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Deadly Version of Bird Flu Found in Romania
CMan0 writes "The BBC reports that a deadly version of the bird flu has been found in Romania. Several ducks and chickens have died on a farm in Romania this month of the disease, it has been confirmed. It's mentioned that the disease is spreading very rapidly, as the last known location of the disease was Siberia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan in August and the 1st of October in Turkey." From the article: "People appear dazed by what is happening, but since it was confirmed that this is the strain of the bird flu virus found in Asia, they have begun co-operating closely with officials sent to collect their birds, our correspondent says. Turkey has already reported the discovery of the lethal strain of the virus among birds in the west of the country. The EU has banned imports of live birds and poultry products from Romania and Turkey. EU veterinary experts said on Friday that the bird flu outbreak did not represent a risk to the general public 'at present'."
It should be noted that the dead birds are from an area next to the Danube's Delta, which is the biggest delta of Europe, and where millions of wild birds from many species live or pass through on their migration route. It is therefore little surprise that such a busy nexus was touched by the virus. As far as I know, this particular virus was not thought to be dangerous to humans as such, but the possibility if it combining with the human version was the concern.
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There's a Flu Wiki that's a good starting point for information about avian influenza. For people who want to follow the news more closely, they can wander over to this discussion board.
H5N1 the strain of avian flu that has people so worried has been infecting humans since 1997 and has a mortality rate of over 50% (after having infected a total of around 120 people). Since 1997 it's been combatted by massive cullings in all areas where outbreaks have been found (among birds). Currently it can only infect humans directly from birds through eating undercooked poultry. What people are worrying about is a strain that can be transmitted directly between humans, this has yet to happen.
What i want to know is are there any migrations of birds from overseas such as africa and such?
I forget where I read it but I came across something that said the US was concerned about migratory paths through Alaska. Since parts of the Aleutian Islands, the Bering Strait, etc. provide land masses only tens of miles apart between the Russian and American mainlands it would provide easy stepping stones between the two continents. I'm not sure if there are any migratory paths along those routes or not, but it's definitely within the realm of possibilities. So while you may not see migratory routes directly between Africa and the US there's the possiblity of a path for the virus to north America through Alaska.
Although we have advanced technologically since the last serious epidemic and are able to communicate effectively allowing people to take precautions, there exists one serious difference between modern Western society and previous. Our ultra clean lifestyles of the last 50 years or so mean our imune systems have not faced the daily bacteria count of previous generations. While we may appear healthier and wealthier, are we really as robust?
VIRUS IS NOT BACTERIA. Viruses are always, constantly, wildly mutating, always have, always will be. The viruses out there today are not the same that roamed the land 50 years ago. As a result, our immune systems are not adapted to what our grandpa's was.
It makes NO difference how "tough" you are. We're talking about an unexpected random mutation producing a particularly deadly virus. It can happen anytime. Sometimes, quite seldom, thank God, other factors appear which make it even more dangerous, such as ability to spread using wildlife.
The interesting thing, for me, is not this fact. This has been known for decades. No, the truly interesting fact is that despite all our knowledge, the solution is still hampered by our economic models and by good old greed.
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
The Plague of Justinian was possibly the most devastating pestilence of the ancient world. Lasting fifty years, it arrived in the Imperial capital, Constantinople, in 542 A.D. Mortality in the city reached as high as 10,000 per day. Ships were loaded with the dead, towed out to sea, and abandoned. Fortification towers were unroofed, filled with corpses, then re-roofed.
The most famous pandemic was the Black Death, which, like a lot of the perturbations that perennially rattled the cage of Western Civilization (Aryans, Mongols, Huns, Turks, gunpowder, etc) originated in Asia. From 1346 to 1361, the epidemic killed up to one-third of the population of Europe.
The last pandemic ravaged Europe in the seventeenth century and is best known to us as the Plague of London, 1665-66. This is the one chronicled by Samuel Pepys in his diary (which most of us didn't mind reading in high school because of all the sexual content). Since the printing press was now available, this was the first epidemic in which the populace was kept thoroughly informed of the latest in cutting-edge medical knowledge. One pamphlet informed its readers that the plague was caused by "eating radishes, a cat catter wouling, immoderate eating of caviare and anchovies, tame pigeons that flew up and down an alley, and drinking strong heady beer." Rumors that syphilis prevented the disease caused the gentlemen of London to storm local houses of ill-repute. English physicians apparently knew better; many just left the country.
Ed Uthman, MD
Pathologist, Houston/Richmond, TX, USA
As a Romanian, I can tell you that the government here took action imediately. I can't say the same thing about the Republic of Moldova, where I heard they had a few villages where chicken were dying by the hundreds, in a single day, and the officials did just about nothing.
I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
Avian flu is dangerous because people get if from eating livestock and then spread it to other people.
From the BBC Health website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3422839.stm
There is nothing more practical than a good abstract theory.
People should be concerned and governments should be taking actions. And people in US should be concerned their government is lagging in preparation. Let me give some facts. The flu from 1918 (the Spanish Influenza) had a mortality rate b/w 2.5% and 5%. It killed over 20 mil people and virtually all people on earth had had it at one point. It circled the globe in less than 6 months. Thats in 1918. It is determined that it was an avian flu strain as well. All the flu viruses that we get each year are thought to be a variant of the spanish Influenza virus, to which we have some immunity and therefore the body's immune system reacts faster. The H5N1 (avian flu) has a mortality rate of over 50% so far! I dont know if you realize what that means. 50% combined with the way flu viruses spread. In a matter of 3-4 weeks we could have a third of the US population getting sick with half of that third dying! You do the math. And the hospitals and the medicine stockpiles will last you for about nothing. The vaccine being developed for it is promissing but there is no guarantee it will work on the strain that will cause the pandemic. Here is a twist. To mass-produce a flu vaccine, companies use chicken eggs. But its an avian flu and kills chickens. So that doesnt go smoothly. Other methods of producing vacines are years away and still in research. There are 2 drugs that can help you fight it - Tamiflu and Relenza. Latest reports are that H1N5 is showing resitence to Tamiflu. In Japan, where Tamiflu is wildly used for fighting regular flu, reistence rate is also high and raising. Government estimates we have enough stockpiles of Tamiflu to threat only 2 million people with another 800k on the way and 2.5 on order. You want more bad news? They all work fine and dandy if you are already taking them as preventive measure *before* you get sick. If you get sick and start taking them, their effectiveness drops becuase the multiplication rate of the virus is so high (Tamiflu works by blocking a key protein of the virus (neuraminidase) which is involved in the spreading of the virus).
From the obviously-ancient-topnews section;
Bush gets reelected as President for his second term!
Giant-Tsunami hits the Pacific Ocean!
Time Warner aquires AOL Online!
okay...well i live in romania (the north-eastern part, so nowhere near the infected areas)
this is in now way news...it's been on the local news for the past days (weeks even)...i've also seen a few reports about it on cnn...
the locals aren't trying to protect their birds...they don't want to risk it. the gouverment has promised to pay for the birds which are being killed.
The Turkish government has acted with agility. All (known) chicken and other wingy animals infected with this virus are quarantined and killed (Not a nice thing but good for us), also hunting sessions are cancelled a day before it hit the news.
Also the government has guaranteed that they will (in fact, people paying taxes) take the burden of any losses of farmers.
But when it comes to the migration of birds, in God we trust.
Even though negotiations with EU and Turkey has started, Turkey is not a EU-country and EU does not import wingy thingies from Turkey anyhow.
I believe you meant RFC1149. RFC2549 includes QoS, so is less likely to be affected.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This exchange of genetic material between viruses is known as the "antigenic shift" and is believed to be the cause of influenza pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish Flu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigenic_shift
"Antigenic shift is the process by which two different strains of influenza combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two original strains. The term antigenic shift is specific to the influenza literature; in other viral systems, the same process is called reassortment or viral shift.
Antigenic shift is contrasted with antigenic drift, which is the natural mutation over time of known strains of influenza (or other things, in a more general sense) to evade the immune system. Antigenic drift occurs in all types of influenza including influenza A, B and C. Antigenic shift, however, occurs only in influenza A because it infects more than just humans. Affected species include other mammals and birds, giving influenza A the opportunity for a major reorganization of surface antigens. Influenza B and C only infect humans, minimizing the chance to mutate drastically.
Flu strains are named after their types of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase surface proteins, so they will be called, for example, H3N2 for type-3 hemagglutinin and type-2 neuraminidase. If two different strains of influenza infect the same cell simultaneously, their protein capsids and lipid envelopes are removed, exposing their RNA, which is then transcribed to DNA. The host cell then forms new viruses that combine antigens; for example, H3N2 and H5N1 can form H5N2 this way. Because the human immune system has difficulty recognizing the new influenza strain, it may be highly dangerous. Such combinations caused, for instance, the infamous Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 which killed 40 million people worldwide. Influenza virus which have undergone antigenic shift have also gone on to cause the Asian Flu pandemic of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968, and the Swine Flu scare of 1976."
Here is a very comprehensive FAQ that the WHO has published. To all those who posters who are questioning the severity of the threat: the FAQ indicates that 2 of the 3 necessary prerequisites for the flu becoming a pandemic have been met.
e nza/avian_faqs/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/entity/csr/disease/avian_influ
It led me to this page as well as to a rather unfortunate article from the KKK.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
In Europe, dot is used to separate 10^3's and comma to indicate decimal. so 40,000 is 40 to this guy. 40.000 is 40 000 to at least 300 000 000 of us :).
So stop being a smart ass about the wrong thing. Focus on his english instead, which really sucks.
However I bet this guy is smarter than you because unlike you, he is partly bilingual. Turkish is not Greek or Chinese but is definetely a much more complicated language than English and you should show respect to ppl who can speak it.
Until a person with a regular flu, eats undercooked chicken soup, and catches the bird flu. Then the virus with mutate within that person, and a new strain could infect his mother/girlfriend and viola! - instant pandemic, just add water.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Where did you get that information from? I am from Romania, and as far as I know the farmers haven't tried to do such a thing as they are being paid in full at the current market rate. So far 17,000 birds have been killed and two or three villages are now in quarantine - food is delivered in trucks, all cars and persons are disinfected, etc.
I'm not so sure that the threat is overhyped. Pandemics do happen from time to time and prove to be quite effective in wiping out large percents of populations (animals, and human). Take a look at a chart of human population growth -- the 1918 event is quite visible. The Spanish Flu in 1918 infected over 1/5 of the world's population and this was during a period of relatively slow international travel. Ignoring the potential danger to us all would be just foolish. So what exactly do you mean "the end has never been near?" Go hunt through historical accounts in your area and you will find documentation describing how the spanish flu brought the end to many in your community. To survive you have to acknowledge and prepare to deal with risks.
Trolls post off topic and/or with no interest in the forum other than disrupting it into flames.
My post was not off topic. The thread was about the avian flu and the avian flu is being spread through livestock. Given that I don't think bringing up eliminating livestock is off topic, it is just an unpopular idea.
Pulling apart that "troll" label a little further I also have a significant posting history which anyone can see. It is obvious I am not on slashdot for the sole purpose of jerking people's chains.
My post may be modded down as low as it can go, but karma was and will remain "excellent".
The only thing the mods have accomplished in modding my post down is proving is that they have a low tolerance for views other than their own.
A sure sign of a provincial and narrow mind.
No offense.