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[Mar. 27th, 2003|10:28 am] |
Influenza of 1918-1919 killed 25mln in four months. 8,538,315 were killed or died in WWI.
Is South China a Breeding Ground for Killer Bugs?
The theory is simple. In Guangdong, for example, about 90 million people, or 1.5 times the population of Britain, live in close proximity to livestock, particularly ducks, creating an ideal place for the bugs that cause disease to thrive and mutate.
"Southeast Asia is an incubating ground, if you like, for new pandemic strains of flu," said John MacKenzie, a virologist and the leader of a five-member World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) team visiting China to investigate the atypical pneumonia outbreak.
Human and avian strains of viruses can recombine or exchange genes, he told Reuters. The new virus can be incubated in livestock, like ducks and pigs, and make their way back into humans living nearby. |
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