Global pandemic in the works...


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Looks like another threatened pandemic in the works again. :cry:

I'm more concerned this time because (a) Russia has a huge landmass (unlike last year's outbreak in Hong Kong and Vietnam) - and all exit points cannot practically be covered; and (b) migratory birds are an issue this time (last year's outbreaks were confined to domesticated fowl).

Brrrr...are you concerned as well ?

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Russia culls fowl, blocks roads to halt bird flu peril

Maria Golovnina

August 16, 2005

Russia cordoned off roads and was slaughtering fowl Monday to contain the advance of a bird flu epidemic towards Western Europe.

The nation's top epidemiologist warned that the bird flu outbreak in Siberia also could spread through Russia's key agricultural areas in the south and then on to the Middle East and Mediterranean countries.

"An analysis of bird migration routes has shown that in autumn 2005 ... the H5N1 virus may be spread from Western Siberia to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea,'' Gennady Onishchenko advised regional health officials.

"Apart from Russia's south, migrating birds may spread the virus to nearby countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Mediterranean countries) because bird migration routes from Siberia also go through those regions in autumn,'' he said.

The outbreak, previously confined to five remote areas of Siberia, has now struck a major industrial region - Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains, which separate Asia from Europe.

"All ill and infected birds are being slaughtered there,'' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

It was unclear whether the virus found in Chelyabinsk was the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed at least 62 people in Asia since 2003 and has hit Siberia as well as neighbouring Kazakhstan and Mongolia since mid-July.

Carried by flocks of wild birds migrating from Siberia to warmer regions, the virus has been steadily moving westward through the regions of Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan and Altai.

Chelyabinsk, separated from European Russia by the Urals and technically still in Siberia, is the westernmost region to have been struck so far. It lies about 1,000 km from the region where the first flu outbreak was reported.

Although no humans have yet been affected, there are fears the disease could spread to humans on the Eurasian landmass, possibly unleashing a global influenza pandemic.

Roads leading to the infected village of Oktyabrskoye in Chelyabinsk had been cordoned off to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In other affected regions, police boosted road checks, and 400 domestic birds were culled in Chelyabinsk alone to block the virus that has killed more than 10,000 birds countrywide.

Officials said wild birds, increasingly active in August as they prepare to migrate ahead of winter, were to blame. "Checks have shown that they are the main source of infection,'' said Novosti news agency that quoted an official with the Novosibirsk state consumer rights watchdog as saying.

REUTERS

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Well to be honest scientists have been saying it's only a question of time before the next 1918-like flu pandemic.

Just how they are going to control every single migratory bird I have no idea.

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Enough to protect high-ranking US gov officials and their families I guess. I mean, who else matters.

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ummm...like the Umbrella Corporation ?

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