Bird flu? What happened?

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/167674,CST-NWS-bird11.article

LONDON -- Earlier this year, bird flu panic was in full swing: The French feared for their foie gras, the Swiss locked their chickens indoors, and Americans enlisted prison inmates in Alaska to help spot infected wild birds.

The H5N1 virus -- previously confined to Southeast Asia -- was striking birds in places as diverse as Germany, Egypt, and Nigeria, and a flu pandemic seemed inevitable.

Then the virus went quiet.

Except for a steady stream of human cases in Indonesia, the current flu epicenter, the past year's worries about a catastrophic global outbreak largely disappeared.

What happened?

Iran.

stop the spread?

I know that sounds weird, but I know for a fact that Monsanto has patented a Swine Model and would love a legitimate pandemic of Swine Flu to get the IMF and World Bank behind it.

Poultry is the only animal that is consumed globally.

Indonesia is still having problems containing it...

There was recently an outbreak in South Korea...

No real change in the nature of the virus that would make it more easily transmissable...

Media got tired of it...if there is another cluster outbreak they will be back on it again

I know that local areas are taking precautions. For example, if you work in a poultry house, protocol demands that you change clothes before going elsewhere so as not to contaminate.

Read the CDC info in my other post.

We had a public forum on what the county where I work would do if there was a bird flu outbreak. I was reassured, in a way, that the county has a plan in place, including a location for mass burial if it got really bad. The county judge (other places would call him a county supervisor)said that the CDC recommends that everyone have two month's supply of food and water, because if we have a pandemic, it could be that long before transportation/supply links are up again. Our local holistic physicians suggested many things to do to prevent flu and what to do once you get it. Interestingly enough, homeopathic pharmacies could make up a remedy specifically for the flu causing the outbreak and have it to people in about a month-a much faster turnaround than places making a vaccine. Personally, I find that Oscillococcinium (a homeopathic remedy for flus in general)works for me in preventing the flu each year.

Beware of Africanized KILLER BEES!

It just hasn't had that critical mutation yet.

Give it time.

They never live up to the hype. It was never a problem or going to become a pandemic. Sell some stories is all it did.

if you think SARS was "panic driven bullshit"

Sid

The regular influenza virus kills 150,000 annually.

It was an overblown panic.

Would you rather world health authorities dealing with possibly hazardous infectious diseases before they become a pandemic or would you rather wait until they're sure (ie after it's killed thousands and has spread from country to country)?

For those who'd rather wait, I'll simply point to the world-wide HIV pandemic and ask how well that's working out.

I read a lot on this board and have never seen such tripe posted here. Perhaps I missed it?

Don

Here's a bit from the CDC:

"The avian influenza A (H5N1) epizootic (animal outbreak) in Asia and parts of Europe, the Near East, and Africa is not expected to diminish significantly in the short term. It is likely that H5N1 infection among birds has become endemic in certain areas and that human infections resulting from direct contact with infected poultry and/or wild birds will continue to occur. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare , limited and unsustained. No evidence for genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza A virus genes has been found; however, this epizootic continues to pose an important public health threat.

There is little pre-existing natural immunity to H5N1 infection in the human population. If these H5N1 viruses gain the ability for efficient and sustained transmission among humans, an influenza pandemic could result, with potentially high rates of illness and death. In addition, genetic sequencing of influenza A (H5N1) viruses from human cases in Vietnam and Thailand shows resistance to the antiviral medications amantadine and rimantadine, two of the medications commonly used for treatment of influenza. This would leave two remaining antiviral medications (oseltamivir and zanamivir) that should still be effective against currently circulating strains of H5N1 virus. Efforts to produce vaccine candidates that would be effective against avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses are under way. However, it will likely require many months before such vaccines could be mass produced and made widely available.

Research suggests that currently circulating strains of H5N1 viruses are becoming more capable of causing disease (pathogenic) in animals than were earlier H5N1 viruses. One study found that ducks infected with H5N1 virus are now shedding more virus for longer periods without showing symptoms of illness. This finding has implications for the role of ducks in transmitting disease to other birds and possibly to humans as well. Additionally, other findings have documented H5N1 infection among pigs in China and H5N1 infection in felines (experimental infection in housecats in the Netherlands and isolation of H5N1 viruses in tigers and leopards in Thailand).In addition, in early March 2006, Germany reported H5N1 infection in a stone marten (a weasel-like mammal). The avian influenza A (H5N1) virus that emerged in Asia in 2003 continues to evolve and may adapt so that other mammals may be susceptible to infection as well."

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/current.htm

The last paragraph shows why there is cause for concern.

Which can be followed by anyone who reads the science & medicine page. Or goes to those websites.

Too bad so many media screamed "The sky is falling!" "Let's all buy anti-flu medication" (that might not even work if the stuff mutates to human-to-human transmission.) Of course, we heard about some draconian government plans to handle an epidemic--which would have worked as well as their handling of Katrina.

It's good the story is in the back pages. That means the scientists are doing their work. Sounds like there's another reason to keep the kitties indoors, though...

all the Tamiflu shares have been cashed in and we are on to the next one. Am I right? I believe we must prepare for Son of Ebola.

I was arguing stridently with locals and on that wacky-wiki flu website that Bird flu was a hoax and got attacked all around. No matter how much evidence you present to a true believer...

Now can we address poverty (meaning wealth) and militarization?

When Bush told us to read the same fucked up book that some folks were pushing around here that dealt with the deadliest of the three pandemics from early last century that occurred before antibiotics were discovered and during an era when the practice of medicine still consisted of the local barber doing dentistry and also removing bullets thats all I needed to see.

The book pushers and snake oil (Tamiflu) salesmen soon disappeared after that. Sonuvabitch.

Don

there has been a campaign in the agricultural world to educate those who deal with poultry. Part of the big problem was cross-infection of flocks. Once people in the poultry biz were made aware, they have changed their practices.

One interesting thing I found out- poultry workers from one farm are not allowed to visit other poultry farms (this is in California!)in order to stop the possible spread of diseases. (Diseases can be carried on clothing, shoes, or in the bodies of the workers themselves.)

so the administration went back to terra.