Global Avian Flu Update

Got this from the Airborne Infection Prevention blog:

"An update of avian influenza from around the globe:

* Indonesia reported its 62nd avian flu fatality last week. Only 18 Indonesians who have contracted the disease survived.

* Of the 19 confirmed cases of avian flu in Egypt, 11 have been fatal. An Egyptian woman who had exposure to sick and dead poultry became the 19th fatality last week.

* Vietnam has suffered the greatest number of H5N1 infections. To date 93 people in that country contracted avian flu, resulting in 42 deaths

* Other countries with reported avian deaths include China, Cambodia Thailand, Turkey and Iraq."

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And because I so love statistics, here's a rundown of the mortality rates:

Vietnam: 45% mortality rate
Egypt: 57% mortality rate
Indonesia: 77% moratlity rate
China: 63% mortality rate

And from the WHO, as of January 12th the Total world mortality rate is 60%.

Taking an average of the top four countries afflicted (seen above), we get a mortality rate of 60.5%. Not far off from the real world rate, eh?

The sad conclusion of all this is: people are, in general, ten percent more likely to die from Bird Flu than to survive. As far as I know, the situation in Jakarta is still very dicey (even with the new backyard bird ban) and there's been quite a few chances for the virus to mutate to better inhabit human hosts.

That's not a lottery the human race wants to win.