Israel brace for bird flu

[Womble]

Israel braces for bird flu

World Health Organization says efforts to contain deadly virus in Southeast Asia have failed; experts say 7 million could die. Israel prepares for worst-case scenario that would see thousands hospitalized, 3,000 die

Fears of a bird flu pandemic have heightened after a senior World Health Organization official warned Friday attempts to contain the deadly virus in Asia have failed.

"All attempts to bring it under control in Southeast Asia have failed," Shigeru Omi, the WHO's director in the Western Pacific region, told foreign correspondents based in Manila. On Thursday, health officials confirmed the virus had spread from Asia to Turkey and said that Europe should prepare for a pandemic.

Omi said the H5N1 virus, now transmitted to people only if they eat infected birds or live in close contact with them, was "unpredictable and unstable", raising the chance of it mutating into a form that could be more virulent to humans.

Experts estimate that, if it acquires the ability to infect people easily and spread efficiently, it will make more than 25 million people seriously ill and kill as many as 7 million.

Omi called on all countries to report suspected bird flu cases as soon as possible and share samples collected from infected poultry and people with the international community.

"Without those samples, we cannot know if the virus is mutating and if it is any closer to tipping the world into the unknown," he said.

Epidemic could leave 3,000 people dead

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry here is bracing for the worst case scenario that would see a bird flu epidemic hit a large segment of population and leave an estimated 3,000 people dead.

The Ministry’s office for emergencies estimates that if the epidemic were to spread in Israel, some 780,000 people - more than 10 percent of the population - will visit the doctor and 10,000 more will be hospitalized.

According to estimates, at its peak, the epidemic will send 3,500 people to hospital, which will place a heavy strain on Israel’s medical institutions.

As part of its preparations for a possible epidemic, the Health Ministry has issued a practical document to all health institutions.

The document states that unlike normal flu, which occurs between November and March, bird flu is a year-round virus. Estimates are that the peak of a bird flu epidemic in Israel will last between six to eight weeks, while the dissemination of the virus across the population will come in “waves.”

Schools may be closed

The Ministry has instructed medical staff to provide infected individuals with the necessary medical assistance, isolate them in emergency cases, and even to isolate whole communities considered “contaminated.”

The Ministry also estimates that many people will be absent from their work place if the epidemic were to hit Israel. In countries hit by flu epidemics, 10 to 20 percent of the work force remained at home during these times.

Israel will also weigh the possibility of closing schools as a measure to contain the epidemic.

Despite the alarming figures, no vaccine is available to protect human beings against bird flu, and experts believe the development of such preventive medicines will take up to 6 months from the time of identifying and isolating the virus.

Even if a vaccine is developed, making it widely available on the market will take a long time and if hit by bird flu, Israel will apparently have to face the epidemic without the appropriate vaccine.

Damn. Sounds worse than another Insanityfada. I wonder if it means I should exclude chicken from my diet though

[SteveK]

Israel braces for bird flu


Damn. Sounds worse than another Insanityfada. I wonder if it means I should exclude chicken from my diet though

Womble,

It's too late for you.

You have been a chicken Jew for what seems your lifetime.

And, a carrier of the dreaded self-hating Jew and Arab sympathizer (=terrorist) virus.

Your strain has already been infecting Israeli society. What can be worse?

[Luke90]

I wonder if it means I should exclude chicken from my diet though

I did some googling and found surprisingly few useful answers. The answer seems to be no. In most countries it's still safe to eat chicken.

[Mediocrates]

I think any sort of panic for a disease which has killed perhaps 61 people in the last three years, world wide, is horsesh**t. The regular old flu has killed about 10,000 times more people than that last year alone.

[KettleWhistle]

I did some googling and found surprisingly few useful answers. The answer seems to be no. In most countries it's still safe to eat chicken.

Eating chicken is safe. Flu spreads primarily by air, from infected birds to humans, and then from human to human. It will be wise for everyone to get flu shots though.

[Mediocrates]

How's that? the gubmint is already 'warning' us that once again, like clockwork those dastardly virii caught us with our pants down and there won't be enough RO (regular old) flu vaccine available this year.

[Justcurious]

Romania and Turkey have already been hit by bird flu. Many birds are right now migrating to the south, often via Israel. So, beware!

[KettleWhistle]

How's that? the gubmint is already 'warning' us that once again, like clockwork those dastardly virii caught us with our pants down and there won't be enough RO (regular old) flu vaccine available this year.

I don't run the CDC. Don't ask me.

[Luke90]

Eating chicken is safe. Flu spreads primarily by air, from infected birds to humans...

I think you can catch bird flu from eating infected meat but in most places you're safe because the meat shouldn't be infected with the dangerous strain.

and then from human to human.

Bird flu doesn't generally spread from human to human yet. It's if it begins to that the experts are worried about a pandemic.

It will be wise for everyone to get flu shots though.

It is wise for everyone to get flu shots but they probably won't protect against bird flu, just the regular stuff.

I think any sort of panic for a disease which has killed perhaps 61 people in the last three years, world wide, is horsesh**t. The regular old flu has killed about 10,000 times more people than that last year alone.

There's no point panicking because there's not a lot we can do about it but it is still a very real potential threat.

[KettleWhistle]

I think you can catch bird flu from eating infected meat but in most places you're safe because the meat shouldn't be infected with the dangerous strain.

Unlikely. Whoever is in contact with the live birds, breathing the same air as they do, is in real danger of catching it.

[Mediocrates]

H5N1 has been known since 1997 to jump from birds to people but not between people. I tend this think this is like SARS which infected about 8400 people world wide and killed about 800. While I'm sure 800 deaths is not trivial it's not a pandemic either. And while people criticize for example the Bush administrations random allocation of false terror threats like the one recently in NY, those same people seem to weight what can only be described as an idiot fear of the bird flu.

[Justcurious]

Unlikely. Whoever is in contact with the live birds, breathing the same air as they do, is in real danger of catching it.

So they say. And I think tourism is a big danger here. Only yesterday some of my friends left for Turkey, which is already infected.

[KettleWhistle]

H5N1 has been known since 1997 to jump from birds to people but not between people. I tend this think this is like SARS which infected about 8400 people world wide and killed about 800. While I'm sure 800 deaths is not trivial it's not a pandemic either. And while people criticize for example the Bush administrations random allocation of false terror threats like the one recently in NY, those same people seem to weight what can only be described as an idiot fear of the bird flu.

From what I understand it can jump from birds to humans, then it spreads from human to human like regular flu. Hence the fear of a pandemic.

It's like a typical Asian flu story. In China, Vietnam, some other Asian countries, they raise geeze and chickens with pigs, so bird flu jumps from birds to pigs, transforms there, and is capable to infect humans, affecting millions to billions of people in a matter of a couple months.

[Mediocrates]

No this strain has not so far mutated to spread person to person. It may, but mutation is a problem with all flus like last year's swine flu.


And may I add that all these news reports that drag up stories about the 1919 pandemic are misplaced. For one thing, no one to this day is entirely sure what that was. The pathogen, or at least one of them was recently synthesized but no one is positive what it was or how it worked. Things are called influenza because of how the symptoms manifest not because of what they are. It's entirely plausible that the 1919 pandemic could have been a variant of yellow fever, typhus or something else including a mutant airborne toxic shock syndrome because so many people were actually killed by secondary brochialpneumonia.

[Elin]

Romania and Turkey have already been hit by bird flu. Many birds are right now migrating to the south, often via Israel. So, beware!

As far as I know the virus was spread by migratory birds crossing Turkey on their way from Russia's Urals to Africa.

Migratory birds fly ways


We now know that this virus is not carried by food,eating well-cooked chicken and well-cooked eggs are safe,but we don't really eat chicken and egg since last week. Experts say we must not touch the birds with bare hands,if we come into contact with birds immediately we must wash our hands thoroughly with soap.

Like Alfred Hitchcock's horror movies, something like "The Birds".