Pandemic News/Awareness - Thread 3

Nurses General Nursing

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Due to circumstances beyond my control, computer glitch (?), the length

of the former thread (Thread 2), and the tremendous amount of new

information coming in at this time, it is probably necessary to start a new

thread on Avian Influenza Awareness.

I pulled out the following commentary from an earlier thread regarding

a rather chilling video (at least to me), given by Dr. Margaret Chan. The

information is not current as the video was shot in February 2007, but

what she has to say is still pertinent considering how much further the

spread of H5N1 has grown. It is now on three continents with a CFR (case

fatality rate) for human beings of over 60%. It is still however, primarily

a bird disease, but that may be changing.

From Margaret Chan MD, Director-General of the World Health Organization:

I did not attend the CIDRAP Conference in February, 2007 where this video

was shown. I almost got there, but changed my plans at the last minute.

Dr. Chan will appear in a screen to your right. You do not have to press

any buttons, just wait for the screen to appear, and for her presentation

to begin. You do not have to be a subscriber for the video to play.

Just be patient for a few seconds and view it.

I have to say that even though everything Dr. Chan is saying in this

presentation is well known to me, just hearing her speak so

clearly and honestly of what might occur, has shaken me. Though

many who research this information will say that her estimates

of the possible future cases may be too conservative, the numbers are

still hugh. This event will change the world, and challenge all of us.

The video will take 16 minutes of your time. I hope that the

very serious nature of Dr. Chan's message will cut thru the apathy and

disbelief about the possibility of H5N1 triggering the next pandemic,

and encourage some individual planning and family preparation.

Share it with people that you care about.

https://umconnect.umn.edu/chan

(hat tip crofsblog)

Specializes in Too many to list.

Another Bird Flu

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/12/hong-kong-baby-tests-positive-for-h9.html

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/12/revisiting-malik-peiris-interview-on.html

The worst influenza pandemic in recent history occurred in 1918, and upwards of fifty million people died across the globe. It was an avian flu virus, H1N1. When these viruses appear, scientists take notice. Currently the big concern is H5N1, spreading throughout three continents, there are many opportunities for bird to human contact and the possibility of human infection is always a fear. As these two links indicate there are other bird flu viruses that appear from time to time. The H9 virus is just one of them, and humans can be infected. Just how transmissible they are, and how virulent, are part of the concern, but most of all as the quote below illustrates the biggest worry is co-infection of a human host with two different flu viruses in which one virus picks up information from another virus.

...viruses, particularly single strand RNA viruses like the influenzas, mutate all the time. They pick up, and discard, genetic bits as they move from host to host, and they make errors in replication.

This happens countless trillions of times every day.

Most of the time, these changes go nowhere. They either have no effect on the virus, or they are evolutionary dead-ends, rendering it less capable of replication and transmission.

Every once in a great while, however, a virus hits the jackpot.

The right combination of genetic changes occurs to make it highly transmissible, and capable of causing significant morbidity and mortality.

Specializes in Too many to list.

What Made the 1918 Flu a Killer Virus

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/12/another_flu_paper_that_unlocks.php

Last post for 2008 is this study on H1N1, the most famous influenza virus of modern times. No one has been able to say with any certainty just how this bird virus managed to be so deadly to humans. The Reveres attempt to explain what this research is showing us about the genes of the 1918 influenza.

Specializes in Too many to list.
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