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Dr. Michael Osterholm details dangers of avian flu
Re: Dr. Michael Osterholm details dangers of avian flu
I just remembered reading this......
Minnesota State Summit: History Supplement
Opening Remarks Prepared for Delivery
By the Honorable Mike Leavitt
Secretary of Health and Human Services
December 14, 2005
Here in Minnesota, the Paulson family was one of the first to be touched. The Paulsons were residents of the town of Wells, about a two-hour drive to the southwest from Minneapolis.
Marie Paulson had sent three of her seven children off to the Great War. On September 14th of 1918, she received word that her 22-year old son Walter had caught pneumonia. Within three days, Walter was dead. A day after Walter was buried in Wells, his brother Raymond fell ill. Raymond would die, and so would his sister, Anna Valerius.
That was just the beginning. On September 25th, the Surgeon General announced that the first cases of influenza had been discovered in Minnesota. Here in Minneapolis, a large number of army recruits who were being temporarily housed at the University of Minnesota became ill.
In less than a week after influenza was first reported, there were more than 1,000 cases in Minneapolis. On October 10th, all public meetings were banned. On the 11th, all schools, churches, theaters, dance halls and billiard parlors were closed.
As in Cedar City, the disease continued to spread. By October 17th, the Minneapolis City Health Commissioner estimated that nearly 3,000 people had died due to the disease.
By the time the pandemic was finally over in Minnesota at the end of 1920, more than 75,000 people had been sickened. Nearly 12,000 were dead.
Re: Dr. Michael Osterholm details dangers of avian flu
GaudiaRay's Comment:
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Osterholm, re: dead bodies, the discussion at FT, said they're no more contagious than any other body. Their skin will probably have the virus on it.
If you seriously want to know, you should ask DMORT at FEMA. Disaster Morticians = DMORT.
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Re: Dr. Michael Osterholm details dangers of avian flu
Originally posted by PonyGirl
What will it take..? When cases start breaking out in this country...they will start noticing and possibility of panic hits.
Hey did you notice this LOVELY comment:
Even the dead will be contagious.
Suffice it to say this information is not making it to the unwashed masses.
Remember hearing about a few cases a couple of months ago where people who attended funerals contracted the disease. Do you recall the 2 journalists that fell through the cracks..?
My understanding of the above comment is that there will be so many dead bodies and that they will have contagious issues in and of themselves. It is not that they who are dead will be passing on H5N1 virus particles as they were when they were living by breathing, but that dead bodies have their own complex contagions as well. One issue is that H5N1 is found in very high concentrations in the rectum and bowel of the most seriously ill and fatality resulting patients. During the dying process in this illness, the patient will excrete an extensive amount of diarrhea that has very high concentration of the virus in it. People who are caring for the sick and ultimately the dead person will not have the standard safety protection supplies for removal of the dead bodies in safe manner. The rate of infection can/will increase beyond measure because of the unsafe method of bodily removal, funeral ritualization and burial.
Additionally, with so many dead bodies and bodies that are not treated properly with standard thanostic (dying, death and bereavement) procedures and safety controls, this will cause and result in more compounded and complex health issues. A highly infectious person who has died creates a plethora of health issues that can affect a large area of the population in a very short period of time. An infected dead body can be as dangerous a public health issue as the person who is alive with the infection if not handled correctly and quickly. Both the handling of the remains and the expediency of the removal of the remains will not be likely in a pandemic situation. So the comment is correct that bodies will be contagious and will be stacked up hopefully in safely identified and secured areas with as much respect as possibly under the given situation.
In my continuing education training course When So Many Die at Asbury Online Institute, we have a whole section in the course on how individuals and families need to prepare to attend to the bodily remains of a loved one who has die in a medical disaster to help reduce the contagious nature of infected remains on the immediate family and the community at large. In dealing with a medical disaster of a highly contagious disease, a number of things must be considered in developing and maintaining a sick room and after death care physical and emotional support care. Remember that the funeral service professionals such as funeral directors and coroners will be in limited supply and will be overloaded with work.
Families and loved one will need to address the immediate removal of deceased bodies from their living surrounding to help reduce the numerous health issues a decaying, infectious body produces. Local communities even neighborhoods with large populations (high rise apartments etc) will need to consider and learn how to address the infectious remains in as safe a manner as possible for all concerned with limited personal supplies available. The two part thanostic punch of a pandemic from an infectious person is 1) while they are alive and 2) after they are dead. Death in many ways does not stop the ongoing medical crisis issues the family and community will experience and MUST address in a medical disaster such as a pandemic.
Re: your Sept. 22 article, "Speaker details dangers of avian flu: ?We will see bodies pile up,' physician cautions":
On behalf of your World Affairs Council, I want to thank The Star for its outstanding coverage of the ? not possible ? but probable pandemic that responsible scientists and government officials are desperately trying to warn us is coming.
During the past several weeks, as I was coordinating and planning for Dr. Michael Osterholm's presentation, I heard from a number of naysayers who believe everything from the conspiracy theories to it just can't happen here. The fact of the matter is, whether you believe it or not, nothing can be wrong with getting prepared. And that means stocking up on provisions and medications to get yourself and your loved ones through an eight- to 12-week period just in case, it ? or any other disaster ? does occur.
I was quoted correctly saying Dr. Osterholm's discussion "scared the living bejeebies out of me." That was my public proclamation. The fact is the information he presented really scared the s--- out of me. We can't expect the government to take care of us. This is going to be big.
I know those in attendance are planning on becoming prepared. Many of us are now feeling we are on a mission to communicate to the remainder of our community: "You need to get prepared."
? Jay Berger is executive director of the World Affairs Council of America ? California Central Coast in Oxnard.
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"In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man (or womanhttps://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
stocking up on provisions and medications to get yourself and your loved ones through an eight- to 12-week period just in case, it ? or any other disaster ? does occur.
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