Bird Flu Found in Africa for First Time

According to the BBC H5N1 has arrived in Nigeria, the first time bird flu has been identified in Africa.

This has been seen as something of a worry by scientists due to the size of the continent and the prevalence of AIDS which means many people with weakened immune systems who could both succumb and provide carriers for future mutation of the virus. As this New Scientist editorial said:

It is pretty clear now that wild water birds are carrying the virus. We do not know how many are infected, but they could spread the infection to the rest of Asia next and to Africa, where the prevalence of backyard chickens, poverty and HIV will be an explosive mix. The more humans are infected, the more likely it is that H5N1 will learn to spread between us.

On a complete tangent, Rich Boakes “autometa” tag generator for Technorati came up with the following, rather appropriate, list: h5n1 arrived nigeria time bird identified africa worry