1996-1997

Bird viral flu scale in Hong Kong cut short by massive epidemiological effort, which identified chickens as source of the H5N1 flu virus, transmitted to humans in “wet market” in business/hotel district where the chickens were slaughtered on the spot for their purchasers. The flu-infested chickens came from Southern China, which shipped 80,000-100,000 birds to Hong Kong daily. More than 1.2 million chickens were killed to avoid a “chicken Ebola,” with the story representing “a triumph of epidemiology” (Kolata, chap 8, quoting CDC’s Nancy Cox at 241).