bird flu - this is scary

**forestdale** · 09-30-2005, 04:16 PM

Every day now we're hearing about the horrors of the expected bird flu pandemic.  This is a virus that's known in birds and chickens in Asia and it has the potential to skip species and spread to us human animals.  Already 60 people have died from this virus in Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong etc.  The World Health Org says that it isn't a matter of if a pandemic happens, but when.  Best case scenario is 2 million people dead, but it could be 15 million. 

I'm wondering if everyone knows about this.

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...112289,00.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E23289,00.html

 

**canadian gardener** · 09-30-2005, 04:25 PM

this months Nat'l Geographic mag has a frontline article on it. REALLY eye opening!!!! quite scary!

My dad just told me about the 1957 flu epidemic which was the worst since the 1918 flu and a real killer, which apparently according to the N Geo also started in birds and spread to people.

Maybe I have immunity. The reason the 1957 flue didn't kill so bad is because many alive then still had immunity from the 1918 flu.

I was a year old and he said he thought I was going to die from it. They all got sick, both he and mum and me. He said it was a terrible epidemic but acc to the NG article, it was just nothing compared to the 1918 flu.

The forecasters are figuring it will fit the 1918 flu profile.

**homesteadmamma** · 09-30-2005, 04:26 PM

We've heard about it too, many times on the news. PrimeTime Live had a full hour on it a couple weeks ago. Its not going to be pretty.

**Dixie** · 09-30-2005, 11:54 PM

It's so scary!
Margery, I read somewhere that some researchers think the 1918 flu, may have actually been Ebola.

**canadian gardener** · 10-01-2005, 12:25 AM

nope, that doesn't fit the profile. I studied Ebola when I did my retread.

the 1918 flu had a sudden onset, hit young people whose lungs filled with inflammation fluids and they either lived or died in the following days. It was rare for any other tissue to show signs of inflammation. Stuck to the lungs mostly and the victims drowned in their own fluids.

Ebola is so fast and hits so hard, it has a hard time getting out of it's home ground. Victims are also young, and get sick within hours but they bleed out internally, often coughing up a spray of blood or having internal organs turn to bloody pulp.

The 1918 flu was studied quite heavily at the time, and plenty of autopsy reports even some slices of lung and other organ tissue are still preserved.

Even now acc to the latest Nat'l Geo mag, they've been able to get the genetic code from the virus to compare with similar strands from bird flu and modern flu bugs. The researchers were able to take samples from corpses of people who died in 1918 of the flu, and do a complete workup on the gene sequence.

Ebola is part of the hemohagic fevers which include Marburg virus and some other incredibly deadly diseases which make the Pneumonic form of the Black Plague look like a mild case of the sniffles.

The gene sequence is very different as is the virus itself, it's structure and the way it works.

The only reason we fear Marburg and Ebola etc is because of air travel. It's possible to have an infected person board a plane, and due to the highly infective and deadly form of the disease, infect a lot of the passengers, who get off at various points and spread the disease around the world before the original person dies in the charachteristic massive bleed.

**canadian gardener** · 10-01-2005, 12:29 AM

retread being when I refreshed my nursing degree after being out raising babies. I took a 8 or 9 month refresher (forget now) and worked for a few more years before quitting to homeschool in case that retread comment sounds more than usually cryptic and weird.

And Ebola and Marburg weren't on the scholastic menu of things we were supposed to learn, I just got bored to the back teeth with models of nsg practice and took off into the doctors library at the hospital and read anything and everything that took my fancy.

**canadian gardener** · 10-01-2005, 12:38 AM

Oh and to lesson the fear factor I've got one thing to say.

Hand washing. Teach your babies and practice it yourself. Always after using the toilet, and always before eating, before touching your face (hand to nose or face is how most of us pick up and place cold viruses right where they replicate best, in the nasal membranes) and before eating.

Most germs trying to invade you will be caught and washed off.

No need to use a whack of antibacterial whatevers, you don't want to kill off your good bacteria, they help crowd out the bad guys.

But that purse sized alcohol handwashing stuff is superb.

You can clean grocery cart handles with it, and wash your hands with it far from any washbasin.

I'm fussy on using my elbows to open and shut mall doors, washroom doors, restaurant doors, anywhere the public puts their hands.

Use the paper towel to shut the taps off in a public washroom, and open the door with it before tossing in the trash so you don't recontaminate your hands.

If people did this one thing religiously, they will avoid MOST of the bad stuff that could possibly attack. Including a lot of germ warfare stuff.

Wash hands --it's your best defence ever.

**Tater** · 10-01-2005, 02:05 AM

I'm gonna find a doctor who is just as frightened about this as I am and get a prescription for Tamiflu NOW!!

**YankeeMom** · 10-01-2005, 08:32 AM

I almost posted about this last week, but didn't want to seem like Chicken Little

but THIS would be my main reasoning for stockpiling. It this virus figures out how to pass human to human, MY children won't be leaving the house. Not when that virus kills one out of every 2 people it strikes!

**Tater** · 10-01-2005, 05:36 PM

Anyone know about using elderberries to treat this flu? I've heard elderberry tincture (made with vodka!) is supposed to be great for this! Any herbalists out there that could respond?

Hey, even if it didn't do much good, at least I'd be too tipsy to care!

**forestdale** · 10-01-2005, 06:19 PM

Tamiflu is sold out in Australia. We get more stock next month.

YankeeMom, yes, yet another good reason to stockpile groceries. My DH actually said the same thing about a week ago. I'm just hoping that we have sold our store before it hits. We get a lot of visitors from Asia.

**canadian gardener** · 10-02-2005, 01:20 PM

Yes to the elderberry, but gotta run, more later.

**canadian gardener** · 10-02-2005, 05:28 PM

Sambuca or Sambucol. That is the original elderberry product that went thru the drug type testing. It proved that it reduces the cold or flu by several days and reduces severity.

It's worth having on hand if you have biggish problems with your immune system or in view of potential problems.

I wouldn't see it as a replacement to Tamiflu. Along with yes. Replace no.

If a new bad flu comes along and there are the projected death rates like they figure, even if it's only HALF what they figure, you won't be needing just a little help from elderberry, you'll be wanting the Tamiflu stuff on hand.

By having your own supply now, you are staying out of the rush for it later. You will be protecting your family and not being a drain on resources.

That said, both are expensive, and I don't plan to stock either. I figure if it happens, it happens, I'll do my best with my trusty bottle of Tea tree oil on qtips up the nostrils where the virus replicates and trust God for the outcomes.