Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

It seems everyone is scrambling for either vaccines or anti-viral drugs. Taiwan has decided to violate Roche's patent and make its own version of Tamiflu. World wide, orders are over the moon anti-virals, and in the U.S. individuals are hoarding Tamiflu and Relenza. Britain has already promised to buy enough vaccine to cover its entire population - when it is ready.

The broadspread run on antivirals has health professionals concerned. Like the scenario we currently have with antibiotics, if the Avian flu meets Tamiflu and Relenza at every turn, it will simply mutate into an even stronger form of the disease. With a mortality rate of roughly 50% at this point, a more virulent strain is certainly not the news we want to hear.

Let's look at what we know.
The main form of transmission at this point is bird to bird. Migratory birds are now carrying the virus, and infecting domestic poultry stocks.

Most of the known cases of Avian flu have spread from birds (almost universally domestic stocks) to humans.

There is a vaccine for birds. There is not a vaccine for humans.

There are several unconfirmed cases of human to human transmission. The fear is a mutation in the Avian flu virus to a communicable human to human transmission.

The further the bird version of the virus spreads, the more likely it will meet the conditions to make the species jump.

Fighting back
Thus far most of the effort in the fight against Avian Flu has been the quarantining and mass destructions of infected flocks.

While nations try to figure out where it is going and how to deal with it once it arrives, the issue of public health surges to the surface. While many European nations have fairly strong public health access, this has deteriorated in the United States. It is not showing signs of strengthening in the current situation. In fact, some decisions fly in the face of all reason.

One example of this is the Bush brothers. George had given Jeb the " sweeping right to curb Medicaid." Facing a pandemic, does not seem to be an appropriate time to further limit health care access to the population. In Florida, this means increased restrictions on the 2.2 million Medicaid recipients. The "gift" also gives private insurers to right to limit benefits. The one caveat is that children and pregnant mothers are exempt from the limits.

Medicaid is the health care access for the poor. A population that is already under-covered, and at high risk. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, George Bush promised to address the economic divide. What is becoming ever more clear is that his approach id to widen it - not decrease it.

Frighteningly, Michael Leavitt (Secretary of HHS) is quoted as saying: "Today will be remembered as a day of transformation for the Florida Medicaid program. Florida's framework will be helpful to other states." In doing what? Giving more control to private providers and decreasing care to the poor?

Florida's planned changes seem to follow many of the changes that were made to Medicare - extending the questionable pharma "choices" to an even broader population. This means that even those who are able to access health care may not from the confusion of red tape placed to block them from that access.

Such moves take on huge implications in the face of a looming pandemic. While doctors fear antiviral hoarding, a huge portion of the population doesn't have access at all - or only limited access.

Protecting yourself ... and others
The best suggestions for protecting oneself from the Avian (and other) Flu infections come from Al Jazeera's Common sense can help fight bird flu. They include, washing your hands frequently, don't buy Tamiflu, stay home if you are sick.

My Chiropractor, whose advice I respect, suggests taking time released Vitamin C three times a day to keep the immune system up.

Like recent experience with hurricane and quake response displays, you had better prepare for lack of help from officialdom. A pandemic looks to be no different.