More on the avian flu in Vietnam: a fifth person has died of the deadly avian flu, called H5N1. The World Health Organization has confirmed that a 5-year old girl who died in Hanoi on Saturday died from H5N1. So far, all the known cases of this flu strain have been transmitted directly from birds to humans, but WHO is investigating known cases closely to identify any cases of human-to-human transmission — which would be required for H5N1 to become an epidemic. To fight this possibility, Vietnam has ordered the slaughter of all fowl in the 12 regions hardest hit with the bird flu.

In related news, Thailand denies having the avian flu but EU officials are dubious. The EU imports thousands and thousands of Thai chickens every year — if the flu is present in Thailand, this could be a major vector for it to spread to Europe.

I know my obsession with the flu makes me sound like a germ freak, but that is a spurious correlation. I’m really an epidemiology freak. I sometimes think that somewhere along the line I missed my calling by not becoming a medical epidemiologist.