US readies flu pandemic response plan: report

[Klaus]

US readies flu pandemic response plan: report
Sat Apr 15, 2006 10:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government would expand the Internet and possibly permit foreign countries to print U.S. currency during a flu pandemic, under a national response plan that could be approved within days by President George W. Bush, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

An article on the newspaper's Web site said the document is the first to spell out how the government would detect and respond to a flu outbreak and continue to function through what could be an 18-month crisis capable of killing up to 1.9 million Americans.

The 240-page response plan identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal agencies, including determining which frontline workers should be vaccinated first and expanding the Internet to accommodate a likely flood of people working from their home computers.

The newspaper said the Treasury Department is poised to sign agreements with other nations to produce currency if U.S. mints cannot operate.

The Pentagon, anticipating difficulties acquiring supplies from the Far East, is considering stockpiling millions of latex gloves.

The article, which was also to appear in the Post's Sunday editions, said the Department of Veterans Affairs has developed a drive-through medical exam to quickly assess patients who suspect they have been infected by the virus.

Bush is expected to approve the plan within a week, the article said.

The White House is eager to show it can manage the medical, security and economic fallout from a major outbreak following its widely criticized to Hurricane Katrina, the Post said. Concern about a possible pandemic has grown with the emergence of the H5N1 avian flu, the most dangerous strain in decades.

Bush is expected to adopt post-Katrina recommendations that a new interagency task force coordinate the federal response and a high-level Disaster Response Group resolve disputes among agencies or states, the newspaper said. Neither entity has been created.

When the response plan is issued, the Post said U.S. officials intend to announce several vaccine manufacturing contracts to jump-start an industry that has declined in recent decades.

To keep the 1.8 million federal workers healthy and productive through a pandemic, the Bush administration would tap into its secure stash of medications, cancel large gatherings, encourage schools to close and shift air traffic controllers to the busier hubs.

The newspaper said retired federal employees would be summoned back to work, and National Guard troops could be dispatched to cities facing possible insurrection.

[DennisAJC]

Originally posted by Klaus:
The U.S. government would expand the Internet and possibly [b]permit foreign countries to print U.S. currency

I'll have our laser copiers on the ready.

Coming from you Klaus, sounds like it may be more serious than we're lead to believe?

[Klaus]

Originally posted by DennisAJC:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Klaus:
The U.S. government would expand the Internet and possibly [b]permit foreign countries to print U.S. currency

I'll have our laser copiers on the ready.

Coming from you Klaus, sounds like it may be more serious than we're lead to believe? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

All I can say is that I pray it does not happen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bird flu may kill 150m, warns U.N.
WHO expert urges world to prepare for anticipated outbreak

Friday, September 30, 2005; Posted: 7:16 a.m. EDT (11:16 GMT)


(CNN) -- A global influenza pandemic could come at any time and claim anywhere between 5 million and 150 million lives, depending on steps the world takes now to control the bird flu in Asia, the United Nations said.

Additionally, the bird flu virus is likely to mutate into a strain that can be passed person to person, Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization told reporters at a Thursday news conference at the United Nations in New York.

"We expect the next influenza pandemic to come at any time now, and it's likely to be caused by a mutant of the virus that is currently causing bird flu in Asia," Nabarro said in a report from The Associated Press.

Nabarro's comments came as governments and international organizations intensified efforts to combat the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The United States Senate on Thursday agreed to spend $4 billion to stock up on anti-viral drugs and increase global surveillance for the disease. But the money, attached to an unrelated fiscal 2006 spending bill for the military, has not been embraced by the House of Representatives.

Earlier this month U.S. President George W. Bush announced a plan at the United Nations calling for global resources and expertise to be pooled to fight bird flu. The United States will host a planning meeting on the subject next week.

Canada will host an October 25-26 meeting of high-level public health officials in Ottawa. (Full story)

And WHO has called for a November 7-8 meeting in Geneva to coordinate needed funding.

The H5N1 virus has so far mainly infected humans who were in close contact with infected birds. It has killed more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003.

Millions of birds in Asia have been destroyed. According to a Reuters report, an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in losses to the poultry industry have been recorded so far, with the heaviest losses in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The virus has also been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

At his Thursday news conference at the United Nations, Nabarro said Asia and the Middle East are of special concern as the bird flu is now concentrated in Asia and could be carried to the Middle East by migratory flocks.

But Nabarro warned that an outbreak in impoverished and conflict-ridden parts of Africa, where health services are scarce and millions have been driven from their homes, could lead to "a nightmare scenario," he said.

Nabarro said he would head a new U.N. system-wide office in New York that would begin mobilizing governments, international agencies, health workers and the pharmaceutical industry.

Once the virus began spreading among humans, it would be only a matter of weeks before a pandemic was under way, so a rapid response would be crucial, he said.

"The avian flu epidemic has to be controlled if we are to prevent a human influenza pandemic," Nabarro said, according to AP. The last flu pandemic broke out in 1918 following World War I, killing more than 40 million people. There were subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968 which had lower death rates but caused great disruption, he said.

A new pandemic would claim between 5 million and 150 million people, Nabarro said.

"I believe the work we're doing over the next few months on prevention and preparedness will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 (million) or in the direction of 5 (million)," he said in the AP report.

"So our effectiveness will be directly measured in lives saved and the consequences for the world."

Nabarro said in an AP report that he faces the challenges of persuading governments to prepare for a pandemic and to overcome their reluctance to publicly disclose an outbreak.

Another major challenge will be to gear up vaccine makers to produce large quantities immediately after a pandemic starts and the exact variety of influenza is known, he said.

The Associated Press reported that Nabarro plans to travel to Washington on Friday to work with the U.S. State Department on preparations for the first meeting of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, to be held on October 7. The U.S. initiative is designed to increase global readiness to deal with a human flu pandemic and will "garner political will," he said in the AP report.

Nabarro said he will then spend the next two weeks traveling in Asia, before attending a meeting of health ministers in Ottawa, Canada on October 25.

Nabarro said he hopes to persuade governments that "the U.N. system is actually going to help keep their people alive," and to generate political support for a three-pronged strategy focusing on prevention, preparedness, and response to a potential pandemic.

While the U.N.'s efforts will initially focus on Asian countries, Nabarro said that because of the flight patterns of migratory birds, "and our perception that the virus is in the migratory birds, we need to be looking at this globally," AP reported.

He said "the real nightmare scenario is that the pandemic takes root in some of the least well-served and perhaps very crowded parts of the world where services are bad," like the camps for thousands of people who have fled their homes in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region, AP reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapc....un/index.html

[DennisAJC]

Damn,

Any indication that flu is erupting here, I'm pulling the kids out of school and locking ourselves in the house.

[Mrs.ssippi]

Originally posted by DennisAJC:
Damn,

Any indication that flu is erupting here, I'm pulling the kids out of school and locking ourselves in the house.

I was told you should tape up your windows with some type of strong tape and plastic covering.

[HummerNewbie]

Originally posted by Mrs.ssippi:
I was told you should tape up your windows with some type of strong tape and plastic covering.

I heard you do the same thing to help prevent trail damage such as scratches from branches

[CO Hummer]

Originally posted by DennisAJC:
Damn,

Any indication that flu is erupting here, I'm pulling the kids out of school and locking ourselves in the house.

I'm just gonna pack up some gear and head to Moab until it all blows over.

[DRTYFN]

The bird flu ain't gonna do stink.

[DennisAJC]

Originally posted by Alec W:
Sometimes the best way to beat a virus is to do nothing.

Please do Alec. Do nothing.

[CO Hummer]

Originally posted by DRTYFN:
The bird flu ain't gonna do stink.

It's still a good excuse to go to Moab tho.

[DRTYFN]

Originally posted by CO Hummer:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DRTYFN:
The bird flu ain't gonna do stink.

It's still a good excuse to go to Moab tho. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

No way, Jose. The people in Arizona have MUMPS!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...n_x.htm?csp=34

[NJ H2]

Originally posted by DRTYFN:
The bird flu ain't gonna do stink.

x2!

I'm sick of all the media hype about this. Let's look back in time at all the crap that should have killed us:

1 - EBOLA
2 - SARS
3 - Mad Cow
4 - Global Warming
5 - Ozone Layer
6 - Anthrax
7 - Y2k
8 - West Nile Virus
9 - Killer Bees
10 - Giant Meteor


Of course I still think stockpiling canned Tuna is a good idea!
I loave da canned Tuna!

[DennisAJC]

Originally posted by NJ H2:
10 - Giant Meteor

You'll see!!!

You'll be sorry!

You'll all be sorry!!!!!

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

[Mrs.ssippi]

Originally posted by DennisAJC:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by NJ H2:
10 - Giant Meteor

You'll see!!!

You'll be sorry!

You'll all be sorry!!!!!

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I will tape my roof and Meteor be damned!!!!

[NJ H2]

Originally posted by DennisAJC:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by NJ H2:
10 - Giant Meteor

You'll see!!!

You'll be sorry!

You'll all be sorry!!!!!

MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bring it on Biatch!!!

Population control?

[Klaus]

Originally posted by Steve - SanJose:
Population control?

Chart

[DRTYFN]

Originally posted by Klaus:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Steve - SanJose:
Population control?

Chart </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

WTF??? Since 2003 there's been 194 reported cases of avian flu??? Whoopty-f*cking-do!!!!!