September 2 Flu Update
The EU has announced that it is continuing to monitor outbreaks in Bavaria.With some dead birds, there is still concern in Northern Thailand.
People in West Virginia are continuing to be prepared for any emergency.
Revere blogs the recent story on people in Hong Kong looking to prevent bird flu from spreading via air travel. Let's just say he's a skeptic.
Flu vaccine testing begin in Finland.
Site talks about US plans to use military to manage pandemic--and relates back to recent summit.
posted by Orange @ 10:02 PM
3 Comments:
Orange;
A couple of things to point out about your articles today…
First, the article out of Bangkok, Thailand, declaring that the chickens and ducks that died in Mae Hong Son province last week, was not due to bird flu, is to say the least, very suspicious. Notice that the Director of the “Livestock Dept”, Pirom Srichant, says “ if there are traces of bird flu, we should be told”, and he is sending 15 livestock officials to the area to investigate further. This has all the classic signs of “a failure to communicate”, as in Cool Hand Luke.
The article out of WV, which describes their emergency preparations – most excellent. Everyone notice the statement midway through the article ? It says, “ I wish we could revive the feelings we had as a nation in the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s… families prepared themselves while keeping a eye on their frail and elderly neighbors. Unfortunately today, most people don’t even know or have any association with their neighbors. I grew up in the timeframe mentioned in a rural farming community, and I can still tell you dozens, if not hundreds, of neighbor’s name’s, their family members, and what their occupation was. Neighbors watched out for each other back then. Not now. I’d be will to wager that 98% of the people now, really are not prepared financially, emotionally or physically, for a significant emergency. Most are preoccupied about accumulating material “stuff” and worried about what other people think about them. Just my opinion.
Revere’s article on the travel and airline industry, in particular, really hits the issue of infectious passengers and preventative measures being considered, right on the nail head. I am afraid that if we started seeing multiple clusters of H2H bird flu infections, in say Indonesia (which is a good example), we would see a heck of lot of overly reactive measures being taken immediately by countries: primarily, cancellation of all flights from suspected infected countries, resulting in a lot of temporarily stranded people, who would find other escape means. Anybody every consider that commercial international passenger flights wouldn’t be the only threat ? How about the hundreds of UPS and Fedex flights that deliver cargo everyday ? We gonna shut them down too ? I doubt it.
Finally, your ridiculous article by Jerome Corsi. No comment whatsoever, except that if he used half his brain cells, he’d be a dangerous individual. His neurons can’t be firing in the same order as a normal person, or he wouldn’t have fabricated such insane ideas and placed them in an article. He does have a great imagination – I’ll give him credit for that.
Wulfgang
H5N1 avian flu: Spread by drinking water into small clusters
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of Influenza epidemics in Germany recognized clusters are rarely (9% of the cases in the season 2005).
In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 avian flu virus will be transferred to humans strong seasonal in the cold via cold drinking water, as with the birds feb/mar 2006.
Recent research must worry: So far the virus had to reach the bronchi and the lungs in order to infect humans. Now in Indonesia it infects the upper respiratory system (mucous membranes of the throat e.g. when drinking and mucous membranes of the nose and probably also the conjunctiva of the eyes as well as the eardrum e.g. at showering). In three cases (Viet Nam, Thailand) stomach and intestine by the H5N1 virus were stricken but not the bronchi and the lungs. The virus must have been thus orally taken up, e.g. when drinking contaminated water.
The performance to eliminate viruses of the drinking water processing plants in Germany regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
In temperate climates the strong seasonal waterborne infections like norovirus, rotavirus, salmonellae, campylobacter and - differing from the usual dogma - influenza are mainly triggered by drinking water dependent on the drinking water temperature (in Germany minimum feb/mar – maximum august). There is no evidence that influenza primary is transmitted by saliva droplets. In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can’t be explained with the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from human to human with temperatures of 37.5°C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. There is no other appropriate abiotic vehicle. In Germany about 98% of inhabitants have a central public water supply with older and better protected water. Therefore in Germany cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses.
In hot climates/tropics the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. Virulence of Influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher as in temperate climates.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
eMail soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
I enjoy Wulfgang's comments to your excellent blog, but must admit that I am puzzled by his hostility toward Jerome Corsi's article. Since he (Jerome)seemed to be merely reporting on what had occured at the Montebello conference, and a WHO appointee who seems to disclose less rather than more, I'm not sure why Wulfgang was so hard on the messenger. Had he been expressing his own opinioins rather than idetinfying what others have supposedly said, I could understand the sarcasm. Did I miss something?
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