Scott McPherson's Web Presence

The map you see presents collaboration at its finest, which is why the Bali government attempts at censorship of H5N1 cases are doomed to fail.  Various Internet message board "posters" at flu sites Flu Wiki and FluTrackers spend long nights translating native Indonesian newspapers, blogs and other articles, sometimes by hand, then post the translated messages for others to examine and offer additional or countering translations.  The net result is like putting a puzzle together, but the important thing is that all of these collaborators are getting pretty dang good at reading and understanding Malay, the native language of Indonesia.  The map was created by Flu Wiki and represents the best effort I have seen at placing locations with cases.  Even I did not know the extent of the number of suspected cases, nor their geographic distribution, until I saw this map at http://www.newfluwiki2.com/upload/bali.jpg.

These intrepid lay translators at both sites agree that nearly thirty cases of suspected H5N1 have occurred on the island.  Flu Wiki is reporting 29; FluTrackers, 28.  Only a few of these cases have tested negative; as we know, three deaths are confirmed positive, with the index case -- a young child -- where samples were never taken; and the rest are unknown.  There are new suspected cases almost every day, with four hospitalizations occurring this past weekend, 

Also very distressing is the number of infants with symptoms. 

Clearly, SOMETHING is taking place in Bali.  Many thanks to the dedicated posters at Flu Wiki (http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1652) and to FluTrackers (www.flutrackers.com) for their yeoman work. And thanks to Flu blogger DemFromCT for getting the word out on the map.