Sisters May Have Gotten Bird Flu from Brother - THIS IS BAD NEWS

[45th Med]

By Christina Pantin

HANOI (Reuters) - Two sisters in Vietnam have died after contracting the deadly bird flu virus -- possibly from their brother -- marking the first human-to-human transmissions recorded in the current epidemic, the U.N.'s health agency said Sunday.

While the source of infection for the two sisters cannot be conclusively identified, the World Health Organization said it "considers that limited human-to-human transmission, from the brother to the sisters, is one possible explanation."

Sisters may have gotten bird flu from brother

[HEyHEY]

1. Is this gonna be like all those other scares

Everyone will think getting it means instant death but in reality it only kills one out of every 200 people...or are we in trouble?

[stepnw1f]

2. Media Weapons of Mass Distraction

[depakid]

3. Ahem-

look again. The evidence thus far indicates that H5N1 (pathogenic Avian Influenza) is highly virulent- as in around 75% of people who are confirmed to have contracted it have died. This isn't like SARS.

[stepnw1f]

4. That's not good

[JaySherman]

5. A little reassurance

Only small comfort, but let's not push the panic button yet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3431071.stm

Living in Japan, this stuff does scare the heck out of me. The Japanese government seems to have pretty good handle on it though:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3429851.stm#japan

Japan

Authorities have banned poultry trading among farms within 30km (18 miles) of a farm where H5N1 avian flu was detected in late December 2003.

More than 34,000 birds have been slaughtered or have died, but health officials are confident that the country's first outbreak for 79 years has been contained.

No human infections have emerged.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Time to gear up for the farming season

Where does your food come from?

Is your food clean and safe?

Your food could come from your own community, and you could know personally that it is clean and safe and that the farm is helping to keep land open and green in the place where you live.

This just published today.

http://www.thenewfarm.org/features/0104/csa-history/part1.shtml

[yellowcanine]

7. Not so bad (for population) or surprising

So far evidence is this is being spread to humans and between humans fecal orally ---little kids play on the ground, get bird poop on their hands and it eventually gets into their mouths. Kids don't wash their hands and so they pass it on to each other also. Bad for the kids obviously but from a population standpoint not that threatening. Real danger is if the bird flu virus interacts with the human flu virus and a hybrid is formed which can be transmitted quickly to other humans - that would be really bad news from a population standpoint.

[45th Med]

8. This is what the article alludes to...Brother may have given 2 sisters....

the disease.

When the virus makes the jump to Human/Human transmission........REAL BAD NEWS!

[yellowcanine]

9. If the virus makes the jump

It is not a foregone conclusion. Evidence still is that oral/fecal transmission explains what happened. So far no cause for alarm, as far as I can tell. But there is cause for concern and careful monitoring and reporting of any new cases.