Scott McPherson's Web Presence

The Australian virologist Dr. Ian Mackay's blog, Virology Down Under, is a great place to go to read -- and see the visual representatio nof -- the latest on H7N9. It has become one of my "go-to" sites for updates and assumptions.

Please check this site out.  It will help you draw conclusions that you simply cannot visualize when reading the static data.

Of particluar help is his chart showing the individual cases against the backdrop of such things as the culling of poultry in the major sities reporting H7N9 cases.  If the birds were, indeed, the culprit, then we should see a decline in the number of human cases. 

Dr. Mackay's summation:

Some things we don't know...

How may are infected without obvious signs of infection

[With thanks to Dr. Katherine Arden for contributing to the questions and thoughts below]

 

• The source of the human infection
• Whether human-to-human transmission is occurring
• The scope of H7N9 genetic change in real-time (too few sequences to date)
• The nature, specificity and effectiveness of H7N9 assays
• The seroprevalence of H7N9 in humans
• The range of signs and symptoms attributable to H7N9
• How may are infected without obvious signs of infection