BIRD FLU PANDEMIC INFLUENZA 1
After writing a book about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed 40 million people, I decided to research the coming bird flu pandemic after learning that recent DNA testing has revealed that the 1918 incident was also a strain of avian flu. The publishers I spoke with were not interested in publishing this however, because I'm not a doctor, scientist, or bird flu expert. And yet, although I was not on the Titanic, no doubt it would be completely acceptable for me to write about the doomed ship - go figure.
Nonetheless, here it is, in part, for anyone who may be interested in learning more about what may be coming our way soon. You may want to 'bookmark' it for future use should the bird flu rear its ugly head in America. I'll post more of the two hundred pages if there is any interest in reading it.
PART 1
INFLUENZA PANDEMIC
“Few took notice when the first of many stalwart men fell ill that spring of 1918. In scope, they were not unlike the first snowflakes to fall before a major blizzard. Seemingly insignificant and harmless, they offered no portent of the storm that would follow some weeks later. Yet when that storm arrived, the entire world took notice, and it trembled, for the Grim Reaper had come to the earth, fully prepared to change the world in a season. And neither medicines or schemes, nor the prayers of righteous men and fearful women could stave off his appointment with 40 million souls.” (Devon McCall, “PANDEMIC FLU REPORT” 1944)
INFLUENZA
At the time of this writing there are media reports coming out daily from all around the world about Avian Influenza, Bird Flu, H5N1, or the approaching Flu Pandemic. Unfamiliar words and terminology that not long ago carried little interest to the average person now cause many to stop whatever they’re doing to catch up on the latest news about it. As the coming months pass by, the subject will undoubtedly come up more often around the water cooler, in bars, restaurants, schools and churches, and even at the dinner table when children begin asking their parents about it. But is it real and something to be concerned about? Or could it be merely a ruse by the medical community to sell more pills and flu shots? Let’s examine the evidence.
When we think about influenza, we usually do so without giving much thought to its impact or its place in history. It’s looked upon as merely a disruption to our daily lives and more of an inconvenience than anything else, especially since it’s relatively short-lived and many of us avoid getting it altogether. If we learn that someone has ‘come down’ with the flu, seldom do we become any more concerned than if they had ‘caught’ a cold, and in fact we often put it in the same class as the common cold. We simply try to avoid being around them and fully expect them to 'get well soon.' But could it be that we’ve misjudged this seemingly minor ailment? Could it be that there’s much more to it than we’ve always believed? Yes there is, and much more indeed.
We call it influenza because it originates from the Italian word ‘Influenzae,’ for ‘influence.’ A name so given because it was once thought that the disease was ‘influenced’ by the stars (this may have been around the same time they were perfecting the medical practice of ‘blood-letting’). As time went by and the medical profession evolved, doctors and scientists concluded that the ailment was brought about not by the stars at all, but rather by a bacterium known as Hemophilus Influenzae. But they were wrong again. What they didn’t realize at the time was that a virus is so small that they couldn’t see it with even their most powerful looking glasses or microscopes. It wasn’t until the early 1930’s with the invention of the electron microscope that scientists discovered that Influenza was actually caused by a virus rather than the larger sized bacteria.
The influenza season usually arrives during the winter months and can run into March, but then after it has run its full course it usually goes away of its own accord. The only thing we can be sure of where influenza is concerned is that it will return again next year - if not sooner. The flu virus mutates and mingles with viruses from previous years and it can usually spread from human to human quite efficiently.
During the typical ‘cold and flu’ seasons we flock to the drug stores and super markets where we hunt for some form of relief. We’ll pace up and down the neatly stocked shelves containing an assortment of potential remedies in boxes of all sizes and colors, examining the large print on the box fronts hoping to match the claim of what it cures to the symptoms we have. Then once we have a possible match, we turn the box over and look at the fine print on the back and then purchase the product hoping we’ve made the right choice. If we’re lucky, whatever we purchased will help to alleviate our discomfort, and if we’re not, our ailment will run its full course and go away and we’ll merely be out several dollars.
The Flu verses the Common Cold
Despite all of the information available to us, and often many years of personal experience with these two ailments, the average person still finds it hard to differentiate between the cold and the flu, and subsequently we usually treat them alike. So what is influenza, the flu, and how does it differ from the common cold? First let’s examine the cold.
The viruses responsible for a person catching a cold seem to grow best at 91* Fahrenheit and coincidentally, that’s the temperature inside of the human nose. When a person ‘catches’ a cold, it’s usually because they were within close proximity to someone already suffering from it and have somehow inhaled the virus. They can also catch it when an infected person sneezes, or after an infected person has spread the virus from their hands onto a surface that the uninfected person touched. The person who touched or inhaled the virus may begin to notice symptoms of a scratchy throat or runny nose within one to five days from the time they themselves caught the cold.
Caused by any one of more than 200 viruses, the most common one that people encounter is known as the Rhinovirus (nose virus), of which there are more than 100 varieties. It’s because there are so many different cold viruses that it’s impractical to try and make a vaccine for the cold. Which one of the 200 vaccines would you take if you found a pharmacy who had so many or even a pharmaceutical company willing to produce them all?
Cold viruses cause an infection that affects the upper respiratory system, typically confined to the nose and throat, causing sneezing, stuffiness, and runny noses. There’s seldom a fever associated with a cold, except in toddlers and infants who may experience a temperature rise in the 100* to 102* degree’s Fahrenheit range as their body temperature adjusts itself to fight the infection with heat. Other symptoms that can occur from cold viruses are burning eyes, post nasal drip, coughing, head and muscle aches, and even a loss of appetite.
The cold season typically arrives with the late fall to early winter months or during rainy seasons, and once caught it usually runs its full course in about a week with some minor symptoms remaining for another. There is no cure for the common cold. Note: if a cold lasts beyond a week to ten days, you may wish to consult a doctor as you may have developed acute bacterial sinusitis which usually requires prescription antibiotics to keep it from spreading into other areas of the body. Influenza, or the Flu, is one of the most infectious diseases in the world and is easily transmissible and highly contagious.
It’s typically contracted through some sort of contact, either directly or indirectly. Like the cold it’s also caused by a viral infection and attacks the upper respiratory system but unlike the common cold it also attacks the lungs and bronchial areas as well. Although it’s spread similarly to the cold, influenza is easier to catch and its symptoms are more severe and last longer. Flu symptoms normally begin within one to seven days after contamination by the virus, and the victim usually begins to exhibit signs of a fever ranging from 102* to 105* degree’s Fahrenheit along with aches throughout much of their body.
Other symptoms may include dizzy spells, earaches, and vomiting, and the person will usually become very lethargic, often complaining of total exhaustion. The fever usually fades within one to three days and then the respiratory system will begin to show signs of distress in the throat with some bronchial agitation, and possibly even an ear infection. The infected person will usually have a dry hacking cough and complain of a sore throat and headaches. Expect to see some discharge from the nose and some sneezing, and unlike the common cold, the feeling of exhaustion may linger for weeks after the flu has gone.
Besides direct fluid transfer, the virus can escape from the confines of the infected host from sneezing, coughing, talking, or even with every breath. Whenever a person sneezes or coughs, they expel visible and invisible (microscopic), droplets of fluid from their mouths into the air and onto surfaces or even other people. These are contagious droplets, atomized and propelled when you cough or sneeze much like a can of hairspray, with some of the mixture being so tiny that it moves freely about in the air. The average sneeze for example can propel more than 100,000 virus particles into the air. Come into contact with them and you run the risk of spreading the virus to your own body.
If an infected person has good manners they will instinctively cover their mouth with their hands when they cough or sneeze, but if they don’t wash their hands well, everything they touch can become a hot zone of infectious activity. When you turn on that light switch that an infected person switched on or off, use the phone they were on, the ATM, open a door, borrow a pen, or get change back from Mister Happy Burger, you run the risk of contracting the virus yourself. The virus can be spread to surfaces too numerous to mention and can survive for up to 48 hours under normal conditions as it waits to be carried off by new hosts.
Another difference between the common cold and influenza is that influenza can be lethal whereas the cold is generally not. Influenza kills approximately 36,000 people in America every year, and more than half a million people worldwide, often due to secondary causes such as pneumonia or blood poisoning. Of those 36,000 who die annually from the flu, approximately 90 percent of them are over the age of 65. And lastly, unlike the common cold, influenza is highly preventable thanks to vaccines. That in itself is reason enough to get a ‘flu shot’ when they become available each year, especially the elderly, the very young, and those whose immune systems are not at their optimum.
Flu vaccines typically prevent the flu in 70 to 90 percent of those under the age of 65 who are otherwise healthy. For the elderly people who get vaccinated, the effectiveness can range from 30 to 70 percent. This number may increase in the future thanks to a chemical that European vaccine maker ‘Chiron’ has been adding to their flu vaccines for the elderly overseas. The Chemical, known formally as MF59, seems to increase the immune response in the elderly when added to the influenza vaccine. The Flu season usually arrives during the winter months and due to influenza’s short incubation period, it can easily sweep through schools, neighborhoods, and even sections of a city in a very short period of time as an epidemic.
Pandemic flu strains however do not follow many of the normal influenza protocols and can appear at any time of the year in any region of the globe. Symptoms typically appear within one to two days and can include muscle aches, fatigue, chills, fever, and a feeling of lethargy. Some men infected during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic reported severe pains in their backs, legs, ankles, and even behind their eyes while others experienced throats that were raw, and many had traces of blood in their urine.
The worst cases were easily noticeable because the victim would begin to turn a shade of grayish-blue, referred to as cyanotic, as the virus began attacking their lungs, and many times the victims would fall into a coma. The strange skin color was due to a lack of oxygen in the blood cells as the lungs became engorged with blood, inhibiting the transfer of oxygen through the lungs. The lungs of many in 1918 were sometimes described during the victims autopsy as being almost a ‘solid mass.’ The blood would continue to build up in the lungs, foaming and congealing, until finally it seeped from the eyes and mouths and even the ears as the person essentially drowned in their own blood. Often when a patient reached the stage of cyanosis, they were treated as being terminal – or certain to die.
Influenza virus strains hearty enough to reach pandemic status can be so powerful that symptoms can appear within mere hours after initial exposure. In 1918, individuals who got up in the morning feeling as healthy as a horse, before the day was out would be as dead as a dog. Some young men, healthy and in the prime of their lives who began to feel sick, displaying symptoms enough so that they went straight to the hospital to be examined, died while they were still standing in line at the hospital.
Meanwhile others around them might appear completely unaffected by it and continue going about their daily routine when all the while they would be unknowingly carrying it inside them and spreading it to new environments and victims. Influenza is a very mobile virus in the sense that it easily invades a host and uses them as a vehicle to help it spread. By going from host to host it also has the time and opportunity to mutate into something more than what it originally began as and that’s why you’ll hear of a pandemic flu often coming in time cycles, or ‘waves.’
Continued on Part 2
Nonetheless, here it is, in part, for anyone who may be interested in learning more about what may be coming our way soon. You may want to 'bookmark' it for future use should the bird flu rear its ugly head in America. I'll post more of the two hundred pages if there is any interest in reading it.
PART 1
INFLUENZA PANDEMIC
“Few took notice when the first of many stalwart men fell ill that spring of 1918. In scope, they were not unlike the first snowflakes to fall before a major blizzard. Seemingly insignificant and harmless, they offered no portent of the storm that would follow some weeks later. Yet when that storm arrived, the entire world took notice, and it trembled, for the Grim Reaper had come to the earth, fully prepared to change the world in a season. And neither medicines or schemes, nor the prayers of righteous men and fearful women could stave off his appointment with 40 million souls.” (Devon McCall, “PANDEMIC FLU REPORT” 1944)
INFLUENZA
At the time of this writing there are media reports coming out daily from all around the world about Avian Influenza, Bird Flu, H5N1, or the approaching Flu Pandemic. Unfamiliar words and terminology that not long ago carried little interest to the average person now cause many to stop whatever they’re doing to catch up on the latest news about it. As the coming months pass by, the subject will undoubtedly come up more often around the water cooler, in bars, restaurants, schools and churches, and even at the dinner table when children begin asking their parents about it. But is it real and something to be concerned about? Or could it be merely a ruse by the medical community to sell more pills and flu shots? Let’s examine the evidence.
When we think about influenza, we usually do so without giving much thought to its impact or its place in history. It’s looked upon as merely a disruption to our daily lives and more of an inconvenience than anything else, especially since it’s relatively short-lived and many of us avoid getting it altogether. If we learn that someone has ‘come down’ with the flu, seldom do we become any more concerned than if they had ‘caught’ a cold, and in fact we often put it in the same class as the common cold. We simply try to avoid being around them and fully expect them to 'get well soon.' But could it be that we’ve misjudged this seemingly minor ailment? Could it be that there’s much more to it than we’ve always believed? Yes there is, and much more indeed.
We call it influenza because it originates from the Italian word ‘Influenzae,’ for ‘influence.’ A name so given because it was once thought that the disease was ‘influenced’ by the stars (this may have been around the same time they were perfecting the medical practice of ‘blood-letting’). As time went by and the medical profession evolved, doctors and scientists concluded that the ailment was brought about not by the stars at all, but rather by a bacterium known as Hemophilus Influenzae. But they were wrong again. What they didn’t realize at the time was that a virus is so small that they couldn’t see it with even their most powerful looking glasses or microscopes. It wasn’t until the early 1930’s with the invention of the electron microscope that scientists discovered that Influenza was actually caused by a virus rather than the larger sized bacteria.
The influenza season usually arrives during the winter months and can run into March, but then after it has run its full course it usually goes away of its own accord. The only thing we can be sure of where influenza is concerned is that it will return again next year - if not sooner. The flu virus mutates and mingles with viruses from previous years and it can usually spread from human to human quite efficiently.
During the typical ‘cold and flu’ seasons we flock to the drug stores and super markets where we hunt for some form of relief. We’ll pace up and down the neatly stocked shelves containing an assortment of potential remedies in boxes of all sizes and colors, examining the large print on the box fronts hoping to match the claim of what it cures to the symptoms we have. Then once we have a possible match, we turn the box over and look at the fine print on the back and then purchase the product hoping we’ve made the right choice. If we’re lucky, whatever we purchased will help to alleviate our discomfort, and if we’re not, our ailment will run its full course and go away and we’ll merely be out several dollars.
The Flu verses the Common Cold
Despite all of the information available to us, and often many years of personal experience with these two ailments, the average person still finds it hard to differentiate between the cold and the flu, and subsequently we usually treat them alike. So what is influenza, the flu, and how does it differ from the common cold? First let’s examine the cold.
The viruses responsible for a person catching a cold seem to grow best at 91* Fahrenheit and coincidentally, that’s the temperature inside of the human nose. When a person ‘catches’ a cold, it’s usually because they were within close proximity to someone already suffering from it and have somehow inhaled the virus. They can also catch it when an infected person sneezes, or after an infected person has spread the virus from their hands onto a surface that the uninfected person touched. The person who touched or inhaled the virus may begin to notice symptoms of a scratchy throat or runny nose within one to five days from the time they themselves caught the cold.
Caused by any one of more than 200 viruses, the most common one that people encounter is known as the Rhinovirus (nose virus), of which there are more than 100 varieties. It’s because there are so many different cold viruses that it’s impractical to try and make a vaccine for the cold. Which one of the 200 vaccines would you take if you found a pharmacy who had so many or even a pharmaceutical company willing to produce them all?
Cold viruses cause an infection that affects the upper respiratory system, typically confined to the nose and throat, causing sneezing, stuffiness, and runny noses. There’s seldom a fever associated with a cold, except in toddlers and infants who may experience a temperature rise in the 100* to 102* degree’s Fahrenheit range as their body temperature adjusts itself to fight the infection with heat. Other symptoms that can occur from cold viruses are burning eyes, post nasal drip, coughing, head and muscle aches, and even a loss of appetite.
The cold season typically arrives with the late fall to early winter months or during rainy seasons, and once caught it usually runs its full course in about a week with some minor symptoms remaining for another. There is no cure for the common cold. Note: if a cold lasts beyond a week to ten days, you may wish to consult a doctor as you may have developed acute bacterial sinusitis which usually requires prescription antibiotics to keep it from spreading into other areas of the body. Influenza, or the Flu, is one of the most infectious diseases in the world and is easily transmissible and highly contagious.
It’s typically contracted through some sort of contact, either directly or indirectly. Like the cold it’s also caused by a viral infection and attacks the upper respiratory system but unlike the common cold it also attacks the lungs and bronchial areas as well. Although it’s spread similarly to the cold, influenza is easier to catch and its symptoms are more severe and last longer. Flu symptoms normally begin within one to seven days after contamination by the virus, and the victim usually begins to exhibit signs of a fever ranging from 102* to 105* degree’s Fahrenheit along with aches throughout much of their body.
Other symptoms may include dizzy spells, earaches, and vomiting, and the person will usually become very lethargic, often complaining of total exhaustion. The fever usually fades within one to three days and then the respiratory system will begin to show signs of distress in the throat with some bronchial agitation, and possibly even an ear infection. The infected person will usually have a dry hacking cough and complain of a sore throat and headaches. Expect to see some discharge from the nose and some sneezing, and unlike the common cold, the feeling of exhaustion may linger for weeks after the flu has gone.
Besides direct fluid transfer, the virus can escape from the confines of the infected host from sneezing, coughing, talking, or even with every breath. Whenever a person sneezes or coughs, they expel visible and invisible (microscopic), droplets of fluid from their mouths into the air and onto surfaces or even other people. These are contagious droplets, atomized and propelled when you cough or sneeze much like a can of hairspray, with some of the mixture being so tiny that it moves freely about in the air. The average sneeze for example can propel more than 100,000 virus particles into the air. Come into contact with them and you run the risk of spreading the virus to your own body.
If an infected person has good manners they will instinctively cover their mouth with their hands when they cough or sneeze, but if they don’t wash their hands well, everything they touch can become a hot zone of infectious activity. When you turn on that light switch that an infected person switched on or off, use the phone they were on, the ATM, open a door, borrow a pen, or get change back from Mister Happy Burger, you run the risk of contracting the virus yourself. The virus can be spread to surfaces too numerous to mention and can survive for up to 48 hours under normal conditions as it waits to be carried off by new hosts.
Another difference between the common cold and influenza is that influenza can be lethal whereas the cold is generally not. Influenza kills approximately 36,000 people in America every year, and more than half a million people worldwide, often due to secondary causes such as pneumonia or blood poisoning. Of those 36,000 who die annually from the flu, approximately 90 percent of them are over the age of 65. And lastly, unlike the common cold, influenza is highly preventable thanks to vaccines. That in itself is reason enough to get a ‘flu shot’ when they become available each year, especially the elderly, the very young, and those whose immune systems are not at their optimum.
Flu vaccines typically prevent the flu in 70 to 90 percent of those under the age of 65 who are otherwise healthy. For the elderly people who get vaccinated, the effectiveness can range from 30 to 70 percent. This number may increase in the future thanks to a chemical that European vaccine maker ‘Chiron’ has been adding to their flu vaccines for the elderly overseas. The Chemical, known formally as MF59, seems to increase the immune response in the elderly when added to the influenza vaccine. The Flu season usually arrives during the winter months and due to influenza’s short incubation period, it can easily sweep through schools, neighborhoods, and even sections of a city in a very short period of time as an epidemic.
Pandemic flu strains however do not follow many of the normal influenza protocols and can appear at any time of the year in any region of the globe. Symptoms typically appear within one to two days and can include muscle aches, fatigue, chills, fever, and a feeling of lethargy. Some men infected during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic reported severe pains in their backs, legs, ankles, and even behind their eyes while others experienced throats that were raw, and many had traces of blood in their urine.
The worst cases were easily noticeable because the victim would begin to turn a shade of grayish-blue, referred to as cyanotic, as the virus began attacking their lungs, and many times the victims would fall into a coma. The strange skin color was due to a lack of oxygen in the blood cells as the lungs became engorged with blood, inhibiting the transfer of oxygen through the lungs. The lungs of many in 1918 were sometimes described during the victims autopsy as being almost a ‘solid mass.’ The blood would continue to build up in the lungs, foaming and congealing, until finally it seeped from the eyes and mouths and even the ears as the person essentially drowned in their own blood. Often when a patient reached the stage of cyanosis, they were treated as being terminal – or certain to die.
Influenza virus strains hearty enough to reach pandemic status can be so powerful that symptoms can appear within mere hours after initial exposure. In 1918, individuals who got up in the morning feeling as healthy as a horse, before the day was out would be as dead as a dog. Some young men, healthy and in the prime of their lives who began to feel sick, displaying symptoms enough so that they went straight to the hospital to be examined, died while they were still standing in line at the hospital.
Meanwhile others around them might appear completely unaffected by it and continue going about their daily routine when all the while they would be unknowingly carrying it inside them and spreading it to new environments and victims. Influenza is a very mobile virus in the sense that it easily invades a host and uses them as a vehicle to help it spread. By going from host to host it also has the time and opportunity to mutate into something more than what it originally began as and that’s why you’ll hear of a pandemic flu often coming in time cycles, or ‘waves.’
Continued on Part 2
Labels: Avian Influenza, Bird Flu, H5N1, Pandemic
posted by iwrote1 | 4:27 PM
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