On Sunday I posted an item with the headline Who cares what the H7N9 numbers are? Dr. Ian Mackay, on his VDU's blog, has responded: I care what the H7N9 numbers are... Go read him; it's an excellent, informed, and eloquent statement, and I completely agree with it.
My original question was rhetorical and self-critical: I tend to obsess about precise numbers of any disease, even though it's likely that a lot of people contract diseases and remain asymptomatic.
My complaint about the relative attention to new diseases like H7N9 stems from noting, over the years, the prolonged silence in the world's media about "routine" diseases—especially those that don't threaten citizens of advanced countries with good healthcare systems. More than once I've ranted about the lack of media attention to embarrassing old diarrhea in general, and its role in child mortality in particular.
Since posting this latest rant, my education continues: Rather than grizzling and moaning about the absence of coverage elsewhere, I'll try to provide at least some of it here: More on waterborne diseases, maternal mortality, malaria, and the neglected tropical diseases. If you know of good sources for information—agencies, NGOs, journals, bloggers—please let me know.
And as for the original question, I'm happy to see that Xinhua seems to have no new H7N9 cases to report today.
