I wasn't really sure whether this belonged in the Science/medicine/technology, health/fitness, or breaking news forums. I guess this story covers all three areas, so "breaking News" is where I'm posting it.
Sep 29, 2005 — By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A global flu pandemic could kill as many as 150 million people if the world fails to prepare for an expected mutation of the bird flu virus enabling it to spread from human to human, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Dr. David Nabarro of the Geneva-based World Health Organization said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked him to head up a worldwide drive to contain the current bird flu pandemic and prepare for its possible jump to humans.
If the virus spreads among humans, the quality of the world response will determine whether it ends up killing 5 million or as many as 150 million, Nabarro told a news conference.
The last flu pandemic, which broke out in 1918 at the end of World War One, killed more than 40 million people and drove home the vulnerability of a world where borders had less and less meaning, he said.
It seems very likely the H5N1 bird flu virus will soon change into a variant able to be transmitted among humans and it would be a big mistake to ignore that danger, he warned.
"I am almost certain there will be another pandemic soon," Nabarro said.
Some governments and international organizations have already started joining forces to begin preparations.
U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a plan at the United Nations this month under which global resources and expertise would be pooled to fight bird flu, and Washington is hosting an October 7-8 planning meeting.
Canada is hosting an October 25-26 meeting of high-level officials in Ottawa, and the WHO has called for a November 7-8 meeting in Geneva to coordinate needed funding.
66 DEATHS SINCE 2003
So far, the H5N1 virus has mainly infected humans who were in close contact with infected birds and has killed 66 people in four Asian nations since late 2003.
Millions of birds have been destroyed, causing estimated losses of $10 billion to $15 billion to the poultry industry, with the heaviest losses in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The virus has also been found in birds in Russia and Europe.
I just heard that horrific news one change the number is out of sync its one half of what they first said but even that is another toltal disaster for the /Scientists to face. There has been a vacine develped aND FROM l:OU dOBBS ON cNN IT IS TO BE GIVEN STRAIGHT WAY TO the needy who as always are in third world countries and poor.
Sick of this I am turning the news off and watch Jeff Corwin and Animal planet its at least more conducive to my good mental health
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
the idea of a pandemic scares the hell out of me. My son has severe asthma, and people like that do not survive these flus. I pray that the scientists and doctors put their focus on this issue.
Sick of this I am turning the news off and watch Jeff Corwin and Animal planet its at least more conducive to my good mental health
Unless Animal Planet does a series on the bird flu...
I turned on Animal Planet today and cannot remember because of trauma induced memory loss what it was about....something about animals and people and taking over the bodies....it was tres creepy.
I'm wondering: Why in the hell is there such a casual release of potentially alarming information to the public lately? I'm not saying that this should be contained and then when something happens, we say, "Oh, we knew about it, and we were working on it, but we felt that the situation was under control...", but it seems like there is a lot of free-flying news about this thing over here that could kill us, or that thing over there that could wipe out a third of the U.S. population, etc....
My thoughts on this run in two directions:
1. I'm not into living my life in fear. Being responsible and aware; yes. Living in fear of whatever possibly could take me out of the world; no. That means, I hate watching the news and I realize what it can do to those who watch too much of it. CNN is poison, and a catalyst for paranoia. I won't watch it for more than 5 minutes a week, if even that much.
2. If the virus occurs, there's very little I'd be able to do to stop it if it happens to find a way to survive in my city's climate. I still have to work, eat, sleep, be around other people, etc. I could only plan how I'd change the things I do today in order to minimize my risk of infection, but until the economy goes through a revolutionary free-for-all transformation, I'll still have to do the same things that I do now. The only really major change will be how we try to keep our daughter safe.
Another poster posted this same issue last Nov. 13, 2004. We keep hearing about this shortly after big news is over. Remember what happened last Nov 2nd?
They'll keep bringing such fear tactics into play after big news like the hurricanes is dying down....gotta fill the void somehow.
Look there are a million and one ways to kill....and only a few ways to defend yourself.
1) Stop feeding on the news...the stress alone kills.
2) Live peaceably and go about your business.
3) Trust God
and
#4) Don't get vaccines for manmade diseases. There is a reason for such bird flus....the population is out of control....we cannot live on the resources available...and a few people are losing profits based on paying out to poor and massive populations. If I were a betting woman, I'd say this bird flu came out of a biowarfare lab somewhere...and the vaccine won't be any better. The vaccine could very easily target a certain blood type, whatever and boom! you're gone before you can say, "How'd you like it?"
Told ya, there are a million and one ways to kill...just relax and enjoy your life....while you still got it.
It might happen it might not we have been warned about the possibility of a world wide pandemic since the first SARS outbreak still has not happend now that is either because we have been careful, lucky personally I think it is a little of both. Most government are now stockpiling vaccines that do work and there are other cintingency plans that all goverments will have had and will be currently reviewing.
If it's gonna happen it's gonna happen and the only thing you can do is try and survive because if it gets real bad then you are on your own I can guarntee it.
Sierradaddy said this in post #5 : I've heard about this a few weeks ago...
I'm wondering: Why in the hell is there such a casual release of potentially alarming information to the public lately? I'm not saying that this should be contained and then when something happens, we say, "Oh, we knew about it, and we were working on it, but we felt that the situation was under control...", but it seems like there is a lot of free-flying news about this thing over here that could kill us, or that thing over there that could wipe out a third of the U.S. population, etc....
My thoughts on this run in two directions:
1. I'm not into living my life in fear. Being responsible and aware; yes. Living in fear of whatever possibly could take me out of the world; no. That means, I hate watching the news and I realize what it can do to those who watch too much of it. CNN is poison, and a catalyst for paranoia. I won't watch it for more than 5 minutes a week, if even that much.
2. If the virus occurs, there's very little I'd be able to do to stop it if it happens to find a way to survive in my city's climate. I still have to work, eat, sleep, be around other people, etc. I could only plan how I'd change the things I do today in order to minimize my risk of infection, but until the economy goes through a revolutionary free-for-all transformation, I'll still have to do the same things that I do now. The only really major change will be how we try to keep our daughter safe.
I hate CNN.
Hey Puff Daddy we have suviorlist who lives in the apartment below our house. He can do a Mcgyver forr us with a string of hemp bow and arrow and a lot of canibus growing wild i n his garden. Sounds like if you got to go do it right doncha think darn bird flue why "Allen" would have an answer for us.However he is far too strange for me to ask him anything
But watching him make a long string of jute is a workof art(yeah)
D I can not take CNN anymore either or Fox or any darn staion that thrives on showing the misery Katrina and Rita have wrought. I just leave the room and come back to my computer and vent to you all
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
Unless Animal Planet does a series on the bird flu...
I turned on Animal Planet today and cannot remember because of trauma induced memory loss what it was about....something about animals and people and taking over the bodies....it was tres creepy.
And then Whidden's dead gopher really did me in.
I have ;eriods of Lost time, this helps me cope
The Way it is has left IR for good
Her sensory perceptions combined with the lackof interest in her threads pushed her right out
I am, working on her as I think it will be a big loss for our IR family
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
Her sensory perceptions combined with the lackof interest in her threads pushed her right out
I am, working on her as I think it will be a big loss for our IR family
D
Delta,
Nothing pushed me away. I have always taken the road less traveled by, so finding an adequate amount of mental stimulation has always been a bit of a challenge for me. If people aren't into discussing the things that I am into discussing, I can accept that it is just time for me to move on.
Similarly, I haven't contributed to a lot of other people's threads because the subjects just don't capture my interest or hold my attention. If anything, I can thank INReview for providing an outlet for me to work some of my frustrations out for over a year now. I was in a huge transitional period in life since early 2004. I even managed to figure some things out during my time here.
The barricade that was blocking my road has been torn down, so it is time for me to get back on the road. I will still check in every once in a while, and if the spirit moves me, I will post something.
There are no hard feelings. It is just simply time to move on.
To keep the thread on topic, I will say that a mysterious virus has killed six Toronto nursing home residents, and over 68 more have fallen ill. SARS, influenza and the avian flu have been ruled out, but health officials are trying to figure out what the virus is.
Here we go again. I suppose the GTA and surrounding areas will have to wear masks, and take the same precautions we took with the SARS outbreak if this unidentified virus keeps spreading.
Several wild birds carrying H5 flu viruses have been found in Quebec and Manitoba, officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Monday.
"Preliminary testing has identified H5 influenza in 28 samples from Quebec, and five from Manitoba," Jim Clark of the CFIA told a news conference.
However, officials don't know yet if the birds have the lethal H5N1 subtype of the avian flu; there are believed to be nine different H5 subtypes.
And he noted that the virus does not appear to be killing the birds.
"The evidence we have observed strongly indicates that these healthy birds were not infected with the same virus that is currently present in Asia," he said.
Health officials in Winnipeg conducting tests on the H5-infected birds won't know whether they have H5N1 until mid-week.
The birds are believed to be among thousands that have been tested in Canada.
Even if the Canadian birds are carrying the H5N1 virus, it does not mean they are necessarily related to the viruses behind the poultry outbreaks in southeast Asia.
"It is important to clarify that the avian influenza virus is not new to wild birds," Clark said. "Experts worldwide know that this virus, in one form or another, has circulated among wild birds around the world for hundreds, or perhaps even for thousands of years."
Indeed, it's not the first time that avian viruses have been found in North America. For more than a decade, parts of Mexico suffered through an outbreak of the H5N2 avian flu in poultry operations.
And last year in Canada, testing revealed that the avian flu found on a goose and duck farm near Abbotsford, B.C. was not the deadly H5 variety. Instead, the CFIA said that the 37,000 geese on the Fraser Valley Duck and Goose Ltd. farm were exposed to the H6 avian influenza virus.
The outbreak caused no major human health problems, but forced the culling of some 16 million poultry.
So far, the outbreaks in Asia have infected 121 people and caused more than 60 deaths in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia.
With the strain crawling through Europe as migrating fowl fly westward, there are mounting fears that the virus could mutate into one that can easily spread among humans and thus prompt a global pandemic.
Earlier in the month, Australia lifted a ban on live bird imports from Canada, after officials in Ottawa provided compelling evidence proving the country was free of H5N1.
Australian officials announced the ban after three imported racing pigeons from Canada tested positive for bird flu antibodies. The pigeons, which were later destroyed, tested positive for bird flu antibodies while being held in quarantine in the southern city of Melbourne.
That means the three birds weren't infected with avian flu, but rather that they had fought off a previous infection.
Antibodies help strengthen the immune system and, unlike the viruses they fight, aren't infectious.
Tell them to get the right information or Shut the Hell up
Now its my turn
D (I am hardly a racist but I am sick to death of having to Push 1 for english. Everytime I call anyone say like credit card Companies i always Press one for English.
Hell they are the racists if Ihave to listren to Espanol Spanish why don't they inlude the rest of Americans? We are a poporri of ethnic backgrouunds.
I am filing suit cause they don't include French or Islam or Muslim or the rest of Americans. Shut the Hell up. How many Spanish peeps are you all going to find in Nashville Tenn?
Then while I am venting ,why do they make us enter our credit card numbers before they even ask us if we want to speak Spainish or English . Finally get a real person on the damn phone and the first thing they ask is what is your credit card number? What is your favorite pets name, What is your great
Aunt"s three times removed nickname
What the hell is wrong with you all. I know they trace and "may record this conversation" every minute so why can't they keep track of my number. Its so darn tiny Ihave to change glasses three times to read the "security # on the back.
These people whom are happy to take our money each month and thats fair but get it straight My name is not spelled like Perry Como. It is not co max or comeoou. How aBOUT ME GOING TO THE LAWYER AND HAVING IT CHANGED TO JONES?
-
Then peeps would say Jone - es Oh all of you "Customer Service Reps need a course in serving the costumer. I would say so
SHUTTHEHELLUP--- tOO FAST FOR YOU? SHUT.... THE .... HELL.... UP!
D
d
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
09-30-2005 04:12 PM
(I am hardly a racist but I am sick to death of having to Push 1 for english. Everytime I call anyone say like credit card Companies i always Press one for English.
