FT.com / World / Asia-Pacific - Virus presents doctors with nightmare scenario
In Indonesia a taxi driver develops a fever and dies, the latest victim of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. His wife grows ill and also dies. So do his children. And within 10 days so do many of his passengers, victims of a newly mutated virus that has finally found an efficient way to leap among humans.
One of those unlucky passengers is a businessman heading to Jakarta's airport to fly home to Munich. On the first leg to Singapore he passes the virus on to an Australian grandmother sitting next to him and an Indian motorcycle magnate across the aisle.
All make it home. All die within days. Before they do though, they each pass it on to dozens of people in the beginning of a frightening chain of infections. Welcome to the global flu pandemic.
The scenario is, for the time being, fictional. It highlights, however, why there are increasing worries in Europe and the US about a recent surge of human cases in bird flu in south-east Asia, with Indonesia the latest battleground.
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One of those unlucky passengers is a businessman heading to Jakarta's airport to fly home to Munich. On the first leg to Singapore he passes the virus on to an Australian grandmother sitting next to him and an Indian motorcycle magnate across the aisle.
All make it home. All die within days. Before they do though, they each pass it on to dozens of people in the beginning of a frightening chain of infections. Welcome to the global flu pandemic.
The scenario is, for the time being, fictional. It highlights, however, why there are increasing worries in Europe and the US about a recent surge of human cases in bird flu in south-east Asia, with Indonesia the latest battleground.
WELCOME TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPAM FORWARDS!! Thanks FT.com!
