Death information and information dearth

The death of an 8 year old little girl from bird flu in Cambodia (AP) brings the official count there to 3 in the latest outbreak, but as Niman at Recombinomics reminds us, the actual count should be 4 since the index case of case number 1 isn't being counted. All cases ended fatally and all were in Kampot province, adjacent to the Vietnam's Mekong Delta region. At this time there is no information on exposure history.

But that's not the only thing there isn't any information on. Niman also reminds us that several important issues are still unresolved, including the outcome of the 195 cases of flu-like illness in Quang Binh province, the investigation into the cause of death of the doctor in Quang Ninh and the testing results on the hospitalized neighbors of the Haiphong family of five with H5N1.

If authorities (both Vietnamese and WHO) don't know the answers to these questions yet they should tell us so and why. If they do, well, . . .

Let me say it another way: How stupid can you get?