Thursday, August 23, 2007

August 23 Flu Update

Next Update, Monday, August 27

WHO says infectious diseases emerging more, spreading faster.

WHO also says a pandemic of some kind is growing more likely.

Meanwhile, the Washington Times says a pandemic is less likely.

ProMed on suspected H5N1 in birds in Israel.

ProMed on Bali case.

Sign of the times--New York is seeking public input on its ventilator allocation program.

GSK and Novartis may have been leapfrogged in the race for new vaccine technology.

The Ontario government has bought respirators to protect nurses in the province during infectious disease.

Monterey County, CA is doing flu prep with a summit.

Revere blogs on closing the borders during a pandemic....and how the North American plays says this would fail to stop the disease (it would) and hurt the economy.

Guam is also doing flu prep.

1 Comments:

At 6:33 PM, Blogger Wulfgang said...

Orange;

Infectious diseases emerging more, spreading faster, a pandemic of some kind growing more likely, says the WHO – but the Washington Times article essentially says, a pandemic is less likely, based on some scientific research done at St. Jude. Hmm.

I have a confession to make: I don’t just follow the spread of H5N1. I have followed all outbreaks of diseases, all across the world, for over two years, because I’m both curious and concerned. It’s my macabre hobby. (For most of my travel and vacations, I just sit on my sofa, and watch the Travel Channel, but that’s beside the point)

Why would I consume a heck of lot of time tracking world disease outbreaks ? Because as the WHO states: there is an unprecedented number of new diseases and epidemics being reported worldwide, in the MSM. The majority of them are becoming, or already are, drug resistant. The list is actually quite startling.

The likelihood of one of these diseases effecting each one of us, or our family, grows with each passing year, and truly either ourselves, or our family members will be impacted during our lifetime. It is almost a certainty, in my view. Nah, I don’t sit around fretting with an N95 on, I just find it fascinating.

Unfortunately, the latest scientific news report out of St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, is being misinterpreted and reported optimistically by the news media. The report itself was excellent (and so is the institution), but the findings are incomplete (at least in my opinion. Once the onion is pealed, layer by layer, well, the conclusion is not quite so optimistic.

Finally, Revere is correct in his conclusion about the “North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza”: it’s all about preserving economic stability and keeping the commerce flowing, between the three countries during any pandemic condition. Should this be the highest pandemic priority – absolutely not – it should be preserving the health care system and saving lives and keeping people healthy. Money and wealth are not the most important things in life – next time you’re severely ill, ask yourself whether you want to be healthy... or wealthy. Easy answer.

If I were tasked to construct such a plan, it would have a totally different emphasis and set of universal provisions.

It would make a whole lot of sense, be specific and be fully implementable.

Wulfgang

 

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