The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic

"This is a book about much more than a lethal threat from the influenza virus. It's about the fog of war, about reality, about the gap between those who make.
Table of contents

The culprit will not be H1N1, Sipress notes, but rather H5N1, an avian influenza that has killed millions of birds throughout East Asia since the s and has now turned up in places as distant as Egypt and Azerbaijan. Flu viruses are defined by two types of protein: What makes H5N1 so virulent is its ability to penetrate deep into lung tissue, unlike seasonal influenza, which targets the nose, throat and upper respiratory system.

Particularly troubling is the fact that it has already jumped the species barrier from animals to humans. Though few people have been infected so far -- all in Asia and the vast majority in close contact with diseased poultry -- the mortality rate has been a staggering 60 percent. Sipress sees H5N1 as the product of numerous factors, including a livestock revolution gone wild.

Countries like Indonesia and Vietnam have become world leaders in poultry production without changing the primitive ways they go about tending their flocks. Chickens and ducks are rarely segregated from other farm animals, allowing all sorts of viruses to mix and spread. The birds are packed together in astonishing density; slaughtering takes place in open markets or private homes. Epidemics are ignored or covered up by public officials. Why risk the sort of publicity that could cost hundred of millions of dollars in poultry sales and tourism?

Nov 12, Pages. In , Swine Flu reminded us that pandemics still happen, and award- winning journalist Alan Sipress reminds us that far worse could be brewing. A vivid portrayal of the struggle between man and microbe, The Fatal Strain is a fast-moving account that weaves cultural, political, and scientific strands into a tale of inevitable pandemic. Alan Sipress is economics editor at The Washington Post and a longtime foreign correspondent, based most recently in Southeast Asia.

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There are lessons here for everyone, and in compelling fashion this book drives those lessons home. Barry , author of The Great Influenza: Sipress pursues the deadly strain through Asia with tenacious energy, revealing the true scale of the danger, and the terrifying inadequacy of our readiness to face it. It is…a cautionary tale [as] influenza is about politics.

About The Fatal Strain In , Swine Flu reminded us that pandemics still happen, and award- winning journalist Alan Sipress reminds us that far worse could be brewing. Inspired by Your Browsing History. The Hacking of the American Mind.

The Fatal Strain by Alan Sipress | leondumoulin.nl

The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth. The Mind of God. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang. The format and style of the book made it difficult to read. The author jumped around in time and location following different health care workers, WHO, CDC and government employees, making it hard to focus on the content as much as I would have liked to. It took me a long time to get through, even though I was interested in learni I thought the content of this book was good. It took me a long time to get through, even though I was interested in learning what the book had to offer.

The Fatal Strain, a book about avian flu viruses, reads like a medical thriller. While that's a good thing for those who enjoy good read, it's probably a bad thing for the future of the world's health.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Alan Sipress is a reporter who spent years tracking avian flu. His book tells the tale of his travels and what he found out about avian flu, from its history to what he regards as the inevitable coming flu pandemic. But that just mirrors the virus itself, always on the march, but never in a straight line. The flu is a great shapeshifter, too, restlessly mutating, changings its strategies.

Sipress believes it's all but certain that someday, the virus will hit upon just the right combination of lethality and communicability to cause a worldwide pandemic, with the potential to kill tens of millions of people. Sipress does a fine job of making both the medicine and the politics of the flu interesting and understandable.

His book is fast paced and fascinating, a real life thriller. Take-aways from this book: A flu pandemic will come again, and when it does, millions of people will probably die. There's very little medicine can do to change that. One thing medicine CAN do is coordinate with animal health officials. Preventing epidemic bird flu in flocks of domesticated birds could help reduce the spread of the viruses to the human population.

Disease X: Deadly Bird Flu Spreading in China

As of the writing of this book, bird flu was bad at jumping from person to person, which is why it rarely spread further than Take-aways from this book: As of the writing of this book, bird flu was bad at jumping from person to person, which is why it rarely spread further than populations who had direct contact with infected birds. Someday that will change - see numbers 1 and 2 above. We shouldn't panic, but we should use good hygiene measures, such as frequent hand-washing and washing shoes after they come in contact with bird droppings.

Questions?

That might help a little. There were parts of this book I found fascinating - and somewhat disturbing - such as the politics behind covering up outbreaks and withholding of samples, though I completely understand not wanting pharmaceutical companies to profit from the misfortunes of others.

There were other parts of this book that I found incredibly difficult to wade through - did we really need all that description of cock fighting? The topic is important. Understanding the political mire is important. Understanding the There were parts of this book I found fascinating - and somewhat disturbing - such as the politics behind covering up outbreaks and withholding of samples, though I completely understand not wanting pharmaceutical companies to profit from the misfortunes of others.

Understanding the role of migratory patterns is important. Understanding the impact of globalization on the spread of disease is important.


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So I'm glad I read the book. It would be far more readable if entire sections were removed, however. Sep 14, David Bales rated it it was amazing Shelves: Sipress, formerly of the Washington Post, delves into the world of tracking down flu strains in the attempt to avoid the next great flu pandemic. Involved in this elaborate international effort is the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization in Geneva as the medical sleuths go from Hong Kong to Vietnam to Thailand to Indonesia in search of bird flu, the H5 viruses that have leapt species and threaten massive future epidemics that most countries are unprepared for.

Horrific de Sipress, formerly of the Washington Post, delves into the world of tracking down flu strains in the attempt to avoid the next great flu pandemic.


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    6. Oct 30, Cara rated it really liked it. The title of this book sounds a lot more alarmist than it really is.

    It's more about the past outbreaks of avian flu rather than oh-my-God-we're-all-gonna-die from a future outbreak. It's really interesting to read about this now during the current Ebola outbreak. I don't remember everyone panicking so much when bird flu was going around though admittedly I didn't really pay attention , but this book makes a fair case that flu is something we should be a lot more worried about than Ebola.

    Nov 05, Paul rated it liked it Shelves: Just an oddball collection of stories about people working on bird flu outbreaks. If they were making a big difference, Sipress certainly didn't adequately make that case. I imagine the idea is to scare us into caring about bird flu, but I think the popular media has done a decent job of that already.

    Nov 22, Katie Christian rated it liked it. Interesting, but some parts get a little difficult to follow. When the author explains that when the bird flu first struck cities in Thailand and China the people were convinced that it wasn't a disease - it was a curse - I almost laughed out loud.