Bird flu
 

The bird flu, and the media,
Seems the media is wishing for some outbreak to happen, Do you remember the Swine flu, caused panic among the American population brought on by the media. Jsust in case heres a refresher.
Swine_fluPeople need to stop worrieing about the bird flu
Ron

bird flu
 

The Bird Flu has seemed very deadly and has the possibility of becoming a pandemic. However, in the nations with good medical facilities the death rate of the various influenza strains is much less than in the third world. If a pandemic hits, it will hit the third world countries of South East Asia first and we will get a better idea idea just what the situation is in a few more years. I believe the Bird Flu is probably over stressed but it is probably better to be safe than sorry. However, we also must remember that we can yell "wolf" too often and cause a disaster because we have yelled "wolf" one too many times.

Keith

Ron...
 

That Swine Flu piece was an interesting reminder,
and got me thinking of just how important (or not)
that Flu Shots actually are?
Well, at least for The People taking them, anyway.

Such also got me wondering about the shortage
of Flu Shots available this year, causing MANY usually
taking same yearly,...to just go without?

Haven't heard very much (if anything) about any MORE
or GREATER amount of flu cases than usual, having
been experienced this year.
Have You?

If the people keeping records of such things actually
fessed-up, which very unlikely since BIG BUCK$ at stake
just as for many other drugs out there, and for which
proper eating and exercise would INSTEAD suffice,...
I believe the numbers would be quite enlightening.

I would bet it quite likely that we've had much fewer
cases of The Flu this year. What do you think?
Also,...do any out there know such Flu Figures?

Neil

All
 

Kieth
The bird flu is overstreesed and has a very small chance of becomming anything. However there is always a chance that you will get struck by an airplane or lightning. If the Bird flu ever goes Human to human our drug companies will be on location and begining to make vacseen the next day, There will be no need for panic but of course there will be panic. Now in third world countries there will be a real need to panic, these people will die.
The strain of common(?) flu is different each year, our government along with drug companies make a best guess as to what strain of the virous will hit the US each year and make shots for that strain. Most people that have a good imune system don't really need a flu shot, its the old and very young, or weekened immun systems that need the shot. With the bird flu, the people that got the flu die, and the media is makeing the assumtion that if the strain ever goes human to human that each person will die, That just ain't so. As it mutaites it becomes different.
Our drug companies will provide the US with a shot in the event of a bird flu outbreak between human and human, The rest of the world may not fair so well but thats there business.

Reconniel
A good place to start for sutistics is the Buro of vital satistics, Do a serch, Im sure there are numbers for what your looking for.

The bird flu is simply another way for "Big Pharma" to reap obscene profits...How many folks, outside of those that are in constant contact with the fowl of the species, have died from this ??? Not very many. Of cource, if you raised chickens for the market, this could be a problem.....

Larry

Some info on the Avian virus:

- The Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 killed 30 to 40 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans.
It was an Avian virus.

So fast did the 1918 strain overwhelm the body's natural defenses, that the usual cause of death in influenza patients---a secondary infection of lethal pneumonia---oftentimes never had a chance to establish itself. Instead, the virus caused an uncontrollable hemorrhaging that filled the lungs, and patients would drown in their own body fluids.

Not only was the Spanish Flu strikingly virulent, but it displayed an unusual preference in its choice of victims---tending to select young healthy adults over those with weakened immune systems, as in the very young, the very old, and the infirm. The normal age distribution for flu mortality was completely reversed, and had the effect of gouging from society's infrastructure the bulk of those responsible for its day to day maintenance. No wonder people thought the social order was breaking down. It very nearly did.

- The fatality rate so far for the current Avian virus is the same as for the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918...right at 50%.
That's about the same fatality rate for people who are shot point blank in the chest.

Ron's right...don't panic over what ain't happened yet.
But be aware that if it does go human to human...it ain't gonna be pretty.

I'm not as confident as Ron as far as our vaccine technology.
If it's extremely virulent, young, healthy adults can go from "no symptoms" to "dead" in 24 to 36 hours.

So far as I know the Influenza of 1918 and the bird flu are not connected. They re-created the 1918 flu in the lab from dead bodies...believe the folks that are telling you this, they would never tell a lie....

Larry

Larry,

You are correct about the lab virus.

The 1918 virus was obtained from Inuit victims who perished in the original epidemic.
That's how it was identified as an Avian virus.

I personally remember seven years ago when the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology exhumed the Inuit victims on the Seward Peninsula and obtained the samples.

Nobody's "telling" me anything. It's a matter of historical record.

I'm not worried about it. If its my time to die I will die no matter the cause.