*Dr. Greger's Pandemic Update: November 2008*
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Speaking Tour
Nov 7, 2008, 2:17:23 PM11/7/08
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Dr. Greger's Pandemic Update: November 2008
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At the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza last month, David Nabarro, senior flu coordinator at the United Nations, reiterated that the threat of a pandemic triggered by an avian influenza virus is as great as it was five years ago, when H5N1 first started its march around the world. Updated estimates by the World Bank predict a severe pandemic could cost trillions and kill a quarter of a billion people.
Evidence continues to build, implicating the intensification of the global poultry sector in the emergence and spread of highly pathogenic avian flu viruses. A paper in this week's "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," for example, suggests that half of the genetic diversity has been lost in commercial poultry breeds, which could have serious potential public health implications as I detailed in my chapter "Monoculture" [http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=73]. In the May/June 2008 issue of "Public Health Reports," the official peer-reviewed scientific journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, an international team of scientists, including researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, suggests that the best available data show that birds confined in industrial operations have up to 32-times more risk of being infected with H5N1 than backyard flocks [http://www.publichealthreports.org/userfiles/123_3/282-299.pdf].
The copyright "embargo" of my 50-page review of the subject in "Critical Reviews in Microbiology" has expired, and so I'm able to finally post it online at http://tinyurl.com/BirdFluReview . The paper explores the underlying evolutionary biological theory that may explain why industrialized poultry production poses such a threat.
And finally, thanks to the generous support of The Sheepdrove Trust, the Pandemic Prevention presentation I've been giving around the world was professionally recorded and made into an hour-long DVD close-captioned in Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, and Spanish. A 10-minute "teaser" is available online at http://tinyurl.com/BirdFluVideo . While supplies last, I am happy to send anyone a complimentary copy of the DVD. If you are interested, please email your mailing address to mh...@cornell.edu .
--
Michael Greger, M.D.
Director, Public Health and Animal Agriculture
The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
direct line: (202) 676-2361
fax: (202) 676-2372
http://www.birdflubook.org
Dr. Greger's Pandemic Update: November 2008
*******************************************
At the International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza last month, David Nabarro, senior flu coordinator at the United Nations, reiterated that the threat of a pandemic triggered by an avian influenza virus is as great as it was five years ago, when H5N1 first started its march around the world. Updated estimates by the World Bank predict a severe pandemic could cost trillions and kill a quarter of a billion people.
Evidence continues to build, implicating the intensification of the global poultry sector in the emergence and spread of highly pathogenic avian flu viruses. A paper in this week's "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," for example, suggests that half of the genetic diversity has been lost in commercial poultry breeds, which could have serious potential public health implications as I detailed in my chapter "Monoculture" [http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=73]. In the May/June 2008 issue of "Public Health Reports," the official peer-reviewed scientific journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, an international team of scientists, including researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, suggests that the best available data show that birds confined in industrial operations have up to 32-times more risk of being infected with H5N1 than backyard flocks [http://www.publichealthreports.org/userfiles/123_3/282-299.pdf].
The copyright "embargo" of my 50-page review of the subject in "Critical Reviews in Microbiology" has expired, and so I'm able to finally post it online at http://tinyurl.com/BirdFluReview . The paper explores the underlying evolutionary biological theory that may explain why industrialized poultry production poses such a threat.
And finally, thanks to the generous support of The Sheepdrove Trust, the Pandemic Prevention presentation I've been giving around the world was professionally recorded and made into an hour-long DVD close-captioned in Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, and Spanish. A 10-minute "teaser" is available online at http://tinyurl.com/BirdFluVideo . While supplies last, I am happy to send anyone a complimentary copy of the DVD. If you are interested, please email your mailing address to mh...@cornell.edu .
--
Michael Greger, M.D.
Director, Public Health and Animal Agriculture
The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
direct line: (202) 676-2361
fax: (202) 676-2372
http://www.birdflubook.org
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