Health News

Sweden raises alert level after bird flu in Germany

Dec 18, 2007, 17:09 GMT

Stockholm - Swedish authorities raised the alert level in the southern part of the country Tuesday after outbreaks of bird flu in Germany and Poland.

The Board of Agriculture said while there were no reports of increased deaths among poultry or wild fowl in Sweden, there were cases in parts of Poland near the Baltic Sea.

The protection level in southern Sweden, south of the main Dalalven river, was raised from level one to level two, meaning a 'moderate risk,' the board said.

Effective Wednesday, poultry have to be kept indoors, while poultry and other bird exhibitions and competitions were banned.

Ducks, geese, and other farmed game birds and hobby flocks were allowed to remain outdoors but behind fences, the board said.

The move came the day after the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration introduced similar measures after tests in Germany indicated that some birds were infected with the H5N1 virus that can also harm humans.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur


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dr david hillDec 29th, 2007 - 21:30:34

Human-to-Human Transmitted Avian Flu – We have to move from a Cure Strategy to a Prevention Strategy before it is too late

The strategy to prevent hundreds of millions of people dying (possibly over a billion) across the globe from the Avian Flu pandemic is totally flawed. This reliance that governments around the world have placed on predominantly vaccination (cure) only is a decision that history will record as one of the most insane and insidious decisions that has ever been taken by our political leaders. This assertion is based upon the facts that the eventual human-to-human killer virus that will emerge will be a new strain due to the fact that viruses constantly mutate and that owing to the initial incubation period for bird flu to show its ugly face, the virus will have spread like wildfire across the world through millions travelling internationally on a daily basis. Indeed, the avian flu strain is 20 times more virulent than the 1917/18 Spanish flu that killed between 50 million and 100 million people, but where this time, literally hundreds of millions will perish with this ill thought out strategy by our political leaders and governments. What should have been undertaken is that this highly contagious disease should have been addressed at its source (prevention) and where history again will confirm this eventual conclusion. Unfortunately by then, this terrible event will have taken place. Governments should rethink therefore before it is too late and adopt predominantly a ‘field’ strategy, for this is the only strategy that will work and stop the unimaginable happening. Governments have been warned continuously, but where they do not wish to listen due to the powerful overtones delivered to our political leaders by the giant pharmaceuticals in their quest for profits (or selfish greed dependant on which point-of-view one wishes to take). One has to remember also that since 2003 the human mortality rate through the bird flu virus has been 62% and where only 38 people on average out of every hundred has survived. Overall therefore it has to be said that these vast profit-orientated pharmaceutical companies have not stopped any of these deaths through their highly expensive drugs and where things will be no different when the eventual pandemic arrives. It is hoped therefore that for the sake of humankind, that a major sea change takes place within the thinking of our political leaders in 2008, from one of cure to prevention, and before time literally runs out on us all. Indeed, in 2007, CNN.Com determined that 87% of voters considered that health agencies would NOT be able to respond effectively if there was an avian flu pandemic. These are therefore not fear factors but factors derived from pure logic and facts determined by some of the leading authoritive thinkers on the subject.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation
Bern, Switzerland
UK Postal Address: P O Box A60, Huddersfield,
HD1 1XJ, United Kingdom
UK Tel:0044(0)1484 537181
28th December 2007

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