Bird flu arrives in UK

[Bubsa]

Yes, but is it true that they will be closing schools till it

 

goes away. :?:

 

3 year spring break?!

[imhomer]

H5N1, the current avian flu, has been around since 1996, an entire decade. Here is a brief timeline of events since then.

 

 

 

*1996: H5N1 first detected in a wild duck

 

 

 

*1997: H5N1 appears in Hong Kong. A mass epidemic among chickens kills thousands of birds. In a fear of it spreading to humans, millions of domestic birds in Taiwan are euthanised to prevent H5N1 from mutating. Generally the crisis was averted.

 

 

 

In the same year, there were 18 human flu cases resulting in 6 deaths. None passed from human to human, only bird to human.

 

 

 

*1998-2003: H5N1 mostly disappears from the global scene. No confirmed human cases are reported.

 

 

 

*2003: H5N1 appears in China now, this time in a vacationing family from Hong Kong. The daughter dies in China and the father in Hong Kong. The other family members survived and, again, no know passage of the flu to humans.

 

 

 

*2004: Partially because of more watchful world health organizations and because of more cases, H5N1 appears to become more widespread. Confirmed cases in birds abound in southeast asia including, China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand. Only Vietnam and Thailand reported humans cases though there is a debate the China held on to information much as they did with the SARS incident.

 

 

 

Human transmission cases are first confirmed. It appears H5N1 has a limited transmission to 2 or 3 people. Most who get a secondary infection from the first person infected or 'zero' case survive. From limited numbers of both infections and deaths, H5N1 is estimated to have a 70% fatality rate in Vietnam and Thailand, both considered third world countries.

 

 

 

*2005: More small outbreaks of H5N1 confirmed, mostly in Vietnam and Cambodia. In southern Vietnam, the fatality rate is nearing 100% almost as deadly as Ebola. However, in northern Vietnam, the fatality rate is only 10-20% though there seems to be a more effective transmission, probably because of the denser population. Most cases in the north appear to originate with poultry raised in the south.

 

 

 

H5N1 travels with migratory birds from southeast asia to the middle east and eastern europe. Bird cases are confirmed in africa and russia as well. In the UK, a parrot from south america dies while in the same quarantine facility as an infected bird. This quarantine was regular procedure and wasn't implemented as a fear of bird flu.

 

 

 

Overview: In almost 10 years of the H5N1 Bird Flu being around, only 191 have been infected with 108 deaths, despite how widespread the disease has become. This gives it a 76% death reat though there have been no human infections in europe. People say that it can mutate into a more infective form. I don't dispute this but I think that given 10 years, it hasn't come very far as far as infecting humans goes.

 

The media loves this kind of thing. It's like a war, long lasting with a lead up and a definate suspense. It's completely overhyped. All flus are bird flus. The yearly one is a bird flu, weakened, yes, but still from birds. The yearly flu itself kills an estimated 63,730 a year but because it isn't new, it doesn't get any news. Scientists have been working on an effective vaccine for several years now and we've had even more to observe the effects of the disease. Despite that it isn't anything special, simple hygine such as washing hands is the best thing to do to fight the flu. This is why most human cases are confined to third world countries.

 

My look on life; what happens happens. We can try to stop it but if it isn't the bird flu, it will be another disease we have ignored. A pandemic will happen one day. It's like a hurricane. Yes one may strike this year, but it may not happen again in the same place for thirty or forty years.

[ice_ring]

I care...really. :roll:

 

 

 

Well looks like I'm gonna die, just like I was gonna die when SARS came around, and Mad Cow, and the other stupid diseases.

 

 

 

The media is just having a boring year and needed something to report on , becuase everyone is bored with the war and the government.

[1_man_army]

If Im honest I really didnt mind bird flu when it was in China & Romania but now its just a shade over 10 miles from me Im erm a little anxious but Im glad Im not in contact with birds at all.

 

Hehe, I always knew Fife was rife with disease :wink:

 

 

 

(j/k man, I hope you live through this!) :P

 

 

 

Lmao compared to some of the diseases you could get from a typical Fife woman bird flu is nothing :D

[Zippi08]

:o I definitely didn't know this flu has been going on for 10 years... I've never heard of it before. Media started reporting about deaths caused by bird flu this year and then they started having big headlines in the newspapers about how bird flu had reached Sweden, and so I thought this whole thing was some kind of new flu. God, we've slaughtered many birds..too many...