Bird Flu too close to home.....

[Wildcard]

There is a guy I work with from time to time who calls Thailand home. He just went back about two weks ago just in time to have his wife die of bird flu. She has been ill for several months now and it was confirmed to be the bird flu but I don't know which strain. He says the whole village is sick with the same thing....Now he's back in Hawaii.
I know it's not transmitable from human to human , yet, but still, I have to question why he was allowed to reenter the US after this? It would seen some caution is in order. I sure hope we can get a handle on this thing soon.

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

Scary stuff!

I agree with you. It seems that right now we're acting as though no one should be inconvenienced or have their right to travel around curtailed at all. Once it becomes transmissible between people, it will be way too late to try to contain it. I think caution is in order too. I'm no doctor, but it does seem like a strain that has migrated from bird to human should be contained and isolated whenever possible.

At the very least, keep Hawaii safe from this thing! If there's one place that it might actually be feasible to isolate from bird flu, it's Hawaii. Maybe that would convince my wife to let us move to Kona

Gregg

 

[Wildcard]

With all the asian visitors we have here, Hawaii is expected to be the first place in the US to be hit.

 

[AquaPixie]

If there's one place that it might actually be feasible to isolate from bird flu, it's Hawaii.

I disagree with that statement - I would think that with all of the international vistors you have to HI it would be very difficult to prevent it from showing up there - sad to say

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

<quote> If there's one place that it might actually be feasible to isolate from bird flu, it's Hawaii. </quote>

I disagree with that statement - I would think that with all of the international vistors you have to HI it would be very difficult to prevent it from showing up there - sad to say

Yes, if you aren't willing to curtail travel at all, and simply let people travel from heavily infected areas to wherever they want to go, HI will definitely get hit. But as Wildcard pointed out, and I agree, there should be some effort to limit the ability of the flu to travel around.

My statement was more about the geographical isolation of Hawaii. If efforts *were* made to limit travel to/from infected areas, Hawaii, as one of the most isolated landmasses on Earth, seems very defensible...I mean after all, there's no rabies there, right? I don't think you have the naturally occuring vectors such as migratory birds that are bringing the bird flu into Europe. It's strictly a problem of allowing infected people to enter Hawaii that endangers the islands.

Gregg

 

[Wildcard]

Ahh, but we do have migratory birds here. Not a lot but some and every bird that is here got here somehow ya know?

 

[justleesa]

from what I have heard as soon as it should be detected here on the islands - we'll be closed down....what ever that may mean...

 

[chepar]

With all the asian visitors we have here, Hawaii is expected to be the first place in the US to be hit.

That's what I've been thinking.

Anyway, this whole bird flu thing has me wondering whether it's being paranoid to be rather concerned about this. On one hand, you have people saying that the media is blowing this out of proportion - and on the other hand, I've read talking head commentary from medical professionals who indicate that we should be very concerned.

FWIW, I don't recall being concerned at all about SARS. Something about these avian flu reports has got me nervous, though.

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

Ahh, but we do have migratory birds here. Not a lot but some and every bird that is here got here somehow ya know?

Are they migratory, though? In the sense that Canadian Geese follow the same migratory path every year?

My understanding was that the native birds in Hawaii were stray species blown off course and sort of one-in-a-million chance survivors that arrived at the islands slowly over long periods of time, and then, once there, they evolved along their own paths. That's why so many of Hawaii's native birds are so helpless against predators that are common elsewhere.

So, are there actual migratory birds in Hawaii that arrive there every year from somewhere else? I'm curious.

 

[Snowbear]

With all the asian visitors we have here, Hawaii is expected to be the first place in the US to be hit.

As a major stopover for Asian flights, Anchoragites are pretty jumpy as well.
But like justLeesa alluded to - the response will be reactionary...