Complete Bird Flu Survival Guide

Bird flu might spread from infected faeces or urine as well as coughed up droplets, a new study on infected cats show, raising fresh fears that it might be
difficult to control the situation if human-to-human infection becomes a reality.

A team led by Thijs Kuiken at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, carried out detailed autopsies of infected cats and these mammals are thought to be a reasonable model for human infections. This allowed them to catch a glimpse of the virus at the peak of an infection rather than waiting until after death.

Their findings show that avian flu ravages tissues throughout the body raising
fears that if the virus jumps, a pandemic will erupt.

Tamiflu ®. is an antiviral drug used in the treatment of both influenza A and influenza. With increasing fears about the potential for a new influenza pandemic, oseltamivir has received substantial media attention. Production capacity is limited and governments are stockpiling the drug.

Le Pharmacy.com, a leading international online mail-order marketing intermediary announce new limited sources of supply for the antiviral medication Tamiflu. The avian flu medication will be available on a first come, first served basis.

“Inventories have been artificially restricted, pricing is way up, but there is always some supply on a global basis. Every announcement of a death increases the demand,” said Ross McKinlay, marketing director for LePharmacy.com.

An 11-year-old girl died Friday of suspected bird flu in eastern Turkey days after her brother and sister also succumbed. Their doctor said they probably contracted the illness by playing with dead chickens. A fourth sibling from the same family was also seriously ill and breathing with the help of respirators, said Huseyin Avni Sahin, head physician at the hospital in the eastern city of Van where the children were treated.

Drugstores, pharmaceutical benefit managers and physicians are reporting that their customers and patients have been building home stockpiles of the prescription antiviral medicine. The run on Tamiflu was apparently spurred by government warnings, here and abroad, that chances for a worldwide flu epidemic are rising, and by news that Southeast Asia's H5N1 bird flu -- the leading candidate for a pandemic -- is moving westward.

For more than a year, demand for the drug, known generically as oseltamivir, has been rising as more than three dozen countries began to lay in millions of doses for national stockpiles. Retail demand, however, took a sharp upturn in September, 2005. A five-day course of two pills a day can cost up to $200 at US pharmacies.

Five new human cases of bird flu have been confirmed in several Turkish provinces, pushing the number of people infected up to 14, officials say.The cases, identified as being of the deadly H5N1 strain, mean the virus is now present in the east, north and centre of the country.

At least two Turkish children have died, and correspondents say fear is spreading rapidly across the country. Health experts say there is no sign the virus is passing from human to human yet!

The Spanish flu of 1918 was a terrible pandemic. In a few months, it killed more people than any other illness in recorded world history -- an estimated 20 million to 50 million worldwide, including roughly 550,000 in the United States.

In severe cases, victims' lungs filled with fluid and they essentially drowned in a disease process that took less than a week. It was known for being particularly dangerous to young adults, a group usually less susceptible to flu complications than younger and older people.

Each year anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu. Anyone can contract it, but children, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions are more likely to experience complications, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections.

The flu can also worsen chronic health problems — asthmatics are more likely to have asthma attacks, and people with chronic congestive heart failure may have their condition worsen.

On average, 36,000 people in the United States die from influenza and related complications each year, according to the CDC. More than 200,000 are admitted to hospitals for treatment.

Flu season is just around the corner, and fears have never been higher.

An avian flu virus is winging around the globe and could reach the United States next year. It is likely, scientists say, that the virus will morph into a form easily transmitted by humans. Were that to occur, officials fear a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Many people think of the flu as a winter disease, because incidence typically peaks from December to March. It’s actually a year-round problem.

But people tend to stay indoors more in the winter, easing person-to-person transmission of the disease, which is caused by a virus, said Jennifer Morcone, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.

The virus is most commonly spread in liquid droplets made airborne by coughing or sneezing. Symptoms — such as fever, body ache, extreme fatigue, sore throat and dry cough — begin showing in adults one to four days after being infected.

Bird flu (also known as avian flu or avian influenza) is a flu due to a type of influenza virus that is hosted by birds, but may infect several species of mammals. It was first identified in Serbia Montenegro in the early 1900s and is now known to exist worldwide. A strain of the H5N1-type of avian influenzavirus that emerged in 1997 has been identified as the most likely source of a future influenza pandemic and is known to have infected 133 people in Asia since late 2003, killing 68.