Bird Flu.

[k thx 0]

Dunno, if this has been mentioned in the States, but it looks as though bird flu is heading across europe. The first example of the deadly strain of the virus has been found in the UK..

 

At the moment theres a lot of scaremongering about it, as it is spead through birds (who can travel long distances) and has a high mortality rate in birds. If it mutates to a form which can affect humans, it may well cause a pandemic.

 

Any views?

[Guest Fishyswa]

Human flu, nothing, couple shots before the holidays and your set.

 

Bird flu, pandemic, run for your lives, holy shit.

 

My question is, does Harvey Birdman have it twice as hard?

[2GOLD 0]

Avoid the shots at all cost. Just catch the human flu.

[Slayer 0]

No more sex with birds

[EricMM 0]

I don't think most of the population would be killed by a case of the flu.

 

Babies and old people need to watch out though.

[razazteca 0]

I'm not worried until it spreads to Chicken McNuggets.

[Guest Brian]

They're wiping out the Asians I tell you. Goddamn them.

[razazteca 0]

Wiping out the pinko commie countries.

[BX 0]

Avoid the shots at all cost. Just catch the human flu.

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What kind of logic is this?

 

I don't think most of the population would be killed by a case of the flu.

 

Babies and old people need to watch out though.

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Actually, if the 1918 flu is any indication, then the 18-40 demographic will suffer the most losses. Fear.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I will be very disappointed if this thing doesn't kill 3/4's of the worlds population, given the media hype on it.

[Guest Vitamin X]

At the moment theres a lot of scaremongering about it, as it is spread through birds (who can travel long distances) and has a high mortality rate in birds. If it mutates to a form which can affect humans, it may well cause a pandemic.

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NO WAY! HOW?!

 

They're wiping out the Asians I tell you. Goddamn them.

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Good. It's called population control.

 

And people are still worried that we can harm the planet.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Boy, nature's sure finding ways to limit us, isn't it. A volcano erupted today too. Incredible.

[2GOLD 0]

Because the shot usually will either give you a cold or a flu anyway. It doesn't prevent shit. Catch the human flu, be done with it in three to four days and don't have to worry about it all winter.

[dubq 0]

Because the shot usually will either give you a cold or a flu anyway. It doesn't prevent shit. Catch the human flu, be done with it in three to four days and don't have to worry about it all winter.

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Ummm, y'know you can catch it more than once per season.

[2GOLD 0]

Because the shot usually will either give you a cold or a flu anyway. It doesn't prevent shit. Catch the human flu, be done with it in three to four days and don't have to worry about it all winter.

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Ummm, y'know you can catch it more than once per season.

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Only time that ever happens for me is when I get one of those fucking shots.

When I avoid the shots, I usually either don't get it or get it once for maybe three days.

[dubq 0]

Because the shot usually will either give you a cold or a flu anyway. It doesn't prevent shit. Catch the human flu, be done with it in three to four days and don't have to worry about it all winter.

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Ummm, y'know you can catch it more than once per season.

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Only time that ever happens for me is when I get one of those fucking shots.

When I avoid the shots, I usually either don't get it or get it once for maybe three days.

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I stay away from the shots, too. I rarely get the flu anyway, and when I do get sick in the winter it's usually something to do with my sinus'..

[2GOLD 0]

True dat. My sinus' ends up bein a bitch in the wintertime. The only flu I really hate is that stomach flu. That fucker just puts me in head, weak as hell. You know you are in trouble when you can't hold down water. Regular flu, man hit that with some showers and soup and it goes fast.

 

Stomach flu? Fuck that, I might as well be dead.

[razazteca 0]

I will be very disappointed if this thing doesn't kill 3/4's of the worlds population, given the media hype on it.

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It won't become a big issue in North America because talkshow god Operah will find a cure for it.....she did stop Madcow ya know.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

I think the last time I caught the flu I was in high school, after a damn flu shot.

 

Bring on the DEATH FLU!

[BX 0]

It doesn't matter if you catch the "human flu."

 

This is an entirely different strain, and it'll change even more once it changes enought to spread easily among people. Just because you had a BS stomach flu doesn't mean you're bulletproof.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

But what if it does? Do we harvest SJ for the cure?

[k thx 0]

Yup. Better safe than sorry.

[BX 0]

Bad idea. Any sort of serum extracted from SJ and injected into the general populace would turn them all into sniviling, know-it-all bastards.

 

I'd rather everyone die.

[CanadianChris 0]

Stomach flu isn't really flu. The flu is a respiratory disease. Getting stomach flu doesn't protect you against shit.

 

And you can't get the flu from a flu shot. That's a myth.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

But what if it does?  Do we harvest SJ for the cure?

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Ummmmm.... NO!

 

Bad idea. Any sort of serum extracted from SJ and injected into the general populace would turn them all into sniviling, know-it-all bastards.

 

I'd rather everyone die.

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As if being right all the time is a bad thing...

Some people just dont want to live I guess

 

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

C'mon.

 

It's for the sake of humanity.

[Vampiro69 0]

If I were you people I would avoid eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken for awhile.

 

Also, this thanksgiving if you take a temperature of the turkey beore you put it in the oven, I recommend not eating it.

[Sideburnious 0]

Meh, a few human sacrafices and the gods will be happy.

[BorneAgain 0]

Some even better news.

 

From BBC: 1918 Killer Flu "Came From Birds"

 

1918 killer flu 'came from birds'

 

Flu viruses are constantly evolving

The Spanish flu virus that killed up to 50 million people in 1918-19 was probably a strain that originated in birds, research has shown. US scientists have found the 1918 virus shares genetic mutations with the bird flu virus now circulating in Asia.

 

Writing in Nature, they say their work underlines the threat the current strain poses to humans worldwide.

 

A second paper in Science reveals another US team has successfully recreated the 1918 virus in mice.

 

We are revealing some of the secrets that will help us predict and prepare for the next pandemic

 

Julie Gerberding

 

 

Seventh Indonesian bird flu death

 

The virus is contained at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under stringent safety conditions.

 

It is hoped to carry out experiments to further understand the biological properties that made the virus so virulent.

 

The virus was recreated from data produced by painstaking research by a team from the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

 

Lung tissue samples

 

Working on virus samples from the remains of victims of the 1918 pandemic, the researchers were able to piece together the entire genetic sequence of the virus.

 

They found the virus contained elements that were new to humans of the time - making it highly virulent.

 

And analysis of the final three pieces of the virus' genetic code has revealed mutations that have striking similarities to those found in flu viruses found only in birds, such as the H5N1 strain currently found in south east Asia.

 

This strain has so far killed at least 65 people.

 

Many experts believe it is only a matter of time before H5N1, or a similar strain, causes many deaths in humans - possibly after combining with a human flu strain.

 

Crucially, the mutations identified by the US researchers were found in genes which control the virus' ability to replicate in host cells.

 

The researchers say these mutations may have helped the 1918 virus replicate more efficiently.

 

At this stage, they say the H5N1 strain shares only some, and not all, of these mutations.

 

Increased virulence

 

But these mutations may be enough to increase the virus' virulence - and give it the potential to cause serious human infection without first combining with a known human flu strain.

 

The researchers believe the two other major flu pandemics of the 20th century - in 1957 and 1968 - were caused by human flu viruses which acquired two or three key genes from bird flu virus strains.

 

But they believe the 1918 strain was probably entirely a bird flu virus that adapted to function in humans.

 

Julie Gerberding, director of the US Centers for Disease Control, said: "By unmasking the 1918 virus we are revealing some of the secrets that will help us predict and prepare for the next pandemic."

 

And Dr Jeffery Taubenberger, lead researcher of the Nature study, said: "Determining whether pandemic influenza virus strains can emerge via different pathways will affect the scope and focus of surveillance and prevention efforts."

 

Warning

 

Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary College, London, said the suggestion that the virus had the potential to jump between humans without first combining with a human virus made it even more of a threat.

 

"This study gives us an extra warning that H5N1 needs to be taken even more seriously than it has been up to now," he said.

 

Dr Terrence Tumpey, of the US CDC, defended the decision to recreate the 1918 flu virus.

 

He said: "We felt we had to recreate the virus and run these experiments to understand the biological properties that made the 1918 virus so exceptionally deadly.

 

"We wanted to identify the specific genes responsible for its virulence, with the hope of designing antivirals or other interventions that would work against virulent pandemic or epidemic influenza viruses."

 

 

 

And if a flu similar to Spanish Flu were to occur again today, according the New England Journal of Medicine worldwide deaths could get as high as 360 million.

 

Nice time to be alive, eh?

[cameron chaos 0]

Between hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and now a new killer virus, if there is a God he must be pretty pissed off at us.