Anyone beating the crowd, and preparing for bird flu?

[Dingoluv4eva]

Just curious if anyone has taken the initiative and stockpiling on antiviral meds...
U know doing the smart thing..

I' think i'm just gonna wait till everyone starts panicking and pay and stress 3x more

[Bruce Wayne]

There aren't any cures for this are there because its a new virus?

[Dingoluv4eva]

Some of the anti-viral meds work against it.
I forgot the names of the top of my head..

there is one by Roche that is effective but not in all people (temaflu??) maybe..
there is another one, that is advertised as a lot more effective..

[PRICEPLUS]

Tamiflu. Somewhat expensive but the point is mute as there is little to be had.

[sweeps]

At least one strain of bird flu is immune to Tamiflu. Fortunately, the Tamiflu-resistant virus doesn't spread as easily.

If you're going to hole yourself up in a bunker, you may want to stock on Relenza too.

[frugalfarmwife]

Well, I quit kissing our chickens Seriously though, although the flu is deadly I have to many other things to worry about on any given day that are closer to home.

A few years ago the huge scare was West Niles, I actually had two horses that contract it fairly severely and we nursed them back to health, I'm sure more of our horses were also exposed but had minor/no reaction. A healthy immune system is the most important thing is animals and humans.

I'd just about bet I've been exposed to the West Niles, EIA, etc. All part of life on a farm.

KJ

[debtfreeme]

not worried about it yet. When it begins to change to humans with the same contact at the bird flu then i might. But with exposure being limited to avian workers and farmers, not as worried for me. I am worried for the farmers though!

but since the contraction rate is so small, i am not worried for people as much as I am for the bird population. I think it is fascinating how it is moving accross the world.

[baselle]

I don't think you can buy or stock up on Tamiflu.

But I have been preparing a bit. What if it was suggested that people not congregate or go to work or work from home? Not quite a quarantine, but if you are living paycheck to paycheck, possibly debilitating. What if there are only skeletal crews working at utility companies? What if people can't work at your grocery store?

I've stocking up a bit on food, water, chicken stock (hah hah), aspirin, vitamins, other prepared foods. We have a camp stove with propane, a couple bottles of hand sanitizer, and a decent enough first aid kit I bought when the Red Cross came to sell stuff at the workplace. I'm not going crazy or anything, but I figure we need to make our household self sufficient for about 5-6 days at a time.

This is also a good time to get into good hygiene habits - wash hands more frequently, cough or sneeze in elbow (not in your hands), use the hand sanitizer, get the flu shot. It won't make me bullet-proof, but it covers the bases.

[sweeps]

It has crossed my mind that, if there were an outbreak, I would indefinitely work from home. Being stuck on the commuter train with people hacking up bird flu phlegm is not very appealing to me.

I wonder if we'll start seeing face masks like they had in Asia during the SARS outbreak. I wasn't taking this seriously before, but now I'm starting to wonder.

[Tree0164]

No I really haven't thought too much about it. But if does gets closer to home, I think we will take precautions.

[Dingoluv4eva]

What kinda crazy bird migrates across the atlantic from europe to USA anyways, thats gonna keep us safe i would think.,

[_yb]

My wife does something with the SNS so I think we will have access to vaccines. I'm not worried about it at all. I would be more concerned with small pox.

[Tree0164]

Originally Posted by Dingoluv4eva

What kinda crazy bird migrates across the atlantic from europe to USA anyways, thats gonna keep us safe i would think.,

Well it is not necessarily birds but the humans that will come across the Atlantic

[PRICEPLUS]

There was an excellent article about the bird flu in National Geographic Magazine last month I believe. Take a trip to the library as it is I think a must read!

[sweeps]

UPDATE: Flu virus resistant to 2 drugs

[PRICEPLUS]

There has been some talk about Probenacid used with Taniflu and Relenza. Hard to know if that will amke any difference.

[AntiCost]

This is all media hype.. don't get involved; if you've done research on the bird flu you'll know that it really only affects people who have direct contact with livestock. I can't stand how the media over-exagerates everything to put the general public in a panic.

I doubt most of us are raising chickens around our home.

That's how powerful media is; sometimes you need to take it a little less seriously..

[pyotr]

The reason the avian flu is a big concern is because of the nature of the influenza viruses. The flu kills because you cannot rely on previous immunizations (vaccines) given every year as the infuenza virus is the classic chameleon which is studied intensively for its ability to rapidly/instantly adapt to formed antibodies against it by raising new epitopes and antigenic variations. It is for this ability to change itself that we worry about an antigenic drift from an ability to latch onto pig or bird (avian) respiratory linings, to an ability to latch onto human respiratory linings. It is precisely because of this that drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza will be useless in the near-term and long-run. It may save the life of a couple of people, but in the intermediate term, even those people whose life it saved will again be under attack by a variant/newly evolved epitopic form of the virus.

Short answer: Don't worry about stockpiling drugs - they will be useless to you. The drug companies might make a few bucks in a run on them so only they would benefit.

For people who want a more detailed explanation about the influenza virus physiology and the whole antigenic drift idea check out this link. http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ult...Influenza.html

[pyotr]

I should add this also:
Common things to do to avoid the flu are avoid crowds, avoid sniffling/sneezing/coughing people especially. STAY WARM - the influenza viruses can be killed with heat (don't try to knock back your body's fever response too much - try to let it go as long as it's staying between 100 and 103 for a couple days. Don't keep your house too cold if you can help it, and wear multiple layers and stay warm when outdoors. Wash your hands for 15 seconds using rapid/high friction hand washing techniques with good plain soap (micelle formations, mechanical debridement) after each contact with public surfaces (public door knobs, phones, keyboards, money etc.). If the dreaded pandemic does come (and it will eventually), consider getting yourself fitted for the N95 respirators when you travel outdoors.

Ultimately the thing that will save you will be your own immune system - there are certain people who will be naturally "immune" to the pandemic virus and it is these people mostly who will survive without a scratch. This is pure genetic lottery and there's nothing you can do about it and no way to find out if you are one of the genetic lottery winners until you are actually exposed.

[gakline]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

It has crossed my mind that, if there were an outbreak, I would indefinitely work from home. Being stuck on the commuter train with people hacking up bird flu phlegm is not very appealing to me.

I wonder if we'll start seeing face masks like they had in Asia during the SARS outbreak. I wasn't taking this seriously before, but now I'm starting to wonder.

Heck, just riding Metra in winter is horrible. I don't know about you, but I swear every sick and sniffling person is intent on going to work and sitting right behind me. Atleast that's what it feels like.