Bird Flu preparations

What are you doing to prepare for the possible mutation of the Bird Flu (H5N1) into a human to human transmissable virus?
I have begun putting away non perishable foodstuffs. The goal is enough for 3 months for my family of four. This would permit a 3 month quarantine so that no human contact would be necessary until a vaccine is found or the pandemic burns itself out. I don't know if 3 months would be sufficent...might have to increase it to 6 months.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/AvianFlu/story?id=1724801

 

Persoanlly Iam not worried, and American media does not scare me either with their stories. Actually if you watch American news they mostly tell you bad things. What you are doing is pretty smart but myself I am not worried plus I dont beleive the bird flu evan got to North America yet, I may be wrong.

 

I generally tend to ignore the hysteria of the masses. Besides, a pandemic of some sort is overdue, and would also take care of the rapid population growth.

Nature automatically adjust all other animal populations when left to do so, so why shouldn't it be the case with Homo Sapiens?

 

Would the black death count? (donno how to spell bubonic plague, its the same thing) Appretnly some people had a gene mutation the prevented them from getting the disease. Althought the immunity was rare it is evan more rare today but exhists. That is why some people will never get AIDS, (if they have both of those genes mutated) and if only 1 gene is mutated the disease will stay at the point of HIV and will not develop into AIDS. Those that had that 1 gene (not the pair) mutated could be infected by the plague but wouldmost likely fight it off.

 

You can go to Hungary. They developed vaccine for H5N1 version of bird flue.

 

umm how much for a ticket from Detroit to Budapest? Nah Iam just kidding I am not going to Hungary, if Im going to the Easter Europe area I'll go to Poland or ukraine.

When did they develop this vaccine? Does it actually work on humans? or is it just for the chickens? :smok:

 

They were making some fuss a couple of months ago. I belive that even their PM went for a shot for demo purposes.

 

That vaccine, if it works, is for the H5N1 strain which is not human to human transmissable, at least not easily. It will be useless if a human flu mutates, as is possible, some say probable.

 

It's not about hysteria. It's about taking prudent precautions IMO . It's not just the US media either. Read what the WHO, the UN and the CDC say about the possibility of a pandemic.

 

who ro what is the CDC, because I have never heard of it.

 

Grieg
The medias are blowing WHO, et al.'s recomendations so far out of proportion that it is borderline arnarchism.

The mortality rate and ease of spreading - even if it should mutate so that humans can be a carrier - is not nearly as bad as people make it.

Common flu kills many thousands every year, as does AIDS, and both are easier to catch.

Ebola is far deadlier and will infect you far easier - not to mention the fact that it has still killed more peoplethan bird flu, and that (last I heard) there is still an active outbreak in Africa which has raged for more than a year (though it is under control).

Of all illnesses, cancer is by far the greatest killer of all, yet there is no where near the panic over cancer (even though it isn't virulent, some types of cancer can still be inherited and others yet are caused by long-term exposures to chemicals in everyday goods).

Living is dangerous - it will get you killed.

Gunter
CDC: Center for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov

 

People should just calm down, if your gonna worry yourself silly over every disease, and everything that can harm you, you will become a total freak like MJ.

Oh okey I heard of CDC, except only in a movie about gay people and aids evan forgot the name of it.

 

Precautions?

I for one, will be boycotting hen-parties! :lol:

 

I'll be sure to spend an extra hour or two in a dark room with a computer.

 

well, i have nothing to fear. in the past decade we in belgium had all kind of things going wrong with our chickens, ducks and other kinds of birds.
take our chickens for example. they are filled whit dioxines, PCB's, motoroil, birdpest, hormones, they getting poluted food,.......
hell, it will be a mirical if H5N1 is going to survive in our chickens
anyway, you can't stop H5N1.this thing is comming our way. it's a form af natural selection. i just wait and see. and if you excuse me, time to eat my chickens

 

You said it Quilin, I also ate beef during the madcow disease and paw and mouth (name?) disease crisises.... still alive and kicking.
Should I have to die from some disease I might as well have gotten it from a tasty piece of meat.
No one lives for ever, but meat always tastes good.

 

If your going to die because of an animal, at least die on a full stomach.

Ya the media esspecially American blow everything out of proportion.

SARS- told people not to go to anywhere in Canada. that was not cool
Mold- Killer mold in your home? Is it poisining your family? Well I had mold I dont know I seem to be still alive
Becteria- oh when they tested the bacteria on things, for example tyheir offices and they were REALLY DIRTY, why because they are all BS ironically.

etc etc etc make the stupidest things into the biggest deals because the media always tries to scare people otherwise no1 will watch their programs.

 

The media does overhype things and even distort. My opinions on the subject don't come from the news media though. I work in the medical field. I'm very aware of infectious diseases and how they spread.
Comparing this virus to common influenza is pointless. Nobody knows at this point whether or not it will mutate and become easily transmissable between humans such as the common flu(experts in the field think it is likely) and nobody knows, if it occurs, how virulent it will be in it's mutated form. The danger is that it will mutate and retain it's presnt virulence. Presently it kills 50 to 60 % of those it infects.
Ebola virus is pretty scary however it kills so quickly that it tends to burn itself out rather quickly and also is naturally found only in monkeys which is an animal that most humans don't come into contact with. The H5N1 virus infects billions of birds already and will come into contact with many humans increasing the liklihood of it mutating.

There is no hysteria or paranoia in making preparations which are relatively easy and painless. Set aside nonperishable food items and water just in case. They are easy now..if the disease were to start spreading through the human population panic will set in and you will find it most difficult to prepare when all the people who discounted the danger before suddenly realize that it is upon them.
I hope it doesn't happen. It could very well be that this virus just goes away. I'm not betting my life or my families life on it though.

 

well, everybody has to make it's own choice. you can either bed it isn't going to be jumping from human to human or it's just going to be like a common flu or becomes a killer virus.
as for me. i just see what happens. i'm studying biomedical sciences (so they train me to develop new medical tools, new drugs,... all the medical and science stuff combined.) last year a part of my lessons was biology. in that we saw all kinds of parasites. just imagine. there are killer worms and organisms in all meat, all fishes, every weed,... i could panic (like some of my fellow students did for a while, that was fun ) and say that i won't eat those things no more but after three weeks that would mean that i shouldn't eat anything anymore :-? (see my point is, you can die horribly everytime you eat a nice steak, a piece of pic, some salad, some fish,.... it's a battle between us and the viruses, worms and bacterias everyday)

but as i said. everybody has to make his own choice. if that means you want to be prepared for the worst then that is fine. cause when it's going to be the worst, you are at least prepared for it.

 

As far as buying into the media hype goes..I don't think this guy is basing his decisions on media hype inasmuch as he is recognized as one of the foremost experts in the field.