Enough About The Avian Flu

[whyme 0]

This is not really a rant, but then again, it sort of is, so, here it goes, all about the avian flu, and our big fuss over it.In the current state of health today, people all around the world are now worrying about the possiblity of the Avian Flu killing millions and millions of people, much like the Spanish Flu of 1918. I personally don't think that we need to be so pessimistic, sure, the World Health Organization has said that this may very well be another crazed up pandemic that will spread around the world. But, if we put thing's into perpective, the Spanish Flue happended more than 80 years ago, medicine and vaccines have progressed with amazing results. We just aren't going to get the virus and die in the millions. And just to get on the safe side (At least for Canadians), Canada has already called on ID Biomedical, based in Vancouver British Columbia, to create a H5N1 vaccine that will protect, (Thus far, Canadians) from the vaccine. ID Biomedical says that they can produce a vaccination for every each and every Canadian within 6 months if there is indeed a huge outbreak. As for other countries, I'm not so sure. But what's really sparking fear is that the virus strain would mutate, and we wouldn't have the correct protection and what-not. There's been news that the virus strain has mutated into another virus similar to it, called H4N2. So as the fears grow, we should all realize that this "pandemic", is coming from poultry, so we we all ate less chicken, we'll have a less likely chance of a large pandemic. Anyways, the problem is only occuring in Thailand and Vietnam right now, and there has been fewer than a hundred people infected, so I think there's not so much to fuss about. However, I can't say that the virus might catch me one day for posting this.

[eiteljoh 0]

yah you bring up a good point. but also, any kind of disease, be it bird flu or something new, has a real and true risk of wiping out masses of people and traveling around the world. so it's a real problem.on another note, there's a whole bunch of media around a few deaths from these "rare diseases", however, how much is published about the 1 million + people that die each year from malaria in africa? not a heck of a lot...