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Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population

 
WingnAPrayer
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03/24/2012 10:39 AM
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Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population
Been seeing alot of mumbling about Bird Flu/Swine Flu Mutations recently and wanted to have my fellow GLPers "weigh in" on this.. Something is definitely going on regarding a new strain that has significant human transmission- Please add your intel:


By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv----March 17......Until today, Israel had thought that it's deadliest threat came from Iran, Syria, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hizbollah and bin-Laden. But now some innocent birds without suicide belts may have changed that equation.

The Israel Agriculture Ministry today confirmed the first bird flu outbreak in the country, Israel Radio reported. Citing an official source, Israel radio said that the Agriculture Ministry had confirmed that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu led to the deaths of over 11,000 turkeys on two farms in southern Israel, the first such case in the country. In addition, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported that three people, either living or working on one of the two farms located in the southern area of Negev, had been rushed to hospital for treatment of suspected symptoms of bird flu infection.

Following preliminary tests after discovering the dead turkeys Israel Health Minister Yaakov Edri said "a very high chance that this is avian flu." "Last night we informed the World Health Organisation that the H5N1 virus has spread to Israel," Dr Moshe Haimovitch, a senior agriculture ministry official, said in Tel Aviv.

The Israel Agriculture Ministry has ordered the slaughter of thousands of birds on the two farms and a third one near Jerusalem where bird flu was suspected, the report added. Israel has geared up for bird flu outbreaks, ordering that all the birds in the affected farms and nearby farms be destroyed and that a quarantine be imposed with a radius of 10 kilometers around the farms if the deadly virus is detected. Last month, Israel's neighboring country Egypt detected its first case of H5N1 in chickens.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu, which re-emerged in east Asia in December 2003, has killed over 90 people worldwide in the last few years and is spreading rapidly across the world. Experts fear that the disease, currently jumping from birds to humans through close contact, might mutate into a form that can easily pass among humans, leading to a global pandemic.

The Israel Health Ministry confirmed that Bird Flu was responsible for the recent deaths of approximately 11,000 turkeys at the southern kibbutzim of Holit and Ein Hashlosha. The same strain was identified at Kibbutz Nachshon near Beit Shemesh, following an unusual amount of poultry deaths. Two people from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, who worked at the chicken coops, were sent to Soroka Hospital under suspicion that they contracted the deadly bird flu strain. One of them, a Thai worker was held in isolation.

The Israel Health Ministry ordered that the carcasses be buried underground. The poultry were to be killed by consumption of poisoned water.

After its meeting to discuss the response to a bird flu outbreak, the Agriculture Ministry announced on Friday that they would continue the veterinary quarantine over the southern kibbutzim of Holit and Ein Hashlosha.

Chief Israel veterinarian of the Agriculture Ministry Dr. Shimon Pokamunski told Israel Radio that it had not yet been decided to launch a massive vaccination campaign, but should that decision be made, the Health Ministry would be ready to proceed within three days.

Health officials repeatedly reminded the public that the avian flu primarily affects birds. It was very rare for the virus to make the transition into a human host. Even in cases where humans do contract the disease, it is generally limited to people who come in direct contact with fowl, usually bird handlers in chicken coops. Unfortunately, mortality tends to be high in cases when it is contracted.

The Israel Health Ministry voiced caution and urged the public not to panic after the Agriculture Ministry announced on Thursday night that turkeys on two Negev farms were "suspected" of having died from the H5N1 strain of avian flu. Health Minister Ya'akov Edri called an emergency meeting last night to discuss the case. Agriculture Minister Ze'ev Boim said the ministry was still testing the birds to determine whether they had the feared flu strain. Boim stressed that Israelis should remain calm until the tests have been completed. The suspected outbreak was centered on the Negev desert farming community of Ein Hashlosha and the nearby community of Holit, where a large number of turkeys were found dead, Boim said.

"We have imposed a quarantine in a radius of seven kilometers around the area, and we are prepared, in case our suspicions are confirmed, to prepare for a wide-scale destruction of the flocks in a radius of three kilometers," he said. Health Ministry associate director-general Dr. Boaz Lev said that there was no danger to the general public, as avian flu spreads directly among poultry and wild birds and can spread only to people in direct contact with live birds whose droppings contain the virus. There is no danger eating poultry, even if the food supply is affected by the virus, as it is destroyed by the heat of cooking and does not pass to humans who touch raw processed poultry.

The H5N1 virus was detected in neighboring Egypt last month, and Boim said the death of the birds in southern Israel might indicate that the disease had entered the country from Egypt.

Bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were ''about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and ''society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. . . . I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

Webster was criticized for his statement by the Boston Globe which stated: "As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good. By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens." The Globe continued: "Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported. Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles. We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people very nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef."

Most scientists won't say it that directly but most acknowledge that Webster could be right, even though they believe the 50% figure could be too high. No one knows how long or how many mutations changes it would take for bird flu to become a direct threat to humans. But that hasn't stopped Dr. Anne Moscona from desperately searching for new types of anti-virals that both prevent and slow the spread of bird flu. She says, "I don't think that once we human-to-human transmission, it's going to be possible to contain it." This is why nearly every viral scientist in America, perhaps the world, is waiting, watching the avian flu virus to see if it remains a terrible threat to birds, or changes its DNA and becomes just as deadly to humans.

Blaming the media for blowing out of proportion a localised event, India Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today the bird flu situation is under control and there is nothing to panic about on a nationwide scale. "The media has blown a localised event out of proportion without realising that such exaggeration of facts would impact the rural economy," Pawar told reporters at the sidelines of the World Consumer Rights Day celebration here. There is nothing to worry, he said, adding "the situation is completely under control".

The US Center for Disease Control states: "Although avian influenza A viruses usually do not infect humans, more than 100 confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza viruses have been reported since 1997. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains situation updates and cumulative reports of human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1). Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans are thought to have resulted from direct contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces. However, there is still a lot to learn about how different subtypes and strains of avian influenza virus might affect humans. For example, it is not known how the distinction between low pathogenic and highly pathogenic strains might impact the health risk to humans. (For more information, see “Low Pathogenic versus Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Viruses†on the CDC Influenza Viruses Web page. Because of concerns about the potential for more widespread infection in the human population, public health authorities closely monitor outbreaks of human illness associated with avian influenza. To date, human infections with avian influenza A viruses detected since 1997 have not resulted in sustained human-to-human transmission. However, because influenza A viruses have the potential to change and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for human infection and person-to-person transmission is important."

The CDC continued: "The avian influenza A (H5N1) epizootic (animal outbreak) in Asia and parts of Europe is not expected to diminish significantly in the short term. It is likely that H5N1 infection among birds has become endemic in certain areas and that human infections resulting from direct contact with infected poultry will continue to occur. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare and has not continued beyond one person. No evidence for genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza A virus genes has been found; however, the epizootic in Asia continues to pose an important public health threat."

The results from the tests of people in Israel admitted into hospital with bird flu symptoms will be ready in two days, Haaretz informs. The information about how many people have been admitted into Soroka hospital with bird flu symptoms is controversial. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reports about five Israel citizens from Ein Hashlosha. At the same time Haaretz informs of four workers, including a Thai citizen.

For now it appears that Bird Flu may be a blessing in disguise as the terror group Hamas led Palestinian Authority will have to work closely with Israel authorities in combating a common enemy.
A sick dove of peace may actually contribute to peace, cooperation and stability in the Middle-East, if the birds don't get to us first.
Anonymous Coward
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03/24/2012 10:43 AM
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Re: Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population
The H5N1 virus was detected in neighboring Egypt last month, and Boim said the death of the birds in southern Israel might indicate that the disease had entered the country from Egypt.

That does it! How much more of this can we take?

BOMB IRAN! BOMB EGYPT! BOMB MECCA! BOMB EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

abomb
Anonymous Coward
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03/24/2012 11:35 AM
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Re: Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population
That article is from 2006.
Anonymous Coward
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03/24/2012 12:15 PM
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Re: Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population
is it from 06? i thuink i prefer a little voice whispering,huge wave. maybe he's just paranoid today,i don't know.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 13057829
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03/24/2012 02:09 PM
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Re: Israels New Threat of Bird Flu may be World Wide Threat- 50% of Population
Been seeing alot of mumbling about Bird Flu/Swine Flu Mutations recently and wanted to have my fellow GLPers "weigh in" on this.. Something is definitely going on regarding a new strain that has significant human transmission- Please add your intel:


By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv----March 17......Until today, Israel had thought that it's deadliest threat came from Iran, Syria, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hizbollah and bin-Laden. But now some innocent birds without suicide belts may have changed that equation.

The Israel Agriculture Ministry today confirmed the first bird flu outbreak in the country, Israel Radio reported. Citing an official source, Israel radio said that the Agriculture Ministry had confirmed that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu led to the deaths of over 11,000 turkeys on two farms in southern Israel, the first such case in the country. In addition, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported that three people, either living or working on one of the two farms located in the southern area of Negev, had been rushed to hospital for treatment of suspected symptoms of bird flu infection.

Following preliminary tests after discovering the dead turkeys Israel Health Minister Yaakov Edri said "a very high chance that this is avian flu." "Last night we informed the World Health Organisation that the H5N1 virus has spread to Israel," Dr Moshe Haimovitch, a senior agriculture ministry official, said in Tel Aviv.

The Israel Agriculture Ministry has ordered the slaughter of thousands of birds on the two farms and a third one near Jerusalem where bird flu was suspected, the report added. Israel has geared up for bird flu outbreaks, ordering that all the birds in the affected farms and nearby farms be destroyed and that a quarantine be imposed with a radius of 10 kilometers around the farms if the deadly virus is detected. Last month, Israel's neighboring country Egypt detected its first case of H5N1 in chickens.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu, which re-emerged in east Asia in December 2003, has killed over 90 people worldwide in the last few years and is spreading rapidly across the world. Experts fear that the disease, currently jumping from birds to humans through close contact, might mutate into a form that can easily pass among humans, leading to a global pandemic.

The Israel Health Ministry confirmed that Bird Flu was responsible for the recent deaths of approximately 11,000 turkeys at the southern kibbutzim of Holit and Ein Hashlosha. The same strain was identified at Kibbutz Nachshon near Beit Shemesh, following an unusual amount of poultry deaths. Two people from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, who worked at the chicken coops, were sent to Soroka Hospital under suspicion that they contracted the deadly bird flu strain. One of them, a Thai worker was held in isolation.

The Israel Health Ministry ordered that the carcasses be buried underground. The poultry were to be killed by consumption of poisoned water.

After its meeting to discuss the response to a bird flu outbreak, the Agriculture Ministry announced on Friday that they would continue the veterinary quarantine over the southern kibbutzim of Holit and Ein Hashlosha.

Chief Israel veterinarian of the Agriculture Ministry Dr. Shimon Pokamunski told Israel Radio that it had not yet been decided to launch a massive vaccination campaign, but should that decision be made, the Health Ministry would be ready to proceed within three days.

Health officials repeatedly reminded the public that the avian flu primarily affects birds. It was very rare for the virus to make the transition into a human host. Even in cases where humans do contract the disease, it is generally limited to people who come in direct contact with fowl, usually bird handlers in chicken coops. Unfortunately, mortality tends to be high in cases when it is contracted.

The Israel Health Ministry voiced caution and urged the public not to panic after the Agriculture Ministry announced on Thursday night that turkeys on two Negev farms were "suspected" of having died from the H5N1 strain of avian flu. Health Minister Ya'akov Edri called an emergency meeting last night to discuss the case. Agriculture Minister Ze'ev Boim said the ministry was still testing the birds to determine whether they had the feared flu strain. Boim stressed that Israelis should remain calm until the tests have been completed. The suspected outbreak was centered on the Negev desert farming community of Ein Hashlosha and the nearby community of Holit, where a large number of turkeys were found dead, Boim said.

"We have imposed a quarantine in a radius of seven kilometers around the area, and we are prepared, in case our suspicions are confirmed, to prepare for a wide-scale destruction of the flocks in a radius of three kilometers," he said. Health Ministry associate director-general Dr. Boaz Lev said that there was no danger to the general public, as avian flu spreads directly among poultry and wild birds and can spread only to people in direct contact with live birds whose droppings contain the virus. There is no danger eating poultry, even if the food supply is affected by the virus, as it is destroyed by the heat of cooking and does not pass to humans who touch raw processed poultry.

The H5N1 virus was detected in neighboring Egypt last month, and Boim said the death of the birds in southern Israel might indicate that the disease had entered the country from Egypt.

Bird flu expert Robert Webster told ABC News this week that there were ''about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," and ''society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. . . . I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role."

Webster was criticized for his statement by the Boston Globe which stated: "As one of the top flu experts in the world, Webster's role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to make sweeping speculations that are not based on science and do far more harm than good. By his estimate, we should be destroying every bird in the world right now before we all perish in a pool of pathogens." The Globe continued: "Webster's statement is the latest Hitchcockian pronouncement about H5N1 bird flu, a virus that is deadly in birds. But humans are different. We are protected by a species barrier, and serological surveys conducted in 1997 in Hong Kong and since have detected antibodies in thousands of humans who never got sick, showing that bird flu isn't as deadly to the few who come in contact with it as has been reported. Imagine what would happen if a bird in the United States gets H5N1 bird flu. At the rate we are going, the fear of birds will be so great that our own poultry industry, number one in the world, is likely to be in shambles. We already have this problem with mad cow disease, where a single sick cow that is not even in the food chain makes people very nervous, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to get mad cow disease from eating beef."

Most scientists won't say it that directly but most acknowledge that Webster could be right, even though they believe the 50% figure could be too high. No one knows how long or how many mutations changes it would take for bird flu to become a direct threat to humans. But that hasn't stopped Dr. Anne Moscona from desperately searching for new types of anti-virals that both prevent and slow the spread of bird flu. She says, "I don't think that once we human-to-human transmission, it's going to be possible to contain it." This is why nearly every viral scientist in America, perhaps the world, is waiting, watching the avian flu virus to see if it remains a terrible threat to birds, or changes its DNA and becomes just as deadly to humans.

Blaming the media for blowing out of proportion a localised event, India Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today the bird flu situation is under control and there is nothing to panic about on a nationwide scale. "The media has blown a localised event out of proportion without realising that such exaggeration of facts would impact the rural economy," Pawar told reporters at the sidelines of the World Consumer Rights Day celebration here. There is nothing to worry, he said, adding "the situation is completely under control".

The US Center for Disease Control states: "Although avian influenza A viruses usually do not infect humans, more than 100 confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza viruses have been reported since 1997. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains situation updates and cumulative reports of human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1). Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans are thought to have resulted from direct contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces. However, there is still a lot to learn about how different subtypes and strains of avian influenza virus might affect humans. For example, it is not known how the distinction between low pathogenic and highly pathogenic strains might impact the health risk to humans. (For more information, see “Low Pathogenic versus Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Viruses†on the CDC Influenza Viruses Web page. Because of concerns about the potential for more widespread infection in the human population, public health authorities closely monitor outbreaks of human illness associated with avian influenza. To date, human infections with avian influenza A viruses detected since 1997 have not resulted in sustained human-to-human transmission. However, because influenza A viruses have the potential to change and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for human infection and person-to-person transmission is important."

The CDC continued: "The avian influenza A (H5N1) epizootic (animal outbreak) in Asia and parts of Europe is not expected to diminish significantly in the short term. It is likely that H5N1 infection among birds has become endemic in certain areas and that human infections resulting from direct contact with infected poultry will continue to occur. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare and has not continued beyond one person. No evidence for genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza A virus genes has been found; however, the epizootic in Asia continues to pose an important public health threat."

The results from the tests of people in Israel admitted into hospital with bird flu symptoms will be ready in two days, Haaretz informs. The information about how many people have been admitted into Soroka hospital with bird flu symptoms is controversial. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reports about five Israel citizens from Ein Hashlosha. At the same time Haaretz informs of four workers, including a Thai citizen.

For now it appears that Bird Flu may be a blessing in disguise as the terror group Hamas led Palestinian Authority will have to work closely with Israel authorities in combating a common enemy.
A sick dove of peace may actually contribute to peace, cooperation and stability in the Middle-East, if the birds don't get to us first.
 Quoting: WingnAPrayer


Fear mongering is so cool ...no DOOM for you !





GLP