis is unknown. It doesn't sound like H5N1, but some people have speculated it could be some other form of influenza.
Or it could be Dengue, or chikungunya, or something even more exotic.
And of course we have outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry in places like Bangladesh, and as far as what is really happening in places like Myanmar, or Nigeria . . . your guess is as good as mine.
But at least it's a quiet news morning.
