Posted on 03/12/2006 5:22:46 AM PST by Lessismore
MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - The world is one step away from a bird flu pandemic that cannot be averted by quarantine or vaccination, a Russian expert said Tuesday.
"One amino-acid replacement in the genome remains to make the virus transferable from human to human," said Dmitry Lvov, the director of a virology research institute at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.
Lvov said the pandemic virus could strike at any moment, and would most likely come from China, leading to tens of millions of human deaths, or one third of the global population. He added quarantine measures could delay the pandemic for a few days but not prevent it, and that vaccination would not stop people getting sick.
"A good vaccine will only save [people] from death and complications, but not from the illness itself," he said.
Lvov said any pandemic was based on a hybridization of the bird and human viruses.
Pigs are the most vulnerable animals in the face of both human and bird viruses, which makes them "an intermediary link between human and bird flu," he said.
Lvov said the bird flu pandemic was irreversible like any other natural cataclysm, and would not stop until the highly pathogenic strain mutates into a less dangerous one.
"When will it stop? When highly pathogenic strains localized in wild birds are once again transformed into a low-pathogenic one according to the law of nature," Lvov said.
He said all that could be done to deal with the pandemic was large amounts of vaccination, hundreds of thousands of beds in intensive care, and the necessary instruments and medicines.
Lvov also said that the bird flu virus would shortly sweep the south of central Russia, specifically the Astrakhan, Rostov-on-Don, and Volgograd Regions.
The Agriculture Ministry said Monday that bird flu had been registered in eight regions in the south of the country, a major stopover area for migrating birds.
The ministry said over 1.3 million birds had died or been slaughtered in three outbreaks of bird flu since July 2005.
I would think you'd sell a ton of these to EMTs in San Francisco...
97% of all patent applications are denied on the first pass.
I have some and only one made it on the first pass. I didn't file the patents myself or even make corrections on the 2nd pass etc, the corporate lawyers did it all after sitting with me for about 20 minutes.
Some of this discussion is covered in the thread that I linked in post #30.
The patent was a side issue. I really wanted to get the device into use.
Being low cost you could have many of them on hand for mass casualty situations. You could have a dozen patients on oxygen with the mask/bag and minimal observers could see who was breathing on their own and who needed assisted breathing. You had only to breath into the bag and your breath pushed O2 into the patient. No contact of breath of the patient to person giving ventilatons. ie no transfer of pathogens or chemicals. No removal of mask to apply a hand bag. Perfect for large sacle use.
If push comes to shove you can make them in the field by taping two O2 bags together, opposite ends. One bag discharges to the mask (the one supplied with the O2) the other bag discharge end becomes a mouth piece.
Did I say cheap too?
I think the reason the device was rejected by the manufacturer was because there was no immediate market for it. The army told me they were stretched on their research
dollars and would be interested if an outside entity spent the research money. Something I don't have. Medical research is expensive even for simple devices.
Any day now something might happen eventually even if its just higher sales this quarter for the flu vaccine.
Please send us billions of dollars to spend on this or we will all die.
I think it's heck of a good idea. I think I'd be hard pressed to render aid to someone who I suspected of having AIDS. You ought to pursue it, don't be discouraged.
Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? (Alan P. Zelicoff and Michael Bellomo)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594187/posts
Yes there are birds here in the deep woods. I don't have to interact with birds.
For those who depend on the shopping centers and walking among thousands of people a day, its a different story.
--thanks--
If (G-d forbid) this killer bug appears on our shores and I get it...
I'll use my last breath to drag myself to as many trial attorneys offices
as possible and cough, cough, cough...
How long does the virus last in bird excrement?
Just thinking about how many little green Canada goose cigars are laying around on lawns in Minnesota during the summer.
No Problemo.
I noted in reading that report that I had made a bad assumption on the means of death. I thought it was due to overheating of the brain, but reading shows its the buildup of anti-viral agents in the lungs that does the damage.
c.j. Remember when I said we may live to see Everything? Like all history repeated? This may be one of those. I skeered.
I am skeered too.
When the first case hits here, I am calling in permanently sick to work as is the main man. And we are going to get tuna and dried milk, etc. My plan is not to leave the house for six months. Hahahhaha. The main problem is if the people who run the power and water dept all drop dead. So we have a water purifier for the lake water.
****
"When you notice a cat in profound meditation
The reason, I tell you, is always the same
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name"
****
.......... and thank you for that from way back.
I love our cats...................and they love tuna.
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