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  • H5N1 on youtube.com

    Youtube.com may become a media to monitor.
    I searched for "pandemic" and "bird flu," found mostly adolescent skits.
    One educational video on bird flu was interesting. The Threat of Bird Flu

    8 min news clip by Dr. Mike Magee from healthpolitics.com
    Could be useful. Other videos may show up or could be produced.
    JT
    Thought has a dual purpose in ethics: to affirm life, and to lead from ethical impulses to a rational course of action - Teaching Reverence for Life -Albert Schweitzer. JT

  • #2
    Re: H5N1 on youtube.com

    I just watched this documentary put out by John Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies. It raises many important questions - no answers.

    A documentary comparing the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic with modern-day health capabilities, in the event of an act of bioterrorism or any large-scale infectious disease outbreak.
    "In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or woman https://flutrackers.com/forum/core/i...ilies/wink.png), and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot."- Mark TwainReason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. -Thomas Paine

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    • #3
      Re: H5N1 on youtube.com

      This video was informative but is quite old - produced in 8/24/2005.

      Originally posted by Thornton
      Youtube.com may become a media to monitor.
      I searched for "pandemic" and "bird flu," found mostly adolescent skits.
      One educational video on bird flu was interesting. The Threat of Bird Flu
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUwHQTAdezs&NR
      8 min news clip by Dr. Mike Magee from healthpolitics.com
      Could be useful. Other videos may show up or could be produced.
      JT
      "In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or woman https://flutrackers.com/forum/core/i...ilies/wink.png), and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for it then costs nothing to be a patriot."- Mark TwainReason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. -Thomas Paine

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: H5N1 on youtube.com

        I agree with Niko that information in that video clip is outdated. Here is a transcript of "A Birds Eye View of Bird Flu" from Magee's program in May of this year. It is unfortunate that the video concludes with an upbeat note that seems to have no basis in fact.

        I do think that Thornton is correct. The only way to reach large numbers of people is through modern media outlets such as YouTube.


        http://www.healthpolitics.org/progra...d_eye_bird_flu


        Transcript
        ?If you?re a chicken, this is a pandemic.? So said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while discussing the H5N1 influenza strain, more commonly known as bird flu, currently making its way around the globe.1
        The facts clearly support her point of view. Over the past nine years, H5N1 bird flu has been responsible for the deaths of about 200 million chickens, ducks and geese, either through infection or through steps taken to destroy domestic birds in the hopes of containing the spread of this disease.1,2,3,4
        While the media has largely focused on the human dimension of bird flu over the last year, most of us know very little about what?s really going on as the virus spreads from bird to bird. Some things might surprise you.
        As documented, 87 species of birds have been infected with H5N1, including sparrows, flamingos, and eagles. First recognized in 1961 in South African terns, this flu appears to have found a natural host in wild ducks, some of which can carry the virus without dying. This is certainly perpetuating spread of disease because, obviously, dead birds don?t fly.1,5
        So, there?s little question that bird flu is on the move. In the past year, it has extended its range from Eastern China to Western Africa. Most experts say its arrival in the Americas is inevitable. It could make its way here through migration patterns in the Northwest as infected birds travel through Alaska to the West Coast, or it could appear on the East Coast or in any major city with the illegal trade of exotic birds.6
        What?s scary is that one important aspect of bird flu continues to elude and confuse us. How does the disease spread? Are wild birds or domestic birds to blame? It?s not 100 percent clear, but what we do know is that in domestic bird populations, especially chickens, the virus is lethal.3,4 This type of susceptibility, combined with the fact that chickens are now mass-produced and distributed globally, creates an ideal environment for spread of the disease. In fact, a recent outbreak of H5N1 in Nigeria was traced back to chicks bred in China and Turkey. 1,7,8
        What makes this confusing is the fact that wild birds are not necessarily dying out in large numbers in the same areas as domestic birds. Thus, the unpredictable pattern of spread has led some experts to hypothesize that carriers like mass-produced chicks pass the disease by mingling with domestic flocks, migratory birds, or perhaps intermediary scavengers like crows or mynahs who, in turn, carry the disease from the chicken coop to their next location, and on to other birds.1,5,7
        So, we?ve established that birds, at least at this time, are the most vulnerable to H5N1, and the disease is spreading. What we don?t know is whether it will become a human pandemic. At least at this point, H5N1 bird flu is not easily transferred from one human to another. If you are unlucky enough to get it, usually from handling infected fowl, experts agree ?it?s a very nasty virus.? 9 In other words, it has killed about half of its known human victims.4 When it comes to discussing the disease?s potential for mass spread, opinions diverge. On one end of the spectrum we have experts like Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations? chief avian flu coordinator, who says bird flu?s ?rampant, explosive spread and the dramatic way it?s killing poultry so rapidly suggests that we?ve got a very beastly virus in our midst. [This] has led to an exponential increase of the load of virus in the world.? 9
        What Dr. Nabarro suggests is that the greater the load of virus, the greater the number and speed of mutations, allowing the virus to eventually figure out how to do to humans what it?s doing to birds.
        On the other end of the spectrum are practitioners like Dr. Jeremy Farrar, who has hands-on knowledge of the disease in humans. Working at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, he is in the middle of the action, since 93 of the 186 documented human cases of bird flu have occurred in Vietnam. According to Dr. Farrar: ?Billions of chickens in Asia have been infected and millions of people lived with them.... and less than 200 people have gotten infected. That tells you that the constraints on the virus are considerable.? 10
        Yes, but could that change? And when? To answer those questions, many have been looking back to H5N1?s cousin, H1N1, which, in a few short months in 1918, killed more U.S. citizens than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. That virus was a bird flu that jumped to humans and resulted in an estimated 40 million deaths worldwide. It spread across the globe rapidly, even without mass air travel, sparing only Australia and a few remote islands.11
        Yet, even though we know the entire genetic code of the 1918 flu, that?s where most of our knowledge seems to stop. We don?t know how that pandemic evolved or how the virus emerged into its final form. The man who helped piece together the genes of the 1918 flu, Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger, says what he and his colleagues sequenced was a virus ready for prime time, not its precursor. He says there?s no historical precedent for what is going on today. This last remark refers to the fact that there were no documented reports of large deaths of migratory or domestic birds that preceded the 1918 pandemic. Leaving one to wonder, where did it come from? Did it mix with a human virus or mutate on its own? How did it jump to humans?11
        The one thing we do know is that it spread fast in 1918 and would likely spread much faster in today?s high-speed global society. And if there is a bright spot here, perhaps it?s this. In 1918, the bird flu did not appear to be as lethal in birds as it was in humans. Remembering that dead birds don?t fly, the fact that birds in 1918 survived to both ?mix? and ?transport? the virus may have sealed the fate of some 40 million humans. In contrast, today?s virus, H5N1, is extraordinarily lethal for birds, which may be bad for the birds, but it?s probably good for us.

        For Health Politics, I?m Mike Magee.

        References
        1. McNeil DG. From the Chickens? Perspective, the Sky Really Is Falling. The New York Times. March 28, 2006. F6.
        2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. ?Embargo of Birds from Specified Countries.? Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/outbreaks/embargo.htm.
        3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. ?Questions and Answers About Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus.? Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/qa.htm.
        4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. ?Avian Influenza: Resources for Health Professionals.? Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/professional/#overview.
        5. National Audubon Society Web site. ?Avian Influenza Information.? March 8, 2006. Available at: http://www.audubon.org/bird/avianflu/avianflu.htm.
        6. Grady D, Kolata G. Avian Flu: The Uncertain Threat. The New York Times. March 28, 2006. F1.
        7. Graham F. Tracking the Spread. Audubon Magazine. March 2006.
        8. Bird Life International Web site. ?Illegal imports probable cause of Nigeria flu.? February 14, 2006. Available at: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/02/avian_flu_nigeria.html.
        9. McNeil DG. At the U.N.: This Virus Has an Expert ?Quite Scared.? The New York Times. March 28, 2006. F1.
        10. Rosenthal E. On the Front: A Pandemic Is Worrisome But ?Unlikely.? The New York Times. March 28, 2006. F1.
        11. Kolata G. The 1918 Flu Killed Millions. Does It Hold Clues for Today? The New York Times. March 28, 2006. F2.
        http://novel-infectious-diseases.blogspot.com/

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        • #5
          Re: H5N1 on youtube.com

          Bird Flu Crime Wave Possible



          Bird Flu Business Continuity Planning - IBM
          "We are in this breathing space before it happens. We do not know how long that breathing space is going to be. But, if we are not all organizing ourselves to get ready and to take action to prepare for a pandemic, then we are squandering an opportunity for our human security"- Dr. David Nabarro

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