Well it appears that the CDC is paying attention to the upcoming flu season here in the US. We actually have several threats on the horizon; two strains of flu and the Middle Eastern MERS virus. Not very nice viruses to say the least, quite deadly in every regard, no not near 100% kill rate of an Ebola type virus, but scary nevertheless, for anyone unlucky enough to contract them. Let's talk shall we?
Now then, I do not write this article to scare anyone, if you want to be afraid you'll need to read one of Richard Preston's books or perhaps "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry. It turns out that both the MERS, and the deadly Avian Flu strain H7N9 are not easily transmitted from human to human, but they do transmit, which is a scary thought all to its own.
There was a rather troubling article in News China - August 2013 Issue - titled; "Avian Flu - Playing Chicken," by Qian Wei and Xie Yang which stated; "Given the ineffective government supervision and a shocking lack of mandatory hygiene measures in China's poultry industry, the continually evolving avian flu virus still poses a significant threat."
In the New Scientist Weekly they seem to have a different theme based on several new research papers out now in Summer of 2013, their article in the August 17, 2013 Issue titled; "H7N9 Is Out of the Poultry Market. The Deadly Bird Flue that emerged in China in February this year has passed from human to human for the first time." Obviously, that's not good. Although it is not easily passed, consider the rapid evolution of the flu viruses of the past.
Are we ready in our population here in the US, does the WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC have the best information to date? Are the Saudi's sharing all they know about the MERS, is it really caused by or vectored through the Egyptian Tomb Bat, if so, that sounds a little ominous in its own right, not that I am one to follow the ancient myths of Egyptian past, but we do know that we live on a planet, which from time to time produces some real challenges to human life.
So far, we look okay over all for the 2013 season, but this stuff is serious enough that our team must stay hot on the trail to mitigate any negative potential eventualities of a large scale deadly pandemic in the present period. Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7957095
No comments:
Post a Comment