Bird Flu in : ITALY, GREECE, BULGARIA

[Guest]

its finally happening. its all happening. how many years do you think we've got left before the world is in complete disorder? 2, three tops? i am most concerned for my children. I have lived somewhat of a life, but they are so young. they do not deserve to grow up in the 2nd comming of the middle ages, which WILL happen. all our computers and modern medicine will be rendered useless in this pandemic struggle.

[Guy Berger]

its finally happening. its all happening. how many years do you think we've got left before the world is in complete disorder? 2, three tops? i am most concerned for my children. I have lived somewhat of a life, but they are so young. they do not deserve to grow up in the 2nd comming of the middle ages, which WILL happen. all our computers and modern medicine will be rendered useless in this pandemic struggle.

Let's not get carried away. A global flu pandemic could be really bad, but it won't be the end of the world.

Guy

[catesta]

its finally happening. its all happening. how many years do you think we've got left before the world is in complete disorder? 2, three tops? i am most concerned for my children. I have lived somewhat of a life, but they are so young. they do not deserve to grow up in the 2nd comming of the middle ages, which WILL happen. all our computers and modern medicine will be rendered useless in this pandemic struggle.

Let's not get carried away. A global flu pandemic could be really bad, but it won't be the end of the world.

Guy

Agree.

I don't think we're quite there yet.

[Guest]

i know it wont be the end of the world- but the world still will be shutdown for an extended period. yes, human life will come out on the other end-- but the process will be hard....

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I'm getting a bit concerned too --- checked on the wine cellar and discovered that I've dipped below the 150 bottle mark....plus 4 bottles of single malt and a lone bottle of some horrible chinese booze that I'd probably use as a firestarter to douse kindling w/for cooking! Costco has Becks 5-liter mini-kegs on sale for $15, so I'm gonna get at least a dozen of those next week! That'll help us ride it out. I hope Costco has alot of Danish products in stock as well because I'm going to buy a fair share ---my way of saying ________!!!!! to some of the inhabitants of a far away region of the globe.

Edited February 12, 2006 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Mr. Gone]

I hope Costco has alot of Danish products in stock as well because I'm going to buy a fair share ---my way of saying ________!!!!! to some of the inhabitants of a far away region of the globe.

I'm sure the people in that far away region will hear you. Well, maybe those U.S. guys stationed in regions not that far away can deliver your message...

2nd comming of the middle ages

What the heck is that?

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

2nd comming of the middle ages

What the heck is that?

Edited February 12, 2006 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[Aggie87]

its finally happening. its all happening. how many years do you think we've got left before the world is in complete disorder? 2, three tops? i am most concerned for my children. I have lived somewhat of a life, but they are so young. they do not deserve to grow up in the 2nd comming of the middle ages, which WILL happen. all our computers and modern medicine will be rendered useless in this pandemic struggle.

Surely you can't be serious!

[Guest]

your attitudes demonstrate a good point: it is people like you who will most likely be infected first....

[GA Russell]

Surely you can't be serious!

Please don't call me Shirley.

Actually, I'm a believer in being prepared for this, just like for Y2K. Unlike Y2K, however, I'm not sure what sort of preparations would help. I suppose stocking up on some food for awhile so you don't have to leave the house would be beneficial, but what else?

One thing we saw in New Orleans: When the police are busy somewhere else, the looting begins.

[Aggie87]

So this plague, or bird flu, or middle ages thingie....it's selective? Picks out it's victims based on their attitudes and comments in on-line jazz bulletin boards? Maybe it should go after those in the political forums first!

[Guest]

nono dont misconstrue it even further....there is a general lack or concern right now- thats all....why do we always need tragedy to happen before people become aware.....

[sheldonm]

So this plague, or bird flu, or middle ages thingie....it's selective? Picks out it's victims based on their attitudes and comments in on-line jazz bulletin boards? Maybe it should go after those in the political forums first!

I second that motion!

[Alexander]

What purpose does panic serve? If it happens, it happens. Nothing I do is going to prevent it...

[jazzbo]

I guess the point is preparation and awareness. My wife has been really paranoid about this and right now, on chemotherapy, is vulnerable. We've been preparing a bit and I have a feeling as soon as she gets this new news there will be a quickening of the pace. . . .

[birdanddizzy]

No, that's something serious...

Edited February 12, 2006 by Steven

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

EpiSims (page 2...) at Los Alamos.

[LAL]

Here's some food for thought:

Dietary supplements and bird flu – the debate

By Stephen Daniells

24/02/2006 - As the bird flu grip on Europe increases by the day, scientists have begun to publicly debate the role of nutraceuticals as possible preventatives in the wake of news that availability of anti-viral drugs may be “too little, too late.”

At a Science Media Centre briefing on Monday 20th February, Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complimentary medicine at the University of Exeter, said that there was no scientific evidence to support the claims from natural products available on the Internet to protect against avian flu.

The products quoted by Professor Ernst included olive leaf extract, garlic, oregano oil, colloidal silver, aloe vera, Echinacea, and green tea.

“Nothing works,” Professor Ernst is quoted as saying in the Guardian newspaper (February 21st). “Nothing that is within the umbrella of complementary medicine is of demonstrable effectiveness. Journalists ought to be very cautious when they hear this or that plant kills something in a petri dish.

You'd be hard pushed to find a plant that doesn't have antiviral or antibacterial effects,” said Ernst.

This view was claimed to be “irresponsible and a danger to public health,” by Dr. Damien Downing, president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine, and medical director of the Alliance for Natural Health, an international campaign organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting natural healthcare worldwide.

“I welcomed Professor Ernst's acknowledgement of the point made by the Alliance for Natural Health over a month ago that genuine caution should be exercised when using certain herbal remedies, such as Echinacea, in bird flu, but I am amazed that Professor Ernst appears to have no knowledge of the extensive literature on the essential nature of zinc and vitamin C, for example, when the body is dealing with infections,” said Downing.

Downing says that a significant body of research backs the evidence that both zinc and vitamin C are essential for the immune system, but warned that less than ten per cent of adults in the UK have sufficient levels of zinc in their diet.

“Why is Professor Ernst ignoring the extensive evidence base on the use of nutrition to prevent and relieve viral infections?

Also, when it is self-evident that supplies of vaccines and anti-viral drugs will be too little, too late, it is alarming that no global or national health authorities have broached the subject of how people can support their immune system through the use of diet and food supplements in the event of a pandemic,” added Downing.

However, Dr. Ron Cutler from the School of Biosciences at the University of East London said that any supplement that boosted the body's immune system was bad news in relation to avian flu.

The H5N1 virus is said to stimulate the immune system, fill the lungs with blood and causes death.

The two main antiviral drugs targeted at bird flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, are said to have a window of operation of between six and 48 hours from the appearance of symptoms in humans.

The British government announced today a £33m pound contract to two pharmaceutical companies to produce 3.5bn doses of vaccine, and agreed a “sleeping contract” for a further 120m doses of the vaccine.

Also, this: Flu Protection?

My (very) dismal experience with modern medicine for various ailments leaves me inclined to go for nutritional supplements and traditional herbal medication. Too much antibiotics, steroids and the like has likely caused more harm than good, short-term cures notwithstanding - and I would absolutely refuse any so-called vaccination for this virus, if I were 'privileged' to receive one in the first place. And no, I wouldn't panic about a possible pandemic since it's out of my hands. Best I can do is to help keep those close to me in good spirits, in good health and with good hygiene .

[brownie]

From AFP:

WORLD PREPARES FOR LONG BATTLE WITH BIRD FLU

France battled the first poultry outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in the European Union and Britain predicted it would soon be hit, as world experts gathered in Paris prepared for a long, hard battle against the deadly virus.

As French health officials began vaccinating more than 700,000 domestic ducks and geese on farms in the southwest, Britain planned for a near inevitable spread of the virus.

"I would anticipate that avian flu will arrive at some point in the UK," said British chief scientific advisor Professor Sir David King, predicting that the disease would stay for at least five years.

"We are talking about the possibility of this disease being endemic here in the UK as it did in China. It is a long-term factor," he told the BBC, echoing growing expert opinion that the bird flu outbreak would get worse before it gets better.

The warning came even as the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu spread further across the world, with new confirmed or possible avian outbreaks across Europe and Africa.

Officials in Ethiopia were testing some of more than 6,000 chickens that died suddenly on a poultry farm in Endibir 175 kilometers (108 miles) southwest of the capital Addis Ababa.

A day earlier the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported the first cases in Niger, and in neighboring Nigeria -- where more than 300,000 infected fowl have already died or been slaughtered -- H5N1 was detected in two more states in the north.

In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities said 400 dead chickens were being tested for H5N1 while cases have also been reported in Egypt.

International experts in Paris, meanwhile, resumed talks Tuesday on how best to combat the disease.

Experts see vaccination as a last resort in countries with an advanced level of veterinary organization. Confinement of domestic fowl, isolation of suspect cases, surveillance and selected slaughter is still the preferred options.

An exception was requested for southwest France because it was deemed impractical to confine the region's large flocks.

The commercial repercussions of the French outbreak were driven home Monday as the trade ministry in Paris announced that some 20 countries were now banning poultry and foie gras imports from France.

Chief veterinary officers from more than 50 countries in Europe as well as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Syria began a second day of meetings at the Paris headquarters of the OIE to coordinate their response to the worsening epidemic.

OIE director-general Bernard Vallat warned that bird flu was transforming from "epidemic to pandemic".

"With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, which are not hit by bird migrations from affected areas, the rest of the world is directly exposed... Various clues have raised the fear it could contaminate the American continent," he told France's Le Monde newspaper.

Experts fear that H5N1, which has killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, may mutate into a form that can pass between humans, rather than just from bird to human, launching a pandemic that could kill millions.

Human deaths have already been recorded in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. Some 40 countries have now been hit by the H5N1 strain, which began in east Asia and spread west to Europe and Africa.

Elsewhere in Europe, Bosnia reported its first cases of H5N1 -- in two migrating swans found dead near the central town of Jajce, and a possible case was detected Tuesday in Sweden.

Germany reported flu cases in wild birds in Bavaria for the first time, and Switzerland said a first case of the broader H5 virus had been detected. A swan in Croatia also died of the disease.

H5N1 has also been detected at a poultry farm in the Krasnodar region of southwestern Russia. Russia's emergency situations ministry said 20,000 poultry had died at the farm in the last 24 hours, and 103,000 birds over the past week.

Bird flu has hit the French farming poultry industry bad and there has been a sharp drop (some 30 per cent) in domestic consumption despite the fact that it was safe to eat poultry as cooking kills the virus!

Enjoyed chicken at lunch last weekend! Planning to have more later this week!

[mikeweil]

1. Bird flu was first reported about a hundred years ago.

2. There have been flu pandemics before, some with devastating losses, but none of them has threatened the existence of mankind.

3. Modern life greatens the effect of these pandemics, mostly through 2 factors: mass animal keepings and modern travelling - both help spreading the virus.

I feel less threatened by the appearance of a few dead birds here than by the irresponsibility of people, who (in part motivated by their economic situation) try to smuggle bird meat or eat them or try to keep on with their birdkeeping as they make their living out of it. I read reports about people in Turkey throwing dead geese into the next river instead of burning them - not enough means to control people or inform them, in the first place.

This was a cold winter, higher figures of dead birds are normal to a certain extent. There probably were birds killed by bird flu in previous winters, but nobody cared to investigate.

I should be concerned, as I suffered from a serious case of bronchial asthma this winter, so my immune system might be weakened a bit. And I have concerts coming up all over Europe, including Turkey. But if you take care, chances are good that you might get away without it.

Like all the other diseases originating among animal populations in recent years, this is a signal to reconsider our ways of animal keeping. But just like with BSE, I'm afraid nothing much will happen. So whatever comes, we made it up and deserve it.

[Christiern]

They just found it in Sweden

[Hardbopjazz]

Now a cat has the bird flu..

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer

42 minutes ago

BERLIN - The deadly strain of bird flu was confirmed Tuesday in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the virus has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of the European Union.

The cat was on the northern island of Ruegen, where most of the more than 100 wild birds infected by the H5N1 strain were found, the Friedrich Loeffler institute said.

The cat was found dead over the weekend and then tested positive for H5N1, laboratory leader Thomas Mettenleiter said.

In Geneva, World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng said this was the first time she knows of an animal other than a bird being infected in Europe. Tigers and leopards were infected by H5N1 in Thailand, where they were fed chicken carcasses in a zoo.

Bird flu infections also have been confirmed in January in humans in the Asian part of Turkey. Twenty-one people in the country tested positive for the H5N1 strain, and four children died.

It is not clear whether cats can pass the disease to humans, Cheng said.

"We know that mammals can be infected by H5N1, but we don't know what this means for humans," she said.

Mettenleiter said there are no known cases of the virus moving from cats to humans, but he still cautioned pet owners on Ruegen to keep their cats inside for now.

"An infection of humans, which theoretically cannot be ruled out, could probably only occur with very intimate contact to infected animals," Mettenleiter said.

In addition to the large cats infected in Thailand, three house cats near Bangkok were found to be infected with the virus in February 2004. In that case, officials said one cat ate a dead chicken on a farm where there was a bird flu outbreak, and the virus apparently spread to the others.

The H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus was detected in a fifth German state — Bavaria, where wild birds were infected.

The Friedrich Loeffler institute determined that two wild birds found in the southern state tested positive for the strain, state officials said.

The first cases of H5N1 in Germany were found on Ruegen in mid-February.

The World Health Organization on Monday raised its official tally of human bird flu cases worldwide to 173, including 93 deaths. Almost all human deaths from bird flu have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Meanwhile, the United States has banned poultry and live bird shipments from southeast France, where H5N1 was found in turkeys, officials said Tuesday.

However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the ban applies only to Ain, not to all of France. Japan and Hong Kong have suspended imports of all French poultry.

___

Associated Press reporter Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva contributed to this report.

[birdanddizzy]

Planning to have more later this week!

I will do the same !

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/index.html

[Man with the Golden Arm]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/index.html

clicked over from the ARICian flu thread and see that this IS a political issue as the map here shows that the 1918 outbreak was a blue state thing at it's inception. And just look at this election graphic ... no doubt showing signs of avian influence!

Time to hitch up an elephant and ride west!

Edited April 23, 2006 by Man with the Golden Arm