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Millions at risk: WHO warns of avian flu pandemic....

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Media_Lies_Daily

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:13 PM
Original message

Millions at risk: WHO warns of avian flu pandemic....

Millions at risk: WHO warns of avian flu pandemic
By Connie Levett, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok
March 5, 2005

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Millions-at-risk-WHO-warns-of-avian-flu-pandemic/2005/03/04/1109700677389.html?oneclick=true>

QUOTE:

"The world is in danger from an avian flu pandemic, and tens of millions may die, the World Health Organisation has warned.

After a brief remission, scientists are again sounding the alarm on the influenza A (H5N1) virus, Z strain.

'The world is in the gravest possible danger of a global pandemic,' Dr Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, told a bird flu conference in Vietnam. Just a year ago WHO dismissed such a threat."

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ClintonTyree

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:25 PM
Response to Original message

1. Link requires registration.................

but from the info in your post, I'm going to have to wear the gas mask to the supermarket from now on I guess.

Maybe this is bush's plan for saving Social Security? :shrug:

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asjr

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:35 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. Hey! You may very well be right. It would do more damage

to those of us over 65. We will not be able to fight it off as easily as the youth.

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Hoping4Change

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:34 PM
Response to Reply #3

10. Actually many of the victims who died from the Spanish Flu were

young people. Age offered no protection.

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BigBearJohn

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:04 PM
Response to Reply #1

7. Try this link

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Millions-at-risk-WHO-warns-of-avian-flu-pandemic/2005/03/04/1109700677389.html?oneclick=true#

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Junkdrawer

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:47 PM
Response to Reply #7

13. I got another reg notice, but this link worked...

http://news.google.com/news?q=Millions%20at%20risk%3A%20WHO%20warns%20of%20avian%20flu%20pandemic&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wn

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pie

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:33 PM
Response to Original message

2. What the hell!

SARS killed about fifty people last year, right?
Tens of millions is a long way from 50.
What kind of flu kills that many people?
Is this a misprint or what:freak:

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Divernan

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:46 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. It was called the Spanish Flu

Fall of 1918. As WWI was winding down, something far worse was sweeping through the battlefields, military hospitals and cities of western Europe. It was known as the Spanish Flu, and in the soldiers returning home following the armistice of November 11th, this virus found the perfect vector for global dissemination. (and this was before the days of international air travel. Every single person in the world is now connected by three or less commercial flights).

In the winter of 1918-1919, this mutated influenza virus killed TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE. Which in today's terms is the equivalent of eighty million dead in less than six months.

For reasons unknown, this virus selectively killed healthy young adults. People would go to bed at night and not wake up the next morning. The 1919 Stanley Cup had to be halted because two of the Montreal Maroons dropped dead in middle of the series.

The Spanish Flu represented a brand new genre of the flu virus. Viruses mutate, and up until 1919, every 40 years, the latest version of a new and devastating virus would surface.

The odd thing is that since the Spanish Flu, we haven't seen a pandemic in over 80 years. So a killer flu is way overdue.

For this and other background information on pandemics, read the new novel, Pandemic, by Daniel Kalla, a Canadian ER doc.

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yorkiemommie1

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Fri Mar-04-05 03:50 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. my uncle in hawaii died of the spanish flu

... this is scary.

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pie

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:03 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. I honestly have never heard of the Spanish Flu

And I certainly did not realize it killed 20 million people.
That sounds reminiscent of TB.

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Hoping4Change

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #6

9. In 1918 the tens of thousands of soldiers returning home

from WWI hastened and widened its transmission. Nowadays tens of thousands travel across the globe in a day so a virsus can be transmitted at an accelerated rate which is what happened with SARS (a doctor attended a medical conference in a southern China city caught the virsus than flew back to Canada before he had any symptoms). The rest is history. However unlike the flu, SARS was relatively difficult to transmit from person to person, that unfortunately isn't the case for flu.

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iamjoy

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Fri Mar-04-05 06:25 PM
Response to Reply #9

18. The Bird Flu Is So Far Different

than most influenza. It is believed all people who got sick were exposed by direct contact with the infected bird, although there are rumors of a case of person-to-person transmittal.

The concern is if this mutates to where it is as contagious as most flu viruses it would be a pandemic like nothing the world has seen before.

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Hoping4Change

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Fri Mar-04-05 07:36 PM
Response to Reply #18

20. Actually the Spanish Flu was the same thing in that it was a virsus

that hopped species and since humans had never been exposed to it no one had immunity against it. The reason why bird flu is such a concern is that modern transportation will enable this dangerous virus to spread at untold speed.

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RaleighNCDUer

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Fri Mar-04-05 05:39 PM
Response to Reply #6

15. That's 20 million, in an age of poor communication.

It's very possible that the real total was twice that, reaching into central asia and africa. It is thought that Africa wasn't hit hard, but it is real hard to know, for certain.

Most of the known deaths were in Europe and the Americas.

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Boomer

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #4

8. Check out your local cemetery

Once you know what to look for, you'll find a heartbreaking record of the Spanish Flu in the dates written on grave stones. Entire familes wiped out in the same year.

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justsomegirl

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Fri Mar-04-05 06:11 PM
Response to Reply #4

16. Another book recommendation

Another book that focuses soley on the 1918 pandemic and the attempt to locate a surviving sample of the virus for study is called FLU by Gina Kolata. Full title: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It

Compelling, if scary, reading.

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pie

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Fri Mar-04-05 08:10 PM
Response to Reply #16

21. I don't usually read books like that but sounds good

and perhaps timely

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Hoping4Change

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:41 PM
Response to Original message

11. Nearly 140 million birds have been slaughtered or died

Nearly 140 million birds have been slaughtered or died in the Asian epidemic, and the financial cost is already up to $10 billion, according to some estimates.

Domenech said affected countries will need hundreds of millions of dollars from donors to sustain a prolonged fight against the disease.

Host Vietnam, where bird flu resurfaced in 35 of 64 provinces, has ramped up surveillance systems and imposed tough restrictions on poultry movements.

But like many poor countries hit by bird flu, it has limited knowledge of the virus, its veterinary staff need training and its labs are poorly equipped.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/02/23/asias_bird_flu_here_to_stay_fao_says_1109136795/

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Hoping4Change

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Fri Mar-04-05 04:46 PM
Response to Reply #11

12. Vietnam Appeals for Help in Bird Flu Fight

"We are afraid that this might be a watershed moment," WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said in Manila.

Vietnam said on Thursday it has appealed for international help in its desperate battle against a rapidly spreading outbreak of bird flu which has killed 13 people in the past month and may have crossed into Cambodia.

The WHO already fears the virus may have reappeared in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, all poor countries where surveillance systems are weak at best.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/02/03/vietnam_appeals_for_help_in_bird_flu_fight/

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Media_Lies_Daily

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Fri Mar-04-05 05:26 PM
Response to Original message

14. 75% lethality rate....almost sounds as bad as the flu virus in....

...King's book "The Stand".

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dandrhesse

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Fri Mar-04-05 06:24 PM
Response to Reply #14

17. back in the mid 80's does anyone remember a very deadly flu that swept

Southern California? I remember that a co-worker got a call at her desk and either collasped or fainted as she had gotten news that her sister who was in her early twenties had died of the flu. The woman I worked with had just left her that morning, her sister was feeling lousy but there was no indication that it was a dire emergency.

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NNN0LHI

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Fri Mar-04-05 06:34 PM
Response to Original message

19. What do they do? Just change the dates on these stories and run them?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=386158

rodbarnett (577 posts) Thu Feb-26-04 09:55 AM
Original message

WHO warns of bird flu pandemic

By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok
Published: February 26 2004 12:07 | Last Updated: February 26 2004 12:07

United Nations health experts warned Thursday the bird flu virus that has decimated Asian poultry stocks remained a serious human health threat, and conditions were "ripe" for the virus to mutate into a form that could spread easily between people.

"The avian flu epidemic is not yet under control," Dr. Bjorn Melgaard, the World Health Organization representative to Thailand, said at a regional meeting in Bangkok to assess Asia's battle against the disease. "As some outbreaks are eliminated, others erupt."

The World Health Organization's worst fear is that the virus will change into a form that can pass quickly from person to person, creating a major pandemic. While there is so evidence that has so far happened, Mr Melgaard warns there was no room for complacency.

"The threat to human health will last as long as avian influenza persists in the environment," he said. "Conditions in affected countries and elsewhere are ripe for the emergence of ...a pandemic strain of the influenza virus."

Nearly 100 million birds have died or been culled in recent weeks as part of the effort to contain and eliminate the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu. But the late start in the region's efforts to combat the disease - which is believed to have hit some countries late last year - allowed the virus to spread widely, making the eradication task more difficult.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.co...

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Replies to this thread:

Yeah Yeah.... MrSoundAndVision Feb-26-04 10:08 AM #1
Probably too late in this season for such a thing, but next year? yikes nolabels Feb-26-04 10:46 AM #2

MrSoundAndVision (879 posts) Thu Feb-26-04 10:08 AM
Response to Original message

1. Yeah Yeah....

The Virus of the Century of the Week

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depakid

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Fri Mar-04-05 08:28 PM
Response to Original message

22. They have the figures wrong on Ebola & Rabies

Both those pathogens have over a 90% case fatality rate- not 50%. That must have been a typo.

In fact, untreated rabies is so virulent that to my knowledge, only two people (at least in the US) have ever survived.

The key point in the article:

Dr Dowell said: "This virus is bad news in almost any way you can think of, except for ... it's highly pathogenic in a whole range of animals including humans, it causes severe disease and death, and it affects a whole range of organs not just the lungs."

Because it attacks other organs and doesn't match the standard influenza symptomology, it's difficult to do accurate surveillance, even where public health authorities are being diligent. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study last week Raising this concern.

Since the disease is hard to recognize, it is also hard to isolate and contain. Should it retain these characteristics (which it may or may not) after becoming highly contagious, the public health implications would be difficult to understate.

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midnight armadillo

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Fri Mar-04-05 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #22

23. "They have the figures wrong on Ebola & Rabies"

There's a few varieties of Ebola, the worst of which has the 90+% death rate. The four varieties are described at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola#Ebola.26ndash.3BZa.EFre

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