It's not WHO who is saying they can't trace it back to a bird source. It's the health authorities in Indonesia. Latest news is that health authorities from all over the world are heading to Indonesia and they're hunting for extra doses of Tamiflu. Tamiflu can only be used within hours of symptom development. Only reason to dig up extra doses is in an effort to contain an outbreak. Problem is, they can't dig up enough doses to be effective.
Here are some more news stories to take a look at to get up to speed:
"Foreign teams to help Jakarta tackle bird flu
By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta
Published: September 21 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 21 2005 03:00
International donors have begun talks with Indonesia on how to tackle a growing outbreak of bird flu amid concerns Jakarta is struggling to deal with the problem as the number of human cases mounts.
A US government fact-finding team from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection and other agencies arrived in Jakarta on Sunday to assess what Washington can do to help, said a US embassy spokesman.
Australian officials are also talking to the World Health Organisation and Jakarta over possible assistance, which could include helping fund a cull of birds or backing efforts to stockpile anti-viral drugs, officials said.
Indonesia has officially confirmed four human deaths since July from bird flu, all of them in Jakarta, where the city zoo has been shut down because of an outbreak among its birds."
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/5a3b2606-2a3d-11da-b890-00000e2511c8.html"The government imposed "extraordinary" measures yesterday to keep a bird flu outbreak that has killed four people in Indonesia from spreading, including the forced hospitalization of people who exhibit symptoms of the disease.
In addition to the fatalities, six patients suspected of having the H5N1 strain of bird flu have been admitted to Jakarta's infectious diseases hospital, officials said, two of them zoo employees. Blood samples from the patients have been sent to Hong Kong for testing.
Health Minister Siti Fadila said the government was "very concerned" about the spread of bird flu and had assigned 44 state-owned hospitals to treat avian influenza patients, who will receive free medication.
Those with symptoms of the disease could be admitted by force, she said, adding that the "extraordinary" status would last 21 days but could be renewed if necessary."
http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2005/09/21/1127270637.htmWhy forcibly hospitalize people unless it's spreading human to human?
"Sep 20, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – Three workers from Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo have been hospitalized with suspected H5N1 avian influenza, increasing the number of suspected human cases in Indonesia to as many as seven, according to news services.
The zoo was closed yesterday after 19 captive birds tested positive for the H5N1 virus. The ailing zoo workers include a 28-year-old guide and a 39-year-old vendor, the Associated Press (AP) reported in a statement attributed to I Nyoman Kandun, Indonesia's director general of communicable disease control. A Reuters report today said a third person from the zoo, also a food worker, was hospitalized late last night.
The latest cases apparently bring the number of suspected case-patients in Indonesia to seven. But Reuters quoted Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari as saying only six people have been hospitalized.
On Sep 16, officials confirmed that the death of a 37-year-old woman from Jakarta a few days earlier was due to H5N1 avian flu. As of yesterday, news services were reporting that four children had been hospitalized with suspected cases. They included two girls, aged 3 and 6; a 7-year-old; and a 9-year-old boy who is related to the 37-year-old victim."
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/sep2005avflu.htmlInfected food vendors in a high traffic public zoo is a great vector for spreading bird flu.
And my favorite:
"The most important speech President Bush gave last week was not the prime-time address from Jackson Square in New Orleans. The world will little note nor long remember what he said there. It was stagey and prosaic, and his words were artificially elevated in importance by the passing political moment, not the substance of his remarks.
The most important speech Bush gave last week was delivered at the United Nations. It contained an ominous reference, which very few people seem to have noticed. The president signalled his concern over a new threat currently building in southeast Asia — and this time the threat has nothing to do with terrorism.
In the poultry farms of Vietnam and Thailand, in the slums of Indonesia, along the migratory routes of wild fowl in China, a new strain of bird flu is mutating and spreading. It's just a matter of time, scientists say, before the strain — H5N1, the most virulent form of influenza ever identified — will fully lodge itself within the human population. When that happens, start looking for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse — in particular, the one named Pestilence who's riding a pale horse.
This is not your ordinary, off-the-shelf, garden variety flu strain. It's a superbug. Currently, the virus is transmitted to humans only through direct contact with birds. Up until now, there's been very little to worry about unless you work with chickens in Thailand, or you eat Vietnamese delicacies such as uncoagulated duck blood soup. But scientists tell us that the virus is mutating, and it will soon become a human-to-human contagion that's spread the old-fashioned way — by nose, hand and mouth."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3362777Bush has once again dropped the ball. I can't even be surprised at the level of his incompetence anymore.
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