Bird flu epidemic could kill millions worldwide: experts

[Witchy_Dem]

GENEVA (AFP) - Millions of people could die around the world if bird flu spreads out of control, and most countries are totally unprepared for such an event, the UN's World Health Organisation says.

"If there was a flu pandemic tomorrow we would not be ready. The clock is ticking and when the pandemic strikes it will be too late," said WHO spokeswoman Christine McNab.

Despite warnings at the United Nations by US President George W. Bush and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin calling for international cooperation to confront the "first pandemic of the 21st century", the international community was far from prepared.

"There is very good momentum, but a lot of work remains to be done," McNab said.

Of the 192 members of the UN just 40 countries had drawn up detailed plans for combatting an outbreak in humans of a mutation of the H5N1 virus which could, like the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, kill millions of people.

Full Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050918/hl_afp/whohealthflu_050918203658

[acmejack]

1. Bird flu epidemic will kill millions worldwide.

It is not a matter of if, it is merely when. I hope it isn't so, but there is a limit to how many dire warnings from authoritative sources one chooses to disregard.

[shanti]

13. yes, the warning seem to be coming

fairly frequently now. this scares the crap out of me.

[Delphinus]

20. And again I ask ...

why are they talking about it everywhere you turn now? What do they have up their sleeve for us?

[pitohui]

37. picking our pocket, it's a sales technique

since flu vaccine is of iffy help & tamiflu is of iffy help...

you gotta raise holy hell to brainwash the taxpayer to pay for useless stocks of these drugs most of which won't be used & which have to be replenished ea. yr

it's a way to pick the taxpayer pocket, unfortunately, ppl w. little knowledge of how well usda controls avian flu are happy to get swept away in the hysteria and propogate the meme

[NNadir]

2. Uh Oh, the Bushies have been warned.

Look for a "no one could have anticipated" statement.

[TheWatcher]

15. Actually I bet The Bushes are chomping at the bit for it to happen

To the point of erotic arousal. (Mass Death does seem to be the only way these pepople get excited)

Pardon my Cynicism, but I think they WANT this to happen. If New Orleans taught us anything, it that nature can solve a lot of their problems if the just sit back and party while the world burns.

We are on our own.

[anitar1]

17. Actually, I read a couple of nights ago, that the U.S. had

disregarded the warnings about this. Roche is issuing the vaccine on a first come, first serve basis. This country is far behind and has only a couple of million doses. Sorry , but I do not have a link. You may be able to google it.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

40. It's not actually a vaccine

It's the antiviral medicine Tamiflu which can lessen the severity of the disease. It won't prevent it, but since Avian flu is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% fatal, it might keep a stricken person alive.

[BigBearJohn]

3. Bird flu epidemic could kill millions worldwide: experts

GENEVA (AFP) - Millions of people could die around the world if bird flu spreads out of control, and most countries are totally unprepared for such an event, the UN's World Health Organisation says.

"If there was a flu pandemic tomorrow we would not be ready. The clock is ticking and when the pandemic strikes it will be too late," said WHO spokeswoman Christine McNab.

Despite warnings at the United Nations by US President George W. Bush and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin calling for international cooperation to confront the "first pandemic of the 21st century", the international community was far from prepared.

Of the 192 members of the UN just 40 countries had drawn up detailed plans for combatting an outbreak in humans of a mutation of the H5N1 virus which could, like the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, kill millions of people

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050918/hl_afp/whohealthflu_050918203658

[4dsc]

4. This would resolve the energy crisis

A worldwide pandemic would indeed starve off the concept of peak oil and dely the consequensence for a couple of decades..

[NMDemDist2]

5. well, that's pragmatic I guess, but such a cheery thought huh? Yikes!

:hide:

[Porcupine]

6. And the housing crisis!! and the health care crisis.....

hell, after the black plague labor was in such great demand that there was the opportunity for a merchant middle class to emerge. Same farmland, same number of buildings, 50 percent less people.

Of course it will be much harder to find a decent date.

[momster]

35. Black Death

The so-called Black Death killed as much as one-fourth to one-third the population of Europe during the worst event (circa 1350). One of the reasons it changed the labor-ratio was because it didn't just hit once and then leave. There were constantly recurring episodes for three hundred years, wiping out a city there, sweeping through an army here. This left plenty of opportunity for one-time peasants to move up.

Adding in all the other ills and infant mortality rates, it took a couple of hundred years to rebuild the European population to pre-1350 levels. I don't think that will happen this time. There are too many breeding-age humans capable of replacing the dead in record time. Unless a new epidemic could wipe out one-third of the world-wide population quickly and that's just not likely. Even extremely poor people are in better health than medieval people (speaking very, very generally) and medicine, though still at 1918 levels when dealing with flu, has improved over 1350 levels. Speaking from a Malthusian-viewpoint, AIDS is too slow and 'flu is too fast to affect the birth-replacement factors.

[Lorien]

32. Global warming will get us if peak oil fails to

the difference being that global warming will kill nearly all life on earth, while peak oil will "only" reduce population. Overpopulation itself-one of the last great taboo topics in politics-also has the potential to destroy the human race. No one, politician, reporter or otherwise, wants to acknowledge this simple truth. Nature will seek to balance itself by killing off a significant number of us one way or another. I say this knowing full well that I would most certainly be among the first to die from the bird flu if it comes to our shores (poor immune system, live in a densely populated tourist area in the sub tropics known for it's abundant bird life).

[CoffeeCat]

7. These bird flu "warnings" come and go...

...if this pandemic happens, no one will be able to say, "...but we didn't know this would happen."

These stories pop up intermittently. It's almost as if the same "Millions could die from bird flu in major pandemic" story keeps cycling through the media.

There's no doubt--that I believe this could happen.

Are we ready?

I imagine that the resources we need to fight such a health battle, have been drastically cut. Or...maybe the heads of the organizations that could be preparing us (CDC? DHS?) are stocked with BushCo friends and contributers.

We should do some research on this.

Another point---last I read, the flu was in many Asian countries, but it was contained. I got the impression that the numbers of bird flu cases in humans were NOT rising. Is this true?

[CoffeeCat]

11. Recent article...some infected in Indonesia

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/JAK5930.htm

JAKARTA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Two children have been hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu and a zoo in Jakarta has been closed after tests showed some exotic birds had the virus, the health minister said on Monday.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed four Indonesians, including one woman who died in Jakarta a week ago. The virus has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has also spread to Russia and Europe.

"Until now, three children are being treated in a hospital ... two are suspected of having the symptoms of bird flu based on the lab tests. The other one is still under observation," minister Siti Fadilah Sapari told the local El Shinta radio.

Indonesia sends blood tests from all suspected bird flu cases to Hong Kong for confirmation.

[Karmakaze]

18. This Bird Flu hype - like the SARS hype before it - is such bullshit

64 people killed since late 2003. In the same time hundreds of thousands have died from normal human flu.

By the time this pandemic happens (if it does ever happen) normal human flu will have killed more people than they predict will die from this pandemic.

But they never report THAT side of the story, do they?

[jwcomer]

51. You are full of shit. We got very lucky with SARS. n/t

[Karmakaze]

52. Ahahaha - yes very lucky!

I mean it was going to kill us all!!! We are so lucky THEY WERE TOTALLY WRONG.

[jwcomer]

55. I'm thankful that you are not in charge of WHO policy. n/t

[spotbird]

25. One child died.

100 student ill will stomachaches, one dies

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A student of Ummul Quro Islamic Boarding School in Bogor died on Sunday after suffering from severe diarrhea symptoms, while dozens of other students were taken to nearby hospitals.

Police said that they were still investigating had caused the students to become sick.

Bogor Police chief Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said on Sunday a student identified as Aris Tadjudin died after suffering severe stomach aches and diarrhea on Saturday.

skip

An employee at the school who did not want to be named, blamed the diarrhea on a mystery sickness that had plagued the entire neighborhood.

"They are not sick from food poisoning. Aris died during treatment at the hospital, not here. Not only the students but nearby residents also have diarrhea," he said.

more

These are the same children who are suspected to have the Avian flu. The family who died of Avian flu this summer in Jarakata also had diarrhea as their first symptom.

[Lori Price CLG]

8. No worries - FEMA will take care of us. Link for 'Flu Oddities' articles

below:

http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html

Lori Price

[are_we_united_yet]

9. Don't forget

Keeping America safe is the * administrations number one priority.

There. Don't we all feel better?

[Maple]

10. Blogging for the birdflu perpetually panicked

http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/

Enjoy

[CoffeeCat]

12. I have some questions about bird flu...

I began reading about bird flu this year, but I haven't read anything about it for at least a few months.

I just read some recent articles. It seems that bird flu is now showing up in Russia, Finland and Indonesia. When I read about bird flu a few months ago, the disease was contained to Asian countries.

Do these outbreaks in Russia, Finland and Indonesia indicate that the disease is spreading and getting out of control?

What happened to the cases in the Asian countries? Were those initial outbreaks contained and cured? Are they over? Or have those initial outbreaks grown into new cases that keep multiplying? I ask these questions, because I'm wondering what happens to a country or a city that has a few cases of bird flu.

Is the outbreak extinguished or does it continue to exacerbate? I've heard NOTHING of the Asian bird flu outbreak. I'm assuming (probably erroneously) that if the outbreak was massive, that we would hear more about it.

Thanks for any insight.

[Karmakaze]

19. Thats because you are being bullshitted!

They say "Bird Flu outbreak in Russia" then talk about how Bird Flu could kill millions.

What they DON'T make clear is that the Bird Flu outbreak in Russia was amongst BIRDS not humans. Not a single human case. But they sure dont let that get in the way of scaring the shit out of you.

Just over 60 people have died from Bird Flu WORLDWIDE since 2003. Many more people died of normal Human Flu IN THE US, in the same period. Once again something they don't tell you.

Don't believe the hype.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. There was a "bird flu outbreak" in Japan, too-- in a few henhouses

Thousands of birds had to be destroyed-- but there is not one documented case that I know of in Japan of the disease in humans

[mccoyn]

30. From what I've gathered.

The flu isn't very contageous between humans yet. Most the people who got it got it from birds. The big concern is that it will cross with a similiar virus which is highly contageous between humans. If its still contageous between birds, they will carry it around their migratory routes and there will be outbreaks all over.

I'm no expert, but thats what I've gotten from reading a few things.

[pitohui]

39. we regularly have bird flu in the usa

it is quickly & efficiently contained by the poultry industry & by the usda

[Carolab]

14. The most effective antidote is Relenza. It is made by Biota in Australia.

And GlaxoSmithKline has exclusive "marketing rights". Think there is any "connection"?

On edit, here is an article re: stockpiles in U.S.

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=13621&hed=U.S.+Builds+Bird+Flu+Stockpile§or=Regions&subsector=Americas

U.S. Builds Bird Flu Stockpile

U.S. government awards over $100 million to Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline to develop drugs against possible pandemic.

September 16, 2005

Worried that avian flu could spur an influenza pandemic in the United States, the government has awarded more than $100 million to two European pharmaceuticals to help build a drug stockpile.


The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday it had awarded $100 million to France’s Sanofi pasteur of Sanofi-Aventis to manufacture a vaccine and another $2.8 million to the United Kingdom’s GlaxoSmithKline for its antiviral drug Relenza.


“These countermeasures provide us with tools that we have never had prior to previous influenza pandemics,” said Mike Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services.


The announcement is part of the department’s efforts to buy enough vaccines and antivirals to help reduce the severity of influenza symptoms for 20 million people. Helping drive the agency’s rush to get prepared is the fact that there is no pre-existing human immunity to the virus.

(more at link)

[Athame]

16. Wanna read a scary book?

Am just finishing THE GREAT INFLUENZA, The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry.

This is about the so-called Spanish influenza of 1918-19. It is a good history of medicine in the early 20th century and the heroic efforts to find the cause and cure for the great flu. While it is true that the world is far more prepared now and the science is further advanced, in the afterword Barry makes the point that "If a new influenza virus does emerge, given modern travel patterns it will likely spread even more rapidly than it did in 1918. It will infect at least several hundred million, and probably more than a billion, people. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that a new pandemic would make between 40 and 100 million people sick. So the prospect is threatening indeed."

For me, in reading this history, the truly scary thing (apart from the description of the disease itself--which sounds VERY similar to the symptoms and progression of bird flu--is the part played by politics and human judgement of risk. The media at that time downplayed and even suppressed information so as not to cause panic. In New York, Philadelphia, Washington and elsewhere the health authorities refused to admit there was an epidemic even as the bodies piled up in the morgues and hospitals. In Philadelphia, against all warnings of the health administration, a war bond parade was held with huge crowds and the civilian epidemic began two days later. Hospitals and health staff were quickly overwhelmed. The speed in which the pandemic covered the globe is breathtaking, even before the days of air travel. The greatest part of the epidemic, when by far the most deaths occured, took place over a time span of just ten weeks in September, October, November of 1918. Ten weeks! Though it appears the influenza had been brewing and concentrating itself for about a year before that.

The flu is infectious before there are symptoms and incubates witin as little as ten hours. So once the virus breaks into human contagion, the world is at risk with the first plane load.

After what we have seen with disaster preparedness in this administration, there is little cause for confidence.

[Art_from_Ark]

22. In 1918-19, America was still a Third World country

Sanitation was poor, people in cities often lived in squalid, crowded conditions, and wonder drugs, such as penicillin, were mostly a thing of the future.

[Athame]

38. While that may be true enough

It was not sanitation problems that caused the infections. It was a virus that spread rapidly. The fact of troop movement during WWI served to transport the disease, but the military bases, though crowded, were not unsanitary, no more than a modern airport or plane. The lack of penicillin would have been a factor in secondary infections, but not the fast-killing virus itself. And sanitary conditions quickly deteriorated when the health system was overwhelmed. It would be the same today.

[Art_from_Ark]

44. I'm not going to get worked up about it

There have been instances of the disease infecting birds here in Japan, but I have yet to hear of any human here getting it. It appears to be like SARS was, in that its infection of the human population is limited to certain Asian countries with questionable dietary habits and/or sanitation conditions.

[Athame]

45. My sister got SARS

and she is VP for an American bank and a very fastidious woman. She and her associates caught that virus on a plane coming back from Hawaii. However, this was at the very beginning of the SARS epidemic and it was not recognized as SARS, not tested until she was finally beginning to recover. This is one reason I am paying attention to the flu news.

It does no good to get "worked up about it," but it does even less to ignore what little news there is.

[Art_from_Ark]

54. Interesting

This Japanese government web site cites a BBC news article which cites WHO as attributing the spread of SARS (infecting 27,000 people in China) to a flood and accompanying inundation of contaminated water.

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:sySw0WPZo9cJ:www-iam.nies.go.jp/impact/4/H15-Report/340-life.pdf+SARS%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%82%8A%E6%84%9F%E6%9F%93%E3%80%80%E7%A5%9E%E6%88%B8&hl=ja

And the web site of the City of Osaka discusses the SARS infection of a Taiwanese doctor, who then came to Japan, where he was diagnosed with the disease. Osaka established a committee to investigate the incidence of this disease, and asked everyone who may have been in contact with the Taiwanese visitor to have a health examination. The Committee eventually concluded that there was no chance of secondary infection.

Precautions to take against SARS:
Wash hands after returning home.
Wear surgical mask to prevent infection of the nose or mouth
Avoid travel to countries and regions affected by the disease

http://www.city.osaka.jp/media/shisei/2003_6/month/

[momster]

47. How has it changed?

People in cities around the world still live in squalid, crowded conditions -- Rio, Calcutta, Jo'berg, New Orleans (!) contain some of the most primitive living conditions on earth and there are apartment buildings in Paris, New York, Hong Kong as crowded as any medieval mews. Sanitation remains poor in wide swaths of the world, if you mean usuable water treatment plants or fresh water of any kind. Antibiotics are useless against flu and becoming rapidly less useful against a host of other diseases.

So far as flu treatment goes, it's still 1918. Wash your hands so you don't spread it, drink plenty of fluids, stay in bed. Tamiflu is no panacea either -- it only lessens the severity and that only if you take it early in the onset. There's no wonder drug.

[momster]

33. The Great Influenza

This was a good book but there are quite a few now on the 1918 Epidemic. Interestingly, it's only in the last twenty years or so that anyone has written much about the Epidemic. You might have noticed that most books and movies in the years following the Spanish Flu Epidemic hardly mention it at all. (One reference I recall was while watching the silent version of Daddy-Long-Legs which was released in 1919 and the people in the background of a train station scene are wearing surgical masks) It's as though this horrible thing happened, affecting the millions that were left behind, and yet it was almost wiped from the collective consciousness. Your grandparents might have talked a lot about the Depression, but I know mine never mentioned the Epidemic.

(Oh, and it was called the "Spanish Flu" even though it started in Kansas, and had already spread to both fronts, because Spain was neutral in WWI and so had the only press free enough to report on the disease in the first stages.)

It's quite true, to my mind, that the next epidemic will be bad but will be made worse by the political situation. I can just hear the Rich GOP'ers saying how it's poor people's own fault that they didn't get the vaccination when they were told to (despite the no-doubt huge cost). Remember how we ran out of flu vaccine last year? I think it will be the same this year for ordinary flu.

As for the next great Epidemic, whatever form it takes whether this latest Avian Flu or some other superbug (Captain Trips, y'all?), unless it wipes out a statistically significant portion of the planet's population, the population replacement will not take long enough to solve or mitigate any of the world's difficulties. We are approaching 7 Billions. A disease that kills even 10 millions worldwide (while a tragic disaster individually) won't change the basic equation. Too many people, too few resources.

[Athame]

42. It does appear that the Spanish flu started in Kansas

and that it did not seem to be a major problem at first, but the virus became more infectious and more lethal as it passed through several generations with troop movement to Europe.

And I found it depressingly interesting that it was dubbed the Spanish flu because that was where the media were free to report on it...

The estimates for mortality in the coming pandemic are in the 100s of millions worldwide. Though still not a dent in 7 Billion, when combined with the results of climatic change and perhaps Peak Oil, with its loss of food production and distribution, the expectation of population reduction is quite significant.

[momster]

46. Coming Flu

I haven't seen a mortality figure proposed that runs higher than 10 - 20 million worldwide, which is approximately what the Spanish Flu did. "Hundreds of millions" seems hyperbolic but maybe you've got fresher facts than I do.

The question is what type of population will be most affected. If, as is usually the case, it kills the elderly, the infants and the already ill, population replacement will hardly receive a dent. If, as with the Spanish Flu, it kills post-puberty individuals (aka those of breeding age) then there'd be more of a slow down in replacement, especially in crowded areas.

That was one of the scariest elements of Spanish Flu -- that it killed an unusual number of otherwise healthy people in their twenties and thirties. That and the astounding lack of precautions taken by persons of authority as the previous poster mentioned. Blood-drives, parades, theatrical performances, school dances, and other public events took place even after medical professionals announced that large groups of people would infalliably spread the disease. The authorities were afraid a)of panic, b) political fall-out if they tried to limit patriotic events. Politics and epidemic disease -- if one doesn't get you, the other one will.

[toddaa]

21. Infectious Disease Panic

Historically, the panic from infectious disease ends up killing more people than the disease working on its own. The most efficient killing machine on this planet is man himself. Influenza wishes it could be this deadly.

Simple rule of thumb. Stay away from sick people, wash your hands, and don't eat crap. Not a guarantee, but it works a hell of a lot better than running around screaming, "We're all going to die!"

[Massachusetts]

24. Tweet...Tweet...Tweet

Sergeant O'Neill:
Bob, I got a bad feeling on this one, all right? I mean I got a bad feeling! I don't think I'm gonna make it outta here! D'ya understand what I'm sayin' to you?


Sergeant Barnes: Everybody gotta die some time, Red

[barbaraann]

26. Why aren't they talking about mosquitoes???

Every year, over one million people worldwide die from mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes can carry many different kinds of diseases including malaria, heartworm, dengue fever, encephalitis and yellow fever.

http://www.mosquitobuzz.com/disease/mosquitodiseases.html

[pitohui]

41. mosquitoes don't spread the flu

so what's yr point

it is a much easier project to kill all the birds than to kill all the mosquitoes

what kind of world will it be when any species that may or may not carry a potential disease has been eliminated

[barbaraann]

43. Gee, I thought my point was obvious.

Mosquito-borne illnesses carry many diseases and kill a million people and year and something should be done. The problem is that many of these people are poor and dark; but rich, white people are afraid of bird flu.

[pitohui]

50. plenty is being done but it is not a simple process

so yr point is non-obvious

if you are concerned abt malaria, look at what works

there is no malaria or yellow fever in new orleans, which used to suffer severe epidemics of same, because we have modern & aggressive mosquito control & we also have a modern water supply rather than old time cisterns, malaria disappeared in the 20s when the cisterns were covered

if you are concerned abt malaria & other mosquito-borne disease, support modern water supply systems in third & fourth world

what all this has to do w. bird flu hysteria i haven't a clue

i don't know any white ppl afraid of bird flu except a small subset of DUers who seem to have an agenda to promote the gov't stockpiling of debatable remedies

bird flu is an unavoidable fact of life in the poultry industry but we have excellent controls

[spotbird]

self delete

Two children have been hospitalized in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, prompting the government to put the country on high alert on Monday as it struggled to contain a virus that has killed four people.

Adding to fears among the general population in Jakarta, authorities closed the city's main zoo after tests showed some exotic birds had been infected with avian flu.

Officials also said the cash-strapped government had little money to carry out a mass culling of infected poultry or birds.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed four Indonesians, including one woman who died in Jakarta a week ago. The virus has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has also spread to Russia and Europe.

"It's a high alert. Every region is on alert so if at any time it occurs in remote areas, we are ready," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters, adding the government had not declared a state of emergency.

more

Scary stuff.

[NaturalHigh]

27. This doesn't get the mainstream press that it should.

So far, H5N1 doesn't seem to be easily transmitted between humans, but that could change overnight. The virus has been found in pigs, and pigs also harbor any number of human viruses. Because the viruses aren't necessarily dangerous to the pigs themselves, they can interact and mutate. If this virus (or a mutated offspring) develops the ability to jump from human to human, the resulting pandemic is going to be horrendous. For Stephen King fans, just think "Captain Trips." It has the potential to be that bad.

[spotbird]

28. Hundreds from the boy's school are sick

100 student ill will stomachaches, one dies

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A student of Ummul Quro Islamic Boarding School in Bogor died on Sunday after suffering from severe diarrhea symptoms, while dozens of other students were taken to nearby hospitals.

Police said that they were still investigating had caused the students to become sick.

Bogor Police chief Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said on Sunday a student identified as Aris Tadjudin died after suffering severe stomach aches and diarrhea on Saturday.

"I am still waiting for a complete report from my officers in the boarding school to be able to determine whether they got diarrhea and fell sick because of food poisoning," he told The Jakarta Post.

more

This flu has started with diarrea in Indonesia, the family that died had the dame symptoms. I wonder if this means it will spread world wide this flu season, I thought it would take another year.

[wordout]

29. cornered neocon rat syndrome

[Massachusetts]

31. " Bird flu epidemic could kill millions worldwide: experts"

Disease, Viral, Bacterial infections, have been with the Human Species BEFORE we began to walk upright.

Its UNFORTUNATE, but IT IS a part of "Natures" process. It is a FACT of LIFE on this planet.

[Karmakaze]

53. Human influenza kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people PER YEAR

So in the nearly two years of hype about Bird Flu, Human Flu has killed between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people.

Don't hear about THAT do we?

[Tyler Durden]

34. Do like FAUX

Buy stock in ROCHE.

They make TAMIFLU also, y'know.

[pitohui]

36. i'm tired of tamiflu sales propaganda on this site

bird flu will be well controlled as it is always well controlled by the very aggressive efforts of the usda

any questions abt human to human transmission, look at how aggressively and quickly sars was controlled

but the drum will pound so that hysterics will demand taxpayer $$$ be wasted on ineffective medicines like tamiflu & flu vaccines that are only guessing at what strain is going to come around this yr

don't you folks ever get tired of being played by the pharmaceutical industry

[CoffeeCat]

48. From what I understand...

...birds do transmit all kinds of viruses, bacteria and other diseases that can get humans sick.

That is nothing new.

However--it is my understanding that this particular strain is incredibly nasty, powerful and that humans who contract it die in high percentages (75 percent who get it, die).

This bird flu seems different.

I do admit that I have read some, but not a lot. I'm trying to keep up on this. I'm not sure what to believe at this point. Like you said, the pharm industry could be playing us all. I wouldn't be surprised. However, it is possible that this is real--and the real villains in this scenario are the US government officials who appear to be doing nothing, except mentioning bird flu sporadically, as if to cover their butts, should a pandemic happen.

Also--I do not see a major marketing push for Tamiflu. Maybe I'm not looking in the correct places, but it is hard to find! I called a local pharmacist and he said they cannot distribute Tamiflu without an rx from a physician. He said most doctors will not give it out, if the patient is without symptoms. There seem to be barriers to stockpiling Tamiflu or keeping it around for preventative reasons--like you would cold medicine, etc.

I don't see the exploitation by the pharm cos. However, I do see discombobulation, inaction by our government and some pretty convincing documentation by credible scientific sources. Nature Magazine--for one--is a highly credible publication that takes the threat seriously. Many microbiologists and other scientists outside of the United States seem concerned as well.

Right now, I'm just trying to gather information. I'm open minded. However, I do have a family--which includes two very small children--to consider. I would rather be a bit paranoid and out $75 for meds--and safe---than to take a big risk and do nothing.

I guess each person has to weigh the information and risks and make their own decisions.

The lack of coherent information is what bothers me. There should not be this confusion. There should be open communication about what is going on--to keep people safe. If there's a looming threat--just say so. The ambiguity is what gives people doubt, IMHO. If there is a real threat and lives are at stake--our government owes us cogent, truthful information and data. Otherwise, many will think this is a farce or fear mongering--and they will die as a result.

Our government needs to step up to the plate and give us the truth.

[pitohui]

49. you can't give $75 to every con artist who comes along

look i have friend & family who work with the poultry industry

if there was reason for concern they would be concerned

there isn't

i don't have infinite financial resources to waste on useless drugs & precautions

we have real problems

those who do have infinite resources are welcome to spend $$$ on every B.S. cure & fad from stockpiling tamiflu to silver nitrate on down

but we don't need tax $$$ wasted on this crap when the country is going broke

there are ppl on this very site calling for gov't stockpiling of tamiflu & other dubious flu vaccines and treatments, they've been operating here pretending to be regular ppl since at least "sars"

this is nothing more or less than welfare for big pharma at a time when we have real ppl w. real needs that need to be funded

let the pork be passed around at another time

the bird flu is not "different," it is exactly the same old re-tread of "swine flu" hysteria, the inspiration for the stephen king classic, the stand

check the publication date on that one some time & then get back w. me abt how there is anything "different" abt bird flu panic