Could someone post this entire article?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000111/12/db9j.html

This doesn't have a thing to do with Y2K but is a superb reason to keep your preps and, for 95% of those on this board, quietly increase them while learning the self-reliant life over the coming months, year and years. Join us on the prep forum as we learn together.

Serious epidemiologists believe that this scenario WILL come to pass within our lifetimes.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 12, 2000

Answers

BigDog, we were just about to post that as a new thread :-)
Reads like old times here, eh? And right after the new chemtrail thread, hhmmm.

[ Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only ]

The Flu Plague of 2006

Tuesday January 11, 11:09 PM

The Flu Plague Of 2006

AS Britain reels from the worst outbreak of influenza in more than a decade, scientists have warned the next epidemic may kill millions.

They fear the virus could mutate into an even bigger killer than the one which wiped out an estimated 40 million people in 1918. BOB SHIELDS imagines life after the great plague of 2006

...IT started with a sniff ... but no-one told us it would end like this.

And the tragedy is, the symptoms were there for us all to see.

Influenza - flu to most of us - is the Toblerone-shaped bug that kills 4000 in the UK every year. Most of the victims are the elderly or those already weakened with heart or respiratory problems.

In November, the early cases came creeping into Britain's surgeries.

Doctors wrote them off as the first of winter's wheezers and sneezers.

But as invisible as the bug itself, figures started to grow. Doctors noted the increase in influenza sufferers, but thought it was just a blip in their average case list.

Dr Aberdeen wasn't to know that Dr Ayr was experiencing the same 20 per cent increase in flu victims.

Well, not until it was too late.

Hospitals were first to ring the alarm bells - registrars became anxious as the number of beds being used by flu sufferers rose.

And there were some deaths that made their figures look a little uncomfortable.

Regional medical officers got the information on their desks at the end of the month, but few read the reports. The Christmas party season had started.

Others weren't experienced enough to understand them, but someone did - a researcher, a post-graduate on exchange from the ER-famed County General in Chicago, got hold of the figures.

"What's an epidemic here in England?" he asked.

"Four cases per every thousand of the population," he was told.

"Guys, we just got ourselves a flu epidemic."

Newspapers were slow to pick up on the story - until the death of a fit young rugby player.

Until now, hardened editors felt flu was something that picked off the weak, those that were in God's waiting room anyway. But the young rugby player's picture haunted every front page.

Calls to the health department rang alarms bells and the Health Minister was finally cornered in the Commons.

"It's an epidemic, but not a serious one," he told MPs.

Leader of the Opposition, Michael Portillo, replied with headline- grabbing gravity.

"Tell that to the families of the victims. There are people dying out there. Have we learned nothing since Millennium Flu killed 29,000?"

It was all too late. Hospitals began to sag under the volume of referrals from GPs.

Practices that lost 300 patients a year were now seeing 10 people every day develop life-threatening illness.

No-one was immune. A famous actor died. Then a senior member of the Royal Family.

The nation mourned as news of the McAndrew family from Aberdeen arrived on their screens.

Mrs Susan McAndrew had gone to hospital with her sons Ian, three, and Callum, five, at noon. She then sat and watched them die, in neighbouring beds, within 20 minutes of each other.

A Highland primary school of just six pupils was left with just one little boy. Pictures of him sitting alone in class made every front page.

Kirks and chapels buried the dead - and asked their congregations to pray for a cure.

Researchers had found the bug, but were helpless against this superflu strain. Its roots were traced to Grozny, where disease had lived unchecked since the Russians obliterated the area in 2000.

Locals had called it Yeltsin flu, after the late former Russian leader.

Its virulence was the speed at which it travelled - and killed.

One man sneezing on a Jumbo jet could infect 300 passengers. If any of them sneezed in a train, office or shop, they could infect thousands more.

The Government was forced to declare a national emergency - but were hammered for deciding a week after the USA, France, Germany and Italy had announced similar status.

People were dying in their thousands from Yeltsin Flu. And that was only the UK. The Euro Parliament was stunned when doctors revealed 26,000 EEC victims a day.

"It's not an epidemic - it's a plague," said one newspaper's front page.

"It's the Aids of the innocents," screamed another.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced to announce a total shutdown of all but essential industries.

"People are catching this bug in schools, in factories, in shops and offices. This Government has no alternative but to close them ... close them tonight," he told a hushed Commons.

It was a gamble. With the threat of food shortages, people would hoard or even loot if they had been given any longer notice.

"I regret to announce a 24-hour curfew in mainland UK," he added.

"Essential services - hospital staff, doctors, the police, this House, certain government agencies and the BBC will remain exempt. The Army will be mobilised to help maintain this curfew until further notice."

He sat down at the despatch box, tears in his eyes. Michael Portillo broke with Commons etiquette and crossed the floor to console him.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond immediately announced the Scots would follow suit. Ireland, united in 2005, agreed within the hour.

For six days, most of the planet didn't stir. Fathers played games with their children. With power cuts, computers were banned. The BBC broadcast hourly bulletins.

Mothers were forced to look out recipes from books their grand- mothers had left them. History would reveal that five million UK households baked bread for the first time.

There was tragedy, too. A farmer watched his wife slip away in front of him. He kissed her farewell then went to his gun cupboard ... and seconds later they had both found peace.

The Army and police maintained supplies to the elderly. And had the job of retrieving bodies from houses.

One Ayrshire fireman was offered compassionate leave after moving the bodies of his brother, brother-in-law and uncle in the same shift.

He refused and later became one of 356 Scots to be honoured for services during the flu scourge.

Doctors still argue over how the bug disappeared as quickly as it came.

Some claim the coldest January for 200 years helped kill the spores in the air. Others maintained that the public had built up an immunity.

Spanish Flu claimed 150,000 UK lives in 1918. Asian Flu killed 30,000 in 1958 and Hong Kong Flu 31,000 in 1969. The Millennium Flu of 2000 claimed 29,000.

Gordon Brown rose to tell the Commons in March that the UK's final loss from the 2006 Yeltsin flu was 75

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 12, 2000.

Gordon Brown rose to tell the Commons in March that the UK's final loss from the 2006 Yeltsin flu was 756,000.

"We cannot let this happen again," he pledged.

-- tea got in our keyboard (hard@to.post), January 12, 2000.

This is GREAT! Something new to worry about for the next SIX years. Let's get it on! Gary, could you spearhead this one too?

-- (sneezin@yer.dinnerplate), January 12, 2000.

Did not read yesterday's KC Star until this morning, but this story was on topic.

While most think only the very aged, chronically ill, or very young are most at risk with the flu, we sometimes forget that otherwise healthy individuals are struck down by a virulent virus. Jim Henson comes to mind, as does perhaps this 8 year old boy.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), January 12, 2000.

What this article fails to mention is that they believe the other plausible cause of death was that his mother gave him perscription medication for his illness that had been prescribed to her.

We're not talking about the Andromeda Strain, here.

-- Three Dots (three_dots@work.now), January 12, 2000.

wouldn't be so bad, if the government weren't giving it to us...... :-)

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 12, 2000.

Well, fortunately that was only a work of fiction. Three quarters of a million dead in the UK. If it spread with a similar virulence here in the U.S. the death toll would likely be in the millions.

Perhaps it will happpen. I hope not. I could not even begin to guess at its probability.

I suppose if something like that were to happen here I'd send the wife home to keep the baby and I'd be living in town until the crisis was over. We're both members of CERT and long ago decided she'd care for the baby while I contributed to the cause. I'd be praying for them every night and they'd be praying for me.

..........Alan.

The Providence Cooperative - A great source of preparedness information

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), January 12, 2000.

This flu business began here in Calif., some two months ago, and went unreported, swept under the rug until hospitals in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego began to scream that there were no beds for all the victims.

Once it got to the East Coast, then it got some media coverage. Now that it's hit England, Scotland and Wales hard, it's being discussed a "little bit" more.

By all the gods, I ask why are matters such as this "covered up" as they are? I am 68, got the flu, sitting home nursing it as best as I can. It's the pits! Go to a hospital? Not me. There's more "bugs" there than I care to get and bring home.

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), January 12, 2000.

Three dots, where'd you hear about the mother giving her son the prescription medicine (not prescribed for him)?

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), January 12, 2000.

Think this over for a minute....

6 billion people...life expectancy 60 years...about 100 million people die each year...approximate to 10 million per month.

It IS true that flu is worse for people who have weak immune systems (old, malnourished, overstressed).

The chances are that if 5 million people died in an epidemic, that at least half of them would be people who were on death's door anyway.

Alcoholism probably kills more people per year than this.

IT IS PROBABLY ALWAYS VALUABLE TO HAVE YOUR HOME READY TO GO A FEW DAYS IN SUCH A SITUATION. BUT DON'T LIVE IN FEAR OF SUCH THINGS...

I am not a dogmatic Christian, but I do know that Christ said nobody will know the day or hour of his coming...(I think he actually means the moment that a given individual will experience divine grace) but in the same way...we never know the day or moment of our deaths.

-- quantum (numbers man@calculate.com), January 12, 2000.

Y'all also need to realize that they have recovered aparently intact pieces and/or whole chains of the 18(12 or 18) Pandemic flu that killed oh, 5% of the population that year.

It is "under study" in several labs......

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 12, 2000.

err sory that should be 19-(12 or 18)

chuck (teach me to try to post factuals after opening the Dalmore)

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 12, 2000.

My grandmother told me about the 1918 flu. She was very ill, her long hair was all cut off and when she started to get better, she found out that her darling 2 year old daughter had died. She and my grandfather never got over the loss. I was named after the child. Pray that nothing like that comes again.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), January 13, 2000.

Grade twelve student at my children's school died Monday night. He went into hospital on the week-end; was told he had the flu; and was sent home. He went back to the hospital on Monday night; was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and died. This flu which northern Alberta has had since early December is debilitating. News reporter on ITV (local programming) advised to watch for dangerous symptoms after the body has been weakened by the flu.

-- Lois Knorr (knorr@attcanada.net), January 13, 2000.

From the Electronic Telegraph:

ISSUE 1691 Tuesday 11 January 2000

Experts reject Government's flu epidemic claims By George Jones, Celia Hall, James Debens and Peter Foster

Influenza diagnosis rugby player dies

ALAN MILBURN, the Health Secretary, said yesterday that the country could be heading for the worst flu epidemic of the past 10 years, despite evidence from influenza specialists and doctors that levels are lower than last year.

Experts believe that much current ill health is not even true influenza. Advice from the Chief Medical Officer to have a flu jab would make doctors busier and not prevent real flu, they said.

With the Government facing accusations of exaggerating the flu outbreak to divert attention from other shortcomings in the NHS, Mr Milburn insisted that official figures understated the true size of the problem.

He told the Commons that instead of seeing their GP or going to hospital, many people were missing from the official statistics because they consulted a pharmacist or the new NHS Direct telephone advice service.

Mr Milburn said: "This means that, unless present levels of influenza activity peak soon, we would be heading for the worst epidemic in the last decade. That certainly chimes with most people's experiences. There can hardly be a family in the land that has not been affected by the flu. Everybody knows somebody who has had it."

Although acknowledging that the NHS was under "real pressure", he said it was coping with the outbreak. But Dr Liam Fox, the Conservative health spokesman, accused Mr Milburn of "complacency" and claimed that the health service was breaking apart at the seams, with patients left to die in waiting rooms or be examined in car parks.

Mr Milburn said the level of flu cases reported had quadrupled from last month to more than 197 per 100,000 people. Emergency admissions to hospital had risen by 200,000 over the past three weeks, an increase of almost 30 per cent.

The number of people attending accident and emergency departments had risen to more than 600,000 in that time, with 250,000 calls made to ambulance services. He acknowledged that most hospitals were cancelling routine operations to concentrate on emergency cases - which is likely to increase waiting lists. But he rejected Opposition claims that the Government had failed to make preparations for a predictable winter influenza crisis.

He announced that he had asked the Prof Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, to look at ways of enhancing the use of vaccine in the future. Official figures show that levels of flu and similar viruses are still below last year. In the week ending Jan 2 figures showed 144 per 100,000 compared to 188 in the comparable week last winter.

Dr Douglas Fleming, director of the research unit of the Royal College of General Practitioners, was one of many specialists to challenge the Government's claims that the nation was facing the worst flu epidemic in a decade.

Dr Fleming runs the unit which collates the official statistics from 73 "spotter" GP practices around the country and supplies them to the Public Health Laboratory Service. "This year elderly people have been particularly badly hit but the rates are similar to the figures from last year, which were not epidemic."

He said the pattern was similar to recent years, in which outbreaks lasted about 10 weeks, taking four or five weeks to reach their peak then declining. The convention agreed by the Health Department and statisticians is that consultation rates for flu and flu-like illnesses at between 200 and 400 per 100,000 are classified as high. Epidemic conditions are not reached until they exceed 400. In 1989/90 they peaked at 580.

Dr Fleming said: "I would like to know what the reason is for calling this an epidemic if the figures have not been changed and it does concern me slightly. We need a way of describing an epidemic and these cut-off points, even if arbitrary, should be respected."

Dr Will Patterson, consultant in public health for North Yorkshire, also doubted whether the country was in the middle of a genuine epidemic. He said: "Real flu puts people in bed for at least a week and off work for two. Many of the current infections are lasting only four or five days. Vulnerable groups are being told to get their flu jabs but if another virus is responsible they will not be protected."

Dr Nicol Black, consultant in communicable diseases for the Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside, said: "If the Chief Medical Officer goes on television and tells people to go and get vaccinated then GPs, who are already struggling to cope, will face a huge rush they don't need."

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), January 13, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California My Chemtrails Page

This flu business began here in Calif., some two months ago, and went unreported, swept under the rug until hospitals in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego began to scream that there were no beds for all the victims.

On June 12th I wrote an essay for this forum which linked a May 9th documented chemtrail "spraying" in San Jose with easily corroborated TV news coverage of a local hospital epidemic of a "pertussis-like" illness: Il lness Coincides with Spraying

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), January 13, 2000.

[ Fair Use For Education/Research Purposes Only ]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Health/meningitis140100.shtml

Massive rise in lethal form of meningitis

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, 14 January 2000

A lethal form of meningitis is growing rapidly in Britain and is poised to strike scores more victims as the flu outbreak peaks, doctors warned yesterday.

Meningococcal septicaemia, a form of blood poisoning caused by the same bacterium as meningitis, is up 21 per cent on a year ago according to figures obtained by The Independent, and is claiming over 150 new victims each month.

Septicaemia is the most lethal complication of meningitis and spreads through the bloodstream. Cases have risen threefold in five years and in the worst cases the infection causes rapid organ failure and death, sometimes in hours.

Experts say some of the increase is due to improved testing but consultant paediatricians are reporting a sharp rise in cases of children with septicaemia.

Meningitis tends to surge in the weeks after a flu outbreak because more people have inflamed throats as a result of their illness, providing a ready route for entry of the bacterium.

Latest flu figures published yesterday show the rate has risen to 203 cases per 100,000 population, above the normal winter level of 50 to 200 cases per 100,000.

Cases of meningitis and septicaemia, collectively known as meningococcal disease, reached their highest levels since the Second World War in 1998 but are continuing to soar. Provisional figures for 1999 from the Government's Public Health Laboratory Service show there were 2,973 notifications of the disease, up 12 per cent on 1998. Cases of septicaemia rose to 1,828, up by 319 cases (21 per cent) on 1998. In 1994 there were 430 cases of septicaemia.

Specialists in infectious disease say meningitis, which strikes the young and fit with unnerving speed and ferocity, has changed and become more virulent. The group c strain of the disease which is more common in older children and teenagers has been growing since the mid 1990s and has a higher death rate. Figures for deaths in 1999 are not available but in 1998 the group c strain claimed 210 lives.

A new vaccine against meningitis c was introduced on 1 November and it is planned to cover all 14 million of the population aged up to 18 by the end of 2000. Cases for this winter are already lower than last although experts are uncertain whether that is the effect of the vaccine or the natural cycle of the disease.

The Meningitis Research Foundation said the rise in cases of septicaemia was the most worrying development. A spokeswoman said: "If you ask any consultant who treats children in hospital the number of cases referred to them is hugely increased with a much greater frequency of septicaemia. There is better reporting but there is also a change in the disease."

Dr Mary Ramsay, consultant at the Public Health laboratory Service said: "There has been a nastier bug around for the last few years and there is no doubt there is more meningococcal disease. We keep waiting for it to peak and go away but it hasn't yet."

Professor Robert Booy, professor of child health at the Royal London Hospital, said: "We have had more patients with meningitis and septicaemia referred in the last two weeks than in the previous two months. It is part of the seasonal surge but flu will have contributed to that."

The UK has the second highest rate of meningococcal disease in the western world after the Republic of Ireland, but the reasons are not understood. The total cases in the UK are approximately equal to those in the US, a country with ten times the population.

* The Meningitis Research Foundation, in Thornbury, Bristol, has received a donation of #250,000 from Dyson makers of the vacuum cleaner, to fund research but is lacking worthwhile proposals from scientists to spend it on. A spokeswoman said: "We have never received a donation as large as this. There must be scientists desperate for funding whom we could help." Meningitis Research Foundation 0808 800 3344 (24 hou

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 13, 2000.