Health Secretary: Bird Flu Is Coming

[felisdomesticus]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lethal avian flu that is spreading rapidly around the world could soon infect wild birds and domesticated flocks in the United States, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Wednesday.

In testimony to a congressional panel on his agency's budget for combating a possible avian flu outbreak among humans, Leavitt told senators that no one knows when or if the virus will pose a threat to people. But, he said, "it's just a matter of time -- it may be very soon" when wild birds and possibly poultry flocks contract the disease.

Leavitt said that infection of birds alone in the United States with the H5N1 virus would not create a public health emergency. Such an emergency would occur if the disease mutated so that it became easily transferred from human to human.

The H5N1 disease so far has killed 94 people in seven countries.

Nevertheless, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee criticized the Bush administration's preparedness, saying not enough federal funds were being allocated for vaccine production, stockpiling other medical supplies, disease detection and community readiness.

"It could be the disaster of our time. Two billion dollars is not enough," North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the committee, told Leavitt.

Conrad was referring the $2.3 billion in additional emergency funds the Bush administration has requested from Congress. Late last year, Congress approved a first injection of more than $3 billion in emergency money.

While U.S. poultry flocks have suffered from isolated cases of highly contagious avian flu, they have not yet been hit by the virulent H5N1 strain that has killed or led to the culling of about 200 million birds, mostly in Asia, since late 2003.

Recently, the animal disease has been found in western Europe and worries escalated this week when German authorities said avian flu may have jumped species and killed a cat.

CONTACT WITH SICK BIRDS

So far, human fatalities have largely been limited to people who have had close contact with sick birds.

Leavitt told the committee that by the end of this year, the United States will have about 20 million doses of anti-viral drugs, mostly Tamiflu, stockpiled.

But the development of a vaccine is three to five years away, Leavitt said. He downplayed chances that this timetable could be accelerated significantly and added that even with vaccine technology, it would take drug companies six months after the start of a pandemic to produce an effective one.

"In the first six months of a pandemic we are dependent on basic public health, social distancing; every business, every school, every church, every county to have a plan," Leavitt said, adding, "We are overdue (for a pandemic) and under-protected, but we are moving with dispatch."

Leavitt also was skeptical that the federal government could provide all localities with the full arsenal of basic medical equipment, such as ventilators, masks, gauze and gloves, needed during a pandemic. That surprised Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, who said he had thought the billions of dollars being spent would cover such stockpiles.

Instead, Leavitt put the responsibility of local preparedness mostly with local officials.

[Monica]

Sounds great.... and the world is coming to an end! IT WILL kill humans... or so by the opinion of someone here... Everyone just ends up freaking out that something 'big' will kill the entire world off just because they listened to the news...

I was worried about West Nile, but decided not to be... It came all the way to the western US but I still didn't care...... and I've had no problems myself with it. So in truth, I'm tired hearing about Avian Flu and how it's going to kill the world... so I just decided that I wont worry about it until there is a world wide panic (serious one, equivalent to several volcanoes erupting at once or a huge meteor hitting the Earth...) or I (or one of the birds) get sick with it.

Until then I'll be sure to not let me birds eat with the wild birds, fly with them, etc... (never do to begin with) And I'll make sure they are not around poultry either (none within close proximity!).

[Irish]

You know how it is in the US--politicians wanting money always talk about a worst-case scenario as if it's fact, and the media ("news" agencies) admit that it's their "job" to make Americans fearful, 'cause it increases their audience. Of course, anyone with a vested commercial interest in anything even remotely relevant will jump on the bandwagon, too....

[Monica]

It's even worse when one of those people who eagerly "jumps on the bandwagon" lives with you... ugh... I've decided that if it happens it'll happen, otherwise I'll just ignore it (some things there really isn't much that you can do, even if you try to prevent it!).

Life goes on, and probably within a year or two the scare may be over. Or, in a worse case scenario, it'll be all over the world! However, by then they might have found a cure for it? We can only wait and see!

[felisdomesticus]

also in the news--a cat in Germany contracted H5N1 avian flu virus and died.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/0....rf554oup.html

and dead flamingos in the Bahamas are being tested for H5N1.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/0....rf554oup.html

[felisdomesticus]

one of Drudge's headlines this morning:

WHO: Bird flu likely spread among family members in Indonesian cluster
Thu Jun 22 2006 0202 ET

The World Health Organization concluded that human-to-human transmission likely occurred among seven relatives who died from bird flu on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, while an animal health expert said the disease was more widespread in poultry than previously thought.

In a report obtained by The Associated Press, WHO experts said the cluster's first case was probably infected by sick birds and spread the disease to six family members living in a remote village. One of those cases, a boy, then likely infected his father, it said.

The U.N. agency stressed the virus had not mutated in any major way and that no cases were detected beyond members of the family, who died last month.

"Six confirmed H5N1 cases likely acquired (the) H5N1 virus through human-to-human transmission from the index case ... during close prolonged contact with her during the late stages of her illness," the report said.

[The Outlaw]

I have stopped being alarmed by everything I read from WHO. If you really check them out, they aren't especially reliable sources. I'm not an ostrich with my head in the sand, but I'm not an alarmist either. Its up to each person to decide where they stand on this one.

Frankly, I figure I'm far more likely to succumb to some form of cancer long before H5N1 comes my way. Our food chain and environment are a mess. You want to stop H5N1, clean up the world.

[felisdomesticus]

I never really gave the WHO much credit until I saw yehuda reference them a couple of time in connection with their statements on H5N1. I figured if he was listening to them, then maybe I should too.

[dgcashier]

The flu is only spread to humans who work closely with the infected birds all the time. The flu germs in the checkens is killed 100% when it's cooked, so no harm there. This is just like the the flu "pandemic" that we were going to have last winter...."better get your flu shots", then " there's not enough vacine to go around" The drug companies profit and we all get scared!

[felisdomesticus]

Originally Posted by dgcashier

The flu is only spread to humans who work closely with the infected birds all the time.

actually, according to this story, they contracted the virus directly from another person--not from poultry. That is why it is an alarming development.