AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0419wedlets194.html
Apr. 19, 2006 12:00 AM <!--______START TEXT OF STORY________-->
Regarding "Science doesn't support fears of U.S. bird-flu pandemic"
While Dr. Marc Siegel provocatively highlights the vexing uncertainties surrounding the bird flu, his perspective is a narrow one. The potential public health menace posed by pandemic influenza encompasses far more than the H5N1 bird flu.
In addition to the multiple H5N1 bird flu strains presently of concern, many other forms of influenza viruses exist, and the next human pandemic could spring from any of them. The overwhelming expert consensus remains that whether or not it happens that a H5N1 bird flu strain sparks it, an influenza pandemic is inevitable. If bird flu is suppressed somehow or fortuitously fades away, it is imperative to recognize that the underlying danger of pandemic influenza does not depart with this virus.
The perverse quandary is that even an unexpected and welcome quick exit of the H5N1 virus, an event that could offer the much-needed breathing room to bolster our defenses, might actually prove perilous if it leads the public to the erroneous conclusion that all threat has passed.
In that event, H5N1 bird flu could claim its most significant and ultimately tragic casualties: political support and financial wherewithal for emerging global programs to combat the permanent menace of pandemic influenza.
In light of the full body of the facts and all that is at stake, leaders sounding an alarm are being neither hasty nor hysterical. -Tyler A. Kokjohn, Glendale
The writer is a professor of microbiology at Midwestern University.
.
Apr. 19, 2006 12:00 AM <!--______START TEXT OF STORY________-->
Regarding "Science doesn't support fears of U.S. bird-flu pandemic"
While Dr. Marc Siegel provocatively highlights the vexing uncertainties surrounding the bird flu, his perspective is a narrow one. The potential public health menace posed by pandemic influenza encompasses far more than the H5N1 bird flu.
In addition to the multiple H5N1 bird flu strains presently of concern, many other forms of influenza viruses exist, and the next human pandemic could spring from any of them. The overwhelming expert consensus remains that whether or not it happens that a H5N1 bird flu strain sparks it, an influenza pandemic is inevitable. If bird flu is suppressed somehow or fortuitously fades away, it is imperative to recognize that the underlying danger of pandemic influenza does not depart with this virus.
The perverse quandary is that even an unexpected and welcome quick exit of the H5N1 virus, an event that could offer the much-needed breathing room to bolster our defenses, might actually prove perilous if it leads the public to the erroneous conclusion that all threat has passed.
In that event, H5N1 bird flu could claim its most significant and ultimately tragic casualties: political support and financial wherewithal for emerging global programs to combat the permanent menace of pandemic influenza.
In light of the full body of the facts and all that is at stake, leaders sounding an alarm are being neither hasty nor hysterical. -Tyler A. Kokjohn, Glendale
The writer is a professor of microbiology at Midwestern University.
.