H5N1 Moves Into Africa, European Union, Deepening Global Crisis

Abstract

Global anxiety over the H5N1 avian influenza strain ratcheted up several notches last week. European Union authorities called an urgent meeting after the virus was found in dead swans in Italy, Greece, Slovenia, and Austria, the first E.U. countries to be affected, and in Bulgaria. Even more disconcerting, H5N1 has gained a firm foothold on a third continent, Africa, where fighting it will be an uphill battle. By press time, avian influenza had hit poultry farms in at least three states in northern Nigeria. Meanwhile, scientists are puzzled by the apparent lack of evolution of the virus as it hops from continent to continent.