A chicken farm worker looks on as chickens are destroyed in Cambodia. (AP)
Flu Worries Story aired: Tuesday, October 05, 2004
As avian flu ravaged chicken farms throughout Asia earlier this year, killing 20 people, health officials reassured people that there were no cases of human to human transmission and that while the virus was nonetheless a serious one, its impact could be contained, as long as it spread only from bird to bird, or even bird to man.
Things have changed. In September a little girl in Thailand contracted avian flu after handling sick chickens. As she lay dying in the hospital, her mother, who had been living in another village and had no contact with animals came to care for the child. Two weeks later, the mother died as well.
That death set off alarms in the medical community. If people can transmit the virus to others, pandemic, the international spread of a deadly illness, could become reality.
Though avian flu has been in the headlines in recent weeks, an even more pressingconcern for Americans is the human flu. Last year, the flu made news early in the season, with reports of otherwise healthy young children dying in Colorado again as the season progressed, when vaccine supplies dwindled just as the season hit its peak.
We're going to take a minute to learn about avian flu and, after last years deadly round of flu outbreaks in this country; we'll get up to date on flu in general.
Guests:
Dr. Arnold Monto, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, a World Health Organization designated influenza center
Dick Thompson, specialist in communicable diseases and prevention for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland
