I thought I might have heard geese earlier this week, but definitely today a large V of what sounded like white-front geese flew over. Probably looking for a melted spot of snow to land; summer visitors but it still barely gets (up) to freezing.
April 30, 2006
from the Detroit Free Press editors
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20060430/OPINION01/604300306/1069
…
Don’t panic. But do pay attention. Bird flu may never transform into a human-borne illness, let alone a worldwide pandemic — but if it does, knowledge and preparation will make the difference between hard times and outright catastrophe.…But bird flu has the world’s attention, because it has had a 55% mortality rate. It is “a very impressive disease,” Eden Wells, Michigan’s influenza epidemiologist, said last week.
The toll on birds has been phenomenal — 200 million killed, the United Nations estimates. Since the start of the year, the virus has spread to birds in 30 more countries, from a count of 15 at the end of 2005. It is a question of when, not if, migrating birds will carry it to North America.
So this is a threat well worth preparing for. Even if this strain of bird flu, H5N1, never transforms so it can spread from human to human, someday some virus will. Many health experts suggest a global pandemic is overdue. Just imagine coping with:
# 40% absenteeism rates. This is based on 25% of workers getting sick — comparable to the rate in the 1918 flu pandemic — and another 15% staying home to care for ill family members or just too scared to leave the house….
The state needs to get more insistent that local health and safety officials pull their plans together, with broad networking among businesses, schools and community organizations as well. People should know so much about bird flu plans that they’re bored with all the talk, but ready for the changes a pandemic would entail. Better to be sick of preparing than unprepared for sickness.
Several years ago I ran across http://www.indo.com/distance/ which computes the distance quickly between any two points on earth. I looked for a long time to find something similar to get the great circle distances. I stumbled across great circle maps when a lecturer at the Univ of Auckland. It was amazing to me (and especially to my college students) just how far away “home” (the UK) was and how close “exotic” places were (Indonesia, Asia, Antarctica). It also turned out that the other side of the world from Wellington NZ was Madrid Spain.
Anyway–I finally located this site. It doesn’t work by listing everything within a certain radius, but at least one can draw a radius and see what is nearby.
400 and 1000 miles from Bethel. Where else in the US can one be a 1000 miles from the nearest state capitol?
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/index.html
GPS Visualizer is a free, easy-to-use online utility that creates maps and profiles from GPS data (tracks and waypoints), street addresses, or simple coordinates. Use it to see where you’ve been, plan where you’re going, or visualize geographic data (business locations, events, customers, real estate, etc.).
Distance between Bethel, Alaska, United States and Juneau, Alaska, United States, as the crow flies:
977 miles (1572 km) (849 nautical miles)
Initial heading from Bethel to Juneau: east (87.5 degrees)
Initial heading from Juneau to Bethel: west-northwest (291.4 degrees)
http://www.indo.com/distance/
The State of Influenza
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/312/5772/379
The rapid spread of H5N1 avian influenza has raised global concern about the prospect of a human influenza pandemic, and preparing for such a crisis poses a great challenge to both scientists and policy makers. In a special section of the 21 Apr 2006 issue, Science examined the current picture of influenza, including News reports on antivirals and vaccines, Review and Perspective articles on flu transmission and prevention, and an Editorial underscoring the need for faster and more robust tests to diagnose infection. Three new research papers looked at how seasonal flu epidemics spread and how aspects of H5N1 virus biology may contribute to infection and transmissibility. A special online portal ( http://www.sciencemag.org/marketing/influenza/ ) offered access to previous Science articles that provide additional perspective on the flu crisis, as well as three articles from the Science Classic archive dating from 1918 and 1919 that provide contemporary thoughts on the great 1918 flu pandemic. Finally, a special podcast devoted to influenza featured interviews with Science News writers and scientists on topics related to the special section ( http://www.sciencemag.org/about/podcast.dtl ).
I believe that most articles will be publicly (non-member) accessible.
I put this list together for the USDA Natural Resources & Conservation Service in 2002. It is a listing of references I recommend to communities and other professionals concerned with public involvement. This isn’t a comprehensive (nor especially up to date) listing of references but includes books and websites I have found to be especially useful for myself and others. Books are listed first, then websites. The Internet sites also have training available. The FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) course is very good.
Public involvement, as a public governance process, has evolved within the highway and risk (environmental health) contexts especially as a requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, much of the fundamental research developed within applied anthropology, usually within a health, appropriate technology, or nutrition context. “Expert systems” and now “accessibility” re: WWW sites, are other areas to look to for additional information.
I’ve put asterisks next to names in the risk communication field who will have other articles and books. The titles in BOLD are especially useful to communities. Too often when an institution or agency speaks about “stakeholders” they mean they hold the stake while the community is the recipient.
Read the rest of this entry »
A commentary about Katrina’s “planning” but which is relevant for anyone’s preparedness.
—re: dee Martinez (Submitted: 09/04/2005 10:51 am
and evacuation “plans” and no one could know the levees would break etc.—
Last week I lost a Santa Fé friend. In the 1980s, the Republicans were planning evacuation strategies in case of nuclear attacks. I was at Los Alamos National Lab trying to get the off-site academics, i.e., anthropologists, who were most able to answer the holistic question “what would Nuclear Winter mean to humans” [not people as “patients” or as “soldiers” buit as real people] interested in answering that question. ( Anthropology of Human Survival)
My friend took a detailed look closer to home. According to FEMA (or whatever it was then) the idea was that the folks from Albuquerque would drive up to SFé. Once here (there) they would stay at St Kat’s Indian School, in the room with all the plate glass windows. Three times a day everyone would walk down and back through the fallout to McDonald’s for feeding.
Pete Dyke mapped out each inch and square inch of this “plan” and brought it to everyone’s attention. Among other things, it turns out the evacuation plan allowed a total space smaller than a single bed for each person.
The city ended up not approving the so-called evacuation plan. This is not to say that there shouldn’t be evacuation and emergency plans; but that every one of these plans needs detailed scrutiny from citizens like Pete. There aren’t many like Pete, and now there is one fewer.
I hope students would be able to do a detailed critical study of the science in this TV drama, and to discuss this with their families. Dramatic presentations of issues can be very effective, but as with any other information source, a critical eye is needed.
There are websites, such as the bad physics site, which point out the often humorous errors in TV and movies.
http://www.jal.cc.il.us/~mikolajsawicki/bad_physics.htm http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/BadScience.html
Pam
Bird flu hitting TV screens May 9
ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press
Posted on Fri, Apr. 28, 2006
WASHINGTON - Bodies piling up so quickly it takes dump trucks to haul them away. Barbed wire to keep whole neighborhoods quarantined. It’s Hollywood’s version of bird flu, a blur of fact and fiction that some scientists say could confuse the public.
“Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America,” an ABC made-for-television movie, airs May 9, just as scientists are to begin testing of wild birds in Alaska that could herald the arrival of bird flu in North America. …
Thought experiments (which I think was Einstein’s term) or models or exercises — are very important to science and to planning. Unfortunately, we have not had public discussions in our region. In San Jose agencies had this discussion but they don’t seem to have involved the public, too. (Maybe people have been discussing in the newspapers or churches?) Many of us haven’t faced the moral dilemmas that even firefighters or first aiders are trained for. Individuals have certainly asked themselves, “what if….?” whether about false rumors or spring flooding or an infected person. But in remote areas it would be so much better if we thought about contingencies as a community.
Pam
Forum Debate Rights in a Pandemic
from San Jose Mercury NewsHere’s how a worldwide flu epidemic might start:
A sales manager for a multinational corporation returns to his California office from a business trip to Vietnam, feeling sick.
Within days this otherwise healthy man is near death. Other employees come down with a flu-like illness. A cleaning woman dies.
Tests show he has infected his co-workers with a form of bird flu that originated in Asia. Public health officials fear the worst: an outbreak of deadly pandemic flu.
What responsibility does the multinational corporation have to its workers? Can public health officials make residents stay in their homes to prevent the spread of disease? Can the government commandeer a local doctor’s supply of Tamiflu for people who need it most, or force nurses to be vaccinated? What if frightened nurses refuse to work?
This comes from a news release, not a refereed (peer reviewed) article. The points made have been made elsewhere–
However, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/) is a key research source on birds. They have tracked the movements and population flucuations of birds for decades. I think their opinions should be carefully evaluated.
Pam
April 26, 2006
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April06/H5N1migration.ksr.html
Migratory birds are unlikely to infect humans or poultry in U.S. with deadly avian flu, say Cornell bird experts….
Read the rest of this entry »
This is the translation into English of the interagency flyer (A Few Facts about Avian Influenza in Alaska, a.k.a. Avian Influenza "Bird Flu" Facts
http://ykalaska.uniblogs.org/2006/03/21/ a-few-facts-about-avian-influenza-in-alaska/
The flyer itself is in a pdf file, but this linked photo may still be readable and easier to email. (Let me know, please.) The links to the original pdf files on the state website are currently broken.
This is the newly released translation into Yup'ik of the interagency flyer (A Few Facts about Avian Influenza in Alaska - http://ykalaska.uniblogs.org/2006/03/21/ a-few-facts-about-avian-influenza-in-alaska/)
The flyer itself is in a pdf file, but this linked photo may still be readable and easier to email. (Let me know, please.)
Technorati Tags: H5N1, bird flu, Yup’ik, Bethel Alaska, Kuskokwim
"This SeaWiFS view of Alaska (upper right) and the Bering Sea (center), collected on April 13, 2002, reveals an unmistakable wave of dust (brownish pixels) traveling southward along Alaska’s western coastline and over the Aleutian Island chain. The dust, probably from East Asia, is easily distinguished from the bright white clouds (lower left) and the snow and ice covered surfaces on and around Alaska."
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=2645
I think it is useful to put the possibility of the next pandemic in the social and medical contexts of previous pandemics. (The last pandemic was 1968. But 1986-87 was a vicious seasonal flu in some parts of the country.)
This first reference is from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) archives. The news stories are really interesting. The one I mentioned below conveys some of the feeling of people at the time of the last pandemic. The files (radio or TV) are also small enough to download and play on a dial-up line.
Read the rest of this entry »
These are cross-correlated with various primary and secondary school standards.
Wednesday, March 17, 1999
Author(s) Alison Zimbalist, The New York Times Learning NetworkGrades: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Global History, Health, Language Arts, Science
Interdisciplinary ConnectionsOverview of Lesson Plan: Students research various epidemics that have devastated the world population at different points in history, focusing on the historical events taking place during the times of the epidemics and the epidemics’ effects on these societies. Each student then imagines that he or she is living during the time of the outbreak of the epidemic researched in class and writes diary entries discussing how the epidemic is affecting his or her life and various aspects of society.
Review the Academic Content Standards related to this lesson.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/19990317wednesday.html
These case studies are interactive exercises developed to teach epidemiologic principles and practices. They are based on real-life outbreaks and public health problems and were developed in collaboration with the original investigators and experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The case studies require students to apply their epidemiologic knowledge and skills to problems confronted by public health practitioners at the local, state, and national level every day.
Two types of epidemiologic case studies are available. The computer-based case studies can be used as self-study and in the classroom setting. The classroom case studies are primarily for use in a group setting with a knowledgeable instructor.
http://www2a.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/default.htm
The case study on botulism would be relevant to our region. Case studies in some ways are similar to CSI TV series, students have to do realistic analysis and interpretation. (well, CSI aren’t always that realistic).
Botulism in Argentina -
http://www2a.cdc.gov/epicasestudies/ computerbased/botarg.htm
Washing hands if done properly is one of the most important things anyone can do to avoid infectious diseases, toxics poisoning, and other means of injuring one’s self and others. Although handwashing is such an important tool in community protection, it is easily learned by the youngest members of society. However, like all safety measures and skills, it takes practice. Too often adults forget how important handwashing is and frequently shirk it.
In the field or at camp or where clean water is scarce, handwashing takes a little more planning. This is also the case when going to the store, riding in a cab, visiting the hospital clinics, or handling cash at a bank. Hand sanitizers can be an effective addition to handwashing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Planning can help avoid mistakes. Planning can help visualize the event. Planning can bring together people who will need to know each other during a pandemic. The more people involved the better. A strong argument for public participation and planning at the local level.
It’s not the plan, it’s the planning.
Read the rest here
http://effectmeasure.blogspot.com/2006/04/not-plan-but-planning.html
Effect Measure is one of the web logs (blogs) that I track about H5N1. This comment about an article in the Wall Street Journal is a succinct summary of why “We have a plan” is a statement that we shouldn’t rely upon, but “We are planning” is.
I highly recommend people interested in the broader area of health, culture, and environment to read McElroy, Ann, and Patricia K. Townsend, 2004 Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective, 4th edition, Westview Press. Dr. McElroy has worked with the Inuit, Read the rest of this entry »
Masks are frequently the first things we think of when hearing about infections or bank robbers. A mask can also be a dance or used in theatre.
But within the context of health and safety, protective masks fall within two groupings- breathing out and breathing in.
Breathing out
“Surgical Masks” are used to prevent the spread of exhaled germs. These masks help keep you from infecting others by breathing or speaking onto people. These are often the masks one sees on TV shows such as ER or in news photos about the SARS illnesses in China. In other cultures, using surgical masks is a polite way to prevent the spread of seasonal flu and colds in public places. Sneezing or coughing into a tissue (such as Kleenix® ) serves a similar purpose.
Breathing in
“Respirators” are specialized masks to prevent inhalation of particulates. They must meet certain standards to be called respirators. In the US, respirators must be “NIOSH-approved” (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health). A quick guide to respirators is included in the Pamphlet-Pueblo Crafts & Healthy Lungs
⇒ It is easy to give one’s self a false sense of security by wearing a bandanna or a dust mask instead of a NIOSH-approved respirator. Your health can be damaged as a result of using the wrong type. ⇐
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/OC/avianinfluenza.html
This website is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.
The Ornithological Council recognizes the growing interest in avian influenza as a potentially serious problem for birds and people. The purpose of this page is to provide links to sites that seek to provide current information about this emerging issue.
The Ornithological Council’s purposes are to:
* Link the scientific community with public and private decision-makers
* Provide timely information about birds to help ensure scientifically-based decisions, policies, and management actions
* Inform ornithologists of proposals and actions that affect birds or the study of birds
* Speak for scientific ornithology on public policy issues
They include a link to Canada’s National Wildlife Research Centre, Wildlife Diseases Precautions (”Biosafety Practices”) when handling wild birds
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/nwrc-cnrf/ default.asp?lang=en&n=85DA56D5
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
http://www.pandemicflu.gov/
US government portal, One stop access to U.S. Government avian and pandemic flu information. Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Avian Influenza” World Health Organization, South-East Asia
http://w3.whosea.org/EN/ Section10/Section1027.htm
Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre Wildlife Diseases
“Avian Influenza and Migratory Birds”
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/ nwrc-cnrf/ default.asp?lang=En&n=FAD35B22-0
Related links
* General information on avian influenza in birds
* Public health information on avian influenza
* Biosafety information on avian influenza
* For more information
Canadian Wildlife Service
Tel: (819) 997-1095
cws-scf@ec.gc.ca
Environment Canada
(819) 997-2800 or 1-800-668-6767
enviroinfo@ec.gc.ca
Please add (or correct) to this list via the comments box below. This is a listing of local supplies. Some may be commercial outlets (for example, stores) and others may be local caches (firehouse). All Villages with retail stores should have bar soap and dish soap. However, not all communities may have access to hand sanitizers, respirators, etc. Be sure to read the background information about sanitizers, masks, and disinfectants (section to be posted shortly). Pam
Read the rest of this entry »
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is also responsible for inspecting public facilities for sanitary conditions. There webpages have excellent resources, guides, stickers, cards, etc. They also have training sessions for food handlers. Their Dos and Don’ts for temprary food service (church suppers, schools, potlucks, carnivals, etc.) has good ideas for everyday use at home, too.
Dos and Don’ts
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/eh/fss/establishments/dosdonts.htm
Home Food Safety 1-87-SAFE-FOOD or 269-7501
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/eh/fss/consumers/homesafety.htm
The keywords or tags below can be used on any search engine (Yahoo, Ask, Google) or literature search. They seem to be the standard terms by which people are identifying the current references. If you run across some quite specific terms which can be used to narrow down the search results, please add them below in comments.
Read the rest of this entry »
