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Gidget
Member
07-28-2002
| Tuesday, May 02, 2006 - 7:00 pm
I heard the President will speak about bird flu tomorrow? Is anyone making preparations?
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 2:47 pm
<HP flaps her wings.>
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 3:02 pm
Hi, GG!!!! Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported May 1, 2006 Bird Flu: Be Prepared CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Ready or not -- here it comes! What first started in chickens is now flying across borders. When it comes to bird flu, we’re being told to prepare for the worst and hope for the best! The avian flu is spreading fast. It’s expected to hit Alaska in the next few weeks and the 48 states within months.
"Is it going to happen? I don’t know. Is it enough that we should be prepared? Absolutely," says David Bernstein, M.D., Director of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. He is working on a vaccine against the deadly avian flu. So far, there's nothing that will stop the spread of it, and he says, “When it acquires that ability to go from person to person to person, we have a big problem.” Right now, only a few people have come in contact with avian flu, but that could change if the virus continues to change.
Dr. Bernstein says pandemic happens when it changes so much and nobody has resistance. If that happens, he says, it’s going to spread rapidly to a lot of people. "Wash your hands and stay a good distance from people who are coughing and sneezing," he says. So what can you do to prevent catching bird flu? Be prepared, Dr. Bernstein advises. The government wants you to 1. stock up on essentials sooner rather than later. A family of four should have at least 40 gallons of water on hand. There’s a chance your water will be cut off if a pandemic strikes. You'll need enough canned food for 10 days. You should get an additional 10 days of prescription drugs and medications. 2. But don't be alarmed. Even though 150 million chickens have died from the disease, bird flu has only infected about 170 people worldwide. "This virus keeps knocking on the door, keeps knocking harder and harder, and eventually that door is going to open up," Dr. Bernstein says. So be prepared for what's on the other side -- hopefully it will never get in.
The healthy habits you have now can also help you if the avian flu breaks out. 3. Maintain a balanced diet, exercise regularly and get sufficient rest. And most importantly, if you are sick -- stay home! If you would like more information, please contact: http://www.pandemicflu.gov http://www.avianflu.gov http://pandemicflu.gov/plan/businesschecklist.html
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 3:07 pm
Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported March 30, 2006 Gumballs Could Fight Bird Flu (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- With a potential shortage of the drug to fight the bird flu on the horizon, scientists say they may have a solution. It comes from a seemingly unlikely source. Researchers reporting at this week's meeting of the American Chemical Society say the fruit from the sweetgum tree could be the answer to saving thousands of lives. {The fruit often called gumballs is a great source of shikimic acid, the material used in the production of the drug oseltamirir (Tamiflu) to treat bird flu.} Researchers say until a vaccine is created, this treatment could save lives. With the demand for Tamiflu on the rise, exerts fear for a potential shortage in case of a pandemic of the bird flu. The problem, they say, is that shikimic acid is currently derived primarily from the Chinese star anise fruit. As the demand for the bird flu drug increases, the quantity of star anise declines. Now that researchers know sweetgum trees provide the same benefit as the Chinese star anise fruit, the shortage crisis may be averted. The sweetgum tree grows throughout the United States as well as in other parts of the world. It is most abundant in the South and can be found as far west as Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Shikimic acid is found in the fruit as well as in the leaves and bark. To optimize the extraction, researchers say the fruit should be harvested when they are green and before the seeds have been dispersed. When used to its fullest, each tree can hold hundreds or even thousands of seedpods. According to the World Health Organization, 186 people worldwide have been infected with the bird flu and more than half have died. With an increasing number of reports on the spread of the virus in the bird population, public health officials worry over the potential of a pandemic of the disease. SOURCE: American Chemical Society Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta, March 24-30, 2006
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 3:14 pm
Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported January 25, 2006 Bird Flu Vaccine CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Some world health officials believe the clock is ticking closer and closer to a bird flu pandemic. If bird flu strikes the United States, will we be ready? Researchers are working to see if a new vaccine will buy us time.
It's flu season, but Marilyn Rotundo isn't getting a regular flu shot. Rotundo is one of 75 seniors taking part in a study of the avian -- or bird flu -- vaccine. David Bernstein, M.D., director of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, says in early trials, the vaccine produced an immune response in healthy adults. "Once we established that it was safe and did what we hoped it would do in normal healthy adults, then we move to our most vulnerable population, older adults and children," he tells Ivanhoe. "It's a concern of everybody, family and workers," Rotundo says. Most of the concern about the bird flu centers on a strain called H5N1. It's deadly, and we have no immunity to it. Recent outbreaks have occurred in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China. Dr. Bernstein says, "This is in case this bird flu comes to the states, we'll be ready."
After three shots, blood drawn from study participants will be checked for antibodies that can fight off the bird flu. Experts believe, so far, almost all human cases have come from direct contact with poultry. Dr. Bernstein says when it acquires that ability to go from person to person to person, we have a big problem, but even if this virus spreads, we can still avoid it. "Common sense -- washing your hands, staying a good distance from people who are coughing and sneezing," he says.
Good advice for any flu season. Patients in the study experience the normal soreness affiliated with a regular flu shot, but no other side effects have been reported so far. Three other centers are studying this vaccine. If you would like more information, please contact: Jim Feuer Cincinnati Children's Hospital MLC 9012 3333 Burnet Ave. Cincinnati, OH 45229 (513) 636-4656 jim.feuer@cchmc.org
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 3:29 pm
Darn, I don't know if I can store that much water in my apartment!! It is such a pain to recycle it, it always amazes me that water goes bad!!
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 4:19 pm
It does?
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 4:27 pm
Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported March 30, 2006 Bird flu Vaccine Showing Success (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, shows scientists may soon have a way to protect humans from the bird flu. The research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reveals a study vaccine is able to induce an immune response against the virus that causes the bird flu. The study involved healthy adults between ages 18 and 64. The participants were given one of four different doses of the vaccine or a placebo. One month later they were given a booster shot. The participants were followed and their health was analyzed for 56 days. Blood samples were taken and tested for the presence of the antibody against the virus. Researchers found the higher the dose, the greater the antibody response produced. Of those who received the highest dose, 54 percent achieved a response. Of those who received the second lowest dose of active vaccine, only 22 percent developed a similar response. All doses appeared to be well tolerated with only mild side effects. The vaccine is made from an inactivated H5N1 virus that was isolated in Southeast Asia in 2004. National Institutes of Health Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., says, "These findings represent an important step forward in the nation's effort to prepare for the possible emergence of a human pandemic of H5N1 avian influenza." While flu viruses are generally easily transmitted from person to person, the virus that causes the bird flu does not seem to have this characteristic, say researchers. If this were to develop, researchers worry it could trigger a pandemic since humans have no pre-existing immunity to the virus. SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2006;354:1343-1351
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 5:07 pm
NOTE: This is an older article. Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported December 1, 2003 Country not Prepared for the Flu (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study shows the United States is not adequately prepared for a worldwide epidemic of the influenza virus. Researchers from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital say two different outbreaks of bird flu were transmitted to humans this year (2003) and caused fatal infections. They say these bird-to-human transmissions may suggest certain flu viruses are evolving quickly enough to pose a serious threat the humans. These types of virus transmissions were unheard of before 1997. Researchers say facilities do not have the resources to produce vaccines, and the supply of antiviral drugs is in short supply. Robert G. Webster, Ph.D., from St. Jude’s, says, “In the face of a pandemic (worldwide epidemic), the available supplies of antiviral drugs would be used up in days. It would take up to 18 months to make more drugs from scratch.” Making a vaccine to protect against specific flu viruses involves mixing viral genes inside chicken eggs that contain genes from a virus known to be safe in humans. Researchers say it takes a considerable amount of time to develop and produce a vaccine that can protect large populations. Webster says, “The process of initially developing a seed virus suitable for mass production as a vaccine would be too slow and too dependent on a steady supply of eggs.” Although researchers have recently developed new, quicker ways to make vaccines, they say the time it takes to test and approve the new vaccines would still take a good amount of time. They add, a flu outbreak could be significantly worse than those previously caused by SARS and the West Nile virus. SOURCE: Science, Nov. 28, 2003
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 5:21 pm
Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported May 4, 2006 Bird Flu Vaccine Proves Successful (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Some promising news in the search for a way to prevent bird flu -- a new vaccine successfully protected mice and ferrets from a highly lethal avian influenza virus. Researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., conducted a study on the vaccine which was commercially developed by Vical Incorporated in San Diego. Results, along with findings from previous studies that reveal protection against multiple human influenza strains, suggest the vaccine would protect humans against multiple strains of avian and other influenza viruses. Researchers used two versions of the DNA-based vaccine. One was directed against three viral proteins -- NP and M2, which generally do not mutate quickly, and H5 -- a variable protein, which mutates readily. The other version of the vaccine contained only NP and M2. The St. Jude study revealed the three-component vaccine -- H5, NP and M2 -- completely protected mice against a highly virulent H5N1 avian flu virus. And other studies suggested the vaccine containing just NP and M2 significantly protected against several strains of human influenza virus as well as the H5N1 strain. "Such cross-protection against bird and human influenza is considered by researchers to be the 'Holy Grail' of flu vaccines," reports Richard Webby, Ph.D., assistant member of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "Even if the bird flu virus mutates so it becomes adapted to humans, this kind of cross-protection will allow the immune system to track and attack such an emerging new variant without missing a beat." Researchers say a big benefit to these findings is they wouldn't have to wait until the original bird flu virus mutated to start developing a vaccine against it. SOURCE: U.S. Public Health Service Professional Conference, Denver, May 1-4, 2006
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 5:41 pm
Another older article but includes new info. Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported November 2, 2005 Good News for Avian Bird Flu Vaccine (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new technique may prove to be just what the United States needs to head off the influenza pandemic. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo in Japan have found a new way to generate a genetically altered influenza virus. The genes of the virus are manipulated to deactivate its dangerous nature and can be put into chicken eggs to generate the vaccine used in inoculations. In nature, viruses hijack a cell's reproductive machinery so it can make new virus particles. These particles soon infect other cells and create even more virus particles. Vaccine manufacturers use a monkey kidney cell line to make harmless viruses that will act as the raw material for vaccines. Researchers say the new method is an improved reverse genetics technique that will make it easier to create a seed virus in monkey kidney cells. These cells produce millions of copies of the disarmed virus used to make vaccines. The new technique improves upon a former reverse genetics method by significantly reducing the number of plasmid vectors needed to carry viral genes into the monkey kidney cells used to produce the virus particles to make vaccines. Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says, "Compared to other types of cells, which are not approved for vaccine production, it is not always easy to introduce plasmids into the monkey kidney cells, which are approved for such use." He says monkey kidney cells are routinely used for making seed strains for vaccine production because they are not known to carry any infectious agents nor do they cause tumors. Kawaoka explains that the new method lowers the number of plasmids needed to introduce viral genes into the monkey kidney cell line needed to mass produce the deactivated virus used in vaccines. Kawaoka says, "By reducing the number of plasmids, we increase the efficiency of virus production." SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online Oct. 31, 2005
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Herckleperckle
Member
11-20-2003
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 6:03 pm
.
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 6:32 pm
yep water has a freshness date, I end up using my old water to water the plants.
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Friday, May 05, 2006 - 8:48 pm
Dr. Mercola Finally, the pieces of the puzzle start to add up. Not long ago, President Bush sought to instill panic in this country by telling us a minimum of 200,000 people will die from the avian flu pandemic, but it could be as bad as 2 million deaths in this country alone. This hoax is then used to justify the immediate purchase of 80 million doses of Tamiflu, a worthless drug that in no way shape or form treats the avian flu, but only decreases the amount of days one is sick and can actually contribute to the virus having more lethal mutations. So the U.S. placed an order for 20 million doses of this worthless drug at a price of $100 per dose. That comes to a staggering $2 billion. We are being told that Roche manufactures Tamiflu and, in a recent New York Times article, they were battling whether or not they would allow generic drug companies to help increase their production. But if you dig further you will find that a drug was actually developed by a company called Gilead that 10 years ago gave Roche the exclusive rights to market and sell Tamiflu. Ahh, The Plot Thickens... If you read the link below from Gilead, you'll discover Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was made the chairman of Gilead in 1997. Since Rumsfeld holds major portions of stock in Gilead, he will handsomely profit from the scare tactics of the government that is being used to justify the purchase of $2 billion of Tamiflu. For more on the nonsense of the avian flu hoax, you'll want to review today's other post on the subject. Finally Medical Journal Admits the Truth This week's British Medical Journal has an editorial on the bird flu in which they state the following: "The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggests that this AH5N1 avian virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic" While they do go on to say the virus could mutate with the influenza A virus and has the potential to acquire the means for rapid human to human transmission, it does NOT have this ability now. All the preparation and fear being created in the media is about a theoretical speculation. Now I am a former Boy Scout and fully believe in being prepared, but this is nothing even close to following recommendations made by experts to New Orleans that if implemented would have saved 1000 lives and half a million homes and well over 100 billion dollars from Hurricane Katrina. No this is all about creating fear and panic to benefit the drug companies. Now, I am still not opposed to being prepared for this potential bird flu pandemic. It is POSSIBLE it might materialize. But if it did there is no way that the flu vaccine or Tamiflu will mitigate its damage. No way. If you want to know how to truly strengthen your immune system so will laugh when the flu bug or nearly any other infectious agent seeks to infect you, then start following the Total Health Program or read the quick tips I posted last year. Gilead Sciences Inc.
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Dahli
Member
11-27-2000
| Friday, May 05, 2006 - 8:48 pm
Brought to ground -------------------------------------------- In October 2005, natural medical physician Dr. Joseph Mercola called the bird flu a hoax. Questioning the science behind official pandemic predictions, he wrote: "Research like this would typically be thrown in the trash if it did not strongly support some ulterior purpose." And what could that ulterior purpose be? I'll get to that in a moment. But first, I'll share some details - both reassuring and enraging - from an excellent article by Mark Tier that appeared in The Daily Reckoning e-letter last month. Here are five reasons why you will never get the bird flu: 1) Compared to 1918 (the year of the Spanish flu pandemic) we live in a completely different world. Tier notes that in 1918 "scientists didn't even know what a virus was." In 2006, we can see viruses coming from miles away. In 1918 they didn't know what hit them until the pandemic was in full swing. 2) The H5N1 virus isn't new. In fact, it was first identified about 50 years ago. Tier writes: "For all we know, it's been infecting people for hundreds - if not thousands - of years. And in all that time, it has not caused a human pandemic. But only in 1997 did scientists actually discover it had infected humans." 3) The H5N1 virus isn't easily transmitted - Part 1: Tier cites an article published last month in the journal Nature in which researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka notes that H5N1 infects the bottom area of the lungs. Other flu strains tend to infect the upper lungs, making transmission by coughing and breathing much more likely. 4) The H5N1 virus isn't easily transmitted - Part 2: Tier offers this quote from an October 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal: "The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggested that this H5N1 virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic." The BMJ article calls the current warnings of a pandemic "entirely a theoretical speculation." 5) It appears that only a small percentage of people infected with H5N1 suffer extreme reactions. In a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers surveyed more than 45,000 residents in an area of rural Vietnam where outbreaks of bird flu have been widespread. About 25 percent of the respondents reported direct contact with sick or dying birds. About 18 percent reported flu-like symptoms. The researchers concluded that, "transmission could be more common than anticipated, though close contact seems required." In other words, it's highly likely that we don't hear about the large majority of bird flu cases, which are mild. We hear about the deaths. Furthermore, you literally have to LIVE with infected birds to pick up H5N1. -------------------------------------------- Follow the money -------------------------------------------- Given all the evidence that we won't see a H5N1 pandemic, why is bird flu fear so widespread? Because it generates a ton of money. Governments and health organization worldwide are devoting billions of dollars to H5N1 research, which includes a variety of prevention and treatment strategies. The U.S. alone has earmarked more than $7 billion toward this effort. Mark Tier: "This means we have an entirely new scientific establishment funded by inexhaustible government money whose sole reason for existence is to find something that hasn't happened yet - and may never happen. To justify their existence and to get more of that lovely government green stuff, you can be sure that this new 'government program' will do everything in its power to keep the bird flu scare alive." And you can also be sure that international drug companies are lining up to take their cut. Dr. Mercola noted last October that the U.S. government has devoted $2 billion to purchase 20 million doses of the flu medication Tamiflu, even though it's only marginally effective against the seasonal flu, and there's no indication whatsoever that it would be effective against H5N1. The only thing certain about bird flu is that the market-driven pandemic of fear will be with us for a long time. **************************************************** Dr. Mercola Finally, the pieces of the puzzle start to add up. Not long ago, President Bush sought to instill panic in this country by telling us a minimum of 200,000 people will die from the avian flu pandemic, but it could be as bad as 2 million deaths in this country alone. This hoax is then used to justify the immediate purchase of 80 million doses of Tamiflu, a worthless drug that in no way shape or form treats the avian flu, but only decreases the amount of days one is sick and can actually contribute to the virus having more lethal mutations. So the U.S. placed an order for 20 million doses of this worthless drug at a price of $100 per dose. That comes to a staggering $2 billion. We are being told that Roche manufactures Tamiflu and, in a recent New York Times article, they were battling whether or not they would allow generic drug companies to help increase their production. But if you dig further you will find that a drug was actually developed by a company called Gilead that 10 years ago gave Roche the exclusive rights to market and sell Tamiflu. Ahh, The Plot Thickens... If you read the link below from Gilead, you'll discover Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was made the chairman of Gilead in 1997. Since Rumsfeld holds major portions of stock in Gilead, he will handsomely profit from the scare tactics of the government that is being used to justify the purchase of $2 billion of Tamiflu. For more on the nonsense of the avian flu hoax, you'll want to review today's other post on the subject. Finally Medical Journal Admits the Truth This week's British Medical Journal has an editorial on the bird flu in which they state the following: "The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggests that this AH5N1 avian virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic" While they do go on to say the virus could mutate with the influenza A virus and has the potential to acquire the means for rapid human to human transmission, it does NOT have this ability now. All the preparation and fear being created in the media is about a theoretical speculation. Now I am a former Boy Scout and fully believe in being prepared, but this is nothing even close to following recommendations made by experts to New Orleans that if implemented would have saved 1000 lives and half a million homes and well over 100 billion dollars from Hurricane Katrina. No this is all about creating fear and panic to benefit the drug companies. Now, I am still not opposed to being prepared for this potential bird flu pandemic. It is POSSIBLE it might materialize. But if it did there is no way that the flu vaccine or Tamiflu will mitigate its damage. No way. If you want to know how to truly strengthen your immune system so will laugh when the flu bug or nearly any other infectious agent seeks to infect you, then start following the Total Health Program or read the quick tips I posted last year. Gilead Sciences Inc.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 7:49 pm
Holy Hoaxsters!!!
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Gidget
Member
07-28-2002
| Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 7:57 am
Hi HP!! Thanks for all the great posts HP. I also read Dr. Mercola, Dahli. There are a number of interesting aspects to the call to prepare. Some directly related to the flu, others not. This is my favorite information link from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm One of the most outstanding issues in that article is the W shaped death rate. My family was irrevocable changed by people who died in the 1918 pandemic. There was something peculiar about that flu which was most dangerous to the people usually least likely to succumb to illness. The healthy young adult population. Since bird flu has been in the news I have spoken to many people whose families were similarly affected. Many children lost their parents. A sobering thought at the very least. There is not one thing wrong with having a little preparation. As a child I remember everyone had earthquake kits in their cars and homes in So. Cali. I am sure it was the same in hurricane areas and tornado alley. I have been stocking up on staples and water a few items on every grocery trip for close to a year. I watch the product dating. It is painless buying a few items a week. And I intend to continue to do this cycling out older items to food banks while they are still in date because they will be used immediately there. So everyone wins. Stay home! It drives me nuts this attitude that I can take a pill to relieve symptoms and then go to work sick and spread around whatever I have. Dumb, dumb and dumber. In the last 20 years it has become some kind of merit badge to show up anyway when sick. If you want to talk about conspiracies lets look at oh say Dayquil who insists you can get on with your day when sick! Wash your dang hands! With soap and water. If I see one more adult just stick their fingers under the water for two seconds in a lavatory I might just have to go off on someone. I almost never get sick <knock wood> and I attribute this to good hand washing and taking a down day on the rare occasions I do get sick. It cant be my superior immune system or getting enough rest. LOL big time at that. Seriously folks. There is nothing wrong with a little planning, common sense and good hygiene is there?
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