On Healthy Living

President Bush yesterday asked Congress for more than $7 billion to prepare the nation for a possible pandemic of avian flu, the deadly strain from birds that has killed 60 of the 120 people it has infected in Asia.

The flu at this time is only spread through contact with infected birds, but it is expected the flu will eventually mutate so that it can be transmitted from person to person. When that happens, it is expected to spread across the globe quickly and be very deadly because people living on the planet today have no immunity to this strain.

There is one drug that seems to have some effect on the flu, but the company that makes it recently stopped providing it to the United States because of fears people are stockpiling the drug in preparation for the avian flu.

According to the New York Times the president’s plan earmarks $2.8 billion for researching more reliable and faster ways to produce vaccines, $1.2 billion to buy 20 million doses of a vaccine against the current strain of avian flu and $1 billion to buy the antiviral medications Tamiflu and Relenza. (Check out the rest of the story here.)

Some Democrats say the plan is not strong enough, since a similar plan that passed the Senate last week cost $8 billion.

Whatever your politics, it’s true that the president is trying to prepare for this emergency because of the lack of response to Hurricane Katrina. But it’s good to see the government making plans in case this deadly outbreak does come to pass in the near future.

Sarah White wrote this on November 2nd, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Health & Aging |