H5N1 UPDATE
So, I don’t know if you are keeping up with the whole drama, but being that this strain is on average 80% lethal (just a mere 5% less lethal than Ebola) I will keep you as informed as possible, being a nurse and all I feel the responsibility to let you know what’s going on. On a previous post I let you know about the bug and where to get some info about it. We had around 300 people dying of this virus worldwide in last few months and the only thing that has been keeping us safe is the fact that the virus hasn’t figured out a way to pass on from human to human. The fact that humans get it from birds and then cannot pass it along, and die soon after (usually 1-2 weeks) has made this virus self limiting so far. This has never been a firm security has the virus keeps mutating and like all other previous flu strains eventually will learn the way of passage between mammals and we it does the worse medical disaster even witnessed will be upon us. Forget about zombie holocaust, the flu apocalypse will get you sooner. Now to make things worse, labs in the US and EEU have been working on learning this virus around the clock hoping for a vaccine (remember the 80% mortality rate) and order to do so, in lab controlled environments have hastened the mutations and created a mammal to mammal transmissible H5N1. When I first heard about this I has not preoccupied, I mean, highly trained personnel have been handling the most dangerous viruses on earth in labs in the US for a long time, but then…
…Then they decided they would publish their findings and scientific methods to reach them. What???????? So, if you are a terrorist, in hopes to get your hands on a lethal biologic weapon that can reshape humanity, you don’t have to risk your life to break into a high security lab to steal the secrets? You can just go to Amazon or Borders and buy yourself the instruction book?? Seriously? This must be a joke right? Right? Well, unfortunately no!!! The WHO (World Health Organization) have been conducting meetings for a few weeks with world leaders, because has the world society became aware of the danger a 60 day gag order/cool off was ordered before the book was published. After many meetings, these people have agreed that they do not have the jurisdiction to forbid the publishing. You know what this means? That even if the virus was not scheduled to reach that level by natural means for several years; it’s not a possibility that man will expedite the inevitable. Some believe 2012 is the end of the world. I’m starting to believe that it could be the end of the world has we know it today.
I will keep you posted on the developments and will start providing health/survival tips on a regular basis. It won’t be easy, but it’s doable, at least for 20ish% of us. I just want to make sure that we are on the better side of that equation.
