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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South Korea Killing Dogs, Cats & Pigs to Prevent Spread of Bird Flu

Quarantine officials began the slaughter Tuesday even though international health experts have questioned killing non-poultry species to curtail bird flu's spread, saying there is no scientific evidence to suggest dogs, cats or pigs can pass the virus to humans.
Since ravaging Asia's poultry in late 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed at least 153 people worldwide. Infections among people have been traced to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, leading to a human pandemic.
South Korean officials insist the decision to slaughter dogs, cats and pigs was not unusual and that the step has been taken in other countries without public knowledge.

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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.

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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.

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Scientist Cooperate To Prevent Bird Flu Pandemic

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A prominent Chinese health expert has called on scientists in Hong Kong and China to cooperate and conduct joint research to prevent a flu pandemic, a pro-Beijing newspaper reported.
The call comes after China's Ministry of Agriculture and Chinese scientists criticized scientists in Hong Kong and the United States in recent weeks for publishing a study saying that a new, vaccine-resistant strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus had emerged in China.
Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory disease expert based in China's southern Guangdong province, told the Ta Kung Pao newspaper that both sides must communicate.
"China and Hong Kong are one family and they may be facing a dangerous co-explosion of the common flu and avian flu in coming days. I hope there can be more co-ordination, sharing of information in the future," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

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Potential human pandemic- H5N1 Bird Flu

Health professionals are concerned that the continued, rapid spread of the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus across eastern Asia and other countries represents a significant threat to human health. The H5N1 virus has raised concerns about a potential human pandemic because:

It is especially virulent and has caused severe disease in humans who have become infected

There has already been limited human-to-human transmission in Southeast Asia

It could evolve to become readily transmissible in humans

No human H5N1 vaccine is commercially available, despite continual advances in vaccine technology

Supplies of expensive antiviral medicines are very limited

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As journalist Galen McBride summed it up for Pandemic Flu Awareness Week (Oct. 9-15), "A pandemic will occur if the H5N1 avian flu virus, currently circulating in more than 50 countries on three continents, mutates to acquire the ability to transmit efficiently from human to human. Flu viruses mutate millions of times a day and this virus has already achieved limited human-to-human (H2H) transmission as acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO)."

New Bird Flu Strain Spreads Quickly!

A new bird flu strain has emerged in China and is spreading quickly. This is very Serious.
The spread is rapidly plowing through poultry in Southeast Asia.Human infections caused by this new strain have also turned up in many different locations. These include farms, urban centers, etc. This raises fears that a worldwide flu pandemic could occur and kill millions.
The new strain is vaccine-sensitive. This means that existing animal vaccines are less effective against it.
"This virus seemed to spread very fast over a big geographic region," said Yi Guan, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Hong Kong in China.
"However, we don't have any evidence to show whether this virus is more dangerous or less dangerous than any other H5N1 [bird flu] viruses," Guan said.

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Earlier bird flu vaccine 'causes new strain'

Ironically, it may have been a vaccine that was used to protect poultry from earlier types of the H5N1 flu that led to the virus' evolution.
The new variant has become the primary version of bird flu in several provinces of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand, according to a report published in the latest issue of Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences.
It is being called H5N1 Fujian-like, to distinguish it from earlier Hong Kong and Vietnam variants.
'We don't know what is driving this,' report co-author Dr Robert G Webster of St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, said.
It may be a good idea NOW...
To avoid the lines at the grocery stores even just because of the holidays you may want to look into buying your groceries online and stocking up on flu meds for the busy flu season ahead. It can be used even for the regular flu and you can get it online by going to:

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Fall Brings Migratory Birds Across US Waterways

Now is the time for wild birds to begin migrating south for the winter and so we see flocks of geese and ducks flying over waterways all over the US.
The world watches and waits to see what this new bird migration will bring.
I tend to err on the side of caution and believe it's better to be prepared then to wait till there's a pandemic and people panicking all over the place. To avoid the lines at the grocery stores even just because of the holidays you may want to look into buying your groceries online and stocking up on flu meds for the busy flu season ahead.

Many Actually Survive Bird Flu

Cont'd from previous days post...

Lee actually survived it all. Although he “started” the Bird Flu pandemic, he also helped “end” it. Doctors used his blood to find the initial vaccine. Since Lee was also now immune, he not only volunteered to help where he could and also founded the World Association of Sensible Hygiene (WASH). More importantly, Lee and others like him helped disrupted societies regain their faith and hope and love. Since this was pandemic number 11 in the last 300 years, history had taught that it was inevitable that individuals and communities and countries would bounce back fairly quickly. But a bitter question remained. Would Lee and the rest of the world be better prepared for the next pandemic? Lee wondered that too as he bordered the wide-body Airbus destined for Mexico City.

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The First Wave of the Bird Flu Pandemic

Before the Bird Flu gets here Cont'd from previous days post...The Waves The first wave of the Bird Flu pandemic was over in three months time but not the shock. Bacterial disease such as cholera multiplied rapidly with catastrophic results across Africa and Asia. The longer-term, global recession began with the realization that supply-lines, manufacturing and food-production chains were desperately weakened through labor loss. Medical facilities were terribly understaffed. As usual, the poor had little chance of aid at all. And then came the second wave of Avian flu. It took over a year before the waves of sickness and death became controllable.

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The Controversy over Bird Flu

Cont'd from previous days post...

The Controversy
Local governments and health organizations began to squabble over who had the power to do what. The question was of legalities: who would control distribution of anti-viral drugs for the Bird Flu and who would receive those drugs? Army barracks received attention but prisoners were ignored. Families with pets were labeled as ‘higher risk’ groups but no-one knew if these families should receive more help or less. As in-fighting became more severe, decision processing became more difficult. Who should give the daily press briefings? Who would organize mass cremation? Who would facilitate conferences for global medical meetings? The list grew rapidly.

To be Cont'd.

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Cities Shut down by Bird Flu

Cont'd from previous days post...

The Short-term Havoc

Rumors and half-truths began to circulate causing public outcry and protests. Because the protests only helped spread the flu, quarantines were set in place. The public was told to stay at home indefinitely. Vibrant cities screeched to a halt as public transport shut down. Streets stank as garbage piled up. Shops were looted and in some cases those caught coughing were stoned. Safety services (fire, police, ambulance) were disrupted, fires burned out of control. Cross-border travel was curtailed killing tourism and all international sports events were cancelled. Food imports were banned creating shortages of meat, vegetables and wheat. Folk with chronic medical illnesses couldn’t get their medications. Soap and disinfectants – perhaps the simplest and most effective fight against the spread of disease – were in short supply; no one had thought to stock-pile soap.
To be Cont'd.

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Public Nervous About Bird Flu

Cont'd from previous days post...

It wasn’t long before Lee was put on a respirator in quarantine. It also wasn’t long before the media found out Lee had Bird Flu. The public became nervous. The number of flu patients – real or imaginary – multiplied dramatically but nurses and hospital staff were strangely missing … using overdue holiday time or just not showing up for work at all. It was announced that schools, restaurants, and non-essential businesses would be closed. No deadline was given – no one knew for sure how long the measures would have to be in place.

The Public Announcement
Wisely, the public was advised to stock up on food and water. Newspapers advised people to stock up on toothpaste, toilet paper and treasure (cash). People were told to shop at off-peak hours and public transport was ordered to run 24 hours per day. But despite warnings to the contrary, doctor’s offices, hospitals and clinics were overrun. Faces masked in paper waited for hours in front of pharmacies in hope of getting relief. Despite clear instructions from health officials, panic broke out as folk finally fathomed that at best only one third of the population had access to anti-viral drugs. In rural areas and smaller towns, there wasn’t any chance at all.

To be Cont'd.

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