Of Avian Influenza
There has been a flurry of activity suddenly on the threat of a flu epidemic
Danger of Flu Pandemic Is Clear, if Not Present - New York Times.
Just what were the events that set official Washington buzzing two
weeks ago? The New York Times in a 05 Oct 05 article refers to a closed door
briefing led by Michael O. Leavitt (Sec HHS)
Fear of Flu Outbreak Rattles Washington - New York Times last
week , which would be the last week of September. The briefing "scared
the hell out of me," they quote Senator Reid as saying.
Senate democrats responded to this briefing by introducing a
bill calling for an executive branch flu pandemic coordinator (Wed 05
Oct 05). Dana Milbank in an article in the Post on the 13th
Capitol Hill Flu Briefing Was No Trick, and No Treat seems
to reference a similar briefing that occurred over the Columbus-day
break. He terms this a congressional briefing, he puts this in
quotes.
My own sources within the federal government (which would
be my sister) between these two events mentioned that Avian flu had
suddenly become a topic of intense discussion among her coworkers.
People were reviewing their telecommuting options. Stocking their desks
with those hospital masks. Attempting to determine the maximum worker
absentee rate that would still allow them not to interfere with phone
and cable company mergers.
A Presidential press conference (Tue. 03 Oct 05)
dwelt on this topic and included a speculative recommendation by the
President that the military be authorized to enforce quarantines in the
event of an severe outbreak
Bush suddenly wakes up to threat of avian flu - The Boston Globe.
What is this H5N1 Virus that has provoked all this attention?
H5N1 has killed 60 or so people across the world and has required the
destruction of million of chickens throughout southern asia. Worse it may be related to the virus that killed 50 million or more people in 1918
Bird Flu and the 1918 Pandemic - New York Times.
This prompted a group of researchers to rebuild the gene sequence of
that virus in order to identify the mutating sections that facilitated
that influenza virus' the jump to humans
Experts Unlock Clues to Spread of 1918 Flu Virus - New York Times.
President Bush this week asked the leaders of the world's top
vaccine manufacturers - Chiron, Sanofi-Aventis, Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline
and Merck - to come to the White House on Friday
U.S. Taking Steps to Meet Demand for Flu Vaccine - New York Times.
Probably not to talk baseball but you never know. The Swiss
pharmaceutical company Roche have had pressure put on them from many
Roche is pressed to ease curbs on its bird flu drug - Business - International Herald Tribune
fronts to either step up manufacture of their product Tamaflu. Or
license it to additional manufacture. Tamiflu is not a vaccine for
H5N1, but an anti-viral agent. An influenza ameliorator. Some companies
already plan or desire
Marketplace: A generic Tamiflu to
produce Tamiflu, but without license agreements would not be able to
sell it in some countries. A Boston Globe article
Flu drug sales soar; specialists fear overuse - The Boston Globe
notes that there is some question, beyond the slender stockpiles of
Tamiflu, whether it can be effective against an influenza that can kill
within a few days of initial infection.
A close eye is being kept on what can't be easily controlled -
wild bird migrations which could easily spread the disease across
continents and into many different bird species
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | British medics on bird flu mission --
The Observer UK News GPs told: prepare for 14 million flu victims .
Much of the current effort is being directed at containing the disease
regionally and destroying bird populations it is found in
The Globe and Mail: Turkish cases of avian flu spark EU ban.
A while back my friend Tran who grew up in Vietnam pointed out the
considerable hardship this places on ordinary families directed by the
government to destroy their household livestock. All this is to the end at
keeping the virus out of the human or other animal populations to limit
the opportunity it would have to mutate within a human host into a
strain that would allow it to spread by human transmittal alone.
The human biosphere has been creating potential vectors at a
logarithmic rate for years. Globalism - Its all about flows. Neither
theTimes article and none of the others precisely indicate how
long H5N1 has been around, but long enough so that there are two minds
as to whether it lacks the ability to mutate in a way that would
critical affect the human population. Or whether it needs time to get
into a linking host such as pigs before developing that ability.
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