Friday, May 27, 2005

Is U.S. prepared for bird flu pandemic? - Bird Flu - MSNBC.com

This is for real, folks.

Sorry to be off topic but this is a real possible threat. It is suggested to have some Tamiflu on-hand for all of your family members. Also taking multi-vitamins and Vitamin C is recommended. It's not here yet, but stockpiles of Tamiflu may not be available if this becomes a pandemic as discussed in the article. Tamiflu requires a prescription, so you would have to get a prescription from your doctor beforehand. The Center for Disease Control is concerned about it, and this is alarming. I can't get into it all here but the virus is an H5N1 where not many people have built up any immunities to it, and it would be very serious.

1 comment:

peaknik said...

Hey thanks! That's a good find! I'm a little more aware of the threat than the average population because of my nursing background and understanding of immunology.

Even though we would all be at risk in the population, I would be particularly at risk by working with infected people in the hospital. That's really frightening to me.

I was sick quite a bit in my youth but I hardly ever get the flu now and haven't ever taken the flu shot despite my working in the healthcare field for years. I always felt that I'd be better off building up my own immunities than by relying on the shot. I'm not so sure about this strain of flu, though.