NPR has been doing periodic Q&A sessions with researchers and their own Health Editor. The links that follow are for full-text versions, or you can click on "Listen" to hear the audio.
Dr. Hon Ip, director of the United States Geological Survey's Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI, answers reporter and listener questions in a segment titled "What Is Bird Flu and Who's at Risk?" (20 Oct 2005). It deals primarily with the theory that migratory birds are the main carrier.
However, suspicion has shifted to illegal trafficking in infected domestic fowl as a primary means of spreading the virus, because migratory patterns and infection patterns only match up spottily. The transport and sale of infected poultry as a practice isn't as common in the highly regulated markets of Europe and North America. ("What's Behind Bird Flu: The Chicken or the Duck?", 16 Feb 2006.)
On the issue of the flu itself, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, took questions in the segment following Dr. Ip's Q&A, "Preparing for a Flu Pandemic" (21 Oct 2005).
Most recently, NPR's Health Editor, Joe Neel, conducted a Q&A of his own on 15 Feb 2006, called "Defining Pandemic Flu". He talks about a promising new approach to vaccine production that would develop it in vats instead of individual eggs, but points out that this technique is still in development.
If we have a pandemic, everyone agrees, it would sweep through populations in months. We are apparently still a couple of years away from developing a vaccine quickly enough to deliver it widely on the short notice we will have.
Current Events » in reply to "no reason why a vaccine can't be developed and delivered"
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- 142 million deaths possible from bird flu
- I've got a question...
- Possible BEFORE modern medicine. Not any longer.
- Comments
- Influenza pandemics
- I already got the flu shot -- they should have included bird flu if it were so serious
- Scarier than an asteroid hitting the Earth!
- Color me skeptical.
- I will bet you that more people die of measles than bird flu in '06. (n/t)