Havent seen many posts about the Bird Flu... just wanted to share my feelings...
This bird flu is getting me kinda worried
It's popping everywhere now... First the eastern asian countries then Romania > Turkey > Greece > Russia > Croatia and now... the UK! It's taking over the world!!! The end of the days are nearby!!! "......ok calm down now.. ..breath in... breath out..." where was i?! oh yeah WE ARE DOOMED !!! .... but for real.. i am glad the bird flu is overhyped... so far "only" 60 people have died in Asia from this - right now there is not much to panic about however can you imagine how dangerous this will be if it mutates so it can spread from human to human.... I think it's all well and good to downplay the potential seriousness of this to reassure ourselves. It could well kill millions no point arguing if it will or won't because none of us knows for sure....... Oh and dont depend on Tamiflu because...
"Experts in Hong Kong said on Friday that the human H5N1 strain which surfaced in northern Vietnam this year had proved to be resistant to Tamiflu."
Don't forget that in 1918, 50 million people died from a similar bird flu. Ok they didn't have penicilline back then..but still ...
Interesting article:
Indonesian officials "covered up and then neglected" an epidemic of avian influenza in poultry for two years, allowing it to spread among flocks and then to people, the Washington Post reports.
The newspaper quotes an Indonesian microbiologist as saying authorities argued about whether the virus killing chickens was in fact H5N1 and then tried to deal with it quietly.
As a result, the virus spread for two years with little public word until it began infecting people, the paper said.
H5N1 bird flu has killed four people in Indonesia.
"If the Government had acted sooner to stamp it out, there would be no outbreak," the Post quoted Indonesian microbiologist Chairul Nidom as saying.
"They have wasted so much time."
The newspaper also quoted Indonesia's former national director of animal health, Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, as saying chickens began dying from H5N1 in Indonesia in 2003 but the Government covered it up because of lobbying from the poultry industry.
"They said, 'It's better to do it with confidentiality. Do a hidden, silent operation'," Ms Naipospos was quoted as saying.
"I said, 'It won't work if you do a silent operation. This is a disease that can't be hidden. It's too risky'."
Ms Naipospos was fired from her job in September.
"I was dismissed today because the minister considered I have failed in handling bird flu," Ms Naipospos told Reuters at the time.
H5N1 bird flu first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, killing or forcing the destruction of million of birds, infecting 18 people and killing six of them.
It re-emerged in 2003 and has now been found in flocks across Asia as far west as European Russia and Romania.
It spreads quickly, kills chickens and can occasionally infect people, with sometimes fatal results.
At least 61 people in Asia have died of H5N1 infections, out of 118 known cases, and experts believe H5N1 could mutate to become easily transmitted from person to person, causing a pandemic.
World Health Organisation officials and diplomats have been urging countries to immediately ask for international help if they get an H5N1 outbreak.
The officials quoted by the Post said Indonesia did precisely what public health experts had feared.
In January 2004, Mr Nidom publicly announced his findings about H5NI and Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry did as well.
"It was too late. The virus was everywhere," Mr Nidom told the Post.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said the Indonesian Government considered bird flu a matter of great concern.
"That means our attention is very high on how to address this problem," Mr Apriyantono told the Post.
"The thing is, we don't want to publicise too much about bird flu because of the effect on our farms. Prices have dropped very drastically."
Source : Reuters
...Sweet dreams...
