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Pitsel Pandemic News (02|13|09)

We Don't Make This Stuff Up

Keeping a weather eye on tracking H5N1 information has its moments. A good sense of humour is often rewarded (required?) when reading some of the blogs and news feeds.

The following is an example of a recent report. Your guess is as good as mine.

"Once returned to the part after inland slaughtering live chicken's woman continues to have a fever, passes along the prestige courtyard inspection. (O.K., our guess here it's the triage area of the hospital.) The bird flu kills to buries the body, resident also Cheng Jinggong the bird. Had after the day before yesterday has a fever the symptom woman to worry the infection bird flu needed to send to hospital, continue to have a fever, suspected that oneself infected the bird flu to arrive at the Ma'anshan health center to treat voluntarily, and passed along the Shatin Wells Hospital to isolate the observation, delivered Dabu with the day before yesterday that dozen of element hospital female to be the same family, confirmed that the false alarm, two person of yesterday confirmed assumed the negative reaction to the bird flu fast test."

We are guessing it to say that a woman from Cheng Jinggong, after exposure to where live birds were being culled, presented herself at hospital with flu-like symptoms. She was transferred to another hospital for observation and isolation. A test for bird flu confirmed that was not the cause of her illness.

Pitsel Pandemic News does not (normally) report guess, conjecture, gossip, nor from sources which attempt to sell you something. This newsletter attempts to present the latest reports in a realistic, reasoned and balanced way. Many times we have cautioned against the two extremes of panic, and disregard. We always advocate that preparation is prudent. It's a lot like life insurance, car insurance, fire insurance, etc. You hope to goodness you won't have to use it. Nobody really believes they're going to need it. But, it's a solid idea to have that protection.

The following report comes from several of the reliable news feeds that we follow, and from one in particular we have confidence in to be informed medically and politically, and which avoids alarmist views.

In Tokyo the head office of Panasonic Corp., the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, has ordered all Japanese employees in some foreign countries to send their families home to Japan in preparation for a possible bird flu pandemic. (We would like to add here, that all cautionary blogs refer to it as a "possible" bird flu pandemic. We see that much like "alleged" when describing criminal activity. The facts are there. The evidence is there. What's alleged about it. Back to the news.)

Family members of Japanese employees in parts of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, former Soviet states, and Latin America will fly back to Japan by the end of September, 2009.

Our comment here is to underline the time line. This not a panic reaction but a measured withdrawal. This tells us that this instruction which was issued in December is only now, two months later, reaching the media. It is obviously a part of long-range planning. Once an announcement is made of a pandemic outbreak it would be very difficult at that time to repatriate large numbers of families back to Japan.

The firm decided to take the rare measure, "well ahead of possible confusion at the outbreak of a global pandemic," said Panasonic spokesman Akira Kadota. Eight people have contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in China alone since the beginning of January, five of whom died.

"Once an infection between human beings is reported, things can get chaotic with many other companies trying to bring back their employees," Kadota said. "We want to take action early before it gets difficult to book flight tickets."

The company did not say how many family members would return to Japan. Employees and their families in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will not be affected.

Meanwhile, China is denying that an analysis of bird-flu infected patients in the mainland shows human-to-human contagion, despite different conclusions being drawn by others.

Kadota continued by saying, "This is part of our preparations for a new type of influenza. We chose areas after considering the prevalence of bird flu, and the capability of medical facilities and access to them."

It will be interesting to see if other large multinationals follow this example.

This newsletter also reminds you that this is WEEK #4 of the Preparation Challenge. This includes latex gloves, several boxes of borax (or preferred household and laundry disinfectant), anti-bacterial wipes, bell or whistle to patient to get attention, and a listing of emergency phone numbers in your area, including Alberta Health Link 1-866-408-LINK, kept in a convenient place along with contact numbers of friends, neighbours and relatives.

Stay well. Take care.

© 2009, Pitsel and Associates Ltd.
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