U.S. Army Photo: Victims of 1918 Spanish Flu Which Killed Millions
Posted on 12/14/2004 11:15:37 AM PST by ex-Texan
World Health Organization: Bird Flu Pandemic Coming and Millions May Die !
U.S. Army Photo: Victims of 1918 Spanish Flu Which Killed Millions
WHO Urges Countries to Prepare Against Flu Pandemic Threat
MANILA : With up to 50 million people expected to die from the next influenza pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is to convene a meeting of international experts in Geneva next week to plan how best to meet the threat, it said in a statement Thursday.
Although it cannot predict when the next pandemic will strike, the WHO said the arrival of the avian influenza or "bird flu" virus, which is now widely entrenched in Asia, signals "the world has moved closer to the next pandemic."
* * *
Estimates of the number of people expected to die from the next pandemic vary from two million to 50 million with between 20 percent and 50 percent of the world's population ultimately affected, the WHO said.
Hit the excerpt link to go directly to Flu Pandemic Report
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
Bird Flu Crossover Danger Escalates: Death Rate 73%
George Bush obviously isn't providing enough bird flu shots...
Also cannot predict the next ice age, an asteroid hit, if global warming will occur, and the end of the NHL lockout.
This should help with the Social Security demographics.
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
The end of the NHL lockout will be the last to occur. That much is certain.
Does one of those reports discuss the reason that all types of influenza outbreaks originate in China?
Something to do with their odd agricultural practices?
If I get the bird flu does that mean my wee-wee will sneeze?
bump
WHO who?
Does this bird flu news get posted 3 times every two weeks?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1290122/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1289487/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1289487/posts
Along with another dozen or so since September...
Great. Just great. Just when I saved up enough money to buy a helmet to prevent the sky from falling on my head along comes a disease to kill us all.
Um... What was that disease called again? Ebola? Mad cow? OOps, no. It's the BIRD FLU.
Doooooooomed......
APf
I wonder when this movie will come out.
Warning as bird flu crossover danger escalates
The poultry farms of Asia are the breeding ground for the avian influenza virus, which is likely to spread across species - and to the West
* * *
Sunday December 12, 2004
The Observer
Wanphen Sripirom has struggled for years to scrape a living as a subsistence farmer in Phichit province, north of Bangkok. Chickens have provided her with a lifeline that has been crucial for survival.
But last week Wanphen had to face a heart-breaking prospect: the slaughter of her brood. 'They're going to be killed tonight,' she said. It was a bitter blow, although the farmer is not alone in the privations she faces. Thousands of others across Asia have already had their livelihoods devastated because their poultry has become infected by H5N1, the bird flu virus. Tens of thousands of ducks and chickens have been infected and tens of millions have been culled this year in a bid to stop the disease spreading. Economists believe this price tag for China alone has been £31 billion. The figure for the whole of South-East Asia is double that.
Health officials are unrepentant, however, for they are desperate to stop the disease spreading - not just to other poultry but to humans. The farms of South-East Asia, where humans and animals live beside each other in tiny yards and huts, have become a vast reservoir for the H5N1 virus, and that chills not just local officials but the world's health authorities.
The planet, they believe, is poised on the brink of a new flu pandemic whose source will be the infected farm birds of Thailand, Vietnam and China.
Already 44 confirmed human cases of H5N1 infection have been documented in Thailand and Vietnam (the only countries to report human cases). Of these, 32 have died, a fatality rate of 73 per cent. No wonder the World Health Organisation and other international medical groups have become fixated about South-East Asian agriculture.
'No man is an island,' said John Oxford, professor of virology at Queen Mary Westfield school of medicine, London. 'It doesn't matter where it starts - it will be on our doorstep within 12 hours. You can't argue that it isn't our problem.'
* * *
'We are talking at least seven million (deaths), but maybe more - 10 million, 20 million and the worst case 100 million,' he said. And Shigeru was backed by Henk Bekedam, the Beijing WHO representative. 'This is a very real threat,' Bekedam told The Observer .
This is real people. Not a wierd news post or tin foil stuff. Unless you really believe that China, Russia or N. Koreans might bio-engineer a disease to solve population problems and then raise havoc over here. 'Nuff said.
That's an astounding mortality rate. Fortunately, that's still a relatively small sample, and unsustainable on a global basis.
Example: From the "Flu Hunters" I learned that farmers in Asia are really into cock fighting. Everybody in the countryside raises fighting bids. Researchers discovered that the primary way people get infected with bird flu is by following local custom. Local custom dictates that the owner of fighting birds personally cleans the air passage ways out by sucking the beaks of his birds. People in the country are not going to change overnight. Ergo: Guaranteed bird-to-human transmission of flu viruses.
People living far from the major cities travel closer regularly to bring their fighting birds. Why? Because Asians love to gamble.
Asia A is from the Big City. He goes to an open air market. There he contacts Asian Y or decides to have sex with a girl he meets Z. (Asians also are wild about sex) A goes to a hotel and has dinner with a friend B who is leaving for Toronto tomorrow.
Within 12 hours after B is exposed to Bird Flu he is sick in Toronto having landed in Vancouver. In cities V and T he infects 3 others, or a total of 6 people, before he even gets off the plane in T. By the time he even knows he is really sick, he may have infected dozens of others. When B gets to Toronto, he also may have infected pets owned by people he visited. Doggies, kitties, lions, tigers and bears catch bird flu easily. The rest I leave to your imagination.
Have a nice day. Stay safe. As for me, I'm not traveling to Asia in the near future.
From what I've read so far, the bird flu is not yet transmittable between humans. You can only catch it from animals at present.
But when it mutates slightly so that human transmission is possible, all hell could break loose.
Hopefully, that mutation will also make it less deadly, but there's certainly no guarantee of that.
I certainly will get a flu shot for this next year if at all possible. If the CDC and WHO are as concerned about this as they appear to be, they should be working overtime to ensure that the world has an adequate supply of vaccine to prevent the pandemic from occurring.
Uh oh, this is looking real bad. I'd better stock-up on Smith Bros® Cough Drops.
That's an astounding mortality rate. Fortunately, that's still a relatively small sample, and unsustainable on a global basis.
Why? There have been other pandemics with comparable mortality rates on a widescale basis. The Mesoamerican smallpox outbreaks that followed the conquistadors are a notable example.
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