Concerns Of Global Epidemic

codec said:
yes but thats just a mutation, it still existed just hadnt mutated.

if anything they should be treating all farm/domesticated animals against their diseases to stop the possibility of them transfering to us.
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err you do know we can't really treat most human viruses, so treating every virus that several animal species have + all thier mutations is damn near impossible.
 
chumpit said:
Oh noes run for the hills!! weree all going to die!!!!

oh come off it more people die on the toilet in America a year than have died form this so called epidemic, but we have yet to see a health and safety booklet on how to use the bog properly....

All this is a conjunction between the governments trying to keep people scared and the drug companies trying to raise revenue.
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Bearing in mind there's currently no treatment for it and to develop a drug takes years, I highly doubt the usual conspiracy of "omgz pharmaceuticals did this to us to get more moniez" is fitting.
 
int said:
Bearing in mind there's currently no treatment for it and to develop a drug takes years, I highly doubt the usual conspiracy of "omgz pharmaceuticals did this to us to get more moniez" is fitting.
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I'm not saying they did it just that their using it to profit, the vaccine for bird flu sold in the millions, but oh wait only people actually living in the coots with the birds got it...
 
chumpit said:
I'm not saying they did it just that their using it to profit, the vaccine for bird flu sold in the millions, but oh wait only people actually living in the coots with the birds got it...
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A panic over something is rarely perpetuated by the government. You'll find a simple title of "pandemic" in your daily paper is enough to get people in a fuss and the pharma companies just follow up with supplying what is demanded regardless of how serious a problem it really is! Can't blame them though, people are stupid enough to read the Daily Mail and think the world is coming to an end unless they buy some miracle drug :p
 
chumpit said:
The plague is a epidemic, small pox was epidemic. Hell aids is a epidemic for gods sake.
bird flu and now this isn't a sodding epidemic. to catch bird flu you had to practically hump the chickens.
People get sick and die in squalid conditions, i will only be worrid when the death rate goes into the 500's
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In the case of plague and smallpox, I think you're getting "endemic" confused with "epidemic". Endemic means it's constantly present in a population (like flu: it's not as common as in summer, but it's still there), whereas epidemic means a sudden surge in cases locally (like flu in winter).

As for bird flu not being too transmissible: the fear is that it'll become transmissible. The thing is, there are dozens of types of "flu", some specific to certain animals. Bird flu mainly infects birds, but also infects pigs. Human flu mainly infects humans, but also infects pigs.

This is where the problems start and where the squalid conditions come in: in poorer countries pig farmers often live in close contact with their animals. That means one of their pigs can pick up bird flu from local birds and human flu from the farmers. Because of how the genetics of the virus work, when a pig has bird and human flu it's possible to get a mish-mash bird/human flu produced. The human part of the virus could allow infections of humans, but the bird part could be totally unrecognised by the human immune system so we'd be totally screwed if the combination worked out a certain way. This is why they're so scared about it: if human-infectious bird flus are appearing it means there's a good chance that sooner or later one of those forms will be highly infectious and totally new to the human immune system.

One of the last "brand new" types of flu to spread to humans was Spanish flu in 1918, reckoned to have infected a billion people and killed 20-100 million in two years.

There's no point in panicking, but a new form of flu could be very, very nasty.
 
read the Q & A about the virus

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8017585.stm

How many cases are there in the latest outbreak?

The Mexican government has confirmed 16 deaths from a swine flu outbreak and they are investigating 50 further possible deaths

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating seven non-fatal cases of human transmission of swine flu that have been reported since March 2009 but there has been no confirmation of a link.

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that 16 deaths and possible 50 more! after 2 days :/ id say its spreading quit rapidly!
 
I'm going to Mexico in June.........if the holiday was cancelled because of this I assume the nice people at Thompson would refund me?
 
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