Hong Kong May Restrict Bird Slaughter to Combat Flu

[pandemic_1918]

Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:37 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6937017

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong said on Monday it may ban shopkeepers slaughtering poultry after world health experts issued strong warnings that the deadly bird flu virus may trigger the next pandemic. Hong Kong scientists have been fighting to end the widespread practice of killing live chickens in markets since 1997, when the H5N1 virus first spread to humans and killed six people in the territory.

But strong opposition from the poultry industry has prevented the government from stopping stall holders from selling live chickens and ducks and slaughtering them in front of customers.

The virus emerged again in Asia this year, killing 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam and decimating poultry flocks.....

"It's hard to make a vaccine with a new disease ... because the virus will change and the vaccine may not match one that is (transmissable from) human to human," the minister said in an interview with government-funded Radio and Television Hong Kong.

"Vaccines only offer 5 percent protection going by past pandemics ... we can't rely totally on vaccines."

[pandemic_1918]

1. Vaccine Predictions

Making vaccines against emerging viruses before they emerge is not as difficult as most think

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_vaccine_predictions.html

This should be aided by new flu sequencing initiative by NIAID

http://www.recombinomics.com/flu_blueprint.html