Bird Flu mania....

[8236]

OMG. I've just been watching the BBC news. Headline story is that 2000 turkeys have just been found dead in a farm in Norfolk, UK: Cause H5N1.
The reporters are found outside the 2 mile exclusion zone around the farm, hovering overhead in helicopters and stationed outside the incinerator as the first trucks arrive with the carcasses. Phrases like 'the deadly virus' abound.
Then they proceed to interview some woman in Washington with a backdrop of the capitol to get an American perspective on the whole issue.

Bearing in mind that it is so hard to get avian flu (as we are regularly told) - in fact u almost have to be engaged in carnal activities; then why oh why do these idiots make such a big deal of it? (Rhetorical question)

I was just interested to know if any of u peeps in the US had heard anything in your news about this outbreak in the UK - or is it just the media being their usual sensationalist selves.

 

[Annie]

OMG. I've just been watching the BBC news. Headline story is that 2000 turkeys have just been found dead in a farm in Norfolk, UK: Cause H5N1.
The reporters are found outside the 2 mile exclusion zone around the farm, hovering overhead in helicopters and stationed outside the incinerator as the first trucks arrive with the carcasses. Phrases like 'the deadly virus' abound.
Then they proceed to interview some woman in Washington with a backdrop of the capitol to get an American perspective on the whole issue.

Bearing in mind that it is so hard to get avian flu (as we are regularly told) - in fact u almost have to be engaged in carnal activities; then why oh why do these idiots make such a big deal of it? (Rhetorical question)

I was just interested to know if any of u peeps in the US had heard anything in your news about this outbreak in the UK - or is it just the media being their usual sensationalist selves.

Yeah, from google: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,182 for uk bird flu. (0.22 seconds)

Afraid the word is out.

 

[8236]

Yeah, from google: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,182 for uk bird flu. (0.22 seconds)

Afraid the word is out.

thanx for the sarcasm.
I meant whether any of u had caught any US TV coverage of it. Was it even mentioned on ur TVs (i dont get US TV)

 

[Annie]

thanx for the sarcasm.
I meant whether any of u had caught any US TV coverage of it. Was it even mentioned on ur TVs (i dont get US TV)

Sorry, wasn't meant to be sarcastic, I don't know why I sound that way? Actually today has pretty much been all Super Bowl stuff here. I'll be checking the news in a couple.

 

[Roopull]

The Drudge Report has 4 linked stories to the outbreak... but it's in the middle of the page. That'd be like being page 3 of the main section of the news paper or a "filler" story on the evening news. In other words, the US media knows about it, but doesn't deem it ratings-worthy.

Got any pictures of someone bleeding or a house on fire?



I rarely watch US TV news... I'm stupid enough, already.

Besides, I'm down here in Georgia... we almost had frozen percipitation land on the ground this past week. After it didn't it almost froze to the trees... Our news hounds are so exhausted from their collective snowy orgasm that I don't think they could handle anything that exciting again for awhile... good thing there's football.

 

[Annie]

Rearing it's head again?:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/h...dit&adxnnlx=1240362449-GrgmO0Ioo8BXUItPiTEqNA

April 21, 2009
Avian Flu Cases in Egypt Raise Alarms

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
An unusual pattern of avian flu cases in Egypt — almost all are in toddlers, all of whom have survived — has led some flu-tracking Web sites to speculate that dozens of silent cases are circulating there.

That would be an alarming development, but other experts, including those at the World Health Organization, say such fears are exaggerated. Although thousands of Egyptians have rushed their children to hospitals this flu season, there is no evidence yet of asymptomatic avian flu cases or any significant mutation in the H5N1 virus.

“Right now, it’s all hot air,” said Dr. Robert G. Webster, a flu expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “I hope to hell it’s not happening, because it would mean the virus is adapting to humans. But there’s not a shred of data.”

Bird flu has faded from world headlines because it has not caused a pandemic. But the disease is still circulating in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and along the India-Bangladesh border. It has mutated into at least 10 strains and occasionally infects humans.

An April 8 Reuters article from Cairo quoted a visiting W.H.O. expert saying his agency feared “something strange happening in Egypt” and would help the government test the blood of healthy people for antibodies this summer.

Antibodies to the flu would indicate they had recovered from silent infections.

But a W.H.O. spokesman said privately that the agency was just helping the Egyptians with a long-planned study and the article had “jumped the gun.”...

 

[waltky]

Bird flu in Bulgaria a big problem...

Bulgaria reports virulent bird flu at over 50 farms, culling 430,000 poultry
Sunday 15th January, 2017: A virulent bird flu virus has spread to 55 poultry farms in Bulgaria prompting the veterinary authorities to announce a cull of some 430,000 birds since it was first detected in the middle of December, agriculture minister Dessislava Taneva said on Saturday.

The Balkan country has also registered four cases of bird flu in wild ducks since mid-December.

Bulgaria has imposed a nationwide ban on poultry markets and on the hunting of game birds, and has already spent over a million levs (US$543,714) to cull birds in a bid to contain the outbreak. "In Bulgaria, we have usually registered bird flu in wild birds in the past few years. It is the first time we have had so many outbreaks in farms," Taneva told Bulgarian Darik radio.

The southern region of Plovdiv was most affected by the highly pathogenic virus H5N8, she said, pointing out that some 300,000 birds, mainly ducks, were culled and another 130,000 were to be killed on Saturday. The authorities have imposed quarantine zones around the affected farms. Taneva said over 800 bird flu outbreaks have been detected in Europe since October, with Germany and France being most affected.

Bulgaria reports virulent bird flu at over 50 farms, culling 430,000 poultry

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd thinks he got the bird flu `cause his g/f always hen-peckin' him...

WHO warns of worrisome flu in China
Fri, Jan 27, 2017 - CAUSING CONCERN: Avian influenza typically infects people who raise, slaughter, sell or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases

After a spate of deaths from bird flu among patients in China, the WHO has warned all nations to watch for outbreaks in poultry flocks and to promptly report any human cases. Several strains of avian flu are spreading in Europe and Asia this winter, but the most worrisome at present is an H7N9 strain that has circulated in China every winter since 2013. China has reported more than 225 human cases since September last year, an unusually high number. As the nation’s Lunar New Year vacation starts, live poultry shipments increase and holiday travelers often spread the flu.

The fatality rate is not yet known, because some victims are still hospitalized, but WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said this week that China had more than 1,000 cases in the past four years, of which 39 percent were fatal. “All countries must detect and report human cases promptly,” she said. “We cannot afford to miss the early signals.” The flu typically infects people who raise, sell, slaughter or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases that worry health officials.

Travelers rest on a bench at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station ahead of the Lunar New Year in China on Wednesday. China has reported more than 225 human cases of avian flu since September last year and holiday travelers often spread the disease.​

Both were older men with a history of poultry contact. One apparently infected a daughter who cared for him and the other his hospital roommate. The Hong Kong Department of Health this week warned residents traveling to mainland China to avoid live poultry markets. More than 9 percent of samples from markets in Guangdong Province contained the H7N9 virus, a “substantial” reading, the department said. The swabs are typically taken from cages, sewage gutters, feeding troughs, and chopping and defeathering machines.

Since November last year, nearly 40 nations have reported finding potentially dangerous flu strains in poultry flocks or in captured or dead wild birds. They include a new H5N6 strain, H5N8 and H5N5. There have also been sporadic cases of H5N1, a strain with a 60 percent fatality rate that caused great alarm more than a decade ago. It has caused almost 400 confirmed deaths since 2003, but has not evolved the ability to transmit easily between people. Since the highly contagious, but relatively mild H1N1 “swine flu” circled the globe in 2009, “the world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic, but not at all well enough,” Chan said.

WHO warns of worrisome flu in China - Taipei Times