Here is a
very good article stating that a flu pandemic is probably going to happen and that the world is very unprepared for it. It cites World Health Organization's Dick Thompson who says that recent developments in the geographic spread and the presence in migratory geese as alarming.
Another
news article today claims that the U.S. has developed a vaccine for H5N1. There appears to be some problems with this however. The strain that is circulating in China and Southern Russia is different than the strain in Vietnam and therefore any vaccine that was developed last year will be ineffective. Also, this vaccine was developed using the old egg incubation method, which takes a long time to produce and probably would not be ready for this year's cold weather. This article from
Recombinomics.com explains why this vaccine may be faulty. Check out
this article as well.
Also in this story is the disturbing news that Chiron, the company that usually produces the U.S.'s flu vaccine, is still closed due to contamination. Getting this labratory up and running should be the highest priority.
