The Flying Dutchman
Deceased
-
<i> You know folks; it is a real shame when *Pride* dictates in matters where the
disputed subject is also at the same time, information which is needful for us to know.
And from the lack of there being an avian thread on the board today; I can only conclude that if the H5N1 news; and an updated situation on it, is to be available to the Tb'ers perusal today.
I had better scramble and *go out* and find out what that news is.</i>
<B><center>Thursday, July 7, 2005
<font size=+1 color=red>Why mysterious pig deaths in Thailand are cause for alarm</font>
By JEFF NESMITH
<A href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/231490_flustorm07.html">COX NEWS SERVICE</A>
WASHINGTON -- During ordinary times, the mysterious deaths of pigs in a distant place might not have attracted so much attention.</B></center>
But because of fears that the world faces a pandemic of avian flu, a report three weeks ago about pig deaths in Khon Kaen, Thailand, found its way within hours to an Internet site frequented by U.S. scientists.
Seemingly healthy young hogs were dying abruptly, according to the report by the Thai News Agency. The animals fell into seizures, and their pink ears turned purple just before they died.
The Thai government has not said what killed the pigs, but "I'm betting cytokine storm," one visitor to the Web site commented.
The possible emergence of that frightening and lethal immune system reaction presents a fresh worry for health experts responsible for preparing for a possible avian flu pandemic and treating victims if it occurs.
Current prevention and treatment plans focus on the very young and very old. But about half the victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, thought to have triggered the reaction, were largely healthy and between 18 and 40.
In addition, a flu that caused widespread cases of cytokine storm would leave health authorities short of the medical equipment most needed to treat it.
In a cytokine storm, a healthy and vigorous immune system goes into an uncontrolled response to the flu virus. A biochemical "cascade" of cells and the products they release -- substances such as interferon, interleuken, monokines and cytokines -- floods into the lungs.
"The immune system sees this virus that it has never seen before, and it just goes bananas," said Laurie Garrett, a health writer and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Soon, the patient falls into a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in effect suffocating from his or her own disease-fighting chemistry.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, compares cytokine storm to what might happen if someone throws a match into a trash can.
"Somewhere a fire station is supposed to pick up a signal from the smoke alarm and respond," he said. "But imagine if every fire station in the city responded to the alarm and sent firemen into that room."
Since pigs easily contract strains of flu known to infect humans, experts say that if a pig becomes infected with both human flu and the deadly avian flu, the two strains could combine to produce a lethal human virus.
The experts fear that if the virus was able to pass between humans, it could rapidly spread around the world and kill hundreds of millions of people.
The great influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 was a global disaster of a similar scale, and Osterholm said that cytokine storm appears to be the reason it killed so many young, healthy people. There were reports at the time of young soldiers turning purple in the face and dying within a day of developing the flu.
He noted that influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968 produced U-shaped mortality curves, with deaths concentrated among very young and very old victims. This is the pattern seen in annual epidemics of "garden-variety flu," Osterholm said yesterday.
But in 1918, the mortality curve was W-shaped, he said. "You have this big rise in deaths of healthy young adults" in the middle.
Osterholm, who also is an associate director of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense of the federal Department of Homeland Security, described the cytokine storm phenomenon in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One reason the phenomenon frightens health officials is the fact that the recommended treatment for ARDS includes respiratory support with hospital ventilators.
There are 107,000 ventilators in all of America's hospitals, Osterholm said, and in an influenza pandemic the need could quickly reach 400,000 or more. There would be no way to get them manufactured on time, he said.
Wayne Wrolstad, national marketing director of Hamilton Medical Inc., one of about nine major manufacturers of hospital ventilators worldwide, said most companies build "10 to 16 per day" at a cost of about $25,000 each.
<i> You know folks; it is a real shame when *Pride* dictates in matters where the
disputed subject is also at the same time, information which is needful for us to know.
And from the lack of there being an avian thread on the board today; I can only conclude that if the H5N1 news; and an updated situation on it, is to be available to the Tb'ers perusal today.
I had better scramble and *go out* and find out what that news is.</i>
<B><center>Thursday, July 7, 2005
<font size=+1 color=red>Why mysterious pig deaths in Thailand are cause for alarm</font>
By JEFF NESMITH
<A href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/231490_flustorm07.html">COX NEWS SERVICE</A>
WASHINGTON -- During ordinary times, the mysterious deaths of pigs in a distant place might not have attracted so much attention.</B></center>
But because of fears that the world faces a pandemic of avian flu, a report three weeks ago about pig deaths in Khon Kaen, Thailand, found its way within hours to an Internet site frequented by U.S. scientists.
Seemingly healthy young hogs were dying abruptly, according to the report by the Thai News Agency. The animals fell into seizures, and their pink ears turned purple just before they died.
The Thai government has not said what killed the pigs, but "I'm betting cytokine storm," one visitor to the Web site commented.
The possible emergence of that frightening and lethal immune system reaction presents a fresh worry for health experts responsible for preparing for a possible avian flu pandemic and treating victims if it occurs.
Current prevention and treatment plans focus on the very young and very old. But about half the victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, thought to have triggered the reaction, were largely healthy and between 18 and 40.
In addition, a flu that caused widespread cases of cytokine storm would leave health authorities short of the medical equipment most needed to treat it.
In a cytokine storm, a healthy and vigorous immune system goes into an uncontrolled response to the flu virus. A biochemical "cascade" of cells and the products they release -- substances such as interferon, interleuken, monokines and cytokines -- floods into the lungs.
"The immune system sees this virus that it has never seen before, and it just goes bananas," said Laurie Garrett, a health writer and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Soon, the patient falls into a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in effect suffocating from his or her own disease-fighting chemistry.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, compares cytokine storm to what might happen if someone throws a match into a trash can.
"Somewhere a fire station is supposed to pick up a signal from the smoke alarm and respond," he said. "But imagine if every fire station in the city responded to the alarm and sent firemen into that room."
Since pigs easily contract strains of flu known to infect humans, experts say that if a pig becomes infected with both human flu and the deadly avian flu, the two strains could combine to produce a lethal human virus.
The experts fear that if the virus was able to pass between humans, it could rapidly spread around the world and kill hundreds of millions of people.
The great influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 was a global disaster of a similar scale, and Osterholm said that cytokine storm appears to be the reason it killed so many young, healthy people. There were reports at the time of young soldiers turning purple in the face and dying within a day of developing the flu.
He noted that influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968 produced U-shaped mortality curves, with deaths concentrated among very young and very old victims. This is the pattern seen in annual epidemics of "garden-variety flu," Osterholm said yesterday.
But in 1918, the mortality curve was W-shaped, he said. "You have this big rise in deaths of healthy young adults" in the middle.
Osterholm, who also is an associate director of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense of the federal Department of Homeland Security, described the cytokine storm phenomenon in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One reason the phenomenon frightens health officials is the fact that the recommended treatment for ARDS includes respiratory support with hospital ventilators.
There are 107,000 ventilators in all of America's hospitals, Osterholm said, and in an influenza pandemic the need could quickly reach 400,000 or more. There would be no way to get them manufactured on time, he said.
Wayne Wrolstad, national marketing director of Hamilton Medical Inc., one of about nine major manufacturers of hospital ventilators worldwide, said most companies build "10 to 16 per day" at a cost of about $25,000 each.