Feeling like ... Our Kid came home early from school yesterday with a fever and headache. Today, I've succumbed, with the bonus of liquid guts. It's one of those days when you're not sure if you're feeling hot because of the weather outside or the illness inside.
Jakartass has an ambivalent attitude towards the medical profession.
Physician heal thyself and
mind over matter are two aphorisms which have served me well down the years. So, what's up doc?
I don't think it's
dengue fever. For one thing, although 'Er Indoors thinks I smell nice, mozzies don't. Besides, the area is regularly dowsed with exhaust fumes pumped out from two-stroke engines deployed for that purpose.
Another pandemic currently causing widespread fear and pandemonium is what is termed Asian Bird Flu.
Last year, Megawati's government remained silent for five months about the outbreak which
was reported in 10 areas in West Java and killed about 1.6 million of six million farmed chickens in the province, or 25.3 percent.
Yesterday, as reported in the
Jakarta Post, t
he head of farm animal health at the West Java Animal Husbandry Office, Musni Suatmodjo, said avian influenza, or bird flu, had spread to five regencies and municipalities in the province. He identified them as Cirebon regency and municipality, Subang regency, Indramayu regency and Sukabumi regency. He said
he was confident this year's bird flu outbreak would be less severe, maybe killing just 10 percent of farmed chickens in the province. "We have prepared 50 million doses of vaccine to stop the spread of the virus in 2005." I note that the UK is stockpiling
14.6 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which works by reducing the symptoms and the risk of a carrier passing on the virus. So that's a quarter of the population of both countries OK then.
The big worry for us all is how a bird flu transmutes into a human flu. Every commentator refers to the pandemic which killed 40 million people in 1918. If you want the science, read
this article. What I find more interesting is how it spread so quickly among a pre-jetsetting population. The answer according to
this article is Aspirin, which I didn't realize needs capitalization, and the telephone.
In my delirium, I seem to have strayed somewhat from my central point that I feel like ... Anyway, I don't think I've got a version of Avian flu because the chickens round our street are free range. And I'm vegetarian. And I don't cuddle them.
I want to be fit for this weekend's
Java Jazz Festival so I'm going to take large doses of multi-vitamins and
eat fruit.
PS. Or should that be PPS?
Yesterday I wondered about the connection between the blogs of the
Jakarta Kid,
Aangirfan and
Nona. Aangirfan has informed me that
Aangirfan and Nona are a cooperative of convent girls, past and present, plus a few circus performers...Glad that's sorted out.
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