The Chief

I've just watched Trevor Macdonald, on the potential of a Bird Flu pandemic.

It seems to me its been covered up to a certain degree - so, should we be worried? and if so have you put plans into place?

Thoughts please

StickyMicky

i never get sick


my body cant fight that pissy bird rubbish while i sleep

GaryK

Yep we are all fooked!

P.S. Heres a tip dont watch that Trevor McDonald show, after a while you will realise you are doomed and just commit suicide, must be the most scaremongering, darkest, blackest show on the telly.

mal ishus

the irish are worried the've stop all hen partys in dublin

Petem95

I think its a bit of smoke-screen being talked-up by Labour to cover other more pressing issues - ie the economy (which is in a bit of an unsustainable, and in a word, fcuked state. From here its either a big recorrection, or dig deeper and put off the problem for longer).

But hey why worry about little things like the state of the economy, when BIRD FLU will spread to humans, killing MILLIONS!!! This is THE big one - just like that flesh eating virus a few years back which was predicted to spread like wild fire, with no cure

turbodan

Technically speaking SARS, Ebola, AIDS and BSE should have wiped us out by now. Im surprised im still here!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I had a dodgy chicken fajita last night and now I have the runs


I'm a gonna.

As per my will, I want my scooby to be destroyed by a 1megaton bomb, then all of its shattered remnants collected and equally distributed to all of the active Scoobynet members

OllyK

On the scale of things? I think the risk of contracting CJD from eating a big mac is STILL higher, and it was a tenuous link at the height of the BSE scare.

ru'

My guess is that it's going to kick off big time, within the next two years.

Whether it screws us in this country or not is up for grabs.

Having said that, I know pretty much f' all about it.

Quick - start panic buying frozen chickens!

rr_ww

Can I just add "ITV" to that list. Their news is attrocious for scaremoungering and tabloid "journalism"

Scooby-Doo

Your fooked then.

StickyMicky

we all die sooner or later

The Chief

Nice one

Suresh

You really should get out a bit more..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Maybe Tony's grandfather was to blame for this -

The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as La Grippe, or La Pesadilla, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918 and 1919 [1]. It is thought to have been one of the most deadly pandemics so far in human history. It was caused by the H1N1 type of influenza virus, which is similar to bird flu of today, mainly H5N1 and H5N2.

Brit_in_Japan

Another flu pandemic will come sometime, history shows us that. Technology has never been better placed to limit the pandemic. However people travel much more than in 1918 so it will spread much further much faster than previously. Also the precise signature of the pandemic flu strain is not known currently. Therefore it is not known how effective the current anti-flu drugs will be and there is a lead time of up to 6 months to produce a tailored vaccine in sufficient quantity. The pandemic could kill anywhere from 50,000 to 750,000 in the UK alone according to the health professionals. The current bird flu strain is not so dangerous in itself, however the more exposure it has to humans then the more opportunity there is for it to mutate to strain which would become communicable between humans like ordinary flu virus.

There is little that we can do currently to reduce the risk, except encourage other countries to contain any bird flu outbreaks and provide technical and financial support to help them.

cw42

iTrader: (1)

One of my work collegues is visiting family in Turkey atm, I'm not going anywhere near him when he gets back

Chief, the next smacs meet will be conducted from our cars, with the windows firmly shut, using walkie talkies and masks just in case See you there.
chris.

Petem95

Note the period here Suresh - there have been significant advancements in medicine in the last 90years...

The Chief

I'll have my mask on then

ScoobyJawa

Ah Trevor McDonald - worst most uncharismatic presenter ever, who really struggles to read his autocue. And why is that show even got him on it or using his name. All he ever does is a 30sec intro and 30sec outro (that he struggles with) and the rest of the prog is some report by somebody else. WTF.

Dracoro

Can someone tell me how I can catch this flu?

I'm never exposed to chickens, I don't eat chicken (you can't catch by eating anyway) and it can't be passed between humans. Unless it mutates and can be spread easily between humans but there's no evidence of this happening afaik.

Tiggs

"Unless it mutates and can be spread easily between humans "

theres your problem!

Dracoro

But theres thousands of diseases out there that don't affect humans that 'could' mutate and thus affect humans.

Brit_in_Japan

Yes there have, but we don't know the precise signature of any pandemic flu virus which might strike, so we can't be sure that any of the current vaccines will be effective. Out of the existing flu vaccines that exist, two types which the US government have large stockpiles (amantadine and rimantadine) have only been shown to be effective against 10% of the cases of the H5N1 strain. In other words they are pretty useless. The UK has about 14 million doses of Tamiflu either delivered or in the process of being delivered, but that's still only 25% of the UK population.

If Tamilfu is ineffective against a pandemic strain then it will take at least 6 months to develop a new vaccine and get it into production, during which time it will be spreading and killing people. Even in the UK, which is probably the best prepared of any nation, scientists confirm that a virulent form of flu could kill 750,000. The US, the richest nation in the world, think that it might kill 2 million US citizens. Now multiply those types of numbers by the current world population of 5+ billion and factor in that many poor countries are ill prepared for such a pandemic and you have tens of millions dying.

It could be many years before a pandemic happens and it could be this year, but all the experts seem to agree that one is due anytime.