In The News

WHO, FAO Call for Global Fight to Halt Bird Flu

January 27, 2004
In Vietnam, another case of the bird flu has been found in a human. More worrying is that the flu has spread all across Southeast Asia as well as into Pakistan. Should the virus jump species, as did SARS, another major epidemic may be at hand. The World Health Organization has asked for an unspecified amount of money, saying that a vaccine may take up to six months to develop. Farmers are urged...

Human Bird Flu Cases Confirmed in Thailand

Nopporn Wong-Anan January 23, 2004
As six Thais tested positive for the bird flu, World Health Organization (WHO) officials raised alarm over a potential epidemic. The flu is believed to be carried by migrating birds, and could infect individuals in several countries. A potential epidemic will not only create a global public health crisis, but impede economic growth and tourism in the Asia- Pacific region. The bird flu outbreak...

WHO Warns of Mutating Bird Flu

January 22, 2004
A bird flu virus has the World Health Organization concerned. The extent to which the virus has spread across Asia has officials worried that if the virus mutates another major epidemic could be at hand. Already, one human case of the disease has been reported in Thailand. Given the impact of SARS last year, the worries of an influenza pandemic spreading quickly are well-founded. China has not...

Germany to Allow Import of GMOs

Kristina Merkner January 16, 2004
Long known for its opposition to genetically modified organisms, Germany will soon allow the cultivation and sale of GM foods. The minister for consumer protection, food, and agriculture, herself a member of the pro-environment Green party, says the new laws will benefit farmers looking to grow GM crops but also give consumers a choice through mandatory labeling of all GM foods. Other anti-GM...

10,000 Animals to Be Culled as SARS Returns to China

Jonathan Watts January 6, 2004
After a six-month absence, SARS has re-appeared in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, with a 32-year old man confirmed to be infected with a new strain of the virus. Provincial officials have declared a "patriotic" extermination of civet cats - the animal from which the virus is believed to have passed to humans - and variety of vermin. The World Health Organization, however...

Taiwan's CDC Expands Personal Health Check

Joy Su December 19, 2003
After several months with no new SARS infections reported worldwide, a Taiwanese medical researcher has contracted the disease while working in a lab. Singaporean health officials have ordered 70 people in that country into quarantine because they came in contact with the Taiwanese man during a recent medical conference in Singapore. In Taiwan, national health officials are ordering increased...

China Steps Up to a Global Threat

John Gittings December 5, 2003
World AIDS Day on December 1 was marked in China by an unprecedented openness on the subject of HIV-AIDS. One of the nation's top leaders, Premier Wen Jiabao, visited patients in AIDS wards and proclaimed a new commitment to providing medical treatment for HIV-infected people and to prevention measures and education about the HIV virus. Veteran China watcher John Gittings writes that...