According to the BBC, Europe is on alert....
But the real danger is the Haj...for not only will many Muslims from Turkey attend the pilgrimage, but many Indonesians will go...and Indonesia has had at least 12 cases...
Officials in the kingdom have been on high alert after warnings from health experts that the gathering at Mecca, Islam's birthplace, of more than 2m pilgrims from around the Muslim world could provide conditions for a deadly bird flu pandemic...
One little known fact is that in 1972, smallpox was spread into Europe via the Haj...
Meningitis outbreaks have also been reported in Haj pilgrims, but that germ is endemic and merely spreads where people are in close contact (slums, army barracks, dormatories in colleges)...and routine infectious diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and influenza are a routine problem that spreads in any large gathering...
Not to mention terrorism, building collapses, accidents, trampling deaths etc...
Every year there are some deaths, sometimes a couple hundred, but given the large numbers, it's a miracle that there are not more...guess someone is watching over them...
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Update via Pajamamedia: Policybyblog points out that the cases in Turkey occured in the Kurdish area, and notes how the press tends to ignore major wars and catastrophes....
You see, I have a blog on Mugabe (see link at left) ...few of my links are from the US press, even though that country is next to South Africa, which was the boogeyman frequently condemned (rightly) for apartheid...
Update 2: antibody studies imply that many cases are undiagnosed, and so the mortality of bird flu is not as bad as the scary article imply..
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