Perhaps today should be thought of as a health and fitness day at the old blog. From toys and fitness equipment, let me take you to a recent World Health Organization report on bird flu. Seems the latest WHO research discovered that some cases of the disease in humans came about for unknown reasons. That leads WHO to say that the virus may actually survive sticking to surfaces or may be kicked up in fertilizer dust and infect people.
The article points out that the disease “is considered entrenched in parts of Asia, including Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East. It pops up frequently in Europe and has prompted the slaughter of hundreds of millions of chickens.”
But it’s probably not time to panic just yet, all you humans out there reading this post: The disease is known to have infected 350 people in 14 countries, killing 217 of them since 2003. It has a long way to go before catching up to the number of people who die in the U.S. from “common” influenza infections each year. (I don’t have the exact numbers on that, but it seems between 20,000-30,000 people die every year in the U.S. from influenza or complications related to influenza. I know that figure isn’t out of line. Look it up yourself.)
So if you’re the sort of person who worries about flu deaths, about fears of worldwide bird flu plagues — here’s your chance. But I doubt it’s worth the effort.
Just be careful out there. Life itself always poses some dangers.
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