H1N1 Comes to Thailand

The prime minister announced today Thailand’s first two cases of what’s being called here “New-DNA Flu 2009.” Both people already had recovered and gone home from the hospital. Lab results had just confirmed their strain matched the new human/pig/bird virus that has kept us quite busy at work these past two weeks.

H1N1’s arrival in Southeast Asia was inevitable, but politicians had been crossing their fingers that the country could dodge it. Nobody wants to give tourists another reason to stay away. Meanwhile, as we enter the time when seasonal flu usually peaks in Thailand, the scientists at my office are on the lookout for signs that New-DNA Flu 2009 has mixed with its cousin and reassorted to create a new-new strain.