| Author |
Message |
Patrickfoy
Registered user
Username: Patrickfoy
Post Number: 35
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2005 - 8:39 pm: |     |
Sorry Colleen, I'm really not that blind.
thanks for the info. I hope to get my new Proclamation soon.Then I can make some plans and see if it will be feesible for me.
Patrick |
Susan_2
Registered user
Username: Susan_2
Post Number: 1973
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2005 - 9:20 pm: | |
What is bird fly? Am I in any danger getting it if I eat chicken or turkey? Can I get it from the sea gulls flying around outside my house? How about from the pigeons? How is it transmitted? If I get it will I die? |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 2677
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2005 - 11:43 pm: | |
Bird flu is a particularly severe flu (virus) that has surfaced in Asia. Right now it is transmitted from birds to people only, but epidemiologists, etc., fear that it will mutate and become transmissable from human to human. I'm actually not sure about the method of contraction--I'm not sure whether or not it's transmitted by eating the meat.
I heard a very interesting news note this morning that some researchers began to wonder whether the infamous flu epidemic of 1918 when hundreds or thousands of people died might have been a bird flu. There was some blood (and tissue?) samples that had been preserved--I can't remember where--from two soldiers who had died from the flu, and they exhumed the remains of a woman they knew had died of it. They worked with the tissue samples until they isolated the viral DNA, and I guess they sort of put it back together--and indeed, the resulting product was bird flu.
I don't know for sure where that leaves us, but it's interesting historical data to see how a form of it affected a population. So far there's no vaccine for it and no cure--(is there ever a cure for a virus?)--and it is quite deadly. I heard one report that said about 56% of people who get it, die. I guess it hasn't "hit" N America yet, but with international travel being so accessible, there's fear it will arrive.
On the positive side, I heard one doctor interviewed who said that, among all the unknowns, one possibility is that if it does mutate to be transmissable between humans, it might be less virulent. Mutations don't necessarily have to make things worse.
That's all I know--and it isn't much. Stan, do you or other medical people know more?
Colleen |
Jerry
Registered user
Username: Jerry
Post Number: 470
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 12:50 am: | |
I'm not the least bit medical. However, I have seen and read a few facts.
First, the fear is that it will be an airborne transmission.
Second, a vaccine cannot be manufactured until it mutates to the feared form since the vaccine must be constructed based on the unpredictable future mutated form, not the current form of life.
Third, even if a vaccine is developed, it cannot be manufactured fast enough to beat the spread rate of the disease if it is like the 1918 Spanish flu that killed millions.
Transmission by food would not be as problematic, even if it did happen to occur. |
Thomas1
Registered user
Username: Thomas1
Post Number: 183
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 4:53 am: | |
Patrick
I'm just north of you, in Ocala. It's nice to see we have company, here in Central Florida. Maybe someday an FAF in our part of the world would be possible!
Thomas |
Madelia
Registered user
Username: Madelia
Post Number: 147
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 6:44 am: | |
Colleen, my kids are 10 and 7. I'll have to see how far we are in the divorce proceedings by then and where we are with child custody issues. As it stands now, they spend about 6 hours on Saturday with their dad.
I'm enjoying all the jokes and comments above by the way!! |
Melinda
Registered user
Username: Melinda
Post Number: 32
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 7:51 am: | |
Patrick,
My daughter was born in Zephyrhills in 91. I bet it's changed a lot since then. I was in Tampa a few weeks ago and thought about driving up there, but didn't make it. Oh well. It would have been fun to see it. Those mountains on the Zephyrhills bottles crack me up, but the water is sure good!
Melinda |
Riverfonz
Registered user
Username: Riverfonz
Post Number: 875
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 10:26 am: | |
Colleen, you are an expert on bird flu, I couldn't add anything, because I have never seen a case.
Stan |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 2678
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 12:24 pm: | |
Well, I just have to add that I heard one more interview this morning with a doctor who said that the 50% expected death rate is highly overblown. He said the current death rate of flu is 1% of people who contract it. Bird flu, he said, is expected to be four or five times more deadly than that--making it possible that 5 % or so of victims would die.
When you consider that it would likely circle the globe quickly because of modern transporation, the chances are that sevearl billion people would contract it. A 5% death rate would result in millions of deaths and an unbelievable drain on hospital facilities. But a 50% death rate is not even in the cards, he said.
Praise God He's in the future, and we can trust Him regardless of circumstances. We're all in His hands--no need to live in fear!
Colleen |
Goldenbear
Registered user
Username: Goldenbear
Post Number: 121
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, October 08, 2005 - 6:19 am: | |
Patrick,
I was raised in Central Florida. Last time I was home, it had really changed. Zephryhills was always a sleepy little town when I was at FLA. Didn't some Advent run an aiport there in town at one time?
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Patrickfoy
Registered user
Username: Patrickfoy
Post Number: 37
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 8:14 pm: | |
Hey All, Thomas-I go through Ocala quite often, yes I would love to see an FAF near us. It can be done through our Lord, if it be His will. I have thought of doing something along that line often, but never really felt it was His will. I still pray about it.
Melinda- We moved form north Tampa to Zephryhills area in 92', I just couldn't take the masses anymore, and guess what- it all followed us here. It is amazing how fast an area can grow. It's not small town anymore. You have never seen the mountains of Zephryhills? Me neither, but there are hills and yes the water is still good.
Goldenbear-the Adventists you talk about were the Vandenburgs- yes they were brothers that flew small aircraft. They bought a bunch of land just east of Tampa and developed a small airport. They owned all the land around that area. Hundreds of acres. The airport came to be very famous and someone made an offer that could not be refused and they sold it. They became Adventists and built several churches. I used to attend church with them at the Tampa church. They were really good people. I became friends with the younger brother and since I left the church
(the second time, of course I wasn't sure then) I have not seen him or his wife. His wife is much younger then him and is in a position at the Seventh-day Adventist Florida Conferrance. She also is a very nice. I do miss those people, but not the beliefs. I pray for them daily.
I hope someday to be able to witness to them.
Patrick
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