In a classic case of First World kicks Third World’s collective butt, Western nations are racing to stock up on Tamiflu, the only drug thought to be capable of stopping an epidemic of deadly avian flu, according to Inter-Press Service.

Led by the United States, the developed world is using its financial muscle to acquire global stocks of the most potent anti-flu medicine available. The U.S. enough doses of Tamiflu to treat more than 2 million people, and reportedly is trying to buy more from the producer, Swiss manufacturer Roche. Britain, France and Norway are reported to have ordered enough Tamiflu to treat 20 percent to 40 percent of their respective populations.

Thailand, by contrast, has secured barely 22,000 Tamiflu doses.

Southeast Asia is the epicentre of ongoing outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of the deadly bird flu virus, and health and gobernment officials there criticized the West’s run on the vaccine especially, they say, since neither the U.S. nor Europe have suffered from bird flu the way that Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia have.

The World Health Organization currently has a stockpile that could treat about 125,000 patients. WHO’s approach tis to have a centralized supply of vaccine that could be flown to a major outbreak to contain the spread of the virus through mass vaccinations. The Geneva-based health body plans to increase its global stockpile of Tamiflu to about a million doses.

Since avian flu began spreading across Southeast Asia, nearly 60 people have died of the disease — 40 in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia. WHO has received reports of 112 cases of human infection, indicating a nearly 50 percent fatality rate for H5N1 flu.

Two previous global pandemics have been caused by influenza viruses. The one in 1918 that resulted in 50 million deaths worldwide was attributed to a flu strain that jumped from birds to humans.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report on 5 Aug. 2005, the Ministry of Health in Viet Nam has reported an additional 3 human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus infection: one in the northern province of Ha Tay, one in the southern province of Tra Vinh, and one in Ho Chi Minh City, also in the south. The patients from Tra Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City died. These newly confirmed cases in Viet Nam bring the total reported there since mid-December 2004 to 63 cases, 20 of which have been fatal.

During December 2003 to Aug. 5, 2005, a total of 112 human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) were reported in Viet Nam (90), Thailand (17), Cambodia (4) and Indonesia (1), resulting in 57 deaths.

Most cases of H5N1 infection in humans are thought to have occurred from direct contact with infected poultry. Therefore, care should be taken to avoid contact, when feasible, with live, well-appearing, sick or dead poultry and any surfaces that may have been contaminated by poultry or poultry feces or secretions. To date, there has been no evidence of sustained person-to-person spread of influenza A (H5N1) virus.

To reduce the risk of infection, travelers visiting areas where outbreaks of H5N1 infection among poultry or human cases of H5N1 infection have been reported should observe the following measures to help avoid illness.
[…]

PR Humor – August 15, 2005 – The collection of items that will go into the George W. Bush Presidential Liberry can easily fit into two Office Depot file boxes, which is where the items are stored now, in a closet just off the Oval Office.

And yet no less than eight public organizations in Texas are vying for the honor of being the repository of the contents of the boxes.

The inventory of the contents is classified “Double Super Secret,” but a source who has seen the boxes, and who spoke to Pensito Review on the condition of anonymity, described them as “old and sort of yellowed,” and “wrapped up tight in duct tape.”

[…]

PR HUMOR — August 14, 2005 — With the price of gasoline rising toward $3 per gallon, a senior administration official told Pensito Review today that while President George W. Bush is “troubled” by the potential effect of high energy prices on the nation’s productivity, there is nothing the President or anyone can do because “oil prices fluctuate due to forces of nature. It’s out of man’s control, similar to hurricanes or earthquakes.”

The price of oil is “in God’s hands,” said the Bush adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He described Americans as “people of faith,” who have “faith in this President.”

The administration’s hands-off approach on oil prices has broad appeal, the senior official said. The indicator of this is the general lack of outrage over recent price spikes. He said that most of the complaints have come from “a few liberals” who “always blame America for everything.”

[…]

File this under “Too Bizarre to Pass Up.”

Florida’s attorney general Charlie Crist – one of several Republicans trying to succeed Jeb as governor next year – is being asked to stop a museum exhibition…of human cadavers.

Southwest Florida St. Petersburg Times:

The Tampa Museum of Science and Industry wants to host “Bodies, the Exhibition,” featuring 20 preserved, posed cadavers and an additional 260 organs and parts that’ll give people an inside view to human workings.

Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta owns the exhibit and obtained the bodies from China’s Dalian Medical University of Plastination Laboratories, which took in unclaimed and unidentified bodies.

The bodies, according to the company, are from years ago, obtained legally, and where possible, with family members’ permission. Besides, it’s not like anyone’s trying to use the bodies to make a fast buck or something.

The company has more than a decade of experience with museum exhibitions, notably with artifacts from the Titanic. “We’re not a company that came in last week to pick up a quick dollar on bodies that are exhibited,” Geller said…

According to SEC records, the company this week notified shareholders it intends to authorize the sale of up to 10-million additional shares, raising the maximum number of shares from 30-million to 40-million. Each share cost $1.76 Thursday.

The money will be used for “operating costs” and so forth. The show is set to open Aug. 20, so Crist needs to hurry up and decide what to do about it. I bet if he could pick a dream election issue, this wouldn’t be it.

Q fever, an illness that is listed on bioterrorism watch lists — along with smallpox and anthrax — has been detected at an unusually high rate of incidence this summer in Colorado, according to state health officials. The likely source is diseased livestock such as sheep or goats.

The Colorado State Health Department has confirmed 13 human cases in the state in 2005, including six in Weld County. In 2004, there were three confirmed cases throughout Colorado, said John Pape, a state health department epidemiologist.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Q fever, or “query” fever is a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a species of bacterium that is distributed globally. In 1999, Q fever became a notifiable disease in the United States, but reporting is not required in many other countries. Because the disease is under-reported, scientists cannot reliably assess how many cases of Q fever have actually occurred worldwide, as many human infections are inapparent.
[…]

Who went to hell and left the gate open?

Yet another demon from the 2000 Presidential election has emerged from the netherworld.

Florida State University – and Jeb Bush – declared they will fight the NCAA over the right to use Florida Seminoles as the theme for the university’s various athletic franchises. And guess who’s going to help?

St. Petersburg Times:

FSU president T.K. Wetherell has said he also will pursue all legal avenues and told the Associated Press that prominent attorney Barry Richard, who successfully represented George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, has agreed to represent FSU.

What is UP with these 2000 people surfacing lately? Do they swarm, like cicadas or desert frogs? John Roberts, Adam Goodman (see earlier story), now Barry Richard. Can Florida never have any peace?

Jeb, for his part, scoffed at the idea that anyone would find using Hollywood symbols of ethnicity for licensed athletic teams, events, and merchandise offensive. And no one can scoff quite like Jeb.

“How politically correct can we get?” Bush told reporters Tuesday morning before a meeting of the state Cabinet. “To me, the folks that make these decisions need to get out more often.”

I always laugh when a Republican claims to hate being politically correct. The folks who coined “faith-based” have no right to call anyone else politically correct. Ever.

Meanwhile, I wonder how Jeb would feel if FSU picked a different symbol. His wife, Columba, is from Mexico. How about if FSU adopts “Pepe” instead of “Chief Osceola” and instead of wearing garnet and gold “war paint” and riding a horse (never seen one of THOSE in the Everglades), Pepe will wear a fringed sombrero and a striped garnet and gold serape and before every game, he’ll run out on the field barefoot with a Corona in one hand and a pistol in the other? It’s all just good, clean fun.

Too bad FSU didn’t pick a symbol that everyone can get behind, like a native reptile in colors you can’t miss, like orange and blue.