Full Version: H5N1 hits Britain
The U.K. papers and Drudge have prominent stories about the bird flu reaching Britain. 159,000 turkeys have been culled and workers are being monitored for any health problems. Citizens have also been told to expect a spike in H51 cases. Even more interestingly, will it make a jump to humans?
(U.K. Independent story from the third hyper-link)
Questions for debate:
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
2.)Do you believe our elected leaders have done enough to protect us from bird flu or other virus outbreaks? Pleae provide evidence to support your contention.
QUOTE
The risk to the general public is "negligible", it insists. But the big dread every time a new outbreak of H5N1 is announced anywhere in the world is that this will be the time it mutates. That means the virus incubating inside a human body and developing a new, far more virulent strain that is not resistant to any known drugs. Experts say the resulting epidemic could kill millions of people.
"It's not just a national problem; people in Holland, France, and Germany will all be rather quaking in their shoes as well," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine, yesterday. And even if nobody dies there are likely to be dire consequences for the poultry industry as a result of the scare. A year ago a wild swan was found with H5N1 in Fife, Scotland, having died at sea and been washed ashore; in May more than 50,000 chickens were culled in Norfolk when some had the H7N3 strain. The National Farmers' Union believes these two stories cost £58m in sales of chicken and turkey meat and related products, as people played safe.
"There is no risk to consumers at all," insisted Bart Dalla Mura, commercial director for Bernard Matthews, yesterday. The birds had lived in the shed all their short lives and never left; they had not entered the food chain. But still, however irrational it may seem to the scientists, the company must have known as it waited for the test results that H5N1 would mean its sales taking a hammering.
"It's not just a national problem; people in Holland, France, and Germany will all be rather quaking in their shoes as well," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine, yesterday. And even if nobody dies there are likely to be dire consequences for the poultry industry as a result of the scare. A year ago a wild swan was found with H5N1 in Fife, Scotland, having died at sea and been washed ashore; in May more than 50,000 chickens were culled in Norfolk when some had the H7N3 strain. The National Farmers' Union believes these two stories cost £58m in sales of chicken and turkey meat and related products, as people played safe.
"There is no risk to consumers at all," insisted Bart Dalla Mura, commercial director for Bernard Matthews, yesterday. The birds had lived in the shed all their short lives and never left; they had not entered the food chain. But still, however irrational it may seem to the scientists, the company must have known as it waited for the test results that H5N1 would mean its sales taking a hammering.
(U.K. Independent story from the third hyper-link)
Questions for debate:
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
2.)Do you believe our elected leaders have done enough to protect us from bird flu or other virus outbreaks? Pleae provide evidence to support your contention.
QUOTE
Questions for debate:
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
Bush is spending billions to make us ready when a flu pandemic hits.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...01jpg-515h.html
QUOTE
2.)Do you believe our elected leaders have done enough to protect us from bird flu or other virus outbreaks? Pleae provide evidence to support your contention
THIS virus is not a threat to humans in general. What we need, and it is in the works, are ways to make vaccines quickly when a flu virus appears. Now it takes 6 months.
STATES have responsibility as well and some will do better than others.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/21..._1415_15_06.txt
The world is several billion doses short of the flu vaccine production capacity needed to guard against a possible global influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization warned on Monday.
The WHO has now launched an emergency plan aimed at expanding industry's ability to produce seasonal vaccines from the current 350 million doses per year to levels that might be required to protect the whole of the world's population – about 6.7 billion people, officials said.
Governments need to invest $3 billion to $10 billion dollars in the coming years to close the gap between potential vaccine demand and supply during a pandemic, they say (see Stockpile human bird flu vaccine now say experts).
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health...roduction-.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5036908
Race to find new vaccine production techniques in fight against influenza
Will vaccines from hens' eggs eventually be a thing of the past? Novel methods of vaccine production like cell culture technology and DNA vaccines are set to revolutionise prophylaxis against viral diseases such as influenza. Jenny Bryan investigates
http://www.pjonline.com/Editorial/20051029..._influenza.html
New Strategy Speeds Flu Vaccine Production Cell-based approach means shots could be made in weeks, not months
By Robert Preidt
THURSDAY, Feb. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they've developed a commercially viable process that could enable the mass production of flu vaccines within weeks, instead of the months it now takes.
This approach uses a purified protein from the surface of a virus called hemagglutinin (the "H" in a virus' designation -- for example -- the H5N1 bird flu virus) to trigger an immune response to a specific strain of virus.
The genes responsible for production of hemagglutinin are inserted into a pathogen called a baculovirus, which are then used to infect specific host cells. Those infected cells produce recombinant hemagglutinin (rHA).
Phase II clinical trials show that the vaccines produced using this method are safe and trigger an immune response equal to or greater than conventional chicken egg-based vaccines.
http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/531050.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=52770
QUOTE(Ted @ Feb 6 2007, 04:12 PM) 
QUOTE
Questions for debate:
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
Bush is spending billions to make us ready when a flu pandemic hits.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...01jpg-515h.html
Ted, Bush isn’t spending anything. Congress controls the purse strings. Have you forgotten? Have you and our current would be monarch forgotten about separation of powers?
He has asked Congress for money.
QUOTE
Now, all the steps I've outlined today require immediate resources. Because a pandemic could strike at any time, we can't waste time in preparing. So to meet all our goals, I'm requesting a total of $7.1 billion in emergency funding from the United States Congress. By making critical investments today, we'll strengthen our ability to safeguard the American people in the awful event of a devastating global pandemic, and at the same time will bring our nation's public health and medical infrastructure more squarely in the 21st century.
I don't know what the current military heavy budged provide for NIH. The 7.1 figure would just about cover stockpiling of vaccines. Hopefully the Democratic Congress will appropriate the amount needed regardless of what is in the budget.
QUOTE
Governments need to invest $3 billion to $10 billion dollars in the coming years to close the gap between potential vaccine demand and supply during a pandemic, they say (see Stockpile human bird flu vaccine now say experts).
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health...roduction-.html
QUOTE(BoF @ Feb 6 2007, 11:15 PM)
QUOTE(Ted @ Feb 6 2007, 04:12 PM)
QUOTE
Questions for debate:
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
1.)What policies should the U.S. push for to best prepare for a bird flu outbreak?
Bush is spending billions to make us ready when a flu pandemic hits.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...01jpg-515h.html
Ted, Bush isn’t spending anything. Congress controls the purse strings. Have you forgotten? Have you and our current would be monarch forgotten about separation of powers?
He has asked Congress for money.
QUOTE
Now, all the steps I've outlined today require immediate resources. Because a pandemic could strike at any time, we can't waste time in preparing. So to meet all our goals, I'm requesting a total of $7.1 billion in emergency funding from the United States Congress. By making critical investments today, we'll strengthen our ability to safeguard the American people in the awful event of a devastating global pandemic, and at the same time will bring our nation's public health and medical infrastructure more squarely in the 21st century.
I don't know what the current military heavy budged provide for NIH. The 7.1 figure would just about cover stockpiling of vaccines. Hopefully the Democratic Congress will appropriate the amount needed regardless of what is in the budget.
QUOTE
Governments need to invest $3 billion to $10 billion dollars in the coming years to close the gap between potential vaccine demand and supply during a pandemic, they say (see Stockpile human bird flu vaccine now say experts).
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health...roduction-.html
He has asked Congress for money.
That’s what I meant. He requested the funds and got it. Does he get any credit for being proactive? Or is it only Dems that get that?
The key will be to develop the cell culture production methods. Bush met with vaccine makers and then askd for funding and got it. You cannot “make” a vaccine for H1N5 because the airborne version if/when it appears could be very different than the current virus.
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