I am speaking as an outsider – an Australian.

Isn’t McCain just offering more of the same?

I have been watching to see if he is prepared to tackle issues of importance. Issues like raising the minimum wage for Americans, improving education, improving health, and improving general infrastructure ie Electricity, Roads, Bridges etc. Basically, all the things that successive American Administrations appear to have neglected.

The same can be said of Australia. Successive Australian governments have dropped the ball on our infrastructure. We are now going to pay through the nose for all the necessary improvements.

Although I did not vote for the present Australian government, I believe that they will deliver.

The American elections are watched by nations around the world. The current three contenders for President of America, seem to lack something. We, and I am talking about the world, need a US President that is a Statesman, a man of integrity and strength. Sorry guys, I just don’t see it in the three contenders.

Chillary will pull us out of Iraq, and because of where BushCo has gotten us this wouldn’t be wise, sorry.
McCain may well be the one who could get the Iraq affairs straightened out so we could get out properly.

All along the military has known how to handle issues in Iraq however, they’ve not been allowed to implement their knowledge because of the administration that is now sucking air out of D.C.

Ron Paul is the only one with any sense.

Americans are too blinded by repeated rhetoric. It amazes me how stupid and easily led the masses are. Honestly.
It’ll get to a point where people are so screwed over that a glimmer of awakening will occur.
And selfish I am, don’t expect me to help the ignorant out of their self-imposed hypnotic state. They got themselves there, let them roll in their own crap.

Jesse Ventura has a new book out: “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me”
Sounds good to me.

By the way, think Hillary is going to win. Reason: old prophecy by No-Eyes through Mary Summer Rain. I used to read her stuff many, many years ago and even looked some of it up on amazon. Had it typed out to share with you but alas I must have shredded it in the latest desk clean-up.
I don’t give a great deal of credit to Mary Summer Rain per se, but No-Eyes from what I learned, was right on.
Anyway, a black presidential candidate will not win.

We’ll see aye?

I agree it is hard to stay calm. Maybe we should bestow the dubious honour of naming the next pandemic on Supari.

The Supari Pandemic. Has a ring to it – don’t you think.

Don’t get upset either, just state your case and when the real revolution hits we will prevail.
Meanwhile, the BF would be a blessing.

KC and Betty work on the birdflubreakingnews.com and allow me to help a bit as well on that site.

However, on the birdflunewsflash, its only me trying write about it all and to stay as calm as I can, with what is going on around us.

I have been down with a bad bout of the ordinary flu, which made me think of how bad the real thing could be!

Where are you? Your articles are few and very far between. Your articles, when we see them, are great, we just don’t see that many of them.

What gives?

Have you collectively been ill?

Are you too busy?

The cat got your tongue?

Please come back to us with a weekly write up.

Yes, do like the new site BFNF.

You’re probably right victoria as Al Gore was the elected President last time. Most American’s are gullible and have a short memory.
The way our elections are run to, electoral votes, is archaic at best. It should have been changed over to popular vote decades ago.
And with all that said, there is no doubt in my mind that when American’s finally wake up and take action, the elites will be running for cover or attempting to talk their way out of it by blaming someone or something else. Manipulation is an ugly thing and power does indeed corrupt.

Love the new look. Congratulations. Looking forward to more of your fantastic editorials.

I am afraid, America will not have much choice in the next election. It is a shame.

PS I would vote for Rice or Whitman.

BFNF: Why haven’t you contacted me about the moderator thing? I asked you about it a few comments back.

Fantastic news here goes

v.collier@aliquantum.com.au

Tell me more birdflunewsflash on what it takes to be a moderator. Time involved? and so on.

Have been in San Diego the last 10 days, am leaving to return home on 12th of February. Did not bring my yahoo email password with me so cannot check email. Honestly didn’t think I’d be going online while here.
Am using my sisters laptop for now, considering purchasing a laptop also as travel will be continuing for me this year.

America is not ready for a female president (with current and past baggage), nor are they ready for an green horn, untested black president.

However, if the black candidate was an elder statesman, with political and street cred, and an ability to fire up the imagination of a nation, America would have its first black president.

Similarly, as the first female president of the United States, the candidate would also have to be a well seasoned candidate, with political creds and without the baggage that Hillary carries around.

The reason for the relaunch of the forum is mainly to let you and Sandra communicate properly

Also, we would like to request that you guys be the moderators of the forum since I know of no other two peolple who have more common sense!

The dengue virus causes the blood vessels to swell and leak, creating small purple colored spots on the skin, called petechiae.

Don’t you think that it is about time that we started corresponding properly? I do.

There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0829.htm. See also the WHO web side: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emerging/h5n1background.pdf and http://www.umwelt-medizin-gesellschaft.de/ abstract in English “Influenza: Initial introduction of influenza viruses to the population via abiotic water supply versus biotic human viral respirated droplet shedding” and http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907700294/abstract?iseop=true “Transmission of influenza A in human beings”.
Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of small water supplies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. In hot climates and the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. The virulence of the influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply the water temperature for infection may be higher (at 24°C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 2 days) as in temperate climates (for “older” water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses: at 7°C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 14 days).
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur – but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum.
The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann – Free Science Journalist – soddemann-aachen@t-online.de – http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html – Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf

Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of local water supplies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. In hot climates/tropics the flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and floods. Virulence of Influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply water temperature for infection may be higher (24°C: virulence of influenza viruses 2 days) as in temperate climates with older water from central water supplies (7°C: virulence of influenza viruses 14 days).

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html

Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of local water supplies with young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks or rain barrels this pathway can explain small clusters in households (24°C: virulence of influenza viruses 2 days, 7°C: virulence of influenza viruses 14 days).

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html

There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0829.htm. See also the WHO webside: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emerging/h5n1background.pdf and http://www.umwelt-medizin-gesellschaft.de/ abstract in English “Influenza: Initial introduction of influenza viruses to the population via abiotic water supply versus biotic human viral respirated droplet shedding” and http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907700294/abstract?iseop=true “Transmission of influenza A in human beings”.
Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. Infected poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have contact to drinking water. Special in cases of small water supplies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. In hot climates and the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and natural after floods. The virulence of the influenza virus depends on temperature and time. If young and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels or rice fields is used for water supply the water temperature for infection may be higher (at 24°C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 2 days) as in temperate climates (for “older” water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses: at 7°C the virulence of influenza viruses amount to 14 days).
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur – but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum.
The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
In temperate climates strong seasonal waterborne infections like the norovirus, rotavirus, salmonella, campylobacter and – differing from the usual dogma – influenza are mainly triggered by drinking water, dependent on the water’s temperature (in Germany it is at a minimum in February and March and at a maximum in August). There is no evidence that influenza primarily is transmitted by saliva droplets. In temperate climates the strong interdependence between influenza infections and environmental temperatures can’t be explained by the primary biotic transmission by saliva droplets from human to human at temperatures of 37.5°C. There must be an abiotic vehicle like cold drinking water. There is no other appropriate abiotic vehicle. In Germany about 98 percent of inhabitants have a central public water supply with older and better protected water. Therefore, in Germany cold water is decisive to the virulence of viruses.

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann – Free Science Journalist – soddemann-aachen@t-online.de – http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html – Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf

Let’s agree to disagree on the veracity of the WHO H5N1 infection and death numbers. No government on earth has been entirely truthful about infection and death rates, the blaring example being Indonesia. In many of these countries there is little control. The WHO most certainly does not have the true tally.

I am more interested in the infection and death rates that will occur in India, Pakistan etc sometime in the next four weeks. No protection appears to have been used in the infected areas. Indeed, many of the sick birds have been eaten or sold. So we will have to wait and see.

Bird flu has killed at least 217 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003

And yes, as so often repeated by myself, after the 8-8-08 at 8:08 p.m. Olympics (yikes with the numbers) is over, flublogians had better be more vigilant personally, keeping up to a greater degree with the flu community news.

What presidental election?!! That’s another “oh my god” thing for me. I’d like to wet their lips and stick them all on a wall.

Read your kind words on Year of the Rat post, thank you, I needed that.

Hey victoria! tee-hee, we have a new place to blog.
And now, I’ll be back in a week after handling euro’s that can hold a virus for hours or days, so the Swedish say.

This number does not include four additional suspect cases in Indonesia where people have died from the H5N1 virus without any known cause or sick poultery in the area. The Indonesian government did not investigate the cases. Neither does this number include suspect clusters in Egypt.

If this recent trend continues to escalate, then yes, 2008 will be the year of the pandemic and no one will be prepared for it.

Your blog may be small, but it packs a might punch.

No mention of Egypt in the article above. Matter of fact the news media is ignoring the outbreak in Egypt, which by the way runs the entire length of the nile in the country from the Aswan dam in the South to the Nile Delta in the North. This outbreak is covering an area of 95% of the population of humans and fowl in the country. I do not know for sure how bad it is there as it seems the government is suppressing the media and no news is getting out. So postings are saying it is in the hundreds now of cases at the hospitals. The Minister of Health there was quoted today as saying 4,000 cases, but that is a loose translation and I am having to find an Arabic translator as the message is from an interview with the Health minister and posted on an Egyptian website in Arabic.

Does anyone know what is really going on in Egypt?

I am so sorry but I have been working on a few very interesting new web projects and just could not get the time to update this little blog

What a start for the year though!

I think I will post about that now.

Over usage of Tamiflu could well create more problems than it solves!

Where are you? I have been waiting for my weekly dose of BFNF, but to no avail. Are you on holiday?

Isn’t the turkey already out of the bag? – so to speak. H5N1 is now endemic in many countries, the odds are that it will mutate into a less friendly human to human form.

I am betting that we have a very busy year on the net.

The way we are dealing with the H5N1, sure is a big gamble for us.

We are all betting that it will go away on its own.

JM

Indonesia is getting what they deserve.
Come on Indonesia, wake-up! Get into the 21st century and evolve.

Yes, there are lots of vitamin D3 deficient people in the tropics and equatorial zones, enough to start occasional local flu epidemics in limited areas like South Pacific Islands, some of the islands of the Caribbean and small local villages. But, that’s usually a Type-B or “human influenza. There are some Type-A or “bird viruses” circulating that have the ability to infect man, about a dozen of them out of over 11,500 known and catalogued avian influenza viruses. A few, like H1N1, H3N4 and of course H5N1 are highly pathogenic to man and can be lethal.

Most flu in the tropics and equatorial areas are limited to isolated individuals but as we look further north and south, clusters and epidemics are seen in the fall/winter, October through March in the north and May to September in the south.

The worst month for the US in the 1918 “Spanish Flu” pandemic was the month of October when 295,000 people died. The first month of a pandemic, like the first weeks of an epidemic, claims the most victims. That’s because the first wave that hits the most vitamin D3 deficient people in the population. Then, as the winter months progress and the body stores of vitamin D3 are burned up at a rate of 4,000 to 5,000 IU per day, more people cross the line into deficiency and so there are subsequent waves of any flu. The same thing happens to people with MS, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and so on. The further north and south of the equator one goes the more of these one finds and all of those conditions worsen as winter progresses.

In Islamic countries, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc., women in particular are at risk who wear full head coverings and long sleeves. This is made worse in pregnancy when they need enough D3 for two and don’t have enough for one. This phenomena called hypovitaminosis D, is now being noticed and acknowledged in the UK, Canada and the US and occasionally in the Middle East where for ethnic and religious reasons it is not a popular concept. People of color are also the most likely to be deficient in areas north or south of 32 degrees latitude from the equator.

In order for the body to make D3 naturally in the skin, melanin levels in the skin, melanin being the natural sun protection factor (SPF0 of the body and the angle of the sun to the body need to be taken into account. In order to make vitamin D3 in the skin, the angle of the sun to the body needs to be greater than forty-five degrees for UVB to make it to the surface of the earth and to people’s skin. However, UVA penetrates even cloud cover and easily burns the skin. Black skin is a protection along the equator but becomes a liability as one moves north and south as far as the absorption of UVB is concerned as greater and greater time in the sun is needed to make the 10,000 to 20,000 Iu of vitamin D3 needed for optimum blood serum levels of circulating D3.

Conversely, as the lightest skinned people travel closer to the equator, the deep penetrating UVA rays cause the destruction of folate in the exposed capillaries under the skin and this causes a myriad of health problems in and of itself, not the least of these being genetic mutations.

While people living along the equator and in the tropics have ample sun available to make all the vitamin D3 they need in an hour of full body exposure, you don’t usually find them sunbathing or lounging around on the beaches or around a pool to lap up that UVB. It’s not just that the available UVA will fry most of them, it’s usually just too hot to be out in the sun, most of the time. So, in the tropics and equatorial areas, when people are outside, hats and long sleeves are the order of the day and even along the equatorial Trans Continental African Highway, most people dress much as we do, covering at least ninety-five percent of their skin while out of doors.

So, yes, people can be vitamin D3 deficient where ever they are if they don’t know that they must have a source of vitamin D3 and take advantage of it.

There is no diet of man on Earth, except among the Alaskan and far Northern Canadian and Siberian natives that contains enough vitamin D3 to keep them healthy. The Northern Natives get their D3 from fish and the blubber of ocean mammals. For the rest of us, it takes a combination of UVB from the sun, food and for most people today, some vitamin supplementation to even approach the “adequate” levels to stave off the most common diseases, much less begin to approach “optimum” blood serum levels of vitamin D3.

All of this comes from recent science and all of it is available from many scientific, medical and other sources over the Internet. In fact, as you study the material, you soon learn that flu is perhaps the least of your worries if you are over forty and under sixty. The over forty groups have the manifestations of long term vitamin D3 deficiency to worry about: heart disease, hypertension, cancer and diabetes would be the best reasons to optimize vitamin D3 intake as all of those are positively affected by vitamin D3.

As a final comment, vitamin D3 is not a hormone. There is however a hormone that the body makes from D3, on demand: It’ called 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and that is arguably the most powerful hormone in the human body. This active hormone of the vitamin D3 chain is converted from circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in the kidneys and over thirty other cells of the body, into 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, again, as needed and on demand.

So, this is a subject worth exploring. I recommend using Google and entering “vitamin D3” and the names one at a time, of the top scientists in D3 research on the planet: Dr. Reinhold Vieth; Dr. Michael F. Holick and; Dr. Robert Heaney; Edward D. Gorham, MPH, Ph.D.; Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H.; Frank C. Garland, Ph.D.; Sharif B. Mohr, MPH; William B. Grant, Ph.D; Martin Lipkin, M.D.; Harold L. Newmark, ScD; Edward Giovannucci, M.D., ScD; and that should get you started and fascinate you if you care about your health and the health of people around you.

Dennis H. Clarke
Clearwater FL USA

Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann
eMail soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
http://www.dugi-ev.de/information.html
Epidemiological Analysis: http://www.dugi-ev.de/TW_INFEKTIONEN_H5N1_20071019.pdf