From the BBC - quote - Authorities in France have staged an exercise to test the ability of the emergency services to cope with an outbreak of bird flu in humans.
In the Lyon exercise two "patients" with symptoms of the virus were evacuated to a hospital isolation ward.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has said France has "one of the most sophisticated plans in Europe". - end quote --
~~~~~~~
prying1 sez: Leave it to the French to move two people from one room to another and call it a drill.
Scotsman.com has this - Bird flu fears at French farm - BIRD flu tests were being carried out today at a turkey farm in south-eastern France in what would be the first case in domestic birds in the European Union.
Authorities have sealed off a farm with more than 11,000 turkeys in the south-eastern Ain region, the same area where France's first two cases of the deadly virus - in two wild ducks - were confirmed.
~~~~~~~
Ireland OnLine reports - Indonesia and Malaysia step up bird flu flight -
Indonesia and Malaysia took their anti-bird flu campaigns to the streets today, testing thousands of chickens, ducks and doves for the H5N1 virus that has killed 87 people across Asia.
In India, veterinary workers wearing goggles and protective suits cleaned up chicken coops in a small town hit by the disease, while China reported that a six-year-old boy infected with bird flu had fully recovered.
Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono declared a war on bird flu as he launched a three-day campaign to test birds across the capital Jakarta - the source of most of Indonesia's human cases.
So far 19 people have died in Indonesia, all in the past nine months, more than any country worldwide within the same period.
~~~~~~~~
MSNBC tells us more about the bird flu called H5N1 -
Pandemic fears
The rapid spread of H5N1 from Asia into the Middle East, Africa and Europe has heightened fears of a human pandemic and triggered sharp falls in poultry sales.
The Economic Community of West African States called for international aid to help set up a regional fund to pay for emergency action as they seek to prevent the spread of the virus, found in poultry in Nigeria this month.
The World Health Organization plans to test samples from four Nigerians possibly infected with the virus, including a woman who died last week and three people who have recovered.
Experts fear that in Africa, where chickens live in millions of homes, the virus could spread rapidly and largely undetected due to a lack of health, veterinary and laboratory services.
They hold similar fears for India, where hundreds of millions of people live in rural areas side-by-side with livestock and domestic fowl.
So far the biggest risk seems to be for people who come into direct contact with sick chickens, and in countries where people personally care for their fowl.
There have been no confirmed human cases in India, but authorities were making final tests of a 12th person quarantined with suspected bird flu in Navapur, a remote town in IndiaÂ’s western Maharashtra state.
prying1 sez: I'd hate to think that this disease could and will become a human to human epidemic but the posibility is there. How many local governments are practicing control even on a small scale as the French did? - I've heard it suggested that people send emails, letters and even step into their local city halls to ask their local tax paid elected officials to do a bit of research on this subject and to come up with a plan in case it hits their communities. - Tell 'em they can get a fund going for the study and stick their hands in the pie. That might encourage them to look into it.
For an excellent reference site to start with check out EnFlu.com.
Technorati Tags - H5N1 - bird flu - health -
|