28 April 2013 (00:51 UTC-07 Tango)/17 Jumada t-Tania 1434/08 Ordibehest 1392/19 Bing-Chen (3rd month) 4711

The Chinese province of Hunan reporting its first human case.  A 64 years old woman became sick with pneumonia after working with poultry. She’s in critical condition, but improving.

Travel agencies in Taiwan reporting a 30% drop in bookings to mainland China, after a Taiwan man came back from China sick with H7N9.

On top of that, potential visitors to Taiwan, from Japan, have also been canceling their trips: “…the number of tour groups composed of Japanese corporate employees has declined remarkably.”-Mori Chen, Star Express

Researchers in Canada think the reason so many old men are getting sick, is because of their life long exposure to H7 strains of the flu, as a result of their work with poultry.  A similar antibody-dependent enhancement has been confirmed with dengue fever, and studies have shown that lab animals exposed to flu are more likely to finally get sick than “influenza-naïve animals”.

Basically the more you come into contact with a disease the weaker your immune system gets, even you if you never show symptoms: “…..we should also stay open to the possibility that pre-existing cross-reactive antibodies may actually facilitate the viral infection process, a phenomenon best recognised for dengue through the mechanism of antibody dependent enhancement.”-Danuta M. Skowronski, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Virus-host interactions and the unusual age and sex distribution of human cases of influenza A(H7N9) in China, April 2013