Bay Area technicians on alert for avian flu

[RedEarth]

As world flu experts anxiously monitor the spread of a lethal strain of influenza among birds and people in Southeast Asia, Dr. Carol Glaser and her crew of lab technicians in Richmond are carefully watching for the first sign of the disease in California.

The state-run Viral and Rickettsial Diseases Laboratory is operating under a program of "enhanced surveillance" for the H5N1 strain of influenza, which last year killed or required the culling of 120 million birds. Since January 2004, the strain has infected 55 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia -- and killed three out of four of them.

Using rules set up to watch for the SARS virus -- which killed nearly 800 people worldwide in 2003 before it was contained -- Glaser's lab tests sputum samples sent by California doctors from patients who came down with flulike symptoms shortly after traveling through regions in Asia hit by avian influenza.

Since the state stepped up its watch for bird flu one year ago, the lab has screened three suspected cases, including one in which a patient died. All three cases were negative for the H5N1 strain.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/07/MNGOTBLIIP1.DTL

[sacxtra]

1. Makes me want to drink a whole bottle of Oil Of Oregano

Although I don't suggest that anyone actually do it! ;o)

Maybe stock up on Echinasia, and Golden Seal eh?