Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The "WAGD" Post of the day

Bird flu in China.

Wired has a summary here.

Their current tally stands at 336 cases since H7N9 first surfaced.
That total is an important number, for two reasons.  First, because the number of cases in the “second wave” of H7N9 (from late autumn 2013 until now) exceeds those in the first wave of outbreaks. And second, because it suggests that H7N9 is managing more rapid spread than the flu strain that has been the subject of the greatest international concern, avian flu H5N1: 336 in 12 months, versus 650 in 10 years.
So far, according to the WHO, almost all of those who have fallen sick have had some contact with individual live poultry, or visited a live market where poultry are slaughtered on site.
Explanation: not person to person spread...yet.
But given the SARS coverup by China, who knows...

I haven't been long enough back on the internet to check out the story in the NEJM

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Unrelated item, also from WIRED

ARACHNOPHOBIA. is common
but most spiders are not poisonous.

Tell that to Bilbo and company...the massive attack by the smaller spiders in the Hobbit are much more frightening than Shelob ever was.


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