Stay healthy! That's the best way of protecting yourself.
This very long, but very interesting - and, of course, somewhat controversial - article from the Australian Indmedia site its Australian author explains us a lot of the basics of what going on in our bodies, how these bacteria, viruses, germs exist and coexist there and what are the drugs and vaccines good for.
I think this is a good read:
in reponse to the stupid hype about bird flu I've written a piece about how i see it.....


This is my favourite chapter in it:
There is but one type of immunity: HEALTH.
You can give all the vaccines you want but they do not give immunity
Immunity, from the medical viewpoint, is a state in which the body's immune system is capable of recognising and destroying specific disease causing germs. So for example, if the body has immunity against measles, then supposedly, should the body come into contact with a measles germ, the immune system will take immediate action to destroy the measles germ thus preventing measles. Sounds fine in theory but it doesn't work in practise.
Many studies have shown that measles, rubella, diphtheria and other infections can still occur in fully immune individuals.

◦ our immune system is not designed to fight off germs, for in reality, germs are not our enemies but our friends. Their real purpose is to feed on the waste matter within our bodies and thus assist in the important task of keeping our system clean. The true relationship between man and germ is not one of open warfare but one of peaceful co-existence, a relationship that Biology refers to as symbiosis.


Louis Pasteur, father of the germ theory, confessed on his deathbed that he was wrong about the germ being the cause of disease. The famous quotation went like this.
"It's the soil, not the seed."

Who profits? 5. (more to come).
Its Roche: this piece from Times Online is not very new, I've also repoted on it earlier, but the details are important:
- Roche, which is the world's only manufacturer of Tamiflu (remember: they got it from a company previously headed by the present US war minister, Rumsfeld), revealed that group sales had surged to more than £11.1 billion in the third quarter, driven by "significant growth" in sales of the drug.
"Worldwide sales of Tamiflu rose to 859 million Swiss francs [£377.2 million], mainly as a result of increased orders for pandemic readiness supplies. Roche has donated 3 million packs of Tamiflu to the World Health Organisation for use as a rapid response stockpile in the event of an outbreak of a pandemic strain of influenza."

"The group has already significantly expanded its Tamiflu production capacity several times, and Roche will continue to take action, both on its own and with a significant number of suppliers, to increase production capacity for Tamiflu to meet seasonal and pandemic needs."

Shares in Roche, which is listed on the SWX stock exchange in Switzerland, edged higher to 222.70 Swiss francs during the morning. The shares are up nearly 50 per cent on the year so far.

Who profits? (4. - more to come)
This piece would need a bit more research, but it contains at least some very interesting leads as to who might profit from this - I suppose - more than somewhat orchestrated global pendemic of fearproduction: it states that Donald Rumsfeld, among others will profit, since he owns shares of the company that makes Tamiflu; and used to be the chairman of Gilead, the one that invented the drug.

Who profits? (3. - more to come)
This is somewhat different: a new angle. President Bush is suggesting the enactment of Martial Law in the case of an avian flu outbreak. Martial Law could also be established, using the pretext of an outbreak of avian flu in foreign countries and its potential impacts on the US. In other words, the Military rather than the country's civilian health authorities would be put in charge.
Here is what Bush said during a White House press breefing on 4. Oct. 2005.:
"I am concerned about avian flu. I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. ...I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean. I tried to get a better handle on what the decision-making process would be by reading Mr. Barry's book on the influenza outbreak in 1918. I would recommend it. ...The policy decisions for a president in dealing with an avian flu outbreak are difficult. One example: If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine? ...It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. ...And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have. ...I noticed the other day, evidently, some governors didn't like it. I understand that. I was the commander in chief of the National Guard and proudly so. And, frankly, I didn't want the president telling me how to be the commander in chief of the Texas Guard.
But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak." (Italics mine)

Who profits? (2 ... more to come)
The funeral industry ... of course.
Look at this, Down Under.

EMERGENCY planning for a bird flu pandemic in Victoria has included talks with the funeral industry. Premier Steve Bracks said the Government was treating an outbreak as a "strong possibility" and contingency planning had addressed the issue of the mass storage of infected bodies. "We have to work on the basis there is a strong possibility," Mr Bracks said on Southern Cross radio, according to this newspaper. The story continues.

Q+A from WTO
Following up a short summary of basic questions and answers from the BBC, this is a somewhat longer and much more sophisticated (I'd say complicated) series of Qs+As from the (officially at least) most relevant source, the WHO of the UN.

Who profits? (2) (More to come...)
This is The Guardian with the latest on Roche, the Swiss pharma giant that acquired the license for Tamiflu and now stands to mae huge profits out of the ... scare.
For the obsessively guarded, conservatively dressed and unflamboyant Oeri, Hoffman and Sacher families, avian flu could be good news. Over the next two years, the heirs of Fritz Hoffman, founders of Roche, one of the world's most powerful pharmaceutical companies, and who already rank as among the world's richest families, could see their combined £10 billion fortune reach giddy heights.
Twenty members of the founding family control Roche, which industry analysts estimate will benefit from the Tamiflu drug thought to relieve the symptoms of avian flu, with extra profits of £500 million this year and £1bn next.
And since the family owns about 10 per cent of shares and crucially 50.01 per cent of voting rights, they will ensure that no outside interests seize their company and enjoy the profits - though many would like to. Article continues.

Who profits?
One of the most frequently asked questions about this scare is: who's gonna profit from this all? Well, obviously the pharma companies - big and small. The whole sphere of 'health' businesses, the media, incl. the blogospehere. This piece from zmag.org (an important alternative source of knowledge and opinion) is a bloody serious satire; not very new, but all the more fresh. Have fun reading this not so funny Letter to a Chicken.

Good stuff for everyone who likes conspiration theories
I've found a highly controversial piece, written by Leonard G. Horowitz, an American medic (said to be a D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H., and an "internationally known authority in the overlapping fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and bioterrorism"), who thinks that
"If avian flu becomes more than a threatened pandemic, it will have done so by political and economic design. This thesis is supported by current massive media misrepresentations, profiteering on risky and valueless vaccines, gross neglect of data evidencing earlier similar man-made plaques including SARS, West Nile Virus, AIDS and more; continuance of genetic studies breeding more mutant flu viruses likely to outbreak, inside trading scandals involving pandemic savvy White House and drug industry officials, curious immunity of these pharmaceutical entities over the past century to law enforcement and mainstream media scrutiny, and published official depopulation objectives. With the revelations and assertions advanced herein, the public is forewarned against this physician assisted mass murder best termed "iatrogenocide."* This genocidal imposition is expected to serve mainly economic and political depopulation objectives. "
The full text can be read here.

And this is also from the BBC-site: a quick quide
Just click and read.

Let me start with a very good Q and A series from the BBC
Q: What is bird flu?
Like humans and other species, birds are susceptible to flu.
There are 15 types of bird, or avian, flu.
The most contagious strains, which are usually fatal in birds, are H5 and H7.
The type currently causing concern is the deadly strain H5N1.
Even within the H5N1 type, variations are seen, and slightly different forms are being seen in the different countries affected in this outbreak.
Migratory wildfowl, notably wild ducks, are natural carriers of the viruses, but are unlikely to actually develop an infection.
Domestic birds are particularly susceptible in epidemics.
This is why the confirmation of H5N1 in birds in Turkey and Romania is causing concern.
Pakistan has seen cases of the H7 and H9 strains of bird flu in poultry, but no cases of these strains have been passed to humans
Q: Is it possible to stop bird flu coming into a country?
The fear, after the Turkish and Romanian findings, is that H5N1 will spread across Europe.
Because it is carried by birds, there is no way of preventing its spread.
But that does not mean it will be passed to domestic flocks. Experts say proper poultry controls - such as preventing wild birds getting in to poultry houses - which are present in the UK, should prevent that happening.
In addition, they say monitoring of the migratory patterns of wild birds should provide early alerts of the arrival of infected flocks - meaning they could be targeted on arrival.
Q: How do humans catch bird flu?
Bird flu was thought only to infect birds until the first human cases were seen in Hong Kong in 1997.
Humans catch the disease through close contact with live infected birds.
Birds excrete the virus in their faeces, which dry and become pulverised, and are then inhaled.
Symptoms are similar to other types of flu - fever, malaise, sore throats and coughs. People can also develop conjunctivitis.
Researchers are now concerned because scientists studying a case in Vietnam found the virus can affect all parts of the body, not just the lungs.
This could mean that many illnesses, and even deaths, thought to have been caused by something else, may have been due to the bird flu virus.
Q: How many people have been affected?
As of 20 October, 2005, there had been 118 confirmed cases of avian flu in humans in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, leading to 61 deaths.
Click here to find the latest information from the WHO on the numbers infected and killed by avian flu.
In comparison, Sars has killed around 800 people worldwide and infected at least 8,400 since it first emerged in November 2002.
Q: Can avian flu be passed from person to person?
There are indications that it can, although so far not in the form which could fuel a pandemic.
A case in Thailand indicated the probable transmission of the virus from a girl who had the disease to her mother, who also died.
The girl's aunt, who was also infected, survived the virus.
UK virology expert Professor John Oxford said these cases indicated the basic virus could be passed between humans, and predicted similar small clusters of cases would be seen again.
It is not the only instance where it has been thought bird flu has been passed between humans.
In 2004, two sisters died in Vietnam after possibly contracting bird flu from their brother who had died from an unidentified respiratory illness.
In a similar case in Hong Kong in 1997, a doctor possibly caught the disease from a patient with the H5N1 virus - but it was never conclusively proved.
Q: Does this mean there is likely to be a large outbreak of bird flu?
Experts are concerned that this could happen. But in the Thai case, the virus was only passed to close relatives and spread no further.
In addition, it had not combined with a form of human flu.
This is the real fear. Experts believe the virus could exchange genes with a human flu virus if a person was simultaneously infected with both.
The more this double infection happens, the higher the chance a new virus could be created and be passed from person to person, they say.
Concern has also been raised by research which showed that the virus which caused the 1918 pandemic was an avian flu virus.
Q: What would be the consequence if this did happen?
Once the virus gained the ability to pass easily between humans the results could be catastrophic.
Worldwide, experts predict anything between two million and 50 million deaths.
Q: Is there a vaccine?
There is not yet a definitive vaccine, but prototypes which offer protection against the H5N1 strain are being produced.
But antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu which are already available and being stockpiled by countries such as the UK, may help limit symptoms and reduce the chances the disease will spread.
Concerns have been prompted by news a Vietnamese patient has become partially resistant to the Tamiflu, drug experts plan to use to tackle a human bird flu outbreak.
Scientists say it may be helpful to have stocks of other drugs from the same family such as Relenza (zanamivir).
Q: Can I continue to eat chicken?
Yes. Experts say avian flu is not a food-borne virus, so eating chicken is safe.
The only people thought to be at risk are those involved in the slaughter and preparation of meat that may be infected.
However, the World Health Organisation recommends, to be absolutely safe all meat should be cooked to a temperature of at least 70C. Eggs should also be thoroughly cooked.
Professor Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University underlined the negligible risk to consumers: "The virus is carried in the chicken's gut.
"A person would have to dry out the chicken meat and would have to sniff the carcass to be at any risk. But even then, it would be very hard to become infected."
Q: What is being done to contain the virus in the countries affected?
Millions of birds have been culled in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease among birds, which would in turn stop it being passed on to humans.