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Bird Flu: Terror in the corner
Dr. Turin Chowdhury
For the last few years the word "Bird Flu" has created much of concern as well as confusion among the people. The national and international health bodies have been giving continuous warning regarding the bird flu outbreak. From Japan in the east to US in the west, from economically strong countries to the week economies, all have been terrorized by the "Bird Flu". Today we will try to understand what bird flue is. It may be a bit complicated to describe bird flu though.
Flu (influenza): Influenza commonly known as flu is a viral upper respiratory illness, causing symptoms such as fever, body ache, headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, dry cough, sore or dry throat, etc. The flu is not the same as the common cold; flu symptoms are usually more severe.
Influenza Virus: The virus, which causes influenza is named as Influenza virus. There are mainly three major categories of influenza virus; Influenza type A, Influenza type B and Influenza type C. Type B and C mainly cause illness to humans. Type A viruses can cause illness to both human and animals. The Influenza A virus has different strains which can attack humans and other animals. Till now the animal attacker strains could not attack humans and vice versa.
Influenza Epidemics in Humans: Influenza type A virus caused global pandemics with heavy impacts in terms of disease and deaths at least thrice in the last century. The most infamous pandemic was "Spanish Flu" which affected large parts of the world population and is thought to have killed at least 40 million people in 1918-1919. Two other influenza A pandemics occurred in 1957 known as "Asian influenza" and 1968 known as "Hong Kong influenza". These also caused significant morbidity and mortality globally. Recently, limited outbreaks of a new influenza subtype A directly transmitted from birds to humans have occurred in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China in 1997 and 2003.
Epidemic and Why?
The main reasons for the epidemic are some characteristics of the Influenza virus in general. Such as Contagious nature: Influenza virus is very much infectious in nature. It spreads from person to person through the air by droplets and small particles excreted when infected individuals cough or sneeze. A person can spread the flu starting one day before he or she feels sick. Adults can continue to pass the flu virus to others for another three to seven days after symptoms start. Children can pass the virus for longer than seven days. Symptoms start one to four days after the virus enters the body. Some persons can be infected with the flu virus but have no symptoms. During this time, those persons can still spread the virus to others. The influenza virus enters the body through the nose or throat. It spreads from person to person very fast. So containing the disease spread is very difficult.
Self mutation: Influenza virus has the ability to change its structure. Flu virus undergoes continuous structural changes regularly. The genetic makeup of influenza viruses allows frequent minor genetic changes, known as antigenic drift. That makes it more dangerous. Just giving one example - There is a common saying about the Chicken Pox disease that if some one has chicken pox once that that person will not have chicken pox again. This is generally true. This happens because if someone gets chicken pox once than our body creates antibody against chicken pox virus which helps protect from future infection. On the other hand Influenza virus is undergoing changes continuously - if someone gets the virus and body makes antibody - but the virus after some days will have a slightly changed structure and the antibodies at that time will not work. So every time body faces a new altered virus as a result body immune system cannot work against the attack and re-infection happens. The influenza viruses are constantly changing, producing what are called subtypes or strains that are different from the original virus but retain some of its characteristics. Strains of influenza virus that cause the flu may differ from year to year.
Bird Flu: Avian Influenza in Birds: The Bird Flu is the Influenza happening in the Birds and caused by the Influenza A virus strains collectedly called - Avian Influenza virus. These viruses are found in the wild water birds as a normal natural phenomenon. Wild birds worldwide carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. They can spread it by their stool, body secretions or contaminating surfaces they sit. Whenever the virus from the wild birds shift or infect the poultry birds, they are proven fetal to them. Avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them. As normally the water wild birds are mainly migratory in nature, in their journey of migration they can easily spread this virus to the local wild bird or local poultry birds.
Bird Flu and Humans: Normally the bird flu virus did not infect the humans. Since 1959, instances of human infection with an avian influenza virus have been documented on only 10 occasions. In 1997 in Hong Kong it was confirmed that bird flu virus has infected humans. At the same time the bird flu epidemic among the poultry of Hong Kong was going on. After that there were several reports all around the world for the human infections with Avian Flu virus. If we try to get the bigger picture - the bird flu epidemics has been around during the last couple of decades. But suddenly it has jumped to the humans. It proves that the virus is changing and so it characteristics are also changing. The only for bird virus can now attack the humans. Now the main fear is - if these continuous changes go on - it can any time get the characteristics of spreading from human to human. And this can trigger an epidemic. There are couples of cases the scientists suspect that the incident of human to human transmission has happened but could not be proven scientifically. The bird to human cases was among people who were related to poultry in some way. 
Bird Flu Viruses Causing Human Infection: Avian Influenza A viruses has several strains thus sub-groups. Of the hundreds of strains of avian influenza A viruses, only four are known to have caused human infections: H5N1, H7N3, H7N7, and H9N2. Among them the current concern is the H5N1 type.
Symptoms of Avian Influenza in Humans: The reported symptoms of bird flu in the humans have ranged from typical influenza-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, etc) to eye infections, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, and other severe and life-threatening complications. The bird flu cases appeared to be severe in nature. Mainly the virulence nature of the avian influenza A virus H5N1 type creates the severe degree of illness among the infected persons.
Vulnerable People: Direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and objects contaminated by poultry secretions, is considered to be the main route of human infection. Till now, most human cases have occurred in rural or peri-urban areas where many households keep poultry flocks, which often roam around freely, sometimes entering homes or sharing outdoor areas where children play. In general people in older age group, people of any age with chronic medical conditions, and very young children are more likely to get complications from flu. The flu can make chronic health problems worse. For example, people with asthma may experience asthma attacks while they have the flu, and people with chronic congestive heart failure may have worsening of this condition that is triggered by the flu.
The Bed of Roses for the Epidemic: In the current situation the circumstances are a bed of roses for the epidemic. The danger of the flu epidemic is that it spreads like a fire. The densely populated residential structure of the 3rd world or the aged population majority of the 1st world are both at very much health risk. Bad sanitation, malnutrition also will have added effect. Some more experts say - sudden load on the health system may cause a break down in it causing a chaos. Un-preparedness for crisis management will make things worse. If the virus can infect the humans and birds simultaneously than disease spreading speed will become super fast. Some more the effectiveness of available anti viral drugs or vaccination is also important. Because in general there is not such straight forward treatment against viral infection and same goes for Flu virus. Number of confirmed human cases of Avian Influenza A (H5N1) reported to WHO (up to 16 February 2007) is given here.
Bird Flu Diagnosis: Health professionals usually can diagnose influenza taking into consideration symptoms alone. Especially if many cases of a similar illness have occurred in the community and the local health department has confirmed a flu outbreak. Routine testing of people who have typical flu symptoms is usually not necessary. But in relation to bird flu, the specific flu virus would be identified through a blood test or a nasal or throat swab.
Different Opinion: Contrary to the concern of the probable bird flu epidemic, there are other thoughts those do not consider the bird flu situation with that much importance. They are more of the idea that the threat of the bird flu is not as much as grave as it is presented by world bodies. With present level of health achievements and advancements the threat of bird flu epidemic can be easily faced. Some even has deemed the bird flu threat as propaganda from the part of health bureaucrats and pharmaceutical pressure groups. So their suggestions are that; rather spending the money and resources in the fight against a hypothetical, merely probable epidemic threat, the resources should be diverted towards other important aspects of world health.
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CAMPUS CAPERS
Master's Tea
Rayyan Kamal
One of the to-be-taken-advantage-of features of Yale is the Master's Tea, which occurs regularly throughout the academic year. As the name might suggest, a Master's Tea is hosted by the Master of a residential college. Attending a Master's Tea is similar to attending a guest lecture given by some prominent figure, except that the former is much more relaxed and informal. Chief guests at Master's Teas hail from all conceivable disciplines from politics to the arts, from adventure travel to cooking, from religious figure to porn star. The format of the Tea, which often takes place in the Master's house, is that the Master introduces the speaker, s/he speaks for thirty minutes to an hour, and then answers students' questions.
Last semester I attended a Master's Tea with Julia Coppola, daughter of the esteemed Francis Ford Coppola and director of critically acclaimed movies like Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. What appealed to me most about her was how unassuming and unpretentious she was. When smart-aleck Yalies tried to stump her with annoying questions like "How would you react to criticism branding Lost in Translation as a movie that is fraught with metaphysical paradoxes?" she would simply smile and say something like, "Well, everyone can have his own opinion. If that's what they think, they should go ahead and think that way."
However, I'm sure that the Master's Tea I went to last Monday will end up being the most memorable one I attended. The speaker was Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a sex expert. In fact, the Master's Tea was entitled "Speaking Sexually with Dr. Ruth" in the flyers posted around campus. I got there early because I knew that any Master's Tea revolving around sex would attract a large audience. Yale is, after all, a college and sex is always a hot topic among college students.
I don't know what I had expected Dr. Westheimer to look like, but I was definitely shocked when I saw her. She is almost eighty years-old and is far from a towering presence at 4' 7." In her thick German accent, she discussed issues from masturbation to pre-marital sex to sexual orientation without the slightest abashment. When students began questions with "I have a friend who..." she would sometimes interrupt them and say, "Let's be honest with each other. Why not start the question with, "Actually, I..."
Her unusual wit and utter candor made her a hit with the students. After returning to my room I decided to find out more about this sex expert. Apparently she did a master's in sociology before engaging in post-doctoral work on human sexuality. Fame came her way when her TV show "Sexually Speaking" was highly popular and became nationally syndicated.
But even more interesting is her childhood. Born in Frankfurt to a Jewish family, she went to an orphanage in Switzerland when she was just ten. In 1945 she found out that her parents had died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. She promptly immigrated to Israel where she joined a Jewish paramilitary organization in Jerusalem. Trained as a sniper, Westheimer sustained severe injuries during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was unable to walk for a few months.
Rayyan Kamal is a sophomore at Yale University.
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May we offer guardrails to the derailed?
Maswood Alam Khan
Whenever you feel a little irritation in your nasal mucous membranes you sneeze. Out of boredom, fatigue or drowsiness you open your mouth wide to yawn. And as you sneeze or yawn while chitchatting with your friends you find one or two of your friends, having no irritation inside their nasal holes or feeling no boredom, copycatting you to sneeze or yawn. Scientists call it sympathetic response.
We observe and replicate others to learn and earn our livelihood the way kittens replicate their mother cat to learn how to survive. Cultures imitate cultures, corrupt or fair, past or present, indigenous or alien. My father, who used to wear lungi or dhooti as a schoolgoer in early 1930s, started wearing regimental necktie, beige shirt and pinstriped suit as a magistrate in early 1950s. He attempted to mimic Brown Shahebs (Englishmen) of British Raj. Just the other day thousands of television set owners in Bangladesh rushed to banks to buy TV licenses after several years of using their television sets unlicensed. They learned from their neighbours how to hoodwink out of fun and how to run out of panic.
Politicians bribed the voters following lessons from their mentors, students copied from books stashed inside their trousers while answering exam scripts as their seniors did and my younger brother started smoking in his adulthood as he, in his childhood, keenly observed how I formed and floated in the air 'smoke rings' as I exhaled cigarette smokes. Mirror neurons inside our brains teach us to learn through imitation.
Nowadays TV viewers in Bangladesh no more find the most popular soap operas by Humayun Ahmed as enthralling as TV news footage where bigwigs are seen cowering through wicket gates of prisons. People who cursed while handing bribes to inspectors even for paying their due utility bills, people who witnessed in silence the musclemen grabbing lands without paying any price, people who never imagined of finding a job without political connections, people who never dreamed of an honest man competing in election seem to have woke up from a kind of stupor to start looking at the silver linings in the clouds of despair hovering over Bangladesh for the last 35 years.
Efficient lubricant
During the last 35 years corruption has been industrialised. Bribery has been proven the most efficient lubricant in government machinery. Taking and giving bribe has been so ingrained in our genes that if you ask anyone in Land Registration Office to explain the meaning of 'office expense' (penciled on the cost memo as charges payable to the office as bribes) the desk clerk will look at you awe-struck assuming you a madcap.
You will not find many a bureaucrat or many a politician who cared RAJUK law to own government plots. You will also find some of those bureaucrats and members of think tank, having more than one government plot or defying rules while owning such plots, delivering lectures on how to combat crime and corruption. Corruption has been reckoned a badge of honour and the young man who is found wearing that badge has been deemed the most coveted and attractive bachelor for the prettiest damsel in the town to marry. Corruption, in many instances, was the yardstick to gauge a candidate's eligibility to be an effective parliamentarian. Alas! As a result almost all of us have become corrupt the way almost many of us decorated our living rooms with unlicensed television sets.
'Benefit of doubt'
Crime is crime, big or small. Bangladesh Criminal Penal Code prescribes equal term of imprisonment for those caught red handed while taking or giving bribes, no matter the bribe was a Hilsha fish or a five hundred taka bill. It is the learned and veteran lawyers who help their criminal clients finagle out through the slippery pores of legal dragnets. Those pores of legal dragnets are at times elastic and resilient enough even for big fish to pass through unscathed. Those pores are known as 'Benefit of Doubt' in legal terminology. Law has been tailored in such a way that 'a criminal may go unpunished; but an innocent must not get punished.' Such liberal attitude of law may sound unjust to the victims of crimes, but it is justified for broader dispensation of justice and well prescribed in both man made and ordained books of law.
After all, we are humans, hence frail and gullible. No criminal is a born criminal. It is the society that manufactures criminals. It is poverty that compels a police constable to take bribes from the truck driver to buy milk for his baby. It is our leaders who are responsible for the small fish to grow big overnight. It is our intellectuals who attempt to say that the black object we see with our naked eyes is actually yellow. A small intellectual crime, we should note, is much more injurious to our social fabric than the biggest financial crime.
Paradoxically, our lawmakers have not yet framed a law to try those intellectual criminals who never skipped a prayer, never accepted any bribe but conspired to elongate highways by a hundred miles or so to touch their village homes or zigzag the highway not to touch their cultivable fields compelling millions of travelers to detour longer journeys and thousands of travelers to face death for head on crashes due to sudden veering and depreciation of engines and tyres worth billions of dollars for covering extra miles imposed.
Let alone punish, mere ledgering crimes and corruptions perpetuated and committed during the last 35 years may take years for hundreds of bookkeepers. If our lauded caretaker government punishes a few dozen criminals in summary trials people at home and abroad may offer kudos to them, no doubt. But such trials, I am afraid, may enter the history's ledger as grossly discriminatory, unless the corrupt and the criminals-old and new, apparently big and small but actually the other way round, their godfathers and godmothers-are all made to stand trial on an impeccably levelled field. Sensors beaming signals from satellites stationed in outer space meant for perfecting levels of skyscrapers, jumbo roller machines made of heaviest metallic cylinders, computerised levelling rods and all other latest gadgetry cannot ensure such a level playing field where multitude of the derailed and their progenies can be summoned and tried by any government to dispense justice in the truest sense of the term.
Why not then we declare general amnesty to the criminals (except the hardened criminals charged with felonies like homicides) and the corrupt on some conditions the way black money holders were given a chance to bleach their money white? National Board of Revenue may find their coffers flooded with money galore in a few days if the corrupt and the criminals are asked to deposit surreptitiously 25 per cent of their ill-gotten fortunes to the government in exchange of freedom from the fear of ever being imprisoned.
Let us empty all the prisons. Let us open a new and fresh ledger of justice. Let there be a chance for the corrupt and the criminals to redeem by making confessions and get free by paying heavy punitive premiums the way TV owners post-purchased TV licenses. Let us not rebuke my friend who, on mere sympathetic response, sneezed after I had sneezed. Let us say 'we are all newborn today'. A wise driver, unless he has to reverse his car, does not look at the rearview mirror often. He looks ahead as far as possible. A visionary does not attempt to correct past follies as much as he visualises the future, taking lessons from the past to navigate his nation towards brighter tomorrows. Forgiveness, Paul Boese said, does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
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