How many of ya are concerned about the avian flu?
91244
I'm Canadian, it's only a matter of time till the virus is found here and it mutates into our worst fears.\n\nI have drilled my kids to wash their hands often. I know they should be doing that anyway, but kids are kids. Now I stess it so by the time the flu hit, hopefully it has become habit.\nI know this is no sure fire solution, but every bit helps.
509996
No, it's all a load of ****. Bird flu affects birds, but there is no risk to humans, unless you're in a job with high degrees of exposure to the animals and their droppings. There's been 113 deaths world wide, but NONE of these cases were transmitted from person to person.
120947
humans, whose blame is the bird flu ...
284944
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm
269690
As their lungs filled … the patients became short of breath and increasingly cyanotic. After gasping for several hours they became delirious and incontinent, and many died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth. It was a dreadful business.\n\n--Isaac Starr, 3rd year medical student, University of Pennsylvania, 1918.\n\nAll the genes of all influenza viruses in the world are being maintained in aquatic birds, and periodically they transmit to other species... The 1918 viruses are still being maintained in the bird reservoir. So even though these viruses are very ancient, they still have the capacity to evolve, to acquire new genes, new hosts. The potential is still there for the catastrophe of 1918 to happen again.\n\n--Dr. Robert Webster, Influenza Expert, Present Day.\n\nThe pair of quotes presented above were used to begin and end a short essay I wrote many years ago on The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. Isaac Starr's words offer powerful testimonial to the harsh lethality of a killer stain of influenza, and Dr. Robert Websters observation reminds us that it would be dangerous to regard the events of 1918 as an isolated slice of history that we can safely file away and forget. \n\nIn the early part of 1995, as I cast around in search of the disease that would ultimately prove to be the true villian of the science thriller I was planning to write, influenza was scarcely on the radar scope of anyone but virologists specializing in the field of emerging diseases. Because influenza exists in the human population in an ever-present but relatively benign form, changing just a little from year to year, we tend, quite mistakenly, to think we understand the nature of the threat that it presents. \nBird Flu cannot be eradicated, we must learn to live with it\nDespite the apparent "novelty" of a strain of bird flu that can sweep across the globe and kill not only the domesticated foul that carries the virus causing the pandemic, but also those humans unfortunate enough to get too close to the sick birds they tend, finding influenza in domesticated birds is not the least bit uncommon. \n\nThe natural reservoir for influenza virus is in fact the intestines of water fowl. In particular, ducks habor the virus, and suffer no ill effects from doing so. Because these migratory birds are always on the move, and because they shed virus in the waterways that they inhabit, influenza virus travels widely and is easily transmitted from bird to bird. Because of this, domesticated birds, like the turkey and the chicken, which cross paths with the virus, become infected and habor the potential to transmit the virus to humans (for example, virus secreted onto the surface of eggs could end up infecting egg handlers-- for this reason, if bird handlers notice any of the following symptons in their birds they should immediately notify Federal or State animal health officials: sudden death; lack of energy and appetite; decreased egg production; soft-shelled or misshapen eggs; swelling; purple discoloration; nasal discharge; coughing, sneezing; lack of coordination and diarrhea). \n\nOften an intermediate host, the pig, is involved in the cross-species transmission of influenza. When this happens, the result is referred to as Swine Flu. Even so, the source of the virus is generally aquatic birds. \n\nMost strains of bird flu do not cross species and end up infecting humans. However the H5N1 strain that has in the last decade been known to infect humans, and kill them in 5 out of every 10 cases, clearly has surmounted the first of two barriers that must be cleared before a bird flu pandemic can take hold in the human population. The second barrier will be surmounted when this strain acquires the ability to jump from one human to another. This may never happen, and hopefully will not. But based on the history of pandemic flu, it seems more likely that this is just a matter of time.
248590
No, not unless your in Egypt or some country where they have the bird flu..if it's in your town you'd no about it, I wouldn't worry but if you want to be sure go to the doctor..that was sweet of you to put the bird out of pain...God bless
552349
It has been fatal in 56% of cases (up to 1st may)\n\nCheck out www.bbc.co.uk and search for bird flu. They have a detailed explanation of it that is easy to understand. Whats more, the information on it is correct!
567857
Yes I have used natural anti-virals/bacterials for years and they work great. I don't fear the bird flu, westnile, etc. You have to take charge of your health because if you are counting on the government to help you, you are gonna die.
178045
OH the government loves to scare you.  With all the popular discontent about the war in iraq, the government needs to convince you that there are greater threats out there in order to divert your attention.  True the bird flu would be terrible if it broke out as a major epidemic, but mankind has faced this before.  If we survived the black death and three dollar a gallon gasoline, we can push through brid flu too.  The truth of the matter is that the government wants you to be scared and feel dependent on them to protect you in hopes of keeping the population from acting out against the war.  its sad, but so true.
309598
I think they would have to. That pic is probably the CDC not taking any chances, but if someone showed up with it, they couldn't keep doctors and hospitals quiet. I hate to say it, but the US has enough on its plate now not having to deal with Bird Flu.
349972
Negative. They worry that they won't be able to make large quantities of bird flu vaccine because the vaccine is made in chicken eggs, and the flu kills the embryos.
497476
Yawn, we got too much to worry about.  Like bird flu and Y3k.
357102
i think so.not only that i think H5N1 was manufactured in a lab.why Else would there be a threat from birds? can you imagine a morning without birds chirping?if we loose that we've lost the morning songs that our children will never hear and maybe what we re taking for granted.
142970
No, I don't think so.  My understanding is you would have to be living in very close surroundings with poultry that have the virus, or in close contact with live birds.\n\nHowever, I guess we'll be discovering new stuff about bird flu for years to come.
509603
I believe that the Bird Flu will be the next scare here in the U.S.  Remember the West Nile Virus?  The virus carried infected mosquitoes from Africa and infected millions.  Now only one percent of the people infected needed serious medical attention just here in the United States.  And only one percent of that one percent lived.  The outcome of the illness was severe brain damage, long and short term memory loss, stroke(s), blindness, speech, and other major normal day use of your body.  Their lives were basically destroyed.  The government have not been very helpful on getting these people help either.  \nBut, I feel the government is preparing for the pandemic properly.  Better be safe than sorry.  As for the people out there saying it is all propaganda, I'd like to smack them right here and now.\nI...ME...MYSELF was infected with that damn mosquito that nobody believed was ever going to happen and the government was just talking...propaganda.  \nMy life is hell to say the least.  I fight everyday to regain my strength, my day to day life living.  I have lost so many people near and dear to me because I got sick.  \nSo all of you out there that thinks this is all propaganda, write on here after you become infected with the pandemic so you can tell all of us how you were wrong.  Don't ever think it can never happen to you, because it can. Do not be ignorant and listen to warnings.  I guess the mistake I made was not using insect repellant.  One mistake I will never make again.\nWhy would our government want to mislead us in such a tragic way?  Don't you think the war we are in now is tragic enough?\nQuit being fools and listen to all health bulletins when and if the pandemic comes close to the States.
723646
most viral experts are full of sh it.\n\nwhere is the aids epidemic?  oh yeah, it is in a continent that Europeans and Americans never go to except in National geographic specials, where the people have been dying for centuries of civil war, unrest, famine,dirty water, and parasites.\n\n144 people have died of bird flu since 2003, they were mostly chicken handlers?\n\nWhere is SARS.\n\nCan you say, if I dont create a panic I am out of a job.
1093745
That's just turkeys with bird flu. Try to avoid those.