Bird Flu Hype
With the recent human cases of bird flu diagnosed in Turkey and Indonesia, the media is playing the bird flu pandemic theme with all the bells and whistles again. Along the same lines, 33 countries and multilateral institutions pledged $1.9 billion to fight the disease at the January 18 Conference on Bird Flu in China. And with the recent announcement from the WHO that bird flu viruses are able to survive in bird droppings for more than a month in cold weather, most people feel the dangers of a bird flu pandemic are more real than ever.
But let's stop and think for a minute. How many people were killed by the bird flu virus so far? In nine years, the virus has infected only 144 people, killing 75 - all of them in Asia.
To put things into perspective, think about this: cancer kills more than one American every minute. I know, you may think this is not a fair comparison - after all, there is not much we can do about cancer... Or is it? The reality is that at least 70% of all cancers CAN be prevented by simple lifestyle changes. If you want to find out the details, please read my article on How to Prevent Cancer.
Then how come we hardly hear about cancer prevention on daily news programs, whereas bird flu is a regular topic?
Good question. I don't know all the answers, but I can think of at least two:
- Most people don't like to change their lifestyle. When I tell patients they should change the way they eat, they should do more exercise, etc., the typical reaction is: "You are taking away from me all the good things of life... I almost feel life is not worth living anymore..."
- Cancer prevention by changing ones lifestyle is hardly sensational. It takes a lifetime of commitment, and the results are not sudden and sensational. On the contrary, the bird flu has the potential of becoming a pandemic, is not under our direct control and thus is perfect for the media.
It is not my purpose to downplay the real dangers of a bird flu pandemic. My point, though, is that we often ignore real, present dangers to our health and spend too much time and energy trying to avert potential, future dangers we may never face...
I believe we would all be much better off is we'd make the effort to put everything in perspective.
The Avian Flu Doc
4 Comments:
Need to protect your children from the spread of Avian Flu? Check out the hilarious video you MUST show the kids!
http://collegeguru.blogspot.com/2006/02/burt-flu-bird-with-bird-avian-flu.html
To gauge the future pandemic on past performance is foolish. The threat is in it's ability to mutate to a form which will spread rapidly in the human population.
Also, 95 people have died so far.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2006_03_06/en/index.html
To be very honest, I'd welcome a bird flu pandemic. It would solve the problem of peak oil and provide lots of empty houses. Those surviving would live better. And, we'd get may weeks off from work. Frankly, I can think of about 10 people I'd like to dip in a vat of infected bird droppings. The bird flu pandemic will likely turn out to be a big fizzle but they'll never be able to take away my daydreams of less people, cheap housing, and young girls needing consolation.
Anonymous, you said: Those surviving would live better.
Have you ever thought there is a good chance you may not be among the survivors, should an avian flu pandemic acmong humans occur?
The Avian Flu Doc
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home