2 from ATC: avian flu in Thailand & brothel children in Calcutta

Two features from this week's editions of ATC that I wanted to archive:

• This feature about efforts to contain avian flu in Thailand:

  Thailand Struggles To Head Off a Pandemic

  Thailand has killed more than 40 million chickens this year in an effort to stop a deadly strain of bird flu that's killed at least 17 people in the country. But the virus keeps resurfacing.

  
  
  Wanted to archive this one since I'm hoping to sit down and write something about the flu. Timely not only b/c of the recent events concerning Chiron and the flu vaccine, but also b/c one of the most fascinating lectures of the immunology course I was sitting in on this semester discuseed influenza. I'll post it on my new science blog when I write it up. (Note to self: get a copy of Gina Kolata's book.)




• Would have missed this one had Madhu not mentioned it to me the other day:
  
  

  Young Photographers from the Streets of Calcutta

  Born Into Brothels, a new documentary film, tells the story of children growing up in poverty in Calcutta's red-light district who find hope in a newfound skill - photography.

  
  
  Interesting story, worth listening to. (Note: About half way through there's a nice clip of a boy speaking colloquial Bengali that I could actually understand, unlike the formal Bengali you'll hear here.)