Article from the London Free Press on flu

[suburbanmamma]

Hi, I don't post often...but I hope to as my life is getting a bit easier lately. I hope it is okay to cut and paste the article into the email as I wasn't sure how long it would stay on their website. I sent it to my husband at work as he supports what I am trying to do only half-heartedly. I find that articles like these are good for someone starting out.

 

I saw the documentary a few years ago about this researcher on Discovery Canada. It was very interesting.

 

 

 

Everyone should start preparing for the next flu pandemic, building supplies of food, water and medication, the organizer of an expedition to unearth samples of the 1918 deadly Spanish flu warns.

 

University of Toronto scientist Kirsty Duncan led a scientific expedition during the 1990s to exhume the bodies of a group of Norwegian miners who died from the Spanish flu virus.

 

She wrote a book, Hunting the 1918 Flu: One Scientist's Search for a Killer Virus, and was in London last week.

 

Duncan said there are strong similarities between how the 1918 virus killed and today's H5N1 virus that's raising fears of another pandemic.

 

Both are Avian influenzas that mainly kill young, healthy people instead of the elderly and infants.

 

While President George W. Bush has asked U.S. businesses to prepare pandemic plans, only 15 per cent have.

 

In Canada, only four per cent have a pandemic plan.

 

The history of the 1918 flu shows people can expect major disruptions if the next pandemic is similar.

 

In 1918, 1,200 people died in Toronto in a three-week period and families were required to bury their own dead because undertakers were unavailable, she said.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has estimated the next pandemic to hit Toronto would leave 700,000 people needing medical attention and 40,000 needing hospitalization.

 

"We can't meet that surge in demand," Duncan said.

 

To get ready, people should have enough food and water for six to eight weeks, she said.

 

They should also have prescription and non-prescription drugs on hand and medical supplies for the same period.

 

She said people should also review public health precautions -- from hand-washing, to safe disposal of tissues and limiting non-essential travel and exposure to crowds -- to prevent spreading the virus.

 

"We know a pandemic is coming. For the first time in history we have an opportunity to prepare," she said.

 

The World Health Organization maintains the world is closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three pandemics occurred.

[Cat]

[Skagitgal]

Has anyone noticed that Yahoo home page has a Bird Flu forum with lots of info. Mainstream!!!!!!!