04/19 | Daily Bird Flu Thread: More Human cases in Africa and China

Link to yesterday's thread:http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=193926

Human Cases

Since January, 2004 WHO has reported human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) in the following countries:

* East Asia and the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Indonesia
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* Europe & Eurasia:
o Azerbaijan
(see update)
o Turkey

* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq

For additional information about these reports, visit the
World Health Organization Web Site.

Updated April 3, 2006

Animal Cases

Since December 2003, avian influenza A (H5N1) infections in poultry or wild birds have been reported in the following countries:

* Africa:
o Burkina Faso
o Cameroon
o Niger
o Nigeria

* East Asia & the Pacific:
o Cambodia
o China
o Hong Kong (SARPRC)
o Indonesia
o Japan
o Laos
o Malaysia
o Mongolia
o Myanmar (Burma)
o Thailand
o Vietnam

* South Asia:
o Afghanistan
o India
o Kazakhstan
o Pakistan

* Near East:
o Egypt
o Iraq (H5)
o Iran
o Israel
o Jordan

* Europe & Eurasia:
o
* Albania
* Austria
* Azerbaijan
* Bosnia & Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Czech Republic (H5)
* Denmark
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Italy
* Poland
* Romania
* Russia
* Serbia & Montenegro
* Slovak Republic
* Slovenia
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom


For additional information about these reports, visit the
World Organization for Animal Health Web Site: http://www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm

Updated April 7, 2006

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/current.htm

WHO, Avian Flu Timeline in .pdf: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/timeline.pdf

Sudan

Sudan finds man, chickens with bird flu virus​

18 Apr 2006 19:31:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds World Health Organisation comment)

CAIRO, April 18 (Reuters) - Sudan has found one man and five chickens infected with the bird flu virus, an official from the Health Ministry told Reuters on Tuesday.

Head of the epidemics department, Magdi Salih, said tests carried out by Sudanese authorities on the man and the chickens had proved positive for bird flu, but he did not say if the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain.

The infected chickens were found at two farms in Sudan's Khartoum and Jazeera provinces and he added that the infected man was the owner of one of the farms.

Samples would be sent abroad for further tests, he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was looking into the report.

"We don't have a lot of details as to what kinds of tests were done, but we are obviously keen to have the samples sent abroad," spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed in neighbouring Egypt, which has reported four human deaths from the virus.

Bird flu has killed at least 109 people in nine countries, according to the most recent WHO figures.

The virus remains essentially an animal disease, but there are fears it could mutate into a form which passes easily among people, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

China

Another human bird flu case confirmed​

(Xinhua/AP)
Updated: 2006-04-18 21:04

A 21-year-old man in central China's Hubei Province was confirmed to be infected with H5N1 bird flu, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

The man worked as a security guard in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, said Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, a spokeswoman for the WHO's Beijing office.

He became sick on April 1 and was suffering from a high fever, she said. He was diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown causes, she said.

"The likely source of exposure is still under investigation and people who had close contact with him are under medical observation," Bhatiasevi said.

The patient has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese official standards, the ministry said.

The man is China's 17th confirmed human case of bird flu since November on the mainland, where 11 people have died from the disease.

The ministry has reported the new case to the WHO and the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as several other countries.

The H5N1 virus has killed 109 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, according to WHO, and has killed or prompted authorities to destroy 200 million birds.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-04/18/content_570909.htm

Thanx for the update, hoping the massive die off of pigs gets addressed by the Chinese gov't, this is IMHO only the tip of the iceberg regarding deaths.

Exotic food shunned amid fears of disease​

ETHAN MCNERN

CHINESE diners are eating fewer owls, civets and other exotic wildlife due to fears of SARS and bird flu, according to a survey released yesterday by conservation groups.

The survey of 24,000 people in 16 cities found that nearly 72 per cent had not eaten wild animals in the past year, up from 51 per cent in a similar 1999 survey, said US-based WildAid and the official China Wildlife Conservation Association.

"Although not everybody believed that civets were to blame for SARS, the market still has been shrinking. Fewer and fewer people consume civets," Yin Feng, a researcher for the Chinese group, said.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, which first emerged in late 2002 in southern China, was believed to have jumped to humans from civets, an animal sometimes served in Chinese restaurants.

China also has suffered dozens of outbreaks of bird flu, which experts say might originate in migrating ducks and other wild birds.

The survey found that 81.9 per cent of people surveyed said they knew that SARS came from wild animals.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=588202006

McDonalds & Bird Flu

18 Apr 2006 00:43 GMT WSJ(4/18)

UPDATE: McDonald's Prepares Against Bird-Flu​

Amid predictions that bird flu will soon arrive in the U.S., McDonald's Corp. said all of the U.S. chickens it has used over the past 10 months have come from flocks screened for avian flu.

McDonald's, which has been quiet about how it is preparing for a possible bird-flu outbreak in U.S. poultry, laid out some of the steps it is taking. The nation's largest fast-food chain, as measured by sales, is testing birds in the U.S. and working to slow the spread of the disease in countries where it has surfaced.

McDonald's said it is working to install a better veterinary structure in countries where the deadly Asian strain of H5N1 bird flu is a particular threat. McDonald's said that after bird-flu cases were confirmed in parts of Europe, chicken sales dropped at restaurants but later rebounded.

The company has asked some foreign suppliers to start housing their chickens in enclosed environments. By confining poultry, farmers reduce the chance that their flocks will be exposed to wild birds that carry the virus.

"Avian influenza is a serious world-wide threat that must be dealt with," said Mike Roberts, McDonald's president and chief operating officer. "Our firewalls are as strong as they've ever been to protect us."

Bird flu has become a health issue because scientists are concerned it could mutate into a form that easily infects humans. So far, however, this flu is mostly a disease of birds and is relatively hard for people to catch. The virus is killed by proper cooking of the meat. The vast majority of people who have contracted the flu have had close contact with infected birds.

The company said that its U.S. chicken supply is vertically integrated, which allows it to trace all of its poultry back to the hatchery. By comparison, it can trace only 30% of its beef sold in restaurants back to the cattle. McDonald's has been adding more chicken items to its menu as part of a broad plan to expand into premium items including salads.

McDonald's officials called avian flu an industry issue but added that the company's size puts it in a unique position to help prevent its spread. The company said, for instance, that it has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Vietnam inoculate poultry in that country after learning that there were few resources to test birds there.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006041800430042&Take=1

Post #6 said:

The vast majority of people who have contracted the flu have had close contact with infected birds.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006041800430042&Take=1

Click to expand...

The above article IMHO is impressive to see what McDonalds is doing...
Like a famous guy once said: "follow the money"!

But shocking is to see the Dow Jones Newswires saying that Bird Flu does not just come from infected birds...

Main Stream Media

ABC To Take On Avian Flu During Sweeps​

by UPI Wire
Apr 18, 2006

LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2006 (UPI) -- ABC has unveiled its top-secret, made-for-TV movie about avian flu for the May sweeps rating period.

"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" stars Stacy Keach, Joely Richardson, Ann Cusack and Justine Machado in a tale about what could happen if the virus starting moving among residents of the United States, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Co-producer Diana Kerew said they kept the film under wraps because of "its topicality."

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/entertainment/article_21215123.shtml

This is from the federal government website. Like we have been saying, watch what they do, NOT what they say:




http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...011xeneerg0.408642&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

18 April 2006
New Pact Aims To Ready Americas for Possible Avian Flu Outbreak

IDB-PAHO agreement calls for developing plans against potential pandemic

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Two inter-American agencies have signed an agreement to develop preparedness plans to mitigate the socioeconomic effects of a possible influenza pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In an April 17 statement, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said it had signed an agreement with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for a $200,000 operation to strengthen an early warning system against the potential outbreak of pandemic flu in the Americas.

The IDB said the economic and social costs of widespread influenza, in both animal and human forms, could be "enormous" for the region. An epidemic of the animal disease that has now occurred in birds in about 50 nations could cause losses in poultry production, international trade, tourism and other activities. A pandemic could lead to an increase in poverty among millions of rural families and small farmers, the IDB said.

The IDB-PAHO program will assess the risk of a pandemic and the level of preparedness of each country in the region, and will identify financial needs and methods available to help them develop and implement a plan against a possible avian influenza outbreak. The program also seeks to strengthen surveillance in animal and human health and sanitary regulations to reduce the chances of human infection.

According to a January 30 article posted on the IDB Web site, influenza experts consider the risk of avian flu in Latin America and the Caribbean to be "relatively low" at this time, as birds flying south from the United States are not believed to intermingle with birds heading to America from Siberia, where an outbreak occurred (among birds, not humans). But the current perception of low risk could change, given the presence of the H5N1 strain of the virus in Canadian waterfowl, the IDB said.

According to international health authorities, some 25 European and Eurasian nations have detected the H5N1 virus since early 2006, with four in Africa, five in the Near East, four in South Asia and the remainder in East Asia where the epidemic began more than two years ago. Highly pathogenic H5N1 is an avian virus that has caused the death or destruction of hundreds of millions of birds in Asia and cost that region's poultry industry billions of dollars. (See related article.)

Additional information is available on the IDB Web site.

For more information on avian influenza and efforts to combat it, see Bird Flu.

Had a wonderful convo with my son today as I was laying on the bathroom floor. He told me that in his school they started discussing the implications of bird flu. He gets it, he told the homeroom teacher that when it comes here it's going to make the world as we know it will grind to a halt. His homeroom teacher was flabbergasted and asked why, my son spelled it out for him. .

New Freedom said:

This is from the federal government website. Like we have been saying, watch what they do, NOT what they say:




http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...011xeneerg0.408642&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

18 April 2006
New Pact Aims To Ready Americas for Possible Avian Flu Outbreak

IDB-PAHO agreement calls for developing plans against potential pandemic

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Two inter-American agencies have signed an agreement to develop preparedness plans to mitigate the socioeconomic effects of a possible influenza pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Click to expand...

Great Catch NF! This is sure turning into a global thing... a Pan-American Response and this weekend's news of trhe USA printing money overseas... it sure looks like the Globalists are capitalizing on the BF phenomenon...

JG, care to chime in?

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/s...6493643&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6


Disease expert lectures on the realities of bird flu
By: BETH GALLASPY, The Enterprise 04/18/2006

BEAUMONT - Expect to see the much feared avian flu in the United States this year, global disease expert Laurie Garrett said Monday at Lamar University.

Garrett, author and senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said she expects migratory birds to bring the disease from Siberia to the U.S. mainland by June or July of this year.

"I hope I'm wrong," she said in an interview after a 3 p.m. session with students.

Speaking as part of the university's academic lecture series, Garrett also gave a free evening talk explaining the global risk of avian flu, more precisely known as H5N1 virus.

Already, the virus has been confirmed in birds in 50 countries worldwide, Garrett said.

"The disease is globalized. The capacity to respond to it has to be globalized as well," Garrett said.

Garrett said the world faces two major global health threats today: the existing HIV/AIDS crisis that could kill a third of Africans in the next four decades and the potential of a global influenza pandemic.

So far, nearly 200 humans have been infected with avian flu by handling infected birds, Garrett said. There also have been at least two isolated cases of patient-to-caregiver transmission, she said.

The disease has been 55 percent fatal in humans and 100 percent fatal in infected felines, rodents and many species of birds, Garrett said.

The great fear among those involved in global health and disease prevention is that the disease could change to allow widespread human-to-human transmission.

Many researchers believe the disease could not evolve to a point where it is both highly contagious and highly lethal, Garrett said.

However, even if bird flu dropped to 5.5 percent mortality, it would be more than twice as lethal as the 1918 influenza virus. That deadly epidemic with a 2-percent mortality rate killed more than 50 million people in an age before commercial air travel, Garrett noted.

With scientific and technological advances, those working in public health and disaster planning have advantages over those from decades past, Garrett said.

"We can see hazards approaching and we have time to actually do something," Garrett said.

Ally Freer, a senior studying environmental science, said after the 3 p.m. session she has heard similar predictions about the potential threat of bird flu in her classes.

Because the virus has not mutated to enable human-to-human transmission, "I think they're sort of jumping the gun," Freer, 20, said. "I don't think it's going to kill us all. I do think they need planning."

Freer said she sees a "tendency to hype things up, whatever the current fad disease is."

Jim Westgate, earth and space sciences professor and a member of the committee that invited Garrett, said she provided a great deal of information about something that previously seemed more like a scare than a real concern to him.

"We just didn't realize the potential that is out there," Westgate said. "... From what she says, I think there's more to it than I had thought before."

Hospitals say they can't afford bird flu plans
Health officials call for more funding to prepare for possible pandemic​

Updated: 8:21 p.m. ET April 18, 2006

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government may be urging local officials and hospitals to get ready for a bird flu pandemic, but top hospital executives said Tuesday they cannot do everything that is being called for.

“If the federal government doesn’t help run this, it really isn’t going to go well,” Dr. Frank Peacock, who heads emergency preparedness at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, told a conference.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has picked up speed in birds, spreading to 20 new countries in the past six weeks. It cannot yet infect people easily, but it has killed 109 of the 194 confirmed infected with H5N1 in nine countries.

A few changes would allow the virus to evolve into a form passed easily from human to human, triggering what experts say would be devastating pandemic.

'Overdue and underprepared'
“We don’t know when it would come. But we do know that we are overdue and underprepared,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told the emergency preparedness conference sponsored by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Experts say the United States and other countries have too few drugs, supplies such as latex gloves, or even equipment such as ventilators to deal with a pandemic of a respiratory virus.

As he has been doing for months, Leavitt said people need to be prepared on an individual and local level and cannot expect much immediate help from the federal government.

“There is no way you can respond to every home town at the same time,” Leavitt said.

Ventilators instead of swimming pools
Maybe hospitals should be allocating money to buy ventilators instead of remodeling facilities such as swimming pools, Leavitt said.

Peacock said even large centers such as his lack the funding to do so.

“I think it is a good thing for the Secretary to say we have to stockpile ventilators. But I think a lot of us know we don’t have the resources to buy another two, three, four hundred ventilators,” he said.

Preparedness could come down to more than having the medical equipment.

“We may not have the staff needed to run those ventilators adequately,” said Vicki Running, who heads disaster planning at Stanford University Medical Center in California.

Day-to-day business is already overwhelming hospitals, according to Running. “We are operating at capacity,” she said.

And the for-profit health care industry allows no fat.

“I have been in Cleveland for a decade and we have closed three hospitals since I have been there,” Peacock said. “It is because we are a business and we have squeezed it for all we can.”

Dr. Edward Miller, chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said the Baltimore hospital and medical school had already spent $10 million preparing for a pandemic or other emergency.

“This is not a sustainable business plan,” Miller said.

“I don’t think anybody is capable of paying the entire price tag,” agreed Dr. Thomas Burke, executive vice president of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “There are none of us who can afford to absorb those kinds of costs.”

Peacock said much of the response to a pandemic will involve very basic medical care — including triage, or sorting out which patients cannot be helped except through heroic measures.

“Those patients are going to get some morphine and get sat in a corner. That is the definition of a disaster — need exceeds resources,” Peacock said.

Then health workers will turn to patients who are more easily helped, and the very sickest may have to be allowed to die as comfortably as possible, he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12376948/from/RSS/

Fuzzychick said:

Had a wonderful convo with my son today as I was laying on the bathroom floor. He told me that in his school they started discussing the implications of bird flu. He gets it, he told the homeroom teacher that when it comes here it's going to make the world as we know it will grind to a halt. His homeroom teacher was flabbergasted and asked why, my son spelled it out for him. .

Click to expand...

FC.......good for him !! I think it helps to educate our children in a way that empowers them, not scares them. With BF, it is a hard thing to do! My oldest doesn't want to talk about it at all. My youngest, though, has been following it quietly. He almost died twice from the flu when he was younger. He KNOWS the horror of not being able to breath and being rushed to the hospital.....

I follow the BF daily because of him.........if this thing mutates, I want enough time for us to self-quarantine. I don't want to ever expereince 'almost' losing him again, if I can help it, that is .....

FROM PCVIKINGS POST #13:

"Peacock said much of the response to a pandemic will involve very basic medical care — including triage, or sorting out which patients cannot be helped except through heroic measures.

“Those patients are going to get some morphine and get sat in a corner. That is the definition of a disaster — need exceeds resources,” Peacock said.

Then health workers will turn to patients who are more easily helped, and the very sickest may have to be allowed to die as comfortably as possible, he said."


HOLY CRAP !!!!!

H2H, can we consider it fact?

New Freedom said:

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/s...6493643&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6


Disease expert lectures on the realities of bird flu
By: BETH GALLASPY, The Enterprise 04/18/2006

So far, nearly 200 humans have been infected with avian flu by handling infected birds, Garrett said. There also have been at least two isolated cases of patient-to-caregiver transmission, she said.

Click to expand...

It doesn't seem like long ago, that the big question was if there were any cases of H2H... well, it's 'old news' now.

Between the Chinese Security Guard in Post #3, The Dow Jones report in Post #6, and this expert lecturing in post #12, it's quite obvious that H2H is recognized as fact by the media...

The next milepost to watch for is effeicient H2H... that'll be when to head for the 'bug-out place'.

ABC To Take On Avian Flu During Sweeps

Click to expand...

"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America"​

April 18, 2006 - The movie follows Avian Flu through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human.
On Tuesday, May 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), ABC will bring to television a two-hour original movie. "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human around the world.

The meticulously researched film stars Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck"), Stacy Keach ("Prison Break," "Blackbeard"), Ann Cusack ("Grey's Anatomy," "Ghost Whisperer"), Justina Machado ("Six Feet Under"), Scott Cohen ("Street Time," "Law & Order: Trial by Jury") and David Ramsey ("All of Us").

The movie opens with an American businessman flying to Hong Kong to meet with his Asian manufacturers. After 11 meetings in three countries in six days, he starts his return to Virginia. But before he returns home, the Chinese government has informed the World Health Organization that a new strain of the Avian Flu virus was discovered in a local marketplace. Over 1.2 million infected birds were killed in an attempt to eradicate this strain. Dr. Iris Varnack (Richardson) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service receives an emergency summons to China, where she discovers these efforts may have come too late. Despite the early warning, the H5N1 virus has mutated into a version that can spread from human to human -- shown in eye-opening detail whenever the microbes start to permeate the atmosphere - across races, nationalities, genders and ages.

John M. Barry, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Tulane University and writer of the New York Times bestseller, "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," served as a consultant on the project. Barry's book, which includes a new afterword on today's Avian Flu, focuses on the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed between 50-100 million people.

The film deals with the current threat of the Avian Flu virus (H5N1). Scientists continue to debate the degree to which the virus can mutate and be easily passed among human beings.

New Freedom said:

FC.......good for him !! I think it helps to educate our children in a way that empowers them, not scares them. With BF, it is a hard thing to do! My oldest doesn't want to talk about it at all. My youngest, though, has been following it quietly. He almost died twice from the flu when he was younger. He KNOWS the horror of not being able to breath and being rushed to the hospital.....

I follow the BF daily because of him.........if this thing mutates, I want enough time for us to self-quarantine. I don't want to ever expereince 'almost' losing him again, if I can help it, that is .....

Click to expand...

New Freedom, both my kids are asthmatic, I hear you, I almost lost my oldest, now 16 to undiagnosed pneumonia, for several months...I understand your fear. I try to keep my kids in the loop, they woke up unfortunately as children on 9/11.

H5N1 Bird Flu in Sudan​

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04180601/H5N1_Sudan.html

Recombinomics Commentary
April 18, 2006

Cases of bird flu have been found in the capital Khartoum and nearby Jazeera state, an official of the Sudanese Ministry of Animal Resources announced on Tuesday.

"Laboratorial tests have confirmed the existence of bird flu cases in Khartoum and Jazeera," Ahammed Mustafa, undersecretary of the ministry, told reporters.

The above comments increase the number of African countries confirming H5N1. H5N1 in additional African countries is not a surprise. The confirmations again highlight the number of countries in Africa and the Middle East that have failed tp detect H5N1. H5N1 migrated through the Middle East and into Africa in the fall and winter. Although a number of countries in Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso) and the Middle East (Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan) have confirmed H5N1, many others have not.

The countries failing to identify H5N1 reveal severe deficiencies in monitoring. Many of these countries report hundreds or thousands of negative tests results, but the countries fail to detect low pathogenic bird flu, which is common in migratory birds world wide. These false negatives highlight monitoring shortfalls, which are not being addressed.

JPD said:

"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America"​

April 18, 2006 - The movie follows Avian Flu through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human.
On Tuesday, May 9 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), ABC will bring to television a two-hour original movie. "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human around the world.

The meticulously researched film stars Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck"), Stacy Keach ("Prison Break," "Blackbeard"), Ann Cusack ("Grey's Anatomy," "Ghost Whisperer"), Justina Machado ("Six Feet Under"), Scott Cohen ("Street Time," "Law & Order: Trial by Jury") and David Ramsey ("All of Us").

The movie opens with an American businessman flying to Hong Kong to meet with his Asian manufacturers. After 11 meetings in three countries in six days, he starts his return to Virginia. But before he returns home, the Chinese government has informed the World Health Organization that a new strain of the Avian Flu virus was discovered in a local marketplace. Over 1.2 million infected birds were killed in an attempt to eradicate this strain. Dr. Iris Varnack (Richardson) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service receives an emergency summons to China, where she discovers these efforts may have come too late. Despite the early warning, the H5N1 virus has mutated into a version that can spread from human to human -- shown in eye-opening detail whenever the microbes start to permeate the atmosphere - across races, nationalities, genders and ages.

John M. Barry, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Tulane University and writer of the New York Times bestseller, "The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History," served as a consultant on the project. Barry's book, which includes a new afterword on today's Avian Flu, focuses on the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed between 50-100 million people.

The film deals with the current threat of the Avian Flu virus (H5N1). Scientists continue to debate the degree to which the virus can mutate and be easily passed among human beings.

Click to expand...

Let's try to repost this in a few weeks......I would like to watch it......if I can remember !!!!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12371022/


• Dateline Sunday, April 23, 7 p.m.

NBC's Ann Curry takes an in-depth look at what could happen if a virus like the avian flu caused a pandemic. In an effort to offer viewers an understanding of how a flu pandemic would affect their lives, the report illustrates how the virus could potentially enter and spread throughout cities in America and around the world.

• Send us your questions


• April 18, 2006 | 11:10 a.m. ET

Reporting the Avian Flu(Ann Curry, Dateline and Today show anchor)

It is against my nature to want to scare people. Even as a kid, I didn't understand what was fun about sneaking up on someone.

So I am struggling with my discomfort in reporting what we at NBC News have learned about the Avian Flu.

This is the virus, first found in Hong Kong, that has in recent years, spread like wildfire in birds, into Southeast Asia, then last year into Central Europe, this year reaching all the way to Great Britain, and just a few months ago, into Africa.

So far, 200 people have been made sick, more than half have died, all it appears, infected by birds.

When experts began predicting it could reach the U.S., I suggested at a Dateline story meeting, that we start asking questions: are there safeguards to protect the American people? What should we do to protect ourselves? Dateline's senior producers assigned a team to investigate.

Ever wish you'd never asked?

Our NBC News team, contacted some of the world's top experts in the field of influenza, including leading officials at the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and more.

Here's what they told us:

1. As the Avian Flu spreads, it is mutating, increasing the chances it will turn into a virus that can be spread not just from birds to humans, but from humans to humans. If this happens there would a pandemic. No one knows whether or not this will happen.

2. If a pandemic starts, chances are it cannot be stopped. The World Health Organization told us, it would try to stop it, if warning signs come in time. But this has never been tried before.

3. According the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, in a severe pandemic, as many as 90 million people could get sick worldwide. Most people who would survive, but by some estimates almost two million people might die.

At this point, you are probably thinking, as I was, you've got to be kidding. But that's what the government is saying.)

4. It would likely take at least 6 months to produce a vaccine, once the new, mutated virus is identified. So during the height of a pandemic, a vaccine will not be available.

5. It is very possible the current strain of Avian Flu will not mutate into a virus that can be transmitted by humans. Still, according to these same experts, a flu pandemic of some sort is "probable," because history tells us "pandemics happen." There have already been three in the last century, the worst in 1918, killed up to 40 million.

But certainly, you might be thinking, "Surely, with all the medical advances at our fingertips, America will never see a pandemic like 1918, right?" The U.S. government isn't so sure.

6. The nation's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, who has closely studied the 1918 pandemic says America is "underprepared," that if a pandemic were to start, people would die, hospitals in the U.S. would be overwhelmed, and that even when a vaccine is found, it may not be widely available, as there are not currently enough vaccine manufacturers to produce all that would be needed.

Here's the good news. We can better protect ourselves if we are informed.

So our news team asked the same group of world experts on influenza to help write a scenario on how a pandemic could start, how it could affect daily life, and what people can do to protect themselves.

Because we needed to illustrate the scenario, NBC News took the unusual step of using volunteers and a few community actors working with NBC news cameramen to go through the motions of visualizing what could happen.

The team worked to stay strictly within the bounds of good journalism, and it was a challenge under the unusual circumstances. Pains were taken to make certain we stayed true to what the experts were telling us.

The final report is a full hour, which airs this coming Sunday night, April 23rd, on Dateline NBC.

I hope you are informed and empowered. But please forgive us. We may, because of the subject matter, also scare you a little.

04/18/2006

Avian flu pandemic would be devastating to U.S.​

By Galen McBride, Culpeper

Imagine 50 “Katrinas” going on in the U.S. simultaneously.

Imagine a scenario where each community is isolated and “on its own,” with no federal emergency support. Imagine if these crises continue unabated for weeks, perhaps months, at a time — and then are repeated in “waves” that drag the emergency out for 18 months to two years.

This could be our reality if the world experiences the next Great Influenza Pandemic.

On April 6, I attended what could be one of the most important lectures ever offered at Fauquier Hospital — Avian Flu. Led by Dr. Lilian Peake, director of the five-county Rappahannock-Rapidan Public Health Department, and supported by Dr.William Sladen, a wildfowl expert from Airlie Foundation.

The seminar presented an honest, factual, up-to-date, and reasonably thorough explanation of the current threat from a bird flu pandemic.

Dr. Peake is a no-nonsense type, a consummate professional. She made it clear that our health care infrastructure is precarious at best with virtually zero surge capacity, and that the public and private industry must prepare to face a pandemic with minimal medical support.

To her immense credit, she focused on the facts and didn’t hide behind the facade of “don’t worry, be happy,” as so many other health professionals and government officials do. There is never a time to panic, but there is a time to prepare — and that time, my friends, is now.

By my count, there were approximately 60 people there, most already well-informed, asking intelligent questions, and seriously interested in the topic.

I don’t believe that there were many (if any) corporate executives or representatives from our local business community.

Those that I have spoken to about the possibility of a pandemic and how they intend to deal with it have responded with shrugged shoulders and blank looks. The lower level employees I’ve spoken to had either never heard of bird flu or just dismissed it, saying “that’s up to management.”

According to Dr. Peake, CDC working estimates of employee and health care worker absences are about 40 percent. Those might be conservative estimates if the pandemic turns out to be as serious as it can potentially be. And Michael Leavitt, secretary of the US Department of Health and Services, has made it abundantly clear that “the cavalry is not coming.” Communities cannot count on federal assistance because of the potential enormity of the crisis.

Pandemics are like hurricanes. They come and they’ll come again. We don’t know when the next pandemic will be or how bad it will be, but the H5N1 influenza virus that is currently circulating in Asia, Africa and Europe, has been building up steam for the past several years and most particularly since January of this year.

At the last official WHO/CDC report, there were 45 countries with poultry outbreaks, more than 30 of these in the last three months. Nearly 200 people have been infected. Over 100 have died — that’s a phenomenal 50 percent mortality rate, and all of these people were hospitalized and receiving the best care available.

The majority of the human infections were connected to up-close and personal handling of chickens and other fowl. However, not all of them were.

There is evidence that H5N1 can be passed human-to-human (H2H), although, so far, there is no documented evidence that it spreads easily or efficiently. There is also very strong suspicion among bird and influenza experts that H5N1 has already migrated to North America.

Too many people think that there is nothing they can do to protect themselves and their families, so they do nothing. But an informed population can also be a prepared population.

There are things that people can do to minimize their exposure and allow their families to ride out the pandemic waves.

I believe that this could be the story of the century, and for the sake of our communities, the media needs to start focusing on getting the word out in a way that people actually “get it.”

I would like to see a special corner of the paper dedicated to bird flu information and updated each week, encouraging people to do the common sense things needed to prepare.

This section should also be in Spanish so that our Latino community will be informed.

I am sure that Dr. Peake and her staff will be happy to assist in this project. They are operating on a shoe string, and any community help is greatly appreciated. I, too, am ready to volunteer, and I’m sure others will when they hear the call to action.

There is no doubt — a pandemic will come eventually. We have no medical solution, and because the virus must mutate and be efficiently infecting people before a vaccine can be made, it’s likely that many thousands will die before enough vaccine can be manufactured and distributed.

Please take this opportunity to use your position as a community leader to help get the word out and our people prepared.

http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=16498927&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506071&rfi=6

Post #22 said:

04/18/2006

Avian flu pandemic would be devastating to U.S.​

By Galen McBride, Culpeper

Imagine 50 “Katrinas” going on in the U.S. simultaneously.

Imagine a scenario where each community is isolated and “on its own,” with no federal emergency support. Imagine if these crises continue unabated for weeks, perhaps months, at a time — and then are repeated in “waves” that drag the emergency out for 18 months to two years.

This could be our reality if the world experiences the next Great Influenza Pandemic.

The majority of the human infections were connected to up-close and personal handling of chickens and other fowl. However, not all of them were.

There is evidence that H5N1 can be passed human-to-human (H2H), although, so far, there is no documented evidence that it spreads easily or efficiently. There is also very strong suspicion among bird and influenza experts that H5N1 has already migrated to North America.



http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=16498927&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506071&rfi=6

Click to expand...

Interesting how the tone of the news has changed today... for the past few days, the news hads been dominated by that CDC lecture in Tacoma Washinton, where the CDC spokesperson, did everything she could to pour water on the fire of people's concerns... Kinda like the calm before the storm?

Then today... 3 articles in this thread saying that there is H2H transmission of BF, and a 4th hinting strongly.... hmmmm

Then this article where they're saying it's arrived... IMHO it's time to finalize stocking the pantry and watch the news carefully...

Three residents of Sihala under observation for bird flu​

http://english.people.com.cn/200604/19/eng20060419_259545.html

Three persons with a history of fever were admitted Monday night at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) where they are currently under observation on suspicion of being hit by the avian influenza virus, local newspaper The News reported on Wednesday.

According to The News, 22-year-old Syed Wali, his 8-year-old sister Haleema and a 44-year-old woman named Khadija were brought to the PIMS following manifestation of symptoms of bird flu.

This is the first three suspected human cases of bird flu in Pakistan.

All three were reported to be dwelling in close proximity to the Sihala poultry farm where the latest outbreak of H5N1 has been detected.

The patients were reported to have been admitted with a history of high-grade fever only, with no other typical symptoms of the disease.

They had been quarantined and were undergoing various test, the News reported.

"There is no proven human case of bird flu so far. We are only taking precautionary measures," PIMS Executive Director Fazle Hadi said.

Family 'infected' with bird flu​

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060419.D06&irec=9

BANDARLAMPUNG, Lampung: A family of five was admitted to Abdul Moeloek hospital in Bandurlampung on Sunday, all suffering from suspected bird flu.

The family -- Abidi, the husband and his wife Sarmawati, both 52, and three of their six children, Septi, 12, Fitri, 8 and Putra, 5 -- are now being treated in an isolation room. The five have all demonstrated a high fever and a cough, symptoms of the deadly bird flu.

Sarmawati has been treated at the hospital since last Thursday. Her other three children had been diagnosed with bird flu earlier. Mohtar Rozi, 15, died March 31, and Betharia, 19, died April 4, while Bakhrudin, 26, is still being treated at the hospital.

Both Mohtar and Betharia died at home before they could be sent to the hospital. Their parents had limited funds and knew little about the virus.

Laboratory tests on drug samples taken from the patients confirmed Bakhrudin, Septi, Fitri and Putra were infected with the bird flu virus, while Abidi and Sarmawati were negative, according to data from the Lampung health office.

In 2004 at least 1.83 million hens in nine regencies throughout Lampung province died, possibly from bird flu, and last year the virus killed another 4,305 hens in the province.

Seven other suspected bird flu patients had been admitted to Abdul Moeloek hospital before the family. After appropriate medical treatment, all recovered. -- JP

Indonesia

Indonesia confirms 24th human death from bird flu​

19/04/2006 - 12:00:08

International tests have confirmed an Indonesian man who died earlier this month had bird flu, bringing the country’s death toll from the virus to 24.

Investigations were being carried out to confirm the source of the infection, said senior health ministry official Hariadi Wibisono.

The 24-year-old man died in an infectious diseases hospital in the capital, Jakarta, on April 8, he said.

The number of human bird flu cases in Indonesia now stands at 32, with 24 fatalities, the second highest after Vietnam, according to the World Health Organisation.

The H5N1 virus has killed 110 people in nine countries, mostly in Asia, according to tally maintained by WHO.

Health experts say it remains difficult for humans to catch H5N1, but they fear the virus could mutate into a form more easily transmitted among people and set off a flu pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=179933984&p=y7993469x&n=179934744

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/state_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2419_4624821,00.html


Alaska laboratory gears up for future bird flu testing

By Associated Press
April 16, 2006

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rows of insulated seafood boxes are lined up in a spare room at the new Alaska Environmental Health Laboratory in Anchorage.

Instead of fish, they're packed with field kits destined for the Alaska bush, where crews will net and sample migrating birds for avian influenza.


Cherie Rice, normally a state dairy inspector, used her spare time Friday to pack the boxes with four sizes of bright yellow protective plastic suits "because people come in all variety of sizes," she said. She's also added gloves, goggles, swabs, disinfectant solution and sample boxes to the kits.

"We're just sending out a little bit of everything," she said.

The field crews — comprised of government biologists, volunteers and contractors — will return the smaller boxes with vials of samples taken by swabs from live birds. Some boxes also could contain dead birds to be tested if there is an unexplained die-off.

The laboratory is the state's latest defense on the front lines of the fight against bird flu.

Scientists believe the first reported case of the Asian H5N1 virus in the United States will likely show up in Alaska, brought by migratory birds arriving from Russia or Southeast Asia.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing to authorize the lab to test samples from migrating waterfowl — as many as 10,000 this spring. It could well be the busiest lab in a network of 43 labs around the nation that will test for presumptive findings of the virus.

Barb Martin, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network coordinator in Ames, Iowa, is working with the Alaska lab on its certification.

"Because of Alaska's position with migratory bird patterns, I think we can anticipate they will receive more samples and sooner than other states," she said by telephone.

If an initial finding is positive, the National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames will determine if the disease is a high or low pathogenic strain of the virus.

State veterinarian Bob Gerlach said staff members in Anchorage has "been through the grinder" to prove to the USDA that they can run a quality lab with the proper protocols in place to protect the samples and the staff from contamination.

Sara Watt, the lab's head microbiologist, went through trial testing Friday to prove her expertise in detecting the virus. Lab officials could learn as early as next week if they have been certified.

"The pressure's on Sara because they said, 'OK, here's your unknown.' It's kind of like your big final exam," Gerlach said.

The state has purchased specialized equipment for the lab, which will provide faster and more efficient testing than the old method of growing cultures in petri dishes. The equipment also is used for testing such things as salmonella, E. coli and paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Watt estimates she will be able to process about 200 avian samples in a three-day period.

ave a question about bird flu? We'll answer it in a future experts column.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12304172/


Key West's famous chickens raise bird flu fears

HUpdated: 4:12 p.m. ET April 13, 2006

KEY WEST, Fla. - Tourists photograph them, and artists paint them. They peck and cluck in parking lots, backyards and alleys. And, yes, they cross the road, any time they please.

Key West is famous for its roaming chickens, but the birds could soon be cooped up. Worried about bird flu, City Commissioner Bill Verge wants the city to begin rounding up the island's 2,000 to 3,000 chickens.

Some chicken lovers, however, are crying foul, dismissing the danger of avian flu.


Katha Sheehan likened a Key West without its chickens to "New Orleans without the jazz and San Francisco without the cable cars."

Key West's chicken history goes back to the mid-1800s, when birds were kept for food and cockfights. Over the years, the chickens were released or escaped, and the population grew on the two-by-four-mile island.

Some residents complain that the roosters crow at all times of the day, tear up lawns and defecate everywhere. In 2004, the city hired a chicken catcher to trap birds and take them to a mainland farm, but upset residents sabotaged the effort by freeing chickens, breaking traps and keeping the birds well-fed. The chicken catcher and the city parted ways after he had collected a little over 500 birds.

Now, however, the bird battle has a new source of urgency: avian flu.

More than 100 deaths have been blamed on the avian flu virus around the world, none of them in the Americas. The virus can infect people who have had close contact with sick birds.

The virus has yet to turn up in the Western Hemisphere. But Verge is worried that migrating birds could spread it to the chickens of Key West. Next week he plans to try to renew a program to remove chickens from public and private property on request.

Top scientist tries to calm bird flu fears

Verge said he worries about children playing in areas where there is chicken feces and elderly people and others whose immune systems may be weak. In addition, he said the island's main industry, tourism, could be severely damaged if even one chicken dies of the flu.

"We're not trying to spread panic about it," Verge said. "Just like the oncoming of a hurricane ... it's just called preparedness."

Pro-chicken sentiment
At her shop on Duval Street, The Chicken Store, Sheehan lets chickens roam in one room and nurses injured birds back to health. She also sells pro-chicken merchandise, including "Choose Freedom" stickers, and will pick up nuisance birds for a small fee. Her van's license plate reads "The Chix," and a bumper sticker proclaims: "This too will pass KW Chickens are forever."

Sheehan agreed the island's chicken population needs to be managed so that it does not get out of hand, but she argued that the birds should be considered part of its character.

"I love 'em," 67-year-old James Matthew Chapman, who grew up in Key West, said while feeding a small flock in his yard. He shrugged off the risk of bird flu: "It hasn't killed me yet."

David Lane is not as fond of the fowl and the constant crowing and said he is concerned about bird flu. Over the past six years he has joined with a neighbor to hire a chicken catcher and trapped some 40 birds himself.

"I have another neighbor who has tried various poisons. I have another neighbor who has a sling shot," he said.

At the restaurant Ricky's Blue Heaven, chickens wander around the outside tables and at least one bold bird is said to have stolen a diner's banana bread.

"Face it, they're pretty filthy. They're a nuisance," said Holly Shea, who works at the restaurant. "But there's something very islandy and Third World and magical about having wildlife roaming, even if it's only a chicken."

Tourists especially seem to find the wild chickens charming, pointing at them from cars or as they pass the birds on the street.

"You expect to see it when you come. It's a little bit of history," said Marlene Kozlowski, visiting from Michigan.

But Verge has this answer for tourists upset about the potential loss

Wow.....here is a messed-up government cover-up !!!

http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=411996&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=


Three bird flu patients admitted to PIMS(PAKISTAN)
MUHAMMAD BILAL & ZIA M KHAN
ISLAMABAD (April 19 2006): The first ever case of bird flu in human beings appeared in Pakistan as three patients with the apparent symptoms of deadly Avian Influenza were admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday, sources said.

The victims identified as 22-year-old Sayed Wali, his sister Haleema, eight, and another woman Khadija, 44, were brought to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

All three hails from Sihala village near Islamabad where the government confirmed H5N1 strain in birds on Sunday, sources told Business Recorder.

The administration of the hospital has, however, very tactfully attempted to camouflage the incident by keeping these patients in one of the medical wards rather than treating them at the isolation ward meant for such cases.

The incident took place a day after federal Health Minister Nasir Khan ruled out the possibility of bird-to-human transmission of the virus.

It came two months after Pakistan first confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus in birds and seven months after World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that the bird flu with the intensity of killing up to 150 million people could hit South and Southeast Asia.

The government and its agencies - health and food ministries - have so far been telling people not to give up eating cooked chickens and eggs in a desperate attempt to save Rs 70 billion per annum poultry industry. After receiving a call from a source informing the incident, when these correspondents approached PIMS high ups for confirmation they denied any such case.

Health Minister Nasir Khan and PIMS Executive Director Dr Fazl-e-Hadi did not bother to receive telephone calls from these correspondents. PIMS Spokesperson Dr Wasim Khwaja when approached on telephone neither confirmed nor denied the case with a view that it was a sensitive matter and he could not comment on it.

When insisted, he referred these correspondents to his deputy Dr Ghulam Akbar, who at that time was on duty at the hospital.

When he was approached at his office, he refused to say even a single word about the incident.

"Look! I don't want to talk about it. We have strict directives from our administration not to disclose anything to media," he repeated this sentence in reply to many queries by these scribes.

Before that when the isolation ward was visited, doctor on the duty Abdullah denied he had received any patient from Sihala area with the Avian Influenza symptoms.

Everything appeared to be normal at the isolation ward and there didn't look to be an emergency or alarm situation.

Dr Abdullah said if any patient of bird flu came to the hospital, he or she would be treated at this ward and at the moment there was no such case.

When these correspondents went to the Medical-B Ward, the signs of suspicion appeared. First, when asked to identify the attendants of bird flu patients, the staff nurse at the duty unconsciously said, "They were here just now."

But later when she came to know the gentlemen she was talking to were from media, the nurse sought an excuse and kept a mum thereon.

She, however, didn't let these scribes to visit a corridor that was blocked by keeping a notice board in the way and said it was a prohibited area. Some other attendants with the patients in the ward confirmed that an isolation ward was established in four rooms and patients were shifted from there on late Tuesday evening.

Experts believe the government's position that the chickens and eggs were still a safe food was not right and the people should stop taking them immediately.

Got an e-mail at work yesterday with a Q&A on bird flu and guidelines and precautions to take when travelling overseas. My company has operations in Europe and Asia and some people travel there frequently.

Not saying this means anything, just found it interesting.

Hammer

Hammer said:

Got an e-mail at work yesterday with a Q&A on bird flu and guidelines and precautions to take when travelling overseas. My company has operations in Europe and Asia and some people travel there frequently.

Not saying this means anything, just found it interesting.

Hammer

Click to expand...

This was in my e-mail this morning:

Avian Flu Update

The avian or bird flu has received extensive coverage in the media worldwide. Currently, the virus has affected poultry and wild birds on several continents--from East Asia to Eastern Europe. About 180 cases of humans infected with the avian flu have been reported in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. However, bird-to-human transmissions remain relatively rare.


To date, no ('company name omited') employee has been diagnosed with the avian flu. ('company name omited')'s Corporate Medical team considers the risk of an employee contracting the avian flu extremely low. We will continue to monitor the progression of the infection and provide updates when necessary.


What can I do to protect myself from the avian flu or other respiratory infections?
There are many common sense practices that we can all do to protect ourselves from any respiratory infections. These practices include:

Washing your hands frequently with soap and water, especially after using the bathroom and before eating meals. Where available, you can also use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough/sneeze or cough/sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hand. If you do cough/sneeze into your hands or touch soiled tissues/handkerchiefs, wash your hands immediately.

If you have a fever or other flu-like symptoms, stay home. This will help prevent the spread of your infection to your co-workers.

When traveling to countries where avian flu cases have been reported, do not eat raw or uncooked poultry or poultry products (i.e., eggs or raw duck blood) and avoid contact with live poultry or wild birds.

For more information about avian flu, you can review a list of frequently asked questions prepared by the Corporate Medical team.

Honestly, I find it remarkable that they are addressing BF. I have a good boss, but in general the company (corporately), is so tight that they do not expend energy anywhere that they do not see as important... so, this can be considered a 'dot'

USA

Government won't wait for tests before killing flocks suspected of bird flu ​

Posted 4/19/2006 11:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — If deadly bird flu shows up in U.S. chickens or turkeys, the government will kill off any flocks suspected of having the virus even before tests are completed, officials said Wednesday.

If bird flu arrives, "quick detection will be key to quickly containing it and eradicating it," said Ron DeHaven, head of the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A virulent strain of bird flu spreading through Asia, Europe and Africa has killed more than 100 people and hundreds of millions of birds.

Most of America's chickens come from big commercial farms that are well-protected against the spread of disease. Yet there are many small backyard and free-range flocks — as many as 60,000 in Los Angeles alone — where birds are outdoors and are harder to protect.

Officials encourage those producers to bring flocks inside and watch for signs of flu — dead birds, lack of appetite, purple wattles and legs, coughing and sneezing, diarrhea — and report them to state or federal authorities.

"We can't afford for this virus to be smoldering six months before we find it," DeHaven said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The government is testing more wild birds than usual, as many as 100,000 this year, and the industry is testing every commercial flock for the virus.

If the virus turns up in commercial chickens or turkeys, the government plans to quarantine the farm, restrict bird movements within about two miles and boost testing within about six miles.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-04-19-birdflu_x.htm

Vietnam

Precautions as bird flu specter again in Vietnam
Vietnam will clamp down on import of poultry through border gates since there is a high risk of bird flu returning, a government official said Wednesday. ​

Trinh Quan Huan, deputy health minister, said the ministry would supply thermal sensors for detecting fevers to quarantine offices at the gates.

Vietnam was again on alert due to slack control over the slaughter, trade, and transport of poultry in certain regions, including border provinces, the National Anti-Bird flu Steering Committee admitted.

The country has vaccinated 33 million fowls in 30 cities and provinces against bird flu since February.

Last year the deadly disease raged through 44 cities and provinces, killing and leading to the forced culling of nearly 4.8 million poultry, or over 2 percent of the country's fowl population.

No bird flu outbreaks had been found for over four months among the 220 million poultry population, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry said.

Reported by Lien Chau – Translated by Ha Viet


Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 19 April, 2006, 22:14:01 (GMT+7)

http://www.thanhniennews.com/print.php?catid=8&newsid=14654

PCViking said:

Government won't wait for tests before killing flocks suspected of bird flu ​

Posted 4/19/2006 11:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — If deadly bird flu shows up in U.S. chickens or turkeys, the government will kill off any flocks suspected of having the virus even before tests are completed, officials said Wednesday.

If bird flu arrives, "quick detection will be key to quickly containing it and eradicating it," said Ron DeHaven, head of the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A virulent strain of bird flu spreading through Asia, Europe and Africa has killed more than 100 people and hundreds of millions of birds.

Most of America's chickens come from big commercial farms that are well-protected against the spread of disease. Yet there are many small backyard and free-range flocks — as many as 60,000 in Los Angeles alone — where birds are outdoors and are harder to protect.

Officials encourage those producers to bring flocks inside and watch for signs of flu — dead birds, lack of appetite, purple wattles and legs, coughing and sneezing, diarrhea — and report them to state or federal authorities.

"We can't afford for this virus to be smoldering six months before we find it," DeHaven said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The government is testing more wild birds than usual, as many as 100,000 this year, and the industry is testing every commercial flock for the virus.

If the virus turns up in commercial chickens or turkeys, the government plans to quarantine the farm, restrict bird movements within about two miles and boost testing within about six miles.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-04-19-birdflu_x.htm

Click to expand...

Geesh, didn't good 'ole Julie at the CDC just tell us that the threat was over, no need to panic, move along...

Link to tomorrows (4/20) Bird Flu thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=194243