AVIAN FLU

Gabizita

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'Up to 150m people could die in avian flue pandemic'
(Filed: 30/09/2005)

Q&A on bird flu

Up to 150 million people could die in a global avian flu pandemic if action is not taken to prevent it being transferred from human to human, the United Nations has warned.


Dozens have died from the flu in Asia
Dr David Nabarro of the Geneva-based World Health Organisation said preparations for an expected mutation of the virus enabling it to spread from human to human must be carried out.

"I am almost certain there will be another pandemic soon," Mr Nabarro added.

Dozens of people have died from the virus, mainly in Asia, after it was transferred from birds to humans. So far, there have been no reports of it spreading between humans.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has asked Mr Nabarro to head up a worldwide drive to contain the current bird flu pandemic and prepare for its possible jump to humans.

If the virus spreads among humans, the quality of the world response will determine whether it ends up killing five million or as many as 150 million, Mr Nabarro added.

The last flu pandemic, which broke in 1918 at the end of the First World War, killed more than 40 million people.

Mr Nabarro warned it seemed very likely the H5N1 bird flu virus will soon change into a variant able to be transmitted among humans and it would be a big mistake to ignore that danger.

Some governments and international organizations have already started joining forces to begin preparations.

Millions of birds have been destroyed, mainly in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, but the virus has also been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

But once humans have caught it, the virus has shown it has the power to kill one out of every two people it infects.

Until now, the effort to contain the spread of the virus among birds and prepare for a possible shift to humans has been led by the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation and the WHO.

Mr Nabarro said he would head a new UN system-wide office in New York that would begin mobilising governments, international agencies, health workers and the pharmaceutical industry.

Once the virus began spreading among humans, it would be only a matter of weeks before a pandemic was underway, so a rapid response would be crucial, he said.

Two challenges will be governments' traditional desire to ignore threats until they become real dangers, and their reluctance to publicly admit they have a problem once the disease starts spreading, he added.

A vaccine would be the best way to counter the virus and several drug firms around the world are working on one. But production is slow and the immunisation must match the strain that is actually infecting people, so it is not possible to make them up before a new strain emerges.
 

Gabizita

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Last Updated: Thursday, 17 February 2005, 09:13 GMT

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Q&A: Avian flu

The virus is contracted through close contact to poultry
The growing number of cases of avian influenza, or bird flu, in Asian countries is causing increasing concern.
But what is the disease and what are the possible risks to humans?

Q: How do humans catch avian flu?

Avian flu was thought only to infect birds until the first human cases were seen in Hong Kong in 1997.

Humans catch the disease through close contact with live infected birds.

Birds excrete the virus in their faeces, which dries and becomes pulverised, and is then inhaled.


Symptoms are similar to other types of flu - fever, malaise, sore throats and coughs. People can also develop conjunctivitis.


Researchers are now concerned because scientists studying a case in Vietnam found the virus can affect all parts of the body, not just the lungs.

This could mean that many illness, and even deaths, thought to have been caused by something else, may have been due to the bird flu virus.

Q: How many people have been affected?


The World Health Organization said that, since December 2003, there had been 115 confirmed cases of avian flu and 59 deaths in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand and Indonesia.

Avian flu does have a high fatality rate. In comparison, Sars has killed around 800 people worldwide and infected at least 8,400 since it first emerged in November 2002.

Q: Can avian flu be passed from person to person?

There are indications that it can, although so far not in the feared mutated form which could fuel a pandemic.

A case in Thailand indicated the probable transmission of the virus from a girl who had the disease to her mother, who also died.

The girl's aunt, who was also infected, survived the virus.

UK virology expert Professor John Oxford said these cases indicated the basic virus could be passed between humans, and predicted similar small clusters of cases would be seen again.

It is not the only instance where it has been thought bird flu has been passed between humans.

In 2004, two sisters died in Vietnam after possibly contracting bird flu from their brother who had died from an unidentified respiratory illness.

In a similar case in Hong Kong in 1997, a doctor possibly caught the disease from a patient with the H5N1 virus - but it was never conclusively proved.

Q: Does this mean there is likely to be a large outbreak of bird flu?

Experts are concerned that this could happen. But in the Thai case, the virus was only been passed to close relatives and spread no further.

In addition, it had not combined with a form of human flu.

This is the real fear. Experts believe that the virus could exchange genes with a human flu virus if a person was simultaneously infected with both.

The more this double infection happens, the higher the chance a new virus could be created and be passed from person to person, they say.

Q: What would be the consequence if this did happen?

Once the virus gained the ability to pass easily between humans the results could be catastrophic.

Worldwide experts predict anything between 2m and 50m deaths.

Q. Are there different strains of bird flu?

There are 15 different strains of the virus. It is the H5N1 strain which is infecting humans and causing high death rates.

Even within the H5N1 strain, variations are seen, and slightly different strains are being seen in the different countries affected in this outbreak.

These strains are also different to those seen in the past.

Pakistan has announced cases of the H-7 and H-9 in poultry, but no cases of these strains being passed to humans.

Q: Is there a vaccine?

There is not yet a definitive vaccine, but prototypes which offer protection against the H5N1 strain are being produced.

However antiviral drugs, which are already available, may help limit symptoms and reduce the chances the disease will spread.

Q: Can I continue to eat chicken?

Yes. Experts say avian flu is not a food-borne virus, so eating chicken is safe.

Professor Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University told BBC News Online: "The virus is carried in the chicken's gut.

"A person would have to dry out the chicken meat and would have to sniff the carcass to be at any risk. But even then, it would be very hard to become infected."

Q: What is being done to contain the virus in the countries affected?

Millions of birds have been culled in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease among birds, which would in turn stop it being passed on to humans.

Q: What preparations are being made in the UK?

Experts say people in the UK are at "very low risk" of developing the disease at present.

But the Health Protection Agency estimates that if a flu outbreak did reach the UK around a quarter of the population could be affected, with possibly 50,000 deaths.

The government has purchased around 14.6 million courses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu - enough to treat around a quarter of the UK's population.

The drug reduces the severity of flu symptoms and can also mean the length of illness is shortened.

And ministers have also arranged for 2-3m doses of H5N1 vaccine which could offer some protection against the virus.

GPs have also being sent guidance on how to manage an outbreak who should receive anti-flu drugs in the event of a pandemic.
 
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lili

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Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.



Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president's suggestion an "extraordinarily draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals like Tamiflu, and not allowed the degradation of the public health system.

"The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051004/ap_on_.../bush_avian_flu
 

FagyisSzent

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Originally posted by lili@Oct 4 2005, 07:33 PM
Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military...
You have put your finger on the right spot here. The bushman approach or doctrine to ensuring his (or whoever is behind him) and, in general, that of the United States over the rest of the world by all means deemed necessary. This, in almost all cases, appears to be the military. So, whether it is a flu epidemic or a renegade Iraq, there is but one solution: Blow it up! Gun it down! Kill' em all! :evil :evil :evil

By the way, this reminds of those (mostly novice) chess players, who find it extremely frustrating and complicated having to marshal 16 figures on the board; therefore during the opening of the game, they simply take as many exchanges (taking a figure of the opponent's lineup while giving up one of your own) as possible. This, obviously, reduces the complexity of the game, making it much more manageable for their beginner skills. :ph34r:
 
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Looks like the chikens are coming home to roost FagyisSzent. :(
Why work on a vaccine when we can simply shut-down effected areas and have the Army invade under martial law.

Guess what!... they've decided that further radicalizing the nation via another terrorist attack is a bad idea....they'd get blamed as incompetents. Natural disasters and pandemics, on the other hand...now the answer's always martial law.

Just how are the military/police going to enforce martial law if they too are affected?

If Bush starts declaring marshal law, than we are no longer living in a democracy and we the people have the right to depose any government that would place us under a dictatorship.

Just what bushman wants! now all he has to do is figure out how to get one of those birds into the US...

I wonder how much vaccine could have been developed to protect our citizens with that $300.000.000 we used to protect us from Saddam and his WMD's?

Culture of Corruption. The bastards.
 
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lili

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Quarantines don't work. They'll murder many more people enforcing a quarantine than they will save by imposing one. But that's the Shrub . Got problems? Throw the military at it.

Not only is the President an empty suit... the whole federal government's become a Potemkin village.

The implications of what the results would be if the Congress is dense enough to relinquish this power over to him ... then we will see concentration camps in our future as well if this power is given over to this #$%^&.

Heil, Herr Bush !
We need to preemptively arrest this administration before they kill more people...




ps: Strange that they never caught anyone connected to the anthrax attacks.



This government scares me to death.
 

Spanky

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With all due respect Lili, your bitter hatred towards Bush and his administration clouds your objectivity.
Previously you suggested the overthrow of the democratically elected US government by a foreign power. (I believe you took the statement out after thinking about it)
Now you’re suggesting that Bush would purposely find away to bring this virus into the US, just so he may hold on to power.
Sorry, but I find this nothing shot of absurd.
Strangely enough he would not have to go too far. He could have picked up a few infected birds just last year over here in BC.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...flu-050119.html

You also found it (rightly so) unacceptable when he (Bush) didn’t call in the army fast enough after Katrina.
Now you also find his suggestion unacceptable, that the army would have to be called in to keep order incase of a flu pandemic.
I suggest that if the unthinkable would happen and God forbid a pandemic would strike the US, you would be one of the first to scream bloody murder (again, rightly so) if the army was not called in too keep some kind of order in your neighbourhood.
(See New Orleans.)

Look, the guy is not the sharpest pencil in the box, and he will be history in 3 years.
There won’t be any dictatorship in the US and there will not be army rule.
Life will go on.
I’m open to bets. ;)
 

Boszi

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I'm trying not to panic...after all there were only 60 some avian flu casulties in Asia in the past two years, and the living conditions on that part of world are uncomparable to our relatively sanitized environment here in North America. Can't help wondering if this scaremongering is perhaps used as a tool for some kind of grandiose scheme, unbeknown to us. ;)
 
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With all due respect Lili, your bitter hatred towards Bush and his administration clouds your objectivity.

I do not have hatred towards anybody, but I do care what is happening in my country.

Previously you suggested the overthrow of the democratically elected US government by a foreign power. (I believe you took the statement out after thinking about it)

Yes, you are right I took it out...as you know I am very frank, very straightforward , I do not want to be locked up in the land of the free...
better start to watch what I do write here and anywhere... I mean elsewhere...

Now you’re suggesting that Bush would purposely find away to bring this virus into the US, just so he may hold on to power.
Sorry, but I find this nothing shot of absurd.

to power?

well....not so far fetched as it might sound... we will see

You also found it (rightly so) unacceptable when he (Bush) didn’t call in the army fast enough after Katrina.
Now you also find his suggestion unacceptable, that the army would have to be called in to keep order incase of a flu pandemic.

What you write here is kind of mixing apples and oranges ... Bullshit! I have NEVER ever mentioned anything even remotely approaching the idea that he should have call in the army...(New Orleans)

I suggest that if the unthinkable would happen and God forbid a pandemic would strike the US, you would be one of the first to scream bloody murder (again, rightly so) if the army was not called in too keep some kind of order in your neighbourhood.
(See New Orleans.)

Do I? do I want to end up like those poor unfortunate souls in South?
and it is not about me... I have a family, a very lovely one, the kids I am worring about the most...And quite frankly I do worry about this country.

Look, the guy is not the sharpest pencil in the box, and he will be history in 3 years.

Yes, you are right... but it is NOT just him...he is an empty suit.
Here is a thought. Remember that our planet is running out of natural resources, over population, going through a climate change, high unemployment, etc.

Now think for a moment the last great plague? Remember the Ring around the Rosie? ie the black death. It removed a lot of the work force in that time period, bring about the end of serfdom as well a change in the types of government (bringing the end of the feudal age) Think of it as natures way of getting rid of the over population. Now think about this Bush knew about it coming for a few years. Now think about the rich being able to afford the cure and most of the poor and middle class dying off.

Now think about a global reduction of say 40% to 60% of the worlds population. Now think about this reduced poor, sick, elderly...no drain on taxes for medicare& medicaid..., low to no unemployment (no extra workers).
More land available for exploitation and growth, Access to untapped natural resources due to lack of owners to prevent expansion...remember third world nations would get hit harder for lack of medical care.

Hummm! Bush will be remembered as the president that "Saw us through one of the darkest times in history wiping out hunger, poverty, and ensuring a great future for the American way of life?"



There won’t be any dictatorship in the US and there will not be army rule.
Life will go on.

Hopefully your objectivity is not clouded.
Am I crazy?! Are we going to silently hope our completely inept and corrupt government is going to do anything about this beyond corraling the dying into quarantine zones and shooting the ones who won't go? Does this sound extreme and paranoid?

"I take this issue very seriously," he said. "The people of the country ought to rest assured that we're doing everything we can."


I know I'll sleep better tonight knowing Bush takes it seriously.

He knew about the levee's in NO and did cut funding for his war.
Spanky, don't you remember the flu med shortage we went through here in US where old people were dying waiting in line for their shots when allocations were given to certain areas.

And who can forget sending the troops to war unprepared and under equipped and built on lies.

What is the payoff if they prevent the death of 500,000 Americans? If you think for one minute that "they" care; you are sadly mistaken.

So long as "they" have the vaccine, and "they" have a way out; well, quite frankly, I don't think they give a rat's ass ... in their view it is a way to rectify the rape and pillage of our treasury; a way out for them; it is a game of power and greed and control. Come what may, they have nothing to fear. To them we are nothing more than numbers; much the same attitude that many rulers had in the middle ages. We have not changed one iota in the last 500 years. We are seeing nothing new here.


Am I really crazy? or clouded by some hatred? I don't think so...

I’m open to bets.  ;)
it is not a joke .. bet on what Spanky?
 
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lili

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Biohazard Sensors Triggered
Mall Germ Levels Likely Not a Threat

By Martin Weil and Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 1, 2005; B01



Biohazard sensors showed the presence of small amounts of potentially dangerous tularemia bacteria in the Mall area last weekend as huge crowds assembled there, but health officials said they believed the levels were too low to be a threat.

Health authorities in the Washington area were notified yesterday that the bacteria were found in and near the area between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, where crowds gathered Saturday for an antiwar rally and a book festival.

The notification, which came from federal health officials, said that after the initial detection, subsequent tests "supported the presence of low levels" of the bacteria. However, officials also said they did not believe the findings posed a health problem.

"We pretty much feel there is no public health threat here," said Von Roebuck, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that there have been no reports of tularemia, the disease that is caused by the bacteria. "We just wanted to alert the medical community to watch out for cases."

Health officials said the usual incubation period for tularemia is less than a week.

Roebuck said people who were on the Mall but who do not have symptoms need not be concerned.

Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle ache, joint pain, dry cough and conjunctivitis.

Officials said the quantities detected were too small to have been an attack.

In nature, the bacteria are found in rodents and small animals, and "the working hypothesis" is that something in the environment got stirred up, D.C. Public Health Director Gregg A. Pane said.

But he said it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the Mall was packed with people.

"Why that day? That's what is not explained," Pane said. "It was just this 24-hour period and none since."


At least one official suggested that so many people on the Mall might have triggered the alert, since dry conditions would have made it easier to raise dust.

Tularemia is not spread from person to person. It can be contracted by direct contact with the bacteria that cause it -- by swallowing them or, if they have been suspended in air, through inhalation.

The germ that causes tularemia is considered a biohazard because it is highly infectious and was tested in the 1960s by the United States as a biological weapon. The disease is treatable with antibiotics but, if left untreated, can be fatal.

The country has spent more than $200 million to install the sensor system known as BioWatch in more than 30 U.S. cities. Samples from sensors are collected daily to check for pathogens such as those that cause anthrax, smallpox or plague.

More than a half-dozen sensors operating from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday -- at sites including the Lincoln Memorial, Fort McNair and Judiciary Square -- detected the bacteria, Pane said he was told.

He said the CDC expected to notify hospitals nationwide as a precaution because so many people came from out of town to the Mall last weekend.

Similarly, he said, he expected area health officials to watch for symptoms into next week.

Authorities recommend that people who visited the Mall between 10 a.m. Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. Sept. 25 should see a physician if they experience symptoms.
 

FagyisSzent

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Originally posted by lili@Oct 5 2005, 09:30 AM
Biohazard Sensors Triggered
Mall Germ Levels Likely Not a Threat
Just like the doctor saying to the patient: "You know, you've got some cancerous cells in your body. But nothing to be too alarmed about for now. We just need to monitor..."

Perfect way of making people be less likely to participate in demonstrations. The little big bro is on the move. :evil Or did I miss something here?
 
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lili

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Originally posted by FagyisSzent@Oct 5 2005, 11:55 AM
Perfect way of making people be less likely to participate in demonstrations.

Or did I miss something here?
[post=247339]Quoted post[/post]​


But what an astonishing coincidence! :wacko:
 

Boszi

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Study likens modern avian bug to 1918 Spanish Flu
CTV.ca News Staff

Health experts have discovered troubling similarities between one of history's deadliest pandemics and the current H5N1 bird flu strain spreading in Asia.

A team of scientists completed the astonishing feat of rebuilding the virus that caused the Spanish Flu, which swept the globe in 1918 and killed up to 50 million people (including some 50,000 Canadians).

"We felt we had to recreate the virus and run these experiments to understand the biological properties that made the 1918 virus so exceptionally deadly," said Terrence Tumpey of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped write the reports published jointly this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The scientists began the task of piecing together the complete protein-coding sequence of the virus in 1995.

They found the 87-year-old virus in bits of lung tissue preserved from victims of the epidemic. They were able to rebuild the strain using all eight of the Spanish flu's viral genes and mixing it with noncoding DNA from another flu virus.

The strain replica is now being stored in a biosafety Level 3 lab at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

As Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger reports in this week's Nature, the newly sequenced genes -- encoding proteins called polymerases, crucial for viral replication in human cells -- bear striking similarities to those of flu viruses found only in birds.

The 1918 flu strain was also originally an avian flu. But it somehow didn't mix with any human flu strains before it jumped directly to people to become deadly and highly contagious.

This is in contrast to the flu viruses that caused pandemics in 1957 and 1968, both of which probably combined with human-adapted strains before becoming killers, said the authors.

"We now think that the best interpretation of the data available to us is that the 1918 virus was an entirely avian-like virus that adapted to humans," Taubenberger told reporters in a telephone briefing.

"It suggests that pandemics can form in more than one way."

The current H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003. It has jumped to humans and killed at least 65 people -- more than 40 of them in Vietnam -- and resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.

At this point, H5N1 doesn't infect humans easily but because it is an avian strain, humans have no immunity to it and it can kill quickly.

Taubenberger found that the 1918 flu had undergone several mutations in each of its genes. The H5N1 flu is beginning to show some of the same changes too, he said, but appears to be early on in the process.

But since the scientists that revived the Spanish flu are now beginning to understand what those mutations are, they can perhaps start work on antiviral drugs and vaccines that can fight them and maybe even head off the next pandemic.

"We want to derive lessons from what we study about the 1918 virus to help us understand how influenza pandemics might form for the future," said Dr. Taubenberger. "And what we might be able to do to prevent them."
 

Spanky

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Originally posted by lili@Oct 5 2005, 07:30 AM
Biohazard Sensors Triggered
Mall Germ Levels Likely Not a Threat

By Martin Weil and Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 1, 2005; B01



Biohazard sensors showed the presence of small amounts of potentially dangerous tularemia bacteria in the Mall area last weekend as huge crowds assembled there, but health officials said they believed the levels were too low to be a threat.

Health authorities in the Washington area were notified yesterday that the bacteria were found in and near the area between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, where crowds gathered Saturday for an antiwar rally and a book festival.

The notification, which came from federal health officials, said that after the initial detection, subsequent tests "supported the presence of low levels" of the bacteria. However, officials also said they did not believe the findings posed a health problem.

"We pretty much feel there is no public health threat here," said Von Roebuck, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that there have been no reports of tularemia, the disease that is caused by the bacteria. "We just wanted to alert the medical community to watch out for cases."

Health officials said the usual incubation period for tularemia is less than a week.

Roebuck said people who were on the Mall but who do not have symptoms need not be concerned.

Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, muscle ache, joint pain, dry cough and conjunctivitis.

Officials said the quantities detected were too small to have been an attack.

In nature, the bacteria are found in rodents and small animals, and "the working hypothesis" is that something in the environment got stirred up, D.C. Public Health Director Gregg A. Pane said.

But he said it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the Mall was packed with people.

"Why that day? That's what is not explained," Pane said. "It was just this 24-hour period and none since."


At least one official suggested that so many people on the Mall might have triggered the alert, since dry conditions would have made it easier to raise dust.

Tularemia is not spread from person to person. It can be contracted by direct contact with the bacteria that cause it -- by swallowing them or, if they have been suspended in air, through inhalation.

The germ that causes tularemia is considered a biohazard because it is highly infectious and was tested in the 1960s by the United States as a biological weapon. The disease is treatable with antibiotics but, if left untreated, can be fatal.

The country has spent more than $200 million to install the sensor system known as BioWatch in more than 30 U.S. cities. Samples from sensors are collected daily to check for pathogens such as those that cause anthrax, smallpox or plague.

More than a half-dozen sensors operating from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday -- at sites including the Lincoln Memorial, Fort McNair and Judiciary Square -- detected the bacteria, Pane said he was told.

He said the CDC expected to notify hospitals nationwide as a precaution because so many people came from out of town to the Mall last weekend.

Similarly, he said, he expected area health officials to watch for symptoms into next week.

Authorities recommend that people who visited the Mall between 10 a.m. Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. Sept. 25 should see a physician if they experience symptoms.
[post=247318]Quoted post[/post]​

I'm sorry, but this is nothing short of fear mongering.
Oh I get it, Halloween is just around the corner. :rolleyes:

BOOOOO ! futyul

Here is a little info on the bacteria.

Tularemia





Definition

Tularemia is an illness caused by a bacterium. It results in fever, rash, and greatly enlarged lymph nodes.

Description

Tularemia infects a variety of wild animals, including rabbits, deer, squirrels, muskrat, and beaver. Humans can acquire the bacterium directly from contact with the blood or body fluids of these animals, from the bite of a tick or fly which has previously fed on the blood of an infected animal, or from contaminated food or water.

Tularemia occurs most often in the summer months. It is most likely to infect people who come into contact with infected animals, including hunters, furriers, butchers, laboratory workers, game wardens, and veterinarians. In the United States, the vast majority of cases of tularemia occur in the southeastern and Rocky Mountain states.

Causes and symptoms

Five types of illness may occur, depending on where/how the bacteria enter the body:


Ulceroglandular/glandular tularemia. Seventy-five to 85% of all cases are of this type. This type is contracted through the bite of an infected tick that has defecated bacteria-laden feces in the area of the bite wound. A tender red bump appears in the area of the original wound. Over a few weeks, the bump develops a punched-out center (ulcer). Nearby lymph nodes grow hugely swollen and very tender. The lymph nodes may drain a thick, pus-like material. Other symptoms include fever, chills, and weakness. In adults, the lymph nodes in the groin are most commonly affected; in children, the lymph nodes in the neck.


Oculoglandular tularemia. This type accounts for only about 1% of all cases of tularemia. It occurs when a person's contaminated hand rubs his or her eye. The lining of the eyelids and the surface of the white of the eye (conjunctiva) becomes red and severely painful, with multiple small yellow bumps and pitted sores (ulcers). Lymph nodes around the ears, under the jaw, or in the neck may swell and become painful.


Oropharyngeal and gastrointestinal tularemia. This type occurs when contaminated meat is undercooked and then eaten, or when water from a contaminated source is drunk. Poor hygiene after skinning and cleaning an animal obtained through hunting can also lead to the bacteria entering through the mouth. Sores in the mouth and throat, as well as abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, ulcers in the intestine, intestinal bleeding, and diarrhea may all occur.


Pulmonary tularemia. This rare type of tularemia occurs when a person inhales a spray of infected fluid, or when the bacteria reach the lungs through the blood circulation. A severe pneumonia follows.


Typhoidal tularemia. This type of tularemia is particularly hard to diagnose, because it occurs without the usual skin manifestations or swelling of lymph glands. Symptoms include continuously high fever, terrible headache, and confusion. The illness may result in a severely low blood pressure, with signs of poor blood flow to the major organs (shock).

Diagnosis

Samples from the skin lesions can be prepared with special stains, to allow identification of the causative bacteria under the microscope. Other tests are available to demonstrate the presence of antibodies (special immune cells that the body produces in response to the presence of specific foreign invaders) which would be increasing over time in an infection with tularemia.

Treatment

Streptomycin (given as a shot in a muscle) and gentamicin (given as either a shot in a muscle or through a needle in the vein) are both used to treat tularemia. Other types of antibiotics have been tested, but have often resulted in relatively high rates of relapse (20%).

Prognosis

With treatment, death rates from tularemia are under 1%. Without treatment, however, the death rate may reach 30%. The pneumonia and typhoidal types have the worst prognosis without treatment.

Prevention

Prevention involves avoiding areas known to harbor ticks and flies, or the appropriate use of insect repellents. Hunters should wear gloves when skinning animals or preparing meat. Others (butchers, game wardens, veterinarians) who work with animals or carcasses should always wear gloves. A vaccine exists, but is usually only given to people at very high risk due to their profession or hobby (veterinarians, laboratory workers, butchers, hunters, game wardens).
 
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lili

Vendég
A kezelt személyek majdnem mindig túlélik a betegséget, a nem kezeltek kb. 6%-a meghal. A halál rendszerint a rohamosan terjedő fertőzés, tüdőgyulladás, az agyburkok fertőződése (meningitisz), s vagy a hasüreget borító hártya megbetegedése (peritonitisz) miatt áll be. A kiújulás ritka, de bekövetkezhet, ha nem megfelelő a kezelés. A tularémián átesettekben immunitás alakul ki az újrafertőződéssel szemben.

http://www.drinfo.eszcsm.hu/index.php?olda...&file=TULAREMIA
 

Spanky

Állandó Tag
Állandó Tag
QUOTE
With all due respect Lili, your bitter hatred towards Bush and his administration clouds your objectivity.


I do not have hatred towards anybody, but I do care what is happening in my country.

Sorry but suggesting the overthrowing of your elected government by a foreign power does not point to that.

QUOTE
Previously you suggested the overthrow of the democratically elected US government by a foreign power. (I believe you took the statement out after thinking about it)


Yes, you are right I took it out...as you know I am very frank, very straightforward , I do not want to be locked up in the land of the free...
better start to watch what I do write here and anywhere... I mean elsewhere...

Locked up? Come now,
Michael Moore calls the president a liar on national television and you’re afraid of getting locked up?
Are we not just a tad paranoid?

QUOTE
Now you’re suggesting that Bush would purposely find away to bring this virus into the US, just so he may hold on to power.
Sorry, but I find this nothing shot of absurd.


to power?

well....not so far fetched as it might sound... we will see
well....I think it's waaaaay out there


QUOTE
There won’t be any dictatorship in the US and there will not be army rule.
Life will go on.


Hopefully your objectivity is not clouded.
Am I crazy?! Are we going to silently hope our completely inept and corrupt government is going to do anything about this beyond corraling the dying into quarantine zones and shooting the ones who won't go? Does this sound extreme and paranoid?


I am sorry to say, it does.

One last thing Spanky:
I fear the worst but hope for the best.

Ahh, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
 
L

lili

Vendég
This is a bigger story than you think. Together with the facts you already have, read this:

source: National Terror Alert - Department of Homeland Security:

Q. Does tularemia occur naturally in the United States?

A. Yes. Tularemia is a widespread disease in animals. About 200 human cases of tularemia are reported each year in the United States. Most cases occur in the south-central and western states. Nearly all cases occur in rural areas, and are caused by the bites of ticks and biting flies or from handling infected rodents, rabbits, or hares. Cases also resulted from inhaling airborne bacteria and from laboratory accidents.

It continues:

If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation.
 
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