Flu Avian Flu - Next Pandemic?

I know was hearing about it in main stream media reagularly for a while then it just dropped off the radar.

 

Here's some of the latest....
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cach...rvices+Newsletter+pandemic&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2

http://www.torontosun.com/News/World/2006/11/07/2264961-sun.html


Interesting what's going on in NC.... Hope everyone is o.k.....

Yancey school officials close school system to stop widespread illness


<!--Byline-->by Angie Newsome, STAFF WRITER
<!--Timestamp-->published November 2, 2006 2:58 pm
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A widespread illness among Yancey County children has prompted school officials to close the school system.
Tom Little, associate superintendent, said Thursday that an estimated 250 students had come down with a flu-like illness that included body aches and fevers. He said officials have been in meetings with local and regional public health officials and decided to close the Yancey County school system until Wednesday. The system already had a teachers’ workday scheduled for Tuesday.
“The numbers were increasing every day, so we thought we’d better do something to try to stop this,” he said.
It is unknown whether the illness is influenza, a respiratory illness that 5 to 20 percent of the United States population contracts every year, on average. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications every year on average, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said the decision to close the system was made locally, not at the state level.
State health officials are testing samples from the county to determine whether the illness is the flu. Results are expected this afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
For more on this story, check CITIZEN-TIMES.COM or Friday’s Asheville Citizen-Times.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/p...61102/NEWS01/61102029&SearchID=73261776308901


Flu Fears Close More Schools
A second school system in Western North Carolina will close because of a rapidly spreading flu virus.


Administrators in Mitchell County say doctors there have diagnosed between 20 and 30 students with the flu. Due to that, the school system has canceled classes for Thursday.
Neighboring Yancey County schools have been closed since last Thursday because of the same problem. Mitchell County has also canceled all athletic activities as well, except for Friday's playoff football game when the Mitchell High School team travels to Owen.
Yancey County administrators say students appear to be on the mend but 44 teachers called in sick Wednesday. Both school systems plan to resume classes on Monday. The students were scheduled to be off anyway Friday for Veterans' Day.

(posted at 6:44pm, 11/08/06)




http://www.wlos.com/

 

I am in NC and have noticed many people coming down with flu-like symptoms and being out of work for days on end. Do I think this is avian influenza? I have no idea. Maybe just the standard homegrown influenza strain that we were expecting to see anyway.

I haven't been hit with anything like a flu but while many were out of work I had something going on that had me completely exhausted, moderately nauseous, and with a bit of vertigo for a few days. These are not common symptoms for me.

 

Take Care of yourself.... anything out of the ordinary for you is concerning.... check with doctor....

Yeah... its tough to say what's going around... with all the "super bugs" and "scary disease of the day" new articles.... its enough to make anyone a little bit cautious....

Keep an eye on this stuff... probably just ordinary flu season stuff... but never hurts to be aware.... wash your hands, stay out of other peoples "spray".... wish there was widespread common courtesy about covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze.... although... its tough with small kids.... schools always get hit first.... kids pass this stuff around like crazy.... donated a bunch of waterless hand cleaner to my daughters class..... teacher was very thankful....

Hope you're feeling better soon.... although I knew a person a few years back before all the flu scares and bugs were fashionable.... he had similar symptoms that you describe, as he described to me.... finally went to the doctor.... and the doc told him it was "stress"..... he ended up leaving the company within a year or two..... FWIW

 

Oh I'm feeling fit as a fiddle now. This was just over the past weekend. On Sunday I literally laid down at 3:00 in the afternoon for a siesta and I think I got up once at 8 or 9 for an hour or two and then right back to sleep. Monday all day at work I was like the living dead (exhausted) and went to bed early monday night. Now? Feeling just fine. I think it all started friday or saturday of last week.

Saturday night my 4 year old was "nursing me back to health". I was laying down with a low grade fever, nausea, and the kid was wiping me down with a cool damp rag, bringing me tums, being a major source of pride for me.

 

Kids are great!!!!..... Glad you're feeling better....

 

Its now official the avian flu has now been found in over 2500 birds in one community in England. It won't be long now before the USA realizes it's already here.

samantha

 

Did all 2500 birds have the flu? I'd heard the flock was destroyed after the 'flu was discovered but not that every bird was ill ...... did I misunderstand? Wouldn't surprise me if the govt had done one of the patented government OMG knee-jerk reactions and wiped them all out erroneously.

 

H5N1 Categorized


Family: Orthomyxoviridae (contains
5 genuses, 3 of which cause Influenza)
Genus: Influenzavirus A
(contains one species)
Species: Influenza A Virus
(contains 98 sub-types)
Sub-type: H5N1 (contains over
700 unique strains)

http://www.lionsgrip.com/chickensavianflu.html


Someone is going to become RICH RICH RICH on all this HYPE

 

They already have...
Roche - Makers of Tamiflu
Glaxo Smith Kline - Makers of Relenza
Makers of N95 and N100 masks and assorted respirators
Makers of various hazard suits
Preparedness manufacturers catering to individuals, local, state and federal departments and agencies....
Market watchers and players....
etc... etc.... etc.....

no different from attorneys, financial services, insurance, gov't contactors and sub-contractors etc.... oh and don't forget the media and entertainment industry....

But... I wouldn't want to be caught without a few preparations and supplies... just in case its not just hype.... I don't mind putting a few dollars in these guys pockets for some peace of mind when it comes to my family and friends.... much of the items are dual and triple usage items.... consumable not just in the case of a pandemic.... so there are opportunities to rotate, replenish or just consume as I believe it warrants.... so it makes sense to me...

JMHO....

 

True. Haveing the tamiflu on had in case of an outbreak of H5N1 may be useful and if it dosent happen it could at least be nice when the regular flu season comes around. Kind of like the masks could be useful then but also if you just have to do some dusty dirty work around the house.

 

tamiflu rumsfeld - Google Search

AvianFlu is not for real. It is a manufactured scare to profit a select group of people. Do not buy into it. Now, Tamiflu is probably a pretty fine antiviral. If you wash out your nose with light saline solution every day as yogis do you will not get flu

 

It's not that it's not a real virus. It simply isn't the "oh my god the world is coming to an end tomorrow" that Big Business wants us to believe. And if it does turn out to be every bit as virulent as the influenza of 1918 (right year?), it won't matter what species carried it, how many doses of Tamiflu or other antiviral medicine you take or anything else. Survival will be of the fittest, period.

What the govt keeps forgetting to remind people is the extreme proclivity and speed with which the influenza virus mutates naturally. Oh, and the little problem of the "flu shot" only protecting you against a single strain of influenza that the govt has decided might be the one that hits the hardest any given season.

 

True it is a real virus, but it still isn't a real human transmitted virus. The people who caught it, caught it from birds.

The most developed country to have had it was Turkey (no pun intended), who saw a 66% survival rate. I'm guessing the survival rate in the US would me much, much higher. For gods sake it's been around for 9 years and only killed a couple hundred people worldwide.

The possibility is real for a pandemic, but not likely. There are SOOOO many things more likely to get us than this.

So for now, I'm pretty much ignoring this threat. Maybe that will change, but I doubt it.

 

Did you guys see the latest 'news'? The USDA is pushing for us to import cooked chicken -- FROM CHINA! Excuse me now while I gag in disbelief at the set of balls that takes (not the non-surprise).

~Falcon

 

Didn't see that one.... Thanks for posting.... pretty much nothing makes sense anymore on alot of things.... I wonder what one would find if you did a little digging on what's behind that one....

This flu seems to popping up all over lately.... again... confirmed by different countries... Hong Kong, Japan, England, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia etc..... hope it stays with the birds and doesn't make the cross over to efficient human to human....

 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/16665792.htm

Posted on Fri, Feb. 09, 2007

USDA may allow China to import chickens to U.S.

By David Goldstein

McClatchy Newspapers

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to allow China, where 14 people have died of bird flu since 2003, to sell chicken to the United States.

The agency is drafting a rule that would permit China to export cooked poultry to Americans, even though public health officials have been warning for several years about a potential avian influenza pandemic.

Food safety watchdog groups are alarmed, but U.S. poultry producers, who would be facing new competition, are generally keeping mum. Some believe that the proposed rule could be a bargaining chip to get the Chinese to drop a ban on U.S. beef imports that they imposed after a case of mad-cow disease in 2003.

The World Health Organization has said that chicken and other poultry are safe to eat when cooked at the proper temperatures. USDA spokesman Steven Cohen said that since the exported chicken would be cooked, there'd be no risk to public health.

"It does appear at this time there would be no objections" from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Services, he said.

Avian flu is a contagious disease among birds, and sometimes pigs. It can infect humans - if they either come in contact with infected birds or eat raw or undercooked infected poultry - in the form of a severe respiratory infection.

Cohen cautioned that the rule-making on Chinese chicken exports was in its infancy. But food safety advocates said they were surprised that the USDA was thinking about allowing poultry exports from China, given that the country has had 22 cases of the avian flu virus since 2003.

"The reality is China has had cases of avian influenza within their flocks," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group concerned with health and nutrition issues. "It wouldn't seem like a good time to be importing poultry, even cooked poultry."

The National Chicken Council, the industry's trade group, had no comment about the new rule. "We're going to have to wait and see," said spokesman Richard Lobb.

James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, said his "sole concern" would be whether China could satisfy the USDA's health and safety requirements.

The proposed rule would continue to loosen restrictions on China's chicken exports. In 2006, the USDA approved a rule that allows China to export cooked chicken to the United States, provided that the raw chicken China used came from elsewhere.

Cohen said the chicken had to be from either the United States or Canada, because the birds had to be from countries free of any trace of the avian flu with food safety precautions similar to those in the U.S.

The Office of Management and Budget had to review the policy change, a process that normally takes weeks, if not months. But the 2006 rule was on a fast track. The OMB received the rule from the USDA on April 18, approved it April 19 and officially announced it April 20, the same day that Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Washington on an official visit.

Word that the USDA wanted to ease restrictions further surfaced early last month when an Indian news service reported that a top USDA official had been in China recently for talks about poultry exports.

"The old rule hasn't even cooled off and they're already moving toward an expansion," said Tony Corbo, a legislative lobbyist for Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit food safety watchdog group. "There doesn't seem to be a track record to evaluate what China has done, even under the old system. Why are we doing this?"

The issue could have just as much to do with cows as it does chickens. The beef industry has been unable to tap the Chinese market since Beijing blocked American beef imports after a case of mad-cow disease surfaced in 2003.

China, meanwhile, has been trying for several years to export chicken here. The United States is the world's largest producer of chicken. Less than 1 percent of the chicken consumed here comes from abroad.

Cohen denied that the proposed chicken rule had anything to do with an effort to coax China to drop its beef ban, but industry insiders and observers said they thought it was a factor. They said China wants a quid pro quo for dropping its beef ban and often links issues in trade talks. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy couldn't be reached for comment.

Since the late 1990s, avian flu, known as the H5N1 virus, has been spreading among some bird flocks in Asia. More recently it has spread to parts of Europe. The World Health Organization has reported 272 human cases and 166 deaths since 2003.

Several public health experts said they were unaware of the USDA's efforts to allow China to export poultry to the United States.

"My eyebrows raise when I hear it," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. "Then I have to ask, `OK, how could one do this safely?'"

Critics said USDA inspectors previously have found problems with China's food inspection system, including sanitation and whether tests for E. coli, a bacteria that can cause severe food poisoning, were being conducted. Some new safety controls were subsequently put in place.

Cohen said the USDA would annually inspect plants in China that are selected to process chicken bound for the United States.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee, said that the proposed rule was "dangerous" and that her subcommittee would monitor the issue.


~Falcon