Discussion
Spring brings migratory birds back. There has been much talk about the birdflu and the pandemia fear,but what are the measures they are using it to prevent the decease? Vaccinations do not exist and if they do have something it will probably be given to members of the parliament first. I read about the flu and one of the research say that the possibility is that 30 procent of the worlds population may die to the decease if it spreads. Gloomy eh?
Jonna_Rex said:
Spring brings migratory birds back. There has been much talk about the birdflu and the pandemia fear,but what are the measures they are using it to prevent the decease? Vaccinations do not exist and if they do have something it will probably be given to members of the parliament first. I read about the flu and one of the research say that the possibility is that 30 procent of the worlds population may die to the decease if it spreads. Gloomy eh?
Ok couple of facts to counteract the Daily Mail and similar paper's line of "we're all going to die!".
Bird flu (I'll use the colloquialism for the purposes of this) can only be caught from very close contact with infected birds. There is a very low transmission rate from infected birds to people. Unless you work in a poultry farm you're probably going to be ok.
The problem that may exist is the disease moving from one species to another, in this case birds to humans. If that happens, there will be a totally new form of flu.
This new form of flu could be utterly mild and no more than a cold. It could be fatal to 100% of people who catch it (of course neither of these extremes is likely). The disease that everyone is worried about DOESNT EXIST YET.
Thats right guys and girls, until it crosses the species barrier and becomes infectious from human to human, its not really an issue, you can catch FAR worse from animals (ebola, lyme disease, rabies etc etc).
The reason there is no cure and no vaccine is because its a non-existent illness, when it does exist it might be nasty (probably will be if it follows the patern of other pandemic flus which we think came from birds and retains the effects of the current bird virus in humans), it might not be too bad.
Until it exists we've no real way of knowing....
Jonna_Rex said:
Spring brings migratory birds back. There has been much talk about the birdflu and the pandemia fear,but what are the measures they are using it to prevent the decease? Vaccinations do not exist and if they do have something it will probably be given to members of the parliament first. I read about the flu and one of the research say that the possibility is that 30 procent of the worlds population may die to the decease if it spreads. Gloomy eh?
Nothing to worry about, just plenty of scare mongering. So long as it stays confined to birds we'll be just dandy.
Boosted.
Boosted Ls1 said:
Spring brings migratory birds back. There has been much talk about the birdflu and the pandemia fear,but what are the measures they are using it to prevent the decease? Vaccinations do not exist and if they do have something it will probably be given to members of the parliament first. I read about the flu and one of the research say that the possibility is that 30 procent of the worlds population may die to the decease if it spreads. Gloomy eh?
Nothing to worry about, just plenty of scare mongering. So long as it stays confined to birds we'll be just dandy.
Boosted.
And if, as many viruses can, it jumps from birds to humans, as it already has....?
anonymous said:
[redacted]
The strain that birds have that jumps to humans isnt a human-human strain, so very few people will get infected(and die) - it seems to have 50% mortality or so.
IF it mutates to human-human it'll be a whole new disease that will probably be less virulent, and viruses tend to weaken as they spread. No one knows if or when it will mutate or how dangerous it'll be.
Remember normal flu kills people too.
hedders said:It's all to do with natural selection. Of the millions of new virii being 'born', some are slightly genetically different.
Unless you live with chickens etc you need not worry as it still hasn't made the jump from bird to human to another human.
There is no reason to expect it will as far as I can tell.
If these differences were cosmetic then they are unlikely to further the species. If the odd one or two virii gain the ability and have the opportunity to spread from person to person then all of their descendents will also have this ability.
Incidentally, apparently ALL flu can be traced back to birds - and the current common flu spreads quite happily between people.
Furthermore, the real risk to a pandemic is the people who SURVIVE it as they are the ones who keep the virus in a human environment longer, giving more time for evolution of the virus. The poor souls who perish with the virus most likely take the stronger versions of the virus with them.
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