Call for "military-style" flu response

by **nomo** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:48 pm

'Military-style' flu network call A military-style surveillance network should be set up in developing countries to identify early signs of a human flu pandemic, US doctors say. The labs should be modelled on ones set up after World War II, they add. The call, by US military doctors, is made in an article published in the journal Nature. In addition, UK scientists are to investigate if there are gaps in the scientific understanding of flu and how it spreads across the world. The doctors want to see a network of rapid-response laboratories set up based on US Naval Medical Research Units (NAMRUs), which were put in place after WWII to protect American service men and women from infectious diseases overseas. The doctors from the US Department of Defence Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System have since been working with countries and the World Health Organization (WHO), and have made important contributions to infection control strategies as well the development of vaccines and treatments. But only a few such labs still operate, with many - such as those in Panama, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia and Malaysia closing. The American doctors, led by Dr Jean-Paul Chretien and Dr David Blazes, argue that a new network of state-of-the art laboratories mirroring the NAMRU model is now urgently needed. These would support the existing work of the World Health Organization and regional collaborating centres. It is hoped they would pick up the earliest signs of human-to-human transmission of a pandemic flu strain, which could occur in a very rural area. Writing in Nature, they said: "The world needs such laboratories now, more than ever, as platforms for sustained epidemic detection and response - for avian influenza, and as-yet unknown diseases. "The time has come to build on their experience and create a new generation of multilateral, WHO-aligned laboratories as a front-line of defence against future pandemics." 'More weapons' In a separate development, the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences is to look at the science which has informed policy development and planning in the UK for what would happen in a flu pandemic, particularly in relation to the avian flu virus H5N1. It will examine if there are other areas of science, or other pieces of specific research, which can inform such policies and plans for the immediate future and in the longer term. Particular areas to be examined include whether it would be possible to develop new drugs to give doctors more weapons in the armoury against flu, and if it would be feasible to develop a vaccine which was effective against various strains of flu. Part of the concern over a flu pandemic is that an effective vaccine could not be developed until a strain which could spread between people emerged. It will also look at whether scientific 'modelling', designed to show how flu might spread across the world, could be improved - perhaps with information from other areas of science. Sir John Skehel, director of the National Institute for Medical Research for the Medical Research Council, who is leading the study, said: "What we want to be sure of is that we use as much expertise as possible to identify any gaps in our understanding." The academies will publish their report in the summer.

by **dbeach** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:02 pm

floating baloons of balloney to see IF the masses respond also the militarization of society continues I bet the military has lots of neat labs ready to open with a lil dusting and makeover.. plus its harder to monitor

by **Col Quisp** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:39 pm

Chertoff says: "If we get a wild bird or even a domestic chicken that gets infected with avian flu, we're going to be able to deal with it, because we've got a lot of experience with that." Just where did they get this boatload of experience? As far as I know, the US has had NO experience with avian flu containment. He is clearly insane or delusional. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_he_me/bird_flu_chertoff_1">news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060...chertoff_1</a>

by **Gouda** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:08 pm

More rather incoherent <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/03/09/chertoff.bird.flu/index.html">Chertoff</a>: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>"We've dealt with these kinds of issues before, similar issues. We actually are working on a very specific plan to deal with this. We would obviously be monitoring for human health characteristics, but it would not be time to push the panic button." If an outbreak occurs, the government plans an ambitious campaign to educate the public, he said. "It would be time to start to get acquainted with some of the challenges," he said.<hr></blockquote> One challenge for us, at least, will be to resist the urge to disbelieve or shun every public scientific expert. Time to dust off my copy of Camus' The Plague? As far as our own education, has anyone read Mike Davis' The Monster at our Door? I have not, yet, but a friend has sent me his thesis: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>The essence of the avian flu threat, as we shall see is that a mutant influenza of nightmarish virulence - evolved and now entrenched in ecological niches recently created by global agro-capitalism - is searching for the new gene or two that will enable it to travel at pandemic velocity through a densely urbanized and mostly poor humanity. This is a destiny, moreover, that we have largely forced upon influenza. Human-induced environmental shocks–overseas tourism, wetland destruction, a corporate "Livestock Revolution," and Third World urbanization with its attendant growth of megaslums - are responsible for turning influenza's extraordinary Darwinian mutability into one of the most dangerous biological forces on our besieged planet. Likewise, our terrifying vulnerability to this and other emergent diseases has been shaped by concentrated urban poverty, the neglect by a pharmaceutical industry that finds infectious diseases "unprofitable," and the deterioration, even collapse of public-health infrastructures in some rich as well as poor countries.<hr></blockquote> The Monster at our Door, New York and London, The New Press, 2005, page eight)

by * » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:22 pm

<a href="http://www.saynotogmos.org/ud2005/usept05.html#deadly">A Deadly Epidemic and the Attempt to Hide its Link to Genetic Engineering</a>

by **Gouda** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:22 pm

Chertoff's "specific plan" and his "We would obviously be monitoring for human health characteristics," may be the military's proposed surveillance system, as outlined in Nomo's post above. I assume Chertoff can rightly consider (most of) the USA a developing country.

Call for "military-style" flu response

Call for "military-style" flu response

Re: Call for "military-style" flu response

FEMA has lots of experience

Re: FEMA has lots of experience

Re: FEMA has lots of experience

Re: FEMA has lots of experience

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