Saturday, January 21, 2006

The Bird Flew...

What’s wrong with these news agencies? Have they just come to notice Chicks can kill??

P.S: Guess Adam wouldn have considered this sth nu either!!

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I don’t really care about the gender of the chicken I ate last night but can they please let us know the local spread of this bird flu thing so we can decide whether to die or keep trying to breathe on???

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Why is everyone suddenly interested in the bird that flew!!??

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Bird Flu clinical Features:

The incubation period for H5N1 avian influenza may be longer than that for normal seasonal influenza, which is around 2 to 3 days. Current data for H5N1 infection indicate an incubation period ranging from 2 to 8 days and possibly as long as 17 days. However, the possibility of multiple exposure to the virus makes it difficult to define the incubation period precisely. WHO currently recommends that an incubation period of 7 days be used for field investigations and the monitoring of patient contacts.

Initial symptoms include a high fever, usually with a temperature higher than 38oC, and influenza-like symptoms. Diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and bleeding from the nose and gums have also been reported as early symptoms in some patients.
more

12 comments:

Em said...

Hello

I reckon because the whole world is being affected that y d sudden panic..but I reckon that the news is still under control tho.

Shirin said...

Yous a bit funny aint you Dr O2 ;-) My mum and I have this theory that this bird flu in Turkey business has suddenly been made such a big news so Turkey can be refused entry to the EU on grounds of them handling this crisis badly and all that. It might be a nonsense theory but when that other scary disease, SARS, found its way to Toronto, all the other countries had their back all the way and were even saying that people mustn’t stop visiting Toronto so Canada’s Economy would stay strong. In this case however, people were discouraged from visiting Turkey right from the start, even though only two people had died from bird flu there and they know a whole lot more about this disease than they knew about SARS. I might be wrong but it all feels a bit fishy to me.

Dr O2 said...

em - perhaps it is the widespread that worries people & yet it is scarey as well. Sth like a cold killing people...

shirin - brilliant theory that! perhaps that can also be taken into account. Yet these flying birds do kill people & as not officially mentioned cases have been reported in Orummie as well :-S yet the health system prefers to keep people & even the medical system in the dark...

David said...

I have been hearing about bird flu cases in Turkey. Have there been any reported in Iran yet? It still seems the transmissibility of the virus is only from bird to human, and not yet human to human, but I know this could change at any time. I hope that a vaccine will be available soon!

Em said...

Ola Omid

The reason y I have time is I make the time... wen I cook I chill and destress....

U jus hv to find time to juggle ...which I knw u can

Anonymous said...

in malaysia, there are few suspected cases, but no confirmation about it. there are confirmed cases in thailand and indonesia. there must be in between..

Anonymous said...

btw Dr ,is it contagious?

Xo Xo...Sweet Success! said...

On occasion, we see the world having a panic attack (as they did with the SARS). I travelled to Singapore whilst it was at the highest alert for SARS and when I returned back to Perth, they told me not to come to school or work for 10 days...oh I love a forced holiday! hehe

I do remember sitting in the doctor's office back in Perth a few months back when the news broke out of the Bird flu. They were saying that there was going to be a shortage of the drug Tamiflu. People were asking the doctor for Tamiflu but the doctor came out and said, you don't have to worry about anything, the government has stockpiled the drugs.

The problem at the time was that the government had only stock piled enough for the "important" people needed to run the country, i.e. the politicians... haha... hence the freak out in the nation.

Once it becomes like SARS...we'll have something to worry about... SARS was a wake up call and a preparation for the next epidemic, which I don't think is too far away unfortunately.

Shirin said...

Ooh that does sound a bit scary then. I was wondering if it had arrived in Iran as well or not. The thing is for a while they were really scaring us over here about this bird flu and how it was sure to wipe out the human race and everything and that really frightened the whole nation. But then it became apparent that this wasn’t the case and me being the Iranian and making it my business to be suspicious about the news, thought that maybe (like that time when they brought out tanks to Heathrow airport saying that the terrorists were about to attack) they were trying to make people panic about something completely superficial so behind the scenes they could get down to business and do what they really wanted to do in piece.

jarvenpa said...

The question of bird flu and how to prepare for it came up at a recent clinic board meeting--our doc said the govt (US) is having meetings and stuff about it (which doesn't make me feel very confident), but that insofar as what he's been told it is transmitted only by direct bird/human contact (the recent Turkish kids had been playing catch with a dead chicken's head). Don't know for sure. I do wonder if all the furore isn't over-reaction. But don't know.

Dr O2 said...

sorry all for the delay. I am sure you have all noticed my absence for this period. A nasty month of business for me I guess. Am suffering from chronic fatigue syndrom perhaps ;-)

Dr O2 said...

em- yeah. I am a bit too involved in activities. Will have to get myself out of some action & more into pleasurable activities. Sometimes I really like to stop but I have a tendency to become addicted to the activities I get involved in... :-)

NBB - That also goes for us then. On our east & in our west! somewhat impossible to deny it...
Yet luckily I don think any bird could survive Tehran's air-pollution! ;-)

Foulla - Flu is a mysterious virus which has the ability to change into new forms. So far there is no human-human report but it won't surprise me if it happens at any time...

Suraya - well yeah these panic attacks are amongthe rare occasions the world shows some unity these days.

As for Flu there are many serotypes. The vaccine is not effective for many kinds. Don' rely on that much ;-)

shirin - as usual there is not enough info for the public & even us as the medical staff don get informed. How should we expect diagnosis when we don really expect to diagnose sth like that??

jarvenpa - me neither but sure enough it helps thinking that preventive measures are on their way. Let's hope for all this to end asap.