Avian influenza spreading to new countries, migrating wild birds not only culprits

Avian influenza is spreading to many new countries. But migrating wild birds may not be the only culprits

"IN AROUND a month, bird flu has appeared in a seemingly alarming number of new countries. The disease is already endemic in the poultry flocks of much of Asia. In the face of the relentless march of the H5N1 virus around the world, fatalism is not an appropriate response. Better to look at exactly what is going on.

The arrival of bird flu in Europe and its neighbourhood has caused most of the flap, yet the cases in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Iran, Austria, Germany, France, Hungary and Croatia are only in wild birds. In Nigeria, Egypt and India, the virus has been discovered to be widely distributed across poultry flocks."

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5545392

Bad times could be ahead. Unfortunately most people remain unprepared and refuse to take the issue seriously. I guess its the way of the world today.

The world's population just reached 6.5 BILLION people, and it's still climbing.

This might sound a bit New Age, but if the Earth were a person, they would probably look at us as a malignant cancer.

Eventually, Mother Nature's going to thin the herd, and I'm hard pressed to say that we don't have it coming.

Maybe the Bird Flu is Earth's version of chemotherapy.

Re: Avian influenza spreading to new countries, migrating wild birds not only culprits

The "known" diseases and such are not the ones that worry me, so to speak. Working in the NIH (as a contractor) I usually hear about these things before the media catches on. Its the bugs that are still unknown that really scare me.

-DF

I find it amazing all you hear about is transmission via wild birds. when actual vector may also be the huge poutry trade

Yeah, it won't be the end of humanity with pandemic Bird Flu, but its impacts would affect the world for decades. If you look at 1918 casualty numbers and the world population at that time, you can just imagine the numbers with today's population. People were more physically fit then too. They had to be. You didn't see the obesity rates and such.
One doctor told me that most died from secondary infections in 1918 and that "modern antibiotics" would keep the death counts lower. Unfortunately our entire national inventory of antibiotics would not even last a week with such numbers of infected people. Most people do not believe in preparedness and will likely pay the price. Let's face it, even after 9/11 and the last two devestating hurricane seasons, people still don't get it. Most people do not stockpile the most basic short term supplies or even educate themselves on these topics. Lawlessness would be rampant with terrible consequences. Imagine if it had struck this Winter and it was as cold as last? Insufficient human resources to keep essential power, water, and fuel moving. How many people would have died, even those unafflicted?
Then the world economy would basically tank creating poverty and strife for years. Not a pretty picture. I don't know about you, but I pray every day that it never happens.

Re: Avian influenza spreading to new countries, migrating wild birds not only culprits

Am I wrong, or have a majority of the affected people ones who were drinking bird blood and eating raw meat.

fieldops said:

One doctor told me that most died from secondary infections in 1918 and that "modern antibiotics" would keep the death counts lower.

Click to expand...

Winter or summer will not matter and it's likely that this one will kill far more young and healthy than old, as did the 1918 flu.
Antibiotics will be of little value since it is the body itself reacting to the disease that kills.

"The H5N1 virus caused proteins known as cytokines to rush to infected lung tissue -- evidence of a so-called cytokine storm, an immune system overreaction that can be fatal."
Old farts like me have been sick a lot and the body tends not to cause the storms.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9994455/

And if you want to have a really nice day look up CA-MRSA which has left the hospital and is now in day care centers, health clubs and is very popular on the college campus.
A friend of mine just lost about half her foot to the little bug.
(http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/mrsa/camrsa/)

Re: Avian influenza spreading to new countries, migrating wild birds not only culprits

I watched something about this on TV, and they mentioned an aunt and mother of a girl in Thailand who became ill after caring for the girl. The girl and mother eventually both died, but the aunt survived. Based on this, some doctors believe that H5N1 had already made the leap for transmission from person to person, perhaps through bodily fluids. The only potentially good news is that most viruses become less lethal as they mutate into more infectious forms. The mortality rate of H5N1 in its original form is staggering.

My guess is if a pandemic comes more people will be killed from a breakdown in society's basic structure than from the illness itself. You'll probably have people freezing/starving to death, and also rampant looting. This will be made all the worse in cities like New York where most of the citizenry is forbidden to own firearms, and hence unable to defend against armed looters. Also, look for the health care system to be quickly overwhelmed, with many health care professionals refusing to report to work for fear of contracting the disease.

Mike Painter is precisely correct, its usually the young ones with strong immune systems that are affected. I frequent this forum almost as much as CPF. As always, you need to be uding your "filter" to take in the meaningful stuff. There is a wealth of knowledge here. Cy has a valid point too. Wild birds to poultry to very limited bird-to-human and with Turkey's outbreak, (and a little before) human-to-human. Its still not efficient human-to-human but it is getting better at it. I pray it does not happen because its effects will be devastating if it goes full human-to-human. Its really a waiting game now. Here's the forum link:

curevents.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=40

(Not too sure what Hotlinking is but I know we're not supposed to do it so just add the normal http www .....ect)

I think jtr is right in that the societal effects will be the worst in the long run. As far as Avian flu pandemic, people are sitting ducks (no joke intended). Most people in the US aren't prepared for anything, even a reliable working flashlight. It is those people who will suffer the greatest losses. I wish no harm on anyone, but this is the reality. Rioting and carnage, especially in urban areas will be horrific. People need to have supplies to hunker down and wait it out. That's all we can do. I asked my neighbor about her preparations for "sheltering in place". She replied "I don't think something like that could happen in modern day America". I said remember Katrina, that was peanuts compared to a pandemic. She said "Well, that was FEMA's fault for not helping those poor people who had nothing". I said "you mean like you". The conversation ended. Yeah, I'm real popular with her now, but at least I plan on being around for a while. Its too bad the populace has to learn by fire every 50-75 years or so.