Bird Flu Epidemic

[caLLous]

It's claimed 8 lives, it's spread to 10 countries, the WHO has called for global unity in fighting it, it could take 6 months to develop a vaccine... Is anyone else thinking this is going to be A Very Bad Thing once it picks up momentum? :\

 

[Tom]

Yeah, I can't imagine a world without Chickens tbh.

 

[Insane]

Yeah, I can't imagine a world without Chickens tbh.

mmmmmm chicken...

 

[caLLous]

Welcome to an adult conversation.

 

[Insane]

Welcome to an adult conversation.

im guessing its going to do the same rounds as the SARS epidemic last year, where most of china/south-east asia suffer greatly but they manage to self-quarantine itself by restricting travel to and from the country.

that and the UK office will tell people to avoid there like normal when stuff like that happens.

 

[Will]

As far as I know, there has been no cases of human to human transmission, only chicken to human transmission. Until it is human to human transmitted, we don't have too much to worry about.

If it does become h2h (catchy acronym, eh?), then we should start to worry.

 

[Whipped]

For some reason I read "Bird flu" as "Pigeon Flu" Not sure why

 

[L_Plates]

Do they actually know how far this has spread or at least have an idea ?

And if so how the hell will they start to control it.

 

[babs]

Not really, I'd say flu in it's more normal form is the one they want to worry about, this bird flu kills 8. Whoop de doo, how many does normal influenza kill over how many different countries? And that's despite having a vaccine.

Besides, I can't see what good Pete Townshend and his cronies are going to do.

Chicken to human transmission eh? This could well see the donwfall of some of my favourite 'specialist interest' sites.

 

[ScoobyDoo{KEA}]

It's claimed 8 lives, it's spread to 10 countries, the WHO has called for global unity in fighting it, :\

cant imaging roger daltrey doing fuckall about it.

 

[babs]

Great minds.....

 

[leggy]

Another case of the thai government trying to hide a potentially serious epidemic. Well done. The chinese did it with the sars virus. I feel there needs to be more serious consequences for the people who intentionally hide these disease outbreaks. I appretiate there are limits but how serious does the epidemic have to get before people realise that they are being intentionally endangered.


/edit

I do realise that there is not a distinct danger to humans right now and that the focus is on the loss of chickens . But the two issues can be compared.

 

[caLLous]

"Countries in the region must learn from the SARS experience, and that is: `Fess up as soon as you find a case, as quickly as possible," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Make sure everybody knows about it and deal with it."

Only an aussie MP could get away with saying "fess up".

 

[Wazzerphuk]

It has a silly sounding name, so it can't be serious.

 

[Will]

I do realise that there is not a distinct danger to humans right now and that the focus is on the loss of chickens . But the two issues can be compared.

Just to make it clear (for those of you that seem confused), this is correct. However, the more chickens infected, the greater the odds that the disease will jump the species barrier.

 

[Damini]

Not really, I'd say flu in it's more normal form is the one they want to worry about, this bird flu kills 8. Whoop de doo, how many does normal influenza kill over how many different countries? And that's despite having a vaccine.

This bird flu has killed 8, out of about 12 (?) people who have been infected. It's mortality rate is scarily high, WAY higher than SARs, although it has to be said those that were admitted to hospital were in late stages of infection and also in poor areas, so didn't have access to antivirals which could potentially lower the mortality rate. The worry anyway is that if the bird flu infects enough people, there are chances it could mutate or bond with the human flu and be able to transmit from human to human - hence the urgency to contain this flu. If it did manage human to human transmission, you'd be looking at a virus on a par with the 1918 flu pandemic.

 

[babs]

Yeah I understand, the point I was trying to make is that it's very annoying the way something that isn't (at present) that prevelant is headline news, but the ones we can do something about and don't are just sidelined.

The fact is that they've known it can jump the species barrier and could potentially spread for 7 years already, and as always it's not having anything done about until it 1) spreads and 2) gets exposed.

 

[Damini]

I think it's a bit like foot and mouth, or other cattle/bird diseases. They know they exist, they seek to eradicate them when they surface, but it exists in natural reserves so they just keep re-surfacing. It's the same with SARs, they're killing all the civit cats but it exists in other animals too. Hell, there's a place in America where all the desert rats still carry bubonic plague.

 

[Tom]

Hey look, we all know that sooner or later there will be a few epidemics of one kind or another, just something that nature sends along to remind us of our place in life. All you have to ask yourself is:

Which animal has the shittiest deal with us?

The answer is of course, Chickens. So, if we want to live longer, the only solution is to exterminate all Chickens, they are the enemy, not microbes or viri. If nature has justice in mind, it will use Chickens to deliver it.

Just think of the positive benefits of killing them all:

Cheaper KFC
Massive new trade in beak-jewellery
No more badly-cooked eggs in Little Chef
No more human pecking injuries
No more roosters waking people up

With this in mind, I tender my proposal to be World Leader in 10 years time.

 

[babs]

You seem to have missed a vital part though....

NO MORE CHICKEN!!!

Would life be worth living without a nice chips and leftover chicken meal on a monday?

 

[Tom]

My plan would involve disguising Turkeys as Chickens. All it would take would be to feed the Turkeys some Bailey's Irish Cream, and that would make the meat tastier.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Turkey > Ckicken.

Chicken is just too bland.