Accrington Web - View Single Post - Bird Flu - will it be headless chickens or a dead duck?

Acrylic-bob · 14-10-2005, 17:05

Apparently as long as the virus remains in birds and does not mutate we are all relatively safe. If, however, it gets into a human cell that is already host to another form of humanly transmissable flu virus they could potentially have a bit of a virus get together and swap chromosomes. Then the H5N1 virus could become capable of being transmitted from human to human and, given how virulent this virus is, that is when people start dropping like flies. Starting the panic now is counterproductive and will only cause economic damage - you can expect the supermarket price of Chicken and Duck to drop considerably the closer the virus gets to us.

The vaccine that the government is stockpiling, "Tamiflu", is probably going to be a bit of a waste of time and money. As I understand the situation it won't stop you contracting the virus in the first place, but it will make the symptoms less lethal, you will still be able to pass it on to relatives, friends and strangers. By the time that you realise that you have the virulent H5N1 strain of flu and not a typical strain or just a cold it will probably be too late to do much about it. Any vaccine to specifically target mutated H5N1 will take months to develop and even longer to produce in quantities sufficient to innoculate everybody in Western Europe, America, and everywhere else. There is a strict pecking order in these things, as you might expect, and the great and the good will be first in the queue. You and I will probably come in fairly low down on the list.

In the Hong Kong SARS outbreak it was found that bad sanitation and blocked sewers lead to the spread of the infection. The moral here is DISINFECT everyone and everything, particularly your hands, before during and after anything that you do.

Lets hope it doesn't manage to get round to mutating, eh?

Anyone interested in shares in Carbolic Soap?????

14-10-2005, 17:05	#7
Acrylic-bob God Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Tragic Conn Posts: 4,007 Blog Entries: 15 Liked: 3 times Rep Power: 2473	Re: Bird Flu - will it be headless chickens or a dead duck? Apparently as long as the virus remains in birds and does not mutate we are all relatively safe. If, however, it gets into a human cell that is already host to another form of humanly transmissable flu virus they could potentially have a bit of a virus get together and swap chromosomes. Then the H5N1 virus could become capable of being transmitted from human to human and, given how virulent this virus is, that is when people start dropping like flies. Starting the panic now is counterproductive and will only cause economic damage - you can expect the supermarket price of Chicken and Duck to drop considerably the closer the virus gets to us. The vaccine that the government is stockpiling, "Tamiflu", is probably going to be a bit of a waste of time and money. As I understand the situation it won't stop you contracting the virus in the first place, but it will make the symptoms less lethal, you will still be able to pass it on to relatives, friends and strangers. By the time that you realise that you have the virulent H5N1 strain of flu and not a typical strain or just a cold it will probably be too late to do much about it. Any vaccine to specifically target mutated H5N1 will take months to develop and even longer to produce in quantities sufficient to innoculate everybody in Western Europe, America, and everywhere else. There is a strict pecking order in these things, as you might expect, and the great and the good will be first in the queue. You and I will probably come in fairly low down on the list. In the Hong Kong SARS outbreak it was found that bad sanitation and blocked sewers lead to the spread of the infection. The moral here is DISINFECT everyone and everything, particularly your hands, before during and after anything that you do. Lets hope it doesn't manage to get round to mutating, eh? Anyone interested in shares in Carbolic Soap????? __________________ Enough is ENOUGH Get Britain out of Europe Last edited by Acrylic-bob; 14-10-2005 at 17:43.