. . . A glimmer of hope? From today’s LA Times:

Pennsylvania researchers have produced a bird flu vaccine made from a genetically engineered human cold virus and shown that it protected 100% of vaccinated mice and chickens.

Production of a conventional flu vaccine requires months of work and large numbers of fertilized chicken eggs, but the researchers reported Thursday that they prepared their vaccine in 36 days, growing it in a laboratory dish.

The ability to produce a new vaccine so quickly could give public health officials a powerful tool to combat the H5N1 bird flu virus if it should mutate and begin infecting humans widely.

Only 36 days to a 100% effective vaccine — Amazing! We can only hope that this is not a hoax, and that human trials go well.

At least there’s a glimmer . . . (db)

All over the world scientists are studying the H5N1 avian flu virus, trying to figure out if this is the one that will put the planet’s human population in dire peril. CBC News has this report today.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu may be so deadly to bird cells because of a protein it produces, a genetic study suggests.

Researchers in the U.S. performed the first major genetic analysis of more than 300 flu viruses that have infected people, birds and pigs on four continents.
(…)
The H5N1 bird flu virus and the virus that killed millions of people in the 1918 pandemic both carried the protein, the team found.

But viruses that normally circulate every flu season do not carry the avian protein, and neither did the viruses that caused less deadly pandemics in 1957 and 1968.

Just another piece of this deadly puzzle . . . (db)

[Update]

One of my Oklahoma readers left this in the comments, but it deserves to be in the post:

Scary stuff, to be sure. I fear this flu and I fear Mad Cow disease, or more correctly it’s human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (CJD) Humans get C.J.D. from eating beef infected with Mad Cow. Like the bird flu, It supposedly has a specific deadly prion associated with it also. CJD has an unknown incubation period, so it’s impossible to tell where and when one came into contact with it. Like Mad Cow, it is a spongiform encephalopathic disease, meaning it literally eats holes in the brain. So far rare and sporadic in nature for reasons unknown, It is 100% fatal within 12 months.

Two months ago, my neighbor Bill was as healthy as could be. Tonight he is in a nursing home, not knowing who he or anyone else is. Bill has C.J.D. Pray for him please.

That we will do, Glenn . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: avian flu, H5N1, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, CJD

We like to think that we live in the modern, advance world, where our current state of medicines will protect or cure us from almost anything. We actually live like we believe that even though for decades we have been reading and hearing about HIV, Hepatitis C and others, that the drug industry just doesn’t have cures for. And then there is the common flu, not the super-scary H5N1 avian flu that has the whole world on edge, just those whose combinations that we get vaccinations for every year. The CDC recently made an announcement that brings to mind the phrase, something wicked this way comes.

The government, for the first time, is urging doctors not to prescribe two antiviral drugs commonly used to fight influenza after discovering that the predominant strain of the virus has built up high levels of resistance to them at alarming speed.

A whopping 91 percent of virus samples tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this flu season proved resistant to rimantadine and amantadine, a huge increase since last year, when only 11 percent were.

The discovery adds to worries about how to fight bird flu should it start spreading among people. Health officials had hoped to conserve use of two newer antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, because they show activity against bird flu, unlike the older drugs.
(…)
CDC officials took the unusual step of calling a Saturday news conference to announce that the predominant strain this season – the type A H3N2 influenza strain – was resistant to the older drugs.

“Clinicians should not use rimantadine and amantadine … because the drugs will not be effective,” said CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding.

She said the lab tests, which CDC scientists had been analyzing since Friday, surprised health officials and the health agency rushed to get the word out.

“I don’t think we were expecting it to be so dramatic so quickly this year,” Gerberding said. “We just didn’t feel it was responsible to wait three more days during a holiday weekend to let clinicians know.”

The CDC tested 120 influenza A virus samples from the H3N2 strain and found that 109 were resistant to the two drugs. Two years ago, less than 2 percent of the samples were resistant. Last year, 11 percent were.

Gerberding said the agency didn’t know how the resistance occurred, saying it may have been the result of a mutation in the virus or overuse of the drugs abroad, such as in countries that permit the drugs to be purchased without a prescription.

One flu expert, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, said the development was “disconcerting” as flu now has joined the ranks of other diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, that recently have acquired the ability to resist front-line medications.

Yeah, I think that may be it — something wicked . . . (db)

Writing has been light for a few days, as I have been hammered with duties, helping the Good Wife in her office, going to the LA Car Show with my clients (we’re in the auto aftermarket business), and doing client work, that sort of stuff, which has left only a little time to read the blogs and watch a bit of the Alito hearings.

Of which, during lunch yesterday I watched the entirety of Russ Feingold’s questioning. I lost count of how many times he said something on the order of, “I know that you won’t be able to answer this question, but . . .”, but it was a lot! And, he just kept on asking, and Alito just kept on side-stepping, ’cause he couldn’t answer. Feingold was trying to pin Alito down on whether he thought that the NSA’s monitoring of communications into the U.S. was legal, or permissible under law, although he certainly didn’t word it that way, more something like, “Bush’s illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens . . .”. Obviously this will be litigated up to the Supreme Court, and Justice Alito when confirmed will have to hear this one, so he can’t provide a preliminary analysis or answer. Just more Democratic Senatorial Blowhard syndrome.

Not that it is a purely Democratic problem. I had to get back to work, so I turned on my least favorite Commi radio station out here in the last of the lost, KPFK, because they were broadcasting the hearing live and uninterrupted. Without the visual distraction of the TV image, you certainly are struck by how pompous and looooong the Senator’s questions are — and that goes for almost all of the Senators on both sides of the isle. Ankle Biting Pundits has this breakdown of yesterday’s questioning and it’s a real eye-opener.

Democrats

“Rosary Joe” Biden 78-22% (DE) (3,673 – 1,013) (a 1,879 word, and 13 minute opening “question”)

Chuck Schumer (NY) 75-25% (3,555-1,165)

Ted Kennedy (MA) 69-31% (3,439-1,539)

Pat Leahy (VT) 60-40% (2,714-1,874)

Russ Feingold (WI) 56-44% (2,976-2,364)

Diane Feinstein (CA) 42-58% (1,912-2,593)

Herb Kohl (WI) 37-63% (1,835-3,094)

Republicans

Mike DeWine (OH) 72-28% (3,398-1,323) (Corrected from 82%-18%)

Lindsey Graham (SC) 65-35% (3,032-1,643)

Jeff Sessions (AL) 61-39% (2,827-1,773)

John Cornyn (TX) 56-44% (3,407-1,900)

Jon Kyl (AZ) 53-47% (2,594-2,255)

Orrin Hatch (UT) 54-46% (2,686-2,242)

Chuck Grassley (IA) 51-49% (2,305-2,183)

Arlen Specter (PA) 50-50% (2,232-2,194)

One would have thought that these guys should have learned during the John Rober’s hearings that if you take up all of your allotted time with you doing all the talking, the nominee doesn’t have to say much, which is very good indeed for the nominee. Alito is answering a lot more questions than Roberts did, but the Senators are so in love with the sound of their own voices, they just can’t resist bloviating away their minutes. Hugh Hewitt says this on his blog about yesterday’s sessions.

After watching some late night “highlights” of the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats’ collective meltdown yesterday –thank you again, Joe Biden–
I was reminded of those massive pile-ups on California’s I-5 or the 99 when the fog descends but the drivers insist on plowing ahead into the murk.

Beginning with Pat Leahy and continuing all day and into the evening, Democrat after Democrat drove at high speed into a brilliant jurist with 15 years of appellate court experience backed up by prosecutorial chops.

Like they were ever going to lay a glove on him.

What a bunch of windbags! Gotta tune in today some, this is just too much fun!

Couple more items that you should persue. The Avian Flu is causing a great deal of concern in Turkey. Hugh warns our local governments here in the U.S. that there will be hell to pay if they don’t prepare for an outbreak over here.

Iran has broken the IAEA’s seals at a nuclear enrichment facility and will soon be resuming it’s research. Tony Blair says that the West will sanction Iran for this new hostile action.

And, Hell froze over yesterday — podcast was at eleven . . . (db)

Not to be an alarmist or anything, but this is really not good at all! From the Times Online UK:

THE number of Turkish people thought to be infected with avian flu rose to more than 50 this weekend, prompting concern that the disease may be about to spread into Europe.

Yesterday a British laboratory confirmed that a Turkish brother and sister who died last week had the feared H5N1 strain of avian flu.

A third child from the same family in Dogubayazit, in eastern Turkey, has now died of avian flu and dozens more suspected cases have emerged.

“The laboratory in the UK said that they have detected H5N1 in samples of the two fatal cases,” said Maria Cheng, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation. They are the first fatalities outside East Asia.

The disease is most likely to have been carried to Turkey by migratory birds, which have already spread it across Asia and parts of Russia. Last year a number of birds with the illness were found in Europe. The fear is that these will cross-infect domestic poultry, which will pass the disease on to humans.

Yesterday six more children who have tested positive for avian flu remained in a critical condition in the Turkish city of Van, near Dogubayazit. Another 24 suspected cases are being treated in a special ward in the university hospital.

A further 18 patients with symptoms of the disease, most of them children, are being treated in hospitals in the eastern cities of Yozgat, Erzurum and Diyarbakir. Other cases are being investigated.

The more the virus comes into contact with humans, the more likely it is to mutate into a form that can be transmitted between people. This has not yet happened; if it does it could start a global pandemic.

The H5N1 strain has killed half of all the people who have contracted it. The Spanish flu of 1918, which killed 40m people, was fatal in fewer than one in 10 cases. [Emph. mine]

At the same time that Europe is staring down the double gun barrels of Avian Flu and Islamofacist Terrorism, our government’s efforts on both fronts are being downplayed, or even ridiculed, by our own home-grown Leftists. Case in point is todays LA Times’ Currents column by Madeline Drexler, Dr. Bush’s flu flim-flam, in which she characterizes the Bush administration’s anti-avian flu preparations as nothing but pure spin.

NEARLY 2 MILLION Americans could die in a flu pandemic, which many scientists say is not just inevitable but long overdue. In such an emergency, national leaders would need to be forthright and candid to gain our trust — or risk chaos.

But recent polls show that President Bush’s approval ratings have sunk below 50% and that deception about the Iraq war, as well as federal mismanagement after Hurricane Katrina, have hurt his credibility. That loss of public faith is almost as scary as the virus itself. When citizens are skeptical or defiant in the face of severe disease, fear becomes epidemic, leading to confusion and often needless deaths.

Gee Maddi, wonder why the general public has such a low regard for our President, at least in the polls that you consider valid. Could it be the virtual non-stop pounding that he takes in the overwhelmingly liberal MSM? Could it be that all those Lefty writers and editors, like yourself, screech out “Bush Lied” about WMDs in Iraq, even though plenty of your own, like Clinton and Kerry believed that they existed because they saw and trusted the same intellegence info that Bush did?

After going through her mantra of Bush failures: how this administration has lost the trust of the American people, and how time was wasted on anti-terrorism preparation instead of gearing up to fight this flu, she finally gets to her true Leftist agenda, national health care.

To truly earn the public’s trust, national officials should issue regular progress reports on the nuts and bolts of protecting us (and the rest of the world) against a lethal flu virus. The issue should be kept front and center, just as our leaders manage to keep the terrorism threat front and center. As a bonus, officials might draw up national plans to revive the long-neglected public health system and guarantee healthcare for all Americans, even in non-pandemic times.

You know, they really just can’t help themselves! And, there is truth in parts of her column. The world as we know it can’t survive an 18-month quarantine on International travel and trade. All the world’s economies would collapse into severe depression, and anarchy would run rampant. Huge political upheavals would take place, and when all the death and destruction was finally over, our world would be a very different place, that’s for sure.

We can only hope and pray that this outbreak in Turkey is still infected bird-to-human contact and not the opening salvo of this virus’ direct hunan-to-human ability to spread itself. ‘Cause if that’s the case, it’s already too late to avoid the pandemic. That person on the bus, train 0r plane sitting next to you coughing his or her head off just might have recently been to Istanbul, or knows someone that has.

I’ve just recently gotten over a 10-day respiratory assault that kicked me so hard to the curb I can’t imagine being sicker without dying. I sure hope that I won’t be finding out any time soon! (db)

This really is NOT good news — from Reuters:

Indonesia said on Monday a 20-year-old woman has died of bird flu and several other countries also reported more suspected cases in people.

Adding to the sense of alarm, researchers in Vietnam say the H5N1 avian flu virus has mutated allowing it to replicate more easily inside humans and other mammals. Taiwan said it had detected another bird flu strain that can infect people.
(…)
In Vietnam, scientists at the Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute who have been studying the genetic make up of H5N1 samples taken from people and poultry said it had undergone several mutations.

“There has been a mutation allowing the virus to (replicate) effectively in mammal tissue and become highly virulent,” the institute said on its Web site at www.pasteur-hcm.org.vn. [emph mine]

Daily information updates can be found here. Think I’ll dust off that old copy of The Stand, might need a few pointers pretty soon. (db)

[Update]

Rick over at the Holy Coast brings this to our attention.

And you thought sauerkraut was just repellent to people with good taste; it also may be a deterrant to the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu:

Too bad Rick doesn’t seem to like ‘kraut, cause boiled in German beer with some bone-in country pork ribs, it’s gooooooooood! Guess it’s time to get out Mom’s 5-gal crock and start rottin’ up some cabbage! (db)

[Update]

The Weekly Standard has an article, Fuss and Feathers by Michael Fumento , that pours a good bit of cold water on the flaming hysteria over H5N1.

Bottom line? We are all going to die. But from various causes. There probably will be another pandemic, but nobody knows when or what its origin will be. We do know that with every month that passes, we’ll be better prepared. Unless the current panic, having failed to materialize, makes us overly complacent. That’s a real possibility. In 1976, swine flu went from “next pandemic” to laugh line on Saturday Night Live in record time. And as for those anointed experts, public health officials, and reporters whose wall calendars always read “1918″–it’s time to buy a new one.

Guess we’ll get to see who’s vaccine reins supreme! (Sorry Iron Chef fans . . .) (db)