Bird Flu: Hype or Real Threat?

Vaccine may be linked to bird flu cases

The weak strain of avian influenza recently detected at more than a dozen farms in Ibaraki Prefecture may have been brought about by artificial contamination, including by the use of vaccines, a farm ministry panel said Friday.

According to panel head Hiroshi Kida, a professor at Hokkaido University, the genetic makeup of the virus found at the Ibaraki farms was strikingly similar to that of a bird flu virus found in Guatemala and Mexico, too far for a migrating bird to carry into Japan. It is also different from other Central American strains of the virus previously found in other parts of Asia.

The ministry has a stock of vaccines to be used in the event of a massive bird flu outbreak, but has banned its general use because vaccinated birds will develop the antibody and be indistinguishable from animals that have really come down with the disease.

www.japantimes.co.jp...

BTW, there's no human vaccine until the strain comes out, and when it does come out civilians probably won't get any due to production constraints. Those that due get a vaccine may still get the wrong one or get sick due to contamination.

Rather than dying by the millions I suggest we fool everybody and live through it and go worry about winning they lotto for now.

[edit on 5-10-2005 by Regenmacher]

I'm a lobbyist for Roche in the DC office and as you can imagine this keeps use quite busy. Here is a link that some of you may find useful.

Regards,

Dave

healthyamericans.org...

I sometimes wonder if this is to be one of those self-fulfilling deals. Bird flu threat, people get vaccinated--and instant pandemic, because the vaccines are what's causing it.

Or everyone gets vaccinated, bird flu goes bye-bye--and oh, guess what, there's something in those vaccines....

I might have had the flu ONCE--when I was one year old, and I'm 32 now. Since then I've never had the flu--and never had a flu shot. Whenever my sister gets a flu shot, she gets the flu. Whenever my husband gets the flu shot he gets sick.

That's enough to tell me that I don't want a vaccine (what you do is up to you). I don't get sick that easily. Just spring and fall allergies, that's it.

I am another that just doesn't get sick...with one important exception: I have just retired from the military and every year as part of our mandatory flu vaccination, I was required to get the annual flu shot and guess what? I got sick immediately after receiving it almost every year (last year was the first time I remember not getting sick).

Gather your own conclusions from this.