USA Today: Quick action may head off global epidemic

[wschalle]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-06-05-bird-flu-cover_x.htm

-snip-
BANGKOK — After poring over old medical records, studying census data and cranking out mathematical models, scientists and health officials are beginning to believe they have a chance to stop a bird flu pandemic before it kills millions of people worldwide.


(A health officer collects ducks to be killed at a farm in Pathum Thani north of Bangkok, in 2004, amid the reported resurgence of bird flu in the country. AFP)

-snip
"The world is not dealing with this with sufficient attention," says Supamit Chunsuttiwat, disease control expert at the Thai Ministry of Public Health. "If we join hands, we might be able to stop the pandemic."

"We are not prepared," says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It is critical to scale up preparations on the home front, but equally urgent ... to prevent the start of a new pandemic in Asia."

[indepat]

1. We can take comfort this Administration will keep us safe from all terror

including the terror of pandemic: we can take comfort everything humanly possible will be done in the public health to thwart the sheer terror a pandemic would bring. We know this Administration will not drag its feet like the Reagan Administration did in confronting the burgeoning AIDS crisis.

[bpilgrim]

2. How many microbiologist have caught the 'flu' since the neoCONs took over?

:scared:

peace

[earth mom]

3. U.S. has Tamiflu supply for less than 1% of the population

The supply problem

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tamiflu for treating adults in 1999 and for prevention (in people older than 12) in 2000. Tamiflu helped control an outbreak of the H7N7 avian flu strain that caused one death in the Netherlands two
But Tamiflu takes a year to manufacture and is expensive. At U.S. pharmacies, it costs about $6.50 per capsule, though Roche is offering undisclosed discounts to governments that stockpile the drug and has donated about 120,000 10-capsule treatments to the WHO, Roche spokesman Terence Hurley says. The recommended dosage is 10 (two a day for five days) for treatment; and at least five (one a day for five days) for prevention, WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley says. So the cost can add up, especially in a country such as Laos where the annual per capita income is less than $2,000.

As the bird flu threat has grown, wealthy countries have started stockpiling Tamiflu. The United Kingdom has amassed 14.6 million 10-capsule treatments, enough to cover a quarter of its population. The United States last year had stockpiled 2.3 million treatments, enough for less than 1% of the population, according to Roche.

Why does the U.S. only have enough medicine for prevention or treatment on the Avian flu for less than 1% of the population?! So they only plan on saving the very rich? :grr: Wonder if we peasants or is that peons (?) can order some from Canada? :sarcasm:

[Demeter]

4. Right! Like That's Going to Happen

This Administration will quickly (and comically) cover its own ass, but actually doing good is totally beyond its capabilities. After all, where's the profit in that?