bitt, I can't thank you enough. I asked you to do this so I could take the lately extraordinary step of notifying everyone of this series of CFR articles linked in your post
2127.
This is a very long read, but the information is excellent. If anyone recalls, the CFR had an excellent article last summer on avian flu, as well.
Thanks for the ping.
REALLY scary stuff.
Two things concerned me about the conference. One was my overall impression of the meeting. It appeared to me as a layman that most of the participants were really not up to speed about the H5N1 virus. Some of the questions appeared to be totally inane or off the wall.
The second thing that concerned me is the open admission about human transmission of the avian flu. The experts leading the conference admitted H5N1 has been transmitted from person to person. But they chose to focus on the issue of "sustained transmissibilty."
The fact remains the U.N./WHO has not been permitted into avian flu hot spots in China. Military quarantine has been ordered in some regions by Beijing. Which means the experts are debating medical issues in a vacuum.
The experts appear to be discussing using antivirals on both birds and humans. They were switching back and forth at times. I found it most disconcerting. A brief excerpt from the conference transcript:
In the bird population, we've had resistance to the virus by using [antiviral medication] indiscriminately in that case. Oseltamivir ["Tamiflu"}and the other neuraminidase inhibitors basically prevent the virus from being released from the cell. So basically you want to use it in a situation where you want to reduce the potential for spread and reduce the disease. [My comment: In HUMANS !]. It has been shown to reduce severity of symptoms by a day, half a day in terms of treatment, but more importantly, it's really shown that it's been a protective effect -- (inaudible) -- have actually been exposed to the virus.So it appears to me that the experts are saying that Tamiflu will not help someone who has been infected with H5N1. But it may help to protect other family members or persons in close contact with infected persons. In other words, it may help protect medical personnel.(Audio break.)
SUAREZ: Is there a scenario where you can actually make things work by self-prescribing and self-medicating with preparations like that?
WOLINSKY: Absolutely. When we have family clusters, if the -- if one member of the family is actually infected, and we have a number of family members that we want to protect against infection, we don't want to give the drug to the person who's actually infected, believe it or not. We give it to the other family members. If we give it to the person who's infected, it has a high amount of virus replication, and a lot of virus is being put out by -- through respiratory secretions. The chance of getting resistance in that person is very high, and then we lose the protective effect in the other family members.
This is very strange. Because Tamiflu is intended to be used by persons after they have been exposed to the flu. I concluded from my reading, that if you are exposed and begin to show symptoms, taking Tamiflu is useless. I also concluded that medical staff may be required to eat Tamiflu tablets like candy.
No a very hopeful picture being presented at all.