Feature: The survivor's tale
10 January 2007. By Anjana Ahuja, a feature writer and science columnist for The Times.
My editors were immediately enthusiastic and said I should go to Vietnam to talk to researchers and survivors first-hand. They questioned why scientists had gone silent on pandemic flu - was the threat overblown? I explained that it would probably become an issue again in winter, as cases of human flu increased. This gave us a useful peg - we could run the feature in October or November, when flu stories would creep back into the newspapers (the seasonality of winter flu is mirrored by that of flu stories). As soon as Craig, who I know and trust, had guaranteed exclusive access to Jeremy Farrar (Vietnam Director of the Wellcome Trust South-east Asia Programme; above left) and the survivors, we started organising it.
Finding a space in Jeremy’s diary was not the only hurdle. H5N1 remains a sensitive subject, and my trip had to be cleared by the Vietnamese Government, who assigned me an 'interpreter' (she turned out to be a press officer with imperfect English). Fortunately, the photographer arranged by The Times turned out to have excellent English.
But trickiest of all, the five-day trip was contingent on speaking to avian flu survivors. I needed the colour and the emotion of their experiences to humanise what would be a lengthy piece (probably 3000 words) and to justify a trip costing thousands of pounds. This is where I thought we might come unstuck - H5N1 patients are often the rural poor, with no phone and little contact with doctors. Organising such things long-distance, over different time zones, with staff who have more important duties (such as caring for patients), is difficult. Jeremy seemed confident this would happen but even as I boarded the plane to Ho Chi Minh City, I was unsure whether any survivors would materialise.
The first day was not encouraging. When we turned up at the hospital, I interviewed Jeremy and then asked about the survivors. He told me his secretary was still working on it but nothing definite had been arranged. My heart sank. My four-year-old daughter had started primary school the previous week, and she was increasingly tearful at my absence. It was going to be impossible to extend my stay.
So I cannot describe the relief and excitement when the first survivor turned up the next day. And what a journalistic coup: Hn and her family were photogenic (above right), friendly, open and articulate (through interpreters). But that thrill soon gave way to deep affection for this lovely 11-year-old girl. We did the interview at their home, which gave me an insight into Vietnamese family life. We also met another survivor, Oanh, a tailor in Ho Chi Minh City. I found Oanh’s story upsetting, particularly her miscarriages. It was a privilege to meet both of these people.
I feel so much better informed about H5N1 now. Talking to scientists first-hand gives you a much better 'feel' for how things operate, not just on the scientific front. For example, I learned about the political sensitivities related to the release of virus samples to the international community. I met Vietnamese health ministers, and discussed the public health measures being enforced in Ho Chi Minh City.
As for Vietnam, I hardly saw it. I grabbed one hour by the pool and several enjoyable dinners and cocktails with Craig. But that is the mark of a decent press trip - there is little worse than trawling the tourist sites in a foreign land because you've been unable to get the interview you wanted.
Antibodies from H5N1 survivors may offer protection from the virus. In a project funded by the Wellcome Trust, Dr Cameron Simmons (based at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Vietnam) and collaborators in Switzerland and the USA will be using blood samples from the Vietnamese survivors to produce monoclonal antibodies and assessing their PROTECTIVE effects.