Big Bad…..Bird?

Okay, quick quiz. Which do you think poses a greater threat to the United States: terrorism or the bird flu? If you said terrorism then you are watching way too much cable news. The reality is that while terrorism has certainly grabbed the headlines every day since September 11, there are actually other problems out there that are of more concern though you would not know that if you rely on the news or the administration to keep you accurately informed.



As most of you know, the bird flu has made the news off and on (more often off) since the first human case was detected in 1997. There have been outbreaks of the most virulent stain of the bird flu since then, but those have mainly been confined to Asia, specifically India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam and others. The bird flu has so far reached only as far west as Nigeria and so many in the United States may have the false notion that we are protected by the Atlantic on our east and by the Pacific on the west. This is, of course, not true, as we are also well aware that we truly are a global community now and not even an ocean is too large to traverse.



So who cares about a virus that infects birds anyway? Well, under normal circumstances, no one, but this is a very special virus. The wondrous thing about viruses that have made them such a success over the course of history is their ability to adapt, and to adapt quickly. The goal of a virus is the same as that of every other living being, to survive. In order to survive a virus needs a host, it cannot survive on its own, but the virus faces a significant challenge once it infects its host. What happens to the virus if and when it kills it host, where does it go from there? The virus has its best chance at survival if it can infect multiple species and hop from host to host. Luckily this is a somewhat difficult feat for the virus to achieve, but unfortunately for us, not an impossible one. The bird flu virus is special in that it is sometimes able to jump hosts and infect humans, though it isn’t yet very good at it. Because the bird flu isn’t very good at infecting humans that means that the flu doesn’t spread very well. But the virus keeps changing and there is a very real chance that someday soon it will get very good at, and then we are in trouble.



How much trouble? The problem that humans face when a virus jumps species is that it is absolutely unfamiliar to our immune systems. Most of the viruses and bacteria that we experience are like the pesky next-door neighbor, they always find a way in and stick around longer than you might like, but at least they aren’t strangers and we know how to get rid of them. It is the same way with common pathogens, our immune systems have already seem them and have provided us some protection by producing antibodies that detect the foreigner and immediately kick start the immune reaction. The virus that causes the bird flu would be completely different from any other virus that our immune system might be familiar with, and we would have no immediate protection from it. We can look to the past to get an idea of just how devastating a new virus can be to the population. The Spanish flu ravaged the entire world from 1918-1920 and lead to the death of 2.5-5% of the world population with around 20% of population suffering from the flu to some extent. 50 million-100 million people worldwide died as a result of the Spanish flu at a time when the world population was only 1.8 billion (let me remind you that that is less than the current population of only China and India combined). Another important point to make about the Spanish flu is that though it happened nearly a century ago when travel was much less common and international travel was incredibly rare the disease easily spread from its origin in the United States all over the world.



So what can we expect if and when the virus makes the jump to humans? It doesn’t look promising, there have been 350 human cases of the bird flu reported so far (as of Jan. 15, 2008), and of those 217 died, that is a mortality of 62%. Estimates of a bird flu pandemic range anywhere from 2 million- 150 million deaths worldwide though most experts agree that the death toll will be probably less than 10 million. These figures depend entirely on a couple of things, how easily the virus is transferred from one person to another, how lethal it is, and how effectively the global community responds to the pandemic.



I bring all of this up to try to make the point that I am pretty worried. A couple of days ago I was flipping through the channels on TV to try to find something decent to watch when a headline on the news grabbed my attention. The bird flu was detected in West Bengal, an Indian state in the east of the country. I know that the bird flu was found in India in February of 2006, but at the time I was living in the US and India was a far-away foreign place whose problems didn’t really affect me. Now I know better, and I am concerned. Why am I so worried? The entire world is depending on each and every country in which the bird flu is detected to act swiftly and responsibly to contain the threat and try to prevent its spread. After living in India for over one year I have never seen the government do a single thing either swiftly or responsibly. Additionally, ignorance abounds in India and there are reports that in the villages that possibly infected birds are being culled, villagers are either not turning in birds for culling or are handling the live and dead animals in the traditional dress (read, half-naked) with no protective gear and dumping the culled fowl in the nearest bodies of water. God help us. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I cannot imagine a worse scenario, the responsibility of containing the bird flu in Indian hands. The government is so inept, it would simply be overwhelmed and I am sure that the world over people would suffer as a result of its incompetence. One could be sure that in the US the government would act swiftly, it might infringe on every citizens’ civil rights, suspend habeas corpus and start involuntary and unnecessary quarantines, but you can be sure that it would act. Well, as long as white people are in danger.



Anyway, I think I’ll skip the chicken for a bit.

Back to Bangalore Part Deux

Hello everyone! Eric and I have just returned to Bangalore from our three week holiday in the United States where we had a wonderful vacation spending time with our family and friends. I hope that you all had a very happy holiday season. Christmas time just isn't the same without snow and cold weather and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't bothered by the temperatures at all, in fact I think that I spent more time outdoors while we were visiting than I had while we were living in the US. I feel that we were so lucky because none of our flights were affected by the winter weather but we were also able to enjoy plenty of beautiful snow while we were visiting. Our plans were only altered by bad weather one time during the entire three week period which was wonderful because we had the chance to see and spend time with so many of our friends and family. There are so many things that I enjoyed about our trip home but the things that I will probably remember the most: hanging out at the farm with Mom and Dad just relaxing, the time that I got to spend with my baby niece Natalie, even when she was projectile vomiting all over me, Matt and Janele hosting their first Christmas, Kevin opening a bottle of wine with a deck screw, power drill and a pair of pliers, snuggling with my parents' super-wonderful cats Bubbles and Opie (pictured below), dinner with the family at the Iowa Machine Shed (all 30 of us), and talking to Jill for hours about who knows what and introducing her to America's Next Top Model (sorry Jill). And did I mention the food??? Oh, Mom spoiled us something fierce, I must have gained 20 pounds! I am already missing the comforts of home, but we were able to bring back more than 2 whole bags (around 70 pounds probably) of food from the US to help us get by for the next six months.



Our return to Bangalore was uneventful, and after the hell that we went through in Delhi trying to get to the US for Christmas, we were very grateful for that. We picked up our girls Mira and Chaya the day that we arrived, we were so anxious to see them and bring them home since we had missed them so much! They recognized us right away (thankfully) and after chatting with Yasmine and JP for a bit, we set off for home. True to form, Chaya whined and cried all the way home, but as soon as we got them both inside they hopped right out of their baskets and made themselves comfortable. We opened all of the new toys that we had brought back for them and they set about to making an unholy mess. Some things never change. They seemed to be a bit skinny to me, but I am not sure if that is just my eyes playing tricks because I became so accustomed to seeing and playing with Opie and Bubbles, both of whom are literally three times the size of our girls. They seem to have settled in with us once again as they are eating well and are as naughty as ever! But we wouldn’t have them any other way…



To tell the truth, it is difficult to be back in India, I think that it always will be hard to leave our life in the US for our life in Bangalore. I wish that I could say that it gets easier for us but it just doesn’t. There are some wonderful things that we have experienced while living here, but it is not our home. We could live here the rest of our lives and not feel like this is home and also never be accepted as anything but foreigners. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to visit the US every six months, without those emotional and physical recharges I think that living here would be impossible for us. So with that in mind, we are already counting the minutes until we can visit home again in July. Thank you to everyone who made our trip this holiday season so special, we appreciate everyone taking take to visit with us and we will see you all again soon!

Sweet Opie loved to sleep with us at night!

Bubbles is the softest kittie ever!