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A nice catch from our friends at Grabien, who got it from Ace [update] and who had to go all the way back to 2005 to find this nugget and the contemporaneous coverage at the NYT. At the time, the US prepared for a predicted epidemic of the avian flu, also known as H5N1, of global proportions. The virus had been identified for 18 years by that time, but by the end of 2004 had only resulted in 36 deaths and 50 known cases over the prior two years, according to WHO data. In 2005, the number of cases would...

Three workers at two Negev kibbutzim where more than 1,000 turkeys were found dead Thursday were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva on Friday for treatment of possible bird flu. Meanwhile, the bird flu was suspected of spreading to two additional sites Friday - Moshav Sde Moshe, near the southern town of Kiryat Gat, and Kibbutz Nachshon, 25 kilometers from Jerusalem. One of the patients, a Thai laborer who works at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, is being held in isolation. The other two, Bedouin from the Tel Arad region who work at Kibbutz Holit, said they had been feeling...

An outbreak of Asian bird flu, which experts said yesterday is bound to hit the UK, could trigger an economic collapse similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s, two financial analysts warned yesterday. In a lengthy research report titled An Investor's Guide to Avian Flu, Sherry Cooper and Donald Coxe warn that the food, tourism and insurance industries could be devastated in a relatively short time. Lee Jong-wook: millions and millions of deaths The two analysts, who work for BMO Nesbitt Burns, a Canadian bank, said: "The combination of collapsing demand from China and India and the likelihood of...

The Ministry of Health in Viet Nam has today reported one further laboratory confirmed case of human infection with H5 avian influenza. The 25-year-old woman was from Kampot Province in Cambodia, where she developed respiratory symptoms on 21 January 2005. She sought medical care in neighbouring Viet Nam on 27 January and died in Kien Giang Provincial hospital in Viet Nam on 30 January. Tests undertaken at the Pasteur Institute, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam on 1 February were positive for influenza A/H5. She is the first human case of H5 infection reported from Cambodia. A joint mission of...

Bird-flu pandemic is looming: WHO Published on November 27, 2004 The world is hurtling towards a catastrophic avian-flu pandemic since the outbreak's regular cycle is overdue and evidence suggests the virus has undergone substantial genetic change, the World Health Organisation warned yesterday. "Of course, I cannot say when one may occur, but I believe we are closer now to a pandemic than at any time in recent years," said Dr Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific region of the WHO at an international conference on bird flu. He was echoing remarks by WHO influenza expert Dr Klaus Stohr...