The turkey says: "Your puny hu-man drugs are no match for me, hu-mans!"
Posted on 01/12/2006 3:55:50 PM PST by blam
Turkey bird flu strain may 'prefer humans'
Staff and agencies
Thursday January 12, 2006
British scientists said tonight there was possible evidence that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turkey was of a kind with a small mutation that preferred to attach itself to humans, rather than birds.
The indications of a possible mutation in the disease were found in analysis of viruses taken from two of the fatal human cases of bird flu in Turkey.
The same small signs of a preference for attaching to human cells were found in previous cases of bird flu viruses in Hong Kong in 2003 and Vietnam in 2005.
In the cases in Hong Kong and Vietnam, the strain of bird flu seemed to prefer to attach itself to cell receptors on the surface of human cells rather than to birds' cell receptors. Tonight, British experts said they expected that the bird flu from the outbreak in Turkey would show the same qualities. Scientists are not entirely sure what the signs of the mutation may mean.
Experts' biggest fear is that H5N1 will change into a form that can spread easily from person to person. If that happened it could trigger a global pandemic with the loss of many millions of lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I read it wrong: a bird flu affecting turkeys. Got my hopes up that this was the end of the Democrat Party.
When can we start 'getting rid of' the Canadian geese?
Tons of those things around here and they refuse to migrate anywhere! I could almost rank them worse than pigeons and starlings.
Actually, this may be bigger news than they are letting on - reading latest reports, one gets the impression that this strain is passing from human to human. More information is needed...
During General Gun Season in the Autumn?
The Hong Kong variant mentioned in the article was eradicated in a massive culling operation. It is credited with stopping a possible pandemic in its tracks. I have seen it cited as an example of how effective a vigorous, pro-active response can be if it is started in time.
I do not know any of the details of the Vietnam case mentioned in the article.
However, given the seriousness of the prior Hong Kong situation, and the impossibility of responding in the same way in Turkey, leads me to suspect this is very serious news.
The turkey says: "Your puny hu-man drugs are no match for me, hu-mans!"
In Soviet Russia, turkey prefers YOU!
Bird Flu ping.
I don't get the sense that Turkey has a serious plan.
I have no idea what their current plan might be, but they were certainly slow with their initial response.
I also get the sense that the hospital most affected right now is almost overwhelmed. However, I have not seen anything that makes it clear how it is spreading. H2H is certainly a possibility, but they live in such close proximity to their chickens, ducks, etc., that it could still be at the bird to person stage.
If it really is spreading easily from human to human, I suspect we'll know within a week.
That is the problem in these countries...."they live in such close proximity to their chickens, ducks, etc."
I've seen no indication that we have human - human transmission. That's my 'trip-wire' event and I've kept my ear close to the ground.
Same here.
Once it becomes easily spread I suspect the number of cases will grow with breathtaking rapidity. The rate of growth we're seeing right now seems too slow for this to be "it".
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