Bird flu

What do you think of the bird flu case thats been going around Asia and killing birds and making humans ill? It has already reached Greece, how long do you think before it will reach the UK?

Give your views.

I don't know too much about it to be honest. I'll worry about it if it reaches the U.K.
Can anyone fill me in on it please? I mean I've heard of it but I dunno what it actually does.

About bird flu:
Bird flu viruses do not usually infect humans, but several cases of human infection with bird flu viruses have occurred since 1997.The risk from bird flu is generally low to most people because the viruses occur mainly among birds and do not usually infect humans. The current outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Asia and Europe is an example of a bird flu outbreak that has caused human infections and deaths. The H5N1 (dangerous to humans) 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.

My friend Tabi is on holiday in Greece. She'll be back in a few days.

So I'm guessing that the bird flu will reach us in the next week or so

: )

I was scared to death, I came downstairs Friday morning and my dad said, you have a year to live...

WTF?

I asked him to explain himself and he told me that it was on the news that scientists are predicting that if it reaches the UK, about a quarter of us will catch it and maybe die. 15 year old to 40 in particular.. I was like, "Well thanks for that cheering thought dad!"

*Shudders*

1 in 4 people will be affected but only a quater of them will die...and it is most likely to affect old or young people...or the particularly vunerable...

Of course it scares me a bit..but i think it's about as likely as the millenium bug...which you know..never appeared...

I'm scared. But it said last night on the news that there's only a small possibility that it will spread to the UK. Or something like that.

Thats good to know then.... but i still think my dad was evil saying that

Bird flu won't reach us until the migration of birds after winter, there is already a cure for bird flu it just has to be put into practise, so sleep easy tonight kids.

The way the media have reacted to the whole bird flu thing is totally irresponsible. It's not going to affect anyone here. only 70 people have died (i'm not saying that's ok, but it is a very small number compared to what the media is talking about) in the whole of Asia in the past 2 years. They only caught it because they had birds living in their houses and they were with them all the time. there are millions of farms in Asia that live with birds but a very, very small minority have actually caught the bug and died. There are drugs which can help the flu now, and we would know very quickly if it was in the UK, everything is being monitred very carefully. If they do find a case, then all the animals will be taken in, and they will disinfect the whole area. It's not going to get to us, the bacteria that causes the bug has to actually change so that it can get inside our body and harm us, that can only happen if we are living very close with them, and mostly nowadays, in this country, people don't live with the birds very closely.

Well, that's all, my rant is over lol

Pfft. We got two lectures on it at school. You only catch it from being near birds really. And if its conatgious, like the normal flu (Which kills 12,000 people a year in the UK) itl only kill the youuung and old.

† Fuck The Mainstream †:

I don't know too much about it to be honest. I'll worry about it if it reaches the U.K.
Can anyone fill me in on it please? I mean I've heard of it but I dunno what it actually does.

You will get the bird flu if you breathe the same air as a bird. When you have it, you will cough up blood for a year or two. Then you will die a painful death.

J.K.

I really hope, and I think everyone does!, that it doesn't come to our own country. Well I even think that you wish this to nobody! I really hope it doesn't get to us! Because of such things I'm really scared...

*eyes budgie in suspicion* I always knew Joey wanted to kill me... *throws cloth over cage* Yeah, try and watch me now! Stoopid bird!

People people don't fret! Although it's true that bird flu CAN kill, don't worry about it. The media always multiplies a situation by 10 and makes it out to be bigger than it actually is. So don't bother buying your Christmas turkeys in advance, we shall all live happily.

I'm not worried yet, but we've got the message that we have all right to be..
when spring comes all the birds from the southern countries with the bird-flu comes back and they will probably be carriers of the virus..
but for the people here in my country it's not really dangerous cause the gouvernment will provide everyone with a vachsine (sp?) for protection..

I'm thinking more about those countries that doesn't have the money to provide the people with vachsines (sp?)

I'm kinda scared, but I'm also kindov a woosey so..

It's already reached Greece and now Moscow, We'll be blockaded soon x)

The thing you have to keep in mind is, the experts have said that it's going to kill 50 000 people in the UK.... Well, they said pretty much the same thing about SARs and YES, people did die from that, but not on the huge scale they said it would.

The thing I don't agree with is, they have the flu jab thing that could help reduce the impact of bird flu, if it does mutate and spread, but we're not buying it until (if) bird flu actually does mutate. Well, don't you think all the other countries will be buying it at that time too? Shouldn't we get it now and be prepared?

Peardrops:

The thing you have to keep in mind is, the experts have said that it's going to kill 50 000 people in the UK.... Well, they said pretty much the same thing about SARs and YES, people did die from that, but not on the huge scale they said it would.

The thing I don't agree with is, they have the flu jab thing that could help reduce the impact of bird flu, if it does mutate and spread, but we're not buying it until (if) bird flu actually does mutate. Well, don't you think all the other countries will be buying it at that time too? Shouldn't we get it now and be prepared?

same thing with us..
what I read in the paper yesterday is that Norway (my country) has got this deal with the Netherlands to send us the protection when the flu comes, I'm not sure how much it was we paid a year to just have that deal.. I'm sure that every country that says that they have protection have the same sort of deal.. and that's there to assure that the country get it