UPDATE - Avian Flu

We went into our doctor's office today to ask for antibiotics in the event that a physician was not readily available immediately after a terrorist attack, natural disaster, economic collapse, etc. Thankfully, he's a "End Times" guy and didn't think we were crazy.

He said that he couldn't issue a prescription to someone that doesn't have the illness that the antibiotic is intended to cure. The medical board could discipline him for this sort of thing.

Then he said ... "You know, I'd be more concerned about Avian Flu." I inquired what he meant.

He said that in the event of an Avian Flu outbreak, it would be virtually impossible to find a practicing doctor. He said that, according to major medical research, it's projected that the Avian Flu will kill at least 80% of those that contract it. He said you'd be hard pressed to find a doctor that will see anyone for any reason in fear they would catch Avian Flu.

So, according to him, not only will Avian Flu kill many, many people ... it will also virtually stop medical diagnoses of Avian Flu and non-Avian Flu sufferers. It may not be the Avian Flu that gets you ... it might be the undiagnosed pneumonia.

Wow!

I believe you can still get antibiotics at farm stores (for animal use, but still OK for humans)

Also natural remedies for flu symptoms can be gotten at health food stores. Black Elderberry, Eyebright Bilberry, and Oregano Oil are all good for upper respiratory health/ treatment.

You know some doctors prescribe antibiotics for the sniffles. That's why we have so many drug resistant strains and is probably why medical boards are uptight about this issue. Too bad he couldn't make an exception, knowing your purposes.

0well, that pretty much sucks. stay hoome, wear a mask, when you go out side,. and stay way from people , take your vitamins. is about all you can do.

well, that pretty much sucks. stay hoome, wear a mask, when you go out side,. and stay way from people , take your vitamins. is about all you can do.
self quarntine.

When was the last time you needed antibiotics for a life-threatening illness? Probably not often unless you are immune-compromised.

It's not often you'd find a doomer doctor, why not make friends and include him in your plans? Of course a doctor is only as good as his supplies and instruments for the most part, I suppose not too many of them are trained in lowtech methods.

Folks,

Antibiotics wont treat a viral infection.

The pheumonia associated with H5N1 is due to the bodies own immune response being overwhelmed by rapidly replicating H5N1 virus such that the body overproduces antibidies (cytokines) causing inflamation, ruture of capilliarues and fluid buld up.

I havent seen a study supporting an 80% kill rate, 50% maybe but probably more like 10% or so in the general population and higher for the very young and very old or those with compromised immune systems.

yes I have seen reports this high..all the papers do thier % based on the 1918 pandemic, but the H5N1 so far has had a higher rate of deaths...and no one knows for sure when it mutates where or not the rate will go higher or lower...when in a situation like this I would go towards the higher side, better to be safe then sorry..

Ineresting comments about flu and Vitamin D in this article

Vitamin D in a New Light

by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD


New research suggests that influenza is also a disease triggered by vitamin D deficiency. Influenza virus exists in the population year-round, but influenza epidemics are seasonal and occur only in the winter (in northern latitudes), when vitamin D blood levels are at their nadir. Vitamin D-expressed genes instruct macrophages, the front-line defenders in the innate immune system, to make antimicrobial peptides, which are like antibiotics (Science 2006;311:1770–1773). These peptides attack and destroy influenza virus particles, and in human carriers keep it at bay. (Neutrophils and natural killer cells in the innate immune system and epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract also synthesize these virucidal peptides.) Other vitamin D-expressed genes rein in macrophages fighting an infection to keep them from overreacting and releasing too many inflammatory agents (cytokines) that can damage infected tissue. In the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people, of which 500,000 were Americans, young healthy adults (as happened to my 22-year-old grandmother) would wake up in the morning feeling well, start drowning in their own inflammation as the day wore on, and be dead by midnight. Autopsies showed complete destruction of the epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract due, as researchers now know, to a macrophage-induced overly severe inflammatory reaction to the virus. These flu victims were attacked and killed by their own immune system, something researchers have found vitamin D can prevent (Epidemiol Infect 2006;134:1129–1140).

Randomized clinical trials need to be done to test the vitamin D theory of influenza. With what we know now, however, perhaps an annual shot of 600,000 IU of vitamin D (Med J Aust 2005;183:10–12) would be more effective in preventing influenza than a jab of flu vaccine.

More at link;
http://www.lewrockwell.com/miller/miller25.html

Pneumonia

One thing you can get now is a pneumonia vaccine. It is good for 10 years and protects against getting a secondary infection. Everyone should get this.

Also do some research on Vitamin D, there have been some medical studies that suggest dosages of 2000mg a day can prevent flu.

To get you started:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php

Yep

I'm lucky as I'm immune-compromised! I'm less likely to die from Avian Flu than a healthy person.


People still don't seem to get it that it is your own immune system that kills you if you get Bird Flu.


The thing that could save you is a clean system with the right blood PH.

Abert said:

One thing you can get now is a pneumonia vaccine. It is good for 10 years and protects against getting a secondary infection. Everyone should get this.

Also do some research on Vitamin D, there have been some medical studies that suggest dosages of 2000mg a day can prevent flu.

To get you started:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php

Click to expand...

One must be careful taking Vitamin D, can be deadly if taken in large doses.

Bill P said:

Folks,

I havent seen a study supporting an 80% kill rate, 50% maybe but probably more like 10% or so in the general population and higher for the very young and very old or those with compromised immune systems.

Click to expand...

China Connection said:

I'm lucky as I'm immune-compromised! I'm less likely to die from Avian Flu than a healthy person.


People still don't seem to get it that it is your own immune system that kills you if you get Bird Flu.

.

Click to expand...

So far the mortality rate has been about 50% worldwide the last time I checked, although human to human transmission is fortunately still rare. The mortality rate is indeed higher among young healthy adults.

Vitamin D

Meggsie said:

One must be careful taking Vitamin D, can be deadly if taken in large doses.

Click to expand...

The official max dose is 2000mg /day. Most researchers feel the safe max dose may be 10 to 20 times that amount - check the current research.

The experiment with inmates was within the official dose and was 100% effective in preventing them from getting the flu.

http://safecastle.blogspot.com/2007/09/global-fatality-rate-from-bird-flu-at.html

The global fatality rate from H5N1 is at 61%, as reported by the World Health Organization this week.

Bill P said:

Folks,

Antibiotics wont treat a viral infection.

The pheumonia associated with H5N1 is due to the bodies own immune response being overwhelmed by rapidly replicating H5N1 virus such that the body overproduces antibidies (cytokines) causing inflamation, ruture of capilliarues and fluid buld up.

I havent seen a study supporting an 80% kill rate, 50% maybe but probably more like 10% or so in the general population and higher for the very young and very old or those with compromised immune systems.

Click to expand...

Yes-- I too---have run the stats on the illnesses so far diagnosed and the death rate is about 60%---but I am attributing that---at this time-- to poor sanitation and deficient medical care. I am thinking Bill's numbers are fairly accurate at this time--as long as this thing doesn't get more lethal.

during flu season, i do not go out, and never leave my homestead. Now I do go out to my goats, and take care of my animals. but i do not leave the homestead. and haven't caught the flu in years.
i take vitamins, wash hands a great deal, during the flu season. the main thing is to issolate your self from the masses, if you have t ogo out int opublic, wear a mask. and a good one, at that. then shower as soon as you get home, and wash your cloths. I prep alot so I won't have t ogo out into public during flu season.

The pneumonia vaccine is usually limited to people over 50, with some exceptions for people at increased risk because of underlying problems. It protects against the most common type of bacterial pneumonia but does nothing for viral pneumonia, which fortunately accounts for only a small percentage of cases (perhaps 20%).

Mortality rates for avian flu are somewhat skewed by the Indonesian experience where somewhere around 80% of cases have proven fatal. What they are doing differently, or what changes there have been in the strain endemic there, have yet to be fully determined. It does seem safe to say, however, that a 10% global mortaility rate - of those who contract H5N1 on its first or 2nd pass around the world, may be the case. The 1918 flu saw lower mortality rates on the 1st and 3rd passes, with the 3rd pass causing the least number of fatalities as a percentage overall by a fair degree.

Antibiotics are useful against opportunistic infections, which do include pneumonia. They won't affect the flu per se but the flu alone is not always what causes death.

People should also be aware that as far as a source of antibiotics farm supply stores offer a very limited array that are useful for humans. Penicillin and Tetracycline are the most common found, and only in injectable form at that unless you wish to try swallowing Tetracycline calf boluses (they are huge).

RR

Watchingbear,

That is an excellent article on Vitamin D3 and checks with other articles I have read on the same subject.

I hope you folks recognize the value of the information that Watchingbear has presented to you regarding the value of Vitamin D3.

Keeping high-dose capsules in your medicine chest for immune system emergencies is a pretty good idea. (do not use the synthetic Vitamin D4 which becomes toxic in higher doses and is not nearly as effective as Vitamin D3. Vitamin D4 is used in some supplements because it is much cheaper than D3. Read labels and avoid those supplements.)

However, a good free source of high dose Vitamin D3 is the sun. Sufficient sun exposure of the skin is even more important in the winter, when most folks cover up tightly against the cold. However, even in the winter there are often bright sunny days that are fairly warm when you can find a sunny spot with no wind. Make a practice of getting out in the sun and exposing as much skin as morality and the law will allow.

Don't sunburn yourself -- that is counter-productive. Exposing your skin for 20 or 30 minutes in a day should be plenty. If you are very fair-skinned or have not gotten much sunshine lately, you should start cautiously with less time than that.

When I am in a hurry and don't have time to make a big production of sunbathing, I often just take off my shirt and t-shirt and work bare-backed out in the sun for a while -- but don't forget the time, or you'll be sorry.

The great nuclear furnace that is the sun is the source of all life on this planet, yet some folks think it is bad for you. Not so, unless you treat the great power of it unwisely.

Old Eagle

I have to say, one really good thing about homeschooling is that my child doesn't bring home all the little germs public school kids seem to be so good at passing among each other!!