03 May 2013 (10:26 UTC-07 Tango)/22 Jumada t-Tania 1434/13 Ordibehest 1392/24 Ding-Si (3rd month) 4711

The government of Thailand is drafting an emergency plan to deal with a potential outbreak of H7N9: “Personally I believe the outbreak of this avian flu virus will reach Thailand by October, because of the rainy season. It will also deal a psychological blow to the poultry industry, not only in frozen chickens but cooked chicken as well.”-Pornthep Siriwanarangson, Disease Control Department

A 38 years  old man is now considered recovered after several days on death’s door.  Health officials in Zhejiang Province say he had been hospitalized for 22 days.  He was one of nine people recovered from H7N9 and released from hospitals on Friday.

In Taiwan, health officials say their first, and so far only human case of H7N9 is recovering.  The 53 years old man came back from a trip to China sick.  He’s been hospitalized since the first week of April.

Doctors in United Kingdom have been told to be on the alert for symptoms of H7N9 in Britishers.  The reason is that about 11000 Britishers visit China every week.  Also, about 3500 Chinese visit the U.K. every week.

Yet another study has confirmed what earlier studies have said about where H7N9 came from: It’s mutated from several other viruses.

 The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other universities, identified some of the genes.  One set of genes came from ducks in the Yangtze River Delta region.  Another set of genes are believed to have come from wild migrating birds.  Six other gene types evolved from two different groups of H9N2.  Some of the genes are resistant to tamiflu anti-viral treatment.