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The Bitch Is Back, Bird Flu Outbreaks Occur Again

January 17, 2007 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

Birds are falling out of the sky and dying by the tens and hundreds in cities around the world and we laugh like it’s a joke on the Tonight Show. You can scoff at H5N1 if you want but it’s like the bad house guest who just won’t go home. In case you have forgotten, and most have, the H5N1 Bird Flu virus is deadly to humans, it has a less than 50% survival rate. The Bird Flu is deadly and it is once again migrating through parts of the world where there is not much of a chance for defense of any type. The problem is that we have become such global travelers that third world diseases can be brought to first rate countries in hours and once the virus is brought into a large population it will spread at a very fast and deadly rate. Scientists have repeatedly warned that the H5N1 virus strain has a better chance of mutating if the number of humans becoming infected grows as would occur if the virus was brought from an infected individual into America via a plane trip from a rural foreign area where Bird Flu is an issue. Remember, America still does not have a policy in place for dealing with a potential Bird Flu pandemic; our strategy is still a military quarantine.

Laboratory tests are occurring throughout Indonesia and Thailand basedon new outbreaks of the Bird Flu virus. Because poultry exports are an important part of the Thai economy it is hard to get all Thai farmers to concede to rules and regulations designed to alert the government of a potential Bird Flu outbreak. Thailand is the fourth largest exporter of poultry in the world. Indonesia is very similar to Thailand and they will have similar issues in trying to get assistance from farmers when Bird Flu outbreaks occur.

As distressing as the Bird Flu was last year it may be even more of a concern this year because scientists believe there may be a new wave of bird flu hitting south East Asia which is even deadlier than the previous viruses now currently being studied.

With the Flu season just getting into gear there is a double danger because it is feared that the H5N1 virus strain might find a way to mutate if it infected a person who also had the normal human flu. It is feared that the Bird Flu strain could exchange genetic codes with the human flu virus, and acquire the ability to spread easily from human to human.

Remember many scoffed at the Influenza outbreak on the early 1900’s before it killed millions, the same scoffing is occuring once again. We better be vigilant.

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