More Bird Flu Cases in Egypt

News Update
Accoding to the March 7 edition of Bikya Masr (an Egyptian Newspaper), the Egyptian Ministry of Health announced five (5) new cases of human H5N1 (Avian Influenza) infection.


Case 1:
A 53 year old man from Shobra Eklhima district, Qaliobia Governorate.

According to the Ministry of Health, the man developed symptoms on February 27 and was hospitalized the same day, where he received osetlamivir treatment.

He is currently in critical condition.


Case 2:
A 1-year old boy from Banha Districvt of the Qalyubia Governorate.

He experienced symptoms on February 22 and was hospitalized the following day, where he also received oseltamivir treatment.

He is said to be in stable condition.


Case 3:
A 10-year old boy from the Meet Ghamr district, Dakaliya Governorate.

He developed symptoms on February 10 and was hospitalized on February 14, where he received oseltamivir treatment.

He is in good condition.


Case 4:
A 30-yead old woman from Kellin District, Kafr El-Sheik Governorate.

She developed symptoms on February 11 and was hospitalized the following day, receiving similar treatment.

She is in stable condition.


Case 5:
A 13-year old boy from Kafr El-Sheik District, Kafr El-Sheik Governorate.

He developed symptoms on February 10 and was hospitalized on February 14 to receive the treatment.

He is in stable condition.


All of these cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories, a National Influenza Center of the WHO (Wolrd Health Organization) Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN)

Of the 104 laboratory confirmed cases of Avian Influenza reported in Egypt, 30 have been fatal since the virus first appeared in the country in early 2005.

Click here to learn more about why Scientists are very concerned about the Bird Flu Virus.

More New Cases of Bird Flu in Vietnam

News Update:

According to the March 4, 2010 Edition of IOL News (a South African Newspaper) Vietnames authorities announced two new human cases of Avian Influenza on Wednesday, March 3, 2010.

These two cases represent the 2nd and 3rd such cases this year.

Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Health Ministry's preventative medicine and environment department, said that latest cases were a 17-year old girl from the northern province of Tuyne Quang, and a 3-year old girl from the central province of Khanh Hoa.

On February 23, a 38-year old woman in the Southern Province of Tien Giang reportedly died from Bird flu.

Outbreaks of Avian Influenza among poultry have been reported in seven provinces this year. The latest killed 10,000 fowl in Khanh Hoa, the official Vietnam News reported.

Hoang Van Nam, head of the animal health department, said lack of adherence to vaccination program was the main cause of the outbreak.

The 17-year old girld fell ill on February 19 and was hospitalized five days later.

The Ministry of Health reported she had culled her family's flock of chickens after they became ill.

The three-year old tested positive for the H5N1 virus on February 25.

The case brought to 115 the number of human cases of bird flu in Vietnam since the disease appeared in 2003, with 58 deaths.

Only Indonesia has registered more cases and human deaths.

Click here to learn why scientists are so concerned about the Bird Flu Virus

Bird Flu Found in Flocks of Ducks in Vietnam

News Update:

According to "WorldPoultry.net", Bird Flu has re-emerged in Vietnam (in both the Nam Dinh and Soc Trang Provinces) with 2 flocks of ducks testing positive for the H5N1 virus.

Avian Influenza was detected in a flock of 630 ducks belonging to a farmer in the southern province of Soc Trang's Thanh Thoi commune after 500 of them died during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

The remaining ducklings (in the flock) were reportedly killed.

None of the 45 day old ducks had been vaccinated.

In the northern province of Nam's Dihn Nghi An Commune, a 7 month old flock of ducks were infected with bird flu.

Provincial animal health official killed all 270 ducks in an effort to contain the disease.

Click here to learn why scientists and epidemiologists are extremely concerned about Bird Flu.

One Person Dies of Bird Flu, Another Ill in Egypt

News Update - According to the February 19, 2010 edition of Bikya Masr (an Egyptian Newspaper), 1 person died of Bird Flu (e.g., H5N1) and another victim has been confirmed ill with the virus in Egypt.

One of the victims was a 29 year old woman from the el-Sadat district in the northern Menoufiya governorate.

According to the WHO (World Health Organization), the woman (who was pregnant) became ill on February 6 and was admitted to a local hospital where she received the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, beginning on February 12.

She died the following day.

The other victim is a 32 year old man from the Ashmon district (also of the Menoufiya governorate) who became ill on February 6, and was hospitalized

This victim is reported to be in stable condition after receiving the anti-viral medication early on.

According to the W.H.O, both patients were exposed to infected, dead poultry.

These represent the 98th and 99th confirmed cases of Human-contracted Bird Flu (H5N1) to be reported in Egypt.

At the time that this blog post was written, Egypt has recorded 9 total cases of Human-contracted Bird Flu for 2010. Of those 9 cases, there have been 3 deaths

The W.H.O has stated that the majority of all cases in Egypt are adults who have handled dead poultry.

These new Egyptian cases raises the "number of Human-contracted Bird Flu" case of 478 cases and the total number of deaths to 286.

Click here to learn more about Scientists/Epidemiologists are extremely concerned about Bird Flu.

Bird Flu Kills Woman in Indonesia

News Update - Bird Flu Case in Indonesia Confirmed - 25 Year Old Woman Dies

According to the Meat Trade News Daily, the Ministry of Health of Indonesia has confirmed a new case of human contraction of the H5N1 (Bird Flu) virus.

A 25 Year Old Woman of South Jakarta died of this disease on January 25, 2010.

The victim most likely contracted this virus from poultry.

Click here for information on why scientists are still very concerneda about Bird Flu.

HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU

1.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU?

In this article we are going to discuss how is Bird Flu different from Swine Flu.

More specifically, we are going to discuss the following topics.

What is Swine Flu (e.g., the 2009 - 2010 Pandemic) and what are its characteristics?

What is Bird Flu (e.g., H5N1) and what are its characteristics?

Why are scientists still concerned about Bird Flu - especailly since we don't hear much about Bird Flu anymore?

We will also provide you with some information on where you can go to learn more about how to protect yourself from a possible Bird Flu pandemic (now that you know of the potential danger and just how vulnerable the Human population is to this deadly virus).



2.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU - A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT BIRD FLU AND WHY I AM WRITING THIS ARTICLE.
A few years ago, there was a lot of discussion (n the media) about Bird Flu.

It seemed like (everyday) we were hearing about a flock of ducks or chickens (somewhere in Asia or in other parts of the World) being infected with the Bird Flu virus.

Afterwards, we would hear about government agencies coming in an "culling the population" of these birds in order to prevent the spread of this virus.

There were also other articles and news reports about Bird Migration paths, and there was concern that this migration of birds would then spread the Bird Flu virus throughout the world.

This phenomenon would (in turn) infect much of the world's poultry and maybe .... potentially, infect human beings as well.

However, more recently, news about Bird Flu has "falled out of favor" with the Main Stream Media.

We are just not hearing that much about Bird Flu anymore.

What happened?

Did Bird Flu just disappear?

Did Mankind defeat and erradicate the Bird Flu virus?

Hardly. Bird Flu has just simply been relegated to the "back pages" by other topics, such as the Global Recession and Swine Flu.


My intent in writing this article is let you know the following.

Bird Flu has not been vanquished at all.

In fact, this virus is alive and well and (if you look for it) you can still find articles (almost on a weekly basis) about Bird Flu infecting flocks of ducks or chickens or various migrating birds, and populations being culled.

Bird Flu, in its current form is not an extreme danger to the human population (as a whole).

However, if certain changes to the Bird Flu virus were to occur (and these viruses change all of the time), it could easily become the worst catastrophe ever visited upon Mankind - PERIOD.

To refer you to some resources you can learn about in order to protect yourself and your family

(Now that you've been warned about the dangers of a possible Bird Flu Pandemic).



3.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU - WHAT IS SWINE FLU AND WHAT ARE ITS CHARACTERISTICS?
Swine Flu (or H1N1) is a virus that became a pandemic flu (e.g., it became highly contagious and has spread throughout the world) in April 2009 and (as of the time that this article was written) is still spreading and infecting more victims (all over the world).

When the Swine Flu first went "pandemic" there was a lot of concern about it killing many people and that it could be the "next Spanish Flu of 1918".

This article was written in February 2010, so (at the time this article was written) this pandemic flu is now 10 months old.

Throughout this 10 month period, we have learned that Swine Flu (although being extremely contagious) has been rather moderate (from a "lethality-standpoint).

At this point, Swine Flu appears to have a lethality rate of around 0.1%, which is comparable to that of many other flu viruses that have attacked the human population over the past few decades.

In general, the Swine Flu virus has been very hard on the sick and the elderly, and on very young children. Swine Flu has also been recorded as being very hard on pregnant woman.

Most of the victims that have died from the Swine Flu virus "were members of these demographic groups".

In summary, I would (for the most part) describe the Swine Flu virus as being a VERY Contagious virus that has a relatively Moderate Lethality Rate.



4.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU - WHAT IS BIRD FLU AND WHAT ARE ITS CHARACTERISTICS?
Bird Flu (also known as Avian Influenza or H5N1) is a virus that (as of now) has mostly killed birds or has caused birds to be killed (by various government heatlh authorities).

The transmission of this virus from one bird to another is VERY EFFICIENT. Hence, Bird Flu can be said to be very contagious among birds.

However, the transmission of this virus from bird to human, and from human to human (as of now) is NOT EFFICIENT. This is an EXTREMELY GOOD THING!

Transmission of this virus from Bird to Human has been known to occur, but it does so rarely.

Since the time that Bird Flu was first discovered (in 1987), there have been 447 documented cases of humans contracting the Bird Flu virus from Bird.

Virtually all of these cases involved people that worked on poultry farms and were heavily exposed to infected birds before contracting the virus.

There are no known cases (as of now) of a Human being contracted the Bird Flu virus from another Human Being.

Although it is rare for humans to contract this virus from Birds, whenever it does happen, the outlook for the victim can be rather grim.

Of the 447 people that have contracted the Bird Flu virus, 263 of these people have died from this virus.

This means that Bird Flu has a "lethality rate" of (263/447) x 100% = 59%. In other words, 59% of the people that have contracted this virus have died from it.

This is a frightening high lethality rate.

In summary, I would describe the Bird Flu virus as not being a very contagious virus (towards Human beings); yet it has a very high lethality rate.


5.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU - WHY ARE SCIENTISTS STILL CONCERNED ABOUT BIRD FLU?
Two words help to explain why scientists are very concerneda bout the Bird Flu:


Lethality Rate, and

Mutation


As the Bird Flu and Swine Flu stand today, neither of these viruses in their current state are a huge threat to the human population.

Swine Flu is highly contagious, yet it has a moderate lethality rate.

Bird Flu is highly lethal, but it is NOT very contagious among humans.

As long as both of these viruses maintain these characteristics, then the human race will (for the most part) be OK.

However, if the Bird Flu virus were the "mix it up" with the Swine Flu virus and to become some sort of "hybrid virus", if the Bird Flu virus were to mutate (change) on its own; such that this "new strain" (or hybrid virus) has the following characteristics:

Has the same Contagious Characteristics (of Swine Flu) and

Has the Very High Lethality Rate (of Bird Flu)

Then mankind would face a catastrophe of Biblical Proportions.

To better understand why I use such strong words (like "catastrophe") allow me to provide you with some perspective on this.

To date, the worst infectious disease that has ever afflicted mankind was the "Spanish Flu of 1918".

This was a flu that became a pandemic in 1918 (during World War I) and spread throughout the world (infecting people) until 1920.

During this pandemic, estimates are that the Spanish Flu killed between 50 million and 100 million people (at a time when the World's Population was 1.6 Billion).

This means that the Spanish Flu pandemic killed between 3% and 6% of the World's Population (at the time).

This virus was far more lethal than World War I (during which 15 million people died).

Medical records (from that time period) indicates that the Spanish Flu virus has a "lethality rate" of 10%.

This means that 10% of the people that contracted this virus (and became ill with it) died from this virus.


HERE IS THE PUNCH LINE:
The reason that Scientists are worried about a "Bird Flu" pandemic, is that if a Flu Virus with a lethality rate of 10% can wipe out 3 to 6% of the World's Population, what could a Pandemic involving a Flu Virus with a lethality rate of 59% accomplish?


6.0 HOW IS BIRD FLU DIFFERENT FROM SWINE FLU - CONCLUSION
In this article, I have answered the question: how is bird flu different from swine flu".

In general, the characteristics of these two types of flu viruses can be described as follows.

Swine Flu (e.g., H1N1) can be describedf as being highly contagious, but only moderately lethal.

Bird Flu (Avian Influenza or H5N1) can be described as NOT being very contagious but highly lethal.

Neither one of these flu viruses (in their present state) pose a large threat to the Human Race.

However, scientists are concerned that the Bird Flu virus could mutate (or it could "mix it up" with the Swine Flu virus) and form a "hybrid" virus that has the following characteristics.

Highly contagious (just like the Swine Flu) and

Highly lethal (just like the Bird Flu).


If this were to occur, then the Human Population would be in for the "fight of our lives".

In another article, I will analyze how the Global Community has responded to the most recent Pandemic flu (e.g., the Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009 - ?).

I will also attempt to project what this type of response would mean for the Global Community's response to a Bird Flu Pandemic (HINT: The news is NOT good).

Click here if you are interested in learning more about steps you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones from a Bird Flu Pandemic or "Hybrid Virus".

A Summary of the ActivePure Technology Test Results from Kansas State University

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this article is to summarize some research work that has been performed by the Department of Animal Science & Industry at Kansas State University in order to test out and determine how effective ActivePure Technology has been in killing various types of viruses, bacteria and fungi.

The intent behind this blog posting is to summarize this work in such a way (in as a jargon-free manner as possible) that a lay (or non-scientific person) can understand the test results and get some idea how the testing was performed.

I have also included a link to the actual research reports in this article for your own review.

However, the lay reader might find these reports difficult to understand.

The Research Report (from KSU) actually consists of three (3) reports. Each of these reports are briefly listed below.

1. Biological Reduction on Surfaces through Photocatalysis and Ozone with ActivePure (RCI) Technology.

2. Efficacy of Ecoquest Radiant Catalytic Ionization (ActivePure) Cell and Breeze AT Ozone Generators at Reducing Microbial Populations on Stainless Steel Surfaces

3. Effects of ActivePure (RCI) Technology on Reducing Avian Influenza A (H5N8) on Surfaces in 12-hour testing


Try saying all of that three (3) times fast!!!


ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY AT KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
The Testing (documented in these reports) has been performed at the Kansas State Food Science Institute in the Department of Animal Science & Industry, Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS under the direction of Dr. James Marsden, Regent's Distinguished Professor of Meat Science.

KSU is America's foremost Universities for animal science and Dr. James Marsden is known around the world as one of the top researchers and experts in food safety.

The contents of each of these three reports is summarized below.



2.0 REPORT # 1: BIOLOGICAL REDUCTION ON SURFACES THROUGH PHOTOCATALYSIS AND OZONE WITH ACTIVEPURE RCI TECHNOLOGY
Ten of the most deadly forms of mold, fungi, bacteria and virus were subjected to a new technology called "ActivePure".

These ten (10) organisms were placed on a piece of stainless steel inside a test chamber and the ActivePure Cell was turned on for 24 hours.

The Test Results showed that the ActivePure Technology reduced the amount of these organisms by an amount ranging between 96.4% to 100%

The Ten (10) Organisms that were Tested

Staph (Staphylococcus Aureus)

MRSA (Methycillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)

E-Coli (Escherichia Coli)

Anthrax Family (Bacillus spp.)

Strep (Streptococcus spp.)

Pseudomonas aureuginos

Listeria monocytogenes

Candida Albicans

Black Mold (Stachybotrys Chartarum)

Avian Influenze H5N8


NOTE: Because some of these organisms die off on their own, when exposed to air, any reputable study MUST ACCOUNT for these natural reductions.

The test results presented in this report are the reductions in the amount (or numbers) of these organisms OVER AND ABOVE the "Natural Reductions".

The test results showed that the ActivePure Technology reduces the amount of these organisms by as much as 96.4% to 100% over that of the "Natural Reduction" (or Die Off) within a 24-hour period.

Further, the test results indicates that after 2 hours of exposure to ActivePure Technology, the average reduction of these organisms was more than 80%.

After 6 hours, the average reductions of these organisms was well over 90%.


3.0 REPORT # 2: EFFICACY OF ECOQUEST RADIANT CATALYTIC IONIZATION (ACTIVEPURE) CELL AND BREEZE AT OZONE GENERATORS AT REDUCING MICROBIAL POPULATIONS ON STAINLESS STEEL SURFACES



The purpose of this study was to compare the abilities of two technologies in killing various micro-organisms.

These two technologies are:

Ozone Technology (which has recently been approved for use on food contact surfaces in the U.S) and

ActivePure Technology

The test results (documented in this report) indicated that both of these technologies were effective in killing off these micro-organism.

Further, the results indicated that ActivePure Technology was far superior (over an above that of Ozone) in its ability to kill off these micro-organism (killing more in less time).



4.0 REPORT # 3: EFFECTS OF ACTIVEPURE (RCI) TECHNOLOGY ON REDUCING AVIAN INFLUENZA A (H5N8) ON SURFACES IN 12-HOUR TESTING
Influenza A (or Bird Flu) commonly infects humans, swine (or pigs), horses and birds.

Many scientists believe that Bird Flu (H5N1) is the greatest threat to the human population for two reasons.

a. It is constantly present in certain regions of the world (such as Asia, Africa and portions of Europe).

b. It is highly lethal - A vast majority of the birds and animals (including humans) that contract this disease die from it.

At the time when this blog post was written, there has been a lot of news and focus on Swine Flu (H1N1).

Many scientists will acknowledge that Swine Flu can be troublesome to many people (especially for already sick and elderly people) and it is highly contagious (e.g., human to human transmission is very easy.)

However, Swine Flu (for all of its publicity) is NOT the "nightmare flu" that these scientists have been fearing. The lethality of Swine Flu is comparable to that of many other flus that spread throughout the planet each year.

The presence of Bird Flu (H5N1) and some of the following scenarios actually keep these scientists awake.

Horrible Scenario # 1:
For now, Bird Flu (H5N1) mostly seems to infects birds or people (that work very closely with infected birds).

At this time, this virus does not seem to be very contagious for human to human transmission (like Swine Flu is).

However, if changes were to occur within the Bird Flu virus (such that the transmission of the virus from one human to another human would suddenly become very easy), this would greatly concern scientists, or

Horrible Scenario # 2:
If the Bird Flu virus were to "mix it up and mingle" with the Swine Flu virus; such that this new flu virus has the "lethality" (e.g., kill ratio) of Bird Flu and the contagious features of Swine Flu; this would be a catastrophe for the human race.

During an outbreak of the flu (any flu), rapid containment is extremely important in order to prevent the spread of these viruses throughout the human population.

The Flu virus has been shown to survive on many porous surfaces for up to 48 hours and on material such as cloth, paper or tissue for up to 12 hours.

Therefore, some of the things that we need to do (to contain an outbreak of the flu) is to sanitize and disinfect surfaces and to kill the viruses while they are also airborne.

Test Activities:
Because of the dangers of using actual samples of the H5N1 virus (to the research team) a less dangerous (yet structurally similar) virus (H5N8) was used in instead.

In this experiment, samples of H5N8 were exposed to the ActivePure Technology for 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours and 12 hours.

The research team also had some "control samples of the H5N8 virus which were not exposed to the ActivePure Technology.

The intent of the "control samples" were to isolate the effects of the "natural reduction (or die off) of the H5N8 virus (when exposed to air) from that of the ActivePure Technology.

The results of this experiment has been presented in the graph (above) and in the three graphs within the KSU Research Report itself.


NOTE: These plots represent how effective the ActivePure Technology was at killing the H5N8 Virus OVER AND ABOVE the "natural die off" effect.

Click here to access and read the Actual Research Reports from Kansas State University.




5.0 A LIST OF PRODUCTS THAT CONTAIN ACTIVEPURE TECHNOLOGY

The following is a list of products (and their links) that contains the ActivePure Technology (which is Manufactured by Ecoquest International).

Find out about any time-limited special offers that we periodically run on these products by clicking on the appropriate link below.

The FreshAir Unit

The FreshAir Everest

The FreshAir To Go - Portable Air Purification/Cold & Flu Prevention System

The EcoBox

The FreshAir HEPA System (formerly known as the Gemini)

The Refresh - Refrigerator Deodorizer/Foodborne Illness Prevention System

The Ductworx

The PHX - The Business/Office Cold & Flu Prevention System