Monday, October 24, 2005

The Bird Flu Pandemic II

Odd thoughts on what to do if it goes ballistic.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the current threat with respect to Bird Flu, as it is reported today, is a dramatic rise in the price of chicken. We’ll have to kill off chickens like never before in order to contain a localized outbreak. In light of the current industrial process of raising the birds, this means whole industrial plants will be purged of all birds. The resulting lack of product will drive the price of bird flesh trough the proverbial roof.

On the other hand, there are other aspects as well. The human ones.

Most people who have come down with the disease, to date, have contracted it from close contact with birds infected with virus. As the bird form of the disease seems to reside in the digestive tract, the most common way for humans to contract it would appear to be through one of two vectors.

The first vector would be to ingest viable virons by failing to properly wash oneself after coming in contact with the droppings from infected birds. Bird handlers who fail to wash their hands and face after dealing with sick birds would seem to be the most likely scenario. This would result in the stomach flu version of the disease. We’ve all heard of, and some of us have experienced stomach flu ourselves.

The second vector would be through inhaling the dust from dried droppings from infected birds. This isn’t hard to understand. People who work among infected birds would likely stir up a lot of dust from walking around in dried bird droppings. Such matter is stepped on and becomes dust. Kicking such dust up gets it into the air of the workplace and is, without adequate breathmasks, inhaled. This would result in the pneumonic form, which attacks the lungs.

I’ve got an old house, here. It has many place on it’s various roofs that the pigeons really like to build nests in. Here and there, around the house, I see their presence by a pile of mixed twigs and droppings. Even now, as I type this while smoking a fine cigar and enjoying a good bourbon in the afternoon on my back deck with a small fire going in the firepit, I can hear the youngsters up above complaining of the smoke while their parent try to calm them with constant, comforting ‘growls’. I’m certain that the moment I hear of Bird Flu in the United States, that I’ll have to eliminate all the nests on the house.

The fact of the matter is that there is no need for me to run the risk of infection to myself or my family, not to mention the neighbors.

My fallback position is to be prepared to cope with the illness.

Modern allopathic medicine—think AMA—has no effective response to a viral infection. However, there is a chance using homeopathic techniques.

Over the last 20, or so, years, I’ve found homeopathy to be an effective means of coping with viral infections. One particular event stands out in my memory.

While employed by USWEST, the distaff and I attended a holiday party for our group. About 100 of us were there. Two days later I came down with a horrible bout of stomach flu. A day or so later, the distaff came down with it too. I found out later that almost half of the attendees of the affair also had the bug. Apparently someone in the kitchen was (1) infected and (2) failed to practice proper hygiene, i.e., came in to make a buck at work instead of doing the right thing and staying home. Either that or the food was badly tainted from the get-go. It’s a something of a toss-up, but considering the extent of the infection’s spread, tainted food could be the more likely candidate. The possible counter being any incidence of a food worker in the restaurant industry who, being infected with hepetitis, spread it to all the patrons.

It was a bad business. I felt like I could almost die. So I dug out the tomes on materia media; specifically Boericke’s book. After considerable study, which I was NOT in the mood for, I came upon a materia medica that came fairly close, but not exactly a match, for the symptoms I was experiencing. I took the medicine and the gross symptoms were reduced significantly. The distaff, who could hardly move out of bed, took some too. Her symptoms, too, did not completely disappear but were dramatically reduced in their severity. The next day we were both recovering; having given our bodies a ‘clue’ as to what they were up against.

Doing research on the web, in anticipation of any major attack on humans, discovered some comments that Sambucus niger, Elderberry, was a possible recourse to the human form of this ailment. I don’t have any of this materia medica on hand at the moment. I’ll probably get some.

After all, $7 isn’t too much to spend on a possible cure to a deadly infection.

Note: An interesting point here. I called the State Department of Public heath and alerted them to the occurrence. They blew me off. A couple of days later, it was reported that a woman in Denver had died of a bad case of stomach flu. Therefore, I don’t put much confidence in the State’s Department of Public Health to be of much help in the early stages of a serious outbreak of any deadly disease. I suspect a reluctance to alert the public for fear of spreading fear. However, it will be important in early stopping of the spread. As a result of such reluctance, I am concerned that too many people will continue to want to ‘earn a buck’ and go into work despite feeling very bad. And thus they would spread the disease, whatever it is. Much to the detriment of everyone else.

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