Bird flu panic

[oilman]

It seems the "media" is using this as the next "let's generate a panic" headline. "Bird flu is coming and we should all be vaccinated" type headlines are available everywhere.

Why, if this is so big a problem in the UK, have not tens of thousands died from it in Asia? Where it's been for weeks. Does the flu virus expect to have better employment prospects in the UK as do the immigrants?

If the panic goes on, there won't be any turkeys for Christmas. Now THAT would cause a panic, with hundreds being killed in the fight to get hold of Christmas dinner.

 

[JulieL]

Having been to several Public Health meetings, there is absolutely no doubt that Avian flu will arrive in this Country at some point.

Also, I personally don't see any problem in increasing the publics awareness regarding this condition.

 

[Richardp]

Well I've/my grandson "jack" has got 2 chooks and we are very worried about them

 

[petewood]

Why, if this is so big a problem in the UK, have not tens of thousands died from it in Asia? Where it's been for weeks. .

At the moment you can only catch this strain of flu from birds. It has a high mortality rate, I think about 150 people caught it and about 60 of them died.

The fear is that someone who already has ordinary flu will catch the bird flu and the virus will mutate so that it will be able to transfer from human to human but will still be as deadly as the pure bird flu.

Scientists and health experts are sure that this will happen within the next three years.

Estimates of the death toll are between 5 million and 150 million worldwide depending on how fast governments act, so it could be as many as on in 40 of the world population (if my maths is correct).

Our govt are so worried that they have ordered 2 million anti-virus treatments, but these will not be ready for a year and they cannot be sure how effective they will be without a sample of the mutated strain to work from, by which time I guess it will be too late.

It is quite possible that economies throughout the will be so disrupted that it will take years to recover.

 

[empip]

Birds carrying the virus will propagate it in their poo, which, when dry will 'dust up' and quite probably be inhaled by us lot... A good old mix of human and bird flu could be bird-astrophic ... BTW the 'stockpiled' vaccines MAY be next to useless if the mixture mutates.

Hmmm! Time to ensure roof 'under tile' nesting is prevented. ..
Technically illegal to interfere when the bu gg ers are nesting ... So we have until spring....
Daphne Du Maurier's 'The Birds' was popularised by the Alfred Hitchcock movie, although he set his film of the same name in USA ... For the original Daphne used, quite rightly, Cornwall .. Look out Ricardo !

 

[Richardp]

just nipping out to throttle them chooks

 

[empip]

Ooooer! All those sh ite hawkes down there .... Bomber Squadrons of flying rats ... Home rule for Cornwall I say !

 

[2scoops0406]

If the panic goes on, there won't be any turkeys for Christmas. Now THAT would cause a panic

Good I hate turkey, let's have some good old beef instead, and before anyone bleats, no it's not even traditional to have turkey. I'll have a goose instead..... errrr or maybe not.

 

[Thermo]

dont know what the panic is, surely its easy to spot a starling that goes tweet tweet achooo!

 

[empip]

When the 'pump' is oiled up, twill be cheep chee kabooom !!

 

[AdamW]

I'm alright. It's bird flu... I'm a bloke.

Or am I missing something?

They must be expecting it to come via wild birds, as my colleague is heading off to Turkey on Monday and hasn't had any warnings of the foot-and-mouth style cleansing when he gets back.

However, when I found out he was off to Turkey (last minute holiday) my first thought was "What if he brings back avian flu, passes it on to me, who then passes it on to my grandad?" Presumably as a healthy young chap I'm in a low-risk group, but the problem is you could link any one of us to an OAP or a young child in about 2 steps. Although wasn't the Vietnamese guy who died after eating congealed duck's blood a youngish chap?

I have identified a very real problem though... they reckon this will harm chicken sales. Well, if people stop eating beef because of BSE, chicken because of this, then all we need is some form of pig clap and we'll end up as a nation of vegetarians: how will we breed then?

 

[oilman]

Well if people stop buying chickens, the supermarkets will just drop the price anfd they will start buying again, just like they did with the beef. You can have the biggest scare going, sell it cheap and no one cares.


Someday the world population will reach a critical value and a disease will take hold and wipe a lot of it out. It would be less traumatic if it didn't rise too high first.

 

[B.O.B DOLE]

ive got 14 chickens in my chicken shed and i have just had the flu hope it where not bird flu are else christmas will be coming early round here has all the neighbours will be getting a free fresh plucked chicken.

 

[JulieL]

Here's some info from the Health Protection Agency re Avian flu

http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/avianinfluenza/menu.htm

 

[oilman]

Not changing the subject, it's just a comparison, but isn't MRSA killing hundreds of times more people in this country every year than bird flu has killed worldwide? What have we got for that? alcohol gel to rub on your hands. Can you trust the government to deal with this one too?

Yet another one is tuberulosis, an insidious but not so spectacular disease, but kills quite a few.

Back to the original post, this seems like another media generated panic, like the petrol shortage.


WOLF! WOLF!....................