Every day on my way to the hospital, I pass streets lined with poultry. The birds disappeared a few years ago, but have gradually returned. This would be of little concern if I was in Europe or North America - but I work in Vietnam studying emerging pathogens, including the avian influenza virus (H5N1). There is a patient with H5N1 in the hospital as I write. This is a region where the H5N1 virus has killed millions of birds and several people, where SARS and Nipah virus emerged and where the threat of antibiotic and antimalarial drug resistance is growing.
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