Common Dreams: Bird Flu Precautions Dangerously Ignore World's Poor

[nofoil]

WASHINGTON - February 22 - On the eve of a crucial UN meeting on bird flu, ActionAid International warns that public health precautionary planning is not enough, warning that the poorest countries face an information blackout on bird flu, as health authorities are yet to produce even simple education materials.

Dr. PV Unnikrishnan, ActionAid International emergencies adviser, said, "In view of potential high mortality figures, it is important that we move beyond the current technical and medical ethos and place equal emphasis on people - not just the virus and carriers."

In the developing world, he added, over 70 percent of people live in rural communities alongside their bird and animal stocks, earning a living from subsistence farming. Endemic poverty, in Africa made worse by the AIDS epidemic, leaves the world's poorest at huge risk.

Unnikrishnan added, "Despite the recent outbreaks of bird flu in Nigeria, India and elsewhere, the world still has a window of opportunity. But it is getting smaller every time a new country reports fresh infection. It is time to widen the planning process to match the urgency of the challenge."

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0222-06.htm
http://www.actionaidusa.org

[Soloflecks]

1. Maybe you're no foil but....

as in tin foil? I'm not at all sure about this bird flu crap. Maybe the point of it (just in case that tin foil kicks in) is to make certain no one can even feed themselves in the future. That would sort of cement the NWO in place would it not? I plan on having a few egg-laying chickens this year in the backyard along with the veggies we're planting. How long will it be until some fear mongering legislators pass a law against backyard "farms"? I already saw that Turkey is going to outlaw rooftop barnyards due to the bird flu.

[depakid]

2. Tin foilers and naysayers

Maybe ought to have some respect for epidemiologists around the world- who've been taking the threat of a pandemic serious for several years now.

With everything Americans have gone through over the past 6 years (at least) it's all to easy to lump things together and dismiss them without looking at the hard science.

Fact is, that as H5N1 spreads world wide, the probability of humans coming into contact with a mutated or genetically re-assorted pathogen that has usual contagious properties of influenza A increases exponentially. Once that happens (my thoughts are that it's inevitable) the disease will also spread exponentially.

Culling or regulating poultry may be a reasonable response in certain areas. They do it all of the time in North America- for commercial reasons, though the viri involved either haven't jumped the species barrier, or have very low virulence.

The worry most people have is that it will spread at first among the poor- who have limited access to health care- which makes surveillance difficult and allows a fairly large cluster of disease to develop before patients (or more likely regions) can be isolated.

Here's how the WHO describes the sequence as incorporated into the British NHS's Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan (based on cases from Southeast Asia, we're very near Phase 4)

Phase 3 Human infection(s) with a new subtype, but no new human-to-human spread, or at most rare instances of spread to a close contact.

Phase 4 Small cluster(s) with limited human-to-human transmission but spread is highly localised, suggesting that the virus is not well adapted to humans.

Phase 5 Large cluster(s) but human-to-human spread still localised, suggesting that the virus is becoming increasingly better adapted to humans, but may not yet be fully transmissible (substantial pandemic risk).

Phase 6 Pandemic phase: increased and sustained transmission in the general population. Past experience suggests that a second, and possibly further, waves of illness caused by the new virus are likely 3-9 months after the first wave has subsided.

The second wave may be as, or more, intense than the first.

3.2 Transition between phases

Transition between phases may be rapid and the distinction blurred. The crucial interval is between WHO Phases 5 and 6, which will determine to a large extent whether vaccine can be developed in time for the first wave of illness in the UK.

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The problem of poverty and treating or immunizing the masses of poor people around the world are immense- as they are for many diseases. We've not even eradicated polio yet, despite a massive 20 year effort.

It's much less a disregard for the poor- as it is logistical problems and funding.

[Avalux]

3. It's not crap.

The threat of avian flu jumping to humans is very real; the science cannot be refuted. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad people in this world who will use such an event to their advantage, perhaps in a scenario as you describe.