Guaranteed antibiotics supply wanted in case of bird flu

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/radionz/200512121601/99ce782

The Government wants arrangements made for a guaranteed supply of antibiotics in case of bird flu.

Securing a supply of the drugs is part of the planning underway for a potential influenza pandemic.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson says the demand for antibiotics is expected to spike dramatically if there is an influenza pandemic.

In 1918, the so-called Spanish or Black Flu claimed the lives of more than 8,500 New Zealanders from late October to early December 1918, according to "Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand," by Professor Geoffrey Rice.

Mr Hodgson says most deaths in the 1918 pandemic were caused by secondary bacterial infections; so securing a supply of antibiotics is important.

[liberaltrucker]

1. Uh, antibiotics are useless for viral infections

which avian flu is. Most deaths in the 1918 pandemic were not caused by secondary bacterial infections, but by liquefaction of the lungs by the VIRAL infection.

[KitchenWitch]

2. What you said

Except a person can get a secondary bacterial infection as a result of the primary viral infection.

[AngryAmish]

3. However during pulmonary viral infections

One of the main problems is opportunistic bacterial infections. This is suspected in 1918 flu.

I'm not a flu bug but having antibiotic stockpiles is a good use of gov't funds.

[liberaltrucker]

5. Edited

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. Ordinarily, I would agree, but with the H5N1 influenza....

...it doesn't appear that 50% of those that become infected will need to worry about secondary bacterial infections.

What worries me the most is that the H5N1 variant that will be the most communicable between humans has not yet emerged. Without knowing the form that variant will take, it wil be impossibel to produce an effective vaccine.

My second worry is that once the H5N1 variant emerges, it may take as long as six months to a year to produce an effective vaccine, and another six months to a year to begin mass-producing it. By that time millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of people around the world may already be dead.

[NNN0LHI]

11. Bacterial infections weren't "suspected" in 1918 flu. Its been documented

http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=3805


<snip>What is more, some of the victims who suddenly dropped dead clearly died of pneumonia caused by secondary bacterial infections. Barry explains: "Often influenza victims seemed to recover, even returned to work, then suddenly collapsed again with bacterial pneumonia." In any case, most people died in the usual fashion of subsequent flu epidemics and pandemics. "Autopsy records from New York City found that most of the deaths {from Spanish flu} occurred at the end of the first week and beginning of the second," the University of Virginia's Hayden told me.

Researchers at Stanford have assembled a website that quotes from the medical journals of the time. The principal danger of an influenza infection was its tendency to progress into the often fatal bacterial infection of pneumonia, according to the British Medical Journal of July 13, 1918. Sick soldiers at Ft. Lewis, Washington, had sputum and other samples taken and grown in the lab. Commonly found bacteria, according to the April 12, 1919, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, were pneumococcus, streptococcus, staphylococcus, and Bacillus influenzae (today called haemophilus influenzae).

Comments the Stanford site, "It was this tendency for secondary complications that made this influenza infection so deadly." Writes Barry, "Most deaths almost certainly did come from secondary bacterial infections." In fact, the bacterial infections were so common that even years after the pandemic, many researchers believed the causative agent was bacterial and not viral.

[pinto]

4. Planning for a good supply of antibiotics in the event of an outbreak,

whether local or wide spread seems a reasonable Public Health approach. As the article mentioned, many of the deaths in the 1918 pandemic were due to secondary - bacterial - infections, not the primary viral infection.

Without minimizing the loss of those in 1918, or the risks of another influenza pandemic, it bears mentioning that there was an efficient vector (troops returning from the war, and large numbers of displaced civilians, under crowded conditions) and a significantly susceptible public (in crowded cities with less than adequate nutrition and sanitation) in 1918 and...no antibiotics.

While some of those conditions persist today, a reliable supply of antibiotics would probably go far in reducing deaths from secondary infections.

Thanks for the post.

[liberaltrucker]

7. I stand corrected

:blush: a little learning is a dangerous thing..........

[Raydawg1234]

6. Pandemic Tami-Flu Is the drug that is being pushed......

It's interesting that the news is hyping this so much, might be an example of corporatism at it's finest. The government and media acting in synch to create huge demand for a product. The manufacturer, The Roche Group, has seen huge increases in the value of it's stock. Note that this is a Swiss Company. If the Bush admin had ties, it would be sort of like money laundering. Money taken from taxpayers ending up in Swiss banks.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. You might find this article to be very interesting...

Rumsfeld, Roche, BirdFlu, Tamiflu
<http://neoconrush.blogspot.com/2005/11/rumsfeld-roche-birdflu-tamiflu.html>

QUOTE:

NCJ News has learned that Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is a major stockholder in Gilead Sciences, the patent holder of the Tamiflu Vaccine.

[Raydawg1234]

10. Great post, I had a hunch about this, it just smelled

I think this deserves its own thread!

[HeeBGBz]

12. Imagine that

Makin a little blood money