Bird Flu Flying to Europe in Autumn, 2005?

Well, if the infection rate for this possibly emerging pandemic is anything close to the 1918-19 Spanish version, that’ll certainly lower demand for oil and lower its market value, thus increasing stock values due to cheaper production costs. Gee golly, it is profitable for people to die. One could almost speculate that this fantastic H5N1 strain were produced or tweaked by some … invisible hand, if you mind the pun. Let’s give up a vote for this one and put it out there for others to read.

AN OUTBREAK of avian flu among wild and domestic birds in Russia is spreading west and starting to approach Europe, public health officials said yesterday.

The first cases of bird flu have been reported in the Chelyabinsk region of Siberia, close to the Ural mountains that separate Europe from Asia, though scientists are not yet certain that the virus found there is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Roads were cordoned off and hundreds of chickens were slaughtered in Chelyabinsk yesterday to contain the apparent advance of avian flu, first reported in Siberia in July and being spread westward by migrating birds.

Gennadi Onishchenko, Russia’s top state epidemiologist, also predicted that the outbreak could spread to Russia’s most important agricultural areas of Krasnodar, Stavropol and Rostov in the south and then on to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

In a letter to Russian regional health officials, Mr Onishchenko wrote: “An analysis of bird migration routes has shown that in autumn 2005 the H5N1 virus may be spread from Western Siberia to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Apart from Russia’s south, migrating birds may spread the virus to nearby countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, and Mediterranean countries) because bird…

Posted by Sergio
" ... their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus on the petty grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice." -- George Orwell