When its one single dead swan found in Fife......

Bloody poxy media hype does my friggin head in, what exactly are they trying to do, whip the whole country into a frenzy?.

If people actually researched this H5N1 virus they will see that in 3 years, yes YEARS, only 103 people WORLDWIDE have died of it.

I bet more people have died from slipping in the shower than that

Pff......bloody media illepall

Dan,

1. People fear that when H5N1 can mutate to infect humans from birds it might also be able to mutate so it can spread from human to human, which would actually pose danger to a lot more people than those poor 103.
2. It is highly unlikely that H5N1 will ever spread from a human to a human through air because human lungs are different from bird's lungs. So the fear resulting from statement #1 is based on nothing.
3. People will cry and moan when something bad happens that didn't happn before. But when people kill each other on the street, like every day, there never is crying and moaning. That seems to be human nature...

Vain

because hype sells, i just love the advice of "do not eat raw chicken or eggs", as if you would now suddenly catch something from it, as likelihood is youll get sallmonella!

You are 100% safe if you wash your hands, don't eat stuff found on the streets and don't handle dead birds with bare hands. That's it. If you cook an infected bird well, you won't get it there neither.

Outbreak would be a very bad thing. ...No one to race with

Quote from Vain :

2. It is highly unlikely that H5N1 will ever spread from a human to a human through air because human lungs are different from bird's lungs. So the fear resulting from statement #1 is based on nothing.

Im afraid that the probability of human-to-human mutation isnt as low as you think. Viruses are extremly simple forms of life, so a little change can make a big differences. Every form of life is trying to modify itself in chase for better survivality. It is logic that the human-to-human mutation of H5N1 can survive better and spread quicker than bird-to-human modification. And the ONLY ONE viral cell that will mutate like this can do the "job" - if it reaches another human.... I dont want to do the panic, but THIS CAN SERIOUSLY HAPPEN.

Quote from Vain :

3. People will cry and moan when something bad happens that didn't happn before. But when people kill each other on the street, like every day, there never is crying and moaning. That seems to be human nature...

Youre just right, something bad is inside us.....

Flu epidemic that killed millions early last century...

Believed to be same virus, that's what people worry about!

Well, lets worry about it WHEN it happens, untill then I would prefer the media just stick to the facts LMAO, like that'll ever happen, instead on the usual scaremongering claptrap.

Dan,

This whole bird pandemia thing just makes old wise owl so sad (O RLY sorry ). If people thought anything else than their own business they would notice that diarrhea kills more children per day than some bird flu does does in one year. Soon we will be spending millions and millions of euros to get some vaccination to cure some unlikely threat while the majority of the world is living in poverty. If the bird flue really breaks out and starts killing people I would be most worried about the poorer countries in africa&india&where-evah than european countries.

I guess the media just wants keep us on our toes, lol

it dies at 70ºC so anything boiled should be ok.

agree with you totaly danowat, media hype things up so much!!!! but i love the way they always try to get the message " no need to panic, be calm" etc etc bollox across whilst they themselves are responsible for most of the panic in the first place. H5N1 vuris has been around for the last 10 years apparently or thats how long they have been following this one.

I find it silly to panic... can you believe people have even stopped feeding birds outside in their gardens because they are scared they will get bird flu... total stupidity. People should find out more about the virus before taking any silly and drastic action.

I myself am a bird lover, have two budgies at home funniest thing is i was recommended by a fellow neighbour that i should not touch them or kiss them because of the bird flu. Hell!!! wtf!!! thats just stupid.

people really need to understand more about this virus before they come to a conclusion from what th media tells them...

obviously there needs to be some caution as it is reality and it is happening but there is absolutelly no need to panic!

btw yes i eat chicken, eggs etc..

media shall burrrrrrn!!!!

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, and that's what the news is, little bits of knowledge.

Whilst we're in paranoia about bird flu we aren't worried about Iraq, care in the community, peerages for loans, schools doctoring SAT results, healthcare funding shortfalls, olympic building corruption and back dealing, or the pensions crisis and all the other very very serious issues aroud at the moment (strangely there seem to be rather a LOT of serious issues in the UK right now, there's usually only 1 or 2 - I wonder if the dead swan is related to that).

exactly Becky.. so many other more important issues to worry about in the UK at the moment. The NHS and pensions the main two which effect people the most. It always make me feel sick when I hear healthcare and lack of funding and then you read that the government has just spent over 50billion quid on some new warships..........:faint2: It was quite interesting how the media hardly mentioned about the purchase of the new warships, one quick headline and that was it. But yet something like birdflu will get overhyped, will frighten the daylights out of some people and will cause a general unease amongst the society. Its the same with terrorism.

I know things arent that simple in life but if you have a lack of funding in the NHS restructure it and take out some of the money reserved for wars and ships (which cost billions and billions :rolleyes and alocate it to the healthcare sector. It would just make sense dammit!!!! arghgh must stop now.....

pete

Quote from Madman_CZ :

It always make me feel sick when I hear healthcare and lack of funding and then you read that the government has just spent over 50billion quid on some new warships..........:faint2:

Ah, now, I'm on the other side of the fence regarding defence spending.
The armed forces have had their budgets slashed year on year for over a decade, while more is asked of a smaller force, equipment is more expensive etc.

In the meantime the biggest expenditure for our GDP is the NHS; everyone screams for more money to be put into it while it gets less efficient, and more of our money is wasted. It's treated like a holy cow, you'll be hanged for blasphemy if you suggest the NHS shouldn't get more resources. That's where all our extra stealth taxes have gone.

Sorry for taking this off topic, but media is partly responsibly again.

All the hype about bird flu... you know in the US they go all off on the Bird Flu. No one has caught it at all in the US.... I think 600± have gotten it world wide since it was discovered... In 2005, over 30,000 ppl died of the plain old regular flu, yet nothing is really said about that.

see the problem is that the 105 people have gotten it have directly from the birds (aka no human to human transfers)

the problem is if the virus mutates and is transfuarble between humans, if that happens were pretty farked and expect 10,000's to millions of people to get depending on the spread and if its countained

now the mentality of just dont worry about it till it happens is abit stupid, currently we have vaccines being developed and almost at the stage of being into production (my job is too dispense human flu vaccine, 1 of 3 places in the world if i remeber correctly) and hopefully being able to vaccinate whole populations is something i would want personally

Quote from Doso :

see the problem is that the 105 people have gotten it have directly from the birds (aka no human to human transfers)

the problem is if the virus mutates and is transfuarble between humans, if that happens were pretty farked and expect 10,000's to millions of people to get depending on the spread and if its countained

now the mentality of just dont worry about it till it happens is abit stupid, currently we have vaccines being developed and almost at the stage of being into production (my job is too dispense human flu vaccine, 1 of 3 places in the world if i remeber correctly) and hopefully being able to vaccinate whole populations is something i would want personally

The Flu viruses tend to be seasonal things if I'm not mistaken and it will probably be a few years at the soonest before a mutaion would actually occur. If the virus does mutate, I think there will be enough medicine to control it once the initial outbreak occurs. At least I hope so. The trouble is, the virus is spread across a huge expanse already, just from birds. If the virus mutates in a heavily populated area, it'll get caught sooner, but alot of people will die. And with the virus spread out so far already, the chances of it mutating increases so much every "flu season".
What is a scary thought is what if it mutates, but has a long incubation period or takes some time for symptoms to show up.

Yeah, just blowing it off is a bit stupid, but to act like this is the work of The Four Horsemen - like the way the media wants to do it seems, is just
as stupid. On the news yesterday, They showed these "Homeland Security" experts and some sort of military units (National Guard?) and some college
kids enacting some sort of scenarion of what they'd do in the event of
a bid-flu epidemic here In Houston...... It looked like a scene from one
of those end of the world movies.... totally over the top.....
LOL Oliver Stone's attempt at dealing with the Bird Flu.
But then again, If the bird flu was able to get that bad - here, Then
I imagine at that point in time the world would have even bigger problems to be worrying about

Of course we should'nt "bury our heads in the sand", but its all about perspective, at the moment, although the THREAT is very real, the actual risk is low and is based on some assumptions of what might happen in the future.

Trouble is, "Outbreak of killer flu" makes for great sensationalist headlines and bullet-ins, and does nothing more than fill people with dread and mis-information.

"Normal" Flu is as much of a risk, maybe even more so, at this point, heck last time I had flu I had to spend some time in hospital, and now (even though I should have been back then) I have my regular flu jabs every year.

Any vaccine developed now will be useless in the future, current flu viruses mutate almost yearly, hence the reason for my yearly flu jabs.

Yes, the threat is very real, but if we worried about everything that might happen we would never venture out from under out duvets in the morning.

Dan,

this morning on the news they were asking people whether they will continue eating chicken and many said they would stop now or eat less. Also loved the response one interviewee gave, when asked whether they will eat chicken she said only Organic!!! LOL.. that made me chuckle!!!illepall


mad

Quote from Madman_CZ :

Also loved the response one interviewee gave, when asked whether they will eat chicken she said only Organic!!! LOL.. that made me chuckle!!!illepall

LMAO, don't cha just love mis-information.

Dan,

How does it affect if you eat less chicken? I didn't know if it was about the amount

It is completely useless to vaccinate people here in wealthy european countries because the real problems lie in china, india and other poorer countries. If it spreads (lol ) it starts from there

Doctor hyperactive, phd. medical expert (self studied)

When is an "Outbreak" an "Outbreak?

Main Entry: out·break
Pronunciation: 'aut-"brAk
Function: noun
1 : a sudden rise in the incidence of a disease <an outbreak of measles>
2 : a sudden increase in numbers of a harmful organism and especially an insect within a particular area <an outbreak of locusts>

I guess you could call an single incidence to an "outbreak", but I wouldnt, mind you, it could very well become an outbreak, more cases have been found today.

Dan,

Quote from Hyperactive :

How does it affect if you eat less chicken? I didn't know if it was about the amount

It is completely useless to vaccinate people here in wealthy european countries because the real problems lie in china, india and other poorer countries. If it spreads (lol ) it starts from there

Doctor hyperactive, phd. medical expert (self studied)

well eating less chicken will make the risk of getting avian flu lower. Some people eat chicken everyday and some once a week so for people who eat everyday risk would be higher then for those who eat it once a week. Anyway even if the birds did have it in them if you cook it well it will kill the virus so nothing to worry about.... id be worried eating in places like Burger King and McDonalds where they might not cook it properly

mad

All I eat is chicken, I eat no other meat than that, there is as much risk of getting salmonella from undercooked chicken as there is bird flu, so its not going to worry me.

Dan,

My opinion on the bird flu:
BooOOooOOooring


Vain