The Bird Flu Panic

[Wobegong]

The World Health Organization has warned people against panic-buying stocks of a drug they hope will protect them against bird flu.

The WHO stressed that Tamiflu could reduce the effect of the illness but was not a vaccine to prevent it. A BBC correspondent says the WHO wants governments to stockpile Tamiflu, but fears a public run on the drug.
Meanwhile bird flu's spread across Europe continued with confirmation that it had reached Greece.
Scientists have warned that a strain of the disease deadly to humans could cause a lethal pandemic if it mutates into a form that can be spread from person to person.

Following reports that European pharmacists were selling out of Tamiflu, the WHO's pandemic alert chief Michael Ryan said: "WHO at this point does not advise for individuals to stockpile this drug for any purpose.

"There is no indication at this stage for anyone to be taking this drug other than the very high-risk groups in areas in which the avian disease has become a problem," including poultry farmers and medical staff, he said.

The manufacturer of Tamiflu, Swiss drugs company Roche, has said it would donate packs of the anti-influenza drug to Turkey and Romania, where bird flu has appeared, as well as to the WHO, and was stepping up production of the drug.
In Greece, the agriculture ministry said a form of the bird flu virus had been found in a turkey on a farm on the Aegean Sea island of Oinouses.

Twelve swans have also tested positive for bird flu in a second cluster in Romania, and the authorities have confirmed the virus has been detected at a third location in the Danube delta.
And the European Commission has ordered urgent tests on dead birds found in Croatia.
At this stage, none of the new outbreaks in Greece or Romania have been confirmed as the lethal H5N1 form of the bird flu virus, which has been linked to more than 60 human deaths in Asia.
However, tests are continuing, and the Greek outbreak is known to involve the H5 strain, of which the deadly form is a member.
An outbreak of H5N1 was confirmed in Romania last week, and it has also been detected in Turkey.

• The H5N1 strain remained largely in South-East Asia until this summer, when Russia and Kazakhstan both reported outbreaks.
• Scientists fear it may be carried by migrating birds to Europe and Africa but say it is hard to prove a direct link with bird migration.
  
  
  So Get to your GP and Get your Flu Jabs Now!. You never know if or when Bird Flu will Hit the Uk. Beter to be safe than sorry.

[Rebecca]

well.. tbh i think this flu is silly "/ no one is putting me off chicken sandwiches

[Wobegong]

Lol i dont think People are trying to Put you of your sandwitches maybe save your life lol.

[Rawr]

They don't know how you pick it up, it isn't nessarily by eating some sort of bird.

[Eamonn]

So far people have got it from birds but there worrying because when someone with the normal flu gets bird flu the two flu's merge and then the bird flu will be able to be passed on human to human

[wwe-rko4eva]

Yes, i get what your saying there eamonns but i think that is there main worry is if it passes human to human.

[TealArms]

At the moement you get bird flu from working with birds, i would not worry as it is due here next year, also you can't catch birdflu from eating chicken as all birds are tested for it. If we do get bird flu here in the uk thousands of birds will killed and they we going to put a 3km around the infected area

[DaveTaylor]

i have heard its caught by dead birds decompossing and some chemical reaction with you and the germs or something

[burton-x]

We should be ok for a while now, And the flu jabs wont do anything as every virus is different...

[Kimmeh.]

well.. tbh i think this flu is silly "/ no one is putting me off chicken sandwiches

LMAO Rebecca, bless ya! Nothings stopping me from eating Chicken Noogets either.... Although they may stop serving them soon since they're brutally killing them How mean >.< Oh yeah they showed the images, they're killing swans and geese now >.<