Posted on 11/01/2005 8:58:42 AM PST by Solson
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer 32 minutes ago
President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu.
The president also said the United States must approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. He said the number of American vaccine manufacturers has plummeted because the industry has been hit with a flood of lawsuits.
Bush said no one knows when or where a deadly strain of flu will strike but "at some point we are likely to face another pandemic."
The president, in a speech at the National Institutes of Health, said the United States must be prepared to detect outbreaks anywhere in the world, stockpile vaccines and anti-viral drugs and be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event a pandemic reaches the United States.
Bush outlined a strategy that would cost $7.1 billion including:
_$1.2 billion for the government to buy enough doses of the vaccine against the current strain of bird flu to protect 20 million Americans; the administration wants to have sufficient vaccine for front-line emergency personnel and at-risk populations, including military personnel;
_$1 billion to stockpile more anti-viral drugs that lessen the severity of the flu symptoms;
_$2.8 billion to speed the development of vaccines as new strains emerge, a process that now takes months;
_$583 million for states and local governments to prepare emergency plans to respond to an outbreak.
Bush said a pandemic flu would be far more serious than the seasonal flu that makes hundreds of thousands of people sick ever year and sends people to their doctors for a flu shot. "I had mine," Bush said. Unlike seasonal flu, pandemic flu can kill people who are young and healthy as well as those who are frail and sick, he said.
In asking Congress for money to buy vaccine, Bush said the vaccine "would not be a perfect match to the pandemic flu because the pandemic strain would probably differ somewhat from the avian flu virus it grew from. But a vaccine against the current avian flu virus would likely offer some protection against a pandemic strain and possibly save many lives in the first critical months of an outbreak."
He also said the United States was increasing stockpiles of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu and Relenza. Such drugs cannot prevent people from catching the flu, but they can reduce the severity of the illness when taken within 48 hours of getting sick, he said.
"At this moment there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or the world, but if history is our guide there's reason to be concerned," Bush said. "In the last century, our country and the world have been hit by three influenza pandemics, and viruses from birds contributed to all of them."
He pointed out that the 1918 pandemic killed over a half million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe. "One-third of the U.S. population was infected, and life expectancy in our country was reduced by 13 years.
"The 1918 pandemic was followed by pandemics in 1957 and 1968, which killed tens of thousands of Americans and millions across the world," Bush said.
Bird flu has been documented in Asia and has spread to Europe but has not reached the United States, the president said. "Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland and time to prepare," he said.
Bush said the cornerstone of his strategy was to develop new technologies to produce new vaccines quickly. "If a pandemic strikes, our country must have a surge capacity in place that will allow us to bring a new vaccine online quickly and manufacture enough to immunize every American against the pandemic strain," Bush said.
The principal goal of Bush's plan, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said, "is the capacity for every American to have a vaccine in the case of a pandemic, no matter what the virus is." "There is no reason to believe that in the next day or two or week or month that that's going to occur," Leavitt said on CBS's "The Early Show." But he added that "we do need to be ready in case it begins to mutate into a human transmissable disease."
Pandemics strike when the easy-to-mutate influenza virus shifts to a strain that people have never experienced before, something that has happened three times in the last century. While it is impossible to say when the next super-flu will strike, concern is growing that the bird flu strain known as H5N1 could trigger one if it mutates to start spreading easily among people. Since 2003, at least 62 people in Southeast Asia have died from H5N1; most regularly handled poultry.
The nation's strategy starts with attempting to spot an outbreak abroad early and working to contain it before it reaches the United States.
Today, most of the world's vaccine against regular winter flu, including much of that used by Americans each flu season, is manufactured in factories in Britain and Europe.
The government already has ordered $162.5 million worth of vaccine to be made and stockpiled against the Asian bird flu, more than half to be made in a U.S. factory.
But the administration plan, to be released in more detail on Wednesday, calls for more than stockpiling shots. It will stress a new method of manufacturing flu vaccines — growing the virus to make them in easy-to-handle cell cultures instead of today's cumbersome process that uses millions of chicken eggs — as well as incentives for new U.S.-based vaccine factories to open.
Such steps will take several years to implement, but the hope is that eventually they could allow production of enough vaccine to go around within six months of a pandemic's start.
___
Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.
Hmmmm....However, just suppose, the Jihadi's were able to get a handful of people infected, Would they really have to get into the country, or just travel to Europe and Canada, and hang around the airports....
This is not Border Problem.
Like a Fox...
What about infected birds, cooked for Thanksgiving??
See above. Two or three infected Jihadis in Tiajauna interacting amoing the Collegiates and Servicemen sampling the wares, say, in between Halloween and Chrstmas, would be all it would take, to
provide the Genesis for a National pnademic in the order of
The Stand....
50 infected people, travelling home for Thansgiving or Christmas, using Airports, Airplanes, Bus Terminals and Busses.....
That is exactly the reason for concern. While there is no reason to believe that the mortality rate will be that high if avian flu became a readily transmissible disease and struck the US, if the mortality rate was even 1% and one third of our population was infected, that would be one million deaths.
Fortunately, the SARS outbreak was very helpful on teaching us how to fight a modern highly transmissible virus. Simple things like opening the windows of the hospitals greatly reduced the infection rate (because the aerosolized viruses were sucked out of hospital rooms and killed instead of being allowed to concentrate). It also showed who needed to be protected the most. The elderly had a greater than 50% mortality rate while young adults had single percentage mortality rates. If bird flu hits, simple things like opening the windows in nursing homes or in any place where a large number of people congregate could save lives. SARS also showed us that China will cover up a deadly disease if given the chance. If there is a bird flu outbreak, I would expect the same.
My company was scheduled to provide flu shot yesterday. It was cancelled due to a late shipment of the vaccine. Hope it wasn't from the same guy that was giving water shots in Baytown.
Are you kidding?
Open borders provide him with a magnificent opportunity to prove that he's more generous with taxpayer funds than the 'Rats are. It's all part of being "compassionate", dontcha know?
I hope you're right. Time will tell, won't it?
"What is seen is the strong-backed Illegal Alien who will come to the Emergency Room and cough, sweat, and bleed but is assumed basically healthy even though he and his Illegal Alien wife and kids never were examined for contagious diseases. By our glance and by our shrug we grant Illegal Aliens health passes. What is unseen is that many Illegal Aliens harbor within their bodies fatal diseases that long ago American medicine fought and vanquished. Now Illegal Aliens carry drug resistant strains of tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, Dengue Fever, and Chagas Disease. [7],[8]"
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=9572
Its all hysteria, like SARS.
What's with you guys and these borders posts? Have you never been to the border? I think Bush who as Governor of Texas which shares a longer border with Mexico than any other state would know something about the subject. You might try putting the emphasis on the real problem, employers who hire illegals. Without jobs and friendly state services like in California there would be no problem.
Now that birds with this have been found in Europe and now Canada, it might be the reason. Human to human transmission has not taken place.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir) resistance already exists in H5N1. Relenza (zanamivir) hardly exists. Taking either of them as a prophylactic course is incredibly irresponsible, but a national stockpile for treatment ONLY is not a terrible idea (for any flu season). It is, of course, still a totally hopeless means of containing a pandemic. The only bit of luck on our side is that if H5N1 steals the genetic material it needs for human to human transmission, it will probably make it less fatal. H5N1 has not neccessarily been found in Canada. An H5 type has been found but it hasn't been subtyped. Don't get excited yet, we'll know by end of week I think.
The heat would kill the virus.
This has been addressed on FR for months. Check it out for the details...
"Today, Senator Kerry(who fought in Vietnam) said that the President isn't doing nearly enough to help the 145 million Americans without health care. The Senator said that the vaccine will only benefit the wealthiest Americans and that if he were President this wouldn't have happened. Kerry then stated that as a wealthy American, he would not receive a shot if offered."
"In other breaking news, It has been reported that Senator Kerry, after recieving his flu shot stated that it is important that government continue to function in the event of the flu pandemic. In an interview with Tim Russert, Kerry denied ever saying he wouldn't take a flu shot. Russert did not follow up."
You border guys are nutters.
Birds do neither understand nor obey the Border Patrol.
Not to worry. I saw a doctor on TV today. She said that people could eat their Thanksgiving meals without worry. As long as the bird is throughly cooked, it is safe.
Use the same precautions that you use when handling any raw meat and people should be okay. Just remember to wash your hands thoroughly after handling raw poultry.
Are you kidding?
They're the same ones who hired Dubya.
From WHO:
Exposure is considered most likely during slaughter, defeathering, butchering, and preparation of poultry for cooking.
There is no evidence that properly cooked poultry or eggs can be a source of infection.
Does the virus spread easily from birds to humans?
No. Though more than 100 human cases have occurred in the current outbreak, this is a small number compared with the huge number of birds affected and the numerous associated opportunities for human exposure, especially in areas where backyard flocks are common. It is not presently understood why some people, and not others, become infected following similar exposures.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html
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