Bird flu scare
Photo: AFP
“Bird flu and mass hysteria” by Mr Saif Ahmed (The Daily Star; Friday 22nd Feb 2008) is really appreciable and carries in brief the real picture of bird flu phobia. Do we (our reporters) or livestock dept. ever think about the effects of publishing the news on chicken culling? According to WHO the total number of deaths from bird flu since 2003 is 225 all over the world as of February 16, 2007. Compare that to these numbers: * Diarrhoeal diseases kill over 2 million children a year (225+ per hour) * Malaria kills over 3 million a year. Yet SARS which killed less than 300 people and AI which killed 225 got more media coverage in their panic years than the two big killers did in the last decade. The reasons for this appear to be the same as the reasons for the lack of media coverage of the Bengal famine, 1943. We are already the poorest of the poor and don't force us to become poorer and dependent on others.
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