Romania and the bird flue

[Ashen]

Is anyone following this?

I am having a hard time actually finding much about this in the news (except this). There was an article in the local paper about it - to summarize - the sick chickens, who cares let's sell it anyway, bribed officials to stamp them as healthy, distribute it to the stores and now there's chaos. From what I can see it's been confirmed it's reached Bucharest. Does anyone have any info?

Now aside from the bird flue and all that, Romania is actually due to join the EU with Bulgaria but I honestly do not understand how, considering the state of the country. They said in the paper that this was held under wraps precisley because of the EU so not much is known.

[mr_sir]

That's the first I've heard of it and usually anything to do with bird flu is in the press/on the news over here. Do they know which strain it is - the potentially human infecting one or the other one? I know we had a few cases in the UK but as far as I know they were the non human threatening strain and our government dealt with it pretty quickly (I think they have had so much practice dealing with farm/animal/bird diseases over here in the the last 20 years they are becoming experts at it).

[Ashen]

I know! That is what got me thinking too. The article mentiones the human infecting one (agricultural minister Gheorghe Flutur said it was likely to be H5N1). I mean it reads like a horror story. They said that a Romanian minister (am not sure of what), very clearly said two days ago there is possibility of a bird flue pandemic, much to the surprise of the public, in the sense he was quite honest about it. They say the govt tried to keep it under wraps due to the EU thing. I mean look at that article:

"The crisis task force of the Brasov county confirmed the bird virus in the towns of: ***aras, Hurez, Codlea, Feldioara, Ucea, Soars, Beclean, Patiprod, Jivert, Vistea de Jos, Venetia de Jos, Barcut, Racos, Dumbravita, Vulcan, Bod and Stupini." (BTW have no idea why the stars appeared?)

How many towns is that?! And it's not only that county either from what I can find, but 3 more plus 7 towns elsewhere, and like I've said they ask not to panic but it's in the capital too. But surprisingly I can't seem to find much on the net, except that some arrests were already made, and resignations are flying as well.

[Ravager]

Hmm. I can't find too much on it either, beyond the reports of an outbreak in October last year.
http://editorials.arrivenet.com/heal....php/6231.html


There's also this dated from the 14th: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4547515.htm

[ch85us2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashen (BTW have no idea why the stars appeared?).

The beginning of that word is an insult to homosexual people here in the states (Yes, we ruin everything)


Like Ashen said, this whole thing reads like a Michael Crichton novel. How can we hope to fight it if we don't stand together against it? I can see it now. A german person comes on vacation, eats some chicken, then goes back to begin infecting the rest of the world.

[Lestat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ch85us2001 The beginning of that word is an insult to homosexual people here in the states (Yes, we ruin everything) Like Ashen said, this whole thing reads like a Michael Crichton novel. How can we hope to fight it if we don't stand together against it? I can see it now. A german person comes on vacation, eats some chicken, then goes back to begin infecting the rest of the world.

Oh puh-lease...

Contact with live animals is needed...

As of yet only bird to human infections occurred (and bird to bird of course), and no human to human infections.

You cannot get it from eating meat from infected animals, certainly not processed meat (cooked or whatever).

[Ashen]

Well there are really several issues here:

- first I am not pleased *at all* with the way this was handled. It isn't bird flue that is the issue, it is that it was a desease and it was handled appallingly. We are actually lucky that the flue is at this point otherwise if it were anything else, it would have been a full blown epidemic.
- they hid it. There is no other word for it. I certainly do not see it. IMO this is the worst thing to do (the reason was the EU, that's not hard to guess). The information is non existant - this can lead to panic actually since we don't really know how bad it was (hopefully it's being taken care of but we all know how easily people panic; the info I found seems to point to the fact they got the situation under control now).

A co-worker said it was in another paper day before yesterday and it said that ambassadors of some of Romania's neighboring countries are/were asking from their home bases strict measures on the borders. He also told me that apparently the govt claims they managed to intercept 15 tons of infected chicken before it hit the stores (I found this later on the web as well), and they say that's it (but who'd believe them now?). That article also said that culled (is that the right verb?) chicken was left to rot on the sides of the roads with no protection at all.

Yes, of course Lestat is right about cases so far, but I've spoken to a friend who's a molecular biologist and she told me this kind of gross negligence greatly increases chances of mutation of some kind. And like I've mentioned this time it will I hope be harmless but what if it was some other desease?

BTW Ah thanks for the stars explanation, I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was a cigarette

[ch85us2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lestat Oh puh-lease... Contact with live animals is needed... As of yet only bird to human infections occurred (and bird to bird of course), and no human to human infections. You cannot get it from eating meat from infected animals, certainly not processed meat (cooked or whatever).

Thats good. Apparently, I have misinformed myself.

[Lestat]

@ Ashen: my remark was directed at chus (don't panic!). Of course there is reason for concern, and you summarised it quite well.

Oh, and the forum rules clearly state that you can circumvent the language filter to write innocent words and names such as Hitchc0ck, D!ckerson or F@gin.

[Chimaera182]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashen - first I am not pleased *at all* with the way this was handled. It isn't bird flue that is the issue, it is that it was a desease and it was handled appallingly. We are actually lucky that the flue is at this point otherwise if it were anything else, it would have been a full blown epidemic. - they hid it. There is no other word for it. I certainly do not see it. IMO this is the worst thing to do (the reason was the EU, that's not hard to guess). The information is non existant - this can lead to panic actually since we don't really know how bad it was (hopefully it's being taken care of but we all know how easily people panic; the info I found seems to point to the fact they got the situation under control now). ... BTW Ah thanks for the stars explanation, I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was a cigarette

It's not like people throughout history haven't done whatever it took to save a buck. If a farmer found out his poultry was infected, that's money lost right there, between the costs it took to raise the bird, feed the bird, then send it to wherever to get stripped and whatall. Also, the bird won't bring in money, and it's a colossal waste of profit. Frankly, I'm not at all surprised that this has occured. Is it still appalling? Sure. I'm just more surprised that this sort of thing hasn't happened already. As for trying to cover it up, again I'm not at all surprised by this. It's all just typical human behavior to me.

Yeah, we Americans do the darnedest things. That word used to mean a bundle of sticks, it means cigarette. But we Americans took it to mean something completely else. We just bastardize the English language, don't we?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lestat Oh, and the forum rules clearly state that you can circumvent the language filter to write innocent words and names such as Hitchc0ck, D!ckerson or F@gin.

Unfortunately, for people like Ashen, such won't occur to them until after GB edits the word.