Has anyone seen the PBS wideangle show about bird flu in SEA, and its potential to become a pandemic?

Apparently the WHO says that the H5N1 bird flu strain is potentially much more dangerous than SARS. There have now been reported cases in Vietnam and Indonesia, which are both in my travel plans for 2006. This is a news blurb about it: "Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. But the World Health Organization has warned that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans — possibly triggering a global pandemic that could kill millions."

Anyone have any concerns about travel in SEA, in light of this issue?

{Disclosure: I am usually not a neurotic person or a worrier about stuff like this, but in the past few years I have had one friend almost die of west nile, a relative almost die of "flesh eating" bacteria and also had confirmed anthrax in the building where I work, so long story short, I am more concerned about "exotic" diseases and viruses like this now than I was in the past.}

This is actually not new. Who has been saying this for a couple of years.I think the theory is that if/when it becomes a pandemic it won't matter where you life. And as you point out, you don't have to leave home to have these problems. On the good side there has been a lot of progress in the creation of a vaccine.

For factual info on the avian flu, there is a section at the cdc website www.cdc.gov

Note that the concerns are about something that hasn't happened yet: the concern is about what would happen if this avaian flu developed the ability for person to person transmission. Currently, transmission has been from contact with contaminated birds, their carcasses or fecal matter. The very limited number of person to person transmissions have required exceptionally close contact.

When I was in Bangkok last summer(2004) there was talk of the bird flu...chicken flu(?) and the Four Seasons even had a sign up in its restauarant, for breakfast, that it would only cook eggs well-done.I just came back from Bangkok 4 weeks ago and there was no sign up at the Four Seasons and I didn't hear any talk about it. My Thai friend didn't mention it at all. Happy Travels!

Last year the problem was in thailand and vietnam. Now the biggest problem is in Indonesia. Thailand has been clean for several months I think.

And, even though some restaurants would only serve eggs well done or stopped serving chicken or duck last year, there have been no cases of avian flu passed via food.

Kathie's right. At the Oriental the only change was they asked if you wanted the raw egg in your soup if you ordered their special breakfast soup.

As an expat living in Indonesia, I certainly do have concerns about bird flu. Although we live on a camp, we're surrounded by a village, and free roaming chickens are a common sight.

Just yesterday I read the CDC site to educate myself about how they believe the flu is transmitted. I was relieved to learn that the virus is killed during cooking, as long as the chicken is cooked to a minimum temp of 70F. I was concerned, as we get our chicken from Jakarta, home of the latest outbreak.

The CDC has some good information regarding the proper handling of raw poultry and eggs. Although most people take care with raw poultry anyway due to salmonella concerns, I hadn't given too much thought to eggs before. Apparently, they believe the virus can be transmitted through the handling of eggs and their shells, which makes sense, as shells fall within the definition of "contaminated surfaces".

We've always washed our eggs here prior to using them, but I'll definitely be paying more attention to cooking temperatures and egg shell handling in the future. I'll also be giving those roaming chickens a wide berth.

I watched a report on this last night. The Australian Minister of Health, (known to his many enemies as "the Mad Monk" because of his religious tendencies) was in the process of assuring us that the government was doing all within its power, etc., and that the chance of the flu skipping species was only about ... oh, let's say 10%.

He then rather spoiled the effect by acknowledging that horses which start at 10 to 1 have been known to win. He did point out that we have 4 million doses of an antiviral whatsit stored away, which sounded good until you did the maths and realised that it would leave 80% of the population unprotected.

The Mad Monk was followed by the Commonwealth's chief medical officer, who admitted that if the worst happened a total lockdown of all air and sea ports was a possibility, but that we'd start by screening all incoming passengers.

He was followed by a noted molecular biologist, who thought they were both dreaming, and wanted to know what we'd do about passengers not yet showing any symptoms.

I turned off the TV. The Mad Monk has previously suffered blows to his credibility, the last time garnering some public sympathy when a young man turned up claiming to be his love child. The media lapped it up, the Monk confessed his sin, noting that he and his then girlfriend hadn't believed in using the Pill, and had an emotional and very public reunion with the lad. Shortly afterwards a DNA test blew the whole story out of the water and the media moved on.