China confirms 11 more H7N9 cases, 1 fatal

The second newly reported death is that of a 65-year-old man from Hong Kong whose illness was first reported by the CHP on Jan 8. He became ill after traveling to the mainland city of Shenzhen, where he walked past one of the city's live-bird markets but did not go in.

Multiple New Cases Of H7N9 Have Been Confirmed In The Last Week
The newly confirmed cases raises the number of illnesses from H7N9 to 170 with 51 deaths. Zhejiang Province remains the most affected region with 57 confirmed cases.
Read more at [link to www.redorbit.com]

Me thinks that even poultry get their day before the judge to plead their case.

Hong Kong: CHP on 3 new H7N9 cases in Fujian, Zhejiang

As of 9pm today, a total of 172 human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) have been confirmed in the Mainland, including Zhejiang (62 cases), Shanghai (36 cases), Jiangsu (30 cases), Guangdong (16 cases), Fujian (seven cases), Jiangxi (six cases), Anhui (four cases), Henan (four cases), Beijing (two cases), Hunan (two cases), Shandong (two cases) and Hebei (one case)
[link to crofsblogs.typepad.com]

yes things are getting bad, When the daily "confirmations" go double digit this thing may get way out of control

scary stuff

Had a talk with my wife last night about a "hypothetical situation" in which a deadly flu virus started spreading rapidly amongst the global population. I wanted to know at what point she would not resist leaving our home with the kids and dogs and heading to our camp for an extended stay.

There has been talk that there may have been a mutation to this strain (H7N9) making it easier to go human to human. This has not been officially verified yet. If H2H happens, stay away from the masses.

H7N9 has mutated, may spread from human to human: expert

George F. Gao, the vice-president of Beijing Institutes of Life Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deputy director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Weekly that he and his research colleagues have broken down the mechanisms of transmission of the H5N1 and H7N9 avian flu viruses.

The research team pointed out in a study published in Science magazine in September last year that they have identified mutations in four key sites of amino acids of the H7N9 strain and found that the virus has an ability to bind to human cells in the upper respiratory tract.

Although the H7N9 and H5N1 viruses have not had the ability to widely spread from human to human, after undergoing genetic mutations and redistribution through mutations, they become better able to bind to human cells in the upper respiratory tract and can evolve into bird flu strains with the ability to transmit among humans, the team says. [link to focustaiwan.tw]

If its still early like feb, I would leave for the camp around the time schools start closing, this happened in a couple of places in 2009,

That would tell me that it's time to hunker down and not venture out.