Tokyo in the event of a bird flu outbreak

[Mulboyne]

TMG: Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Countermeasures for New Influenza Viruses

1. Estimations up to the epidemic phase in the Tokyo area were formulated on the basis that 30% of the population will contract the disease.
Number of outpatients consulted: approx. 3.8 million
Number of hospitalized patients: approx. 290 thousand
Number of deaths: approx. 14 thousand

As far as I can tell, countermeasures seem to be: stop the trains, stockpile a load of drugs, set up a telephone hotline and get the morgues ready.

[Mulboyne]

Reuters: Japan compiles action plan against flu epidemic-report
TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Japan, worried about the possible emergence of a mutated strain of bird flu virus that can spread among humans, has drawn up an action plan which estimates that an outbreak could kill up to 640,000 people, a Japanese daily said on Saturday. The government programme, which calls for steps such as increasing stockpiles of Tamiflu -- an antiviral drug regarded as one of the best defences against bird flu in humans -- assumes that one in four people could be infected in Japan if an outbreak occurs, the Asahi Shimbun daily said...more...

[Sarutaro]

The birdflu has already indirectly killed at least two Japanese. A 17 year-old high school student from Gifu threw himself in front of a truck last year after taking Tamiflu, the cure for the birdflu. A middle grade student in Aichi jumped from the 9th floor in February this year, also after eating the medicine.

In Japan, Tamiflu is required to have a warning that it can cause hallucinations and altered behaviour and the authorities are warning that it can lead to death.

All this according to Mainichi Shimbun...

[Buraku]

bird flu and blizzards killings gaijins ?


Health officials in Japan say that although 42 people died after taking Tamiflu, only two deaths were the direct result of taking the anti-influenza drug.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced Friday that reports of three more deaths had been received, bringing to 42 the number of people who had died in Japan after they took Tamiflu, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.


The death toll from snowstorms that have blasted northern and central Japan since early December rose to 71 on Monday after three people died while clearing snow

[Greji]

Event of outbreak of birdflu, collect stocks of charcoal, pointed sticks, lighter fluid and several isshoubins.

[Taro Toporific]

Scientists Learn Why Bird Flu Does Not Easily Infect People[floatr][/floatr]
----Scientists have learned why the deadly H5N1 bird flu does not easily infect people and spread between them. They have discovered a biological barrier that has so far prevented a feared human pandemic.----
VOA News - 22 March 2006
Avian influenza has infected nearly 200 people worldwide and killed about half of them. Each documented case has been the result of close contact with infected birds. But the virus does not easily jump from birds to humans and there are no known cases of spread between humans.
The answer to this biological mystery is now revealed by Dutch and Japanese scientists working independently of each other and reporting respectively in the journals "Science" and "Nature.". They say that the H5N1 virus attaches to and enters cells too deep down in human lungs to spread easily by coughing and sneezing...
...Kuiken's team and one led by University of Wisconsin virus expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka with colleagues in Tokyo made their discovery by studying tissue removed from various parts of the human respiratory tract....more...

[Greji]

biHealth officials in Japan say that although 42 people died after taking Tamiflu, only two deaths were the direct result of taking the anti-influenza drug.

VOA News - 22 March 2006
Avian influenza has infected nearly 200 people worldwide and killed about half of them.

I'm not especially good on math, but 42 dead = Flu vaccine(Japan only) and about 100 (worldwide)=Avian Flu?

I think that when the pandemic comes, I will prescribe for myself one issho bin and and one Roppongiite with her motor running and turn in early! The odds seem a whole lot better!

[Ketou]

I really don't think a pandemic is going to happen. Maybe some localized outbreaks, but a worldwide spread of a deadly flu strain seems unlikely.

[Greji]

I really don't think a pandemic is going to happen. Maybe some localized outbreaks, but a worldwide spread of a deadly flu strain seems unlikely.

Well, in that case, I think I will prescribe for myself one issho bin and and one Roppongiite with her motor running and turn in early!