izzyscout21
08-07-2013, 11:57 PM
Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/01/is_this_a_pandemic_being_born_china_pigs_virus
Here's how it would happen. Children playing along an urban river bank would spot hundreds of grotesque, bloated pig carcasses bobbing downstream. Hundreds of miles away, angry citizens would protest the rising stench from piles of dead ducks and swans, their rotting bodies collecting by the thousands along river banks. And three unrelated individuals would stagger into three different hospitals, gasping for air. Two would quickly die of severe pneumonia and the third would lay in critical condition in an intensive care unit for many days. Government officials would announce that a previously unknown virus had sickened three people, at least, and killed two of them. And while the world was left to wonder how the pigs, ducks, swans, and people might be connected, the World Health Organization would release deliberately terse statements, offering little insight.
Timeline of Events
Feb. 19 First male patient, 87, became ill with H7N9 (Medical News Today).
Feb. 27 Second male patient, 27, became ill with H7N9 (Medical News Today).
March 4 First male patient dies (Medical News Today).
March 9 First female patient, 35, from Anhui province became ill with H7N9 (Telegraph).
March 10 Initial report of over 900 dead pigs in Shanghai's Huangpu River as of Saturday, March 9 (China Daily)
Second male patient dies (Medical News Today).
March 11 Count of dead pigs in rivers near Shanghai reaches nearly 3,000 (Business Insider).
Laboratory tests find porcine circovirus (PCV) in one water sample from Huangpu River (Xinhua News)
March 13 Officials say the number of pig carcasses in Huangpu River has risen to 6,000 (BBC).
March 14 Workers continued to haul dead hogs from a river in the Shanghai suburbs Thursday, where the pig body count now exceeds 6,600, according to the municipal government (USA Today).
Farm in Zhejiang province confesses to dumping pig carcasses into river (Bloomberg)
March 20 The number of dead pigs discovered in Chinese rivers around Shanghai has risen to almost 14,000 (BBC).
March 22 50 pigs wash up onshore in Changsha, Hunan province; ~1,000 dead ducks are also discovered (NTDon China via YouTube)
Number of dead pigs found in Shanghai river rises to 16,000 (Independent)
March 25 China pulls 1,000 dead ducks from Sichuan river (BBC).
Government officials say that 1,000+ rotten duck carcasses pose no threat to human and livestock along river banks (Xinhua News).
Illegal Zhejiang pork found in food chain (South China Morning Post).
March 26 Dumping of thousands of dead pigs linked with Chinese crackdown on pork black market (Business Insider)
More than 1,000 dead ducks, in 60 woven plastic bags, are found in Sichuan province (China Daily, Time).
March 31 The government's National Health and Family Planning Commission said over the weekend that two men, aged 87 and 27, died in Shanghai in early March after being infected with H7N9 avian influenza (AFP).
April 1 Widespread reporting about two human deaths and one severe casualty of a "lesser-known bird flu virus" (USA Today, AP).
Dr. Michael O'Leary, World Health Organization, says that there is no evidence to show that a type of bird flu which has killed two Chinese men can be transmitted between people (Reuters).
April 2 Shanghai Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center tested 34 samples of pig carcasses pulled from Huangpu River and found no flu viruses (Shanghai Daily).
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/01/is_this_a_pandemic_being_born_china_pigs_virus
Here's how it would happen. Children playing along an urban river bank would spot hundreds of grotesque, bloated pig carcasses bobbing downstream. Hundreds of miles away, angry citizens would protest the rising stench from piles of dead ducks and swans, their rotting bodies collecting by the thousands along river banks. And three unrelated individuals would stagger into three different hospitals, gasping for air. Two would quickly die of severe pneumonia and the third would lay in critical condition in an intensive care unit for many days. Government officials would announce that a previously unknown virus had sickened three people, at least, and killed two of them. And while the world was left to wonder how the pigs, ducks, swans, and people might be connected, the World Health Organization would release deliberately terse statements, offering little insight.
Timeline of Events
Feb. 19 First male patient, 87, became ill with H7N9 (Medical News Today).
Feb. 27 Second male patient, 27, became ill with H7N9 (Medical News Today).
March 4 First male patient dies (Medical News Today).
March 9 First female patient, 35, from Anhui province became ill with H7N9 (Telegraph).
March 10 Initial report of over 900 dead pigs in Shanghai's Huangpu River as of Saturday, March 9 (China Daily)
Second male patient dies (Medical News Today).
March 11 Count of dead pigs in rivers near Shanghai reaches nearly 3,000 (Business Insider).
Laboratory tests find porcine circovirus (PCV) in one water sample from Huangpu River (Xinhua News)
March 13 Officials say the number of pig carcasses in Huangpu River has risen to 6,000 (BBC).
March 14 Workers continued to haul dead hogs from a river in the Shanghai suburbs Thursday, where the pig body count now exceeds 6,600, according to the municipal government (USA Today).
Farm in Zhejiang province confesses to dumping pig carcasses into river (Bloomberg)
March 20 The number of dead pigs discovered in Chinese rivers around Shanghai has risen to almost 14,000 (BBC).
March 22 50 pigs wash up onshore in Changsha, Hunan province; ~1,000 dead ducks are also discovered (NTDon China via YouTube)
Number of dead pigs found in Shanghai river rises to 16,000 (Independent)
March 25 China pulls 1,000 dead ducks from Sichuan river (BBC).
Government officials say that 1,000+ rotten duck carcasses pose no threat to human and livestock along river banks (Xinhua News).
Illegal Zhejiang pork found in food chain (South China Morning Post).
March 26 Dumping of thousands of dead pigs linked with Chinese crackdown on pork black market (Business Insider)
More than 1,000 dead ducks, in 60 woven plastic bags, are found in Sichuan province (China Daily, Time).
March 31 The government's National Health and Family Planning Commission said over the weekend that two men, aged 87 and 27, died in Shanghai in early March after being infected with H7N9 avian influenza (AFP).
April 1 Widespread reporting about two human deaths and one severe casualty of a "lesser-known bird flu virus" (USA Today, AP).
Dr. Michael O'Leary, World Health Organization, says that there is no evidence to show that a type of bird flu which has killed two Chinese men can be transmitted between people (Reuters).
April 2 Shanghai Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center tested 34 samples of pig carcasses pulled from Huangpu River and found no flu viruses (Shanghai Daily).