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Speaker warns of impending avian flu pandemic

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by Drew Hamm

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Concentrating on the avian influenza that has been spreading across the globe, a world acclaimed journalist addressed the issue of global health during a speech at the University of Wisconsin Wednesday.

Laurie Garrett, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Peabody award and two Polk awards in her distinguished career — the only person in history ever to do so — is a leader in her field of global health.

"No one in this room is immune," Garrett said, referring to the strain of bird flu, H5N1, currently decimating much of the bird populations in southeastern Asia.

Cynthia Haq, director for the UW Center for Global Health, introduced Garrett and said Garrett was "the articulate, prolific spokeswoman for public and global health."

Haq credited the establishment of the center in Madison a year ago to Garrett's research.

Garrett hammered home the point that a pandemic was a distinct possibility with the bird flu.

"When the crisis hits, we do not have answers," she said, citing data which indicates New York City having only a tenth of the beds needed to support the minimum amount of victims in a hypothetical outbreak.

Garrett also noted a record number of bird flu viruses appeared in the fall of 2005 adding, "The whole flu scenario is accelerating."

Garrett said the bird flu is a "threat on national security that would dwarf 9/11."

If a worldwide epidemic were to occur, airlines would shut down and each country would be on its own in terms of finding vaccines and other supplies, Garrett said.

"We would keep American made products for Americans," she added.

Tamiflu is a vaccine being touted as a combatant to the bird flu, as well as an effective treatment prescribed for influenza.

However, Switzerland has the only manufacturing plant of Tamiflu in the world, and America has a severe lack of the vaccine.

Garrett also stressed that currently, the H5N1 strain is only transferable from bird-to-human, and not human-to-human.

"The reaction at this point is nothing compared to a human-to-human pandemic," she said, adding the death toll would overshadow anything except a nuclear war.

She also said it has not yet been proven if the bird flu can spread quickly from human to human.

The World Health Organization has proposed a policy of containment, which would take 30 days to get infected citizens out of the main population.

Unfortunately, Garrett said, many governments take up to 80 days to even report an outbreak of the bird flu in their area.

"How do we do a quarantine if we don't know who is infected?" Garrett questioned. "And can the global community pour in resources to contain the virus?"

The World Bank, along with 38 other nations, have committed $1.9 billion to fight H5N1 in preparation for a human pandemic.

Garrett said she doubts the world governments' commitment to fighting the potential worldwide disaster, saying politicians today worry about their next reelection instead of what they could do to better the world far into the future.

Those in attendance were eager to hear Garrett's views on how large of a threat the bird flu poses to the United States.

"I found it interesting that she commented on how hard it was for the government to be imaginative and how they only focus on four years in the future as opposed to four decades," said UW junior Alex Grace, who attended Wednesday's speech.

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Anonymous (March 2, 2006 @ 4:45am):

Tamiflu is NOT a vaccine. It is an anti-viral medication. In a health emergency, like an influenza pandemic, accurate information is absolutely essential so that people can react appropriately and behave responsibly. Now is the time to start being careful with how you use terminology.

Anonymous (March 2, 2006 @ 7:32am):

Interesting, timely and scary, article.

Anonymous (March 2, 2006 @ 8:02am):

Hamm again writes an engaging article, capturing what we want to know about bird flu in a succinct article.

Anonymous (March 2, 2006 @ 8:51am):

Your article on the possible bird flu pandemic was timely and on target. Unfortunately, it contained at least two serious errors: Tamiflu is NOT a vaccine. It's an "antiviral," usually delivered in pill form. THERE IS NOT VACCINE and very likely will not be one available for quite a while after the pandemic breaks out. Secondly, if you check the WHO website and many others, you will find that there have been cases, known as clusters, where avian influenza has been passed Human to Human (H2H), although most cases have been attributed to exposure to infected birds.

Many articles now being published continue to make these mistakes and I believe that these errors are contributing to the American public's general failure to "get the message."

For more information, see www.pandemicflu.gov, www.who.int/en and www.fluwikie.com

(You may use my name if you like: Galen McBride, Culpeper, VA)