Posted on 11/05/2006 5:52:19 PM PST by blam
Three million body bags may be stockpiled in disaster plans
Last Updated: 1:17am GMT 06/11/2006
Secret plans to stockpile millions of body bags to be used in the event of a flu pandemic, terrorist attack or other disaster are being considered by the Government and health experts, according to a senior minister.
The proposals reflect mounting concern at the lack of space to store bodies in morgues and bury them in the event of mass deaths.
A senior member of the Government involved in policy planning for a flu pandemic told The Daily Telegraph that "various scenarios" involving hundreds of thousands of deaths had been outlined to ministers by health advisers.
It is understood that local councils and health authorities are also involved in discussions about how to minimise the spread of infection. Sources said that a major concern was that a flu pandemic could coincide with another disaster, putting intolerable pressure on resources.
One idea was to order around three million body bags to be kept at hospitals or by local authorities to ensure that the spread of viruses and infection could be reduced, said the minister.
"Ordering body bags is one of the measures that we could go for. It has been put to us. This is the dominant public health worry of the moment," he said.
A Home Office insider added: "I am sure it would have been discussed. You have to keep bodies safely if there are not enough places to bury or store them."
What's the ROP population of Olde England these days btw?
November 5, 2006 9:26 a.m. EST
Som Patidar - All Headline News Staff Writer Cairo, Egypt
(AHN) - In a visit to Cairo for the Global Health Research Forum, top United Nations coordinator David Nabarro said Bird Flu is likely to remain a global threat for the next decade.
In an interview with AFP, he said: "The virus is likely to be with us for the five or ten years to come."
"The risk of a mutation to cause pandemic is still very much there. As long as the virus is present in birds, there will also be a threat of sporadic human infection, and a possibility of a mutation which would cause at the end of the day a pandemic," he continued.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has been confirmed in 256 humans worldwide since the first outbreak in 2003, United Nations Health Agency informed.
06Nov06
THERE are business plans and there are plans to save your business.
If the bird flu virus gets to Australia, the Gold Coast and the rest of South East Queensland are likely to be in the front line.
Our proximity to the biggest risk area, Asia, and our international airports put us at particular risk.
Experts believe that if a bird flu pandemic struck, more than half the workforce would die, with the 20-to-45 age group likely to be the most susceptible.
While many busi nesses had plans in event of an outbreak, they needed to ensure these were not made in isolation, said Brisbane corporate health specialist Toby Ford.
As well as considering how to manage their own surviving staff, they needed to think wider afield.
"You might think 10 of your workers aren't coming to work tomorrow and some of them might not even live, and that's going to threaten your financial viability," he said.
"But it's not only your workforce.
"Your IT support company might be just as hard hit and you have to consider how you are going to cope with that."
And not only other suppliers. Businesses should also ensure their pandemic plans linked in with local, state and federal government ones.
The Commonwealth Government would drive any response and could enact new legislation.
"The quality of information also becomes important," he said.
"There's a ton of information out there for businesses and much of it changes daily.
"That IT supplier needs to have been contacted and know what you're doing so they can work that in with what they are doing."
Potential treatments were 'not very sophisticated' and authorities would be careful not to release until absolutely necessary key drugs capable of blocking its spread.
"The challenge will then be who will then get this medication, when, and how will they use it," said Dr Ford.
But before any virus got here, businesses could still put simple prevention measures in place, such as ensuring employees knew to wash their hands, keep cups clean and not cough at other people.
Links to useful pandemic planning sites can be accessed through www.fordhealth.com.au.
Blam, I recall stories prior to the invasion of Iraq.
100,000 body bags ordered by the Pentagon.
Take the article with a grain of salt.
I've seen FReeper 'MadIvan' post that it is 1.6 million.
Yeah Blam seem that UK Telegraph is repeating themselves
Yup. I read an article that a call went out for refigerated trucks to speed to New Orleans to handle the 10,000 casualties there. The loss of refigerated trucks in the supply chain caused big problems for food shippers. They were quickly released from NO duty, lol.
Not to worry. The Muslim virus will have reached it's peak long before.
How many were they talking about bringing in with Katrina? It was a lot.
Ten thousand, see my post #8.
Read this book yet? It's all online; I found it on FluWiki yesterday and started reading it last night. Pretty interesting, although he does a bit of Bush/Republican criticizing. (In regards to Katrina and pandemic planning stuff.) But politics aside, (and there's not too much of that) it seems well done.
http://www.birdflubook.org/
If anyone reading this thread wants to know some background, history and what a whole bunch of experts have to say about H5N1, this is a readable and well referenced book.
Buy American.
www.usabodybags.com/contatus.html
The last time I was in Cairo I thought I was going to die. Whatever you do, don't eat the food and don't drink the water. Don't even drink the soda pop or the coffee. They get the water from the Nile.
Maybe the Mayan Calendar is right, after all. I always thought the guy got tired of peering into the future, or was eaten by wild animals.
"256 humans worldwide since the first outbreak in 2003"
We're DOOOOOMED!!!
Actually, that's less than the 100 per year that die from Fugu poisioning. Maybe they're stock piling the body bags for all the sushi eaters....
Population of the United Kingdom in 2001 was 58,700,000.
They each had 2 square feet to stand and sleep on (just kidding)..............FRegards
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