Yikes - I have to wonder if it makes sense to travel to the USA any time soon, with this going on right now. I have heard of thousands of related deaths in Texas alone:
CNN: The big one is coming, and it's going to be a flu pandemic
(CNN) — Experts say we are "due" for one. When it happens, they tell us, it will probably have a greater impact on humanity than anything else currently happening in the world.
Pandemic flu is a different animal, and you should understand the difference.
PanĖdemik/: pan means "all"; demic (or demographic) means "people." It is well-named, because pandemic flu spreads easily throughout the world. Unlike seasonal flu, pandemics occur when a completely new or novel virus emerges. This sort of virus can emerge directly from animal reservoirs or be the result of a dramatic series of mutations -- so-called reassortment events -- in previously circulating viruses.
In either case, the result is something mankind has never seen before: a pathogen that can spread easily from person to defenseless person, our immune systems never primed to launch any sort of defense.
Endemic: a disease that exists permanently in a particular region or population. Malaria is a constant worry in parts of Africa . Epidemic: An outbreak of disease that attacks many peoples at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities.
Pandemic: When an epidemic spreads throughout the world.
A flu epidemic is nothing over which to panic. I would have thought you’d be up on the surfacing information brought to us by epidemiologist Karen M. Starko that the 1918 flu was a normal flue year made disasterous by the use of the newly released aspirin (in generic form, since Bayer had just lost its patent the year before). They were recommending insane doses of the equivalent of 25 tablets a day. You would like this: https://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/bayer-and-death-1918-and-aspirin/
ReplyDelete