China Confirms Its First 3 Cases of Bird Flu Infecting People
The Chinese government announced that it had confirmed the country’s first three cases of bird flu in people. Reports circulated last month of several mysterious illnesses in central China. Officials were reluctant to investigate. Authorizes in Beijing responded by looking for help from the World Health Organization and sending for a team of national and overseas investigators. The bird flu was confirmed in a 9-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister in Hunan Province and a 24-year-old woman in Anhui Province. The boy recovered but the other two died. China will now vaccinate all 5.2 billion chickens and other poultry in the country against bird flu, in the wake of 11 outbreaks since mid-October. About a month ago, I did a speech about the bird flu and the dangers of the infection spreading. I also talked about the actions the World Health Organization was taking to make sure the bird flu would not spread. It frustrates me that there was not much done to prevent the spreading of this disease. Only now the Chinese government will vaccinate their poultry after three people have suffered of the infection even though there were already cases of it in other countries. But it must be hard for the government to take certain actions to protect their citizens though it is their job to protect its people. What else can we do but trust that our government is doing the right things to ensure our safely.
--
CassieAnnJacinto - 20 Nov 2005
Australian Officials Accuse 16 Men of Plotting Terrorist Attacks
Sixteen men were arrested Tuesday(Nov. 8)in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. They were charged with belonging to a terrorist organization and plotting terrorist attacks. These men had chemicals that were similar to the ones used in the London bombings. Officials think the suspects are an example of a home-grown terrorist network inspired by Osama bin Laden. A prosecutor told a court in Melbourne that the men downloaded bomb-making instructions from the Internet. More than 400 intelligence and police officers carried out raids on Tuesday, making it the largest terrorism-related operation in Australia's history. The raids were a culmination of an 18-month surveillance operation. It was not clear how close the suspects had been to carrying out any attacks. All of the suspects appeared to be from the Middle East and several were also Australian citizens. One of the suspects arrested in Melbourne has praised bin Laden as a "great man" and said that Muslims were justified in killing Iraq-based foreign soldiers, including Australians. The men had purchased massive quantities of equipment for mixing chemicals and making bombs. Police believe these men were "in the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack". Law enforcements are concerned about men who trained with a militant Pakistani group that was formed to fight against India in Kashmir called Lashkar-e-Taiba. The fight against terrorism continues.
--
WilliamGreen - 21 Nov 2005
Hoarding Prompts Halt in Flu Drug Shipping
Roche, a company based in Switzerland, has temporarily stopped sending out shipments of Tamiflu (which is an anti-influenza drug) to the United States. Roche is concerned with the hoarding of the drug, Tamiflu, as a defense against the Avian Flu. The company wants to make sure that there will be enough supplies to treat the flu cases that will come this winter; thus the reason for stopping shipments of the drug to the U.S. as well as many other countries. Since Roche has not been able to keep up with the demand for Tamiflu, they are considering letting another companies start to make the drug.
I think that it is a good thing that Roche is trying to reserve some of their supplies, especially since there is no real threat of an outbreak as of right now. The article also talks about how the company is concerned that all of theses people are hurrying out to go buy Tamiflu, when they do not need it. All of these people are just saving it for when they hear about an outbreak of Avian, which if it is not a direct threat to them and they take the Tamiflu, not only will there not be enough medication for those who really do need it, but the flu virus will become resistant to the medicine. If the flu virus ends up building up a resistance to the Tamiflu then we all should start to worry because we would not be in a very good place to have a flu pandemic.
--
WilliamGreen - 30 Nov 2005
to top