Many people think Influenza is just a seasonal nuisance. It is not just a nuisance . It is ONE OF THE WORST VIRAL INFECTIONS KNOWN TO MAN!
Even with modern Man's advanced medical technology, it kills over a million people world wide every year with over 200,000 birth defects and with over 35,000 deaths in the US alone! For some unfathomable reason it is not A REPORTING DISEASE as designated by the CDC. No accurate records are kept. The worldwide economy also loses over a TRILLION....that is a thousand BILLION dollars a year in unrealized productivity yearly.
If H5N1 mutates to become the next pandemic ( this has happened three times in the last hundred years ) it could destroy the entire world economy for years.
It remains one of the top ten causes of death in the United States. During an ordinary flu season in the USA, over 25% of the population is infected with ordinary type A Influenza in spite of Flu shots . That is in a good year. The shots are only 50% effective for Americans 50 or older and that is if the yearly vaccine components are accurately gauged against the prevalent strains coming from Asia. The chicken egg vaccine production is also outmoded and incapable of ramping up for any extraordinary Public Health threat such as human to human transmissible Avian Influenza like H5N1. This ancient vaccine formulation method developed about 50 years ago, depends on GUESSES by the epidemiologists and is composed of a cocktail of three or four dominant strains based on the viral coatings of these strains which change each year. If they guess wrong as has happened then there is minimal protection.
None of these Methods are applicable to N5N1 as Humans have no resistance to this new emerging disease.
H5N1 virus has over 52% mortality. It can become airborne and it is rapidly mutating to become the next worldwide PANDEMIIC. There is now a raging scientific/medical controversy whether in fact any of the anti viral medicines work against this killer virus.
1918 PANDEMIC
Avian flu struck in 1918 and wiped out over 50 million people in less than six months. This was the worst epidemic in human history and it happened in the 20th century. It was far worse than the BLACK DEATH in Europe. Sars has a mortality of about 10%, 1918 flu about 15%. H5N1 about 52%.
If it happens again as most epidemiologist say it will , we will be almost defenseless. WE ARE RIPE FOR ANOTHER PANDEMIC RIGHT NOW.
VIRULENT INFLUENZA MUTATIONS CAN KILL IN HOURS!
In 1918 a person could wake up feeling fine and be dead that evening and turning blue.
The Mask Controversy Prevention Is The Key!
The H5N1 Viral particle is spherical and from 50 to 180 nanometers in aerodynamic size. Millions are aerosolized in water droplets and deposited on surfaces or become airborne by coughing or sneezing, Evaporation in low humidity can reduce the active viral particle to below .5 microns in less than a fraction of a second which can easily get through leaky and ill fitted surgical and respiratory N95 masks
NIOSH Rated Disposable Respiratory Protection Masks. The N R or P series masks are all excellent respiratory protection if fitted properly and IF they maintain that fit.
Everyone has an individual facial structure, so universal fit is problematic and indeed NIOSH and the CDC is now developing standards to minimize TOTAL INWARD LEAKAGE AND TEST PERFORMANCE UPGRADES to address this ongoing problem.
Fit factor testing presently only addresses the leakage for a particular style shape or grade of mask and DOES NOT TEST the working, donned mask for actual protection on the job! Some leakage testing even done by the CDC reports leakage factors greater than 12% using N95 under real world conditions.
The N95 NIOSH tests actually GLUE the mask being tested to a test plate to prevent leakage during the test. In real world use only rubber bands are used to try to seal the mask to faces which are constantly breathing talking and using facial muscles that can dislodge any attempt at a viral seal.
ID 50 for Influenza H5N1 if it is like ordinary type A is less than 1,000 particles. This is the number estimated by scientists in which 50% of those susceptible will come down with the disease . It can easily be seen that a 12% mask penetration would not stop the virus from being inhaled by the mask user.