Pandemic Flu Central

I had never heard of “pandemic flu” or “H5N1.”  I had heard about “bird flu” a couple of years ago on t.v.  They were showing quiet a bit about this “bird flu”, then suddenly, I didn’t hear anything about it for months. So one night while I had some free time on the net, I googled “bird flu,” and found alot of info. Turns out, that “bird flu” is H5N1, a deadly flu virus.  I was hooked, and had to know more. I stumbled upon a forum, the Fluwikie2, over a year ago

What is bird flu?

This is the most common question asked.

H5N1 is bird flu, or rather flu. H5N1 is another strain of the flu. What makes this strain of the flu so deadly for both birds and humans is that this is the high pathenogen H5N1. All poultry carry the low path N5N1, and poses no threat to the bird or human. 

In 2003, H5N1 or bird flu, first showed it’s ugly head in Asia, infecting thousands of poultry, mainly chickens, killing them quickly.  Quarantine and disenfecting did not seem to make a difference in slowing down this virus. It continued to spread and infect thousands more birds.

Since 2003, bird flu has spread to several countries, not only infecting and killing millions of poultry, but also infecting humans.  At present, humans contracting bird flu is primarilary from infected poultry, however that has started to changed. Over the past year, the virus has mutated into several strains, Indonesia being hit the hardest with total human deaths from bird flu. Since last year, there have been several clusters of H-H (human to human) infections of this virus. This has caused great concern in the pandemic flu world, as the virus is just a step away from becoming sustained H-H-H. When and if this happens, the world will have another pandemic flu on their hands. The last world wide flu pandemic was in 1918. Think for a minute, how a pandemic would change your life, your childrens life, and life as you know it.

Right now, The World Health Organization (WHO), has the pandemic alert level at 3, 

 http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html 

At the present moment, Indonesia, Egypt, are the hot spots, with Indonesia continuing to increase in number of human deaths. Egypt reported it’s first human bird flu death last year, and has continued to increase in human deaths numbers.

The Fluwiki

The fluwiki,  http://www.newfluwiki2.com/frontPage.do   is an international website dedicated to bringing information about pandemic flu, prepardness to the people.

I am a part of the Indonesian translators team. Each day we combs our assigned Indo news sites for news of bird flu. I have 9 that I go through. I post my translated articles on the fluwiki, and then again at  http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/ commonly know as PFI: Pandemic Flu Information forum.  The information on both of these sites is invaluable. I encourage you to check out both.

Where to begin

That is another common question. And I say, read as much as you can about this virus. Learn. You have to know what your dealing with in order to prepare your family.  Once you have done your homework, then you create a stock, starting with 2 weeks min., of food and water,  and build from there.  This is a link found at the fluwiki2 that will help guide you: http://www.getpandemicready.org

It can be overwhelming

This can be a bit overwhelming. I personally went on am emotional rollercoaster, and had to decide if I wanted to stay dedicated to this cause of watching this virus, keeping my household prepared, and being the first at having a heads up if this goes pandemic. There really wasn’t any doubt for me. I knew I had to stay. I’ve just learned how to put it in the back of my mind, and live my life. It doesn’t consume me like it use to. People do go through this at first. It a normal response.

Current topics at the fluwiki

CDC Pandemic Influenza Live Excerise

 http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2231

ReadyMoms Alliance in the UK

http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2224

Indonesia daily updates of news

http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2212

Daily news reports of general bird flu/pandemic related news

on home page of the wiki2

We are always needing more help for translators. There are still lots of Indo newspapers that need looking after, and there are not enough volunteers. The Egypt team needs help combing through the Egyptian newspapers and translating.

I hope you take a look around PFI and the newFluwiki2. I couldn’t begin to cover all the material that’s contained in those two sites. The third site, where I started is the old site(the fluwiki has since moved) is here: http://www.fluwikie2.com/index.php?n=Forum.Forum This site is chuck full of so much info. Sadly, this site will be gone come June 1, and all that great info, lost forever. Please take advantage of it while you still can. 

Until next time,

cottontop