STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I've heard of it.  It is a huge problem in Asia and has been so for years.  I'm still unsure how it spreads from chicken to human but I'm still reading the article. 

hmm well i'm not too sure about that.  every year they bring it up on tv and make a huge deal out of it but it has yet to come over so I'm not too sure.  I know I'm not going to go into a frenzy or freak out over it.  I hope it won't come over but you never know.  I'm not sure how it works and spreads but I never hear of mass deaths in Asia like that article was saying would happen over here. I mean they have a lot of deaths but its not in the millions.  I think more in the tens of thousands if that.  I almost think this article was a scare tatic to draw attention to the issue.  Who really knows though.

Thanks for the link dc.  That was very interesting.  If you happen to come across the New Yorker article I would love to read it.

Here is the full text of the New Yorker article.

Basically, the strain of the flu that affects birds has been around for ages but it usually only causes mild symptoms and has rarely crossed over the species barrier to humans. The particular virus which has appeared in Asia recently is much more potent and is killing almost all of the chickens that get infected. It has also been spreading and killings lots of other animals - house cats, tigers in zoos. They mentioned that ducks have been found to carry the virus but they don't seem to get sick which means that there is a large population of migratory animals which could potentially carry the virus all over the world. According to the article there have been like 40something known cases of this strain killing humans and the thing that scientists are worried about is that they now have evidence that it can spread from person-to-person so it isn't just people who are in constant contact with poultry who are being infected.

So yes, every year there is a new strain of the flu and that's normal since viruses work by mutating and sometimes scientists do have trouble coming up with new vaccines every year, but according to this article scientists at major organizations like the CDC and the WHO are very concerned about this particular strain since it is spreading rapidly among animals and has been crossing over to humans and seems much more potent than other strains. It also fits the main conditions for causing a pandemic and the last 3 pandemics were all viruses that had originally come from animals. The article said that pandemics occur every 30-40 years and made it seem like another happening soon is sort of inevitable and natural and there isn't much that can be done other than widespread slaughter of chickens and other infected animals and trying to come up with a vaccine but right now the pharmaceutical industry can only produce enough vaccines for some really miniscule number of people - 3 million maybe.

-- Edited by cc at 10:21, 2005-09-19