Bird 'Flu
October 8th 2007 21:21
Ducks are Dangerous
The Independent has an article on the march of bird 'flu.
Bird 'flu has been out of the lime-light in recent times, but it has been gurgling away in asian swamps and other less salubrious habitats. Another report raises the concern that oseltamavir, the main component in Tamiflu - so far our only medical defense - survives sewerage treatment and continues in the environment. The consequence of that is the likelihood of the virus in the wild encountering the drug and developing resistance to it. This is a nightmare scenario.
Oseltamavir uses as a precursor ingredient star anise. There is one of those cosmic ironies here - star anise is used to flavour duck in many asian cuisines. The spice is being bought up by drug companies, sending up the price of star anise causing Chinese grannies start to hoard it.
The scientists are divided between - as they are on global warming. Is disaster imminent or is it all a beat up by funding hungry attention grabbers? As ever, virtus in medio stat. The answer lies somewhere in between. It is likely that a pandemic 'flu strain will arise, as it has done before. These days though, we are better prepared, we are on the watch and we have better medical technology.
Be alert, but not alarmed!
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