Scientists discover astonishing flu that has recombined with swines birds and people, but say: "There's nothing to worry about."

Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

SHOOT: Here's a case of recombination and scientists are saying, "No problem." It's also something researchers haven't seen before. "No problem." The swine flu's symptoms are fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea. Nice.

clipped from health.yahoo.com All of the seven victims recovered from the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other. Still, health officials said it's not a cause for public alarm: The five in California and two in Texas all recovered, only one person was hospitalized and testing indicates some mainstream antiviral medications seem to work against the virus. CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Britain plans flu shots for everyone

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said a flu pandemic was "one of the most severe risks" facing the country, telling lawmakers that he had signed an agreement to secure the delivery of enough pandemic flu vaccines to cover every citizen.

Experts will formulate the vaccination once the strain of the virus has been identified. Officials said it was impossible to predict when the next pandemic would strike and what form it would take.

The last global flu pandemic — Hong Kong flu — struck in 1968, leading to approximately 1 million deaths worldwide and 80,000 in Britain, said a Department of Health spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

"We don't believe an influenza is imminent," the spokeswoman said.

NVDL: Not imminent perhaps, but it is an ongoing 'not-if-but-when' threat. I think this is excellent proactive behaviour on the part of Britain. Unfortunately it's the sort of thing only the wealthier nations can afford right now. I also think changing climate will both exacerbate and accelarate the trend. Migratory birds will begin to move into new areas, and so will this disease, allowing higher levels of opportunism and DNA recombinations.

H5N1 ALERTS (TODAY)

Passenger sparks bird flu scare in NZ
Bird flu alert strikes Bahrain
Indonesian man dies of bird flu - health official

New Zealand quarantines 223

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand health authorities briefly quarantined 223 people in a Korean Air plane at Auckland Airport on Tuesday after a South Korean passenger displayed bird flu symptoms, officials said.

The woman was later deemed to be "no risk" and suffering from suspected gastroenteritis, airport police Inspector Richard Middleton said, congratulating the flight crew for notifying authorities about the potential problem.

For more, go here.
Bird flu cull of turkeys in Norfolk jeopardises Christmas poultry sales
35,000 chickens slaughtered after Norfolk bird flu outbreak

NVDL: H5N1 also provides subtle subtext in my book HOLIDAY. It's merely a sideshow to a lot of processes balancing out. I purposely wrote it in a very clinical fast forward way so that it appears to be an austere commercial break in the unfolding drama. See, we're distracted daily from issues like the weather, and the oil price - what are we focussing on? - and while this stuff is broiling, even more off the wall stuff is festering. This generation has been driven to distraction, but we're likely to regain our focus - painfully - in our lifetimes as well.

In Johannesburg for example, we may soon have to deal with not just hotter summers, that's the easy part, but the side-effects. Like malaria sweeping slowly south to highly urbanised parts that were originally too cold or dry.

What is Control? (Scene from Matrix Reloaded)

Councillor Harmann:...what is control?
Neo: If we wanted, we could shut these machines down.
Councillor Harmann: [Of] course. That's it. You hit it. That's control, isn't it? If we wanted we could smash them to bits. Although, if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air...
Neo: So we need machines and they need us, is that your point, Councilor?
Councillor Harmann: No. No point. Old men like me don't bother with making points. There's no point.
Neo: Is that why there are no young men on the council?
Councillor Harmann: Good point.

ALERT:Bird flu cases in Vietnam, Indonesia

1 Hour ago:
Hanoi (dpa) - After months of no reported cases of avian influenza, ducks in Vietnam's Mekong Delta have tested positive for the virus, a local official said Thursday.

Samples taken from ducks at a farm in southern Vietnam's Tra Vinh province have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus, said Le Tuyet Hong, head of the animal health department of Tra Vinh province.

"We have culled all the ducks in the farm and put a ban on transporting poultry out of the village," said Hong. "We have also disinfected the area and other farms in the entire village. We are trying to keep the outbreak from expanding to other villages as it is very easy for the virus to spread in cool weather."

The last reported outbreak of the bird flu in Vietnam was in August. The country was declared bird flu-free in September but veterinarians warned that the virus could reappear.

For Indonesia story, click here.
For more click here.
For research progress click here.