Word: bird
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...What role can drugs play in tackling a swine flu outbreak? Over the last few years, concern over a bird flu pandemic spurred many governments to stockpile antivirals. While the current swine flu outbreak remains limited in scope, health agencies will likely offer antivirals as a prophylaxis only to those who may have been exposed to the disease: asymptomatic passengers on the same flight as a sick Spanish man, for example, have been given Oseltamivir as a precaution. In New Zealand and Mexico, where there are confirmed cases of the disease, the drug has been made available over-the-counter...
...patient sheds (because the patient is not as severely ill) and shortens the length of time he or she sheds virus at all. Taking this into account, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College in London has used mathematical modeling to show that antivirals would help slow the spread of a bird flu virus originating in Asia. While the model should hold true for a swine flu arising in Central America, as well, no one knows for sure as the drugs have never been used to tackle an epidemic or pandemic before. (See pictures of bird...
...originated in pigs. There's been no evidence yet of pigs getting sick in either Mexico or the U.S. (Despite several countries' bans on pork imports, it's important to remember that the disease cannot be contracted by eating pork.) The original reservoir for flu viruses is actually wild birds, which can spread infection to domestic birds and people - as we saw with the H5N1 avian flu in Asia - and to pigs. Pigs make particularly good biological mixing bowls since they can be infected by bird-, swine- and human-flu viruses and provide a hospitable environment for the viruses...
...most likely missed its chance to contain the virus. When the WHO's pandemic alert system was first conceived, phase 4 was intended to indicate the moment when a new flu virus had been identified and could spread effectively from person to person (as Asia's H5N1's bird flu virus, which reached phase 3, has never been able to do), but was still limited enough that health officials could launch a global effort to contain it and snuff it out with antiviral drugs...
...keep the reader's attention. Grace's suitor in The Secret tenderly proposes to her without ever having kissed her. "'Tis mighty gut," he says with deep affection. "Will you agree to be my bride?" That scene is not likely to be repeated outside Lancaster County anytime soon, but Bird-in-Hand is an appealing place for a jaded Englischer to escape to for a while - which is part of the romance, after...