Swine Flu Outbreak May Spark UN Agency Review of Pandemic Alert WHO’s alert level is at level 3, meaning there is no, or very limited, human-to-human transmission of a potential pandemic virus. Officials at the agency have said the global spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus since 2003 has put the world closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century’s three pandemics occurred.Pandemic AlertWHO uses a six-step alert system to tell the world what preparations to take in response to a pandemic. Flu can spread quickly when a new strain emerges because no one has natural immunity and a vaccine takes months to develop. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed as many as 50 million people, began when an avian flu virus jumped to people, doctors said.Teams of disease investigators have been sent to California and Texas to trace how the malady has spread, and the U.S. offered to send scientists to Mexico, said the CDC’s Besser. U.S. hospitals are being asked to collect samples from patients with flu-like symptoms, said Schaffner, chief of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt, in a telephone interview yesterday.“They are asking us who work in hospitals to go to our emergency rooms and our pediatric wards to gather specimens and start testing them,” Schaffner said. “This has a sense of urgency about it.”

A leading indicator, rats?Rats Feed Off U.K. Recession as Trash Mounts, Buildings Empty

Collector,There are horror stories. You are beginning to sound like ppauper who is forecasting the end of the world

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnCollector,There are horror stories. You are beginning to sound like ppauper who is forecasting the end of the world For the rats or the bankers?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnCollector,There are horror stories. You are beginning to sound like ppauper who is forecasting the end of the world For the rats or the bankers?I think the rats are having a field day. What I would do is form a task force to go down the media access grills and remove these pesky rodents.Swine flu outbreak a 'serious situation'

Just be careful with the images of stagnant water...

Interesting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."

QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorInteresting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."Early exercise?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorInteresting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."the fecundity of the Norwegian female is legendary !

QuoteOriginally posted by: daveangelQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorInteresting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."the fecundity of the Norwegian female is legendary !What's that in English, Dave?

I wonder if the norwegian rats came over with the vikings? the early front troops? oh I see:"Originally called the "Hanover rat" by people wishing to link problems in 18th century England with the House of Hanover, it is not known for certain why the brown rat is named Rattus norvegicus (Norwegian rat) as it did not originate from Norway. Berkenhout gave the brown rat the binomial name Rattus norvegicus believing that it had migrated to England from Norwegian ships in 1728, although no brown rat had entered Norway at that time." (wikipedia)

Not to be a total sceptic, but I'm a little puzzled by the pandemic alarm bells, givenwhats happened to the Global Warming pandemic the past few years.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorInteresting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."Facts like these illustrate the phenomenally high gross profit margins in biological systems. In the absence of disease and predators, the rat has a return on assets of 2500%.

QuoteOriginally posted by: Hamilton givenwhats happened to the Global Warming pandemic the past few years.what happened? did Global Warming stop already?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: daveangelQuoteOriginally posted by: CollectorInteresting about rats:"The most common complaint to councils involves the brown, or Norwegian, rat, according to the National Pest Technicians Association, which is based in Kinoulton, England. The brown rat can breed throughout the year, with a female producing up to five litters during that period of as many as a dozen babies."the fecundity of the Norwegian female is legendary !What's that in English, Dave?don't you mean Norwegian ?