Do you think the federal government has prepared us for the global pandemic of bird flu.?
100917
No. I don't believe any country is prepared.  Vaccine will be given to VIPs and first responders, the immuno-compromised people, thgen the general population, if past history is any indicator.
225340
Yes i am worried. people are GOING to die, if we don't take the proper precautions, i am going to Austria in may 2006, where the bird flu is, and i am really freaked out. Can anyone help me with this.
496002
I'll take you points in sequence:\n\n1) No one, government or otherwise, can protect anyone from this flu __IF__ it mutates and becomes contagious in people. For reasons which are not clear, most flu viruses are highly contagious; if this is one, after it leans how to infect humans, there will be no possible quarantine which can possibly have any effect. The Hong Kong flu jumped from Hong Kong (where it was first seen) to the East Coast of the United States, without much of a progression across the Pacific nor in the other direction through Asia and Europe and across the Atlantic. No one knows how. Nor do we know in any other case of pandemic flu spread. And it spread more or less everywhere else too. If this virus, after it becomes readily infective in humans, is that contagious, it will be everywhere eespite anything anyone, or any government, can do. \n\nThe only known way to protect anyone from such a virus is with a vaccine, and until the mutation of the existing virus so it can infect humans easily, there is no way to build a vaccine. Not against a virus which doesn't yet exist. \n\n2) the Tamiflu shot isn't all that effective against regular flu. It decreases symptoms some, but is hardly a cure. Or much protection either. And the same is true for the only other drug we have which has any effect on teh usual flu. No one really knows whether either of these will make any difference to people infected with this H5N1 strain of avian flu if it makes the jump to contagiousness in humans. \n\n3) There is no vaccine now, so there's no vaccine to made available to anyone. Or withold from anyone either. There is a vaccine against the bird flu that currently exists, but that virus is hardly a danger to anyone except chickens and other birds. More folks die from falls every day than this virus has killed in the last decade. Of the 200 some folks known to have been infected with it, more than half have died, which is a very serious mortality rate. But thst's over ten years in countries all over the globe. This virus is not, as things stand today, a threat to humans anywhere, except economically to those who raise poultry or who depend on wild birds of some kind. \n\n4) Experience with pandemics and other things in our species' past does NOT support your claim that we will all die if this flu arrives. Thus far, no disease has managed to kill everybody; we all do, after all, have ancestors who survived. The Black Plague, which is perhaps the worst sudden plague we've experienced (and that's historically documented) killed between 20% or 35% of the population of Western Europe over a couple of decades once it appeared in this or that area of Europe. England has the best surviving records and teh toll might have been a few percent higher there. This was and is a disease of rodents (and their fleas) in the Eastern Asian steppes and had never been seen in Europe until it was brought West with Genghis Khan's armies. Only it traveled fast enough that a flareup of plague woulnd't burn out before the next stop. That plague is now endemic in the Western North American plains and we know that it arrived by ship from China in the late 1800s. Some scholars even think they know the name o fhte ship. It's been spreading across the Plains ever since. Gophers and prairie dogs are the resevoir here. \n\nAnother example of a disease encountering an immunologically naive human population is smallpox. It is quite contagious, and quite deadly even amongst those descended from survivors. Among those whose ancestors had not encountered it, smallpox is more than terrifying. It was the secret weapon that accompanied Cortes into Mexico and which allowed him (with a couple of hundred men) to defeat the large and organized military Aztec empire. Even so, it didn't kill every one. Tuberculosis was also new to Native Americans, and has been especially deadly when it infects them. In fact, many generations later, it i
1081587
I work in the health field, and people are already asking if we have the vaccine yet. As far as I know, there won't be any vaccine until maybe six weeks after the virus mutates to human-human transmission, because they can't even make one until then.  Even then there will only be a few million doses. So, being that I'm part of  the first line of patient contact, we'll probably be wearing masks, triaging people through the back door of the clinic, and most likely have a quarantined waiting area. That is, if it ever happens. \nRegarding the family who all came down with the flu and seven of the eight members died -- weren't they all hanging around the same chickens? Doesn't mean it was human to human.
1040019
Curing this flu is no easy matter, avian influenza is so deadly that it is right behind anthrax on the bio-defense list, as a possible terrorist weapon. There are two ways to try to dodge the flu. One is to kill all infected birds. The other is to develop a vaccine before the disease shifts. Because this strain requires four times the usual vaccine dosage it is impossible to produce the 600 million doses our population needs. Current supplies could provide vaccine for 15 million people; that’s only 5% of our population. Accumulated data paints such a frightening pathogenic picture that WHO issued an urgent warning that a flu pandemic could affect billions of people worldwide. Billions because, unlike our annual flu outbreaks, everyone is vulnerable, regardless of age or health. To make matters worse,in Germany, on February 26, 2006, the virus demonstrated its adaptability when a domestic cat  was found dead from  avian influenza. A few days later, an infected stone marten was discovered. This shows us that the virus is changing. Last week it was believed that 6 members of an Indonesian family had all died of avian flu, which could indicate that the virus can now spread through human to human contagion. If a pandemic does strike we will immediately lose 40% of the country's work force. President Bush got less than half of the $7.1 billion he asked for to fight this flu. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist warned Americans that state and federal authorities are "woefully underprepared" to enforce quarantine provisions and distribute medicine, food, and other vital supplies in response to an avian flu pandemic. There isn’t medical equipment or staff enough to handle this outbreak. There are pitifully few ventilators and not enough coffins or cemeteries to bury the dead.  Perhaps as many as 1.7 million Amjericans  will die as the flu cycles through our country.Bush has said he will deploy the U.S. military to enforce a quarantine on areas where infection is found. Well, that’s just ridiculous. Where will the manpower come from? \nThere really isn’t a good solution to the problem. There isn’t enough vaccine; people are going to die. Remember birds distribute the virus through their fluids and feces so watch where you step and stay clear of ducks, they are carriers of the virus but are unaffected by it.  So the best bet is to stock up on water, canned foods and Tamiflu, stay in your own home, limit visitors severely, watch over your old folks and the infants and keep them as washed up as possible, wash your own hands often and pray. But be careful what you pray for … this flu might never be a problem ... it could be some other strain of man-killer flu entirely.
285043
I have heard stories of killer bees being a huge threat, a huge flu season for the last three years, so I'm a little skeptical about this bird flu.\n\nThat being said having an emergency plan for any contingency is ALWAYS a good thing.  The old Boy Scout motto of being alway prepared comes to mind
269756
As of now, several answers to your questions are unknown. While this disease has been in the news for quite a while, it is still a new disease, and we don't know much about it yet. Only time will tell what is going to happen, and what the effects of this disease are.\n\nHere is what is known about it:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_flu
142970
No, I don't think so.  My understanding is you would have to be living in very close surroundings with poultry that have the virus, or in close contact with live birds.\n\nHowever, I guess we'll be discovering new stuff about bird flu for years to come.
1182174
Its real, but its a non-issue.\n\nBird flu is just BS by the Bush administration to distract people's attention away from the war in Iraq. Its not contageous among people. You have to be exposed to the dander of an infected bird.\n\nREALITY CHECK: Since 1998 when bird flu was discovered in Hong Kong......\n... About 100 people died from bird flu.\n... About 3,000,000 people died from regular flu.\n\nSo which flu do we need to worry about the most?
206453
Actually, the bird flu is a pandemic, and it sort of could be a plague if it spreads more
106602
I am afraid that the virus that causes bird flu will mutate and become airborne. That would be like the black plague. However, as of now, there is no need to panic. Even when the disease enters the US, for as long as there is no human to human transfer, just fowl to human, there is no need to panic. Just like any virus, the disease is self-limiting. What we have to do to prevent it is to boost our immune system and keep our bodies healthy
521591
UPDATED The H5N1 strain of influenza - often referred to as bird flu - is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans\n\nin 1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected. Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the potential to kill billions.\n\nFlu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks. The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to persist.\n\nBut sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to. In chickens - originally a forest bird and not a natural host - it causes a moderate disease but can readily mutate to a more severe, highly pathogenic strain. Just such a strain of H5N1 flu, named after its surface proteins, began rampaging through large chicken farms in east Asia sometime before 2003.\n\nThat was of concern because, in 1997, scientists found for the first time that H5 flu could infect humans. It was found in 18 people, six of whom died. All the poultry in Hong Kong were destroyed to stop the threat. But it continued to circulate, especially in China.\n\nThere were further human cases in China in 2003. Then in early 2004 Vietnam reported widespread poultry outbreaks and some human cases. After initial denials, Cambodia and Thailand admitted they had outbreaks too, followed by Indonesia, then China. That was immediately after China had denied a New Scientist report that scientists strongly suspected Chinese outbreaks.\n\nThe infection also reached Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, but mass culling stopped it spreading there. But outbreaks continued in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, where the virus persisted, most probably in ducks. In 2005, China and Indonesia reported their first human cases.\n\nEuropean invasion\nIn summer 2005 the virus swept across birds in Russia and Kazakhstan, reaching the Ukraine by January 2006. However, there were no reported human c ases outside East Asia until December 2005. Then, the virus suddenly appeared in poultry all over Turkey accompanied by the fastest upsurge in human cases yet seen.\n\nBut scientists insisted that the virus’s arrival in Europe did not pose a greater threat of a pandemic than its continued spread in Asia.\n\nAttempts to blame the rapid spread of the virus in the Far East on wild birds were discounted early on, so efforts to explain its spread across Eurasia in that way were greeted with suspicion. But in May 2005, thousands of geese died of H5N1 at Qinghai Lake in north-central China. The virus was very similar to isolated samples from southeast China, showing, despite official denials, that it originated there. But it had distinctive differences. This same strain then turned up in H5N1 isolates from poultry and wild birds across Russia, Turkey and Romania, suggesting that this time it probably was being carried by wild birds.\n\nMeanwhile east Asian H5N1 turned up in imported Taiwanese birds in quarantine in Britain. This, combined with a near-miss with infected eagles smuggled into Belgium, led to a European clamp-down on wild bird imports.\n\nThe virulent strain could to revert to a relatively harmless wild type in wild birds. However, while it is there, it could be carried to poultry far and wide. It has now reached Africa - where it is feared it could run riot. Wild birds are also implicated in its spread across Europe.\n\nYet governments resisted repeated UN calls for money to eradicate the poultry infection in poor countries. The World Bank renewed calls for such aid in early 2006, while all afflicted countries struggled to s
146647
Where we are: Since 2004 some 170 humans have been infected with bird flu, with about 90 fatalities, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.\n\nBackground: With the flu spreading around the world, the virus has turned up in birds in Asia and Europe, and, most recently, Africa. So far, bird flu has only been passed from birds either to other birds or, in isolated cases, to humans. However, if the flu mutates into a strain that can pass from human to human, people will have no immunity and the flu will probably pass rapidly from person to person, creating a pandemic. Flu vaccines can only be made to protect against a particular virus, and, since the virus has yet to be passed from human to human, no vaccine can be developed.\n\nIn Asia, many people live with ducks and chickens in their homes and in their yards. Health and veterinary officials worldwide recently announced that a key way to stop the spread of the disease is to improve farming practices, segregating poultry from humans, and culling birds that have been infected with the deadly virus.\n\nWhat's next? When asked for predictions as to the seriousness of the pandemic, should one occur, experts have based their projections on a similar pandemic that occurred in 1918-1919. Up to a billion people fell ill, and nearly 100 million died worldwide. Translating to today's figures, they project that some 30-60 percent of the world's population could be infected by the virus, and over 300 million people worldwide could die. In the meantime, good hygiene remains the best prevention: keep hands well-washed, and avoid contact with people who have been infected with the virus.
238157
I believe they are recommending at least a two week supply of nonperishable food items.  If there is an outbreak, you won't be wanting to go outside for a while.\n\nGeneral info here: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/\n\nPlanning for pandemic influenza is critical. To assist you in your efforts, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed the following checklist. It identifies important, specific activities you can do now to prepare. Many are specific to pandemic influenza, but a number also pertain to any public health emergency.  Download the State and Local Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/statelocalchecklist.html
349972
Negative. They worry that they won't be able to make large quantities of bird flu vaccine because the vaccine is made in chicken eggs, and the flu kills the embryos.
623472
Here's what's recommended for the bird flu -\n\nface masks\ngloves\na complete medical kit\npowered gatorade\nbottled water supplies\nMREs (meals ready to eat)\nTamiflu\n\nGet your dr to write a script for Tamiflu & set it aside\nin case you do contract the flu. If at all possible, have\na prescription for every member of your household. The flu shot is useless in this case. Use the face masks & gloves if you absolutely have to go out amongst people who might be exposed to the flu. If you have to stay in your home for three months, you will need to survive - hence the stockpile of water & food that can be eaten without cooking (what if we lose power?) Clean Water, especially, is essential. I know this sounds like a strange suggestion, but read The Stand by Stephen King - there were a lot of survival tips in there that I would not have thought of - it deals with pandemic & gives you a different perspective on what life would/could be like if millions & millions die. Most of this is common sense, but a lot of people lack in that department. I've been following the progress of the bird flu for a while now & am anxious because I don't want my children to get it, so I looked up all the things we'd need to survive. I hope it doesn't come to pandemic, because America is so not prepared. Good luck!
1020451
Actually bird flu is affecting people. Well over 200 people world wide have been infected with the virus. The fatality rate is over 50%, and it has been spreading across Asia, Europe and Africa.\n\nMany of these infections have resulted from close contact with poultry, but there are several clusters of infection where the virus has been spread from person to person. \n\nOne recent cluster was on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. A woman contracted the disease and it spread from her to seven members of her family. Seven of the eight family members died.\n\nRight now we are seeing only limited person to person transmission. The fear is that the virus will mutate so that person to person transmission will happen easily and we will have a pandemic.\n\nEverytime a person gets avian flu (bird flu) there is a chance of it mutating so that it can be early spread.\n\nWe do not have a vaccine for this particular virus. They can't start working on a vaccine until it does mutate and it will take about 6-8 months to begin to produce vaccine.\n\nThe antiviral medicine Tamiflu may reduce the symptoms and reduce the chance of death, but there isn't enough Taniflu. At this point it looks as though medical personnel may get the first doses so that they can continue to take care of patients who have the flu.\n\nThe government has asked people to prepare for the flu by stocking supplies for our families in case we are asked to  practice "social distancing." That would be a quarantine where people are told to stay home to reduce the spread of the disease. Schools would close, there would be no church services, concerts, meetings, etc.\n\nWe are asked to have food, water, medicine, medical supplies, etc.\n\nIf you are interested in knowing more about bird flu, a good source of information is http://www.avianflutalk.com/  You will find current news, discussion, information about bird flu, and people who will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.