Word: flu
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...state eased restrictions on flu vaccine distribution last week, but don’t expect to get University Health Services (UHS) to vaccinate you anytime soon...
...just now entering clinical trials, because drug companies have been loathe to invest in a vaccine that may never be used, and governments have been reluctant to fully fund the work. The vaccine won't be ready for five or six months, well after the high-risk winter flu season, and it would take even longer to produce enough to vaccinate a significant part of the world's population. Tamiflu, the one drug that seems to be effective against bird flu, is in perilously short supply. In a pandemic, doctors in much of the world could do little more than...
...That's assuming they weren't sick themselves. If the bird-flu virus spread at the rate Omi estimated, nearly a third of the world's population could become ill. That means a third of the world's police officers, government officials, soldiers, technicians-and medical workers-could be knocked out for weeks. Even the temporary loss of such a large part of the work force could lead to severe disruptions of public services-and complicate efforts to fight the pandemic. Countries and businesses need contingency plans in place now, yet in Asia only Japan has any real pandemic scheme...
...That's why preparations for a bird-flu pandemic need to be truly international, with wealthy developed countries leading the way. They need to budget real money now to stockpile bird-flu vaccine and antiviral drugs-and allow the WHO to channel some of those supplies to countries that can't afford them. In the long run, Asia's age-old backyard-farming practices-whereby animals and human beings live in close proximity, giving rise to new viruses like H5N1-need to be moved toward modern methods of slaughtering and food preparation. That will take resources that nations like Vietnam...
...million, or 100 million. The estimates thrown around are so high and the disease itself so seemingly hard to treat that there's a temptation to hope it all just goes away. Rarely have so many brilliant scientists so fervently wished to be proven wrong. But a flu pandemic is inevitable, today or some time in the future. Unlike in 1918, national leaders have the experience and the science to prepare the world. They should...