Tag Archives: flu

Influenza

Pale Green Horse & H5N1: Another death in Indonesia, more cases in Vietnam and Bangladesh

05 March 2012, Indonesian officials announced the death of the fifth 2012 victim of H5N1 bird flu.

A 48 year old man died on 03 March, after being treated at a local hospital.  Doctors at the hospital say the man died from multiple organ failure. They are conducting tests to confirm the H5N1 infection.  The man had already been to two other hospitals.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health says another man is sick with H5N1.  He got sick on 17 February, went into the hospital on February 21.  The H5N1 was confirmed on 25 February.  The 22 year old man is still in the hospital.

Vietnamese officials confirmed the man worked with domesticated ducks.

In Bangladesh, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) said it confirmed three more H5N1 cases. The three people both work in poultry markets. They say one of the workers has already recovered.

Bangladeshi officials say that you should not only fully cook poultry meat and eggs, but wash off the egg shells (and your hands) before cracking them open.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Influenza

Vietnam claims success with new H5N1 & H1N1 vaccine

A Vietnamese company is claiming to have created a successful vaccine, to fight the latest mutations of H5N1 bird flu, and H1N1 swine flu.

VABIOTECH officials say they developed the vaccines by using people who were already infected. The first batch of vaccines showing positive results on volunteers.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is praising the company’s efforts.

Influenza

Pale Green Horse & H5N1: U.S. media says Bird Flu not that deadly. Tell that to Indonesia, they just had their fourth human death caused by Bird Flu

“He suffered shortness of breath and eventually died on February 21. Laboratory test confirmed he died from H5N1 virus.”-Rita Kuriastuti, Indonesian Health ministry

While more people in southeast Asian countries die from H5N1 the U.S. media is spreading reports that bird flu isn’t as bad as first thought.  The February 21 death of a boy was the fourth for the 2011-12 flu season.  He died about one week after showing symptoms of flu.

Indonesian health officials say 154 people were confirmed to have died of H5N1 since 2005.

The first 2011-12 flu season death, caused by H5N1, was reported in China in December.

A new study, by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, says the UN’s World Health Organization’s death rate of 60% for H5N1, is based on severe cases and doesn’t count mild cases.  But if your a family member who lost someone to H5N1 that doesn’t matter.   The fact is that there seems to be a lot of severe cases of H5N1 in Asia.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

International, U.S.

Millions of Japanese hit with H3N2, most had been vaccinated, vaccine failed! Virus mutates too fast

By the beginning of February, 2012, more than 2 million people living in Japan were infected with H3N2v.  A new study shows most had been vaccinated.

Local health centers from Yokohama City, Mie Pref, Saga Pref and Sakai City, say 80% of the people in those cities, suffering from flu symptoms, tested positive for H3N2v.  In Kobe City it’s 100%!

A major problem with flu shots, is that they are based on the previous flu season.  Flu viruses are now mutating so fast that it’s possible vaccines are useless.

 

 

Influenza

Pale Green Horse & H3N2: CDC says H3N2v Pandemic likely, potentially more virulent than H5N1, WHO says Vaccines must be changed

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says H3N2 swine flu virus is potentially more virulent than H5N1 bird flu.

Unlike the H5N1 flu, in which a U.S. taxpayer funded study showed that humans could manipulate the virus to make an even more deadly version, H3N2 does not need to be manipulated by humans.  The CDC study shows that Mother Earth is already mutating H3N2 rapidly and towards a more deadly version.

At the same time, the UN’s World Heath Organization has issued a warning, saying vaccines need to be adjusted for the rapidly changing H3N2 strains.

The WHO says the influenza A/H3N2 component, along with influenza B component, of vaccines should be changed.  Also, for the 2012-13 flu season, look out for H1N1 California, H3N2 Victoria and influenza B Wisconsin.

Back to the CDC.  The 2011-12 flu season started late, in fact the CDC says it’s the latest start to the U.S. flu season in the past 29 years!  The CDC warns that a late start does not mean it won’t be bad.

“While most indicators of seasonal flu activity are currently low, we expect them to increase in the coming weeks….In addition to starting late, flu season can also peak late. In fact, in the past 35 seasons we have seen peak activity….four times in March and two times in April….nor can we predict how severe the season will ultimately be.”-Joseph Bresee, CDC

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

International, U.S.

Pale Green Horse & Government Incompetence: Human manipulation of H5N1 a case of the horse has already fled the barn!

When scientists, who were paid by the U.S. government to find out if H5N1 ‘bird flu’ could be manipulated into a more deadly version, revealed their studies the U.S. government acted quickly to censor their publications.

Even the UN’s World Health Organization joined in the censorship.

On February 15, 2012, National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed three scientists currently involved in ongoing discussions (Asilomar meetings) about what to do with the results of the studies. They basically said any efforts to stop the spread of the information was too late.

Paul Berg, professor emeritus of molecular and genetic medicine at Stanford University, and one of the researchers who’s work caused the U.S. government to censor the results, said there are so many other scientist, around the world, doing their own similar work that it’s only a matter of time before it’s common knowledge.

A molecular biologist, Maxine Singer, said that the Asilomar meetings are really about hypothetical what if scenarios, because discussing research that’s already been done is like “…talking about locking the barn door after the horses have gone.”

Stanley Falkow, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, said the public outcry from governments has only temporarily put on hold scientific research concerning the manipulation of H5N1.  The implication being that overt research will resume once the dust settles.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Influenza

Pale Green Horse & Global Food Crisis: Don’t blame wild birds, modern H5N1 human caused! Chicken feed contaminated with crap! Remember Mad Cow?

The earliest form of H5N1 was discovered in Scotland in 1959, where it killed off a couple of flocks of poultry.  That’s the thing, H5N1 bird flu seems to target domesticated birds, poultry, not wild birds.

Since 1959 H5N1 has mutated into more than 700 versions (depending on your source), and the main target is still domesticated poultry.  In some U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies, it was noted that many wild birds who died from H5N1 became infected after eating chicken feed!

By 2008 global health officials felt secure, because vaccines against several types of H5N1 had been developed and seem to be working.  But now, just two months into 2012 and several Asian countries are dealing with epidemic sized outbreaks, killing tens of thousands of poultry, and at least two people in Vietnam.

In regards to Vietnam, back in the summer of 2011, Vietnamese health officials stopped their vaccination program.  They discovered it wasn’t working, due to the fact that they were dealing with a completely new version of H5N1!

I noticed that part of the culling of poultry involves the feed itself.

Some bloggers have posted stories and pics of catfish farms in Jakarta and Java, that regularly feed dead chickens, chicken manure and chicken feed to their catfish!  The bloggers’ concern is over the spread of H5N1 from the chickens through the catfish to humans who eat the catfish.  There is apparently no health organization in the world investigating this.  Health officials do say that cooking the food long enough will kill the virus.

Since H5N1 spreads only through domesticated poultry, how in the hell does it get from Scotland, all the way ’round the world to Asia?  Poultry products are normally eaten in the country that produces them.  Apparently wild birds don’t get too far once they get infected (it makes you wounder why health officials seem to be so concerned over migratory birds).

Here’s another problem, H5N1 doesn’t spread well in the air, so it’s hard to get it from someone coughing or sneezing.  The World Health Organization has postulated that humans get it from being in very close contact with poultry.  It might be kicked up in the dust as they walk, or it actually sticks to something that the human brings near their face, or it gets into cuts on the skin.

So how is it spreading so fast and so intensely? Vietnam admits that their latest outbreak is due to a new version of H5N1, and, poultry being brought into their country illegally.  They don’t know where the domesticated birds came from!

Australia does not have a problem with H5N1 cases. But it’s not because Australia shoots down all the migratory wild birds, it’s because they have a strict quarantine policy on importing domesticated birds!  (and another very important reason you’ll read at the end of this article)

Again, it’s domesticated birds, mainly poultry that’re the target of H5N1.

As an example of how concerned some governments are getting over domesticated birds catching H5N1, in 2006 Germany went on a domesticated bird hunt, arbitrarily killing not only poultry, but pets like homing pigeons.  Two German free range farmers, who had their entire uninfected flocks culled, killed themselves in protest.  This brings up another issue; Germany used the H5N1 scare to shut down free range poultry farms, favoring the bigger corporate factory poultry farms!

What about the feed?  Health officials say don’t let the feed and water get contaminated.  But which really comes first?  Since it’s been proven that the 1959 H5N1, and it’s subsequent hundreds of mutations specifically target domesticated poultry, then it’s not wild birds that’re contaminating the feed and water (as some governmental health organizations insist).

Health officials claim that the feed and water gets contaminated when an infected bird craps in it.  That works if you don’t know where your getting your poultry from, like in Vietnam.  But what about places that have created more  rules like Hong Kong? Hong Kong is dealing with a new outbreak of H5N1, they know where the chickens came from; southern China.  Yet China seems to be dealing mainly with human cases of H5N1.  Two people died between December 2011, and January 2012, and one of them had no contact with birds of any kind.

I wonder if the guy who died without being around birds, got it from poultry feed?  He was a bus driver, could have been transporting chicken feed.

A December 2011 Journal of Virology report said there was a direct link between human H5N1 cases and poultry markets.  It is the first report to do so: “Among these 69 samples, we isolated a total of 12 highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses from four of the six live bird markets….the genetic sequence of the environmental and corresponding human isolates was similar (with a sequence identity of greater than 99%), demonstrating a solid link between human infection and live poultry markets.”-Yuelong Shu, author of study

They also studied 38 human H5N1 cases and found they “…were consistent with those identified in poultry outbreaks or in live poultry markets.”  In other words humans don’t get H5N1 from wild birds, they get it from poultry raised in close quarters (too bad Germany shut down their free range farmers).

Again, if wild birds are not the true source of the H5N1 virus, then how are the chickens getting it?

Check out this statement: “H5N1 is mainly spread by domestic poultry, both through the movements of infected birds and poultry products and through the use of infected poultry manure as fertilizer or feed.”

The use of manure as feed?   The above quote might have originated with the United Nations’ World Health Organization, but it’s being used by many health organization and on medical information websites.

Yes indeed, crap is used in farm animal feed, like feed for cows: “Recycled animal waste, such as processed chicken manure and litter, has been used as a feed ingredient for almost 40 years [Mmmm, this was posted in 2001, and the first H5N1 case was in 1959, that’s 42 years, mmmm]. This animal waste contains large amounts of protein, fiber, and minerals, and has been deliberately mixed into animal feed for these nutrients. Generally, animal waste is used within the State where it is produced because the bulk and weight of the product makes interstate shipment uneconomical. Normally, this animal waste is used by small farmers and owners of beef and dairy herds as a winter supplement for mother cows and weaned calves.”-U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine

In the United States most farm animal feed is augmented with chicken crap.  But the FDA says strict rules are followed.  It might explain why H5N1 isn’t a big deal in the U.S., yet (remember Mad Cow disease?).  It could also explain why Asian countries are having such a bad time with H5N1. What are their regulations regarding the use of chicken crap in their chicken feed?   Have they created a vicious cycle with unregulated chicken feed that’s full of infected chicken crap?

I wonder why Germany shut down their free range poultry farmers in favor of corporate factory farmers who feed their chickens their own crap?   Is the chicken crap industry that powerful?

Oh, and what about Australia?  It turns out that the real reason Australia is not having a problem with H5N1 is that chicken crap is banned from use as animal feed in Australia!!!

The Aussie law is called the Ruminant Feed Ban: “Farmers need to take precautions to ensure that poultry litter and poultry manure are not fed to any livestock species, and that poultry feed is not fed to ruminants [cows, goats, deers, ie plant eaters]. This is important both for guaranteeing the safety of our food and for ensuring that Australia can continue to demonstrate ongoing freedom from BSE  [aka Mad Cow, hello!] for the protection of vital export markets for meat and livestock.”

It looks like the best way to avoid getting some form of H5N1 is to raise your own chickens, or support free range poultry farming, or move to Australia.   Would you eat crap?

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

 

Influenza

Pale Green Horse & Global Food Crisis: Nepal food economy being destroyed by H5N1 and Wild Elephant Terrorists. H5N1 in the chicken feed?

Nepal’s poultry industry is being devastated by H5N1 bird flu.  As of February 12, 2012, 8,353 chickens have been killed in just one district.

Jhapa, Nepal, has seen 3,500 chickens die from H5N1, and another 4,853 put down in an effort to stop the virus, in the past two weeks.  Also, 2,400 eggs were destroyed along with 140 kg (308.6 pounds) of chicken feed.

The local government says they’re on top of the situation: “The influenza control team has sped up its work. The outbreak would be controlled very soon. We have deployed rapid response team…”-Radheshyam Mandal, Veterinary Service Center of Jhapa

H5N1 is also hitting other districts of Nepal.

To make matters worse for those living in Jhapa, wild elephants have been terrorizing farmers.  Farmers and armed Forest Security personnel have been trying to chase off the elephants. 

In some areas farmers have taken to a kind of Neighborhood Watch, where they patrol each others farms and villages, on the look out for wild elephants.  They say the government is not protecting them: “Nothing has been done except following the tuskers. Elephant terror is on the rise in the village.”-Dipendra Katawal

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Business/Economics, International

Japan hits 2.1 million infected with H3N2 (H3N2v), New Zealand orders mandatory health screenings for airline passengers!

On February 5, 2012, the official number of people infected with H3N2v, in Japan, hit 2.1 million!  That’s more than the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.  Now Australian media reporting that New Zealand health officials are getting a little worried.

On February 13, airline passengers, on a plane arriving from Japan, were met by New Zealand health officials who made them undergo health screenings.  Some paramedics were actually dressed in full hazmat gear: “It was like we were radioactive or something. I think it freaked some people out.”-David Turner, passenger

Eventually all passengers were cleared, but the passengers and the crew of the flight say health officials gave them little info about what was going on.  The New Zealand Ministry of Health, and Auckland Regional Public Health Service are refusing to comment.  They’re also refusing to release the results of the health screenings.

Apparently some teenage Japanese passengers, on the Air New Zealand flight, had symptoms like sniffles, and a couple of them threw up.  New Zealand’s hospitals have also been put on high alert.

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Pale Green Horse & Global Food Crisis: Nepal, India & Vietnam getting hit hard by H5N1. Vietnam says What Global Warming?

The H5N1 virus isn’t just killing people, it’s killing off the food people eat.

A week ago Nepal said it would have to kill off 4,000 poultry because of H5N1.  Well, already 8,000 poultry have died, because the virus is spreading so fast!

India says yet another poultry farm there has been hit with H5N1.  The virus itself killed off more than 5,000 birds at one farm!  Local officials have ordered the killing of all poultry within a three kilometer (1.8 miles) radius of the farm, that means tens of thousands of birds meant to feed humans will be gotten rid of.

In Vietnam, officials there are blaming the unusually cold weather on the spread of H5N1, as well as the undocumented importation of poultry.

So far nearly 300 birds died from the virus, while nearly 4,000 where put down.  At least two people in Vietnam have died from H5N1.

Vietnamese officials say they can not trace where most of the imported poultry are coming from.  They say many of the birds were brought into Vietnam, illegally, during the Lunar New Year celebrations.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.