as I live a few more questions

Scientists Find Cancer Cure, But Big Pharma Isn't Interested

The drug dichloroacetate appears to target cancer cells, causing them to die. Its potency as a cancer killing agent has been tested in tissue cultures and mice, with very promising results.  However, clinical trials need to be run. Since the drug is not patentable and can be produced very cheaply, pharmaceutical companies won't fund those trials.

Why isn't this story front-page news in every newspaper?  Just because there's no pharmaceutical industry PR firm handling it?  This Canadian scientific discovery has appeared in very, very newspapers, one among them being The National Post:

A simple molecule, used for decades to treat children with rare metabolic diseases, commits "immortal" cancer cells to a natural death and could soon be used to treat many forms of cancer, according to a new study.

University of Alberta researchers were excited to discover that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast and brain tumours.

"It's important for the future of cancer," said Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the University of Alberta's department of medicine and an author of the study. (Source: Leong, Melissa. "Cancer finding hailed", National Post, January17, 2007)

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New Pandemic with 98% Fatality Rate: XDR-TB in South Africa.

And you thought all you had to worry about was bird flu. Wrong!

According to an article in The Guardian about this new scientific report, "More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa."

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tonight god cut me open

 
tonight god cut me open
and i found myself inside

i stood in the holes in his feet
and we danced

i am fearfully
and wonderfully

good enough
   
   
   

Three-fifths of the way there: It's time to return to our regular avian influenza programming....

If you have been following the bird flu news at all this past week, you will already know that the deadly H5N1 virus has now been reported in several new countries: Iraq and Azerbaijan in Central Asia (one woman has died in Iraq); Nigeria and Chad in Africa (Chad was just reported five minutes ago on thefluclinic.com); and Bulgaria, Greece and Italy in Europe. (Greece and Italy were only reported this morning; apparently the single report of bird flu in Greece last year had been a false alarm.)

Now look at a world map at the distance between Turkey (where there was been a surge of outbreaks among both birds and humans, including at least four huan deaths) and the African nation of Nigeria, which just reported H5N1 outbreaks among birds a couple of days ago. Many of the countries between Turkey and Nigeria, which are all directly within the flightpath of the infected wildbirds flying from Turkey, probably also have H5N1 infections. These nations, often poor, have lacked the time, money or expertise to test and discover cases.

From an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report picked up by ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Bird flu only two mutations away from deadly form: expert

The bird flu virus is only two mutations away from a form that can spread easily between people, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die, the UN bird flu chief said in an interview published in Portugal.

"Only two mutations are needed for it to become easily transmissible among humans," Dr David Nabarro, who heads the UN drive to contain the virus, told weekly newspaper Expresso.

"I wake up every morning thinking that today could be the day that I will see a report about a strange case of bird flu among humans," he said.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed tens of millions of birds since 2003 and there have been at least 165 confirmed cases of the strain spreading to humans, causing about 90 deaths, mostly in Asia.

The virus has spread from Asia to eastern Europe and Nigeria this week reported Africa's first known outbreak of the deadly strain of the disease.

Experts have long warned that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted by humans and spark a global pandemic potentially killing millions.

Dr Nabarro said he has told governments around the world to prepare for the arrival of a human-to-human strain of the virus "as if this will happen tomorrow."

(Source: Agence-France Presse, ABC News Online: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1567776.htm)

The virus has already mutated in three different ways in Turkey, each mutation making it easier for birds to inflect humans. Now, a top United Nations scientist claims that only two more genetic mutations are required to have bird flu reach the human pandemic stage.

In other words, we're already 3/5 of the way towards pandemic bird flu.

H5N1: WHO's Sins of Omission.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made a sublte but unmistakeable change in its reporting of new H5N1 cases, both confirmed and suspected. The organization is no longer releasing the date of hospital entry for each case. Why is this so significant??

Because reporting the dates of hospital entry allows people to compare these dates within several new, larger familial clusters of H5N1 cases that have been reported in Turkey over the past two weeks. Significant gaps in dates would indicate that the virus has jumped from the first family member sick, to the second and subsequent illness within that cluster.

In other words, WHO is deliberately withholding information that would indicate human-to-human H5N1 transmission, in order to avoid panic. This is completely reprehensible and immoral behaviour.

To follow the discussion on this significant change in the way WHO reports new cases of human H5N1 infection, visit this conversation thread on The Flu Clinic.

Source: screen capture from a Flash animation on the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter's Web site.

The Flash animation can be accessed by going to this address:
www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=512683 .

Find the picture of a small map marked "Rörlig grafik" and click on the link underneath it which says "Se rörlig grafik". Click the image in the small pop-up window to start the slideshow, and click on the word "Fortsätt" to move from slide to slide.

The woman leaning her head against the wooden grave marker is Marifet Kocyigit, who lost 3 of her 4 children to bird flu: the first human deaths from the H5N1 flu virus outside of Southeast Asia. In this case, the eldest son was sick and the other two children only became sick later.

Early this morning, another child (not related to the first three fatalities) has died from H5N1. This is only the beginning.

If you think it can't happen here because we're "rich" and they're "poor", you haven't been paying attention.

Several of the cases in Jakarta, Indonesia, were of people living in a wealthy upper-middle suburb. One death was of a young girl who appears to have been infected by a next-door neighbour's pet bird (the virus was found at the bottom of the birdcage). Another death was of a woman who became infected by adding fertilizer to the potted plants on her patio.

Perhaps by as early as this coming autumn, overlapping bird migration patterns will bring H5N1-infected birds into Canada. We could be seeing the same sort of situation developing here all too easily.

"The only thing I can think of that could take a larger human death toll than virulent pandemic influenza would be thermo nuclear war . . . "

The quote in the headline is by Laurie Garrett, well-known health and science writer, and was taken from a one-hour CNN special last night on the bird flu threat. I thought it was a pretty good program to get across to Joe and Joanne Average exactly what the big deal is, why the need to prepare for it.

But it's still not enough. Perhaps 1 in 100 people is getting the message and preparing now, and perhaps another 1% has been prepping as a matter of course, getting ready for any sort of unexpected disaster such as an earthquake, etc. That makes 2% of the population.

Which leaves 98% of the population who will go into panic buying mode when there is an official announcement. It won't be pretty.

For those of you looking for a place to start, go to FluWiki and then follow some of the discussions taking place in The Flu Clinic. Be sure to sheck out the Master Flu Preps Thread in the latter website.

Chinese News Site and Japanese Virologist Assert 310 Dead in China from Bird Flu

There are detailed but unconfirmed reports that have come out of China, that the number of people ill and dead from the H5N1 avian influenza virus is far, far more than just the official count of 2 ill, 1 dead. If these reports are true, it means that the avian influenza pandemic may already have begun within China's borders.

Statistics on Avian Flu, which is spreading in many parts of China, including the actual number of the infected and the dead, were published on Nov. 14 at Boxun.com, a China-related news site.

According to their expose, the number of fatalities in this year up to Nov 12, totals 310 from 13 different provinces, and the number of the quarantined people is 5,554 in total, contrary to the official announcement from Chinese authorities.

Moreover, the numbers in the statistics are lower than the actual ones. These numbers were 'approved' by the Cabinet. The data were provided by an high-level official of Chinese Health Ministry, and it was not revealed the manner in which they came to receive this statistic.

According to the source, since 2004, deadly epidemics are breaking out in many parts of China, including Avian Flu. Since 2005, military was put in charge of epidemic control, leading to tightened information blackout. This kept the accurate report on epidemic situation from coming out to the international community.

The source also said that, the announcement by Chinese Health Ministry is also masking the real situation by resorting to 'technical treatment' or 'unique academic modification and interpretation.' Even when they allow foreign experts or international organizations into China for inspection, they can do it only under Chinese authorities' supervision, which made it almost impossible to uncover the real truth.

Right now, the spread of Avian Flu has become the serious situation in many places of China, and each provincial government is given clear instruction on handling the crisis and keeping out the information.

Currently, Chinese Cabinet and Supreme Military Command issued an instruction, "Anyone suspected to be infected by Avian Flu, or really infected ones should be all confined to designated medical facilities and its report be made to higher government immediately. It is strictly prohibited to reveal information on (Avian Flu) infection without approval of the Cabinet. Any violators will be disciplined and fired or held accountable by further means."

The source also mentioned another authorities' instruction, which says, "If a patient dies (of Avian Flu), you cannot record Avian Flu or H5N1 as a cause of death. A patient suffering infectious respiratory disease, but who did not get treatment at designated medical facilities will not receive assistance such as health insurance. The medical facility which treated this patient will also receive stiff sanction.

(Source of quote) (link to original Chinese Boxun report with chart of people quarantined, ill and dead broken down by province)

Then, Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Influenza at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, and head of the Department of Virology of Japan's National Institute of Infectious Disease, reported almost 100% identical information at a virologists' meeting, which he said had been given to him by a reliable source while he was travelling to China a few days ago: "What you see here is an inofficial, unpublished report from China about the H5N1 infections in China." (link to full German text)

The German news media are all over this story, which was first published the respected newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

I'm currently reading Twenty-First Century Plague: THe Story of SARS by Thomas Abraham, and it outlines just how China's secrecy about the SARS virus led to so many unnecessary deaths. The shocking part is not that China kept the news from the rest of the world; it is that the Guandong provincial government in China kept the news from officials in Beijing! The whole sad story is outlined in Chapter 2.

I hope with all my heart that China is not repeating the same mistakes, but given the recent unconfirmed reports, that hope is fading.

Ten Days in Toronto, October 1918: From "Just La Grippe" to Full-Blown Influenza Pandemic

"Just La Grippe"
Posted by Quiplash.

For those of you who scoff at how quickly an avian influenza epidemic can get out of control and lead to pandemic, consider the following series of articles from the The Globe (precursor to today's Globe and Mail), over only ten days...

Ten Days in Toronto (discussion thread on The Flu Clinic at CurEvents.com, THE place to get the latest breaking news and opinions on the potential bird flu pandemic and its consequences)

Arbidol: Bird Flu Treatment?

Arbidol, a Russian over-the-counter drug that is almost completely unknown in the rest of the world, is suddenly getting some attention, due to the fact that Russian scientific reserach reports indicate it works against bird flu (avian influenza, H5N1).

You can follow the ongoing discussion at The Flu Clinic at CurEvents.com:
www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?p=161013

Arbidol, ethyl-6-bromo-4-[(dimethylamino)methyl]-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-2-[(phenylthio)methyl]-indole-3-carboxylate hydrochloride monohydrate (Fig. 1), is an antiviral active chemical entity. It has been in use in Russia for several years for the treatment of influenza. The compound exerts its effect by activation upon phagocytic activity of the macrophages, and also stimulates some forms of cellular and humoral immunity. Arbidol inhibits viruses of influenza type A and type B and has the capacity to induce serum interferon. Metabolic and pharmacokinetic studies in animals have shown that orally administered arbidol is rapidly absorbed and distributed quickly into tissues and organs.

(Metz, Rainer et al. "Sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of arbidol, a new antiviral compound, in human plasma", Journal of Chromatography A Volume 810, Issues 1-2 , 12 June 1998, Pages 63-69)

A new look at an old drug

The compound arbidol was created by the Center for Drug Chemistry in Moscow more than 20 years ago and is licensed for use as prophylaxis and treatment for influenza A and B infections in Russia. Arbidol has recently been shown to inhibit various human respiratory RNA viruses, including several strains of influenza A and B, RSV, parainfluenza type 3 (PIV3) and rhinovirus 14, as well as the avian coronavirus, infectious bronchitis virus, and Marek disease virus, an avian oncogenic herpesvirus. Its antiviral activity, expressed as 50% inhibitory concentrations in cell culture, for influenza A and B, RSV, PIV3, rhinovirus 14, poliovirus, IBV, and MDV, was 0.22 to 11.8 µg mL-1 [88]. These findings confirm earlier clinical data from Russian workers that arbidol could be considered for use as a broad-spectrum antiviral.

(Brooks, Megan J. et al. "Antiviral chemotherapeutic agents against respiratory viruses: where are we now and what’s in the pipeline?", Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine, Volume 10(3), May 2004, pp 197-203)

October 3-9 is Pandemic Flu Awareness Week

 

This week, October 3-9, is Pandemic Flu Awareness Week (picture above left), where bloggers worldwide will embark on a public education campaign to alert people to the dangers of an imminent avian influenza pandemic.

Here are the two sources of bird flu information which I visit the most:

1. FluWiki, one of the sites behind the PFAW event; and

2. The Flu Clinic on CurEvents.com, THE place to hang out to learn more about preparing for an H5N1 outbreak. This is also the place to come to catch the breaking H5N1 news stories from around the world.

Oh, and don't forget Cora-Anne Tine, the world's first Pandemic Advice Columnist, and a close friend of mine...

Dear Cora-Anne: Advice for the Flu-Lorn (picture above right)