Bird Flu 'passed Between Humans' -

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

Lets hope that the cool season will end soon enough so that this hypothesis is not proven right or wrong in 2005.....there is a sort of a grim sense of inevitability though. If not this year.....

Lets also hope some decisive pre-emptive action is taken - by way of an ounce of prevention....

(I'll try to find the referred report from the New England Journal of Medicine, though I doubt i'll be able to comprehend it)

From the BBC.

Scientists have said a woman who died of bird flu probably contracted the disease from her daughter.

The researchers from the Thai Ministry of Public Health warn it is likely there will be more cases where the virus is passed from human-to-human.

Professor John Oxford, a leading UK expert, said the virus had broken down the "final door" which prevented it being spread between people.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"This is a very important step towards the conclusion that we all wanted to avoid"

In 2004, Avian flu infected at last 44 people in eight south Asian countries, killing 32.

Until the late 1990s, it had not been thought that the virus strain - H5N1 - could spread to humans. Once it did, scientists began to fear it could then be spread between people.

In a 'worst-case scenario', they suggested the virus could combine with a human flu virus if people were simultaneously infected with both.

If the viruses then exchanged genes, a new, highly infective, virus could be created and be passed from person to person.

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/4/333

Ok brainiacs - this is the link - and don't worry. Its mostly readable.

In a nutshell - someone gets H5N1 who hasn't been near a chicken - but looked after someone who was ailing with bird flu.

So its mostly observational text, and they're looking for the virological link.

If a link is established then this is conceivably........significant......for all of us.

[Shola]

Need to sign in to that link?

Very, very scarey stuff... viri can mutate at alarming rates... one like this could potentially wipe out millions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloody h*ll Rav', not one for trying to avoid mass panic or anything ay?!

I think I'll have a Valium and go to bed now !

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

The link is direct - to the published medical article - (and it doesn't blind with science).

11 people have died of bird flu in Vietnam this year - 20 there for the whole of last year - so statistically that seems significant.

This is not coming out of the blue, like the tsunami did - so hopefully it can be dealt with pro-actively & aggressively.

[penzman]

How many have died in car accidents, pneumonia, drowning, heart attack since this all started. I still eat my fried chicken every second day although I recook it in the oven once I get home. I figure I'll pop an artery before H5N1 finds me.

Seriously, I am concerned about it being transfered from human to human, only a matter of time until it is confirmed. Will be another opportunity for Thaksin to come up with another stupid comment.

[penzman]

The link is direct - to the published medical article - (and it doesn't blind with science).

11 people have died of bird flu in Vietnam this year - 20 there for the whole of last year - so statistically that seems significant.

This is not coming out of the blue, like the tsunami did - so hopefully it can be dealt with pro-actively & aggressively.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I put nothing past the human race and it's fight/war for survival... I am thinking that there are people that will want to stop China from becoming No1 world power in the next 10-15 years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, there's a particular nation on the American continent suffering from a bad leg cramp and losing ground by the day and I'm sure they'll want to get back to the front runners. Wonder how they'll achieve this magic trick? Oopps, we're talking Bearpit.net here...