HIV+ muppet
together with Big Bird in China
= massive pandemic
Posted on 11/27/2004 1:28:55 PM PST by pandemic_1918
Bird-flu pandemic is looming: WHO Published on November 27, 2004
The world is hurtling towards a catastrophic avian-flu pandemic since the outbreak's regular cycle is overdue and evidence suggests the virus has undergone substantial genetic change, the World Health Organisation warned yesterday.
"Of course, I cannot say when one may occur, but I believe we are closer now to a pandemic than at any time in recent years," said Dr Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific region of the WHO at an international conference on bird flu.
He was echoing remarks by WHO influenza expert Dr Klaus Stohr on Thursday warning of a massive pandemic.
One reason is the historically unprecedented extent of the current flu outbreak in poultry in terms of its geographical spread and impact, with more than 120 million birds dead of flu or destroyed, Omi said.
Despite intensified efforts from affected countries, there are indications that the disease may remain entrenched in this part of the world, he added.
Moreover, since influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle of every 20 to 30 years, Omi said, the next one is overdue.
The avian-flu virus "appears to be not only very resilient but also extremely versatile", he said, adding that it was now capable of infecting other animals including tigers, domestic cats and pigs.
Omi claimed a number of current scientific studies suggested to the WHO that the virus had undergone some genetic change that substantially altered its characteristics.
Evidence that ducks played a major role in the second bird-flu wave in the region is of concern, he said, since infected ducks excreted more of the virus than in previous outbreaks.
He insisted that unless intensified international efforts were made to take control of the situation, a pandemic was inevitable.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationmultimedia.com ...
HIV+ muppet
together with Big Bird in China
= massive pandemic
Here are a few additional links on the potential of the pandemic to kill 1 billion people
http://www.recombinomics.com/pandemic_potential.html
and jump species barriers
http://www.recombinomics.com/swine_human_signatures.html
Yes, the bird is looming large.
Abbot: I'm pretty scared about what WHO said.
Costello: Who said it?
That's right.
What's right?
WHO said it.
What are you asking me for?
I'm not asking you, I'm telling you...WHO said it.
I'm asking you who said it.
That's the name.
That's whose name?
Yes.
I mean who?
Sure.
Well go ahead and tell me.
I'm telling you now...WHO said it.
Said what?
The bird flu.
Who didn't know birds flew?
WHO didn't know until recently.
Who didn't know?
Absolutely...
etc.
The WHO has been talking about pandemic flu all year, and calling for "the world" to do something.
Guess who HAS been doing something :the US,not "the world".
WHO does a good job of tracking diseases-as long as there are no political ramifications-and of making recommendations -which are often ignored.
Apart from that, it provides opportunities for employment-and occasional graft-for people who would otherwise be unemployable.
Won't get fooled again
Here are some of the sequences from H5N1 from around the world (most recent ones are from Vietnam and Thailand)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Tree&id=102793&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock
LOL. Cleaning coffee off the monitor.
Not too long ago there was an outbreak in BC Canada as well. They ended up killing all poultry.
Should this pandemic begin, it will decimate Asia first - including India. I can't imagine the death toll staying under 1 billion - current mortality rates from the few cases of human infection are nearly 80%. I can imagine nearly 2 billion deaths just from China and India alone.
If it does start, the Feds had better get the borders sealed really quickly, and quarantine anyone from the infected nations who have recently arrived. I doubt that they could stop it from spreading here any more than anywhere else. At least we have better hygiene, better medical systems, and wide open spaces.
Lots of Laotians and Cambodians with cold symptoms streaming across borders to Thailand
http://www.recombinomics.com/flu_laos_cambodia.html
>>Not too long ago there was an outbreak in BC Canada as well. They ended up killing all poultry. <<
That one was H7N3. Last week there was bird flu in Maryland
http://www.recombinomics.com/maryland_avian_flu.html
There are significant problems due to air travel. Pandemics spread far more quickly than they used to, and diseases that used to be limited to exotic places now get around the world very quickly.
I think this is worrying. Yes, the last scare ended well, thank God, but that's not saying whether the next one will. I think we were very luck last time. And U.S. vaccine manufacturing took a hit from hillary's children's health initiative, because it's no longer possible to make much of a profit in this area and therefore not much incentive to keep modernizing.
>>Not too long ago there was an outbreak in BC Canada as well. They ended up killing all poultry. <<
Earlier this year there was bird flu (H3N8) killing racing greyhounds in Florida - had to close down most of the tracks
http://www.recombinomics.com/greyhound_deaths.html
Brought to you by your friendly Chinese military labs. Just wait until the 1918 flu "accidentally" escapes from the labs.
And another link to a recent incident in Brussels involving smuggled eagles infected with the virus:
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/041025190343.1rr0p8ff
200 parrots that were in the same area of the Brussels airport (as the smuggled eagles) were killed as a precautionary measure. The risk to pets is something else pet bird owners ought keep in mind, particularly if you travel internationally. We've a couple of pet parrots and a third one on the way so the avian flu is doubly worrisome.
the first year i don't get a flu shot, and were gonna get hit by a pandemic!
The flu shot is a good point.
We can make a vaccine for all flus. The flu virus is not like aids, vaccines can be rushed to production in short order.
The real problem is when the next flu pandemic hits (which it will) how long will it take for vaccines to be widely available and how much panic will set in before enough people have been vaccinated so that the virus burns itself out.
SARS was a bit of a wake-up call. So far, there isn't a viable vaccine for it. But the virus had a certain epidemiology (infection rates, conditions for infection, incubation) that allowed it to be controlled. If the virus was just slightly different, it could have been one of the biggest messes in history. But SARS is not the flu. The bird flu or any other combination of flu viruses will be easy to control with vaccines.
It just points to the fact that we really should have a surplus of vaccine production capacity. But we don't.
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