SciDevNet has a magnificent roundup of articles on bird flu for the week of August 27-September 3. They run a similar roundup frequently (not sure if it’s every week), providing a ringside seat to those interested in watching the progress of bird flu.
Bird flu - also known as avian flu, or the H5N1 virus - has made fewer headlines in the past year, in contrast to previous years. The other day I found my own downloaded version of the (pdf) Bird Flu and You Preparedness Planner and had a moment of unease when I realized I never got around to making any of its suggested preparations. A global pandemic, after all, is not an if. It’s a when. Experts agree there will be another pandemic, at some point in the future. Whether bird flu will be the specific cause of that pandemic is unknown. Also unknown is how the pandemic will affect people around the world, although it’s safe to assume that the weak, the old, and the very young will suffer most.
Earth & Sky has also presented information on bird flu over the past few years. Here are a few of our radio shows and articles on the subject:
Pandemics always part of human history
Avian flu originates where wildlife meets livestock
How bird flu becomes human flu
Since I bave a B/S in Biology, I can tell you that no disease or epidemic is 100% fatal. Even Ebola is not 100% fatal for there are people who survived it. Bird flu is bad, but there will be survivors. I still remember the grief my mother went through with the “Swine Flu”.
We cannot know without having experienced it, but surely a pandemic is about grief and loss for individuals.
Also disruption of the infrastructure upon which we’ve all come to depend (I’m speaking now about the U.S.).
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 say,BIRD FLU IS pandemic waiting to happen on a biblical scale if not taken seriously.Note:it has a fatality greater than 50%.
Perhaps this may be American sheltered ignorance, but one can only hope that modern technology would help us protect ourselves from such a catastrophe as the 1918 pandemic and contain something such as this flu before it gets exponential and out of hand.
Bird flu or bible smart,,,,this world will continue to run its course until all Jesus sayings have come true. Altho we can handle these things so much better if we have the knowledge of Gods word written in our hearts and minds.O f course he expects us to prepare for these things to come. But let us remember others also. Pray,,,Pray., and Pray some more,.