Tampa Prep 2009-2010 Impact Defense File
Bird flu won’t mutate and even if it does it will take forever and then some
Download 2.71 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- AT: Bird Flu 2/2
- Ext 1 – Vaccines Solve
- US provided 10 million dollars for bird flu vaccinations in developing countries
4. Bird flu won’t mutate and even if it does it will take forever and then someIrish Health 2005 http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=8381 While Governments and health authorities around the world, including the HSE and Department of Health here, are, as they have to, preparing for the worst, and are currently making provisions for a possible pandemic, many would feel that the risk of a major outbreak has been exaggerated. Experts have also pointed to the fact that there is much confusion about the difference between the current avian H5N1 influenza, and a possible future flu pandemic, and that this confusion has added to the panic. To date, the virulent H5N1 avian influenza strain has largely been confined to poultry in Asian countries, with hundreds of millions of birds culled; 116 human cases have been reported to date in Asia with 61 deaths, mostly in Thailand. In the majority of cases where humans in Asia have developed bird flu the victims have been people who have handled live poultry. The H5N1 strain of the flu was recently discovered in poultry in Turkey and Romania, but to date there have been no cases reported of humans contracting the bird flu in Europe. There is no risk of contracting avian flu from eating cooked poultry. So the overall message at its simplest is that while countries should be prepared should the worst happen, it might not happen and even if a pandemic-type flu does occur in the near future, it may not be as devastating as has been predicted. AT: Bird Flu 2/25. Genetic predispositions effect the ability of bird flu to effect humans- which means human to human spread is unlikelyXinhua News Service 11/2/06 Genetic factors might influence human infection of bird flu, which may explain why some people get the disease and others don't, and why it remains rare, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Scientists suspect some people have "a genetic predisposition" for bird flu infection, and others don't, the UN agency said in a report, which generalized conclusions of a WHO expert meeting in September. The theory is based on data from rare instances of human-to-human transmission in genetically-related persons. "This possibility, if more fully explored, might help explain why human cases are relatively rare, and why the virus is not spreading easily from animals to humans or from human to human," the WHO said. The evidence to the theory is mainly from a family cluster of cases last May in North Sumatra, Indonesia, when seven people in an extended family died. Only blood relatives were infected in the Karo district of North Sumatra, the largest cluster known to date worldwide, "despite multiple opportunities for the virus to spread to spouses or into the general community," the WHO said. Ext #1 – Vaccines SolveVaccines prevent bird flu spread – and its expansion is nowhere near likelyNewsweek 05 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9630262/site/newsweek Most researchers think our luck won't hold—that as the trillions of flu viruses at loose in the world replicate and mutate, it's only a matter of time before one evolves the ability to spread by way of a cough or a handshake. Then our fate will be decided in a race between the virus's inherent lethality and the tendency of all germs to evolve toward a less deadly form because their own spread depends on not killing the host—us—too quickly. Some researchers like our odds. In 1918, millions of soldiers and civilian refugees on the move in crammed trains and ships created an ideal situation for spreading flu, and there was nothing like today's techniques for surveillance and isolation of patients. "I actually have confidence about this," says Paul Ewald, a biologist at the University of Louisville. "It won't race around the world like a new 1918 virus." We also have medical resources undreamed of in 1918. Last year molecular virologist Richard Webby of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Mem-phis, Tenn., announced he had "reverse engineered" a version of the H5N1 virus that could be the basis for a vaccine, keeping the parts that are recognized by the human immune system while disabling a critical disease-causing function. It took just "a few weeks," says Linda Lambert, who is coordinating the government's bird-flu-vaccine program. The resulting vaccine has been tested on 450 volunteers, and preliminary results are promising, at least for the highest doses tested; like many vaccines, it will probably have to be given in two shots, a month apart. On the assumption it will work, but also in part just to get a production line up and running, the government last month awarded a $100 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur of France, aiming for a stockpile of 20 million doses. The vaccine is tricky to manufacture, because it requires injecting virus into live chicken eggs; under a separate contract, the same company is researching a cell-based production system that could show results by the end of the decade. US provided 10 million dollars for bird flu vaccinations in developing countriesWashington File 10/23/06 http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=October&x=20061023130051lcnirellep0.7225916 Assistance to developing countries is critical, according to the report. Such countries will need help to assess the impact of flu on their populations and to develop and implement seasonal flu vaccination programs. This includes the purchase of seasonal flu vaccine, which now costs $3 to $7 per dose.“If a country is to protect its own people, it must work together with other nations to protect the people of the world,” Leavitt said. “In that spirit,” he added, “the United States has provided $10 million to the WHO to support influenza vaccine development and manufacturing infrastructure by institutions in other countries as they develop sustainable programs for vaccines to prevent avian H5N1 or other novel influenza viruses in humans.” Directory: files -> documents documents -> North Mankato Taylor Library documents -> In the Red and Brown Water documents -> - documents -> I. Disaster Summary Sheet II. Tropical Cyclones documents -> Cbp and Trade Automated Interface Requirements Appendix: pga december 22, 2015 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> Cartographic Concepts for Realizing a Location Based umts service documents -> 1/ Background Statistics Human development index rank Download 2.71 Mb. Share with your friends:
|