It’s been a rough news week for Bangladesh.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said yesterday that the bird flu situation in Bangladesh continues to worsen and now poses a “threat to public health.” There have been no human infections yet in Bangladesh, but there have been flare-ups just about weekly since February 2007. This week the disease spread to neighboring India where it caused a massive outbreak. From the AFP:
Experts differed, saying the situation was far worse than the government claims, with farmers holding back from reporting many cases.
“Bird flu is now everywhere. Every day we have reports of birds dying in farms,” M.M. Khan, leading poultry expert and the treasurer of Bangladesh Poultry Association, said last weekend.
The situation was serious and public health was in danger, Khan said.
In other news, about 15 people die there each year from elephant attacks. From Reuters:
Attacks by elephant have become frequent in recent years, as their forest habitats shrink due to encroachment by people, forest officials say.
