It’s very strange to have one of your interests–suddenly and for no discernable reason–become the center of public attention.

I’ve been interested in the avian flu since it was first discovered in 1997–I’ve got a whole file folder dedicated to it, as well as a bookmark folder filled with outdated links that have long since disappeared.

There are some great articles in Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the CDC: “The Economic Impact of Pandemic Influenza in the United States: Priorities for Intervention (Meltzer, 1999, Vol 5 No 5) and “The Next Influenza Pandemic: Lessons from Hong Kong, 1997” (Snacken, 1999, Vol 5 No 2).

It’s not like this strain of the flu should come as a big surprise. We’ve known about it for years. We’ve also know for awhile that it’s capable of human to human transmission. So why the sudden panic? Why the sudden flurry of news stories about Avian flu?

I have several cynical answers I could make to this question of course, but I don’t know if politics is the answer.

And what happened to SARS? Have we suddenly found it less of a threat than Avian flu? It takes months to create a flu vaccine–why were we working on this problem years ago?

Furthermore, are we doing anything other than wringing our hands and printing article after article guaranteed to scare the general populace?

Why do these things happen like this?

CDC Influenza page
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
WHO Avian Influenza site
CDC Flu Map