linnugripiblog

jälle üks homne artikkel ;)

World must act as if flu pandemic imminent: UN official link

...

Many people appeared to be under the impression that they would have time to prepare for the widely feared pandemic but that was wrongheaded, Dr David Nabarro says.

"It's very hard to get people prepared for something that is as uncertain and unclear as this problem," Dr Nabarro said. "So many people, when I talk to them about getting prepared, seem to imply that we've got months in which to get prepared but I say to them: It may not be months. "It could be that we're going to get human-to-human transmission tomorrow so please act as though it's going to start tomorrow. Don't keep putting off the difficult issues."

The H5N1 bird flu virus has affected poultry flocks in the far east and Turkey, and has claimed some 80 human lives after spreading from birds to people. But experts fear the virus could mutate almost overnight and unobserved into a new form that would spread easily between humans and spark a repeat of the global influenza pandemics that killed tens of millions of people in the past century.

"There is a sensation for all of us who are working on this of standing on the edge of a really deep precipice and not knowing how far we're going to fall," Dr Nabarro said. "The moment the pandemic starts it's too late to get prepared."

oh, samast pressikonverentsist? teine artikkel veel: link

Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza Dr. David Nabarro noted to reporters tUESDAY that he worries every day from receiving the news of a human to human transmission of the Avian Flu.

Nabarro said that "we are all standing on a deep edge and not knowing how far we are going to fall" when it happens. "Not only I am 'freaking out', to use the correspondents expression, and not mine, not only is that worry or anxiety because of the impact of a possible pandemic, but there is also that worry and anxiety because so many people when I talk to them about getting prepared seem to imply that we have months ahead to get prepared," he said. However he added that "I say to them it might not be months, it could be that we get human to human transmission tomorrow, so please act as though it is going to start tomorrow, don't keep putting off the difficult issues"."I am scared of the possible arrival of human influenza pandemic, everybody is scared of it," he said.