China

China has confirmed first ever human case of H7N4 bird flu Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

CLICK HERE - The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Press Release

A 68-year-old patient from Jiangsu province, who has since recovered, developed symptoms on Christmas Day and was admitted to hospital

theguardian.com - by Tom Phillips - February 15, 2018

A woman from eastern China has been confirmed as the first ever human case of H7N4 bird flu, according to Chinese authorities . . .

 . . . The 68-year-old patient from Jiangsu province, who has since recovered, developed symptoms on 25 December, was admitted to hospital for treatment on 1 January and was released on 22 January. 

“She had contact with live poultry before the onset of symptoms,” Hong Kong’s centre for health protection (CHP) said in an alert on Wednesday evening. “According to a report from the Chinese centre for disease control and prevention, upon analysis, the genes of the virus were determined to be of avian origin.”

weather.com - by Pam Wright - June 28, 2017

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Impediments to inland resettlement under conditions of accelerated sea level rise

An estimated 2 billion people will be displaced from their homes by 2100 due to climate-driven rising seas, a new study says.

Roughly one-fifth of the world's population may become climate change refugees, according to Cornell University. The majority of those will be people who live on coastlines around the world, including about 2 million in Florida alone.

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Cornell University - Rising seas could result in 2 billion refugees by 2100

Image: A shop owner holds a live chicken for sale in a Hong Kong market. Isaac Lawrence /AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - April 11th 2017 - Rob Schmitz

At a research lab on top of a forested hill overlooking Hong Kong, scientists are growing viruses. They first drill tiny holes into an egg before inoculating it with avian influenza to observe how the virus behaves.

This lab at Hong Kong University is at the world's forefront of our understanding of H7N9, a deadly strain of the bird flu that has killed more people this season — 162 from September up to March 1 — than in any single season since when it was first discovered in humans four years ago. 

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At least six provinces have reported human cases of H7N9 influenza this year, according to Chinese state media - Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Nature Communications - An NS-segment exonic splicing enhancer regulates influenza A virus replication in mammalian cells

bbc.com - March 21, 2017

A change in just a single genetic "letter" of the flu virus allows bird flu to pass to humans, according to scientists.

Monitoring birds for viruses that carry the change could provide early warning of risk to people, they say . . .

 . . . The change in a single nucleotide (a building block of RNA) allows the H7N9 virus to infect human cells as well as birds, say Prof Honglin Chen and colleagues.

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