President Bush's bird flu plan fails to teach people how to really protect themselves from a global pandemic
President Bush has finally announced to the nation that we are faced with a "...potentially devastating outbreak of infectious disease." We're talking about the bird flu, of course. And the big story on bird flu is simply this: your government cannot protect you from it.

Our President said as much in the November 1, 2005 statement from the White House: "While your government will do much to prepare for a pandemic, individual action and individual responsibility are necessary for the success of any measures. Not only should you take action to protect yourself and your families, you should also take action to prevent the spread of influenza if you or anyone in your family becomes ill."(...more)

Clock Ticking on Vaccine Options
On Oct. 31, the Bush administration introduced a $7.1 billion plan to make a pandemic avian flu vaccine for every American. Great idea. The only problem is that it will take at least five years to create enough manufacturing capacity to reach that goal. Then it will take another eight months to create a new vaccine that combats the specific strain that would be killing people. In other words, it would be 2011 at the earliest before every American could be vaccinated against a bird flu pandemic.(...more)

Bird flu spreads to a quarter of Vietnam's provinces
HANOI (AFP) - Bird flu has spread to more than a quarter of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities since early last month, with the cooler north the worst-hit region.Outbreaks were reported in three more northern provinces, taking the total number to 17 provinces. Thirteen of them, including the capital Hanoi, are in northern Vietnam, a senior agriculture ministry official said."The bird flu situation is more worrying in the north, where the current winter weather favours the growth of the H5N1 virus", the ministry's animal health department deputy director Hoang Van Nam told AFP.(...more)



Why the bird flu virus is less deadly but more dangerous
People are rather confused over news that the bird flu virus has now mutated to a less lethal, but far more dangerous, form. It seems like a contradiction: If it's less lethal, shouldn't it be less dangerous?

No. The mainstream press isn't explaining this very well, so let me cover the basics. It has to do with evolutionary biology, or what you might call microbiological Darwinism, which basically involves how these viruses survive, thrive and get passed on from one person to the next.(...more)

116 Quarantined After Bird Flu Outbreak
SHANGHAI, China - Authorities in China said Thursday they have quarantined 116 people in northeastern Liaoning province after two new outbreaks of bird flu there. The province has now suffered three outbreaks in less than three weeks despite a massive campaign to contain the virus. Kuwait reported the first two cases of bird flu in the Gulf region but said it would not do the tests to determine whether they were caused by the deadly and virulent H5N1 strain. (...more)

Hawaii begins airport watch for bird flu
HONOLULU - Hawaii became the first state in the nation this week to monitor airports for signs of bird flu or other flu viruses, health officials said.(...more)

Governments aren't telling people the truth about bird flu preparation
We've heard some very interesting news recently that countries are stocking up on a bird flu vaccine. And yet the very newspapers in which we see these headlines say the vaccine is currently being beta-tested on small groups of people. I'm curious how countries are stocking up on a vaccine that hasn't even gone through testing yet. Clearly this vaccine isn't in production. How can countries be stockpiling the vaccine if it isn't being produced? (...more)



A Chicken-and-Egg Problem: How to Speed Up Production of Flu Shots
If bird flu erupts into a pandemic, the world will need a lot of vaccine in a hurry. That would be virtually impossible with the current flu-vaccine manufacturing method, which is little changed since the 1940s.(...more)

Bird Flu Resources and Links

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Department of Health and Human Services - learn the facts about Avian Influenza
www.cdc.gov

World Health Organization
Find out what the current threat is for a influenza pandemic in the United States
www.who.int

Department of Health & Human Services
Leading America to better health, safety and well being - Learn about Pandemic Flu
www.hhs.gov

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
Article by Molly Billings, June, 1997 modified RDS February, 2005
www.stanford.edu

AddMe.com, Search Engine Marketing  

Child Health resources - directory of Child Health related websites.

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