The court scholar serving Hermann of Thuringia.

The court scholar serving Hermann of Thuringia.
The scholar

2005/10/05

Avian Flu resources

As a continuation of Avian Flu Awareness Week, here are some blogs and other resources on Avian Flu.

Bush had an interesting comment on the problem: "I take this issue very seriously, The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can." We ought to "rest assured"?!?!? In other words, "Sit down, shut up and daddy will take care of everything!" Problem with that idea is that the blog Bump in the Beltway estimates we're about three years behind in planning for how to deal with it. Fortunately, regular people, scientists and Democrats are raising a stink based on their review of how effectively the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina.

News aggregators and blogrolls

News blogs and daily commentary
  • Recombinomics
    Pointed daily commentaries by Dr. Henry L. Niman on technical aspects of breaking avian influenza news
  • Connotea: Avian flu
    Connotea is a social bookmarking service for scientists, where you can find news links and resources posted by Declan Butler, senior reporter at Nature magazine
  • Pharmaviews news and commentary by Dr. Lelang Teng, MD. Based in Seattle, WA.
  • PoultryMed a site with bird flu news maintained by Dr. Nati Elkin
Authoritative sources of background information
  • ProMED-mail Highly respected medical news source. The Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases is an electronic outbreak reporting system that monitors infectious diseases globally. The news on ProMED are selected and reviewed by health care professionals associated with the International Society for Infectious Diseases. Usually a day or so later than “breaking news” sources but with value added of moderator comments (perspectives vary with particular moderator on duty). The avian influenza news page on ProMED-mail is edited by, among others:
    • Lawrence C. Madoff, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Author of three articles in “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine”
    • Peter Cowen (PC) Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
    • Craig R. Pringle (CP) Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick. Formerly Secretary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
    • Arnon Shimshony (AS) Associate Professor, Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • Nature: Warnings of a Flu Pandemic Nature Magazine’s 26 May, 2005 issue focusing on avian flu / pandemic. Contains a great number of articles by top experts (mostly on free access).
  • Foreign Affairs: Avian Flu A special section in Foreign Affairs’ July/August 2005 issue. Coverage in coordination with Nature Magazine. Articles by Laurie Garrett, Michael T. Osterholm, William B. Karesh and Robert A. Cook (on free access);
    “No one can truly be isolated from a pandemic” (Osterholm)
Maps and statistics
Please keep in mind this is a partial list and that I just picked out what seemed to me to be the most directly relevant items that newbies like myself might be interested in. Lots more where that came from.

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