John in AR
10-15-2005, 06:24 PM
From U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services, Mike Leavitt.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20051015/43507ec0_3421_1334520051015521945538
From the article:
HAIPHONG, Vietnam - After wandering amid cages of birds and rabbits at an open-air market in Hanoi, after watching the gutting of a freshly slaughtered chicken, and after visiting a Haiphong family sickened by bird flu, the United States' top health official came to a grim conclusion: Preventing the start of a global flu outbreak is just about impossible.
..."Can we create a network of surveillance sufficient enough to find the spark when it happens, to get there fast enough?" he said. "The chances of that happening are not good."
...Leavitt, who is expected in Indonesia on Sunday, told reporters the trip has given him a realistic view of the challenges in Asia where people and animals living closely together is rooted in the culture.
...He said the U.S. government was considering ways to help offset the economic loss to Asian farmers forced to slaughter infected flocks, but help would be limited. Without subsidies, poor farmers resist killing their sickened livestock.
...Leavitt doesn't believe the United States - or the rest of the world - is prepared for a flu pandemic. While bird flu has rarely spread person-to-person and has infected just 117 people in two years, most health experts expect it to mutate one day to a more contagious form. The current virus has killed about half of the people it infects, although no one knows how deadly a new form of the bug might be.
The drug that seems most effective against bird flu is Tamiflu, which was created to treat ordinary human flu but is now in short supply and can't be made fast enough because of pandemic fears.
Leavitt has been talking with drug and vaccine manufacturers to try to increase the stockpile should a catastrophic outbreak reach North America. The government currently has enough Tamiflu to treat about 4.3 million Americans.
(Bummer for the other 98.5% of the U.S. population. /john)
...Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested patent rules might be suspended in an outbreak to allow other companies to make generic forms of Tamiflu, produced by Swiss-based Roche Holding AG. In recent days, a company in India announced plans to do that.
...Health officials have said a quarantine is the best approach if a flu pandemic is unleashed, but Leavitt said Americans are not ready.
"People have not exercised adequate personal preparedness to last more than three or four days in their normal environment without going to the store," he said. "What's the responsibility of communities? What's the responsibility of families? Is it important that the mayor of a small town be thinking about a decision between Tamiflu and a swimming pool?"
(kind of a moot point if there's no Tamiflu available anyway. /john)
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20051015/43507ec0_3421_1334520051015521945538
From the article:
HAIPHONG, Vietnam - After wandering amid cages of birds and rabbits at an open-air market in Hanoi, after watching the gutting of a freshly slaughtered chicken, and after visiting a Haiphong family sickened by bird flu, the United States' top health official came to a grim conclusion: Preventing the start of a global flu outbreak is just about impossible.
..."Can we create a network of surveillance sufficient enough to find the spark when it happens, to get there fast enough?" he said. "The chances of that happening are not good."
...Leavitt, who is expected in Indonesia on Sunday, told reporters the trip has given him a realistic view of the challenges in Asia where people and animals living closely together is rooted in the culture.
...He said the U.S. government was considering ways to help offset the economic loss to Asian farmers forced to slaughter infected flocks, but help would be limited. Without subsidies, poor farmers resist killing their sickened livestock.
...Leavitt doesn't believe the United States - or the rest of the world - is prepared for a flu pandemic. While bird flu has rarely spread person-to-person and has infected just 117 people in two years, most health experts expect it to mutate one day to a more contagious form. The current virus has killed about half of the people it infects, although no one knows how deadly a new form of the bug might be.
The drug that seems most effective against bird flu is Tamiflu, which was created to treat ordinary human flu but is now in short supply and can't be made fast enough because of pandemic fears.
Leavitt has been talking with drug and vaccine manufacturers to try to increase the stockpile should a catastrophic outbreak reach North America. The government currently has enough Tamiflu to treat about 4.3 million Americans.
(Bummer for the other 98.5% of the U.S. population. /john)
...Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested patent rules might be suspended in an outbreak to allow other companies to make generic forms of Tamiflu, produced by Swiss-based Roche Holding AG. In recent days, a company in India announced plans to do that.
...Health officials have said a quarantine is the best approach if a flu pandemic is unleashed, but Leavitt said Americans are not ready.
"People have not exercised adequate personal preparedness to last more than three or four days in their normal environment without going to the store," he said. "What's the responsibility of communities? What's the responsibility of families? Is it important that the mayor of a small town be thinking about a decision between Tamiflu and a swimming pool?"
(kind of a moot point if there's no Tamiflu available anyway. /john)