This week in viral news: Tuberculosis, blue ear disease and computer viruses!

• In a story that reminded us of the Andrew Speaker incident, two Taiwanese tuberculosis patients have defied a travel ban and flown to Nanjing from Kaohsiung (via Hong Kong). They have since been "located" by Chinese officials (we wonder how they did that!) and "are now receiving treatment". A maximum fine of 300,000 New Taiwan dollars (US$10,000) awaits the Taiwanese jetsetters.
• A 49 year old Shenzhen man has contracted the pig-borne disease Streptococcus suis which is spread from the slaughtering, handling or eating of infected pigs. Meanwhile, China says "a new vaccine for pigs against so-called Blue Ear Disease is effective, and may curb the rate of new infections among herds from next month".
• Even as Hunan Province mulls compulsory HIV testing for high-risk groups, the Health Ministry has told all hotels and public bathing facilities to provide condoms as part of a campaign to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS.
• Meanwhile, Taiwan's Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau say Chinese hackers have sent e-mails to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) local branches and other recipients in the name of the DPP chairman with a trojan horse virus in them. Beijing is also becoming an international hotbed for computer spam and viruses and has been identified as the leading source of both malicious code and spam sweeping the internet

Picture of the H5N1 (bird flu) virus from ibuzzo.