Grocery Industry Prepares for Bird Flu

Stocking up on food is as simple as a trip to the grocery store, a veritable land of plenty for Americans.
"It's so easy when you have three grocery stores in your vicinity," said Becky Jones of Omaha, who stocks up once a week for her family of three. "You think: how could you possibly not get what you needed?"
But will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes?
For Jones, the prospect of not having access to food is frightening. She said most people, herself included, only have food on hand for three or four days.
Unlike other critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and health care, the food industry isn't getting much help from state and federal governments when it comes to disaster planning. That puts the burden on individual supermarket chains and wholesalers to deal with a potentially large number of sick workers that could affect store operations and disrupt the food supply.

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1918 Spanish Flu Mystery Solved

Scientists appear to have solved an enduring mystery surrounding the 1918 outbreak of Spanish flu which killed millions worldwide.

Estimates say the epidemic took 50 million lives, more than the First World War. Unlike most bird flu strains, it was lethal amongst young, healthy people.

Canadian lab reconstructed the Spanish flu virus from human tissues preserved in the Alaskan permafrost and infected macaque monkeys. Their findings were reported on Thursday in the journal Nature, and should give a better view of how the virus killed humans than earlier work with infected mice.
It turns out that the H1N1 Spanish flu virus (the current bird flu threat is from H5N1, the nomenclature derived from the proteins which coat the virus) killed 50 million by over-stimulating their immune system, causing the lungs to inflame and rapidly fill with liquid. Lead author Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin said: "Essentially people are drowned by themselves."
So a young, healthy person with a young, healthy immune system would be a ripe victim for the 1918 strain. Associated Press reports co-author Michael Katze, of the University of Washington, said: "It was the robustness of the immune system that helped victimize them."

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Cod Enzyme May Be Bird Flu Cure

An Icelandic cod enzyme might be the cure for bird flu, a recent experiment, which the Icelandic company Ensímtaekni hf. took part in, indicates. In five minutes, the isolated fish enzyme killed 99 percent of H5N1 viruses.

The killer enzyme, called penzim, was extracted from the intestines of cod by Ensímtaekni and is currently being developed for beauty products and various types of medicine. The experiment on the H5N1 virus was conducted in London. Fréttabladid reports.

CEO of Ensímtaekni and biochemist Jón Bragi Bjarnason said he is very excited about the results of the bird flu experiment.

“People have feared that the bird flu virus will change into a human flu virus and now we have a likely cure in case that happens,” Bjarnason told Fréttabladid.

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What is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel Really Saying?

Could it be that Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chairman of the department of bioethics at The Clinical Center, which is part of the NIH is really saying that by vaccinating the 13 to 40 year olds first we are using the vaccine more effectively?
It is already widely known that the Bird Flu creates a cytokine storm in younger people because of their increased resistance - read (they have more antibodies) - that try to fight off the disease.
So in essence, is he trying to save more people in general by giving the most susceptible the vaccine first?
Are those over 40 with weaker immune systems better off when getting the disease than those that are younger?
Is this a case where a stronger immune system can actually hurt you?
There are many unanswered questions here that only time can test. Look at the ages of those that died from the disease - they certainly weren't oldsters in the majority of cases.
Why wait for the government to give you a vaccine-be prepared NOW and buy Tamiflu - even if it is not effective the old adage goes - "Something is better than Nothing".

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Only 10% of US citizens Qualify for Bird Flu Vaccine

90% of US citizens to be denied Bird Flu Vaccine
When a bird flu pandemic occurs, experts estimate there will be only enough vaccine to protect one in every 10 Americans.

Now, an essay in the May 12 issue of Science is heating up the debate on who that lucky 10 percent should be.

Countering the federal government's policy of placing the elderly near the top of the list, two medical ethicists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) say that after doling out the vaccine to essential health workers, people between 13 and 40 years of age should be next in line to receive the shot.

What we are arguing is that younger people have more of their life to lead, and they ought to get higher priority," explained Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chairman of the department of bioethics at The Clinical Center, which is part of the NIH.

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Jakarta bird flu hospital overwhelmed with patients

JAKARTA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - One of two hospitals designated to treat bird flu cases in the Indonesian capital has been overwhelmed with patients with symptoms of the disease amid a spike of new cases this year, a doctor said on Monday.

Indonesia has seen four fatalities this year after a six-week lull in cases, taking the number of human deaths from bird flu in the country to 61, the highest in the world.

Nine people with bird flu symptoms are being treated at Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital and its isolation rooms can no longer accept any more patients, said Muchtar Ichsan, the head of the hospital's bird flu ward.

A 5-year old girl was being treated at the intensive care unit, he said.

"If we get more patients, we will send them to Sulianti Saroso," Ichsan told Reuters, referring the country's main bird flu treatment centre in North Jakarta.

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Dead Birds Fall from the Sky in Australia and Texas

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.
All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.
The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.
Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.
On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone

AUSTIN — The mysterious deaths of more than 60 grackles, sparrows and pigeons that touched off a dramatic shutdown of a dozen streets along Congress Avenue ended in a cliffhanger Monday, with officials still uncertain about what killed the birds.

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Bird Flu Watch Is Said to Focus On Wrong Area

The federal government has been looking in the wrong direction for signs that bird flu has arrived on the U.S. mainland, research suggests.
A study in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that birds flying north from Latin America are more likely to bring the H5N1 virus to the United States than are those migrating from Asia.
The United States' $29 million bird flu surveillance program has focused heavily on migratory birds flying from Asia to Alaska.
Yet those birds present a much lower risk than do migratory birds that come into contact with the hundreds of thousands of chickens imported each year to Central America and Mexico, said A. Marm Kilpatrick, lead author of the study.

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