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Please Panic in an Orderly Fashion!

Mike

Well-known member
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities have discovered a mild form of avian influenza at a live bird market in New Jersey, but it is not the deadly H5N1 strain governments around the world are trying to contain, the state's agriculture department said.

"The strain was found in a live bird market in Camden County. None of the birds in the market died from this virus, which is an indicator that the virus was low pathogenic and not harmful to humans," said a statement by New Jersey's Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus which was posted on Friday.

Details were not immediately available on precisely when the avian flu in Camden County was discovered.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza not only kills chickens quickly, but can now infect people, and governments around the world are scrambling to contain its spread. Scientists fear that if the virus acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person, it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions.

The H5N1 avian flu strain has already infected 205 people and killed 113 since 2003. Its spread has forced several countries to ban poultry imports from nations where the disease has spread.

The H5N1 virus has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Kuperus said preliminary tests from the National Veterinary Services laboratory were negative for type N1 of the virus. More tests are pending at laboratories of the U.S. Agriculture Department in Ames, Iowa, to confirm the strain of the virus, he added.

"The market owner voluntarily depopulated his existing flock, and the market has undergone cleaning and disinfecting under New Jersey Department of Agriculture supervision," said Kuperus.

The market in Camden County will be inspected again by New Jersey's Division of Animal Health before being allowed to reopen.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Mike said:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities have discovered a mild form of avian influenza at a live bird market in New Jersey, but it is not the deadly H5N1 strain governments around the world are trying to contain, the state's agriculture department said.

"The strain was found in a live bird market in Camden County. None of the birds in the market died from this virus, which is an indicator that the virus was low pathogenic and not harmful to humans," said a statement by New Jersey's Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus which was posted on Friday.

Details were not immediately available on precisely when the avian flu in Camden County was discovered.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza not only kills chickens quickly, but can now infect people, and governments around the world are scrambling to contain its spread. Scientists fear that if the virus acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person, it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions.

The H5N1 avian flu strain has already infected 205 people and killed 113 since 2003. Its spread has forced several countries to ban poultry imports from nations where the disease has spread.

The H5N1 virus has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Kuperus said preliminary tests from the National Veterinary Services laboratory were negative for type N1 of the virus. More tests are pending at laboratories of the U.S. Agriculture Department in Ames, Iowa, to confirm the strain of the virus, he added.

"The market owner voluntarily depopulated his existing flock, and the market has undergone cleaning and disinfecting under New Jersey Department of Agriculture supervision," said Kuperus.

The market in Camden County will be inspected again by New Jersey's Division of Animal Health before being allowed to reopen.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Are they saying this is a mild form of death? :lol: :lol: :roll: :shock:
 

Mike

Well-known member
Are they saying this is a mild form of death?

You did notice that they are testing at the APHIS testing lab in Ames, Iowa didn't you. No telling what they might come up with in that lab. :???: :???:

Might be Measles or Mumps by the time they're done. :lol: :lol:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Mike said:
Are they saying this is a mild form of death?

You did notice that they are testing at the APHIS testing lab in Ames, Iowa didn't you. No telling what they might come up with in that lab. :???: :???:

Might be Measles or Mumps by the time they're done. :lol: :lol:

Chicken pox? :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Mike

Well-known member
Speaking of Panic:


Posted on Mon, May. 01, 2006
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Bird-flu TV movie has a scary vision
The producers of "Fatal Contact" say science supports their script. Though some experts praise certain aspects, others say the film may confuse viewers.
By Andrew Bridges
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Bodies piling up so quickly it takes dump trucks to haul them away. Barbed wire to keep whole neighborhoods quarantined. It's Hollywood's version of bird flu, a blur of fact and fiction that some scientists say could confuse the public.

Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, an ABC made-for-television movie, airs May 9, just as scientists are to begin testing of wild birds in Alaska that could herald the arrival of bird flu in North America. Scientists fear the bird flu virus could evolve so it could be passed from human to human, sparking a global pandemic.

The two-hour movie plays up that notion to the fullest, with a running ticker that tallies tens of millions of victims worldwide. In one scene, the bodies are thrown on a pyre, like the carcasses of cows torched in the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain. The producers of the movie, from the writer of 2002's Atomic Twister, bill their work as a "thinking man's disaster film."

"We call this a plausible, worst-case scenario. This could actually happen. It may not be this bad but it could be this bad. The reason to portray it this way is to kind of give a wake-up call to everyone, and this is something we shouldn't ignore and we should be as prepared as we should be," said Diana Kerew, one of the movie's executive producers.

Bird flu expert Michael Osterholm said the movie realistically portrays the shortages of goods and services, and some of the ensuing panic, that could occur in a pandemic. But Osterholm frets the blurring of information and entertainment could do the public a disservice, and he said he hopes to arrange a conference call with television critics before the movie airs to set the record straight. He singled out for criticism how the movie shows Virginia officials using barbed wire to fence off and quarantine entire neighborhoods.

"This is far too important an issue to create further confusion in the public's mind," said Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

For the record, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said the commonwealth has no plans to roll out cyclone fences and barbed wire. "We haven't done that since, oh, the '50s," joked Kevin Hall.

Fatal Contact begins in China, where - in the movie - the bird flu virus has mutated to the point where it's being passed human to human. It's only when an American businessman - "patient zero" - prepares to catch a flight out of Hong Kong, after crossing paths with an infected factory worker, that the global pandemic really gets started. Playing supporting roles are a wadded-up cocktail napkin, stuffed olive and an apparently less-than-sterile martini.

The movie suggests the Richmond, Va., businessman infects several dozen airline passengers, who scatter around the globe. Viewers may never accept a hot towel from a flight attendant again.

Health officials catch on quickly, but apparently are slow to tell the rest of us. At least two weeks pass before the president bothers to let on that it's the 1918 flu pandemic all over again.

That apparently didn't faze the dozen or so Department of Health and Human Services officials who screened the film at the request of the Associated Press.

Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program office, praised the movie's timeliness in raising public awareness of bird flu, as well as its portrayal of "a number of potentially realistic scenarios." Those include the limited availability of antiviral medicines in a pandemic, the months it could take to develop an effective vaccine, and in turn how the United States could be dependent on other countries - yes, that means France - to provide vaccine. The movie's emphasis on planning also won kudos from the department.

"There's a lot of science in the movie about why this would be scary if this were to arrive. Unfortunately, in our scenario, it is too late to stop the spread and that is what is being predicted by scientists if this were to occur," said Judith Verno, who produced the movie with Kerew for Sony Pictures Television.
 
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