 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / General / General / December 2005Respirators, should bird flu become pandemic
NOVA, PBS recently documented the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed what? If I remember correctly killed 40 million worldwide?? Or was that 140 million?? Anyway, it should people in 1918 going around with respirators of nothing more than cloth masks. Some of the respirators I have here say they filter organic vapors. But my big question is do they filter viruses? Has our modern day respirator evolved to the point where if we had a repeat of the 1918 pandemic that we can feel confident that by wearing a respirator that the virus will not enter our lungs. So can some update us on whether our technology of respirators is sufficient. For I would think that the very best tool against a bird flu pandemic is not vaccines nor medicines, but physical objects such as respirators. And another feature that should be investigated is whether there is a viricide that can be packed into a respirator so that if a virus particle comes in contact with the viricide it kills the virus. Archimedes Plutonium www.iw.net/~a_plutonium whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies > Anyway, it should people in 1918 going around with respirators of > nothing more than cloth masks. Advances in respirator manufacturing and chemistry may well be unnecessary. Human viruses aren't like Tobacco Mosaic Virus or bacteriophage. They rely on riding along on atomized human body fluids to keep themselves intact -- they die rapidly when dried. Any old cloth mask will protect you from something someone coughs or sneezes up. There are of course other transmission methods, touching contaminated surfaces then touching your own mucus membranes, exposure to contaminated chicken, etc. For thousands of years, humans have had the simplest of technologies for preventing pandemics. Isolate the disease. You'd expect with our advances in communication to be our biggest advantage -- your biggest fan, Uncle Al, will probably have a more through assessment on that subject, puctuated with one the latest performance of Bush the Lesser in dealing with recent natural disasters. Someone wrote: Advances in respirator manufacturing and chemistry may well be unnecessary. Human viruses aren't like Tobacco Mosaic Virus or bacteriophage. They rely on riding along on atomized human body fluids to keep themselves intact -- they die rapidly when dried. Any old cloth mask will protect you from something someone coughs or sneezes up. There are of course other transmission methods, touching contaminated surfaces then touching your own mucus membranes, exposure to contaminated chicken, etc. A.P. writes: Thanks for that information. It would suggest that states like Arizona or Nevada that are dry had less of the flu pandemic of 1918. But I do recall that Kansas started off the flu pandemic of 1918 and Kansas is sort of dry. I am saying that dry states should have less frequency of a viral pandemic if moisture is so crucial to a virus life. So what would be the best RESPIRATOR deviced by our National Institute of Health should this bird flu pandemic start? If our govt is at all serious about bird flu, the first thing they should be teaching is what type of Respiratory should everyone possess if it become a pandemic reality. Archimedes Plutonium www.iw.net/~a_plutonium whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies > If our govt is at all serious about bird flu, the first thing they > should be teaching is what type of Respiratory should everyone possess [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > whole entire Universe is just one big atom > where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies If you go to your local emergency room, I'm sure you'll find masks left out just for people to use. This was the case last winter. Remember? With the dreaded, killer, SARS ripping through the US population? Here's a sample of the dialog I overheard when I was in the waiting room: Nurse: "Little girl, why are you wearing a mask?" silence Nurse: "Are you just playing?" Child: "Yeah" Nurse: "Please don't wear those if you don't have a reason, you're going to scare people." > > If our govt is at all serious about bird flu, the first thing they > > should be teaching is what type of Respiratory should everyone possess [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Nurse: "Please don't wear those if you don't have a reason, you're > going to scare people." Well I think the probability that this bird flu will reach pandemic proportions as to the 1918 flu is less than 1/2. I would say it is about a 25% chance, and I have nothing to back up that statement except that pandemics are rare in history, so to think that we would have 2 flu epidemics within a span of 100 years is rather rare. I do not know if they kept adequate records of the bubonic plague and whether it resurfaced after about a 100 year hiatus. But anyway, what I am driving at in the above is that we should have the world educated about respirators in case bird flu does become epidemic or if say smallpox resurfaced or some other virus creating a pandemic. Whilst we have no pandemic in 2005, we should be educated and well informed of what respirators will work should a pandemic surface. Do it now whilst there is calm and able to experiment and get the message out. Do not do it after we are in a full blown pandemic because there will be tons of quack-respirators where people don them and they do not work. So find out what works and works very well and easy and comfortable. And then even have practice sessions with them so in the event of a real pandemic that the general public has a great first line of defense against contracting the disease. Have the NIH experiment and test various respirators and then inform us on how they work, maintenance, and how to use. So if the USA or England is serious about bird flu, have the scientists inform and educate the public about respirators, because if this bird flu goes pandemic, everyone is going to don some mask protector and by that time it is too late to do this education. Archimedes Plutonium www.iw.net/~a_plutonium whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies [snip] >Well I think the probability that this bird flu will reach pandemic >proportions as to the 1918 flu is less than 1/2. I would say it is [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >if they kept adequate records of the bubonic plague and whether it >resurfaced after about a 100 year hiatus. It may be that the progress of Bird Flu into the African jungle region will be the break-away point. There would be little chance of containing it by destroying the birds that show symptoms, and there are animals such as the hippopotamus that can be infected with human flu and bird flu at the same time. This provides an enhanced means for mixing the virus genetic materials between the two strains, resulting in a human virus that couldn have some of the bird flu strain's lethal traits. Migratory birds do move from Asia to Africa. It seems it is just a matter of time before some of them manage to carry Bird Flu to the African wild birds...then what??? Per a_plutonium@hotmail.com: >But my big question is do they filter viruses? Do they have to, or is filtering airborne saliva droplets sufficient? Maybe somebody who knows can comment.  SignaturePeteCresswell > Per a_plutonium@hotmail.com: > >But my big question is do they filter viruses? [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > -- > PeteCresswell Well, it maybe the case that these viruses enter through the eyes and that a respirator without eyegoggles are insufficient. And it maybe the case that these viruses can enter via the ears. Worst yet, maybe they can enter via the skin. So maybe any protection is merely cosmetic. So we need to know, scientifically, what can protect. Perhaps the wearing of cloth in hospitals during the 1918 pandemic was not to protect oneself from catching the virus but was aimed at reducing the virus from airborne by people already infected. To catch their saliva so that it does not fill the air around them with viral particles. All of this needs to be experimented and educate the public about this matter. Archimedes Plutonium www.iw.net/~a_plutonium whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies We use PAPRs when we're collecting blood and tissues from animals that might be infected with little nasties: http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/safety/occ_health_safety/node_GSBTBFS23 Jbe/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_5SDD44F7DZge/gvel_WRBPCLK8SWgl/theme_us_ohes_3_0/com mand_AbcPageHandler/output_html >NOVA, PBS recently documented the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed what? >If I remember correctly killed 40 million worldwide?? Or was that 140 [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] >whole entire Universe is just one big atom >where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies One advantage of wearing a respirator, even a crude one made from a piece of old cloth is that they will help keep you from inadvertently brushing your fingers across your lips and nose. Per Gordon: >One advantage of wearing a respirator, even a crude one made from >a piece of old cloth is that they will help keep you from >inadvertently brushing your fingers across your lips and nose. I think that's a big advantage for somebody like me, who frequently touches their face. Bad habit, I know - but I can't seem to break myself of it. Just nervous, I guess. When my late brother was in med school, he knew guys who washed out of surgery residencies because they couldn't stop touching their face. SignaturePeteCresswell |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.