bird flu alarm

[mydogsandme]

Is anyone worried about the  reports of this bird flu epidemic or is it just me?! OH justs says oh it probably won't happen and there's nothing you can do anyway. True, but I dread the thought of just getting ordinary flu- being skinny already I end up losing half a stone and look terrible. Do people think this epidemic will actually happen or is it just scare- mongering?

[morg_monster]

Hopefully it won't happen because of the scare-mongering.  The problem is, that although the risk is pretty small, the results could be so awful that they have to trump the risks up a bit to get everyone to notice.  The problem with bird flu is that it is more likely to kill the young and healthy, whereas normal flu is more likely to kill 'weaker' members of society, like young children, invalids, and elderly people.  On a personal level, both equally devastating, but an epidemic of bird flu could paralyse the country for weeks or months, with a knock on effect that could last years.

What will probably happen is, the government and high profile doctors will press on about it for a while, nothing will ever come of it and everyone will moan that the government wasted money on vaccines and publicity, all for nothing.  But actually it was all the money on publicity and guidance that stopped it getting here.

PS if you just look terrible after a bout of bird flu then you can probably consider yourself lucky!

[jake-the-peg]

I heard on Radio 4 this morning that human to human transmisson of Bird flu is difficult.

This rather explains why this nasty disease has currently been so limited in it's impact.

Of course it's always possible that there will be a mutation - especially with flu, but it sounds as if wide spread human casulties are possible rather than probable.

[Robinia]

I always worry initially, partly for the same reason as you, mydogsandme (just lost half a stone with a virus & I'd like it back at once!) but mainly as my immune system is pretty poor (past illness). I don't necessarily get more virus' than others I just like to hang on to them for a lot longer!  As time goes on after these reports I do calm down but there's always that nagging thought.  This country has been pretty good at turning a blind eye to too many warnings in the past so I think they're starting to go the other way a bit now. I doubt that we're ever told the truth about most health issues & worrying won't stop things happening!

Stay positive!

[mydogsandme]

thanks Robinia, glad I'm not alone- I also like to hang onto illnesses as long as possible!

[johntheplamf]

I'm afraid i've never been the type of person to worry about these type of things, i mean what can we do to stop it happening?, Lock ourselves in our houses?, Nah. Anyway, if it does happen, i could do with losing a few pounds.