Are you scared about bird flu?

Question

personally i think it's a bunch of bull.. but who knows for sure?

Answer 1

Certainly. Any informed person is. But, China recently identified an H5N1 gene related to virulence. This may be a major breakthrough. Here is a news article about the gene.

http://www.hc2d.co.uk/content.php?contentId=1033

Added later: David, please accept my apology. The link I gave you above leads to an article only members of that site can access. I must have been awfully tired when I did that. Please try this better link:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/index.html

Answer 2

You sure should be at least aware of just what it is and what it might do. It is no joke and can kill you and a lot more.

Read about the Spanish flu that struck in 1918 and then tell me you think it is nothing. The estimates are from 30 million dead to over 50 million.

It could and probably will happen again. Now that people can travel any place on the planet in less than one day a flue like that could be in your house before you could even think about it.l

Just hope they find a vaccine for it before it gets loose.

Answer 3

I’m not scared, but I’m very concerned.

The major misconception is that the flu happening now in Asia is the flu we are concerned about in the U.S. and Europe, and it is not.
Up to this point most people who have been infected have gotten it from birds, but there have been clusters of human cases where family members passed the infection to other family members. One woman in Indonesia passed the infection to seven family members. Only one member of the family survived, and he was terribly ill for months.


The concern is that the virus is mutating. If the gene that determines how easily it is transmitted from person to person mutates then we will have a major problem.

We won’t have to have any contact with chickens to get this pandemic flu. Once a pandemic flu begins it’s other people we will need to worry about because a person is able to spread the disease for a few days before their symptoms begin.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed 2% of the people who were infected. The current virus is killing about 67% of infected people this year.

The World Health Organization made a statement this past week that the virus could mutate and keep the extremely high fatality rate. If it keeps killing more than half of the people who get it, 10’s of millions of people in the U.S. will get it, and it’s possible that half of them will die.

Scientists won’t be able to make a vaccine. They will need to have the pandemic flu virus in order to make the vaccine and we won’t have that virus until is mutates and begins to infect large numbers of people.

Once a vaccine can started, it will take 6 to 9 months to get the first vaccine made and there won’t be a lot at first. The initial vaccine will be given to healthcare workers and first responders, people who keep the electricity going and the water flowing, etc.

There are antiviral drugs, Tamiflu is one, but we won’t know if they will have any effect on this virus until it mutates. Also supplies are very low. The US might have enough for 2% of the population at this point.

There are other countries who have enough Tamiflu for a slightly larger portion of their citizens.


There is something you they will have to close schools and other places where people gather.

They expect our delivery system will break down so stores will run out of food – people should be stocking up on now on things that they will need. Nonperishable foods, water, baby formula, baby food, diapers, pet food, cleaning products, toilet paper, etc.

Answer 4

No. It's the latest version of "The sky is falling!"

Most people are like mindless sheep, they believe ANYTHING they hear.

If they took the time to learn about how some people got the bird flu in Asia then they would realize that the danger to most people is nil.

Answer 5

YES I AM. I live in the Philippines and our neighbor countries have expereinced this.... there are a lot of migratory birds in our place and we we're so watchful even to a simple flu. So I am so afraid about it......

Answer 6

I wouldn't describe myself as scared because it is totally out of my control. If it happens, it happens, but there is nothing I can do about it until then.
I don't live with birds either!