Link to October 11 news thread: http://tinyurl.com/hb3jd
http://tinyurl.com/ebw5y (Excerpt):
New Crisis Management Centre launched by FAO
Will speed response to AI and other threats
12 October 2006, Rome – Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, today inaugurated a new FAO Crisis Management Centre (CMC) to fight Avian Influenza outbreaks and other major animal health or food health-related emergencies.
An interesting story about a simulation in L.A. that was held recently….
L.A. simulates an outbreak of the bird flu Underfunding, confusion over roles among issues BY TROY ANDERSON, Staff Writer
At first, officials report a single suspected human case of the bird flu in Los Angeles. By the fourth day, that person has died and officials begin scrambling to decide what to do.
No vaccine will be available for months and there is only a limited supply of antiviral medications. By day seven, officials start closing schools and employers are confronted with rising absenteeism.
By the 25th day, about 3,700 people have died in Los Angeles County, 59,000 residents are infected and the National Guard is called out to keep order.
That hypothetical scenario unfolded Wednesday as health experts and business leaders held their first broad exercise designed to prepare for a bird flu pandemic in the Los Angeles area.
more…..
Greek Agricultural Development and Foods Minister Evangelos Basiakos announced on Wednesday that the country will be on alert for “a possible reappearance of bird flu” in the coming week.
However, the minister said “there is no cause for concern” for the time being, adding that all bio-safety measures taken since last May will “remain valid.”
Meanwhile, the armed forces said they are taking precautionary measures for the possible reappearance of bird flu.
Under the circumstances, an exercise code named the “Artemis,” will be organized by the National Defense General Staff Friday at the 251 Air Force General Hospital, with the participation of doctors and nurses from hospitals of the three branches of the armed forces.
From the Daily Star Egypt-Discusses how the government is dealing with the new outbreak, and problems within the country….
Egypt still battling with bird flu, new case detected
CAIRO: A new case of human bird flu, the first since May, was detected in Egypt Wednesday, indicating behavior has been slow to change despite widespread awareness campaigns, officials and experts said.
Health officials announced the H5N1 strain of bird flu, its most aggressive form, had been detected in a woman from the northern delta province of Al-Gharbiya.
They said Hanan Abul Magd, 39, was tested for bird flu after suffering from high fever and shortness of breath. She is believed to have been infected when she slaughtered her ailing flock of ducks.
more….
12 October 2006 – Rapid response specialists will be on deck around the clock seven days a week to fight bird flu outbreaks and other major animal health or food health-related emergencies anywhere in the world at a new Crisis Management Centre (CMC) launched by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today.
“One of the lessons FAO has learned in three years of leading the international fight against Avian Influenza is that speed is of the essence,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said at the CMC’s inauguration at the Agency’s Rome headquarters. “Alert must be lightning-quick. Reaction must be immediate in combating a disease which can move across borders and continents terrifyingly fast.”
Set up in collaboration with the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Centre brings rapid-response capacity to transboundary animal and plant diseases, and can also react quickly to emergencies involving plant pests or food safety.
more…
This is copied and pasted from a recent Brookings Institution e-mail. The Brookings Institution is a well-known centrist think tank in Washington DC and it is holding a special meeting next Thursday evening on the impact of a possible pandemic flu. I hope this does not duplicate another posting. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A Brookings Economic Studies and Global Economy & Development Briefing
Assessing the Impact of Pandemic Flu
Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
The Brookings Institution Saul/Zilkha Conference Rooms 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC
Health experts are concerned that a pandemic influenza could kill millions of people worldwide and cripple the global economy. As governments spend millions of dollars to stockpile medicines and plan emergency responses, what are the critical factors that should be considered for an effective response? How will people behave when faced with the threat and how might their actions alter the course of a pandemic? How would the global economy be affected and which countries would be hit hardest?
On October 19, Brookings scholars will address the potential impact of a pandemic flu worldwide. Featured speakers include Joshua Epstein, senior fellow, and modeler for the National Institutes of Health; and Warwick McKibbin, nonresident senior fellow, professor of international economics at The Australian National University and professorial fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Carol Graham, senior fellow and co-director, Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, and professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, will make opening remarks and moderate the discussion.
After the program, panelists will take audience questions. Introduction and Moderator Carol Graham Senior Fellow and Co-Director Center on Social and Economic Dynamics The Brookings Institution
Featured Speakers Joshua M. Epstein Senior Fellow, Economic Studies The Brookings Institution Warwick McKibbin Nonresident Senior Fellow The Brookings Institution
RSVP: Please call the Brookings Office of Communications, 202–797–6105, or visit http://onlinepressroom.net/brookings/
Infomass - Thanks for the article. Wonder if we will have a paper afterwards of their discussions. Wish someone here could attend.
NEWS
Thanh Nien Daily- “A Chinese company that is developing a H5N1 bird flu vaccine for humans plans to kick off a second clinical trial before the end of the year and will have its production capacity expanded ten-fold by mid-2007.
“The second clinical trial should be over by July or August next year, just before the flu season begins,” Yin Weidong, managing director of state-backed Beijing Sinovac Biotech Co., told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
He tried to ease concerns over using a strain of the virus found in Vietnam in the vaccine, saying it would offer some protection against other H5N1 strains.
The company needs to obtain the approval of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for the second trial and will file its application with the agency within the next two weeks.
“The government values this project very highly and it will get going faster,” Yin said. He added that the World Health Organization had provided advice in the first clinical trial and would probably do so again in the second trial.
Sinovac ran its first clinical trial involving 120 volunteers in Beijing this year.
It published its findings in The Lancet medical journal in September, saying the experimental vaccine was effective and well tolerated at low doses…”
more… http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=21069
NEWS
LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The ability of London’s financial services industry to cope with an outbreak of a bird flu pandemic will be put to the test from Friday as dozens of firms across the City of London assess their preparedness.
Britain’s finance industry regulators start a six-week exercise to test how banks, insurers, exchanges, traders and other financial infrastructure providers would deal with a pandemic…”
Firms will be given an “evolving scenario” each Friday, such as the outbreak of bird flu in Asia or the spread of the pandemic to the UK, and be asked how they would react…”
more here
NEWS
People’s Daily online- “China’s Ministry of Health is to train all medical professionals on prevention and control of key infectious diseases, including bird flu.
All medical institutes in China are instructed to begin the training immediately and complete it by the end of November, said the ministry in a circular on Thursday.
The training includes awareness of Chinese laws and regulations concerning infectious disease control, public health emergencies, the reporting network and management of hospital-originated infections.
All the medical professionals must be aware of key infectious diseases, including bird flu, SARS, bubonic plague, pneumonia with unknown causes and major endemic diseases.
Medical professionals are required to grasp the basic knowledge of the diseases, diagnosis standards, therapies, reporting procedures and disinfection and quarantine methods.
Recent outbreaks of bird flu have put the nation on alert again for the potentially deadly disease…”
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200610/12/eng20061012_311249.html
Hi MaMa. Nice to see you back with us.
NEWS
NC Times.com- SAN FRANCISCO — Could you work from home for weeks at a time? How long could you hole up without needing to go to the grocery or drugstore? Would you be willing to wear a face mask and isolate yourself from others?
Harvard researchers are surveying Americans on questions like these as the government wraps up work on a plan to use primitive infection-control measures to deal with a killer flu outbreak until drugs and vaccine become available.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pitching the plan at medical meetings and aims to send it out for review by the end of the year. State and local governments have asked for unusually detailed and specific advice on such matters as closing schools and canceling public events, one CDC official said.
This week, CDC awarded $5.2 million in grants related to the plan, including research on whether to recommend face masks to the public. CDC also asked the Institute of Medicine, a group of scientific advisers, to meet on these measures later this month.
“We cant afford to neglect some of the traditional approaches to contagion control because we very well may find ourselves in a situation where thats all we’ve got for a period of time,” said CDC‘s quarantine chief, Dr. Marty Cetron…”
more… http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/12/health/15_08_4411_11_06.txt
Hi Tom DVM! Nice to be back for a bit. I’m off back to the bush in a few days, glad to be here now tho. I hope you are doing well.
NEWS
DPM (Middle East Business and Finance) news- “The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is helping Thailand with a nationwide school-based campaign to protect children and their families from the spread of bird flu and the threat of its mutation into a deadly human pandemic.
The campaign, launched yesterday by the Education Ministry, covers all 40,000 elementary and secondary schools in the country, which has registered the third highest toll from the current H5N1 flu virus. It focuses on promoting frequent hand washing, rapid reporting of sick and dead poultry and other key behaviours.
Four million posters and pamphlets with awareness and prevention messages are being distributed along with a newly-developed curriculum to help ensure children understand the behaviours they need to practice to thwart the spread of H5N1, which has infected 25 people in Thailand, and killed 17 of them including 11 children under the age of 18.
Some 300,000 bars of soap will also be distributed to elementary schools. The posters, pamphlets and curriculum were developed with UNICEF support and funding from the Government of Japan. “At the same time, the campaign will help build the life skills children need to be prepared for and to respond to any type of emergency,” UNICEF Representative Inese Zalitis said…”
http://www.dpm.ae/doc_cont.asp?id=99943
NEWS
FoxNews.com- “WASHINGTON — A deadly strain of bird flu could appear in the United States in the next few months as wild birds migrate from infected nations, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
Chertoff said “there will be a reasonable possibility of a domestic fowl outbreak” as migrating birds mix with ducks, chickens and other birds in the U.S. But he cautioned against panic, noting that the Agriculture Department has dealt with other strains of bird flu for years.
“If we get a wild bird or even a domestic chicken that gets infected with avian flu, we’re going to be able to deal with it, because we’ve got a lot of experience with that,” Chertoff said, speaking to newspaper editors and publishers….”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187344,00.html
NEWS
People’s Daily online- “The South Pacific country Fiji has been warned that if the Bird Flu virus hits the country, it could kill 5,000 people.
The Fiji Sun, a suva-based daily newspaper, reported Thursday that the warning has been given by the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Specialist at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr. Narendra Singh.
Singh said Fiji could be headed for a pandemic that could affect about 240,000 people of whom 12,500 could be hospitalized and thousands killed.
Singh note that Fiji encountered such a pandemic in 1918 when an influenza epidemic killed 9,000 people or about five percent of the total population…”
…”Singh said Fiji’s health sector has been so occupied with many reported outbreaks of diseases this year that there has been little time to prepare for a bird flu pandemic.”
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200610/12/eng20061012_311247.html
NEWS
MOSCOW, October 12 (Itar-Tass) - “Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has lifted ban on import of poultry, fodder and equipment from Maryland, U.S., the watchdog’s press service told Itar-Tass on Thursday…”
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10879784&PageNum=0
COMMENT:
I find it amusing that Greece’s code word for their pandemic drill is ARTEMIS given that there is a very popular YA fiction series named for the main charector Artemis FOWL.
Nothing else amusing about any of this news at all. On the one hand Im very glad all the training and drills and alerts are going on, people taking this seriously. On the other hand, its making me very nervous……
Artemis:
The daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the twin of Apollo. Artemis is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility…
Sorry not to do the tinyurl thing, but the Brookings Institution has a link to a paper on the economic effects of pandemic flu. The “ultra” case has about 150 million (2–2.5%) of the world population dying at a cost of $4 to $.5 trillion. The US and EU are least affected.(?) Go to http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/mckibbin/200602.htm. That address has an executive summary and a link to the full paper.
Same case as above, different spin.
http://tinyurl.com/yzkaye Bird flu in Egypt
CAIRO: Egypt announced yesterday that a 39-year-old housewife had contracted the bird flu, bringing the number of Egyptians with the disease to 15, the state-run news agency reported. The Ministry of Health announced that Hannan Aboul Magd contracted the lethal H5N1 virus while slaughtering and cleaning chickens at her home in the Gharbiya province north of Cairo, the agency said. She was hospitalised Oct 4, and test results Tuesday showed she had bird flu, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine was quoted as saying. She was still undergoing treatment, the report said. Before Aboul Magd, 14 Egyptians were known to have contracted the disease. Eight of them recovered and six died. Bird flu was first detected in Egypt in February. Since then it has spread to 19 of the country’s 26 provinces. Egypt lies on a migratory route for wild birds. Discovery of the disease in several Middle Eastern countries sparked widespread culling of birds. Egypt, Iraq and Turkey are the only countries in the region to have suffered human fatalities.
MaMa – at 12:33
I noticed that the FOX News story is from March 9, 2006.
Bird flu case in Thai dog raises questions about infection
Thai scientists have reported a case of H5N1 influenza infection in a dog, a finding that lengthens the unusually long list of mammals this avian flu virus can infect. The report, which suggests the dog became infected by eating ducks killed by the virus, also underscores a need to figure out whether the virus can be transmitted through consumption of infected animals, a World Health Organization scientist said Wednesday.
“This is the third species or fourth species that has been infected by eating carcasses. So I think we really have to think about the risk of oral ingestion,” ….
Recombinomics Commentary (excerpts) October 11, 2006
“H5N1 sequences from northern China are being released by the Beijing Genome Institute. Some of these sequences are repeats of earlier sequences released under the title, “A cohort of AIV H5N1 subtypes isolated from wild aquatic birds and domestic poultry revealed rapid transmission, frequent reassortment, and identifiable recombination events” and these sequenced confirm the clear cut examples of homologous recombination.
The new sequences are generally full sequences of all eight gene segments and provide valuable information of the evolution and transmission of H5N1 in China. Many of the sequences are from poultry from various Northern provinces in China in 1997. H5N1 was first detected in 1996 in a goose from Guangdong. The following year, the first human H5N1 were reported in Hong Kong. …. The human H5N1 also had internal genes (PB2, PB1, PA, NP) which matched sequences from H9N2 And H6N1. This constellation of genes was also found in bird isolates.
This constellation disappeared after Hong Kong culled over 1.5 million birds in 1997. However, the same constellation was recently found in smuggled eggs from Vietnam, indicating the genes continued to circulate in a reservoir outside of Hong Kong
Reported human H5N1 re-appeared in Hong Kong in a family that visited Fujian province in 2003. The constellation of these genes was designated as the Z+ genotype. The following year the Z genotype emerged in H5N1 exploding out of China, including human cases in Vietnam and Thailand.
Analysis of these sequences indicates that they have moved into wild birds in eastern Asia. These sequences are distinct from the Qinghai sequences that were first detected at Qinghai Lake in 2005 and subsequently migrated to Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The sequences recently released link isolates in northern China and Japan to sequences in southeast Asia, including Indonesia. This linkage is largely via a number of polymorphisms acquired via recombination.
The new sequences also have large regions of identity in sequences isolated years apart.
The conservation of these sequences raise serious questions about the role of random mutations in the seasonal changes of pandemic H5N1. As noted earlier, strong conservation is also seen in Hong Kong isolates from the late 70’s, indicating copy errors are not a major source of the seasonal changes.
‘’‘The same type of evolution was seen in Canadian swine isolates from 2003–2004 which had large portions of exact copies of 1977 PA and PB2 genes.
Thus, the current data shows that H5N1 sequences can be faithfully copied over long time periods, and the portions of genes can be exchanged by homologous recombination.
The detection of such recombination in H5N1 in Asia has been hampered by the release of partial sequences or the release of a limited number of genes. NIAID has a program that will generate complete sequences of all eight gene segments. Filling in the database holes created by the partial sequences .” - excerpts ‘’‘
Flip of coin may decide if you’ll get treatment for flu Friday October 13, 2006
…flip of the coin may decide who gets medicine, ventilators or hospital beds if a flu pandemic ever takes grip here. In an article in the New Zealand Medical Journal … today, potential patients cannot be separated on a “first come, first served” basis then access may have to be determined by “a process of equal and unbiased chance, such as tossing a coin or use of a ballot”….
DennisC – at 15:08 wrote:
Flip of coin may decide if you’ll get treatment for flu.
I agree. Finite resources, infinite expectations. It is already happening. When I met my new G.P. for the first time last week, and asked for prophylactic anti-virals (for down the road/which may or may not work) for my son, she said it would be “medically unethical” for her to provide them. It might be for her - but not for my family.
Fox is about to have (next 1/2 hour) a report on evacuation of major towns and how most will not be able to get out.
Score card for city evacuations, Not exactly flu news, but of concern
Kansas City best for evacuations, LA worst
the results that Fox quoted from can be found here:
DennisC at 15:50, good catch and thanks! I didn’t notice:-)
NEWS
The Jakarta Post- “A 67-year-old woman from Cisarua in Lembang, West Java was tested positive for bird flu Wednesday and is likely to be the country’s first victim to suffer from brain inflammation due to the virus…”
…” The woman’s case is unique, as it is the first time in the country that the H5N1 virus has been reported to have caused encephalitis, or the inflammation of the brain. A similar condition was reported to have caused the deaths of two siblings in south Vietnam in 2004.
Yudi said that based on preliminary information from the hospital, the bird flu patient has been placed in isolation after suffering a fever for two days following the sudden death of her chickens.
When she was first admitted to the hospital Saturday afternoon, she was in poor health, suffering from a high fever, breathing problems and a loss of consciousness.
However, the hospital’s team of doctors, led by Hadi Jusuf, did not find indications that her loss of consciousness was due to acute respiratory distress or pneumonia like other bird flu patients treated at the hospital.
“There’s a strong indication that the virus has entered the victim’s brain membrane. A sample of fluid from her spinal cord has been taken to confirm the nature of the virus,” Yudi said…”
more… http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061012.G01&irec=0
DennisC – at 15:08 Flip of coin may decide if you’ll get treatment for flu
I got my two-headed nickel! Add that to the “Preps You Might Forget” thread!
Seriously though.
Heads you live, tails you leave?
What does the hospital staff think a person is going to do if they flip tails?
Does anyone here speak Hungarian? I found this just out on RSOE emergency alert service. It is about a bunch of (lake?) birds in Hungary. However I cannot tell much more.
DennisC - at 16:20, I have seen those occassionally at RSOE and I’ve tried in vain to get a translation site for Hungarian. No can do. At least not without paying a fee.
Commonground – at 16:25
translation- here is a free translation site. It isn’t very good, but the second one down on the left does do hungarian. The problem is that it is not very good at all.
All I can tell is it is about problem birds. I don’t know if the birds are causing a problem or if there is a problem with the birds. Anywhy, try the translation site.
DennisC- great evacuation report thanks
Sept. article. http://tinyurl.com/y3geyt - Less virulent strain offers little threat to humans
BARROW, Alaska (AP) -
“Interior officials said Aug. 29 that of the 13,000 samples taken so far, 113 birds tested positive to some form of influenza that poses no threat to humans. But no evidence of the more potent H5N1 strain has been found. Biologists expected coming across low-level flu samples
The test samples are sent to a laboratory in Madison, Wis., and those showing an h5 strain are sent to the Agriculture Department lab in Ames, Iowa, to determine if it might have the highly dangerous form.
Snowhound1: “Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, moon, and childbirth. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis
guess what was first, the televison or the greeks ;-)
sorry that link was for Green Mom :)
The Greek code might have been better named after Artemis’ brother Apollo, who was the god of healing, and the bringer (and averter) of plagues. But maybe they were afraid of triggering the “bringer of plagues” rather than the “averter of plagues” part of Apollo’s personality.
Does anyone have any clue what to make of the Newcastle Disease in Scotland (there’s a thread with links open on it). I’m assuming it’s just ND, as they are saying it is. But is there any real reason to think it might be something else? Are the tests for ND pretty accurate?
Tantalizing study offers hope people could be pre-protected against pandemic flu
“it might be possible to protect people against pandemic influenza by priming their immune systems even years in advance of an outbreak. The study, released Thursday, showed that people who were vaccinated with an H5N1 avian flu vaccine in 1998 developed a strong immune response when they were given a single H5N1 booster shot in 2006 - even though the virus had evolved or “drifted” considerably during that eight-year interval. ..
I don’t think this is going to give you enough information to make a policy change. But it’s an important step in accruing scientific information that would inform that debate.” …
The booster shot induced a “dramatic” immune response, Treanor said. That in itself is interesting - at the time of the original study, the response provoked by the 1998 vaccine was disappointingly weak.
Dennis C. Could very well be good news…but everyone should keep in mind that an immune response in itself, is not a garauntee of protection. The actual protection can only be confirmed by direct challenge by the virus.
News
Folks, stay calm until we know more. For Papau New Guinea this will probably be a matter of waiting several days. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Seven die in flu and dysentery outbreak
By JAMES KILA
SEVEN people have reportedly died following an alleged outbreak of flu and dysentery in remote Mobutasa village in Obura-Wonenara district, Eastern Highlands province, earlier this week.
According to Obura Wonenara district health officer Justin Wase, the seven deaths were reported by councillor Waipinase Nogiri on Monday.
The councillor walked over rugged terrains and rough gullies to reach Aiyura to report the matter to the district health authorities.
Mr Wase said from Mr Nogiri’s report, seven people had died within two weeks from diseases which had symptoms somewhat associated with flu and dysentery.
Mobutasa is only accessible by air. Although it is close to Aivondi in the Okapa district, it is politically in the Obura Wonenara electorate.
It takes about three days to reach the area from Obura Wonenara. The closest airstrip is also three days away from the village. Mr Wase has reported the matter to the provincial health office in Goroka and has asked for a medical relief team to travel to the area to assess the situation. The National unsuccessfully attempted to get comments from health services director Ben Haili in Goroka.
In his report, Mr Wase said the relatively small population of Mobutasa could be wiped out by the epidemic.
He requested for a chopper to be hired for health officers to travel to the village. Mr Wase said half of the health facilities in the district were accessible only by air. Of these, 60% are owned by the church health service. He added that 65% of the rural aid posts were closed and about 80% of the maternal deaths were not reported. Furthermore, 78% of outreach clinic programmes in the district were not implemented. The report also stated that 85% of rural health facilities were not visited.
PLEASE COMMENT: Could this be something that comes back to bite us????
Grain stockpiles at lowest for 25 years The world’s stockpiles of wheat are at their lowest level in more than a quarter century, according to the US Department of Agriculture, which on Thursday slashed its forecasts for global wheat and corn production.
The lower forecasts were largely attributable to the severe drought in Australia, where the forecast for this year’s wheat crop was cut by 8.5m tons to 11m. That is less than half of the 24m produced last year, of which about 17m went to exports.
As a result of the low Australian crop, AWB, the country’s main wheat exporter, said it would suspend exports from the country’s east coast due to the poor crop and review its export requirements.
For more: http://tinyurl.com/ygf9ad
Indonesia’s bird flu death toll rises to 52
“An Indonesian man who had been suffering from bird flu for days died early on Thursday, a hospital official said, taking Indonesia’s death toll from the disease to 52. “He died because of breathing problems which he had suffered since he was admitted to the hospital,” said Hadi Yusuf, who heads the bird flu ward at Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung, West Java’s provincial capital.
The government had acknowledged the 20-year-old victim as a bird flu case earlier this week. The man’s brother died with bird flu symptoms on Sunday but due to lack of testing there has been no positive confirmation he had the disease. A third sibling, a 15-year old girl, is currently being treated at Hasan Sadikin hospital.
“She is doing alright, no fever. We are still looking into whether she has the avian influenza virus. The third testing will be conducted today,” Yusuf told Reuters by phone. …Two previous tests have found negative trace of bird flu. Relatives of the three siblings are also being tested. “
Looks like that may have been an old story. I find it dated Oct 12 here: http://tinyurl.com/v5e77
but I also find about the same thing here dated Set 29.
It looks like the Washington Post doesn’t have their dates on the paper and articles consistant. Sorry, I should have checked instead of believing the MSM.
could this be most of the reason for the stockpile reduction?
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3919
“So far, China has relied on corn and wheat as its primary ethanol feedstock. After years of expansion, however, distilleries have exhausted their grain stockpiles, and the use of new corn to meet biofuel production needs has begun to jeopardize food security in this populous country of 1.3 billion.”
lugon, the word is getting out!
NEWS
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — “Europeans are encouraged to cover their mouths when they cough and wash their hands regularly as part of personal measures that may offer protection from influenza, including a threatened pandemic…”
…``Knowledge and awareness of these personal measures among the European public needs to be improved, Nicoll said in a report yesterday in Eurosurveillance, an online journal of peer- reviewed information on communicable diseases. ``The same measures are likely to be effective in reducing transmission of both human seasonal and pandemic influenza and so this approach is also part of preparations for the next influenza pandemic…
…” The personal protective measures supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control are regular hand- washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, using tissues and disposing of them appropriately, wearing masks in health-care settings and, when influenza is circulating, early isolation at home of people feeling unwell and feverish…”
…”The ECDC is ``neutral but permissive’‘ on general mask- wearing by everyone during the influenza season because there is no firm evidence showing it reduces transmission, Nicoll said…”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=ao3x38HnXYh4&refer=healthcare
www.chinaview.cn 2006–10–12 15:49:25
BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) — “China’s Ministry of Health is to train all medical professionals on prevention and control of key infectious diseases, including bird flu.
All medical institutes in China are instructed to begin the training immediately and complete it by the end of November, said the ministry in a circular on Thursday.
The training includes awareness of Chinese laws and regulations concerning infectious disease control, public health emergencies, the reporting network and management of hospital-originated infections.
All the medical professionals must be aware of key infectious diseases, including bird flu, SARS, bubonic plague, pneumonia with unknown causes and major endemic diseases.
Medical professionals are required to grasp the basic knowledge of the diseases, diagnosis standards, therapies, reporting procedures and disinfections and quarantine methods. Recent outbreaks of bird flu have put the nation on alert again for the potentially deadly disease.
In the past fortnight, China reported two new outbreaks of bird flu in poultry, which killed 2,000 domestic fowls in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Yin Chengjie, Vice Minister of Agriculture, has warned that autumn and winter were critical periods, and officials should be aware of the dangers and not underestimate the difficulty of controlling the bird flu virus. Beijing has reinstated daily reporting of bird flu monitoring results in a bid to prevent possible outbreaks.
The government is preparing 23 million to 25 million doses of flu vaccine this year, 20 percent more than last year.” - excerpt
+U.N. launches global bird flu squad+ Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:03 AM BST
By Robin Pomeroy
ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday launched a global crisis center to monitor the spread of bird flu and despatch experts to help countries crack down on the killer virus.
The FAO’s “Crisis Management Center” will be staffed round the clock, taking calls from countries that discover outbreaks of bird flu and sending specially trained vets anywhere in the world within 48 hours.
“It’s a sort of commando approach,” the FAO’s chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech said at an inaugural session of the Rome-based organization. “We have a type of ‘fire brigade’ equipped with the most modern equipment.”
The center was set up after pressure from the United States and the European Union to establish a single center to coordinate global efforts to combat the H5N1 strain of the virus which has killed 146 people since 2003.
It will operate in cooperation with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Heath Organization (WHO) and send staff especially into developing countries which lack the resources to cope on their own.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said that although many countries had succeeded in eradicating bird flu in poultry flocks, there were still major problems in Africa and Indonesia and risks the virus could return even after eradication.
The biggest fear is that the virus could mutate into a form that can be passed between humans, creating a global pandemic.
“Only when H5N1 has been totally eradicated will the sword of Damocles, or more pessimistically the time bomb, of a human pandemic be removed,” Diouf said, adding that the center would also be used to control any future outbreaks of other cross-border animal-based diseases.
The United States is providing the biggest chunk of the funding — $5.1 million — and has sent three vets to join the staff in Rome.
COMMENT: Who sees H5N1 getting “totally eradicated” in the foreseeable future? Not me.
Hmm. Back to the sandbox re formatting titles.
Okieman – at 20:44 Folks, stay calm until we know more. For Papau New Guinea this will probably be a matter of waiting several days. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Comment
Okieman, I take it you think this is H5N1. Sorry to be dense. I’m just very tired and want to make sure I’m not reading more into your comment than is there. Assuming I’m correctly interpreting, what are your specific concerns? Size of apparent cluster? Spread from other islands? Something else?
Okieman. I know that you have been convinced for sometime that New Guinea was probably going to be significant. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Edna Mode – at 23:37
I started the New Guinea thread months ago because of my concerns that it would start there. The highlands of the island of New Guinea are very remote. Their main meat source are pigs, followed by poultry. This area of the world is a perfect place for H5N1 to adapt to humans in secret, and it really not be identified and addressed medically until it came forth as a pandemic strain.
Do I know it is H5N1? No. Do I fear it is? Yes. If it is, then it probably is already too late to stop it. We have to watch for multiplication of cases in Port Moresby over the next couple of weeks. If nothing happens then I will be happy to call it a false alarm.
Tom DVM – at 23:45
One of my evening habits for the past number or months has been to check the two on-line newspapers in Port Moresby, PNG. My gut feeling has been that panflu would emerge in the PNG. I have also had a feeling that panflu would start in October. Nothing firm to base any of it on, just what my gut feeling has been. Let us hope that it is simply indigestion;-)
Okieman – at 08:10
Thanks for spelling out your concerns, Okieman. After I posted my message here last night I read beginning to end your thread on Papau New Guinea, and I can completely see why you are keeping an eye on things there. I hadn’t explored that thread previously as there just isn’t enough time in the day, but I’m glad I did last night. Thanks for your efforts, and keep us posted.
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