AVIAN FLU UPDATE:

Federal health officials are seeking to update quarantine regulations, hoping changes such as easier access to airline passenger lists could better protect Americans from foreign infectious diseases, including bird flu.

The proposed changes, announced Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include easier CDC access to airline and ship passenger lists, a clearer appeals process for people subjected to quarantines, and explicit authority to offer vaccinations and medical treatment to quarantined people.

The changes are part of a multi-pronged attempt to guard against infectious agents from abroad. In the past 1 1/2 years, the CDC also has increased the number of quarantine stations at airports, ship ports and land-border crossings from eight to 18.

Whether or not avian flu turns out to be a threat to humans, we need to have this kind of thing squared away before we need it.

Meanwhile, mixed news from China:

China called bird flu a “serious epidemic” and pledged to step up measures to fight the deadly virus Tuesday as officials announced three new outbreaks of the disease in the country’s poultry. . . .

China has reported one human fatality from the disease and one suspected death. The country is vaccinating billions of poultry.

Let’s hope all this works.

UPDATE: Some thoughts from a U.S. expat in China, including this worry: “My fear…is if there is a pandemic outbreak and I decide to get the family out of Dodge and send them home, the US government won’t allow them access, despite being citizens. The talk of quarantines and closing access is a bit worrying. I’d hate to be stuck here with limited access to medical help and medicines.”