Flu pandemic could kill 150 million, UN warns

[CyberLaw]

A far better idea is for countries to prepare for this outbreak before it happens, not after......Bush seesm to think that the US can stockpile vaccines for this disease, but the problem with that is.......they won't know what vaccine will work until the disease hits and it may take months to develop one that works.

Also Bush should meet with the state health people to make a plan and ensure that plan is carried out a a Federal Level, and not depend on local and state governments to hand out anit-viral medicine.............we all know how well the locals and states did when Katrina hit.

Since we had a problem with SARS, our country and local government has already has a plan in place and has put it into a "mocK' practice....to prepare before the fact, not after the fact which seems to be "kind of common" with Bush.......

Control the problem, not the problem controlling you.........that was very evident in New Orleans.......

 

[BarnGoddess]

I have a dumb question here. Can someone help me?

Can you have a pandemic before an epidemic? Are the few cases in Asia considered an epidemic? What other "epidemics" of flu over the years have been reclassed as pandemics? Is AIDS considered a pandemic?

It just struck me when I keep reading about a pandemic.

 

[CyberLaw]

Pandemic - an epidemic that is geographically widespread; occurring throughout a region or even throughout the world.

Epidemic -of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously.

 

[Rocky]

Turkey says dead boy had bird flu

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A 14-year-old farm boy who died after developing pneumonia-like symptoms had tested positive for bird flu, Turkey's health minister said Wednesday.

If the test is confirmed by the World Health Organization, it would be the first bird flu-related death outside Asia.

Three other members of his family also tested positive and are hospitalized, Health Minister Recep Akdag said.

 

[CyberLaw]

One common thread is that people were working on farms in direct and close contact with infected birds. In this case, not only were they in direct contact with infected birds, they ate them too.

So, to alleviate any panic. Unless you have chickens in your backyard and are in direct contact with them, I still see no need to worry. There still to date has been no human to human infecion directly resulting from a person not in contact with infected birds.

 

[Cypros]

If the test is confirmed by the World Health Organization, it would be the first bird flu-related death outside Asia.

Hmmm. These reporters need to study their geography. The country of Turkey IS in Asia. Well, ok, there is one small fragment of NW Turkey that is in Europe , so maybe the boy lived in that area....

Sorry to be so picky, but I am just now preparing a map exercise to help my college students with their ancient history geography. I am amazed at how many don't know the location of even the most basic geographic locations. Every semester I have students who can't find the Mediterranean on an unlabeled map!!!

 

[petra]

Confirmed cases in Italy and Greece
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13505642,00.html

ETA link..
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13505642,00.html
.

 

[aussiegran]

A couple of weeks ago we had a scare here in australia because a man who had returned from a holiday with relatives in asia had contact with an infected bird and then when he got back here he started getting flu symptoms .It really brought home to me how easy it is going to spread when it really starts .
Nigeria has several suspected cases too.
http://www.ksat.com/health/6933819/detail.html

 

[Buzz Mills]

The bird flu is continuing to spread across the continent. Hoping that someone will begin publishing a map, showing the spread and then continue to update it. They showed where they had to destroy flocks of swans, and then ostriches.

 

[petra]

The bird flu is continuing to spread across the continent. Hoping that someone will begin publishing a map, showing the spread and then continue to update it. They showed where they had to destroy flocks of swans, and then ostriches.

oh, the swans...they are so beautiful. saw on the news were they are culling them.

i am really suprised that there is no warning against eating foul or eggs. i think the warning is coming , it is being hinted at,but will cause total chaos and economic disaster.

i did see a map with known findings and migration patterns a few weeks ago. will try to find. it might have been in the economist or the guardian.
probably needs to be updated.

 

[petra]

Now we can add confirmed case in slovenia...

...migration path may lead to UK next


http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13505642,00.html

 

[petra]

Austria and Iran hit by bird flu..........swans



http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13507035,00.html

 

[Buzz Mills]

I saw a map on the news last night of the infected areas; it doesn't appear that it will take much longer to spread throughout Europe. I'm still hoping that some news source will put a continually updated map on their website to show the spread. It certainly isn't looking very good.

 

[petra]

I saw a map on the news last night of the infected areas; it doesn't appear that it will take much longer to spread throughout Europe. I'm still hoping that some news source will put a continually updated map on their website to show the spread. It certainly isn't looking very good.

You are right....and now the birds are migrating.

Germany reporting cases this afternoon,

A map would be wonderful to see how fast and where...the one I saw was so old.

 

[petra]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13507316,00.html

Emergency bird flu talks....

 

[petra]

I saw a map on the news last night of the infected areas; it doesn't appear that it will take much longer to spread throughout Europe. I'm still hoping that some news source will put a continually updated map on their website to show the spread. It certainly isn't looking very good.

I hope you don't think I'm chasing you around board..but did think we were discussing this here too.....

GREAT interactive map--helps with geography too!!

http://www.sky.com/skynews/fixed_article/0,,91164-1210835,00.html

 

[Maybe So]

I saw a documentary about the last Pandemic. It was unbelievable the conditions that existed in some of our major cities.

During the Spanish Flu pandemic some people sickened and died sometimes only within a day of coming down with the Flu. More severe than your normal cold or flu the sufferers would turn blue in the face for lack of oxygen as their lungs filled with fluid.

People fell dead in the streets and bodies overwhelmed the morgues to the point that they often remained uncollected for days in houses and even out on the streets. In many houses no one was left alive or everyone was sick and no one was well enough to care for the rest of the family. All ordinary business came to a standstill. People who were nearest death were often left in the halls to die. People were prepared for the morgue even before they were dead. In fact one boy was found still to be breathing in a pile of corpses. Coffins were piled everywhere....in garages in cemeteries. Some people had to go dig the grave for their own family members at the cemetery as their weren't enough grave diggers who were healthy. When they ran out of coffins in some countries they buried the dead in mass graves.

It is odd how little we hear about this awful time when disease hit every continent of the world. It hit fast, it hit hard and it was over before they had a chance to isolate it or create a vacine of any kind.

It is believed as many as 50 million people died world wide. That is over 100 times more people than died in the recent tsunami.

I wish that if they think the Bird flu is imminent that they would work on producing as much vacine as possible. Because people travel even more now than they did in 1918 it is scary to think how fast something like this could spread. My son and I have been sick all winter with one virus after another. Luckily none of them was severe enough to kill us but it makes you realize that once a virus becomes wide spread you are bound to be exposed to it.

A pandemic would still most likely overwhelm the hospitals and morgues as well as have a devestating impact on world economics.

I certainly hope we will be prepared.

 

[Marthatex]

We are not prepared.

There was something briefly on the news awhile back that researchers found a way to develop the vaccine MORE QUICKLY. (Cleveland clinic, or someplace like that. Pittsburgh?)

Anyway, a major breakthrough but they still have to test it on humans and make sure the vaccine works, yada yada, so it's still a year or so at least from producing alot of vaccine.

Frontline workers will be vaccinated first - health care workers, police, POLITICIANS, soldiers, etc.

If it strikes next year, there's no way the average person is getting a vaccine.

What I'm doing is I'm researching antivirals, interviewing different doctors and researchers the the University. Then I'm going to buy several antivirals that might work. There's raloxifine, there's Tamiflu (may not work); there may be others.

You have to find out the shelf life of the antivirals. Then I'm going to start preparing for about a month of supplies. You can find the correct mask to wear on these websites, I think I posted earlier.

Then I'm going to find out what my city and my hospitals are doing to prepare; what the procedures will be.

And then I'm going to pray.

 

[petra]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13511236,00.html

add sweden.....