 | HistoryFan (98)
03/19/2006 |  Only a concern if you raise your own chickens. Last week, my dad nearly ran some Asian guy off the road because the guy had a pickup truck with two cages full of chickens (he was going to sell them at a market in Little Hanoi here in San Diego). Y'know, in this time of keeping people away from the bird flu, selling chickens in marketplaces really isn't a good idea.
Hopefully, the CDC guys in Alaska right now are (or should be) culling any bird that looks sickly.
With the exception of Mad Cow, most modern diseases like this one come from places with very poor sanitation like Asia and Africa. All the deaths recorded are from 3rd world countries. There are no hospitalizations or deaths from Europe...yet.
I agree it's been blown out of proportion by the media. The reason is 1.) they ran out of good news stories so they regurgitate old crap (i.e bird flu featurettes on Fox News...both on DaySide and Hannity&Colmes) and 2.) ratings, ratings, ratings! Even if the bird flu has been relatively absent lately, either Sean Hannity or Wolf Blitzer will bring it back up again to get viewership (heck, even some guy came on Fox News today, warning of a solar storm coming in 2011).
Besides, proper handwashing and use of a mask will help should something bad happen. We can get through this.
And this isn't going to be the only biological threat. It wasn't the first and it won't be the last, either. Heck, AIDS is worse than this but then again, there's no cure for AIDS and there are only 2-4 ways to get it (touching people and breathing the same air aren't it). Transmission through semen, women's discharges, mother's milk, and blood are prime for AIDS transmission.
Back to raising chickens and such. There is a chicken farm about a couple of miles from where I live. They used to give tours of their farm to schoolchildren. Well, not anymore. Now, it's closed to the public and their delivery trucks are cleaned and sanitized coming from and going to the farm. The San Diego Zoo will withdraw its wild birds from exhibits to protect them (nothing like losing a rare species of bird to a special kind of flu).
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 | CastleBee (81)
03/19/2006 | Well, the possible mutation of the virus aside; I honestly worry about the poor birds. Also, it seems like a sign of the times - when the wildlife starts to go, it should be a pretty large and obvious red flag that we may have some real issues.
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 | Djahuti (54)
03/19/2006 | This is something that needs to be watched,but it has been blown way out of proportion.The virus would need to mutate to become an emergency.I worry more about the toxins allowed in our water,air and food.
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