Bird Flu ???

[Racoon]

Bird Flu seems like a for real upcoming Pandemic..
New cases are beginning to spread in Europe.
Africa is now starting to see it too..

How serious is this threat? A similar outbreak in 1918 left Millions and Millions dead! Not to mention, the Birds that die off. Couple that with West-Nile Virus, and there is potential for Catastrophe!!!

What are the ramifications of this?
Is this Mother Nature just keeping everything in Balance?

What happens to Insect populations when many of their predators are killed?
What could the consequences be of a major Human-Jumping form of the virus?
Would there be Quarantines? Overflooded Hospitals? Panic?

Seems like everyone would like to forget this thing, including me...
With all the Terrorism threats, Wars raging, Public Dissent,... who has the Strength to deal with something like this??

What do we know? Is there anything we can do?

[BluesMan]

The flu is a real threat!
Even if avian flu does not create a pandemic, mutations of the flu, may cause mass mortalities, OK may is a little soft.

Many medical conferences are seriously discussing this issue at all levels. The federal government has allocated tremendous resources to allow health care to purchase equipment to deal with terrorism and disasters.

One of the best mass media articles I have read in the last 6 months or so was in Time.

A quick search on the Internet will result in credible sources for this likelihood.

[InfiniteNow]

I'm more worried about the "stupid-flu." Apparently, we all kill each other out of hatred and ignorance, and fear of the unknown. It's spreading even more quickly than the bird flu, and the vaccine, education and study, seems like it is being rejected by those who suffer from it.


I hate that there's some truth to this...

[Cedars]

Avian flu floats around bird populations all the time. There are 15 variants of the avian flu. This strain, N5H1, is particularily lethal to birds and especially lethal to domestic birds. Probably due to their domesticated conditions.

This strain has already mutated multiple times and huge populations of birds are resistant. Mallard ducks seem to be especially immune to the variations.

As I understand the 1918 flu, it originally was called a swine flu. It was recently that it was determined to be an avian flu in origin. There are some indications that the flu jumped to swine and then infected people in a milder form. The people who were exposed to this milder form developed immunity to the deadly strain of 1918.

With what has occured in the regions that have been exposed to the bird flu in this great of an area, with as many swine, what I find comforting is that it has not jumped to swine. That is what will begin to alarm me with avian flu and a potential pandemic.

Heres a link to the bird/swine/people connections:
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9902/15/hi...flu/index.html

[Racoon]

Bird flu hitting India hard now!

Reports of thousand of locals getting sick.
Top Poultry farms having a Quarantine radius of 3 - 5 miles.

If you can believe the news.
I don't know whats more scary.
Bird Flu pandemic or Dirty Bombs?

Why? What? and When?
If anything, its killing a sh^t load of chickens and birds.
thats costing somebody Boku bucks.

[Jay-qu]

where did the flu start?

[jack1]

I got the flu, and my annual cold...but seriously I'm so used to all these things it doesn't affect me seriously.

That made no sense to me because I've only had the flu once in my life, and I probably never even got flu shots unless they were required. Both a cold and the flu are viral infections that cause similar symptoms
such as coughing and sore throat.Oseltamivir phosphate sale under brand name tamiflu is very effective in treatment of bird flu. Visit here http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3353-s-tamiflu.aspx
tamiflu is very popular drugs for Bird flu.

[Cedars]

Interesting website that posts animal infections from around the world.

http://www.oie.int/eng/info/hebdo/AIS_78.HTM#Sec15

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting site
http://www.abc.net.au/science/expert...birdflu/03.htm

A: Yes, it has been extensively tested in humans but only for seasonal influenza. We hope it has a high rate of efficacy for the H5N1 bird flu virus. In mice it requires a higher dose and longer treatment for bird flu than for seasonal flu. It also needs to be taken within six to 12 hours of catching the virus. People overseas with the virus have had it at too late a stage. It's important that it is available to get quickly and easily from the chemist without prescription, and at the moment it's not.

- Professor Graeme Laver, previously of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, whose knowledge of the structure and function of the influenza virus led to the design of antiviral drugs.

A: Tamiflu is on the market as is the antiviral drug Relenza. It is available by prescription but is not yet available in pharmacies due to stockpiling by governments around the world.

The current H5N1 strain prevalent without mutation is sensitive to both Tamiflu and Relenza. The question is will the mutated pandemic human flu be sensitive? We don't know that yet. In some cases overseas we have seen resistance of H5N1 to Tamiflu but not Relenza.

- Professor Mark von Itzstein, Research Leader, Executive Director & Federation Fellow, Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University.

You heard that Pres. Bush was fixing bird flu did't you?
He has invaded the Canary Islands
Rumor has it that Turkey is next!!

[gribbon]

The bird-ee flu is coming!

What I'd be interested to know is, how is it that we can predict when and where it will go? Of course we know migration routes, but what are the other ways?