Bird flu Virus Now Mutating

Detailed data on clustered human cases of avian flu have experts agreeing that the H5N1 virus is evolving – but in what direction? “The virus is always changing, and the mutations that make it more compatible with human transmission may occur at any time,” warn Drs. Webster and Govorkova, both virologists at St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. However, another expert believes that, so far, H5N1 has given no indication it is mutating toward human-to-human transmission. “It’s far from a certainty,” said Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and author of Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic. “The virus could move closer to human-to - human transmission, and it could move farther away. I don’t think that you can conclude from these articles in the NEJM that the thing is becoming easier to transmit.” The two studies’ most basic data is not new. They focus on three clusters of H5N1 infection in Indonesia in mid-to-late 2005, involving four deaths, and an eight-patient cluster treated in the first weeks of 2006 at a hospital in far-eastern Turkey where four of the Turkish patients died.

Save Gas/Time/Money Survive Pandemics With Home Grocery Delivery

Washington Orders More Bird Flu Vaccine

WASHINGTON — The government ordered enough vaccine Monday to protect an additional 2.7 million people against bird flu, adding to a stockpile for use in an outbreak of the deadly virus.
The $199 million in contracts went to three companies _ Novartis AG, Sanofi-Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline PLC _ for 5.3 million doses of vaccine. Two of the 90-microgram doses are required to vaccinate a single person against the deadly Asian bird flu known as H5N1.
When delivered, the newly ordered bird flu vaccines will roughly double the existing stockpile, which now has enough vaccine for about 3 million people. The government plans to eventually buy enough vaccine for 20 million people, including emergency and health care workers.
"Having a stockpile of influenza vaccine that may offer protection against the H5N1 virus is an important part of our pandemic influenza preparedness plan," said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Researchers are studying techniques that would reduce the amount of antigen _ the substance that prompts the body's immune system to respond to the virus _ in each vaccine. Using less of the active ingredient could stretch supplies and enable the vaccination of millions more people.
The bulk of Monday's order went to Sanofi-Pasteur for 3.7 million doses, under a $118 million contract.
The government said last week that some of the bird flu vaccine it stockpiled earlier is growing weaker with age. It's not known how long vaccines in the existing stockpile would remain viable.

Save Gas/Time/Money Survive Anything With Home Grocery Delivery

Was the Diagnosis Bird Flu?

Was The Diagnosis Bird FLu?

Lee was exhausted. He had a cough, scratchy throat, runny nose and muscle aches. A fever started but it wasn’t until Lee began having difficulties breathing that he decided to get help.

Doctors huddled in subdued discussion. Experts were rushed in. It was finally determined that Lee’s body was fighting strenuously against two viruses. Lee had caught a highly infectious Influenza A virus – a flu bug. However, at much the same time he had also picked up a second virus called H5N1. The two viruses had mixed their genes and formed a hybrid. Since this was now a radically new pathogen, Lee had no immunity to it.

To be Cont'd.

Save Gas/Time/Money Survive Pandemix With Home Grocery Delivery -Sign Up Now