THE deadly bird-flu virus H5N1 escaped the Asian henhouses this year and headed west. A massive outbreak of a distinctive strain among water birds at Qinghai Lake in China, and its subsequent spread along their migratory pathways as far as Turkey and Romania, meant its presence in wild birds could no longer be denied.
The fear now is that migrant birds will carry the virus into Africa, where millions of vulnerable poultry live in close contact with people, many with immune systems impaired by tropical diseases, HIV and hunger. Could this prove to be the lethal mix that leads to large-scale human infection?
In Asia, human cases of H5N1 doubled this year compared with 2004. Three-quarters were in Vietnam, but for the first time cases were also reported in Indonesia and China. Fortunately, there are as yet no signs of the virus spreading readily among people, the necessary forerunner of a pandemic.
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The arrival of the virus in Europe in late summer made western officials sit up and take notice, and a few vaccine trials finally got under way. The Bush administration asked Congress for $70 billion for pandemic defences, a level of spending unmatched by any other country – and still not approved. The world’s generic drug industry staked a claim to its rights under trade treaties to make the antiviral drug oseltamivir (better known as Tamiflu), whether the patent-holder, Roche, agreed or not. Roche bowed to the inevitable, and the first doses are now rolling off the production line.
And here are all of ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ’s roundup stories for 2005.
Rise and fall of the stem cell king
