Bird Flu

Poor birds.

I better take my cockatiel to the vet to get one.

Am I right in understanding that there is no immunization against this form of Bird Flu?

Is there more than one strain?

How worried should we be? 

http://www.caes.uga.edu/news/kits/birdflu/

Check it out. This will give you a little more information. And you might notice I wrote one of the articles

Because the media says to. As a journalist doing a stint at a college and only four months out of a newspaper, this is my take on it. News sells. Bad news sells even better. People may say they want the human interest/fluffy stories (they do), but bad news is what gets them to buy the paper, watch TV, surf the net, etc. If there's a horrific story on the front page, that's what I'm reading first. And then it's off to the comics and food/lifestyle section for me!

If it hasn't mutated to where it can be spread human to human, not gonna lose sleep over it.

Oh, and I'm sure there's no truth to the rumors that our government is hyping the fear to distract from the POTUS' problems.

Wonder what color code/warning system they'll start using for the bird flu emergency management system...

KFC Introduces New Bird-Flu Dipping Vaccine

http://www.theonion.com/content/index

Towards the bottom of the page... lol

I'd better start training harder!

Right, so it could be a case of Chicken Little running around clucking, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling".

Or it could be a real threat.

I have a friend working in healthcare in Vietnam who has plans in place to immediately evacuate her family from the country should a pandemic break out. She's not particularly tuned into western media these days.

Is anybody on BT an epidemiologist? It'd be interesting to hear an opinion from a pro, without it going through the filter of the main stream media. ('Course it would have to go through the filter of COJ, so who knows what it would look like out the other end)

Why worry?

Well, death comes for all of us, so I guess there's really no need to worry about this kind of death over another kind.

On the other hand, given the option, I'd like to know it's coming if I could. Also like to know if there is a way to shield it from coming after my loved ones, my children in particular.

Don, it's not pandemic until the virus mutates. At this point, it is at the bird-to-human stage. Humans can't give it to other humans. When will it mutate? Maybe tomorrow, maybe 5 years from now.

Scientists seem certain that it is only a matter of time before it mutates. Then it's just a matter of time before it's all over the globe. Protect yourself as you would from any flu epidemic. Make plans to homeschool your kids if it hits the US.

watergirl, I just saw your link to articles. Thanks!

We're already planning on homeschooling our little ones because of other toxins that have hit the US.

If Asian bird flu is detected, a wide area around the outbreak will be immediately quarantined, infected birds will be humanely destroyed and disposed of in an environmentally sound way to stop the chance of any further spread.

watergirl, do you know if there are plans in place to quarantine human populations if someone contracts bird flu, whether or not it has mutated and can be tranmitted from human to human?

Didn't the POTUS talk about this a month or two back?

It would be good to know if these plans actually exist and what they look like. Given the problems at every level in the Gulf states, it may be good for everyone to have a look at what would happen if this thing actually broke out.

Raises a lot of questions.

First one I have is: Can you legally quarantine an entire city or region. What the heck would that look like? Would it be wise?

OK, how 'bout this:

Anyone who voiced concern or criticism over FEMA's handling of Katrina care to weigh in on what should be done if this thing mutates and breaks out?

The consensus seems to be that, as with Katrina, the question of a pandemic is not if it will happen but when it will happen.

How strong are our levees?

Depends on how committed you are to being a worrier.......

I've had this discussion with our agrosecurity guy - I work for the College of Ag at UGA, but am by NO MEANS ANY KIND OF EXPERT on this. So, again, legality out of the way, this is hearsay. He said it would be impossible to quarantine a large number of people. There is almost no way.

That said, remember SARS? Everybody thought it was the next pandemic. So far, I haven't seen any more news stories on that lately. West Nile also. We're due a pandemic. It will happen someday. It may or may not be the bird flu. No one really knows. Probably the best thing you could do right now is teach your children and their friends really good hygiene habits - wash hands, don't bite nails, don't eat/drink after each other, etc.

Personally, I'd be more worried about catching the regular ol' flu. Ooops, too late. Already have this season

I have been following this story since last month when they reported a case of bird flu (the bird-to-human kind) in Romania and Turkey. My sister lives in Italy with my 2 nieces so I pay attention to anything threatening Europe.

There isn't much they can do at this point. You can't wage war on a microbial terrorist.

Viruses cannot be fought with antibiotics. The feared virus does not yet exist; it has not mutated into human influenza form.

From what I've read, this flu hits the able-bodied population harder than the very young and old (different than your normal flu profile).

If a mutated human influenza were to hit, keep your kids home, wear protective masks while outdoors, wash your foods and any other purchases.

The medical/pharm community has no antibiotic or vaccine since they don't have a human influenza microbe to fight/experiment upon. It has to mutate into human influenza form before they can begin working on a drug to combat it. Our strongest drug (Tamiflu) is not entirely effective against the bird flu, it is very expensive and there is no way that Roche (the only maker of the antiviral) could keep up with 1% of US demand, much less worldwide demand for the antirviral medication.

I have noticed the chatter in the media and the government chatter regarding this topic; I've been paying attention since early/mid October.. Frankly, there's not much they can do, IMO, once the virus mutates other than to make the public aware of the severity of the flu, encourage good hygienic practices, handout face masks. It's gonna be a bumpy ride if the virus mutates.