What Are the Symptoms of Bird Flu
5137
Disease & Illness > Bird Flu
Mar 1, 2007
Richard Stooker
What Are the Symptoms of Bird Flu
How can you know whether your or a loved one has bird flu or just a case of ordinary flu? That's not a simple question to answer.
Frankly, the only 100% way is to have body secretions tested by a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia. There are also such laboratories in Melbourne Australia and London England.
Obviously, they are not available to just any and every household and clinic with a flu patient. Right now there're probably overwhelmed with testing new and suspected cases in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.
If you have good reason to believe that you have been exposed to bird flu, then you should go right away to a clinic or hospital to be tested and get the care you'll need if your case becomes severe.
You have good reason to believe you have been exposed to bird flu if you live in or have travelled recently in SouthEast/South Asia, the Mid-East, Europe or Africa. Especially if you work with or around chickens or you have been around chickens. That is, to a chicken market or to a cock fight (where chicken blood and other fluids and sprayed through the air and onto the audience.) And also if you've eaten any undercooked chicken or eggs from those areas.
If you are in those areas and feeling very sick, get medical attention immediately even if you have not been exposed to chickens. You never know -- when bird flu becomes highly contagious, somebody is going to be the first victim to have no exposure to chickens. I hope it's not you, but I don't know that.
Right now, those of us who live in North or South America have no direct exposure to bird flu. But of course that will eventually change. And it's possible somebody could catch it from a migrating duck.
For example, near my apartment there's a small municipal park with a nice pond stocked with fish . . . and ducks love it! In nice weather hundreds of people especially children are exposed to ducks and their manure.
The difficult thing is that bird flu is, first of all, influenza. It infects the cells lining your respiratory tract and therefore causes symptoms that are much the same as ordinary flu:
Fatigue
Coughing
Sneezing
Muscle pain
High fever
Sore throat
Conjunctivitis -- pink eye
Bird flu can also cause:
Stomach ache
Vomiting - including blood
Severe headaches
Bone aches
Severe fatigue lasting longer than ordinary flu
Stuffy nose
Dizziness
Diarrhea
During the first one or two days, bird flu will look exactly like ordinary flu.
The big difference -- and danger -- from its development. Bird flu tends to cause much more severe breathing problems than ordinary flu, plus triggers a much more severe counteraction by your body's immune system.
This can result in a fever that's high enough to be dangerous in itself.
If you or your loved one develops a high fever and/or difficulty breathing, definately see a doctor as soon as possible. Or any of the other symptoms associated with just bird flu. Whether you've got bird flu or not, you need professional medical care.
Last November 2005, a biotech company in Singapore named Rockeby announced that they'd come up with a quick test for bird flu.
According to WHO, their test is not proven yet. You can get more information on it from searching Google for Rockeby.
WHO has said they are working on a standard test for bird flu, but that has not come out yet. Until it does, they say the only recognized tests for bird flu must be done by their laboratories.
And of course, my final piece of advice should be obvious.
When there's an all-out pandemic of contagious bird flu anywhere in the world and you start feeling sick with the flu -- assume it is bird flu.
Treat yourself or your loved one accordingly. Get professional medical care.
Even if bird flu has not been reported in your country or your area, assume you've got it. A pandemic of contagious bird flu will make people ill in new areas before you hear about them on the news.
Besides, while ordinary flu is not dangerous for ordinary adults, it still kills 30-50,000 Americans every year and tens of thousands more people around the world -- so it's still a serious disease.
Whether you have bird flu or ordinary flu, treat yourself well, get proper medical care -- and do not attempt to go to work or anyplace besides a doctor.
Whatever virus you've got, do us all a favor and don't spread it around.
Frankly, the only 100% way is to have body secretions tested by a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia. There are also such laboratories in Melbourne Australia and London England.
Obviously, they are not available to just any and every household and clinic with a flu patient. Right now there're probably overwhelmed with testing new and suspected cases in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.
If you have good reason to believe that you have been exposed to bird flu, then you should go right away to a clinic or hospital to be tested and get the care you'll need if your case becomes severe.
You have good reason to believe you have been exposed to bird flu if you live in or have travelled recently in SouthEast/South Asia, the Mid-East, Europe or Africa. Especially if you work with or around chickens or you have been around chickens. That is, to a chicken market or to a cock fight (where chicken blood and other fluids and sprayed through the air and onto the audience.) And also if you've eaten any undercooked chicken or eggs from those areas.
If you are in those areas and feeling very sick, get medical attention immediately even if you have not been exposed to chickens. You never know -- when bird flu becomes highly contagious, somebody is going to be the first victim to have no exposure to chickens. I hope it's not you, but I don't know that.
Right now, those of us who live in North or South America have no direct exposure to bird flu. But of course that will eventually change. And it's possible somebody could catch it from a migrating duck.
For example, near my apartment there's a small municipal park with a nice pond stocked with fish . . . and ducks love it! In nice weather hundreds of people especially children are exposed to ducks and their manure.
The difficult thing is that bird flu is, first of all, influenza. It infects the cells lining your respiratory tract and therefore causes symptoms that are much the same as ordinary flu:
Fatigue
Coughing
Sneezing
Muscle pain
High fever
Sore throat
Conjunctivitis -- pink eye
Bird flu can also cause:
Stomach ache
Vomiting - including blood
Severe headaches
Bone aches
Severe fatigue lasting longer than ordinary flu
Stuffy nose
Dizziness
Diarrhea
During the first one or two days, bird flu will look exactly like ordinary flu.
The big difference -- and danger -- from its development. Bird flu tends to cause much more severe breathing problems than ordinary flu, plus triggers a much more severe counteraction by your body's immune system.
This can result in a fever that's high enough to be dangerous in itself.
If you or your loved one develops a high fever and/or difficulty breathing, definately see a doctor as soon as possible. Or any of the other symptoms associated with just bird flu. Whether you've got bird flu or not, you need professional medical care.
Last November 2005, a biotech company in Singapore named Rockeby announced that they'd come up with a quick test for bird flu.
According to WHO, their test is not proven yet. You can get more information on it from searching Google for Rockeby.
WHO has said they are working on a standard test for bird flu, but that has not come out yet. Until it does, they say the only recognized tests for bird flu must be done by their laboratories.
And of course, my final piece of advice should be obvious.
When there's an all-out pandemic of contagious bird flu anywhere in the world and you start feeling sick with the flu -- assume it is bird flu.
Treat yourself or your loved one accordingly. Get professional medical care.
Even if bird flu has not been reported in your country or your area, assume you've got it. A pandemic of contagious bird flu will make people ill in new areas before you hear about them on the news.
Besides, while ordinary flu is not dangerous for ordinary adults, it still kills 30-50,000 Americans every year and tens of thousands more people around the world -- so it's still a serious disease.
Whether you have bird flu or ordinary flu, treat yourself well, get proper medical care -- and do not attempt to go to work or anyplace besides a doctor.
Whatever virus you've got, do us all a favor and don't spread it around.
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
c 2006 by Richard Stooker Richard discusses how to avoid bird flu in his book How to Protect Yourself and Your Family From Bird Flu -- And check out his Bird Flu Symptoms blog
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
Yes, sure chess is good for developing he abiliy o hink, o reason, o ponder, o calculae and analyze. Sure i develops he abiliy o read and remember. To look and hink ahead, o carefully reason ou and foresee he consequences of acions and
Category:
International travel has always had its special health challenges, but until recently most travelers were not afraid of anything worse than diarrhea. Bird flu's changed that. The bird flu H5N1 virus has now been found from
Category:
Here's a frightening fact regarding chess players: You know much more than you think -- yet you use far less than you know. What if you could play a game of chess using EVERYTHING you've ever learned? How many chess books
Category:
Bird flu won't stop terrorists, and a serious pandemic may encourage them to strike. Therefore, one more problem which policy makers in the world must watch out for is maintaining security. This will be hard enough when police, security
Category:
There've always been risks to hunting and fishing -- and smart hunters and fishers have always been aware of them and taken steps to minimize the risks. Just as you now practice gun safety, you must now be aware that there is new risk --
Category:
You see a lot of wild and crazy ates for this. Yet, the truth is, there's no simple answer. It depends on a lot of things -- and the most important factors are still unknown. First of all, I don't put any stock in the simplistic
Category:
To the best of our knowledge, the history of chess started out in Northern India about 1500 years ago, where it was called turanga. There're allegations that it actually started in China, perhaps as long as 3000 years ago. So perhaps
Category:
Is bird flu being spread more by migrating birds or by people transporting infected poultry? That's a question being debated by experts, and although it may not seem important, the answer makes a big difference in understanding how to stop
Category:
Bobby Fischer ate meat, cheese, hardboiled eggs and herring. Drank ice water, tomato juice and cola. Boris Spassky ate sandwiches and drank coffee and orange juice. Therefore, during their epic World Championship Chess
Category:
This article is for chess players who want to use their brains and knowledge at peak levels, to win more games, matches and tournaments. Therefore, you don't have to worry that I want you to find satori, enter nirvana, learn to levitate or
Category:
With current vaccine technology a vaccine cannot save us from a pandemic of contagious bird flu. Although criticized as fearmongering, the ABC made for TV movie First Contact: Bird Flu in America was overly optimistic. Neither us nor the
Category:
To prevent consumer fears, Kentucky Fried Chicken has started putting stickers on all their containers in the U.S. guaranteeing that their fried chicken is "rigorously inspected, thoroughly cooked, quality assured." From China to
Category:
Somewhere in Southeast Asia (or Africa, the MidEast, Europe etc) . . . A hen clucks and shifts around in her perch. She sniffs and sneezes. Inside the lining of her respiratory tract and lungs, millions of influenza viruses
Category:
There's a new and so far lile-known way o cach bird flu. By waer. One major oubreak of bird flu among wild birds occurred in he middle of 2005 around Qinghai Lake, in China. Recenly, wild birds in ha area have again
Category:
For years, world class chess players have prepared for important tournaments by exercising. But few chess players do so in an optimum way. Serious chess players are certainly very intellectual, and not inclined to keep up a regular regimen
Category:
On the face of it, the answer is obviously yes. Except for the brief period when Bobby Fischer held the title, the World Championship was in the hands of Soviet players from the first tournament following the end of World War 2 until the collapse of the
Category:
Your prospect is actively hiding from you. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when choosing a copywriter is to hire one the same way you'd pick a champion archer. In archery, you should look for the bowman with the
Category:
If you want to trust you and your family's health to the government -- you deserve what happens to you. The United States Homeland Security Council in early May 2006 released a 233 page report called the Strategy for Pandemic Influenza
Category:
If nothing else, the bird flu scare should remind us not to take our immune systems for granted. According to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, it'll take 6 months after a contagious strain of bird flu is
Category:
Your ain needs oxygen -- and lots of it. Your ain uses up 20% of all the oxygen you eathe in. To play your best game of chess, you need lots of oxygen freely flowing to your ain. 40% of your body's energy is burned in your
Category:
Other links at Disease & Illness > Bird Flu
If nothing else, the bird flu scare should remind us not to take our immune systems for granted. According to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, it'll take 6 months after a contagious strain of bird flu is
Category:
Why? During a bird pandemic you d remain as isolated from everybody outside your family as possible. Therefore, you d shop only for necessities: food, water, fuel and medicine. Where? Therefore, you
Category:
The results of a government-funded study show that very high doses of an avian influenza vaccine, supplied by Sanofi-Aventis, are needed to produce an immune response that should guard against the virus. 54% of the volunteers received two shots of 90
Category:
Is bird flu being spread more by migrating birds or by people transporting infected poultry? That's a question being debated by experts, and although it may not seem important, the answer makes a big difference in understanding how to stop
Category:
Recently, Utah's epidemiologist, Dr. Robert Rolfs, jected his entire state with a heavy dose of complacency and told them not to worry about bird flu. He said, "Avian fluenza means bird fluenza. It's a problem for birds right now
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68252
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
