SuperStrain Blog-Source

Biological and chemical danger awaits, bioweapons and government black ops falseflag operations are an added threat to the broad spectrum of bioterrorism and biodefense. The germs are all around us, what we need is biosecurity!


Thursday, November 24, 2005

Was AIDS man-made?

Was it developed by the Reagan administration as a "final solution" to the "gay question" in America? That seems highly unlikely, but the belief that AIDS is a man-made disease is not uncommon, and is even held by people like this retired physician, Alan Cantwell. On the site Mathaba he has a very large and detailed article about the secret history of AIDS.

Who does he place the blame on? Some cancer project the guy who discovered AIDS was involved with years earlier. He writes:

"By the late-1970s the War against Cancer and the Virus Cancer Program proved a bust with no cancer-causing retroviruses found in humans. The Program was winding down in 1978, at the exact time when government scientists were also enrolling thousands of gay men in New York City to serve as guinea pigs in the hepatitis B experiment that took place that same year at the New York Blood Centre in Manhattan. In 1979 the first cases of AIDS in gay men were reported from Manhattan. Coincidence? I think not.

Five years later, Gallo, who had worked for the Virus Cancer Program (VCP), “discovered� the retrovirus that causes AIDS; and Duesberg, who also worked for the VCP, continues to declare that HIV is harmless."

His evidence for this not being a coincidence is tenuous at best:

"Most importantly, the vaccine was developed in chimpanzees, the primate now thought to contain the “ancestor� virus of HIV."

And does he give any evidence that the Chimpanzees involved in the vaccine program were the ones that later contracted AIDS? No, he does not. Nor does he explain what the connection could possibly be or why this information is 'most important'. It seems as though a mountain is being made out of a molehill, and these ludicrous claims have no legs to stand on. It's a shame though, you see - if AIDS were a man-made disease a cure would be probably very easy to come up with, humans aren't nearly as original a creator as nature.

H5N1 Deathcount in China Unsure...

So some newspapers have been reporting a third death in China from the bird flu, while others claim the death marks the 2nd on the mainland. Either way, a new death has been confirmed in China.

China has also confirmed a new case of the Bird Flu, in a 35-year-old female farm worker. While claims of lowered threats in Vietnam are being reported, it seems to be raging out of control all over the face of China.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

H5N1 + AIDS??

Apparently, as confirmed by Slobokan's Site O'Schtuff, it is the case that "Bird flu could readily mutate into a pandemic form if it infects people with Aids." This was a statement made by Dr. Robert Webster, who went on to say that "people with Aids, who have depressed immune systems, could harbour the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu."

And of course, H5N1 infected migratory bird populations will be touching down on Africa in a matter of days, where the HIV and AIDS infected populations of humans is widespread - about 1/3 of the total population of Africa is infected. Any third case of Human infection of bird flu in Africa has to be assumed to be from an AIDS-infected individual.

Vietnam Teen with H5N1

From Reuters:

"A Vietnamese teenager has been confirmed with the H5N1 bird flu virus, health officials said on Tuesday.

Doctors from the health department of the northern port city of Haiphong told Reuters laboratory tests showed 15-year-old Vu Van Hoa, who is being treated at a local hospital, had contracted the deadly strain.

"His condition is stable and slowly recovering," said a doctor from Haiphong's Viet-Tiep hospital, adding that Hoa had been transfered to another hospital in the capital, Hanoi, for treatment and observation.

Hoa was hospitalised late last week together with four other patients from Haiphong who were suspected having bird flu."


This is a pretty crappy report in my opinion. How did the teen contract it? How is he being treated? Was he given Tamiflu? None of these questions are answered. I'll do my best to scour up the particulars... the MSM isn't doing a very good job of following up on these new cases though, it's pretty annoying...

Monday, November 21, 2005

U.S. Unprepared for Super-Flu Pandemic

From the AP:

"The U.S. is unprepared for the next flu pandemic, lacking the manufacturing capacity to provide 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five more years, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Sunday.

"What we all learned from (Hurricane) Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable," Leavitt said. "We're not as prepared as we need to be. ...We will not have enough for everyone."

A strain of a bird flu that has killed 67 people in Asia has sparked concerns of a super-flu that could kill millions worldwide, and U.S. officials acknowledge that the strain in its current form could reach here through a migratory bird."

North American H5N1 Outbreaks: Declared 'weak'

Ok, so the stuff in Manitoba is not the deadly stuff of Asia, but a simpler, less deadly Canadian strain. Which means, it has no chance of mutating and even if it did - hey, it's Canadian... how much damage could it possibly do, eh?

So what else is going on? More Chinese outbreaks and their harebrained scheme to vaccine all chickens. Fucking ridiculous, impossible show of Nationalist fervor. Why not just stockpile anti-virals and develop your own H5N1 vaccine for humans, China? That would be the proper thing to do, a very real and possible-to-achieve victory against that age old War on Disease that humanity fights...

Friday, November 18, 2005

China witholding H5N1 Information

China hasn't shared H5N1 viruses, creating gap in emerging picture: officials:

"Chinese authorities have not shared samples of H5N1 avian flu viruses with scientists outside the country since the spring of 2004, leaving influenza experts worried that the world has an incomplete picture of how the worrisome viruses are evolving.

With confirmation of human cases of H5N1 infection in China, the need to look at a range of viral samples or isolates from that country has taken on a heightened sense of urgency, officials say."


This is far more serious than a few "local government officials" just "covering-up minor mistakes"; this is blantant obfuscation and uncooperation.

All these new cases...

What do they have in common? Are they of the same exact sort? And what is that sort? Are these cases of H5N1 in humans the mutated mammal-friendly strain? Are they the one resistant to Tamiflu? And with each new human case, how much closer does it get to becoming the dreaded pandemic flu?

I'm having trouble finding answers to any of these questions. I assume this is because the experts themselves don't know. Of course, the virus type testing is the weak link in the chain, taking forever and delivering only yesterday's news, as it were. If people want to pump money into the medical research field, seems like the tests we use to determine what we're fighting could use a significant upgrade.

Two More Deaths in Indonesia from H5N1

From CTV:

"Adding to fears about a possible pandemic, Indonesia on Thursday confirmed bird flu had killed two more people, a day after China reported its first human cases of the deadly virus.

A 20-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl who both died last week tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a Hong Kong laboratory confirmed, according to the World Health Organization in Jakarta.

On Wednesday, China's Health Ministry confirmed its first two human cases of bird flu, including a fatality in a 24-year-old poultry worker."

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

China confirms two H5N1 cases; one death


From Medical News Today:

"China has confirmed it first human cases of H5N1 bird flu (avian flu). The patients are a boy, 9, Hunan province, and a woman, 24, Anhui province. The woman died last week. The boy became ill on October 10th, he is no longer in hospital. The boy's sister, 12, died one month ago. The problem is, according to Chinese authorities, that they can't get any good samples for testing for bird flu. She is suspected of having had bird flu."

There are also reports of a third case that the Chinese officials are steadfastly denying, as shown here in a report from Science Daily:

A 36-year-old school teacher from the same village, who reportedly injured himself while cutting raw chicken, remains hospitalized, but officials insist he does not have the H5N1 virus.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

All Ducks Must Burn!!!

Vietnam Cities Cull Admidst Growing Threat:

Vietnam slaughtered thousands of birds in its two largest cities on Tuesday, while other Asian nations boosted efforts to halt the spread of deadly avian flu.

China vowed to vaccinate its entire stock of 14 billion poultry against bird flu, with the government promising to help pay for the process.

Britain said it believed an outbreak of H5N1 in a quarantine center last month was introduced by birds imported from Taiwan. It had previously blamed it on a parrot from South America, a region which has no reported cases of H5N1.

Officials in Vietnam were racing against time to meet the government's deadline of Tuesday for ending poultry raising in the capital Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's commercial hub and largest urban center.

Police, veterinarians and health workers, wearing masks and protective clothes, gathered at duck farms in Hoang Mai district on the edge of Hanoi where outbreaks were detected earlier.

Vietnam: Bird Holocaust Begins

How quickly can they kill all of their birds? That appears to be the goal of new Vietnam policies aimed at stemming the Bird Flu pandemic. It will most certainly destroy one thing: the poultry industry. How does Vietnam plan to compensate the businesses blindsided by a strong central government?

"Hanoi poultry farmers said they get compensation of 15,000 dong ($0.95) for each destroyed duck, which cost 40,000 dong to raise."

A Buck a Duck, it seems. Wow, thanks for this awesome opportunity to try to keep from dying this winter, is what I would be thinking in such a situation... I don't know, though, it just might be worth it for the massively mechanized slaughter of an entire Familiae (Anatidae). The video footage of piles upon piles of burning duck corpses is kind of like a special tribute in itself, no?

If this sort of thing was possible why wasn't it done a month ago? I don't understand the delay, you Commies! This isn't some sort of Peter Benchly novel, this is real life! Don't fuck around when you have scaled out contingency plans like this, start killing birds!!!


^. . ^ - And then feed them to the Pigs roflerofleroflerofle......
..@


Oh yeah, and some wacky super-silly Korean science dudes are TESTING A VACCINE ON THEMSELVES! Fortunatly for all of us;

"The Vietnam-produced vaccine samples are now in the hands of the World Health Organization for analysis prior to the human test."

What does the WHO have to say about these vaccine samples? Well I couldn't find anything about them on their website... oh well, this one is on the backburner I suppose.

Monday, November 14, 2005

More H5N1 Human Deaths, More New Cases Reported

Bird flu claims rising toll among people:

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia said on Monday a 20-year-old woman had died of bird flu while several countries reported new suspected human cases of the deadly virus.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed more than 60 people in Asia and is endemic in most poultry flocks in the region.

It remains hard for humans to catch but scientists fear it will mutate into a form that passes easily among people. If it does so, millions could die as happened during three flu pandemics in the 20th century.


The new cases that article is talking about are a student in Hanoi, and the one year in Thailand.

Unfortunatly, the virus has already mutated to a form far more contagious to mammallian species, which includes primates (of course!). This does not mean it's more contagious between mammallian species, however - an important distinction to make. While this is most certainly not the form that will trigger a pandemic, it will allow the virus easy access to pigs and dogs, two species much closer in genetic make-up to humans. The links in the chain are breaking, and if humans can't seem to keep away from bumbling into a case of it, what hope to the pigs forced to live in the same close quarters as the chickens who are droppping like plague rats?

Here's a little piece of advice: When the bodies start piling up, just burn them! Don't worry about funerals or any dumb ass bullshit like that: burn the bodies, this is the only way to keep from getting innundated with disease-ridden corpses that have nowhere to go.

The Pulse of the Virus

So where are we in this whole H5N1 thing then, anyway? It seems down to the wire, a mutation is imminent. I watched the Discovery Channel Dramafest about it, and Michael Levitt made sure to let me know to get plenty of:

  • Tamiflu
  • "Special masks" (N-95 designated)
  • Water and Non-Perishables

Is that really such a good idea, pumping up the Tamiflu like that? I mean, there's already worldwide shortages, is it wise to tell Middle America to start hoarding the stuff?

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Thai Child Infected with Bird Flu

From CBC:

A baby in Bangkok has tested positive for avian influenza, while China confirmed a fresh outbreak of the deadly H5N1 viral strain among birds.

Paijit Warachit, director-general of the Thai Department of Medical Science, said on Saturday that the one-year-old boy probably caught the virus by playing with chickens that later died.

He's the first human case in Bangkok since the strain re-emerged among birds there a month ago.

Bird flu killed 13 people in Thailand in late 2003.

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You'd think that Thai parents would keep their children from playing with chickens, but apparently they don't think H5N1 is a serious concern. Well, now they should definitely know better, and it's sad that something like this is necessary to drive some sense into people.

People of Asia: Stop playing with birds!!

This comes right on the heels of the report that the young and healthy are the most susceptible to the strain. This is shaping up to be exactly the same type of situation present in 1918. Sad sad sad. I'll keep up on this story, hopefully the kid pulls through.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Crazy Canucks To Cook-up Killer Contagion!

I found this on Matthew's Canadian Blog:

Scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg plan to follow the lead of U.S. researchers and resurrect the virus that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, a development that has led to calls for international oversight and control of the dreaded microbe. The Canadian researchers plan to bring the virus to life using pieces of DNA that contain the genetic recipe for the virus.

The virus will be recreated inside living cells, then harvested and used to infect animals in an attempt to identify what made it so virulent, said Frank Plummer, scientific director of the lab.
Depending on how quickly the scientists work, Plummer said, they could have a live 1918 flu virus within six months.

The micro-organism killed as many as 50 million people when it swept around the world in 1918-19. There are fears an accidental release of the recreated microbe could be catastrophic.

Jens Kuhn, a virologist and bioweapons expert at Harvard Medical School, says the Canadian project - which has been approved by the Public Health Agency of Canada - should not have been allowed to proceed without international approval and oversight. Kuhn insisted the virus should never have been recreated: “We have enough bugs to deal with on this planet already.�

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Neato! Can India recreate the strain too? Pakistan will want to do it then, and France, UK, Russia, China, Sout Korea: let's all remake the 1918 flu! What a good idea! Let's recombinate it with H5N1, just for kicks!

I agree that it would be very useful information to know why the Spanish Flu was so deadly, I'm just not sure the only way to do that is to remake it and infect some lab animals -- to me that seems like the most reckless and needlessly dangerous way to find out. I mean, they just got the genome mapped a couple of months ago, why not just look at that for a little while, see if you can figure it out without reintroducing a dangerous pathogen into the world?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Bird-flu threat overblown?

From Sitnews:

WASHINGTON - Veterinary experts are cautioning that exaggerated media and government reports of a deadly influenza pandemic triggered by the avian flu are causing needless public hysteria."We are very unlikely to get an avian flu strain that is infectious to humans," said Daniel Perez, an assistant professor at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. "The chances of getting hit by avian influenza from wild birds is the same as getting hit by a lightning bolt."

Perez, along with three other veterinary experts, said widespread prevention and detection methods are still integral in preventing an outbreak of the avian flu strain, also known as H5N1, which is currently infecting birds in Asia and Europe.

They spoke at a news conference this week sponsored by the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

---------------------

Hmmm... the statements coming out of this conference seem a bit fishy, and ill-informed. The odds of being hit by lightening is about 2 million to one. That would translate to about 3000 "hits" worldwide. So far there have been ~120 cases of humans contracting H5N1. I'd say that the chances of getting hit by lightening seem significantly higher than the chances of getting the deadly bird flu.

That said, I'm not sure I trust some Vet from Viginia telling me how likely a mutation is. I'd rather get a virologist or epidemiologist's opinion, which at the moment is "this thing could pop at any time." Not to mention, WE ALREADY HAVE AN AVIAN FLU VIRUS INFECTIOUS TO HUMANS!! No, it isn't very contagious to us, and it doesn't spread between humans - but seriously, over 60 people have died from an infectious avian flu virus, it's ridiculous to say "we are unlikely to get one" when one obviously already exists.

Look, playing down fears is important, but being dishonest and just plain wrong does not help to quell mounting anxiety. It just bugs me that vets think they can speak with authority on this matter, when we're talking about the behavior of a virus - not birds. I'll listen to their advice on how to quarantine livestock, but they really don't know shit about how rogue DNA mutates and spreads -- and it's not their job to know. Not that a veterinarian can't have an informed opinion, but it seems like these guys are just spreading disinformation.

Also, Daniel Perez is only an assistant professor, so I don't even know how "expertly" his knowledge of even vetrinary medicine is.

Loophole for Easy Access to Bioweapons

Your bioweapon is in the mail:

A New Scientist magazine study suggests it would not be difficult for a terrorist to obtain genes from the smallpox virus or a similarly vicious pathogen.

Researchers say a bioterrorist, armed with only a fake e-mail address, could probably order such deadly biological weapons online and receive them by mail within weeks.

Dozens of biotech firms now offer to synthesize complete genes from the chemical components of DNA, yet some conduct next to no checks on what they are being asked to make, or on who is making the request.

New Scientist said its investigation raises the frightening prospect of terrorists acquiring genes by mail-order for key bioweapon agents and then using them to engineer new and deadly pathogens.

New Scientist queried 16 biotech firms, asking each whether it screened orders for DNA sequences that might pose a bioterror threat. Of the 12 companies replying, only five said they screen every sequence received. Four said they screen some sequences, and three admitted not screening at all.

Whatever reasons deter some companies from screening orders, New Scientist said some firms freely admit they run no sequence screens.

"That's not our business," Bob Xue, a director of Genemed Synthesis in San Francisco, told the magazine.

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They don't even check out what the DNA is they're making? What kind of ethical responsibility is that? What a ridiculous and sorry-assed system. I understand it would be fairly impossible to substantiate the claims the customer is making ("Uh... it's the glow worm gene, seriously..."), but come on, you could at least ask them! Do Biotech companies really want to be even more heavily regulated than they already are? Show some scruples, damn...

What happens when they are duplicating genes that have been pantented? I'd want to double check whats going on just so I don't have Monsanto coming after me in court.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Did Team Bush Deploy Bioweapons on Protestors?


A few Blogs have been posting on this story, here it is from The Lone Whacko:

"DHS sensors have detected the presence of airborne Tularemia in Washington on September 24 and 25, the dates of the big peace protest.

Tularemia is a disease normally spread by people handling dead rabbits and other rodents or by ticks bites, and about 200 people catch it each year. It appears to be treatable with antibiotics, and we're currently in tail end of the incubation period, which could extend up to the 9th of this month."


That was from an Oct. 1 posting... Salon posted this from Oct. 17th:

"On Sept. 24, 2005, tens of thousands of protesters marched past the White House and flooded the National Mall near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. They had arrived from all over the country for a day of speeches and concerts to protest the war in Iraq. It may have been the biggest antiwar rally since Vietnam. A light rain fell early in the day and most of the afternoon was cool and overcast.

Unknown to the crowd, biological-weapons sensors, scattered for miles across Washington by the Department of Homeland Security, were quietly doing their work. The machines are designed to detect killer pathogens. Sometime between 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. on Sept. 25, six of those machines sucked in trace amounts of deadly bacteria called Francisella tularensis. The government fears it is one of six biological weapons most likely to be used against the United States."

Not much more recent... sorry about that... I will keep on it.

New H5N1 Photos Available

From The Age:


The first high-resolution close-up photographs of the H5N1 avian flu virus, taken by science photographer Lennart Nilsson, appeared in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyeter (DN) today, in what the newspaper said was a world exclusive. The photos show the virus as a string of blue balls attacking and destroying healthy pink cells.

Scientists fear that avian flu could cause a world pandemic if it cross with human strains and mutates into a form easily passed between people.

The H5N1 strain, which has killed over 60 people in southeast Asia since 2003, has spread as far west as Croatia, apparently carried by migratory birds. DN's science correspondent Karin Bojs said the 83-year-old photographer initially approached US laboratories for a sample of the virus but was turned down.

In the end he obtained samples from the World Health Organisation which were then cultivated at Stockholm's Institut Karolinska in Stockholm, which awards the annual Nobel science prize.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

UN Urged to Make Pandemic Flu Plan

UN still without plan:

The United States on Tuesday proposed that the U.N. health agency immediately convene a small expert group to plan a rapid response in the event of a flu pandemic.

The panel should also draft a plan to close gaps in influenza surveillance and complete both in time for consideration by the World Health Organization's executive board in January, said Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

"We must go beyond generalized planning and well-intentioned expressions of cooperation," Simonson told a group of scientists and other experts meeting at WHO's Geneva headquarters. "Now is the time to speak and act with specificity."

Experts agree an eventual global flu pandemic capable of killing millions of people is a certainty. Scientists say it is also certain that the virus will come from bird flu.

Muslim Rioting Likened to "Rage Virus"

From the blog My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:

"Cruising through the RSS, I saw T. Longren is keeping up with the stuff in France.

I like the analogy to the 'Rage Virus' from 28 Days. If you aÂ’re not familiar with the movie, there was a virus that made people into raging homicidal maniacs, almost instantly. Seems apropos. Keep checking his site, as he'Â’s updating it with new stuff."

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Interesting analogy... the underlying intolerance present in French society is like a breeding ground virulent memetic diseases of social rage and violent political expression.

12 Russian Provinces Stare Down H5N1


Bird flu outbreak in Russia contained to 12 communities:

The bird flu outbreak in Russia has now been contained to 12 communities, with unconfirmed cases in 9 others, the Agriculture Ministry said in a press release Monday.

All domestic poultry have been culled at the site of the latest outbreak of the H5N1 strain in the Siberian region of Omsk, and the quarantine there will be lifted shortly, the ministry reported.

Winning in the Pandemic Market??

Now is a good time to be a biotech manufacturer! In what seemed a no-profits business: the vaccine industry, suddenly a ripe new investment market seems to have opened up overnight! The current killer app of the vaccine world is the 6 month turn around from pandemic flu outbreak to vaccine mass-production. Of course, no company has the capabilities to guarantee that kind of scenario at the moment, but now that the money is flooding in this is becoming a likely future reality. The real winners are the companies that can provide global cooperative strategies and make real growth in their research and development fields.

The old egg-grown operation runs into massive scalability problems when dealing with global pandemic, and new concepts need to be employed. DNA replication may pave the way, but perhaps new techniques in classical vaccine production can provide the answer sooner.

Another Vietnamese H5N1 Death

Vietnam confirmed on Tuesday its 42nd human death from bird flu, its first in more than three months, a Health Ministry official said.

A 35-year-old man from Hanoi, who died at a Hanoi hospital on October 29, tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, said Nguyen Van Binh, deputy director of the Preventive Medicine Department under the Ministry of Health.

Binh said the man was admitted to the hospital on October 26, four days after his family bought a prepared chicken from a market near his house in the Dong Da District.

Other family members did not show any symptoms of bird flu, he added.

At least 63 people in Asia have been killed by the H5N1 bird flu virus since 2003. Most of the deaths have been linked to direct contact with infected birds. Vietnam's most recent death was in July.

Monday, November 07, 2005

DHS's Seasonal Flu Resource Site

Is available at: http://www.hhs.gov/flu/

What to Do for Colds and Flu

The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is part of the U. S. government. FDA makes sure medicines for illnesses like colds and flu work and are safe.

Is It a Cold or the Flu? For Your Safety, Know the Difference

A cold and the flu (also called influenza) are alike in many ways. But the flu can sometimes lead to more serious problems, like the lung disease pneumonia.

A stuffy nose, sore throat, and sneezing are usually signs of a cold. Tiredness, fever, headache, and major aches and pains probably mean you have the flu. Coughing can be a sign of either a cold or the flu. But a bad cough usually points to the flu.

Try to Avoid Getting a Cold

Wash your hands often. You can pick up cold germs easily, even when shaking someone's hand or touching doorknobs or handrails. Avoid people with colds when possible. If you sneeze or cough, do it into a tissue and then throw the tissue away. Clean surfaces you touch with a germ-killing disinfectant. Don't touch your nose, eyes or mouth. Germs can enter your body easily by these paths.

Try to Avoid Getting The Flu

A flu shot can greatly lower your chance of getting the flu. The best time to get the shot is from the middle of October to the middle of November, because most people get the flu in the winter. The shot can't cause the flu. But you may feel sore or weak or have a fever for a couple of days.

To feel better while you are sick:

Drink plenty of fluids.

Get plenty of rest.

Use a humidifier -- an electric device that puts water into the air.

A cough and cold medicine you buy without a prescription may help.

China Shuts Down Poultry Trade

Beijing bans poultry trading, breeding to combat bird flu:

DUE to bird flu outbreaks in Anhui, Hunan, Liaoning provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing yesterday closed all market trade in live poultry and ruled out poultry breeding in its urban areas. The move, which stopped poultry products from entering the national capital, signals the country's reinforced alertness against the epidemic. Based on the bird flu prevention and control mechanism, Beijing also banned flying pet birds and temporarily closed all bird markets.

The Chinese government has set aside 2 billion yuan (US$247 million) from its annual budget for nationwide bird flu control and prevention, according to a State Council meeting. The meeting urged local governments to establish an emergency epidemic prevention and reporting mechanism for alerts of bird flu outbreaks.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce said that in a first-grade bird flu alarm, the administration's local branches should immediately cull poultry in the bird flu-hit region, close poultry markets within a 10-square-kilometer area, and report human infection cases within six hours after the breakout.

Human Flu Pandemic Inevitable

States WHO Director-General:

"We have been experiencing a relentless spread of avian flu" among migratory birds and domestic poultry, Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the World Health Organization told a meeting of 600 health experts and planners, the first attempt to devise a global strategy in case the bird flu virus changes to transmit easily among humans.

Lee stressed that a human flu pandemic has yet to begin anywhere in the world.

"However, the signs are clear that is coming," he said, noting that a changed avian flu virus caused the deadly "Spanish" flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people in 1918-1919.

Already the virulent H5N1 strain of avian flu, which appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, is killing birds in 15 countries of Europe and Asia, he said.

"It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus -- most likely H5N1 -- acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza," Lee said.

6,000,000 Culled in China



Massive poultry kills mark desperate attempt to control spreading disease:




Farmers in north-eastern Liaoning province had co-operated with Sunday's slaughter, and would be compensated, Xinhua news agency said.

China has reported no human cases during its four recent outbreaks. But it says it cannot rule out bird flu as the cause of a recent death of a girl.

Meanwhile, a major conference on bird flu is due to open in Geneva on Monday.

The gathering brings together the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health as well as top policy-makers from WHO member states.

"Stop feeding chicken feces to fish"

Says Vietnam Official:

HANOI - The practice of using chicken excrement to feed fish in southern Vietnam is threatening millions of people with bird flu in Ho Chi Minh City and should be stopped, state media said on Monday.

The Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper quoted Dong Nai province residents as saying farmers there threw at least 100 tonnes of chicken excrement a day into Tri An lake, whose waters flow into Dong Nai river and run through the country‘s biggest city.

"Dropping chicken excrement into Tri An lake during the period when bird flu is evolving into a pandemic is extremely dangerous," Le Hoang Sang, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City‘s Pasteur Institute, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Chicken excrement is one of the main carriers of the H5N1 virus, which can survive in a cool and wet environment for a month and slightly less if in water, he said.

Bird flu claims five more lives

Bird flu claims five more lives:

THE number of people killed by bird flu in the sprawling archipelago climbed to five, Indonesia said yesterday.

The World Bank also finalised plans to provide up to $677 million to help poor countries fight the deadly disease.

China, which has yet to record any human bird flu cases, mobilised its massive military to try to stamp out the H5N1 virus in poultry after thousands of birds started dropping dead in a village east of Beijing.

A 19-year-old woman from Tangerang, a town outside Indonesia's capital Jakarta, died of bird flu last month and an eight-year-old boy was sickened by the virus, said Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono, citing Hong Kong laboratory test results.

That brought the number of human cases in Indonesia to nine -- five deaths and four infections -- though some health experts say the number is probably higher.

The World Bank is gearing up for an international conference in Geneva next week to discuss managing bird flu outbreaks, as well as plans to cope with a possible human flu pandemic.

Jim Adams, a World Bank vice-president said a funding package of $406 million to $677 million could be used by low-income countries to "supplement government resources, to strengthen the veterinary systems and to put in place culling and vaccine programs for animals".

According to the World Health Organisation, the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 62 people -- all of them in South-East Asia -- and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 million birds since 2003.

Most of the human deaths have been linked to close contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among humans, possibly sparking a worldwide pandemic.

The latest Chinese outbreak -- the fourth in three weeks -- killed 8940 chickens on October 26 in Badaohao, a village in Liaoning province, prompting authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds in the area.

In Vietnam -- where most of the human deaths have occurred -- more than 3000 poultry died or were culled this week in three villages in Bac Giang province about 60km north-east of Hanoi.

In Japan, 180,000 of 300,000 chickens at a farm in Ibaraki prefecture will be culled after 80 were found to have been exposed to the H5 strain. – AP

Homeland Security puts up Pandemic Flu web resource

It's all up at http://www.pandemicflu.org, care of the DHS. We are ready, we are coordinated!