I'm not sure I understand the "bah humbuggery" about bird flu. The reason it could be a big deal is, i think, simple:
1) The mortality among humans who actually contract flu is very high (better than 20%). Compare this to the run-of-the-mill flu that we pass around every year (low mortality) . This is a fact.
2) Influenza has a proven ability to migrate cross-species and become infectious to humans. This happens routinely--the flu we pass around every year generally arises from a flu virus in non-human populations that crosses over into the human population. (This often happens when a person sick with last year's flu is exposed to an animal flu strain. The viruses basically dump their respective genetic material into the nucleus of the cells of the infected person, where they hijack the replication mechanism to produce copies of themselves. If a person "catches" two different viruses at the same time, there's a fair chance that the resulting viruses will have swapped some genetic material while in the poor guy's cells. The possible result--a new disease that is communicable between people but has the properties of the flu that formerly existed only in non-human animals). In a given year, thousands of people might be exposed to BOTH communicable flu and animal starins (including H5N). The "right" recombination only as to happen one time for a pandemic to begin.
With the H5N virus we have a flu that can cause relatively high human mortality and only needs to attain the ability to cross over into the human population. Oh, and it now thrives in hosts that migrate internationaly AND live in close proximity to humans. Experts who know seem to believe this threat is considerable, and I trust their expertise in these issues more than my own ability to somehow deduce the threat myself.
1) The mortality among humans who actually contract flu is very high (better than 20%). Compare this to the run-of-the-mill flu that we pass around every year (low mortality) . This is a fact.
2) Influenza has a proven ability to migrate cross-species and become infectious to humans. This happens routinely--the flu we pass around every year generally arises from a flu virus in non-human populations that crosses over into the human population. (This often happens when a person sick with last year's flu is exposed to an animal flu strain. The viruses basically dump their respective genetic material into the nucleus of the cells of the infected person, where they hijack the replication mechanism to produce copies of themselves. If a person "catches" two different viruses at the same time, there's a fair chance that the resulting viruses will have swapped some genetic material while in the poor guy's cells. The possible result--a new disease that is communicable between people but has the properties of the flu that formerly existed only in non-human animals). In a given year, thousands of people might be exposed to BOTH communicable flu and animal starins (including H5N). The "right" recombination only as to happen one time for a pandemic to begin.
With the H5N virus we have a flu that can cause relatively high human mortality and only needs to attain the ability to cross over into the human population. Oh, and it now thrives in hosts that migrate internationaly AND live in close proximity to humans. Experts who know seem to believe this threat is considerable, and I trust their expertise in these issues more than my own ability to somehow deduce the threat myself.
The problem sn't transmission of the virus through te water The problem is that the folks at the waterworks, electric company, your gas station, the supermarket won't come to work if this is a nasty bug. Everyone will be avoiding other folks, and that means not going to work. I wonder if some type of bizzare "non-contact economy" might develop in short order--gas will be pay at the pump only, the guy at the 7-11 will sell you a gal of milk ($20) through the window slot, but he'll only take credit cards, etc)justin said:I've heard about power and water being shut off in the event of bird flu. Why would that be a possibility? Couldn't we always boil water for 5 min. to kill the virii?