If pandemic flu strikes soon and 50% of population dies, how ready are you?
375691
deppends well see which side of the 50% im on if i die well i guess i dont have to worry otherwise i oubviously lived and am doing pretty good
47746
very concerned, think about chain reactions. lets say i have a infected chicken, and i skin it. i give the feathers to a pillow company and the rest to a processing company. lets say that a woman with three children buys the chicken, and she works at a school. think of all those people the workers and children pass by at work/school, and the people they love. that is serious.\n\nYes we should, unfortunately, we dont have antibodies for the avian flu. Yet.
528508
Okay, take a deep breath. You are correct. The bird flu may or may not mutate, there may or may not be a pandemic, but all families need to be prepared for emergency situations. You need to discuss Disaster Preparedness with your parents again. Your concern is legitimate, but becoming hysterical will not help your cause nor solve the problem. For starters, your family needs to have a three month supply of water, toiletries, food, and regular medications for every member of your household. You can telephone the local office of the American Red Cross, ask for Disaster Services, and they will mail you a list of information on how to prepare and what to buy. I hope we never have to face this situation, but we need to protect our families for any emergency. Good luck !
462394
It would suck.  Everyone would be stressed and on edge and there would probably be more health problems than there are today.
1026796
no.  but it is a 95% probability it will be here. latest news was in indonesia 8 family members got flu but no bacterial contact. could it be airborn.? strain has mutated so now tamiflu is left a possible slowdown cure of virus. my advise to you is to stockpile o.c. meds, water and canned foods. if it goes airborne. we have a pandemic. no food, no workers, no power, no hospital care once its full blown. do not trust meds or promises of cure over internet. AS OF NOW THERE IS NO CURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS IS WHY WHO IS WORRIED. LOG ONTO WORLD HEALTH ORG. FOR MORE INFO. this is mexxxi. p.i. lol
774992
This is all news to me.  Considering the population of America has now reached the 300 million mark, they better be prepared for the majority.\n\nTake Care
446813
I know this wasn't really your question, but don't get too panicked about this.  There are other, more immediate threats to your health that you should worry about more than if they bird flue mutates.  You're more likely, at least in the immediate future to be run over by a car, for instance, so look both ways before you cross the street!\n\nIf you feel the need to stockpile food, this might be helpful for you psychologically.  Know, however, that they are working on a vaccination that may come in time.
948486
Probably die in short order.\nyes
1140011
releasing a deadly virus into a population that can kill millions of people .......more deadly than a few rockets or machine guns
1145977
You're going to die.\n\n(we all do. No exceptions)
1009969
I personally would. I'd say about 70% of people would be ok with it. A lot of people might freak that that's not right. But as long as you visit them often, it's probably better because then they'd have all the healthcare and help they could need at any time of the day... But that's just my opinion.
602212
NO its not going to kill everybody if it keeps as it is at the moment.\nYou can get it just by contact with sick animals.\nBut this kind o virus can change behavior. \nThat was what happened in 1918 in the Spanish flu.\nSee in\nhttp://www.therealleiman.com/history.html\nIf that happens now with this virus \nWell , ....let us hope its not going to happens.
688359
The funniest part about a few of these answers are the people talking about having a healthy immune system. Has anybody ever heard of the worldwide outbreak of flu in 1918? Look into it. Learn from the past. The group it killed off the most was an unusual one. It was the younger, healthier people. It didn't follow the normal path of killing off the youngest, oldest, and weakest. \n\nWhy you ask? Because the younger, healthy, normally heartier people were the ones that had the STRONGEST immune system. The virus was just so bad that their young, healthy, strong immune systems overcompensated in fighting it off. Most of the time it was the persons own immune system that killed them off, not the virus. So if I were you people I wouldn't count on my immune system to save the day if there's another flu pandemic.\n\nI have been lenient in stocking up on food and water like I should. I have been stocking up on face masks, latex gloves, soap, Lysol spray, bleach, etc. though. I'm not hoping that I will be able to avoid getting the flu if a pandemic hits. It's my hope that my family and I will be able to avoid the peak of the waves it will come in. And *hopefully* avoid needing a hospital during a peak(as i'm sure at that point they will be quite useless). If it comes it comes, you can only avoid it for so long, and can't depend on a healthy immune system to save you. The main thing is to be focused on is increasing your, and you families, chances of surviving when you do get it. \n\nI hope I do not live to see the next flu pandemic. 1918, people. Study it. Learn from it.
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.
183116
Last year, over 200,000 people were hospitalized and over 35,000 died from influenza.  The very young, very old, and those with pre-existing pulmonary & cardiac disease and those who are immunocompromised (chemo, immune system defects, HIV) are especially at risk.
348526
You should definitely have power point pictures/transparencies or actual pictures of tons upon tons of the poultry that is being destroyed because of the possibility of infection, this image will really grab attention. You should discuss how many people have actually been affected and relate this to the number of people who die every day from things like cancer and heart disease to put this pandemonium in some perspective. You may want to discuss the possibility that even if we successfully treat affected people the virus could mutate and form a resistant type.
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.