Confronting the possibility of a potentially devastating human bird flu pandemic, the United Nations system – from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to the UN health and agricultural agencies – today laid out a blueprint for immediate preventive and mitigating action.
“We may not know about the future course of H5N1, we do know this: once human-to-human transmission has been established, we would have only a matter of weeks to lock down the spread before it spins out of control. That is why the international community must take action now.” Mr. Annan told the Time Global Health Summit, a three-day event in New York held to discuss key health issues.
In light of these concerns, and likely rationing of available flu vaccines, it is advisable that people also look at other areas which complement good health. In the United States, the average American diet is high in sodium, fat, sugar, and preservatives and low in nutrition. These are typically not the ingredients associated with the support of a healthy immune system. It is the beneficial components of food which feed the cells of the body and support the normal function which allows each cell the potential to restore, protect and defend itself from the effects of injury and disease. A poorly nourished body is less able to carry out these activities as the basic building blocks for cell function are in limited supply.
People should therefore seek to improve their dietary intake of beneficial sources of nutrition and limit their intake of the more commonly eaten foods which are known to be more harmful to the body than their unprocessed counterparts. Will the support of a healthy immune system ensure a perfect defense against invading flu virus particles? Certainly not. However, a healthy immune system may mean the difference between someone who contracts the flu and recovers quickly and someone who suffers greatly.
The most important factor in the improvement of any person’s diet is to improve the quality and variety of food eaten. While dietary supplements may provide some excellent health benefits they are intended to supplement, not substitute, the benefits of a good diet.
Avian influenza, more commonly referred to as bird flu, is a virus that typically affects birds including ducks, chickens and turkeys. Though the virus is not common in humans, there are reported cases of it that have occurred since 1997. This generally happens when a human has been exposed to poultry that has been infected.
Prevention is typically done by killing entire flocks of birds that may have been exposed to the disease. If a bird is exposed, it will likely spread throughout the rest of the flock. Unfortunately, the best way to prevent this is to kill them. It is also not recommended to keep such animals in uncontrolled domestic situations. Leave the raising of these animals to the people who are well equipped to do so and who have the equipment to test for and control the environment. It is not recommended that these birds be used as pets.
Proper sanitation is also important. Keeping clean and washing your hands often especially if exposed to birds, is essential in keeping healthy. If you work around these animals, use respirators to block the spreading of the germs. Wash your hands often with antibacterial soap and avoid contact with others until you have done so. If you start having flu like symptoms get treatment from a physician as soon as possible.
If an epidemic breaks out, you should be prepared to isolate yourself as much as possible. You will need food and water stores and things to occupy yourself with in case you have to stay home for long periods of time. Make sure you have basic supplies that are needed every day such as toothpaste, toilet paper and other supplies. Ensure you have plenty of food items since you want to limit your time with other people at stores to the minimum. Preparation and prevention are keys to ensuring this disease does not reach large proportions.
Creating a good bird flu vaccine is proving to be a lot harder than researchers thought it was going to be due to how much this bird flu changes. It is always changing and developing in more ways and this makes it hard to make one bird flu vaccine that will work all of the time. The scientist working on the bird flu vaccine are monitoring the bird flu very well to watch for any significant changes that will affect the usability of the bird flu vaccine. All of the data that they collect can be used to make the bird flu vaccine more and more effective.
Bird flu is still a hot subject at the World Health Organization meetings, due to the fact that is still considered a threat for humanity.
Scientists believe that the H5N1 virus could mutate and then transmit from human to human causing a global pandemic, for which humanity is not yet prepared.
We have not developed a drug or a vaccine that might kill this evil virus, and so we are exposed to it. Lately there have been debates about the usefulness of the annual flu vaccines. Some scientists declare that if you get annually a flu vaccine, you are making yourself more susceptible to the flu in subsequent years, by weakening your immune system, instead of enforcing it.
Dr. Haim Danenberg of Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem says that one who did not get annual flu shots is possible to poses a better immune system then the annually vaccinated ones.
Some even say that flu vaccines create a pattern of dependence and once you begin taking them you will need to take them every year because your immune system gets weaker every year.
Phyllis Balch, an author of herbs and health does not recommend flu shots and suggests that the solution of getting rid of flu is by strengthening the immune system.
Every year a new strain of virus develops and we can not be sure that the flu shot we took will match for this new virus too, and the antibody response will only be protective if we are luckily enough to get infected with the right virus.
A study from Netherlands made on elderly people concluded that flu shots only give you one percent lower chance of getting the flu after all, so we ask ourselves why doctors and governments make all this propaganda for flu shots if they are only1% helpful.
In the case of bird flu things might not be like this, because if a virus strain is isolated and used to manufacture a bird flu vaccine, it may turn out to be more effective than 1%. Studies have not concluded yet.
It seems that flu shots contain toxic substances too, like mercury which is connected with the Alzheimer disease and could contribute to a mercury poisoning.
There is a law that indemnifies vaccine manufacturers from the harm caused by their products in case of a viral pandemic, even if the vaccine kills people.
You could find more about this law at:
[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.01873:]
So, the vaccine producers are protected in case of a mass murder, and they even get money for it (they sell their vaccine to health authorities). This proves that vaccines are not safe and that is why the vaccine companies have assured their legal protection.
Before getting a shot, people should first find out mere about the side effects given by the vaccines and to reconsider whether they want to risk taking it or try a different solution like the real anti-viral medicines.
The bird flu vaccine is a completely different vaccine than the standard flu shot. This bird flu vaccine will only protect against the bird flu and not any other strains of flu. There is not even a real bird flu vaccine available that we the public are able to get yet. It will be some time before we can get a bird flu vaccine.
The only known bird flu vaccine is still in the experimental stages and they do not even know yet how effective it will be, it may not work at all. We hear about the bird flu every day and about how many people it is going to kill throughout the world but to keep things in perspective it is important that you realize that very few people have actually caught the bird flu and even fewer have actually died from it and this is all without the help of a bird flu vaccine.