Abstract
The paper reveals media accounts of the Avian (bird) Flu threat that repeat biomedical and biosocial notions of the disease. It looks at how drug companies compete to produce drug treatments and vaccines, for the future, in activities that will make billions in profits from a pandemic whose scope is not yet realised. The paper focuses on the Toronto medical community's reaction to a perhaps approaching disease and notes that many doctors and nurses do not wish to serve Avian Flu patients. There is also a comparative note on the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic in Canada, and an in-depth analysis of the rise of Avian flu in humans abroad.

From the Paper
"The threat posed by the Avian Flu virus and the possibility of a pandemic, in the coming year, focus on biomedical and biosocial views of illness and health. This paper refers to a number of Toronto media summaries on research to date, and the threat posed by an Avian Flu pandemic, showing a number of foci that seem quite important in terms of how the possible pandemic is discussed. Later, time is given to more 'cultural' responses to the possibility of an Avian Flu pandemic, which should stimulate serious thought on our ideas of entitlement to health, long life, the duties of health professionals, .."

Tags:avianflu, mediacontent, centralcanada