Bird Flu Wars 2007
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by David Carr-Brown and Anne Loussouarn, ARTE
Director n/a
DVD, color, 52 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Health Sciences
Date Entered: 10/08/2008
Reviewed by Leigh Mihlrad, Schaffer Library of Health Sciences, Albany Medical College, Albany, NYBird Flu Wars centers on the avian influenza (or H₅N₁) virus outbreaks that exploded throughout Southeast Asia in 2003 and 2005. Yet it is still timely today, with the current outbreak of H₁N₁, or “Swine Flu.”
The avian virus, which began in Hong Kong in 1997, spread from wild birds to farm poultry, and then to humans who handled that poultry. It offers a global perspective, quoting world health and other medical experts from France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Vietnam; the video also excels at explaining how the virus operates and spreads. The documentary talks about assorted World Health Organization (WHO) plans to contain H₅N₁, including vaccinating farm animals, killing infected birds, and giving humans the Tamiflu anti-viral medication. Individuals interviewed in Bird Flu Wars emphasize that richer countries must help poorer ones who cannot battle the virus on their own, like Vietnam. Otherwise, they say, everyone will be affected.
Some graphic images of birds being slaughtered are shown, and the music has a haunting feel to it at times.