Bird Flu vs Al Qaeda

www.madison.com...
Avian flu looms as new pandemic with a high mortality rate


By Aaron Nathans
November 26, 2004

Early on a recent Friday morning, doctors from around the area gathered at a Meriter Hospital lecture hall to hear Dennis Maki talk about the flu. The top University of Wisconsin immunologist had plenty to say about the nation's vaccine shortage.


But, as bad as the situation was, that was not his biggest concern.

Maki, head of the infectious disease division at UW Hospital, said he was more worried about the approximately 43 cases of H5N1 influenza that had been diagnosed in humans in Southeast Asia. The strain began in Korea in late 2003, and spread to eight Asian countries......


......Reich said it was much more likely the United States will experience an epidemic of deadly flu than a nuclear attack by North Korea, or a terrorist attack that kills millions.

G. Richard Olds, chairman of the department of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, emphasized that the H5N1 strain is not generally transmitted from person to person. But, in general, from an infectious disease standpoint, "We have more to worry about from Mother Nature than we do from al-Qaida."

"With terrorists, we can predict what they can do. Mother Nature is very unpredictable," Olds said.............


[edit on 26-11-2004 by niman]

When it comes to Mother Nature, humans are nothing but dust.

I've been hearing about this cycle of pandemics in the news lately. Scary stuff when they say that Millions around the world will be affected by a pandemic. Maybe that is why I had a dream about something like this earlier on. Link

I hope my health care covers this!

Originally posted by IMMORTAL
When it comes to Mother Nature, humans are nothing but dust.

I've been hearing about this cycle of pandemics in the news lately. Scary stuff when they say that Millions around the world will be affected by a pandemic.

Actually, the press is now starting to cover the H5N1 flu case mortality rate, which is 70-80%

www.recombinomics.com...

This rate is much higher than the 1918 flu pandemic which killed 20-50 million people. WHO has been citing 2-7 million deaths from over 2 billion H5N1 infections, buit the virus can actually maintain its high death rate and acquire human to human transmission

www.recombinomics.com...

which would create a very dire situation.

At the time of SARS i heard that people from Taiwan where less suspectible to catch it/get killed by it than mainland chinese

I don't know if that was mediaspin to highlight the genetic difference (we are not your "brothers", no we don't need to be liberated) or that it could be true, maybe both


[edit on 27-11-2004 by Countermeasures]

Originally posted by Countermeasures
At the time of SARS i heard that people from Taiwan where less suspectible to catch it/get killed by it than mainland chinese

I don't know if that was mediaspin to highlight the genetic difference (we are not your "brothers", no we don't need to be liberated) or that it could be true, maybe both

[edit on 27-11-2004 by Countermeasures]

It was mostly media spin (there was an initial scientific report, but the data was VERY weak and very selected).

The case fatality rate for SARS in Toronto was the high and most who died there had a European ancestry (but they happened to be in the wrong place (hospital emergency room) at the wrong time (SARS patient being admitted nearby).