How Do We Prepare for Bird Flu?

My husband and I were talking about what we should do if Bird Flu comes to the USA.
Mods If there is a thread already like this please point me to it.
How do we prepare our family for it?
If we are quarantined and can not go outside of our home how do we buy food, go to the doctor and many other things.
Our daughter has her own place but we live only 3 miles from her.
Would the schools shut down? We have 2 grandsons.
How do we pay our bills?
This is a big problem and it seems to be spreading in Turkey.

I've started preparing slowly a few months ago by stocking up on can food, water, medication, soaps ect, so that I would not have to go out.
We also started saving all of our change ( don't feel the pinch as much) for an emergency. I got perscriptions for all of us for Tamiflu although I have not filled them yet, "if" Tamiflu works. I have talked to my kids and told them if there is a pandamic they will not be allowed to leave the house nor will anyone be allowed in. Here is a few websites you can look at to help in preparing. I found the World Health Organization website to be helpful in keeping up to date with whats going on in Turkey. and it doesn't sound good.

www.fluwikie.com
www.prepare-for-bird-flu.com
www.stevequayle.com/index1.html
www.who.int/en

I'm going to start preparing .
Now, A dumb question?
When do we stop eating chicken?
My family loves it and I don't know if I should stop buying it or not.

I have been thinking quite seriously about Bird flu over the last year or so.... There are many issues that people are unaware of an so a global panic is more the norm than a global pandemic...

Though it is useless putting your head in the sand and saying it might not happen.

A Global Pandemic Absolutely WILL Happen and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it at this stage.

Once a strain of the virus has presented itself as the main contender and can be transmitted human to human, then and only then can we attempt to find a vaccine. this will take at least six months after the first discovery.

Now Tamiflu tabs have only shown themselves to be only very slightly effective against bird flu and in most cases just slow down the inevitable.

The real danger is that a human to human airborne strain of bird flu could mutate too quickly such as the HIV virus. This would really be a doomsday virus as it would be virtually unstoppable.

My best advice is to relax. Wait and see what will happen and prepare for the worst but don't worry too much though as medical science is the fastest growing science.

Personally, I believe we need a global pandemic as this will force us to develop much needed new drugs and cures... Such as Stem Cell Tech and even more controversial techniques such as gene therapy to create longevity in the human race.

Anyone for a disease free world need only look at the magic bullet medicines that could be available should there be a real global microbial war.

Anyway.

Sleep well and don't breath too deeply now )

NeoN HaZe.

Here is a good link to information on food storage. Talks of shelf life and such of diff. foods

Prudent food storage

Originally posted by Neon Haze

A Global Pandemic Absolutely WILL Happen and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it at this stage.

A gobal pandemic, although in my opinion likely is not certain, as for preventing it, we can do an enormous amount but only with the help of goverment and farming officials.

Once a strain of the virus has presented itself as the main contender and can be transmitted human to human, then and only then can we attempt to find a vaccine. this will take at least six months after the first discovery.

Why six monthes? Some viruses can have a vaccine very quickly where as others can take a while, without knowing how it will mutate means that we don't know how long a vaccine would take to develop. The more worrying problem is how to produce vast quantitys quickly.

Now Tamiflu tabs have only shown themselves to be only very slightly effective against bird flu and in most cases just slow down the inevitable.

Tamiflu despite the news reports has been very succesful, sadly bird flu has recently been evolving against this drug which is maybe where you got this idea. The viatmanese cases are worrying but the majority of cases i don't believe have this resistance.

The real danger is that a human to human airborne strain of bird flu could mutate too quickly such as the HIV virus. This would really be a doomsday virus as it would be virtually unstoppable.

This truly is a strange statement, every fast acting virus no matter what it is would eventually burn itself out. Even if the human race was badly damaged then this would hardly be a doomsday virus. If it was spreading without alot of control then the goverments would advise staying at home. If this was done then the decrease in the viruses chance to infect other people would be greatly reduced. I doubt that the human population would be reduced to below 4 billion at the absolute worst. Obviously if the incubation period is quite long then the damage could be very high, but still this wouldn't wipe out people to a doomsday level.

HIV is different becuase it can remain inactive in a body for a long time unlike the current strains of bird flu.

My best advice is to relax. Wait and see what will happen and prepare for the worst but don't worry too much though as medical science is the fastest growing science.

Very good advice.

Personally, I believe we need a global pandemic as this will force us to develop much needed new drugs and cures... Such as Stem Cell Tech and even more controversial techniques such as gene therapy to create longevity in the human race.

Anyone for a disease free world need only look at the magic bullet medicines that could be available should there be a real global microbial war.

I don't see how a virus pandemic will force through stem cell research, as for a disease free world, i think this is a very bad idea. A disease free world would mean even less natural selection in the human race. Before travelling down the path of altering ourselves we should look at the current studies showing how unpredictable gene therapy can be. Even if we could predict the short term effects of the first 200 years, how do we know what would happen in a thousand years? Looking at gene therapy logically does worry me as we don't know what could happen a long time after.

Well that's my view.

[edit on 19-2-2006 by ImaginaryReality1984]

[edit on 19-2-2006 by ImaginaryReality1984]

Originally posted by Neon Haze
A Global Pandemic Absolutely WILL Happen and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it at this stage.

Once a strain of the virus has presented itself as the main contender and can be transmitted human to human, then and only then can we attempt to find a vaccine. this will take at least six months after the first discovery.

The real danger is that a human to human airborne strain of bird flu could mutate too quickly such as the HIV virus. This would really be a doomsday virus as it would be virtually unstoppable.

I really don't think it's going to be that bad, i think you have been reading too many scare stories in the media and taking it all as the truth.

Avian flu is nothing to do with HIV it spreads much too quickly and will soon run out of legs and become *harmless* as soon as it has infected everyone it can then its all over.