Severe bird flu hits Europe

Reuters via The Straights Times ^ | Saturday, April 19, 2003 | Reuters

[InShanghai]

Severe bird flu hits Europe

LONDON - Europe is becoming rattled by a severe Dutch outbreak of bird flu that is infecting humans and prompting fears that a mutated version of the virus could spark a flu epidemic in people.

The Dutch Agriculture Ministry said there was a danger that bird and human flu could mix in pigs and produce a mutation that humans have no resistance against.

World Health Organisation spokesman Iain Simpson said: 'It is possible. Up to now avian flu has never acquired the ability to transmit from one person to another - if it does... it could cause a large number of infections.'

The Netherlands has been grappling to contain the month-long outbreak that has spilled into Belgium and is approaching Germany.

About 15 million out of more than 100 million birds have been slaughtered in the Netherlands as the authorities battle to suppress its spread.

The new worry is that the disease could mutate and jump to humans after several pigs were found to have antibodies to the avian flu.

The chief form of transmission is consumption of infected materials or faeces.

Mr Simpson said that any flu hybrid created would be different from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which scientists believe to have been caused by human and avian viruses mixing in Guangdong, China, and which has killed about 160 people worldwide.

The Paris-based International Animal Health Organisation (OIE) said there was no clear evidence of any risk to people.

'There is no way this could turn into a human virus like Sars,' said Mr Alex Schudel, head of OIE's scientific and technical department. -- Reuters

[InShanghai]

SARS is not flu.

As I stated in my first post:

It's not like SARS, but I'm sure the medical community will have a heck of a time trying to sort out people with SARS and the flu.

[EggsAckley]

Ah,..........."An Exaltation of Larks," by James Lipton. One of my very favorites. See Amazon for excerpts.

[Mister Baredog]

The Netherlands has been grappling to contain the month-long outbreak that has spilled into Belgium and is approaching Germany

This outbreak is probably due to the excessive amounts of "crow" being eaten lately in their populations.

[EggsAckley]

[Consort]

Collective Nouns, Terms of Venery, Nouns of Assemblage.

[Domestic Church]

We usually have hundreds of blackbirds and crows around this farmland but this past winter there were few compared to past winters. But our songbirds have returned this spring so they escaped the west nile bug.

[Domestic Church]

Isn't The Netherlands where they just exposed the monkeys to SARS in order to certify this coronavirus was indeed causing SARS? What are the odds they would in a matter of days have this new avian flu ?!

[CathyRyan]

Dr. David L. Heymann, executive director in charge of communicable diseases for W.H.O., said the agency "is 99 percent sure" that SARS is caused by the new coronavirus based on the monkey experiments in the Netherlands. Experiments on animals are necessary because the lack of an effective treatment for SARS and the relatively high death rate make it unethical to conduct such experiments on humans.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894105/posts

I did a quick check of ProMED and it looks like they have been dealing with bird flu since the beginning of March.

[per loin]

A fine site. Thanks. Only obvious one missing was "A Confedacy of Dunces".

[Mister Baredog]

Are those Iraqi artifacts on your homepage?(humor)

[per loin]

Well thanks a lot. I had thought I had this week's book buying budget in order, and then you hatch this on me.

[Consort]

And a giggle of girls and a rascal of boys. There are tons of funny collective nouns out there.

[EggsAckley]

Not "real" Iraqi artifacts, just the outpouring of the junk on my workbench. Detritus R Us!

[EggsAckley]

One of my favorite ones is one I made up:

"A cesspool of churls."

[Consort]

"A distortion of journalists"

[EggsAckley]

"A departure of pultroons."


This is a fun game. We do it all the time.

</;o)

[Consort]

"A scoop of reporters"

[EggsAckley]

"A strain of tenors."

"A shriek of sopranos."

[EggsAckley]

"A swoon of Southern Belles."

[Consort]

"A litany of Goths"