Flu virus could hit 40% of American workers; US considered unprepared

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Businesses need to plan on having 40 percent of their workforces out if a flu pandemic strikes and need to start rewarding employees for staying home when they are sick, U.S. government advisers told a conference on Tuesday.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus will almost certainly spread to birds in the United States eventually, and if it mutates into a form that easily infects people it will spread globally within weeks, they noted.

If that happens, up to a third of people will be sickened by the virus in the space of a few weeks, another third will have to stay home to care for ill relatives or children kept out of school, and others will be afraid to come to work or may have trouble getting in if mass transit systems break down.

"We have seen, in the past several weeks, a remarkable acceleration of the pandemic in birds," Dr. Rajiv Venkayya, special assistant for biodefense to President George W. Bush, told the conference.

"It's something short of inevitable that we will see a case of H5N1 here in the U.S."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060228/ts_nm/birdflu_usa_dc_2

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C. Everett Koop Says US Woefully Unprepared for Bio Disaster

WESTON, Mass., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- C. Everett Koop, MD, and former US Surgeon General, writing in the current issue of Journal of Emergency Management, says this country's disaster response and healthcare systems will be easily overwhelmed by a major bio disaster such as an avian flu pandemic.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060228/netu033.html?.v=43

[fooj]

1. US? Unprepared? Oh my...

:P

[SoCalDem]

2. Actually fast is better in a pandemic

get it over with in a hurry..:(

[Texasgal]

3. ALL FLU'S MUTATE FROM THE BIRD!

There is nothing to be afraid of.

[Fridays Child]

4. Off topic but...

...the only way I can think of to describe that photo of B*sh is "liver-lipped." What a disgusting person he is. :puke:

[Daphne08]

5. Thousands of people die each year from the flu.

If only five-hundred were to perish from this "bird flu," what would happen in this country?

We should worry more about government intrusion than bird flu, in my humble opinion.

[Bluebear]

6. I think we need to be worried about both,

Katrina taught us we are totally on our own re: disasters.

Koop was Reagan's SG wan't he? The medical community seems concerned by this; I trust them more than I do Bush.

[Karmakaze]

8. The JAMA

ran an article that listed the estimated annual deaths in the US from influenza as between 50 and 70 THOUSAND.

So in the US alone, since the Bird Flu hype began, somthing like 100,000 to 140,000 Americans have died from normal human Influenza. Yet somehow that is not something to fear.

Here is one for all those people that harp about the possibility that Bird Flu will mutate into being able to spread from Human to Human: The chances of that are about the same that human Influenza will mutate into a far more deadly strain. Yet no one is screaming about that.

Bird Flu is hype, just like SARS was.

[Broadslidin]

7. Might Be a Good Idea To Quietly Accumulate a Hidden Stash of..........!

:yoiks: Dried Beans and Brown Rice!