The first sign of trouble in village number 19 was the dead chickens.
Pranom says chickens started to die in the middle of August.
They died one each day,
And by the end of August, they were gone.
Sakuntala got sick on the 2nd of September.
She came here when her mother took a job 200 miles away.
Sakuntala was 11—old enough to help care for the children.
Pranom sits in a blue plastic chair in front of her home.
The house is a rickety structure of wood, bamboo,
And corrugated metal raised up on stilts.
Pranom says the chickens lived under the house.
Also under the house is an empty hammock.
Pranom says that's where Sakuntala used to sleep.
No one connected the chickens to Sakuntala's fever.
Pranom says, after five days, the fever didn't come down,
So we took her to Dr. Boom's clinic.
She suspected that the girl might have dengue fever.
A team of disease experts
Were just about to launch a program
To detect cases quickly and prevent the disease from spreading.
The team was sponsored by government health agencies
It had already helped to contain a deadly outbreak of SARS.
But, Dr. Dowell says others moved relatively slowly.
When this disease adapts to people,
It tends to explode through the population.
Dr. Dowell says there's no experience
With trying to contain a pandemic at its source.
It certainly didn't happen in 1918.
It didn't happen in 1957 or 1968, either.
In all previous pandemics,
By the time people recognized
That there was a pandemic strain circulating,
The possibility for containing that virus at its source had long passed.
On September 7th, Sakuntala's doctor was worried
That the fever wasn't coming down.
She sent the girl to the hospital a few miles away.
Pranom phoned Sakuntala's mother, who rushed up from 200 miles away.
Pranom says, she met me at the hospital—
We, the three of us, stayed in the same bed that night.
On September 8th She was transferred to another hospital.
She died that day.
Sakuntala was cremated on September 11th
Without ever being tested for the virus.
Sakuntala's mother began to feel ill at her daughter's funeral,
But she returned to her job.
She developed pneumonia during the next week.
She died on September 20th in a hospital 200 miles away.
The investigators with the ministry of health
Quickly realized that mother and daughter
Probably had the same disease.
Dr. Dowell got a bad feeling.
Dr. Dowell says the most feared event
Is that the virus will acquire the ability
To transmit efficiently from person to person.
You can imagine, when the ministry detected
Two cases in one household
They were quite concerned
That this might signal the beginning of a pandemic
And that this was the first time
That this virus was being passed from person to person.
To search for clues, our team headed to the hospital
Where Sakuntala had died.
And we were about to get more disturbing news.
It's about a four-hour drive,
And by the time we got there,
Pranom was in the hospital.
Pranom had begun to feel ill just after her niece's funeral.
Pranom says I had high fever.
I went to see the doctor,
He said that I got influenza.
But, after eight days, the fever didn't subside.
I felt rash on my body, but my feet and hands were cold.
By sheer chance, she arrived at the hospital
The same day Dr. Dowell did.
Dr. Dowell knew she might have the disease.
Dr. Dowell says, suddenly, we had not just two people
But possibly three in the same family
With similar symptoms,
And everybody was quite concerned.
In the days after Pranom was admitted to the hospital,
Dr. Dowell began to get reassuring reports.
No one else in the family was infected.
Neither was anyone else in the village
Or, any of the doctors and nurses
Who'd cared for Sakuntala and her mother.
It was becoming clear that the virus
Had not adapted to spread easily among people.
But, Dr. Dowell says it's almost certain
That Sakuntala did infect her mother
During the night they spent in the hospital.
Pranom agrees.
Pranom says, I think it's very likely that she got it from her daughter,
Because she hugged her little girl,
And also she kissed her all the time
When she was admitted at the hospital.
Since the episode,
Radio messages tell people how to handle birds safely.
Public health workers look for possible cases among farmers and villagers.
And Dr. Dowell's team has helped to make sure that every hospital is focused.
Dr. Dowell says, it's just luck that the virus that killed Sakuntala
Was not well adapted to people.
The next time, he says, the world can't depend on luck.
There's a man-sized statue of a rooster at the hospital entrance,
Wearing a surgical mask.
Dr. Rangsimanphaiboon is the hospital's director.
He likes to show the bird to visitors.
Where did the idea for the bird come from?
Dr. Rangsimanphaiboon says, It was my idea.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Monday, December 06, 2004
Verma Scans Carefully
Verma scans carefully
Through her heavily grilled front window
She will step out only if—
Only with a heavy stick.
In July, a monkey attack left her with
A mangled arm, a scratched face and a ripped ear.
This January,
Two-month-old Kajal was not so lucky.
As she slept, a monkey slipped in.
It bit her and gouged out her eye.
When her mother swung a bucket at it,
The creature smashed Kajal’s head on the floor.
The family soon moved out,
Terrified that monkeys would attack
Kajal's twin, Payal.
August 29 claimed 60 victims.
Rhesus macaques stuffed into sacks—
Clubbed to death and dumped in the fields of Basana.
The worship of Hanuman and
The feeding macaques is
A part of everyday life
People have changed.
Humans now cage themselves
In houses and offices to escape.
“I don't feed my daughter on the balcony,
I've stopped making pickle,
Drying papad, or clothes on my terrace," says Verma.
Simians too, are in cages.
Yet, the Aggressive forage in troops up to 200 strong.
The population has jumped from 2 lakh to 5 lakh.
Some live in urban areas,
Where there is food at temples,
Homes, markets and dumps.
5,000 marauding macaques
Stormed the corridors of power.
People employed larger, black-faced monkeys
To scare the macaques.
But, some determined macaques
Climbed all the way to the 17th floor.
"Seeing mean red faces in the window was terrifying," says Tanuja,
Her balcony was enclosed.
Her neighbor’s was not.
Dinesh, says 1,603 people took anti-rabies vaccines.
A two-fold increase in monkey bites from 671.
In the holy city of Vrindavan,
Residents have caged themselves
Into grilled and barred houses.
The devout had been feeding monkeys
Here for centuries
But, simian aggression has reached alarming proportions.
And, it's humans who must take the blame.
A haphazard trapping of individuals from troops led to chaotic fissioning—
Where monkeys formed units for safety.
And the subgroups required more space.
Psychologically, they changed.
Suckling youngsters separated from their mothers became depressed
While the mothers got more aggressive.
And dwindling forest cover encouraged them to move to towns,
Where abundant food would help them breed well.
Right now, the tourist haven of Shimla, is under siege from 2,000 macaques,
It will try to relocate the simians.
A public interest petition will be filed
To rid the state of monkeys.
The court will direct the government to pick up macaques from Shimla
And translocate them to jungles
Yet, the results will not be encouraging.
In 2002, when macaques were
Released in the Morni forest,
They preyed on the eggs of jungle fowl
And khaleej pheasants.
The same thing happened in Keoladeo in 2003,
Where they ate the eggs of painted storks.
In Hanuman-worshipping north India,
Tuesdays and Saturdays are bounty days
When macaques are fed.
But smart as they are,
Monkeys can't read calendars;
For them, anyone carrying food
On any day is a potential feeder.
People resisting their hungry advances
Are fair game for attack.
Meanwhile, militant political outfits
Like the Bajrang Dal,
Identify themselves with the Hanuman cult,
They make a sacred cow out of the monkey.
Joining forces with them
Are sweet, snack and fruit vendors, who say,
"Take away our monkeys and we will release pigs in dargahs."
Through her heavily grilled front window
She will step out only if—
Only with a heavy stick.
In July, a monkey attack left her with
A mangled arm, a scratched face and a ripped ear.
This January,
Two-month-old Kajal was not so lucky.
As she slept, a monkey slipped in.
It bit her and gouged out her eye.
When her mother swung a bucket at it,
The creature smashed Kajal’s head on the floor.
The family soon moved out,
Terrified that monkeys would attack
Kajal's twin, Payal.
August 29 claimed 60 victims.
Rhesus macaques stuffed into sacks—
Clubbed to death and dumped in the fields of Basana.
The worship of Hanuman and
The feeding macaques is
A part of everyday life
People have changed.
Humans now cage themselves
In houses and offices to escape.
“I don't feed my daughter on the balcony,
I've stopped making pickle,
Drying papad, or clothes on my terrace," says Verma.
Simians too, are in cages.
Yet, the Aggressive forage in troops up to 200 strong.
The population has jumped from 2 lakh to 5 lakh.
Some live in urban areas,
Where there is food at temples,
Homes, markets and dumps.
5,000 marauding macaques
Stormed the corridors of power.
People employed larger, black-faced monkeys
To scare the macaques.
But, some determined macaques
Climbed all the way to the 17th floor.
"Seeing mean red faces in the window was terrifying," says Tanuja,
Her balcony was enclosed.
Her neighbor’s was not.
Dinesh, says 1,603 people took anti-rabies vaccines.
A two-fold increase in monkey bites from 671.
In the holy city of Vrindavan,
Residents have caged themselves
Into grilled and barred houses.
The devout had been feeding monkeys
Here for centuries
But, simian aggression has reached alarming proportions.
And, it's humans who must take the blame.
A haphazard trapping of individuals from troops led to chaotic fissioning—
Where monkeys formed units for safety.
And the subgroups required more space.
Psychologically, they changed.
Suckling youngsters separated from their mothers became depressed
While the mothers got more aggressive.
And dwindling forest cover encouraged them to move to towns,
Where abundant food would help them breed well.
Right now, the tourist haven of Shimla, is under siege from 2,000 macaques,
It will try to relocate the simians.
A public interest petition will be filed
To rid the state of monkeys.
The court will direct the government to pick up macaques from Shimla
And translocate them to jungles
Yet, the results will not be encouraging.
In 2002, when macaques were
Released in the Morni forest,
They preyed on the eggs of jungle fowl
And khaleej pheasants.
The same thing happened in Keoladeo in 2003,
Where they ate the eggs of painted storks.
In Hanuman-worshipping north India,
Tuesdays and Saturdays are bounty days
When macaques are fed.
But smart as they are,
Monkeys can't read calendars;
For them, anyone carrying food
On any day is a potential feeder.
People resisting their hungry advances
Are fair game for attack.
Meanwhile, militant political outfits
Like the Bajrang Dal,
Identify themselves with the Hanuman cult,
They make a sacred cow out of the monkey.
Joining forces with them
Are sweet, snack and fruit vendors, who say,
"Take away our monkeys and we will release pigs in dargahs."
The People Consider Themselves Lucky
I.
This place is blessed—
That is why monkeys live here.
They come because the people are friendly
And they worship them as a god.
Black-faced langours—Hanuman the monkey god.
II.
They sit on the roof of my kitchen, says Illan.
I'm afraid of the monkeys because
They are not afraid of women.
They frighten us, but—
Whenever we forgive them they forgive us.
When we say we're sorry they forgive us—
That’s why they are sacred.
III.
They roam the town, raiding gardens, kitchens, and shopping bags.
They steal and break into houses.
On the roof of the hospital
the monkeys are certain visitors will have food for the patients.
When we come here, groups of monkeys surround us, says Illan.
They snatch things away from us.
If we object, they quarrel.
They scratch our faces and tear our clothes.
IV.
A century ago, there were thousands of them—
Now their numbers are down.
The danger for the monkeys is electric wires;
They are not insulated, says Illan.
When they jump from branch to branch
They touch the wires and are electrocuted.
V.
Move the monkeys to woods outside the town.
Sedate the dominant males and the others will follow.
A few hours later the male monkeys were back
They get very angry, but she still respects the monkeys.
This place is blessed—
That is why monkeys live here.
They come because the people are friendly
And they worship them as a god.
Black-faced langours—Hanuman the monkey god.
II.
They sit on the roof of my kitchen, says Illan.
I'm afraid of the monkeys because
They are not afraid of women.
They frighten us, but—
Whenever we forgive them they forgive us.
When we say we're sorry they forgive us—
That’s why they are sacred.
III.
They roam the town, raiding gardens, kitchens, and shopping bags.
They steal and break into houses.
On the roof of the hospital
the monkeys are certain visitors will have food for the patients.
When we come here, groups of monkeys surround us, says Illan.
They snatch things away from us.
If we object, they quarrel.
They scratch our faces and tear our clothes.
IV.
A century ago, there were thousands of them—
Now their numbers are down.
The danger for the monkeys is electric wires;
They are not insulated, says Illan.
When they jump from branch to branch
They touch the wires and are electrocuted.
V.
Move the monkeys to woods outside the town.
Sedate the dominant males and the others will follow.
A few hours later the male monkeys were back
They get very angry, but she still respects the monkeys.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Mistakes Her for Monkey
He mistook her for a monkey
Picking fruit
In a tree behind their house.
He fired a shotgun at
What he thought was a monkey
In a Mangosteen tree.
His wife had used a ladder
To climb into the tree—
She was picking the tropical fruit
They had raised 13 children.
The man— causing death through recklessness
She—pronounced dead on arrival.
Picking fruit
In a tree behind their house.
He fired a shotgun at
What he thought was a monkey
In a Mangosteen tree.
His wife had used a ladder
To climb into the tree—
She was picking the tropical fruit
They had raised 13 children.
The man— causing death through recklessness
She—pronounced dead on arrival.
Pitter-Patter
Five years have passed without the pitter-patter of baby feet.
Introduced to each other five years ago—
Demba and Chaka just aren't working out.
It's not even clear if the two ever really loved eachother.
For Chaka—labeled as a "stud” after fathering eight little ones in Cincinnati—
That's a big change.
Late in Spring, accompanied by Mike and Kinya, Chaka, travelled to South Carolina.
His departure was bittersweet.
He was a link between eras—
A Christmas Eve fire in 1995 killed 23, including his parents.
Chaka would likely have died, too, if he hadn’t been on a roll in Cincinnati.
Things did not work out as planned.
Demba and Chaka were supposed to come together and start a new dynasty.
Demba, whose parents were wild, would certainly introduce her genius into the captivated population.
But Demba may have been, in a sense,
Damaged-goods from childhood.
She was raised by outsiders and didn't meet another of her own kind for years.
Even then, she never seemed quite
comfortable with her own kind.
Still, they had hoped passion might take hold.
Demba keeps their Philadelphia home and
Welcomes a group from St. Louis: a toddler, his parents and another female.
Now at age 33, Demba's biological clock has pretty well ticked its last tick.
The two females that Chaka will be living with are younger.
One is known to be fertile.
Introduced to each other five years ago—
Demba and Chaka just aren't working out.
It's not even clear if the two ever really loved eachother.
For Chaka—labeled as a "stud” after fathering eight little ones in Cincinnati—
That's a big change.
Late in Spring, accompanied by Mike and Kinya, Chaka, travelled to South Carolina.
His departure was bittersweet.
He was a link between eras—
A Christmas Eve fire in 1995 killed 23, including his parents.
Chaka would likely have died, too, if he hadn’t been on a roll in Cincinnati.
Things did not work out as planned.
Demba and Chaka were supposed to come together and start a new dynasty.
Demba, whose parents were wild, would certainly introduce her genius into the captivated population.
But Demba may have been, in a sense,
Damaged-goods from childhood.
She was raised by outsiders and didn't meet another of her own kind for years.
Even then, she never seemed quite
comfortable with her own kind.
Still, they had hoped passion might take hold.
Demba keeps their Philadelphia home and
Welcomes a group from St. Louis: a toddler, his parents and another female.
Now at age 33, Demba's biological clock has pretty well ticked its last tick.
The two females that Chaka will be living with are younger.
One is known to be fertile.
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