Don't panic over bird flu, UN says

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,14207,1592238,00.html

Don't panic over bird flu, UN says

· Human risk of infection 'very low'
· EU experts discuss prevention plan
· Turkey tests nine people for virus

Staff and agencies
Friday October 14, 2005

The UN health agency today tried to quell growing alarm over the spread of bird flu as EU veterinary experts held an emergency meeting to agree ways of trying to prevent the spread of the virus.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation insisted the risk of human infection was "very low".

British scientists yesterday said the virus found in Turkish poultry was the deadly H5N1 strain that health experts fear could mutate into a human disease with the potential to kill millions of people worldwide. The virus has killed at least 60 people - mostly poultry farm workers - in Asia since it first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997.

(snip)

"People confuse it with pandemic influenza, but they're very different diseases," he said. "If people just paid attention to the human risk (from bird flu, they would understand that) the possibility of infection is very low."

...more...

[notadmblnd]

1. Thanks for this article Will

nt

[ArkDem]

2. .

"People confuse it with pandemic influenza, but they're very different diseases," he said. "If people just paid attention to the human risk (from bird flu, they would understand that) the possibility of infection is very low."

It is right now but the fear is that the virus will learn how to mutate to humans.

[soothsayer]

4. Yeh, isn't that the low risk they're speaking of? I personally don't

believe all the hype about this latest 'sky is falling' stuff. If you watch the local news, there's fear and dread lurking around every corner. Yeesh we like to be scared.

[Howardx]

3. osama doesnt scare us anymore

so now its bird flu

[Avalux]

5. This article is correct.

H5N1 has not yet made the jump allowing transmission from human to human, so these cases are isolated in clusters. Current transmission occurs from birds to humans and very close human to human contact.

When the government and the media talk about an avian flu pandemic, they're referring to a virus that has combined with human influenza and has the ability to cause a pandemic - we haven't seen it yet and it's different from the virus causing the current cases of bird flu.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. avian flu...

is just one more way to keep us scared. Keep us afraid, and the govt can do whatever they want (see 1984).

[Mojorabbit]

8. Actually they are right to do this

though another article with the same info was framed UN plays down...

People are panicking in some parts of Europe from what I have read and are stripping the shelves of antivirals and clamoring for regular flu vaccines. Heck, from an article :
To calm the public, the Turkish and French prime ministers made a point of eating chicken.

But the threat has caused consternation in Europe even though people do not live in close contact with poultry at their homes, as in Asia, where dozens have died from the virus.
From another article
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/10/14/worldupdates/2005-10-14T184334Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-219486-1&sec=Worldupdates
Bulgaria, bordering Turkey, which has confirmed cases of H5N1, and Romania, which is investigating possible cases, awoke to alarming headlines. "Panic! Dead Birds At Home, Too!" runs a huge headline in red letters in the daily 24 Chasa.

While Bulgaria has seen no cases of bird flu, over-anxious citizens, it says, have been picking up dead birds found in fields and streets and offering them for testing. Another daily spoke of "bird flu hysteria besieging Bulgaria".


There is big economic loss when a case of this bird flu is confirmed in fowl in each country it has showed up in. Plus today they have found a strain after all resistant to Tamiflu


I think you will see both the WHO and the UN trying to walk a fine line of education and avoiding panic.

Well perhaps I mispoke looking for a link I just saw this.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2005-10-14T134508Z_01_ROB426175_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-BIRDFLU-HEALTH-WHO-DC.XML
GENEVA (Reuters) - The spread of the deadly bird flu virus to poultry in areas on the fringes of Europe has increased the chances of human cases and should serve as a "call to arms," the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

It is just going to be a wait and see I think and being aware, prepared, and educated are what is needed plus the country needs a plan.

[rockymountaindem]

7. Awww *man*, I was all excited to be scared...

Plus I wanted to look smarter than everybody else by talking about the 1918 Spanish flu, even though the two things are totally different and we have better treatments now. Now how will I look down on others who don't agree with me? HOW???

I guess we'll need to find another bogeyman.