That DEADLY Bird Flu Bush warned us about may not be all that deadly

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/060917/x091704.html

Reports of missed mild bird flu cases raise questions about scope of spread


(CP) - Recent reports from South Korea and Indonesia of after-the-fact discovery of a handful of mild human cases of H5N1 avian flu have again raised questions about whether the disease's extraordinarily high death rate is being inflated because mild cases are being missed. snip

"Because frankly, one of the indications that there may be a changing epidemiology (disease pattern) with this is in fact if we start seeing larger and larger percentages of individuals who are asymptomatic or only mildly ill that we can clearly confirm as having H5N1 infection."

The World Health Organization announced last week blood tests done on an Indonesian man showed he became infected, likely in May when he helped nurse his sister, a confirmed H5N1 case. The man reported having a cough and abdominal discomfort but his symptoms weren't diagnosed as H5N1-related at the time.

And South Korean officials revealed that testing of blood samples from more than 2,000 workers who culled diseased poultry in late 2003 and early 2004 showed five had developed antibodies to the virus - a sign they had been infected. An earlier round of testing in South Korea turned up four cullers with antibodies.

None of these people had serious illness at the time; none has yet been added to the WHO's official case list. snip

But there has always been a suspicion in some quarters that a significant number of mild cases are being missed - a theory these new reports may fuel.

[Taxloss]

1. To be fair, everyone from the WHO down was making a big deal about it.

The American reaction wasn't disproportionate in that respect.

[Kagemusha]

2. Just underlines how scarily inadequate the reporting system is

If you have 1 death out of 20 infections and the other 19, no one ever hears about, because only the deaths get investigated, well, then we are fortunate, but we are also massively ignorant, aren't we?

[april]

3. Rummy has Stock in the company

[kimmerspixelated]

5. That's right!

Tamiflu-...but it's all another scare tactic! Read the upcoming "Great Bird Flu Hoax". Check out Dr. Mercola. com's webpage. Really folks- just relax about it!

[rustydog]

6. I believe Rummy is the Ex CEO....that explains things better huh?

[raysr]

4. Nile virus sems to be

gaining ground though.

[SoCalDem]

7. The world is full of pathogens.. They mutate..They migrate.

We cannot stop all of them.. Some people are more vulnerable than others.. It's always been that way, and it always will..
The poorer one is, and the more "rustic" your domicile, the more likely you are to get sick.. Nothing new with bird flu.

Drug companies made a bundle, pundits had talkshow fodder, papers had a "story"..

and so it goes..