Posted on 12/28/2006 12:40:31 PM PST by blam
Churches May be Forced to Close if Bird Flu Strikes
HEMET, CA (ANS) There are plenty of threats facing people in this world today, from high cholesterol to global terrorism. But one of the most dire threats is getting the cold shoulder from the Christian community. That threat is an avian flu pandemic. The avian flu, commonly known as the Bird Flu, is brewing in the bodies of millions of birds around the world right now, and breaking through biological barriers to kill people in places like Vietnam, Indonesia and Egypt.
DVD helps Christian families, churches prepare for Bird Flu threat As Christians, we are rather casual and careless about the problem, said Christian journalist Donald L. Hughes, producer of a new documentary called, The Bird Flu Plague, released by Theatron Films (www.TheatronFilms.com).
This abdication of responsibility is a sad thing, according to Hughes, because the Bird Flu has the potential to explode overnight and kill millions of people in a very short time. If individual Christians and local churches were prepared, we could do much to help alleviate suffering, he said.
Many Christians are cynical about the Bird Flu threat, Hughes said. They equate it to the Y2K thing, think its some kind of liberal plot, or believe God will spare them just because theyre Christians. Pundits may minimize the threat, but health officials around the world are scared silly, and we in the Christian community must take our cue from the health officials.
Hughes said, When the Bird Flu reaches pandemic levels, life as we know it will change. Even the World Bank, pretty conservative forecasters, have said they believe the Bird Flu has the potential to kill 70 million people and put a $2 trillion dent into the world economy. Local officials are likely to use quarantine laws to inhibit spread of the disease, and that means churches, along with stores, offices and factories, will be told to close.
Hughes fears that local churches will wake up to the threat too late. People think that the Bird Flu must infect poultry here in the U.S. before it spreads to people, and nothing could be further from the truth. The greatest threat is when travelers, who may not even know they are ill with the disease, bring it in on airplanes. Upon arrival they fan out to different locations and spread the disease as they go.
As winter comes, the number of Bird Flu cases is increasing around the world, both among domestic poultry and humans. Today, Viet Nam is struggling to stamp out an epidemic among domestic poultry. However, efforts by officials are being thwarted by village people who are killing diseased birds then throwing them in rivers, which has the potential to spread the disease even further.
The same thing is happening in Egypt where 3 people have died of the Bird Flu this past week. Villagers there have been hiding their poultry under beds to keep them from the hands of officials trying to eradicate the disease. Twenty cases of human infection have been identified in northern Egypt so far, and more cases and deaths are expected.
Hughes says that many in the Christian community may be failing to prepare because they may be open to criticism if the threat does not materialize. We have been reminding people to be prepared for the coming of Christ for over 2,000 years, but somehow preparing for the likelihood of an immediate threat like a Bird Flu plague is not allowed, Hughes said. If were prepared on the family level and the local church level, we will be in a position to encourage the living, minister to the dying and help the grieving. Without preparation, were going to be in the same bad situation as everyone else.
Hughes believes that the Christian community should be at the forefront of preparedness for the Bird Flu and other threats. We have produced the Bird Fu Plague documentary DVD precisely to let people know the magnitude of the threat, how the influenza spreads, and what they can do as families and as local churches to prepare. The documentary is not designed to scare anyone, but hopefully it will jolt people into reality about this issue.
In addition to the 48-minute documentary, the DVD also contains text resources including a family preparedness guide, a church preparedness guide, a Bible-based group discussion guide, steps for caring for the grieving, and a guide to sharing your faith in crisis times.
Hughes said, In 1918 there was influenza pandemic, and 25% of the U.S. population got sick and 3 million died. According to records, people got up in the morning feeling fine, began feeling sick at mid-day, and died that night. People have no concept about how lethal Type A pandemic flu can be. People think science will come up with some magic bullet to save us, but thats not likely. We need to prepare now in practical ways, and we also need to prepare our minds and hearts for a possible Bird Flu plague. Once it hits American shores the disease, or the panic, will spread so fast that opportunities to prepare will be lost.
When Noah built the ark, he probably heard similar remarks. Luckily for us, he continued, and was able to SIP (shelter-in-place) when the rains began.
In many cases yes, other times they had church out doors while wearing surgical masks.
thank you for those data.
I'm not worried yet. I don't kiss migratory birds.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/flu-like-mystery-illness-kills-22-in/20061227215209990004?cid=2194
Flu-Like Mystery Illness Kills 22 in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Dec. 28) - Indonesian health officials are investigating the deaths of 22 people from an unidentified illness characterized by high fever over a two-month period in the capital Jakarta.
Indonesian health officials, already studying bird flu cases, say the 22 victims of the illness may have been poisoned, but for now the cause of death is being listed as from a ''high fever of unknown origin."
Samples from the patients - all of whom died days after being admitted to St. Carolus hospital - have been sent to the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 2 in Jakarta, but the cause of death remained a mystery, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior health ministry official.
"We have not been able to conclude if this is or is not a new emerging disease," Kandun told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "But after experiencing both bird flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) we do not want to take any chances."
Samples were also sent to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control, another health official said on condition he not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Tests there were also inconclusive.
Kandun said the patients may have been poisoned, but for the time being the cause of death was listed as from a "high fever of unknown origin."
Most of the victims were over 40 and from middle-class residential areas near St. Carolus in central Jakarta. The hospital started reporting the deaths in October and the last death was reported on Nov. 27, he said.
Surveillance teams have visited the homes of the patients but found no additional cases and investigators also concluded that they did not get their infections from fellow patients at the hospital, Kandun said.
There are two other hospitals in the neighborhood, but they have not reported similar mysterious deaths, he said.
12/28/06 12:27 EST
An unknown right now, huh?
**Hughes believes that the Christian community should be at the forefront of preparedness for the Bird Flu....**
Rick Warren has announced a Bird Flu summit at Saddleback.
It took an entire day, a fire hose, and 6 people in Tyvek suits and masks to clean it out. After that there were very few repeat appearances but the ones who dared were offered up as a sacrifice!
Gee, and here I am, trying to find some pigeons, so that I can put a coop in my barn!
Squab, for those who haven't tasted it, is delicious, much better than any chicken you've ever tasted. Back in the '50s, my (now late) grandfather (born in the 1880s) had a coop on the roof of the apartment building where he lived, in the Bronx of all places. Every now and then, we'd dine on squab when visiting the grandparents.
Once, on a lark (pun intended!) I managed to grab a couple of baby pigeons (yes, there really are such things) and put them in a cage in my backyard, where I fattened them up, and butchered them when a friend came out to visit from Minneapolis. He was a bit squeamish at first (city kid, what do you expect?) -- until he took his first taste. After that, he dug in and enjoyed it.
(Ducking (har har) for the inevitable flames... not that I care, mind you.)
This is stupid.
Correct.
Our role, as Christians, is to shut up and die.
Naptime begins when lightning becomes an infectious disease.
With millions of people carrying the germs back with them as they return to their homes in every nation in the world after they complete their pilgrimage?
Gee, I dunno. Why don't you do the math?
I agree with you A.Hun, but I can't believe this bird flu is it. We've heard sob stories and fright stories about it for several years, yet, compared to the amount of fear mongering, not many have died.
Sounds like a way for the affected countries to receive some sort of, I don't know FUNDING to "help" stamp this out before it..GASP! Arrives here in the USA
Nope. Someone has been promised money for something, some politico has found a way to get them the money thru this false threat. It just smells.
If the Black Plague returned, politicians, statist regimes, and powermongers of every stripe would be angling for ways to cash in on it, use it to consolidate their power, and so forth. But none of that would be evidence that the disease itself was anything to scoff.
When things get crazy corrupt, it's easy to mix cause and effect, and it's easier to cynically dismiss all threats. This is not wise.
Some diseases are beyond human comprehension. Pneumonic Plague, and in some cases, even the 1918 flu, were so unthinkably horrific, that people would contract the disease in the morning, and be dead by sunset. Literally. From first symptom, to death, in less than one day.
We have lived a charmed existence in our generation. Since the end of WWII, we in the west have been living in a statistical anomoly -- relative peace, and health -- but it won't last forever.
When subected to even cursory analysis, it becomes obvious that the main reason for the confidence exuded by so many is based on the notion that "it can't happen here."
This is sheer folly -- and as such, it is by definition impossible to reason with those whose faith is based on that proposition.
I fell for the Y2K thing, and I learned not to panic at every scare story out there.
This is just another bogus attempt to frighten people.
Booga! Booga! No more church! Lets scare Grandma.
This article is pathetic.
So, kids who are miserably sick, belonging home in bed, are sent to school, where they proceed to fill the air (a classroom is NOT a Class 100 Clean Room!) with whatever disease they have, which then proceeds to spread like wildfire.
Our culture is configured as a perfect mechanism for exponential propagation of communicable diseases. Works like a charm. Don't take my word for it, ask me! I just spent two weeks sick like a dog. The fifty dollar a pill (or something in that range) antibiotic didn't work, but, the Sulfa did (doctor switched me after the first half of a double-regimen of the "expensive spread" didn't make a dent in it). Go figure.
Viral, bacterial, it doesn't matter. It will eventually beat you down until you are a walking petri dish. (Unless treated, "viral infections" will often batter me to the point that I end up with a life-threatening case of bacterial bronchitis, which is why I take antibiotics "even though they don't work for a virus.")
We have all been living on borrowed time for quite a while. It can't go on forever.
Let's see. Population is 6 billion? 70m is 1.16%.
So, if you live in a not-very-large city of 250,000, a loss of a mere 2,900 won't really matter very much? (Even of some of those 2.900 are members of your family, or your friends, co-workers, customers, suppliers, doctors, mechanics, etc?)
If that's how it works, why were people so bent out of shape when roughly that number died in a metropolitan area of roughly ten million?
Booga! Booga! No more church! Lets scare Grandma.
This article is pathetic.
Y2K wasn't as bad as the government feared it might be (nor was it as "good" as the media would have us belive it was), so, therefore, NOTHING bad can happen to us, ever!
"It Can't Happen HERE!"
(Filed under "famous last words"...)
I thought Bird Flu was no longer the pandemic de jour? .Don't we have a new disease to worry about?
I have a hard time keeping up with my worrisome diseases.
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