Anyone want to let FEMA handle this one?

[foraker]

New Flu Pandemic Could Kill 150 Million

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

 

Thursday, September 29, 2005

 

 

(09-29) 18:04 PDT UNITED NATIONS, (AP) --

 

 

A top U.N. public health expert warned Thursday that a new influenza pandemic could come anytime and claim millions of lives unless officials to take action now to control an epidemic in Asia.

 

 

Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization called on governments to take immediate steps to address the threat at a news conference following his appointment as the new U.N. coordinator to lead a global drive to counter a human flu pandemic.

 

 

"We expect the next influenza pandemic to come at any time now, and it's likely to be caused by a mutant of the virus that is currently causing bird flu in Asia," he said.

 

 

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, infecting humans and killing at least 65 people, mostly poultry workers, and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds. The virus does not pass from person to person easily, but experts believe this could change if the virus mutates.

 

 

Nabarro said with the almost certainty of another influenza pandemic soon, and with experts saying there is a high likelihood of the H5N1 virus mutating, it would be "extremely wrong" to ignore the serious possibility of a global outbreak.

 

 

"The avian flu epidemic has to be controlled if we are to prevent a human influenza pandemic," Nabarro said.

 

 

The 1918 influenza pandemic killed more than 40 million people, and there were subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968 which had lower death rates but caused great disruption, he said.

 

 

In a new pandemic, Nabarro said, "the range of deaths could be anything between 5 and 150 million."

 

 

"The work we're doing over the next few months on prevention and preparedness will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 (million) or in the direction of 5 (million)," he said.

 

 

He said Asian leaders met with Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the recent U.N. summit and asked for U.N. assistance in coordinating the response to the bird flu epidemic.

 

 

Annan asked Nabarro to take a leave from his current post as WHO's executive director for sustainable development and health environments to become the U.N. system's coordinator for avian and human influenza.

[TREETOAD]

It' the little things in life that will bite you in the ass

[Dru]

New study referenced in Scientific American, funded by Proctor & Gamble, tested regular soap, antibacterial soap and no soap when washing hands. Both soaps were more effective in reducing disease than no soap (incidence of disease halved). Strangely though the "normal soap" crowd had even better performance than the 'antibacterial soap" group. You can bet someone at P&G got fired over that!

[catbirdseat]

New study referenced in Scientific American, funded by Proctor & Gamble, tested regular soap, antibacterial soap and no soap when washing hands. Both soaps were more effective in reducing disease than no soap (incidence of disease halved). Strangely though the "normal soap" crowd had even better performance than the 'antibacterial soap" group. You can bet someone at P&G got fired over that!

Dru, I hate to tell you this but antibacterial means it kills bacteria, not that it kills viruses. The most common antibacterial ingredient is Triclosan. Triclosan has a semi-specific mechanism for bacteria. It being a phenolic compound, one would expect it to denature proteins too, but they only use it at a fairly low concentration.

[Dru]

I never said they got sick from viruses. You just assumed that. This was for all diseases.

[archenemy]

If a whole bunch of Asians die, who is going to finance our debt?

[Dru]

Don't they eat dogs over there? With peanut butter?

[catbirdseat]

I just read in the New York Times that scientists have discovered that bats are the reservoir for the SARS virus in the wild. It turns out that the Chinese eat the bats and use the guano in medicine. The civet cats were not the primary source after all.

[layton]

i say kill em all and let god sort it out