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Science

Deadly Version of Bird Flu Found in Romania 378

Posted by Zonk from the not-interested-in-seeing-this-one-close-up dept.
CMan0 writes "The BBC reports that a deadly version of the bird flu has been found in Romania. Several ducks and chickens have died on a farm in Romania this month of the disease, it has been confirmed. It's mentioned that the disease is spreading very rapidly, as the last known location of the disease was Siberia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan in August and the 1st of October in Turkey." From the article: "People appear dazed by what is happening, but since it was confirmed that this is the strain of the bird flu virus found in Asia, they have begun co-operating closely with officials sent to collect their birds, our correspondent says. Turkey has already reported the discovery of the lethal strain of the virus among birds in the west of the country. The EU has banned imports of live birds and poultry products from Romania and Turkey. EU veterinary experts said on Friday that the bird flu outbreak did not represent a risk to the general public 'at present'."
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Deadly Version of Bird Flu Found in Romania More

Deadly Version of Bird Flu Found in Romania

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  • Uh oh.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    First famine.
    Then Tsunami.
    Then Flood and earthquake.
    Now a plauge.

    Which part of the bible is this again?

    • Every part! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:31AM (#13803126)
      There have always been famines, tsunamis, floods and earthquakes in any given year. Very convenient for those that think the end is near. They always think the end is near. The end has never been near. The Bible is just an early example of a news outlet that wants eyeballs. And if you want eyeballs, if it bleeds it leads. The bird flu is a big problem, but I think the threat to humans is over-hyped by the media. Remember all those stories last year during the vaccine shortage that had all those geezers in long lines? How did that hype-fest turn out?

      • Re:Every part! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Average_Joe_Sixpack ( 534373 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:49AM (#13803233)
        Very convenient for those that think the end is near. They always think the end is near. The end has never been near.

        You just wait another 4 billion years pal! The sun is going to go ape shit and swallow the earth in a blaze of superheated plasma ... then we doom and gloomers will be right there to say "told you so!"

      • Media Hype-fest (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jim_v2000 ( 818799 )
        Remember all those stories last year during the vaccine shortage that had all those geezers in long lines? How did that hype-fest turn out?

        Or how about SARS...which was a lot of hype over nothing?
        Or West Nile..which was hyped up, but barely killed anyone?
        Or Dan Rather's documents about Bush that turned out to be fake?
        Or the reported rapes and murders that supposedly happened in New Orleans, which turned out to be false?
        Or the news reports that said there could be 60,000 people dead after Katrina...and it tu

        • Re:Media Hype-fest (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Schemat1c ( 464768 )
          So excuse me if I don't seem too concerned about this whole avian flu thing.

          I'll tell you why this concerns me. For the last couple of weeks we have been hearing bird flu everywhere, then Bush announces that if the flu hit the US he will use the military to keep order. They see their power slipping, this could just be the ace in the hole to retain power and finally transform us into the facist state they have been laying the groundwork for for years.

      • Re:Every part! (Score:4, Informative)

        by bigberk ( 547360 ) <bigberk@users.pc9.org> on Sunday October 16, 2005 @05:34PM (#13805496)
        I'm not so sure that the threat is overhyped. Pandemics do happen from time to time and prove to be quite effective in wiping out large percents of populations (animals, and human). Take a look at a chart of human population growth -- the 1918 event is quite visible. The Spanish Flu in 1918 infected over 1/5 of the world's population and this was during a period of relatively slow international travel. Ignoring the potential danger to us all would be just foolish. So what exactly do you mean "the end has never been near?" Go hunt through historical accounts in your area and you will find documentation describing how the spanish flu brought the end to many in your community. To survive you have to acknowledge and prepare to deal with risks.

    • Re:Uh oh.. (Score:2, Funny)

      by marsperson ( 909862 )
      You left out the internet falling apart and the killer poison dart-wielding dolphins.
    • It's the apocalypse! You might as well give me all your money and seek salvation fast. Please forward your funds to: Bank of Nigeria, account # 419-666-419-666.

    • Nothing new under the sun (Score:4, Informative)

      by euthman ( 209060 ) <uthman@airmail.net> on Sunday October 16, 2005 @11:03AM (#13803295) Homepage
      Millennialsists love to fixate on the natural ebb and flow of disasters to give credence to their nutty prophecies of the End of the World. In fact, what we are seeing now is nothing new, and much worse plagues have occurred in post-Biblical times:

      The Plague of Justinian was possibly the most devastating pestilence of the ancient world. Lasting fifty years, it arrived in the Imperial capital, Constantinople, in 542 A.D. Mortality in the city reached as high as 10,000 per day. Ships were loaded with the dead, towed out to sea, and abandoned. Fortification towers were unroofed, filled with corpses, then re-roofed.

      The most famous pandemic was the Black Death, which, like a lot of the perturbations that perennially rattled the cage of Western Civilization (Aryans, Mongols, Huns, Turks, gunpowder, etc) originated in Asia. From 1346 to 1361, the epidemic killed up to one-third of the population of Europe.

      The last pandemic ravaged Europe in the seventeenth century and is best known to us as the Plague of London, 1665-66. This is the one chronicled by Samuel Pepys in his diary (which most of us didn't mind reading in high school because of all the sexual content). Since the printing press was now available, this was the first epidemic in which the populace was kept thoroughly informed of the latest in cutting-edge medical knowledge. One pamphlet informed its readers that the plague was caused by "eating radishes, a cat catter wouling, immoderate eating of caviare and anchovies, tame pigeons that flew up and down an alley, and drinking strong heady beer." Rumors that syphilis prevented the disease caused the gentlemen of London to storm local houses of ill-repute. English physicians apparently knew better; many just left the country.

      • Re:Nothing new under the sun (Score:4, Informative)

        by DingerX ( 847589 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @11:55AM (#13803577) Journal
        Heh. Funny, somewhere on my harddrive I have my old transcription a sermon by Pope Clement VI in the fall of 1348. His message was much the same, although his historical list of plagues was somewhat longer (and, oddly enough, his accounts were slightly less fictitious than the parent): "remember the plague of justinian and all the others before that; this isn't the end of the world folks."


        Pandemics like the plague are quite commonly preceded by epizootics. The virus or bacillus multiplies itself over and over again. All it needs to kill lots of humans is a vector. It's one mutation away, and each day that it spreads through the bird/pig/human population, is one more day it gets that chance to find it.

    • Faith the Fear (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
      Are you reading the Japanese edition of "the" bible, where it says "tsunami"? Or are you just falling for the fortuneteller's fallacy, where open-ended descriptions of vaguely specified bad events are credited with "prediction" when they inevitably occur? It's certainly not the part of a bible where god comes back to save us - they always hold off on that one until after we give all our money and power to the priests. Let's not give away the farm to the oldest scam in the book, literally (puns intended).

    • Re:Uh oh.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by FidelCatsro ( 861135 )
      End of the world , The single most predicted thing ever .
      The Rapture has been predicted on several thousand dates over the last 1600 years or so (Perhaps a little longer)
      Around each of those times , about all of these things have occurred .The List of Anti-Christs is rather impressive also .

      Bird Flu has not yet Mutated in this way .
      Here's another few thing that the Media could run with .
      There is a chance (however miniscule ) that HIV could mutate into an airborne virus .
      There is a chance that the common flu

    • Re:Uh oh.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by wealthychef ( 584778 )
      Which part of the bible is this again?

      Uh, the part where God kills all the chickens?

      Why is this put so apocalyptically? Wake me up when it starts spreading among humans. AFAIK, the real problem is that when the next pandemic hits, we don't have a way to manufacture immunizations.

      I tell you what, how about we start investing more money in science and research, and less in crazy religions?

    • Re:Uh oh.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )
      Well, Biblical "end times" are supposed to be rife with anarchy, disease, famine, and natural disasters. Looks like we -might- be on the pinacle of such events, if indeed things start getting worse.

      On the other hand, there's a group of people that thinks the book of Revelations in the Bible is merely a very insightful template for the eb and flow of government: a very dramatic example of how a typical government falls appart and a new one comes into its place, including the political/social impressions of t

  • The locals aren't helping (Score:5, Insightful)

    by confusion ( 14388 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:18AM (#13803037) Homepage
    Having the farmers hiding their birds from the government isn't helping. They're trying to protect their property, but in the end they'll end up causing many more to die.

    Also, with migratory ducks and swallows (of the laden variety), we're going to see this all over europe in the coming weeks.

    Jerry
    http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
    • You should have invested in a missile defense system like we did here in the US. I imagine the missle defense will be useful to keep the migratory birds out of the continental US.
    • Also, with migratory ducks and swallows (of the laden variety), we're going to see this all over europe in the coming weeks.

      Which raises the question: why is EU stopping poultry meat imports from affected countries? The poultry farms that do exports (as opposed to the local farmers who raise for their own use) usually raise the birds in enclosed facilities, so the contact with wildlife is null.

      Is is a move to please nevrotic EU population? Is is a distrust message for the capability of the affected countrie

    • Don't Panic (Score:2, Insightful)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 )
      Unless you are a poultry worker or otherwise handle wild fowl you are not at risk. This disease is spread bird to man but not man to man.

      If a farmer wants to protect his livestock from being destroyed he's being nuaghty but he's not directly endangering that many people in that single act. It's stupid and socially irresponsible. But it's also not something that is that out of line with common practices in other areas.

      There are a variety of zoonotic diesaases that can be transmitted to animal handlers an

      • The people who vaccum prarie dog warrens to transplant them are actying just as rashly.

        You need to research WHY prairie dogs are vacuumed up and usually sold in the asian market... the SOLE reason is because a prairie dog town can cost the lives of many, many cattle if they build the town on pasture land. cattle come along and step in the holes, result in a nice clean snap of the cows leg(s). prairie dogs will also strip a landscape bare of almost all vegetation in the vicinity of their town...

      • Re:Don't Panic ( not yet anyway... ) (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Macka ( 9388 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @11:25AM (#13803400)

        Unless you are a poultry worker or otherwise handle wild fowl you are not at risk. This disease is spread bird to man but not man to man.

        Not yet. But what's keeping the scientists and politicians across Europe awake at night is the possibility that someone already infected with human influenza will contract H5N1 and it will mutate. The message we're getting from the scientific community over here in Europe is that it's not a case of if, but when. Its being taken so seriously that here in the UK plans are already being explored by Government on what to do when the first cases of human to human transmitted H5N1 arrives. Depending on how fast the virus spreads and how fast we do or don't react to it, the death toll could be anywhere between 50,000 to 750,000 people. Here's another BBC Article [bbc.co.uk] on the subject, published just today !!


        • Absolutlely right! I'm organizing a flu immunisation program in my local area (South West UK), and we want to jab as many people as possilble. The vaccines wont do anything to protect against bird flu, but what we don't want is for someone to have both at once. If that happens there is the risk of the viruses 'interbreeding' and then you've got a much more lethal flu that goes human to human.
      • That is why I can't understand the idiocy of not prohibiting hunting starting now. In all EU countries it's just an expensive sport, but it provides a means for the virus to infect humans that get in contact with the wild, possibly infected animals. It's just a caprice the general population can do without in order to minimize risk...

        • I'm not a big fan of hunting myself, but it sounds like your logic would also apply to keeping people out of nature altogether. While we're at it should we shut down the Appalachian trail, close down swimming holes, etc.?

          • Nah, but hunting birds involves handling bleeding carcasses, taking them home, cleaning the guts in a residential area (perhaps tossing them in the garbage causing further dissemination)... Now, the virus may be destroyed by cooking, but the three steps preceding that clearly put many people in the hunter's proximity at risk of viral contamination.
      • I think you've missed the point.

        People for the most part don't care that a few poultry workers have gotten sick, people are worried that a new flu virus our immune systems have never seen before, one with a 50% mortality rate on fit young people, is about to make the species jump and become human to human transmittable the same way the human flu is.

        This is what happened in 1918, and as you said yourself "Most Flu's in fact come from Bird's".
        • I don't see that the original poster has missed the point at all. Currently the disease is very bad news for birds and bad news for poultry workers, it has few implications for the general population. I think it's pretty inevitable that this will become a human-human infective virus, but we are not there yet.

      • Re:Don't Panic (Score:2, Insightful)

        by m50d ( 797211 )
        My god man, learn to use an apostrophe properly. I can't stand to look at that post.
    • The Turkish government has acted with agility. All (known) chicken and other wingy animals infected with this virus are quarantined and killed (Not a nice thing but good for us), also hunting sessions are cancelled a day before it hit the news.

      Also the government has guaranteed that they will (in fact, people paying taxes) take the burden of any losses of farmers.

      But when it comes to the migration of birds, in God we trust.

      Even though negotiations with EU and Turkey has started, Turkey is not a EU-c

  • Delta of Danube (Score:5, Informative)

    by swatthatfly ( 808033 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:19AM (#13803040)
    It should be noted that the dead birds are from an area next to the Danube's Delta, which is the biggest delta of Europe, and where millions of wild birds from many species live or pass through on their migration route. It is therefore little surprise that such a busy nexus was touched by the virus. As far as I know, this particular virus was not thought to be dangerous to humans as such, but the possibility if it combining with the human version was the concern.
    • South florida in the winter time fills up with birds migrating from all over. What i want to know is are there any migrations of birds from overseas such as africa and such?

      Will they bring it here this winter? the migrations have already begun and im seeing alot more birds around. Also chickens are allowed to roam the streets in downtown miami and key west in addition to the farms out here. If the migrating birds pass this onto the free roaming poultry you will have contaminated chicken feces here and ther
      • What i want to know is are there any migrations of birds from overseas such as africa and such?

        I forget where I read it but I came across something that said the US was concerned about migratory paths through Alaska. Since parts of the Aleutian Islands, the Bering Strait, etc. provide land masses only tens of miles apart between the Russian and American mainlands it would provide easy stepping stones between the two continents. I'm not sure if there are any migratory paths along those routes or not, but i
    • As far as I know, this particular virus was not thought to be dangerous to humans as such, but the possibility if it combining with the human version was the concern.

      It is deadly for humans too, but not contagious.

    • Re:Delta of Danube (Score:5, Informative)

      by JJP ( 26494 ) <jjp@NOspAM.zeelandnet.nl> on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:41AM (#13803178)
      The virus is dangerous to humans! It is the same H5N1 string of flu virus that has infected humans in South East Asia, claiming 60 lives. For now the virus can not spread from human to human. It could pose a serious threat if this virus infects someone who is also infected with a 'normal' flu virus. Exchange of genetic material between the human flu virus and the bird flu virus could form a new pathogenic flu virus and cause a pandemic. More info on the WHO web site: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_10_13/en/index.htm l [who.int].
      • Exchange of genetic material between the human flu virus and the bird flu virus could form a new pathogenic flu virus and cause a pandemic.
        A random combination of genetic material could do almost anything: Curing cancer, keeping children from a horrid fate, enlarging bodily appendages,etc.

        Assuming the worst is good jounalism. Assuming the best is good politics.

  • Newsflash (Score:5, Funny)

    by mordors9 ( 665662 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:21AM (#13803054)
    Ladies and gentlemen, we are awaiting the appearance of Chicken Little for her weekly news statement...... hold on..... word has just been released..... Chicken Little has been destroyed to prevent the spread of the avian flu after her recent visit to Romania. Perhaps this time the sky really is falling.

  • Oh no,,, (Score:3, Funny)

    by Destroyed ( 638744 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:22AM (#13803063)
    As much as I hate to hear about these things, I cant help but think "Oh no I just had a BIRD FLU over my house..." ah.. ahaha.. hehe... argh.. OK! I'll shut up! But it was funny last night when I was at the bar.

  • Service Degradation and Outages (Score:5, Funny)

    by RealBorg ( 549538 ) <thomaszNO@SPAMhostmaster.org> on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:22AM (#13803065) Homepage
    I guess that will heavily affect RFC2549 services - IP over avian carrier.
  • Do you remember when CNN alerted about the super-computer virus that seems to be the end of the world?
    This could be the same, I suggest to follow specific sources instead of general news-media. With computer security, you now AV companies, Secunia, CERT and so on.
    For this, my bet is: http://www.fas.org/promed/ [fas.org]

    • Yes bet on the web page with Last Updated April 05 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by shis-ka-bob ( 595298 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:37AM (#13803158)
      This is a REAL virus, not a computer virus. Influenza can actually mutate (very fast because it uses RNA rather than DNA to encode its genome.) It may well be, and we must certainly hope, that this is not going to make the jump to our specie and also become highly contagious, in which case it becomes another pandemic. But, even if the odds are 100:1 against this happening, spending resources addressing this are well spent. In the last century, there have been multiple infuenza outbreaks. The largest of this in 1918 dwarfed the First World War as the leading cause of death in 1918. This is very high stakes.

      So forgive me if I am underwhelmed by a web site that quotes ten year old research papers and where the emerging deseases pages don't list (any strain) of influenza and hasn't been updated since April.

    • Bird flu... computer security .. insightful .. W.T.F???

  • Pathetic... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Armadni General ( 869957 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:23AM (#13803073)
    This response in Europe can be eqated to the little dance that boxers and wrestlers always do before a fight, just circling around, testing each other, somewhat afraid to hit the other.

    So, if we don't hit the opponent, to the tune of billions of dollars of fast-track pharmaceutical research, and immediate and strict quarantines, we are going to get hit first, and it will cost us dearly.

    These bloody poultry farmers, solely financially motivated, need to be brought down off their high horses, and realize that this isn't Mad Cow.
    • Haha, "We are going to get hit first"

      Hey, thanks for counting us, those with the virus already in our countries, in your equation.

    • They're not on their "high horses". (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @11:23AM (#13803391)
      The poultry farmers aren't just motivated by money. Poultry to them, especially in some of these poorer nations, is what provides them their ability to live.

      I don't think you would like it much if your nation's government came along, proceeding to confiscate and destroy your computers, even those running Linux or OS X, to prevent the spread of a computer worm. Now remember, you most likely could get by without your computers, unlike many of the poultry farmers.

      Perhaps the richer countries should purchase these birds at market prices, and then proceed to destroy them. It gives the farmers incentive to get rid of the birds, and helps ensure a greater number are destroyed. It costs a bit of money, but probably far less than if the flu were to spread.

      • It's even worse than that... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by benjamindees ( 441808 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @12:49PM (#13803909) Homepage
        Not only can't many of these farmers survive without their livestock, they probably can't be replaced. At best, they'll be replaced with the genetic freaks that are common in commercial agriculture in the industrialized world. At worst, most of the farmers will go out of business and be forced into cities and factories, to be replaced by a large agribusiness concern.

        So-called "heirloom" breeds, animals well-suited for small farms because of their survival instincts and ability to reproduce, are quickly becoming a thing of the past. And it's more than just economics that is the cause.

        The developed world is waging agricultural warfare on the developing world. One of the first targets in Iraq (accidentally of course) was a seed bank, containing thousands of species of irreplacabale genetic material, the lifeblood of agricultural progress and a threat to the manufactured livestock of agribusiness and rising biotech companies. Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if the "bird flu" crisis were as manufactured as the reasons for the Iraq war.

        Of course, it's not that these unique agricultural products can't be re-discovered, with the help of big genetics corporations of course. But those corporations certainly won't recover a genetic trait or a unique species without a licensing agreement, and yearly fees. Thus, the small farm is destroyed, by hook or by crook, and its operators forced either into urban life or having their profits perpetually taxed away by agribusiness.

  • Very good pun! (Score:3, Funny)

    by XXIstCenturyBoy ( 617054 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:25AM (#13803087)
    Turkey has the bird flu?

    /thats all I have. Not very good after all.

  • Oh No. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ObsessiveMathsFreak ( 773371 )
    Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!!! There's a slight possibilty that this virus could mutate to pass from a bird to a human. And if that happens there's a slight possibilty that the virus could then mutate to pass from human to human. And if that happens there's a slight chance of a pandemic along the lines of the 1918 spanish influenza occuring, which had nothing to do with Spain, and the fact that it achieved such a high death count in the very year WWI ended was entirely coincidental. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN JUS

    • Re:Oh No. (Score:4, Informative)

      by elleomea ( 749084 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:44AM (#13803202) Homepage
      H5N1 the strain of avian flu that has people so worried has been infecting humans since 1997 and has a mortality rate of over 50% (after having infected a total of around 120 people). Since 1997 it's been combatted by massive cullings in all areas where outbreaks have been found (among birds). Currently it can only infect humans directly from birds through eating undercooked poultry. What people are worrying about is a strain that can be transmitted directly between humans, this has yet to happen.
      • H5N1 the strain of avian flu that has people so worried has been infecting humans since 1997 and has a mortality rate of over 50% (after having infected a total of around 120 people)

        Yeah, in Asia where their healthcare is crap or non-existant. And maybe that 50% was older/unhealthy people. And maybe the number of infected people was well over 120, but no one ever found out because of, as I stated earlier, Asian crappy healthcare. So please, don't throw meaningless numbers around. That's what big media i
      • H5N1 the strain of avian flu that has people so worried has been infecting humans since 1997 and has a mortality rate of over 50% (after having infected a total of around 120 people).

        So there is a 1-in-50,000,000 chance that I will die from H5N1 within the next 8 years? Scary!

      • Re:Oh No. (Score:3, Informative)

        by bergeron76 ( 176351 )
        Until a person with a regular flu, eats undercooked chicken soup, and catches the bird flu. Then the virus with mutate within that person, and a new strain could infect his mother/girlfriend and viola! - instant pandemic, just add water.

    • Re:Oh No. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Crayon Kid ( 700279 )
      I call bull on the bird flu hype. It's likely this disease has been around for a much longer time that it has been fashionable to run frantic news reports on it.

      And your credentials as an authority on this are...

      When I see goverments concerned with carrying pencils in airplanes is one thing. When I see them concerned with migratory birds passing a deadly virus, it's another.

      Can you comprehend the difference or should we draw a picture? Hint: ulterior motive. What would be the motive for spreading panic all
    • As I'm sure that many other /.ers are rushing to inform you, bird flu HAS transmitted from bird to human. It hasn't yet been confirmed to spread person to person, though they have some suspected cases. The lowest number I've heard on human deaths from bird flu is 60.

      In case your biological history is a little rough, smallpox, the plauge, AIDS, the flu and virtually ever other major human killer has started off as a animal illness, and then spread to people.

      I love your line of reasoning on SARS. Becau

  • Flu Wiki (Score:3, Informative)

    by PIPBoy3000 ( 619296 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:29AM (#13803114)
    There's a Flu Wiki [fluwikie.com] that's a good starting point for information about avian influenza. For people who want to follow the news more closely, they can wander over to this discussion board [curevents.com].

  • Double "huh"? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:30AM (#13803124)
    (a) no surprises yet - you can't stop migrating birds - especially during migration season;
    (b) if /. is the place you're finally hearing about this - we need to talk.
    • (a) no surprises yet - you can't stop migrating birds - especially during migration season;

      I think between anti-aircraft guns, shot guns and a few other weapons we've developed in the past few hundred years that we could stop migrating birds. There just won't be many birds left alive afterwards.

  • Romania?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by AsnFkr ( 545033 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:38AM (#13803164) Homepage Journal
    Not mentioned in the article is how the flu is actually turning birds into vampires. Seriously.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • In Other News ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Average_Joe_Sixpack ( 534373 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @10:44AM (#13803198)
    McDonalds is introducing a 2 for 1 Chicken McNugget promotion
  • As an example of what can occur when an avian (or any animal really) strain of flu jumps to humans can be seen in the Great Flue Epidemic of 1918 aka. the Spanish Flu that killed more people than WWI. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Flu [wikipedia.org]) it is believed that the flu originated in Fort Riley, Kansas (yes, it is somewhat ironic that this place is one of the strongholds in the US against evolutionary theory) when a strain of avian flu jumped to humans. Scientists who reconstructed
  • uh oh it's gonna get MORLOCK.
  • dead ducks are showing up on the shores of lake ontario. it's migrating this way too:

    http://www.studio2f.com/misc/2005/10/13dead_ducks_ bird_flu.php [studio2f.com]

  • It is a concern (Score:2, Informative)

    by dodo_dodo ( 719786 )
    People should be concerned and governments should be taking actions. And people in US should be concerned their government is lagging in preparation. Let me give some facts. The flu from 1918 (the Spanish Influenza) had a mortality rate b/w 2.5% and 5%. It killed over 20 mil people and virtually all people on earth had had it at one point. It circled the globe in less than 6 months. Thats in 1918. It is determined that it was an avian flu strain as well. All the flu viruses that we get each year are though
  • This news has been around for a few days now. And the chances are that if the H5N1 virus has only just been detected in Romania and Turkey then it's been around for a while and can be expected to have spread much more widely than that already. It's just that no one has yet noticed it. Well they'll starting looking now.

    More worrying news is that if the virus mutates into a killer flu, then there are real doubts as to whether the only and standard-issue anti-viral drug (Tamiflu) will actually prove effecti

  • Other news... (Score:3, Informative)

    by dud83 ( 815304 ) <dud AT dudcore DOT net> on Sunday October 16, 2005 @11:29AM (#13803425) Homepage Journal
    From the obviously-ancient-topnews section;

    Bush gets reelected as President for his second term!
    Giant-Tsunami hits the Pacific Ocean!
    Time Warner aquires AOL Online!

  • from a local (Score:2, Informative)

    by iLogiK ( 878892 )
    okay...well i live in romania (the north-eastern part, so nowhere near the infected areas)
    this is in now way news...it's been on the local news for the past days (weeks even)...i've also seen a few reports about it on cnn...
    the locals aren't trying to protect their birds...they don't want to risk it. the gouverment has promised to pay for the birds which are being killed.
  • This sounds like a job for a hot bowl of chicken soup and- oh, wait a minute...
  • Let's see ... still not able to transfer between human. BORING!!! Please wake my up when it mutates into something real.

    --Flam
  • Ah, lethal bird flu arrives just in time for Winter, when people shut ourselves together in close quarters, where flu is multiplied. Best take all our vitamins, especially vitamins C (1-4g:day) and A and zinc, which boost our immune responses. Chicken soup helps stay hydrated and electrolyzed, and reduces the stress which lowers our immunity. The more relaxed and well fed are the least vulnerable to disease. And button up when you go outside!

  • Spread Betting? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by igb ( 28052 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @12:04PM (#13803630)
    So far, it's killed of the order of 100 people with a target population of two billion (yep, billion). So two things occur to me. Firstly, if a tenth of the effort that appears to have gone into avian flu had gone into TB, Cholera, Typhoid and Malaria over the past few months, a lot more than a hundred people would have been saved. I won't even start on the numbers who died from AIDS because US Christians have a thing about condoms (which handily kills a lot of blacks: two bigotries for the price of one).

    However, given there's almost no evidence, and numbers like 50 thousand to 1 million in the UK alone are being bandied around, I wonder what Ladbrokes would take on spread bets? My prediction: based on the BSE ``scientists talk nonsense to secure research funding'' debacle, the actual deaths will be about 1% of the lowest estimate.

    ian

  • World Health Org FAQ (Score:3, Informative)

    by edibleplastic ( 98111 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @12:05PM (#13803637)
    Here is a very comprehensive FAQ that the WHO has published. To all those who posters who are questioning the severity of the threat: the FAQ indicates that 2 of the 3 necessary prerequisites for the flu becoming a pandemic have been met.

    http://www.who.int/entity/csr/disease/avian_influe nza/avian_faqs/en/index.html [who.int]

  • A question for Intelligent Design supporters (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tibor the Hun ( 143056 ) on Sunday October 16, 2005 @02:33PM (#13804546)
    So is this evolution taking place, or is the Intelligent Designer designing a virus that could potentialy wipe out a whole bunch of us?

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