avian flu?

paddy

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Oct 4, 2003
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with all this talk on cnn and other newscasts about a impending pandemic that could take place in regards to the avian flu..i was wondering what sort of measures the goverment in the dr is taking to prevent this from happening on that beautiful island. the dominican people need to be informed of this danger that these birds ( chickens) pose to their health..some countries even monitor cockfights.
 

paddy

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Oct 4, 2003
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scary..

since chickens are such a big part of the dominican culture and cuisine...i felt that it is a important issue to address...the hope being that someone from the government would read my post and respond. this strain of flu made the front cover of national geographic magazine..with a great article that amongst other things says that scientists feel that the pig is the "mixing bowl" that enables this virus to leap from chickens to humans....aside from eating the infected birds. scary for the world.
 

Conchman

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Jul 3, 2002
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Well good thing is that I dont think there have been any incidences of bird flue in the western hemisphere (correct me if I"m wrong).

How easy is it transmitted from person to person?
 

Mirador

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with all this talk on cnn and other newscasts about a impending pandemic that could take place in regards to the avian flu..i was wondering what sort of measures the goverment in the dr is taking to prevent this from happening on that beautiful island. the dominican people need to be informed of this danger that these birds ( chickens) pose to their health..some countries even monitor cockfights.

In the summer of 1918, my father, as a twelve-year-old child, tells me that along with his brothers and sisters, mother and father, travelled to their ancestral village of Las Yayitas, on the foothills north of Azua, to get away from the Spanish Flu, an epidemic that affected half the population of the Earth, killing more people than WWI. Late in the year the epidemic abated, and my father along with his family returned to civilization, to the city of San Pedro de Macor?s.
 

rellosk

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Mar 18, 2002
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paddy said:
Paddy, my comment wasn't directed to your posting about the necessity of the government taking precautions, it was in response to you saying:
Paddy said:
...the hope being that someone from the government would read my post and respond.

How many people in the DR government do you think can read English? Of those do you actually think anyone from the DR government reads this board?
 

paddy

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Oct 4, 2003
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the article in the geographic magazine mentions the spanish flu outbreak.."except for a few pacific islanders,everyone on earth was exposed to the disease,and half got sick." many believe "birds" were the culprit...50 million people died.
 

heldengebroed

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Mar 9, 2005
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Conchman said:
Well good thing is that I dont think there have been any incidences of bird flue in the western hemisphere (correct me if I"m wrong).

How easy is it transmitted from person to person?

deathcount in asia 65 the biggest fear is that the virus mutates and infection between humans is possible.

European health and farming organisations estimates that chickenflue will be imported in europe, including Great Brittian, within the next few months due to migration of wild birds.


Greetings


Johan
 

paddy

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Oct 4, 2003
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from what i read.." the h5n1 bird flu virus killing poultry and people in asia could cause the next global pandemic if it gains the ability to spread quickly from person to person.estimated deaths in such a pandemic range from 7.4 million to a apocalytic 180 million to 360 million,extrapolating 1918 deaths in todays population" todays air travel would only add to the mix.. and the question i have is...why is asia "ground zero"??...lots of countries have a love for poultry.
 

Stodgord

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Nov 19, 2004
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The US (president Bush) is planning to use the military at home to quarantine the disease. The threat must be very serious for the US to take this position so early on.
 

paddy

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Oct 4, 2003
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da ya think...

that maybe since bush expressed concern for this avian flu...the rest of the world will jump on the bandwagon..dr included??
 

Mirador

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Stodgord said:
The US (president Bush) is planning to use the military at home to quarantine the disease...

You don't quarantine a disease, you quarantine people suspected of harboring the pathogen (virus, etc) that causes the disease. Either the people will be restricted from leaving their area, or they will be forcefully prevented from entering a 'virus-free' area. Mad Max anyone?


"President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce the decision..."


[URL="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-04-bush-avianflu_x.htm[/URL]
 

Mirador

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Stodgord said:
Is this the samething as mosquillo that chickens get?

Here's an article by the Council on Foreign Relations that covers most of what you need to know about the Avian Flu virus...

"If an influenza pandemic struck today, borders would close, the global economy would shut down, international vaccine supplies and health-care systems would be overwhelmed, and panic would reign. To limit the fallout, the industrialized world must create a detailed response strategy involving the public and private sectors...."

Avian Flu
 

HOWMAR

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Jan 28, 2004
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Conchman said:
not any better or less prepared than the US
Right, I'm sure the Dominican Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Dominican National Institutes of Health (NIH) are hard at work right along with their US counterparts.
 

Mirador

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HOWMAR said:
Right, I'm sure the Dominican Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Dominican National Institutes of Health (NIH) are hard at work right along with their US counterparts.

Don't bank on it! On the contrary, the US is totally umprepared and is contemplating a military solution to the problem. It doesn't seem that a vaccine will be available...

Here's more on the virus and it's origin...

more on the Avian Flu virus from the BBC
 

HOWMAR

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Mirador said:
Don't bank on it! On the contrary, the US is totally umprepared and is contemplating a military solution to the problem. It doesn't seem that a vaccine will be available...
Nothing like yelling fire in a movie theater. The military proposal is just part of the planning, which includes the military as well as the public health sector. Isolation is only one proposal. Thought not likely to be very effective in a society such as the US. There are other plans, such as stockpiling of anti-viral agents, supportive therapy agents (IV fluids, etc.) and mobile mass casualty hospitals. All in the event the virus does mutate to heman to human transmission and a vaccine is not developed. The high death rate of the 1916 epidemic probably will be lessened by the advances in supportive therapy of the 21st century. Even though there may be no vaccine to prevent the infection, good hospital care will probably save many which would have died in the past. To say the US is totally unprepared is probably not correct. To say the DR is on the same level of preparedness as the US is not correct also.
 

Mirador

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HOWMAR said:
Nothing like yelling fire in a movie theater. The military proposal is just part of the planning, which includes the military as well as the public health sector. Isolation is only one proposal. Thought not likely to be very effective in a society such as the US. There are other plans, such as stockpiling of anti-viral agents, supportive therapy agents (IV fluids, etc.) and mobile mass casualty hospitals. All in the event the virus does mutate to heman to human transmission and a vaccine is not developed. The high death rate of the 1916 epidemic probably will be lessened by the advances in supportive therapy of the 21st century. Even though there may be no vaccine to prevent the infection, good hospital care will probably save many which would have died in the past. To say the US is totally unprepared is probably not correct. To say the DR is on the same level of preparedness as the US is not correct also.


You sound like a FEMA public relations spokesperson... Are you telling us that we should just sit back and trust our governments to defend us from this coming pandemic? Avian Flu human infection has a mortality rate of around 50%, and the only known agent being used to treat it is Tamiflu. The US expects to have 2.5 million treatment courses of this antibiotic within a year, for a populations of over 270 million. Also, there's new evidence that the strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus infecting humans is showing increasing resistence to Tamiflu.