I'm amazed this still happens ....

[andy_e]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7318021.stm

 

[gregorach]

Despite the fact that we think of 'flu as a common illness, it's still a surprisingly big killer, even in the developed world.

 

[Toddy]

You'd think that the folks going into remote areas would take as much care that they don't take any bugs with them, as they take care with/of themselves not to catch anything there
Sometimes quarantine is well justified.

I've had real flu and it was months before I was well again; I can easily understand how it kills.

Toddy

 

[Chainsaw]

Flu can be pretty nasty, I'm more worried about the next flu pandemic than I am about bird flu. Pulled this from wikipedia as it was the easiest source;

Name of pandemic Date Deaths
Asiatic (Russian) Flu 1889-90 1 million possibly
Spanish Flu 1918-20 40 million
Asian Flu 1957-58 1 to 1.5 million
Hong Kong Flu 1968-69 0.75 to 1 million

Spanish Flu

Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic, commonly referred to as the Spanish flu, was a category 5 influenza pandemic caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Many of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients.


Note the last bit, "Many of its victims were healthy young adults" I should be OK then



Cheers,

Alan

 

[w00dsmoke]

my dissertation was "The prosletyzation of the indigenous people of the amazon bason by western missionaries"...(I could never spell it right pmsl!)

You would be surprised at what still happens. Check out survival international.

 

[Chainsaw]

Ooh too late in a friday for that sort of thing, I had to go and look that up!!

intransitive verb
1 : to induce someone to convert to one's faith
2 : to recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause

transitive verb : to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause

Cheers,

Alan

 

[firecrest]

Is it possible the team are telling the truth? Its never easy to know who is telling the truth in these situations.

 

[crazyclimber]

More people died of influenza in the 1918 pandemic than died in WWI.
Flu, and the thought of what bird flu could do should it mutate, scares the crap outa me!

 

[fred gordon]

Is it possible the team are telling the truth? Its never easy to know who is telling the truth in these situations.

I think this is very true. It never ceases to surprise me how often we hear the phrase 'there is no evidence' . In this case it seems there is no evidence that they did introduce the infection. However, I would also ask , what is the evidence that they didn't introduce the infection?

 

[fishy1]

However, I would also ask , what is the evidence that they didn't introduce the infection?

I don't believe the burden should be on the accused to prove they aren't guilty.

 

[xylaria]

When I was a 19 year old student, my landlady came back from rural northern pakistan with "cold". Of the three students in the house, the girl who had travelled across asia was ill in bed for 3 days, the other had asthma and ended up in hospital after a fortnight of illness and missed the rest of term. I moved out straight after the landlady came back. After a week in the new house I became ill. The new house mate just thought I was quiet. I was lying my room with a fever that bad I was hallcenating demons coming out of the walls. I choked a few times, losing conscieceness once. I knew at the time what I had could kill, so I quarentined myself. Luckly my new housemate was abit aspergic, and would only drink and eat from his cups and plates, wiped the door handles with bleach, and had very habitual way of doing things. He never got ill.

I got ill because my immunue system wasn't educated to deal with it, I survived because of luck. Considering it had a 10 day incubation period the rest of the population was lucky too.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

 

[nicodiemus]

There's a lot of panic about avian flu at the moment, but standard influenza kills more in a year than H5Nx does.

 

[spamel]

There's a lot of panic about avian flu at the moment, but standard influenza kills more in a year than H5Nx does.

I don't doubt what you say, but once Avian Flu mutates and can be transferred from bird to human easily then we will have big troubles. Like the pandemics posted above, once it starts it will rip through most of the world and the death toll will rise and rise. This is because the population is even higher now than during the 1918 pandemic and we are packed in like sardines. Bring it on I say, if I die then I'll have no more worries and if I live I can bushcraft where I want because all the landowners will (hopefully) be dead! It's a win win situation!

 

[crazyclimber]

all the landowners will (hopefully) be dead! It's a win win situation!

*coughs* lol
know what you mean

 

[firecrest]

Im probably alone in my cynical sentiments, but i think the only thing left to save the planet would be a damned good dose of influenza in all the right places. Including here sadly.
Thats not to say i want to see it happen, and certainly not in remote regions though. I just see disease as natures way of curbing populations.

 

[spamel]

I totally agree. Second to the flu pandemic will be the half wits that cannot wipe their own back sides. They too will probably starve or die of secondary disease due to bad personal admin. I can see food being in short supply as shops would be closing due to the number of ill workers, plus it would be a communal area for the disease to spread. Fear would grip the nation, in fact the world, and people will not want to be in public spaces with others they don't know for fear of infection. I can see the pandemic coming to a close and people venturing out for it to flare back up again and wipe even more people out.

It's a grim thought of what could happen, maybe it won't, but the resulting population cull may let the planet get back to what it should be. I defy anybody to watch Al Gores' Inconvenient Truth (even if people say he misrepresented some of the facts) and walk away without thinking that we may be screwing the planet up a little!

 

[xylaria]

That is the thing though pandemic flu is a 'could be', where I feel climate change is a diffinate. What i like about bushcraft and I don't like about certian types of survivalism, is that a skill is lighter and more mobile than any form of stockpiling resources. The stockpiling of resources also maybe contributing to climate change. Nobody knows what is around the corner, our ancestors got by, by using alot less stuff than we did.

 

[andy_e]

TBH I'm not even that convinced about climate change - oops - did I say that out loud

 

[xylaria]

I am convinced it is happening , but i am not entirely convinced it is man made. It has happened before without airplanes, cars and factories, so it may just a natural cycle. 700 years there was a rise temperture that caused starvation in europe. The viking settlement on greenland colasped because they depended on imported supplies, but the inuits that could live with that environment survived. Thats where I think bushcraft is important for the future. If we live with in our natural means it makes a fitter to survive change.

[I am suprised this thread hasn't turned into a row yet ]

 

[andy_e]

I am convinced it is happening , but i am not entirely convinced it is man made.

Yes - perhaps I should have qualified and said much the same thing.

[I am suprised this thread hasn't turned into a row yet ]

I think the BCUKers rising sap has peaked and everyone is feeling a little more settled