Bird Flu

[Spatial]

muse hunter your avatar is very apt (if a little bit more Ebola than Avian flu)

Nips, I'm gonna find me a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by a lake. And barbwire. And claymores.

[Concept]

You're in a cheery mood this evening, Spatial.

We're all doomed.

[Spatial]

Yeah, sorry about that. It's been a really long week at work

[Kieran76]

How many people worldwide have died from Bird flu this year?

[DaiSuki]

Hey, we're prepared. We'll wait for the initial spate of infections, just long enough for it to get out of control. Then, we'll cull every bird in a 200 mile radius of 'ground zero'. Like we were in the Foot and Mouth crisis, Civil Servants such as myself will be offered secondments to DEFRA (or whatever the agriculture lot are called these days) where they will be trained in the use of firearms and given orders to shoot all birds on sight, and to shoot all people who have been within 50 yards of a bird up to one month previously. There will be enormous landfills and bonfires, and red crosses will be painted on the name signs for towns which have been infected, which will then be nuked from orbit (it being the only way to be sure, as we know).

Alternatively: the country will, helpfully, not develop a taste for congealed bird's blood-based sauces, and we'll all live happily ever after, although the mallard population will suffer and one or two robins might have a nasty cough for a week or two.

[neoboy259]

I kid you not, I've been ill since coming back from Tokyo.
Was stuck standing on a Central line train the other day and casually mentioned to my companion that i've been ill ever since I got back from Asia. Everyone promptly got off the next stop and we got a seat each........RESULT.
Actually due to see the doctor next week cause can't shift this bug I've got...same thing happened to me when i went to Hong Kong about 2 years ago in the midst of the SARS outbreak................

[Spatial]

How many people worldwide have died from Bird flu this year?

60, I think

[Supergoal]

The End Is Nigh

[Kieran76]

60, I think

I think I will be able to sleep soundly tonight then. Although when at school today a bird flew straight into my window. It took the kids ages to calm down. Maybe this bird was a carrier?

[Resonance]

This has got me piss scared. In the light of the other disasters that have happened recently, a worldwide pandemic does seem entirely possible. May be we will get to ask for aid from all of the countries of the world but they will be dead

[Jusatsushi]

Now there's a lovely thought...

[Kieran76]

I aint scared, the fact that I am alive today means I must have a super strong gentic defence. My family has lived through the black death, massive flu outbreaks, leprosy, the lot. I am invincible.

[Spatial]

I'm telling you, it's much more understated than it really is.

60's not a massive figure by any stretch, but what's worrying is that the flu bug is mutating to infect humans. If it does mutate (which it seems to be) then you better get your shotgun and practice those headshots, becasue before you know it

Bosh! T-virus

[weresheep]

60? Worldwide, this year? Out of 6 billion. Not exactly a MAJOR thread to human existence is it. I mean, toothbrushes (or toothbrush involved accidents) probably killed more people than that this year.

Typical over reacting bull**** spread by the media.

Even if it does mutate into something that can spread from human to human and 150 million people do die from it, so what? Thats barely a scratch on the surface of 6 billion. The earth would still be massively overcrowded afterwards.

Meh, not worried at all.

-weresheep

[Spatial]

What's often overlooked is the epidemiological significance of it.

Think about how quickly colds spread around from person to person. Come into close contact with someone who's got a cold and chances are you'll catch it too (our lifestyles make it even more certain - air con, crowded environments etc). We all know how ****ty the flu can be - so imagine something that's spead just as easily and has the ability to kill even normal healthy people. What's really scary with Avain Flu is that it has a really high mortality rate. No amount of Cold Care and Beechams is going to save you.

Vaccines won't help, because the mutation will keep going from person to person meaning by the time medicine catches up it'll be too late for a lot of people. There's between 2 million and 50 million deaths worldwide predicted and that may be fine in terms of total global numbers - providing you aren't one of the death statistics (and there's no guarantee that you wouldn't be).

60 isn't a vast figure, but often it's the potential that needs to be looked at rather than its current effects.

Plus there's also the economic cost of having to slaughter hundreds and thousands of birds to prevent the disease speading (if not to prevent it from mutating, to stop the poor animals catching it and dying a horrible mucus filled death).

That said, the media love a good scare story and they never let the facts get in the way. I wouldn't loose any sleep over Avian flu until it gets to this country.