Hey..
Did anyone get to see the two documentaries on PBS on the Spanish and Avian flus? I'm going to be writing a more in depth article on my ANTIC blog, but some things you should ponder in the meantime:
The 1918 flu and the current flu started the same way: birds. The damage came when the virus jumped to mid-carrier: pigs. They were able to trace the initial spread of the virus to a WWI military base in Estaples, France, 1916. Close quarters and contact with infected birds and pigs was confirmed.
The entire scope of death was contained to 6 months in 1918, with three waves of outbreaks. So many people died in such a short span of time during that Fall and Spring that major urban facilities were all but shut down.
The virus itself does not kill you. For a virus to be efficient, it cannot kill it's host. It is the damage to your lungs from lack of oxygen that led to most deaths...
From Pipex:
Bird flu 'lung damage danger'
A lethal ability to trigger inflammation in the lungs is one of the main reasons why H5N1 bird flu is so deadly to humans, scientists revealed on Friday.
The strain, which experts fear could spark a pandemic claiming many millions of lives, is 10 times more efficient at inducing inflammation than the ordinary human flu virus, research has shown.
This can result in severe damage to the cells lining the lungs, and death.
Although H5N1 is a bird disease, a total of 125 people in south-east Asia are known to have become ill with the virus.
Of these, at least 64 have died. Almost all the victims had been in close contact with poultry or ducks carrying the infection.
Experts fear it is only a matter of time before the virus mutates or combines with another strain to become easily transmissible between humans.
If that happened it could trigger a worldwide flu pandemic as bad or worse than the one which killed an estimated 50 million in 1918.
Like H5N1, the 1918 "Spanish Flu" virus is thought to have originated in birds.
One reason experts are worried about the current strain is that it appears to be so lethal. About half of all those who have been infected so far have died.
Researchers writing in the journal Science on Friday described laboratory experiments which shed light on the deadly nature of H5N1.
Dr Michael Chan, from the University of Hong Kong, and colleagues looked at levels of signalling proteins called cytokines and chemokines which promote inflammation.
They compared the effect of exposing human lung cells to sub-strains of H5N1, and the virus which causes ordinary human flu, H1N1.
One of the H5N1 viruses was from an outbreak which occurred in Hong Kong in 1997, long before the current scare.
The tests showed that H5N1 triggered levels of the inflammatory proteins 10 times higher than H1N1.
Levels of one chemokine, IP-10, reached 2,200 picograms per millilitre (pg/ml) 24 hours after infection with H5N1.
In cells infected with H1N1, they only reached 200 pg/ml.
Inflammation is part of the body's immune response but can be deadly when it runs out of control.
Tissue that is inflamed is crowded with white blood cells that act as powerful defenders against infection. They are attracted to the site by cytokine and chemokine signals.
Unfortunately the toxins produced by the white blood cells can also be very damaging to body tissue and organs.
Dr Chan's team wrote in Science: "The recent re-emergence of H5N1 disease in humans is a cause for renewed pandemic concern and highlights the need for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of human H5N1 disease.
"Such understanding will lead to new strategies for managing human H5N1 disease and enhance our preparedness to confront pandemic influenza, whether from H5N1 or other influenza A subtypes."
Published: Friday 11th November 2005
The only line of defense that one has in the face of something this lethal is to:
1) Build your immune system now. I know many of us here like to get fucked up on any number of substances, but that compromises your immunity.
2) Read up on the antiviral properties of garlic, lemon balm, ginger and others (which I will write about on ANTIC). The disease is deadly when the toxins build. But if there is a natural, cumulative antiviral agent present, the toxins, theoretically at least, cannot be supported.
3) If you smoke STOP NOW. In the past pandemic, those that died the most were young adults 20-40. The old did not get sick (probably because they were immune due to a virus we'll never know about that they caught when they were children) and the children (who got ill and some died, but most built up immunity after time and recovered).
4) Stay aware! If you see on the news a small story about 20 or more people coming down with this thing AT THE SAME TIME, you should start consuming natural antivirals and immune builders immediately. Those 20 or 30 cases have an incubation period of 2 weeks or so. That means those 30 can spread to 800 and once it breaks the bounds of a few containable cases, it's pandemic time.
5) For regular flus you should take the same care and only use antibiotics if you have acute infection threatening an organ. Otherwise, use natural antivirals.
Please stay aware and I'll have more info soon...
C.