http://collegeguru.blogspot.com/2006/02/burt-flu-bird-with-bird-avian-flu.html

The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has today confirmed another fatal human case of H5N1 avian influenza. The patient, a 27-year-old woman from Jakarta, developed symptoms on 17 September, was hospitalized on 19 September, and died on 26 September.

Confirmatory testing was conducted at a WHO reference laboratory in Hong Kong.

Initial investigation has revealed that the woman had direct contact with diseased and dying chickens in her household shortly before the onset of illness.

The woman is the fourth laboratory-confirmed case of H5N1 infection in Indonesia. Three of these cases were fatal.

As a result of intensified surveillance and heightened public concern, growing numbers of people with respiratory symptoms or possible exposure to the virus are being admitted to hospital for observation and, when appropriate, treatment. Until a conclusive diagnosis is made, these patients are classified by the Ministry of Health as suspect cases. While many do not have symptoms compatible with a diagnosis of H5N1 infection, screening of patient samples is being undertaken in national laboratories as part of efforts to ensure that no new cases are missed.

Laboratory testing to confirm human infection with H5N1 avian influenza is technically difficult; some tests produce inconclusive or unreliable results. To ensure a reliable assessment of the situation in Indonesia, authorities are, after initial screening, continuing to send samples from people considered likely to have H5N1 infection to WHO reference laboratories for diagnostic confirmation.

According to FAO, highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza is now endemic in poultry in many parts of Indonesia. As influenza virus activity in Indonesia may increase during the wet season, from November to April, human exposure to animal virus could be greater during the coming months. Further sporadic human cases can be anticipated.

A number of experts working in the field said clearly that they expected the return of the horrific 1918 Spanish Influeza vrus, or a variant of it - one British expert predicted that event as occurring within the next 5 or 10 years.

When you reflect on the fact that the 1918 flu pandemic swept away 40-60 million people arounf the globe in three separate waves over just six months and THAT before the dawning of mass air travel!), you can envisage both the scale of the potential calamity and how utterly unprepared we are to deal with it. Every continent would be visited with the same deadly scythe - Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

The anguish would probably also be accentuated by the resulting collapse of the world economy (a very real possibility: the 1918 Flu almost had that effect in England and Germany, but disappeared just before their economies and production went over the brink because of deaths, disruption and sickness absenteeism).

One intriguing note, though: the documentary appeared to state clearly that NO samples of the 1918 flu had been recovered from the bodies of victims buried in the permafrost. But if you go to the news reports on the excellent ‘1918 Flu’ page at http://www.survivalistskills.com/1918FLU.HTM, they appear to state exactly the opposite - and that, furthermore, the samples thus obtained were sent to the US Army’s Biological Warfare section (now re-named) at Fort Detrick and to the equivalent British biological warfare centre! That appears to be a puzzling and potentially disturbing discrepancy, since the expedition which apparently recovered the tissue samples from Svarlbard Island, in Arctic Norway, was mounted thre or four years ago at least.

A synopsis of the program, and information on ordering the DVD of it, can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_killerflu/index.html. For balance, though, be sure to read through the varied reports on the 1918 Flu and on SARS (which, interestingly enough, two Russian experts are quoted as asserting to be a ‘biological warfare’ weapon!) on the http://www.survivalistskills.com page cited above

our bodies need lot’s of things that vegetables doesn’t contain

I’d like to hear exactly what nutrients meat can give you that plants cannot. I’ll happily take your response point-by-point and tell you how you can get those nutrients from a vegetarian diet.

And then I’ll point you towards the mounds of evidence of how a vegetarian diet is much healthier than the standard American diet.