A Thai boy tested positive for bird flu on Friday, but doctors said there was no sign he caught the virus from his infected father who died earlier this week, suggesting the H5N1 strain had not mutated into a pandemic form.
Ronarit Benpad, aged 7, who was treated with anti-flu drug Tamiflu in the early stages of his infection, had recovered his appetite and his temperature had returned to normal, although he would remain under observation for two weeks, doctors said.
"There is no evidence to prove the boy became infected from his father," Prasit Watanapa, director of Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, told reporters.
"This boy had direct contact in the infected area."
Ronarit's father became Thailand's 13th official bird flu victim when he died on Wednesday in a resurgence of the virus in east and south-east Asia, which has intensified fears of H5N1 mutating into a form that jumps easily from person to person.
Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, H5N1 has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.
Tests negative
Meanwhile in Indonesia, fears fanned by the Health Minister about a possible human-to-human transmission eased after tests on a father and son hospitalised in Jakarta proved negative.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also moved quickly to calm any panic, saying transmission between members of the same family did not necessarily mean the virus was mutating into a form that can jump easily between people.
"It doesn't mean mutation," Georg Petersen, WHO's Indonesia representative, told Reuters.
Even as it marches west, the virus is flaring up again in pockets of east and south-east Asia, the most likely epicentre of a human pandemic, WHO says.
Vietnam, the worst-hit country, has started culling birds again in the Mekong Delta after detecting its first cases in poultry since July.
Thai health authorities say they have taken test samples from a further 10 possible human cases following a recent spate of outbreaks in poultry in seven central provinces.
The WHO says 61 people have now died of bird flu since the H5N1 strain resurfaced in 2003 after a brief outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997. So far 41 have died in Vietnam, 13 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia. Six people died in the Hong Kong outbreak.
With the looming winter, China vowed to do its utmost to stop H5N1 spreading to people shortly after new cases were reported at a poultry farm north of Beijing.
"China is prone to bird flu outbreaks in autumn and winter. The situation is very grave," state radio quoted Vice Premier Liangyu Hui as saying.
European fears
In Brussels, the European Union adopted fresh measures to fight the virus, banning live birds from markets or exhibitions without permission and urging states to keep wild flocks away from poultry feed.
The European Commission said a committee of EU veterinary experts had agreed on the measures, which included vaccinating birds in zoos and extending a ban on bird and feather imports to cover much of Russia.
Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said member states had drawn up plans to deal with a pandemic and arrange stockpiles or orders for antiviral drugs, but said the risk to the general public was low.
France and Italy tried to reassure consumers it was safe to eat poultry because imports from affected areas were banned, while Germany ordered poultry to be kept in pens.
Poland and Switzerland said domestic fowl must be kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds.
Oct 21 (Reuters) - The H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, which can be harmful to humans, has spread from Asia to Russia, Romania and Turkey.
Here are key facts about the transmission of the virus:
-- H5 and H7 subtypes of the avian influenza virus can be of either low or high pathogenicity. The discovery of an H5 type virus does not necessarily indicate the presence of H5N1.
-- High pathogenic H5N1 is particularly deadly to poultry (it can kill an entire flock within hours) but less so for wild ducks and geese, which act as reservoirs for the virus, most of the time show no symptoms and can fly long distances with it.
-- All birds are liable to infection from avian flu viruses as are some other animal species such as pigs although this is less common.
-- Transmitted via nasal/oral secretions and faeces.
-- Migrating wildfowl believed to be responsible for the spread of the virus from Asia and Siberia to Romania and Turkey. But trade in live poultry may have played a role in Asia.
-- Relatively difficult to transmit from bird to human. Thousands of cases among poultry in Asia have resulted in 120 human cases, of them more than 60 led to death. It must also be noted this is a region where there is often close human contact with live poultry in backyard farms.
-- Humans would have to be in prolonged close contact with an infected bird, usually in a confined space, as the virus can be carried in faecal dust or have direct contact with surfaces contaminated by infected droppings or secretions.
In Europe, this puts farm workers, veterinarians and those involved in culling infected birds most at risk.
-- Whilst the virus can exist in tissue, there is no evidence properly cooked poultry or eggs can be a source of infection. H5 and H7 highly pathogenic viruses are rendered inactive by heat (60 degrees Celsius/30 minutes) and by acid pH.
-- In the Asian human cases, exposure to the virus is thought most likely during slaughter, defeathering, butchering and preparation of poultry for cooking.
-- In 2003 a milder form of bird flu struck the Netherlands. Although it was a strain not normally dangerous to humans, some cases of conjunctivitus were noted and one veterinarian, who had prolonged close contact with infected birds, died.
-- Of the few avian influenza viruses that have crossed the species barrier to humans, H5N1 has caused the largest number of severe diseases and deaths. It follows an unusually aggressive clinical course, with rapid deterioration and high fatality. Pneumonia and multi-organ failure are common.
-- Of even greater concern is the fact that the virus, if given enough opportunities, could change into a form that is highly infectious among humans. This could start the much feared flu pandemic.
Sources: World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
People flying into Australia could be locked up in airport hangars for six days if the bird flu threat escalates, under drastic plans put in place by the Federal Government.
Under the bird flu battle plan, the hangars will be equipped to house up to 500 people and airports will be given thermal scanning equipment to check passengers for fever.
Nurses will also be on hand to check anyone with a temperature, and flight commanders will be required to vouch for the health of their passengers as well as make them fill out detailed health cards.
The great fear is bird flu mutating into a human-to-human virus, rather than just a bird-to-human one. If that happens the Government will impose its border security plan, raising the bird flu threat level from three to four. Level six means an outbreak of the human virus in Australia.
However, the World Health Organisation's representative in Indonesia, Georg Petersen, has cautioned on recent reports of the virus mutating there.
"It doesn't mean it can be transmitted outside the group," he said. "It doesn't indicate a mutation in the way that would lead to extensive human-to-human transmission."
The Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday called for calm following the announcement that three pigeons imported from Canada had tested positive for bird flu antibodies.
"We don't want to get too alarmed, we just have to make all the preparations we should and take all the precautions we can," he said.
A further four birds from the 102 in the consignment tested positive to another version of bird flu antibodies.
Although none of the seven had the viruses, they were put down and the remaining 95 birds were sent back to Canada.
The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service said the pigeons had been kept in quarantine while being tested.
Australia has stopped all imports of birds from Canada and yesterday the Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, met the Canadian high commissioner to ask why the birds had arrived with papers certifying their health.
The president of the Australian Veterinary Association, Matt Makin, said the ban was not an overreaction. He said the Government needed to assess other countries, such as those in Asia and Europe, where the virulent strain of avian influenza had been detected.
The Government sent the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Bruce Billson, to Vietnam and Cambodia to talk to authorities about their levels of preparedness. He is expected to announce further Australian assistance to the region.
In Europe, the spread of the virus has triggered a panic buying of anti-viral drugs. Chicken sales have fallen by a third in Italy and chicken consumption by a half in Romania, even though authorities stress there is almost no risk in eating well-cooked eggs and poultry meat.
In Australia there are growing fears over the possible harshness of the planned quarantine measures. Civil liberty groups have called for a review of the 1908 Quarantine Act to ensure people's rights are safeguarded in the event of a pandemic.
Cameron Murphy, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said governments had a tendency to use their extraordinary powers too soon or throw the net too wide.
The idea that people who have a common cold could be quarantined indefinitely was of deep concern, he said.
The man in charge of co-ordinating NSW's response to a human bird flu outbreak, David Cooper, said people should be reassured that any quarantining plans were based on solid science.
"Quarantining in the containment phase makes sense - we have just got to do it," he said.
Separate to the Government's response is a race to improve a bird flu vaccine at Melbourne University. Associate Professor Lorena Brown is working with Associate Professor David Jackson and Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Doherty to develop a trigger for the production of T-cells, which kill virus-infected cells and could provide some protection against virus subtypes.
ELEANOR HALL: Well the Labor leader's comments have added to a war of words between Canada and Australia over testing regimes after Australian quarantine officials discovered Avian flu antibodies in three pigeons imported from Canada.
The Canadian Government has responded to the Australian Government's criticism by blaming Australia's rules.
But the Federal Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, says he won't lift his temporary ban on the importation of birds from Canada, until he has a satisfactory explanation from Canadian authorities, as Alison Caldwell reports.
ALISON CALDWELL: Betting on the races is a favourite Australia pastime, and it seems that today having a flutter on pigeons is no exception.
There are close to 70 pigeon studs across the country, a bird was sold in Melbourne not so long ago for a record, $20,000.
This year's pigeon racing season ended last week, and the breeding season has begun in earnest.
It's for that reason that Australia imports pigeons from Canada, the UK, Holland and Belgium.
DUNCAN MCGREGOR: It's a bit like the race horses where we always strive to get something that goes a little bit faster, a little bit stronger and a little bit better.
ALISON CALDWELL: Duncan McGregor is a pigeon enthusiast in Victoria. He's not worried by the discovery of avian flu antibodies in the three pigeons imported from Canada.
DUNCAN MCGREGOR: Well, I wasn't overstressed because as everyone said already, it is the antibodies, it's not the virus, so…
ALISON CALDWELL: The antibodies can turn into the virus eventually though.
DUNCAN MCGREGOR: I don't know enough about it, but within all possibility yes, but I was really pleased that they picked up on it actually.
DAVID FINLAYSON: We operate a conservative quarantine system and we take no chances.
ALISON CALDWELL: David Finlayson is a spokesman for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, which detected the bird flu antibodies.
While the tests can't detect the actual strain of the bird flu, he says the tests demonstrate that Australia's quarantine system works.
DAVID FINLAYSON: We don't know what particular strain of virus was present. Our testing can't show that from these antibody results. We're not prepared to take risks.
ALISON CALDWELL: The Federal Minister for Agriculture, Peter McGauran, wants answers from the Canadian Government. Canadian authorities declared the pigeon consignment disease free.
PETER MCGAURAN: There'll be no import of live birds from Canada until we receive a better explanation of what went wrong at the Canadian end, whereby the Canadian quarantine authorities certified the birds as disease free.
ALISON CALDWELL: The Prime Minister, John Howard, is equally concerned, but he says there's no need to panic.
JOHN HOWARD: In relation to the three birds, they and some others have been destroyed and the other birds are being sent back to Canada. For the time being we have banned imports of birds from Canada and Mr McGauran, the Minister for Agriculture, will raise this matter with the Canadian High Commissioner.
ALISON CALDWELL: Testing positive to avian flu antibodies means that at some stage the pigeons have been exposed to the virus. Canada has no argument with that.
Dr Jim Clark is the acting director of animal health with Canada's Food Inspection Agency.
JIM CLARK: The fact that these pigeons may have contracted an influenza virus at some point in their history is not really that significant. The fact that they had no shedding of virus and there was no virus present in any of the samples taken and they appeared clinically healthy and completely normal, I think is relatively significant.
ALISON CALDWELL: Dr Clark says Australia should re-examine its own quarantine guidelines instead of blaming Canada.
JIM CLARK: In the case of avian influenza there's a choice to be made. Either the country would be considered free of the disease, or there would be a serological test done. And in Canada's case, we are free of the avian influenza virus and have been since May of 2004 following the outbreak in British Colombia.
ALISON CALDWELL: So therefore you don't test for the avian influenza antibodies because you don't have it there in Canada?
JIM CLARK: No requirement in the Australian certification requirements to do the serological test if the country is free from the disease.
ALISON CALDWELL: Australia's Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, disputes Canada's assertion.
PETER MCGAURAN: This is the dog ate my homework excuse, because the Canadian authorities must certify those birds as disease free. And in any event, tests for antibodies are essential because they do show that the birds were exposed to the virus in some form, even in a non-threatening or lethal way.
ALISON CALDWELL: Describing it as a minor inconvenience, pigeon enthusiast Duncan McGregor supports the temporary ban on Canadian birds.
DUNCAN MCGREGOR: It's not only protecting our pigeons as pigeon fanciers that we are, but it also protects our natural environment. No pigeon flyer would like to see infiltration of any of these viruses that can decimate either the poultry industry or the native bird industry.
ALISON CALDWELL: The Canadian Government, Dr Jim Clark from the Food Inspection Service told us that Australia doesn't require a testing for antibodies if the country, if the exporting nation is disease free. Do you think that should change given the current climate?
DUNCAN MCGREGOR: There's very little point in putting them in quarantine overseas if they aren't placed under the tests that they will be placed when they arrive.
ELEANOR HALL: That's pigeon enthusiast Duncan McGregor, ending that report from Alison Caldwell.
OTTAWA and TORONTO -- Canada is preparing to discuss pandemic preparations with health ministers from around the world, as the human toll from avian flu increased by one yesterday and Australia banned live bird imports from Canada after racing pigeons were found to have been exposed to diseases, including bird flu.
David Finlayson, spokesman for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, said out of about 100 racing pigeons imported from Canada for breeding, three tested positive for the antibodies and would be destroyed.
"We are currently talking with authorities in Canada about whether the rest of the birds can be returned to Canada," he said late last night.
Australian officials did not say which strain of bird flu antibodies they were carrying. Mr. Finlayson said the only birds from Canada banned at this time are pigeons, which are shipped by air to Australia.
Elizabeth Whiting, spokeswoman for federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell, said last night the birds came from Ontario.
She said that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency quarantined and tested the birds -- a routine procedure -- before they left Canada and that tests did not detect live avian influenza viruses. The CFIA did not test for antibodies, which she said Australia does not require.
Ms. Whiting said the two dangerous strains of avian flu are not present in Canadian birds.
A federal official said that Canada believes the Australian ban is unnecessary.
"The presence of antibodies in birds is not a legitimate reason to close the border," the official said.
Meanwhile, health ministers and heads of key international organizations will gather in Ottawa next week to discuss ways to strengthen the international response to an anticipated influenza pandemic, which some scientists say may already be developing in the form of the H5N1 avian virus.
That virus, which does not yet appear to be transmissible between humans, killed another person in Thailand, where a 48-year-old man died after slaughtering and eating an infected chicken. The avian flu has caused the deaths or destruction of 150 million birds and killed at least 61 people in Asia since 2003.
"At this time, avian influenza, the H5N1, is the strain that has the most potential to become a serious pandemic," David Butler Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, said yesterday.
"That does not mean that [the next pandemic] will be the H5N1 and, even if it were a derivative of this particular strain, it will have changed. . . . It will need to develop the ability to spread easily from person to person," he said.
Ian Shugart, an assistant deputy minister with the federal Health Department, said the meeting next week will provide Canada with an opportunity to encourage all countries to collaborate on global pandemic planning.
The two-day meeting in Ottawa will bring together, for the first time, ministers of health from 30 countries and senior officials from international organizations including the World Health Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.
They will discuss how to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, including the H5N1 avian virus that is the current focus of global concern, among animals and from animals to humans, Mr. Shugart said.
With reports from Gloria Galloway, Murray Campbell, Associated Press and Reuters
China's latest outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain was reported this week in its northern Inner Mongolia region. Scientists say the country is a huge incubator for the disease because of its large poultry industry and vast territory, even though it has reported no human cases.
"There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1," David Nabarro, chief UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, said in Beijing. "That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl."
The virus has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since it began ravaging poultry farms in late 2003. Health officials fear it could mutate to a form easily spread among people, possibly sparking a global pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with birds.
Hong Kong and New Zealand on Friday announced plans to possibly seal their borders if bird flu begins spreading from person to person.
China's biggest city, Shanghai, announced that it would begin sterilizing arriving travelers' shoe soles, the official Xinhua press agency reported. Passengers arriving by land, sea and air would all be expected to undergo shoe disinfection, but the report did not give details on how authorities would enforce such precautions for the millions of people traveling into the city each day.
Meanwhile, the Australian authorities said they would ban imports of birds from Canada after bird flu antibodies were found in racing pigeons being held in quarantine in Melbourne.
BEIJING The UN's point man on bird flu warned in China on Friday that migrating fowl appear more susceptible to the disease, while countries in the region announced bans on bird imports and discussed preparedness plans that could involve sealing off national borders.
China's latest outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain was reported this week in its northern Inner Mongolia region. Scientists say the country is a huge incubator for the disease because of its large poultry industry and vast territory, even though it has reported no human cases.
"There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1," David Nabarro, chief UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, said in Beijing. "That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl."
The virus has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since it began ravaging poultry farms in late 2003. Health officials fear it could mutate to a form easily spread among people, possibly sparking a global pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with birds.
Hong Kong and New Zealand on Friday announced plans to possibly seal their borders if bird flu begins spreading from person to person.
China's biggest city, Shanghai, announced that it would begin sterilizing arriving travelers' shoe soles, the official Xinhua press agency reported. Passengers arriving by land, sea and air would all be expected to undergo shoe disinfection, but the report did not give details on how authorities would enforce such precautions for the millions of people traveling into the city each day.
Meanwhile, the Australian authorities said they would ban imports of birds from Canada after bird flu antibodies were found in racing pigeons being held in quarantine in Melbourne.
Amid mounting international concern over a potential human flu pandemic, a flurry of outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu were reported this week from Taiwan to Europe. There is some confusion over whether the virus has reached the European Union. But more worrying is evidence that it is still spreading in China, and the possibility that it could also reach Africa.
Fears that an apparent outbreak of bird flu on the Greek island of Oinousa was H5N1 have not been borne out by initial tests at the UK’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the EU reference lab for flu, in Surrey. “Initial tests are negative,” VLA spokesman Matt Conway told New Scientist, although he cautions this will take several days to confirm.
Worries that the virus had reached Macedonia were eased when a die-off of poultry turned out to be due to another virus, called Newcastle disease. But in Romania the virus has spread to wild ducks and swans near the Ukrainian border, it has been confirmed.
Meanwhile Russian scientists confirmed H5N1 in chickens in the Tula region, 200 kilometres south of Moscow – the first known outbreak in European Russia west of the Urals. Outbreaks continue east of the Urals, with H5N1 confirmed this week in two villages in Kurgan province, and suspected H5N1 in Novosibirsk and Altai.
Into Africa
EU health ministers meeting in London, UK, on Thursday stated that the outbreaks in birds posed a “very low risk to the general population of Europe”, as human infections in Asia have required “extended, close contact with birds”.
But the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the migrating birds that have apparently carried the virus to eastern Europe, and others from affected areas of central Asia, are continuing their migration to east Africa,.
If the virus becomes endemic in east African birds, says Joseph Domenech, the FAO’s chief veterinary officer, it would increase the risk of a pandemic form evolving. “The close proximity between people and animals and insufficient surveillance and disease control capacities in east African countries create an ideal breeding ground for the virus,” he cautioned.
Smuggled duck
In a further development, the Chinese agriculture ministry confirmed this week that H5N1 killed 2600 chickens at a farm near Hohhot in the northern province of Inner Mongolia. China has reported only two other outbreaks of H5N1 in domestic poultry in 2005, also in far-flung regions, Tibet and Xinjiang. It attributed all three to infection by wild birds.
There was a massive die-off of wild birds caused by H5N1 at Qinghai Lake in northwest China in May. That virus was closely related to samples taken from poultry in southeast China.
Now Taiwan has also reported the discovery of the virus in eight wild birds confiscated as part of a clandestine shipment of live pet birds from mainland China. In 2003, before China had reported any outbreaks of the virus, Taiwan found H5N1 in duck meat smuggled from mainland China.
And human cases continue in east Asia. Thailand reported its first human bird flu death of 2005 this week, while Indonesia reported that a father and son were being treated for suspected H5N1 flu.
A new suspected case of bird flu has been detected in Romania.
Officials at the Agriculture Ministry have confirmed that a sample from a heron found close to the country's eastern border with Moldova, tested positive for anti-bodies of the virus.
The presence of anti-bodies does not necessarily mean the birds have the deadly strain of the disease and further tests must be carried to determine the type of bird flu.
Farm Minister Gheorghe Flutur said the samples would be sent to a specialised laboratory in Britain as soon as possible to see whether the new case is the H5N1 strain of the disease.
Local officials said measures were being taken to help contain the virus.
The latest finding comes after Romania recently became the first European mainland country to detect the deadly H5N1 in birds in two villages in the Danube delta in the south-east of the country.
Authorities in the EU have already agreed on a range of measures to prevent a lethal strain of bird flu from entering the UK.
The new EU measures include the introduction of early detection systems in "high risk areas" such as wetlands and other areas frequented by wild birds, the main carriers of the virus.
Although officials have assured their citizens that it is safe to eat poultry and that human infection with bird flu is very rare, experts fear the virus will mutate.
This would make it easier for the disease to spread between humans.
117 people have become infected since the outbreak began in Asia two years ago.
In Peru, health officials from six Andean nations hold a meeting today to coordinate a regional contingency plan as the European Union has ordered restrictions on bird markets and shows and urged nations to present a program of vaccination for zoo birds as part of increased measures to head off the spread of bird flu.
Meanwhile, Mexico is designating 55 million dollars, partly to stockpile drugs and help develop a vaccine. Brazil says it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to contain an outbreak.
And experts think Latin America is the last place migratory birds would spread the virus.
China's government news agency says the country's biggest city, Shanghai, is sterilizing the soles of shoes worn by arriving travelers.
Hong Kong and New Zealand on Friday announced plans to possibly seal off their borders if bird flu begins spreading from person to person.
Mexico's health secretary says officials are just preparing in case there is a global pandemic.
Veterinary experts said there should be an immediate EU-wide ban on the collection of birds for markets, shows, exhibitions and cultural events, except where national authorities gave specific permission, the EU said in a statement released late Thursday.
The EU scientists also said national governments should consider vaccinating birds kept in zoos. They said trade in vaccinated birds would be prohibited except under specific authorization.
The statement also clarified wider measures taken to restrict imports of live birds and feathers from Russia, following the spread of bird flu there. It said the ban would cover all of Russia except for the northwest regions of Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Karelia and Murmansk, and the city of St. Petersburg.
The experts said there was no need to ban eggs or poultry from Russia because those products are not imported into the EU.
A second statement from the EU vets said tests were continuing on samples from suspect birds from Greece, but added that the last information available does not indicate the presence of bird flu.
The experts also called for more measures to ensure that feed and water destined for domestic poultry were kept away from wild birds.
They urged hunters and bird watchers to report any strange behavior for sudden mass deaths of wild birds.
However, the scientists sought to reassure the public saying they consider "that the public is far less likely to be exposed in Europe than in Central Asia and the Far East because of the generally greater separation of human and commercially kept birds."
In related developments:
The U.N.'s point man on bird flu warned in China on Friday that migrating fowl appear more susceptible to the disease. "There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1," David Nabarro, chief U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, said in Beijing. "That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl."
China's latest outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain was reported this week in its northern Inner Mongolia region. Scientists say the country is a huge incubator for the disease because of its large poultry industry and vast territory, even though it has reported no human cases.
Australian authorities said they would ban imports of birds from Canada after bird flu antibodies were found in racing pigeons being held in quarantine in Melbourne. Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that the birds did not have the virus, only the antibodies, indicating they had been exposed to an unknown bird flu virus at some time. All three birds were destroyed as a precaution.
Nepal also announced it will ban poultry imports from Europe after the virus was reported in poultry in Turkey, Romania and Russia.
Tests on an ailing 7-year-old Thai boy whose father died of bird flu have confirmed that he also has the deadly virus, Thai medical authorities said Friday. The 48-year-old man was Thailand's 13th fatality from the disease and the first in more than a year. Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of Thailand's Department of Communicable Disease Control, was optimistic about the boy's prospects. "He will definitely survive as we have given him Oseltamivir," Thawat told The Associated Press.
Bird flu has not reached Ukraine, but in this village where chickens and geese run freely, residents are debating what to do if it reaches them. They fear it is only a matter of time.
Poultry farmers across Germany have been ordered to lock up their flocks from Saturday, in a defensive measure against avian bird flu. The Ministry for Agriculture took the emergency decision after a case of the deadly H5N1 virus bird-flu was discovered near Moscow. Farmers who don't comply will be fined up to $30,000.
Macedonia sent a sample taken from a chicken to Britain for bird flu tests Friday, three days after a village in the south of the country was placed under medical surveillance. "We decided sample would be transferred today to Britain by a NATO military airplane from Kosovo," said Sloboden Cokrevski, director for the state Veterinarian Administration.
Most of us do not ordinarily consider our lives to be at stake in matters of public policy. The prospect of an avian flu pandemic, however, puts us all in jeopardy, and if the dilatory response of the Bush administration proves fatal in this case as it did after August 2001, when the president was told that Osama bin Laden was about to strike within the United States yet did nothing, or in the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, when engineers repeatedly warned that the levees in New Orleans were inadequate, we will pay an even greater price for our slothful, ideologically driven, and crony-ridden national leadership than in either of the epochal disasters that have so far befallen America in the Bush years.
Scientific concern about avian flu did not just emerge recently, though one might have thought so from the flurry of administration activity this past month. Nor is the concern about a pandemic solely the result of the appearance of the H5N1 virus and the high mortality rate among the small number of known cases. Flu pandemics are a recurrent historical phenomenon. The concern about flu is not like the anxiety about killer asteroids, which, it is true, have struck before - millions of years ago. The flu pandemic that took 50 million to 100 million lives worldwide in 1918 was followed by lesser pandemics in 1957 and 1968. Scientists have told us for years that it was not a question of “if” but “when” another flu pandemic would strike.
Yet, in recent years, the United States allowed itself to become totally dependent on foreign manufacture of flu vaccine - sources that would be grossly inadequate, in both quantity and speed of production, in the event of a pandemic. For national defense, we refuse to become similarly dependent on foreign suppliers of weapons; indeed, the Department of Defense tries to maintain more than one supplier for its various needs. Vaccines ought to fall under that same policy, and for much the same reason: Our lives may depend on the availability of multiple domestic sources in a crisis. Although one manufacturing facility for flu vaccine is now under construction in the United States, it will still leave us far short of the necessary capacity.
Conservatives, always ready to blame the tort system, say pharmaceutical manufacturers have fled the vaccine business because of the potential liability, and that if we want them to make vaccines, the government should absolve them of any liability for defects. But, as there is a serious risk of contamination in vaccine production, eliminating liability could invite new dangers. The real problem is that, given the size of the market, the commercial incentives to invest in vaccine development and production are incommensurate with the social need. Sales of all vaccines represent only 2 percent of the total market for pharmaceuticals. Unlike the most profitable drugs, which need to be taken frequently, a vaccine is typically given once or a few times. Every year, because of mutations in the virus, the flu vaccine must be changed, and the past year’s unsold inventory becomes worthless.
This is an instance, in other words, where government has to provide the incentives - and direction - that the market cannot be expected to generate on its own. The threat of a flu pandemic demands large-scale public financial commitments, comprehensive planning, a crash effort to develop new vaccine technologies and build new facilities to produce both vaccines and antiviral drugs, and local public-health preparedness. Unfortunately, none of these things comes naturally or quickly to an administration averse to bold public action and in a society where public-health organization has suffered long neglect. Trying to assure the public he’s on the case, the president has spoken of calling in the military to quarantine affected regions - a display of his instincts that showed just how little he understands the problem.
No one knows whether the H5N1 virus will mutate into a form transmissible from one person to another or, if it will, how much time we have left to prepare. Now that scientists have reconstituted the 1918 virus, we know it was also a bird flu. A pandemic comparable to 1918 would take a toll in the tens of millions. And not just among the old and frail: The 1918 flu struck healthy young adults especially hard. The only rational course is to assume that H5N1 will become transmissible from person to person and to ramp up both longer-term scientific work and immediate international measures to slow the spread of the virus. A determined effort, albeit belated, may yet save humanity from an unimaginable catastrophe.
Paul Starr is co-editor of 'The American Prospect'.
It coud arrive like the wind and envelop us in its deadly grasp, leaving authorities unprepared and a population exposed. It may creep in on travellers returning home from overseas, incubating as they quietly move among us, infecting many but killing few. Or it might be detected early and contained, anti-virals distributed and a vaccine developed in time to save lives.
We do not know if or when avian flu might become a pandemic and spread to Australia. Some say the odds are about one in 10.
But if it hit Australia badly, everyday life would grind to a halt as up to 30 per cent of the population in the metropolitan areas became infected and anti-viral stocks were stretched to the limit. Essential services would be hit hard, with staff affected by illness or absent from work due to a fear of infection. Surveillance would be stepped up at our airports and borders.
Not even the experts know what form this latest flu threat will take, or even what the symptoms might be, but behind the scenes, quarantining, containment and treatment plans are being finalised and stockpiles maintained. But is it enough?
Without knowing how the flu might enter the country - as avian flu in birds or as pandemic flu transmitted among humans - or how deadly the strain might be, infectious diseases experts and counter-disaster officials crunch numbers, construct models of transmission and containment and develop stockpiles of drugs, masks and other medicines.
In hospitals, ambulance stations, and hidden in warehouses around the state, the stockpiles are the front line of defence against the worst-case scenario. The hoarded anti-viral drugs will be used to protect workers and keep essential services going during the height of a pandemic.
There are plans for strict quarantine and the hospital system will be divided to create specialist flu centres.
It is difficult to imagine what it was like in Sydney in 1919 at the height of the Spanish influenza pandemic. Some 36 per cent of the city's population was infected and of those, 1.4 per cent died.
After the first case was identified in January 1919 - a soldier who arrived by boat - authorities began closing all theatres and other entertainment venues, as well as requiring people to wear masks on public transport and in public buildings. Schools and pubs were closed, race meetings and church services were banned and there were strict quarantine procedures for those infected. People avoided crowds as much as they could.
"A lot more people lived in the inner-city then, there was tremendous overcrowding of homes; you can understand how disease spread like wildfire," says Macquarie University academic Peter Curson. It was not until mid-April that the flu first peaked, with 2027 new hospital admissions and 580 deaths reported, he says.
In June the virus appeared to have mutated into a more deadly strain, with 2500 admitted to hospital, thousands confined to their homes and a rapidly rising death toll. By the end of 1919, 11,500 Australians had died from the disease. So what would happen in Sydney in 2005?
Federal Government modelling predicts that if 25 per cent of the population were affected with flu - that is, a flu with a 25 per cent attack rate - and there was no immediate vaccine or treatment available, in six to eight weeks:
There are plans to use antivirals such as Tamiflu or Relenza to treat early cases and to provide protection for the people around them in order to stop the flu from spreading.
But if containment fails and there is mass human-to-human transmission - and by all accounts that is the scenario for which Cooper and his colleagues are planning - quarantine will no longer be of use, and authorities will move to a different phase.
Based on the Federal Government's Australian Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza, the focus will shift to ensuring that essential services continue by using antiviral medication to protect, rather than treat, nurses, ambulance workers, fire and police officers and other key personnel.
The Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, John Horvath, will be in command, informed by state and territory chief health officers, infectious diseases experts, military representatives and epidemiologists who sit on a vast array of flu committees.
NSW's management plan - still in the final stages of development - will detail the emergency and essential services workers who should receive the antivirals, and list each of the 16 hospitals in the state's eight area health services that will receive only pandemic flu cases.
Health would become the so-called lead agency in this case because the flu would be moving from human to human by now. If it were in epidemic proportions in local birds, Agriculture would take the lead.
"The first step in any pandemic if it is in birds, is to distribute antivirals to the slaughterers and the poultry farmers," says Cooper.
"In the first phase of the epidemic - containment - we might use up to 10 per cent of our [antiviral] stockpile."
In a catastrophic event - if the human flu pandemic was much worse than expected - the state disaster plan and its supporting legislation could be enacted, which would see the NSW Minister for Emergency Services, along with the Premier, assume control of the state. According to Cooper, these powers have never been used.
"The plan ... allows us to take over the whole health system, the area health services, the hospitals; we have got legislative power to do this," he says. "The police, the fire brigade and everybody works to make sure the health arrangements in the state are managed."
There are criticisms of the Government's reliance on infection control methods of the past, such as quarantine and home care, with Peter Curson, who is director of health studies at Macquarie University, saying most measures simply increased panic and did little to contain disease.
In the great epidemics of the early 20th century - smallpox in 1913 and Spanish influenza in 1919 - the NSW Government forcibly ejected not just those infected but those who were not, from their homes. "First they quarantined a piece of a city - people weren't allowed out of their homes, barricades were erected and police guards were posted - then teams of scavengers, cleaners and fumigators worked their way from home to home," Curson says.
"The worst aspect of it was that particular groups were targeted - the Chinese, for example, most of them had their homes in The Rocks demolished. They were sent to quarantine whether or not they had plague or had been exposed to it." There were pitched battles between police and residents.
"I don't know how the authorities can do this more effectively - in the final analysis, we can only rely on government to protect us to a certain point in our lives and the rest is our responsibility," Curson says.
Control of the country's borders would be another priority, and it is here that the lessons from the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 come into play. Affecting more than 8000 people in Asia, North and South America and Europe and killing 774, SARS burst on the scene with unexpected ferocity and then burnt out just as quickly.
Passenger screening was established at airports in SARS-affected places such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and those with abnormally high body temperatures were kept under medical surveillance. People were also screened at their destination.
Jeremy McAnulty, NSW's acting deputy chief health officer, said those procedures would be used again in the event of pandemic flu.
Aircraft commanders will be required to declare the health of all people on board the plane, known as "positive pratique", rather than the current "pratique by exception" where they have to declare if there is a passenger on board who is ill.
"Our whole system of communicable disease control in NSW is focused on containing infectious diseases, so the strategies we use in those are similar to the strategies we'd use in SARS or pandemic flu or anything else."
McAnulty points to the example of measles, where the state's policy is to track down occasional cases through surveillance, contain those cases by isolating patients, manage the people they came into contact with and, if necessary, restrict their movements.
The Quarantine Act of 1908, which is administered by the Federal Government, ultimately guides border control, quarantine and other containment issues. NSW Health would become the implementing body.
The relationship between state and territory governments and the Federal Government, long the subject of criticism, has been strengthened since the two Bali bombing attacks, SARS and the Boxing Day tsunami, says Cooper.
"The arrangements are much more robust now . . . everyone is trying to help each other in times of crisis, both in terms of terrorism and infectious diseases."
Describing pandemic flu as "of a high likelihood and severe consequence," Cooper is unapologetic about the extensive plans that are in place.
"The question is how far do you go," he says. "Do you spend the whole nation's economy on preparedness - there has to be a balance."
Along with dedicated flu hospitals, NSW Health will organise staging areas to provide a level of care between home and hospital, with fever clinics attached. These areas will provide the main interface between health workers and a worried public.
"It will be like the tent cities of 1919, without the tents," Cooper says. "We can use schools, defence accommodation, hotels, hospitals."
If the Quarantine Act is used because of pandemic flu, Health can commandeer anything. Schools, public transport and other places of public gatherings may be closed in order to contain infections.
"There is fairly broad powers under this legislation, we always do things co-operatively, but if it comes to the crunch, we will do what we need to do to protect the health of the people of NSW," Cooper says.
"We expect the first wave of the epidemic to go for eight to 12 weeks; then there is usually a second peak - how are we going to exist in those eight weeks without shutting the whole society down is a difficult question."
If thousands are infected, then most will be encouraged to go home to bed, their carers provided with instructions on how to protect themselves from infection, says NSW Health infectious diseases expert Paul Armstrong.
In 1919 there was a spirit of volunteerism and mobile teams of volunteers and medical staff went from house to house to ensure the sick were cared for.
"If we are urging people to stay at home we have got to make sure that there is a way for them to get enough food and to make sure they are looked after," Armstrong says.
In preparation, he says, NSW Health has started talks with non-government organisations; however, he will not name which groups might be involved.
Armstrong acknowledges that for many, the first response upon feeling very ill is to go to hospital and expect to be treated. Yet he warns: "In a pandemic, there is not going to be that many hospital beds to go to."
The public should be prepared for a health system under strain - if, as Toronto, Canada, experienced with SARS, Australia loses 30 per cent of its workforce due to sickness or fear, the challenge of keeping that essential service going will be enormous.
It was also important to note that the mortality rate of previous pandemics was not high, he said. In 1919 about 36 per cent of the people in metropolitan Sydney were infected and of those, 1.4 per cent died.
"If you get sick from pandemic influenza, the overwhelming number of people will survive."
Whatever happens, levels of anxiety are rising in the community, and Cooper and his colleagues acknowledge this. "We are working really hard behind the scenes to do our best to prepare for the worst...there are plans, and people need to be reassured that we are working as hard as we can not just for influenza but also to prepare for terrorism as well."
And they make no apology for focusing on what is still just a threat of a pandemic. "An influenza pandemic is imminent; it will happen. The question is when, and we don't know how severe it is going to be - we have to be prepared for it."
But those who might wish to stockpile their own antivirals are in for a shock - a doctor can write a prescription for Tamiflu but no chemist can fill it. Almost all antivirals are held by the governments in stockpiles.
Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary's vaccine that's shown promise against bird flu has drawn interest from nations including the U.S. and Germany that are seeking ways to avert a possible pandemic, the country's health officials said.
Hungary's health commissioner Mihaly Kokeny today said in an interview on Hungarian television that a vaccine tested in 100 volunteers, including himself and Health Minister Jeno Racz, may protect against the current H5N1 avian strain that killed at least 60 people in Asia and was found in birds in Romania, Turkey and Russia. The country plans to make doses to inoculate its citizens and sell to other nations, health officials said.
``We can say with 100 percent certainty that the vaccine spurred antibodies against the H5N1 strain,'' Kokeny said today on a morning talk show.
Fears that virus could lead to a human pandemic have prompted governments to build stockpiles of flu drugs and pursue research into new vaccines. European Union Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou yesterday said he is proposing a 1 billion euro fund for purchases of bird-flu medicines.
Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, Mongolia and the U.K. have also indicated an interest in Hungary's vaccine, government spokesman Andras Batiz said.
French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA has come up with a vaccine that has been shown in tests to be effective against the H5N1 virus. The company has a $100 million contract to produce the vaccine for the U.S., the only country with a contract for the drugmaker's bird-flu shot.
Bird-Flu Medicines
While human-to-human transmission hasn't been confirmed, the risk of a bird-flu pandemic, threatening the lives of as many as 7.4 million people, is at its highest since a 1968 milder outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. The agency has recommended that countries build up their stores of flu vaccines and antiviral medicines.
Roche Holding AG said yesterday it will consider licensing its Tamiflu antiviral treatment to generic drugmakers after coming under pressure from politicians, including United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Taiwanese health ministers, to share its patents on the drug.
The Swiss drugmaker may consider licensing the drug to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., Mylan Laboratories Inc. and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.
Hungary's Vaccine
Rights to Hungary's vaccine are shared by the government and vaccine maker Omninvest Kft., government spokesman Batiz said. Omninvest, which currently has a capacity to produce 500,000 doses a week is majority-owned by Cyprus-based Sumpter Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and operates in Pilisborosjeno, Hungary.
The vaccine can be altered ``in a maximum of eight weeks'' should the virus mutate, Racz said. The Hungarian government will decide whether to finance production of its vaccine or turn to a private investor. Hungary will first manufacture 3.5 million doses, enough to protect its population of 10 million people, the health minister said Oct. 19.
Hungarian virologists at the National Epidemiology Center began work on the vaccine in April when the World Health Organization offered institutions around the world samples of the virus to develop a vaccine. Countries, including the U.S., Australia and Vietnam, also are researching bird-flu vaccines.
``This vaccine can give a new boost to the industry,'' said Csaba Pleh, deputy general secretary at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in a phone interview.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany told parliament Oct. 17 that his country expects to profit from the vaccine.
Hungarian R&D
Hungary spent a total of 0.88 percent of its GDP on research and development last year, down from 0.96 percent a year earlier, according to statistical office figures. About two-thirds of the funds come from the government and only a third from private companies, Pleh said.
``That ratio is just the other way around both in the U.S. and in the European Union, Pleh said. ```We want to change this trend in five to ten years, with both sectors increasing their share.''
European Union officials have said they plan to speed development of vaccines against the human form of the illness and on Oct. 13 the European Medicines Agency announced new procedures to review the bulk of an application prior to an outbreak. Once the specific strain of the virus is known, a health panel can approve a variation to the application within a few days.
`Vaccines are going to be the first line of defense,'' Dick Thompson, the World Health Organization's spokesman on communicable diseases said today in an interview. ``It's important that vaccines be made rapidly and made available to everyone.''
'Is Tamiflu A Prescription For Survival?'
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Further down this page, you'll also find a comprehensive selection of the finest books on Urban Survival and Survival in the City. You can also click on the Amazon.com button under each of these titles to read extracts from, or reviews of them, or to place an order.
This expertly-written book on Survival Skills in the City, by John Wiseman, author of the bestselling 'SAS SURVIVAL HANDBOOK' and survival skills instructor for the famed British SAS Regiment, will equipt you for survival in the toughest environment of all - the urban jungle!
"Now you can own your own copy of the famed and superb SAS SURVIVAL HANDBOOK, 569 pages of expert survival information, skills and techniques, complete with masses of clear illustrations, and written by John Wiseman, for 26 years survival instructor for Britain's famed Special Forces SAS Regiment.569 pages, outsize paperback.This is the most useful book of its kind that we have ever seen, equally instructive both to those experienced in survival in the outdoors and the ways of the wilderness as well as to the complete novice.
This amazingly comprehensive manual covers:
and much more!
- survival preparation and strategies
- edible wild foods
- fires and shelters
- hunting and trapping
- tracking skills
- camp skills and bushcraft techniques
- secrets of navigation
- weather-reading signs and lore
- wilderness travel
- emergency first aid and medical treatment
- survival afloat
- rescue techniques,
- arctic and cold-weather survival, techniques and skills
This is the finest survival instruction and reference guide available. These techniques were taught to elite commando troops who were trained to carry out isolated, arduous operations all over the world; resupply was frequently impossible, requiring them to live off the land.
It will sharpen your abilities, enhance your personal range of options in any emergency or survival situation, and increase your confidence tremendously.
This book will give you expert instruction in the complete spectrum of wilderness skills, and could save your life! Ideal for hunters, fishermen, canoeists, campers, climbers, prospectors, wilderness travellers, military, militia and rescue personnel etc., and for those who wish to learn how to stay alive in the wilderness, and in rough country, and to survive under any conceivable set of circumstances. "
"One of the finest and best-selling of independent-living books - we can't recommend this modern classic too highly!
Whether you want to learn useful rural, homesteader or "back-to-the-land" survival skills, acquire invaluable money-saving or food-raising and preserving techniques, or to use and enjoy the astonishing wealth of over 1,000 recipes and hundreds of proven tips for cutting your personal living costs or becoming more self-reliant, or you just want regular access to Carla Emery's unparalleled storehouse of experience and advice on everything related to self-sufficient living, this is a book that you must have!
This amazing 864 page volume, now in its ninth printing, is the result of an extraordinary fusion of Carla Henry's vast experience in every area of self-reliant living with the feedback and comments [many of which are reproduced in the book] of her more than thirty thousand readers around the world. The book, in consequence, is an invaluable treasure-trove of well-tested, practical and ingenious recipes, formulas, ideas and advice. Whether you live in the city or the country, you'll find yourself consulting Carla Henry's 'Encyclopedia Of Country Living' frequently and profiting by it - or just sitting down and reading it for sheer pleasure! It is perhaps the most comprehensive resource available on the topics it covers.
You'll learn:
"If you're dreaming about moving "back to the land" someday, or if you're already there and want to live more self-sufficiently [wherever you may be] you'll want a copy of the ninth edition of 'The Encyclopedia of Country Living'...We think you're pretty swell, Carla." - Organic Gardening
"Carla Emery is certifiably one of the craziest, warmest, [sometimes unintentionally] funniest, wisest, most lovable, and idealistic zanies now walking the face of the earth and we think this old world would be a lot better off if we had a few more people like her." - Mother Earth News
We couldn't agree more, and we urge you to add this one-of-a-kind telephone book-sized treasury of earthy, folksy and wise country wisdom to your own library, while you still can! You'll save a lot, you'll learn a lot, end you'll be endlessly informed, intrigued, amused and edified by its seemingly-inexaustible and ever-useful contents.
Outsize paperback; 864 pages
And it seems that we're not alone in our high opinion of this superb modern classic!
What reviewers across America thought of this superb reference and instructional resource book:
"It is a superb reference book, better than any number of those that pretend to teach you survival skills by concentrating on just a few crafts." - Survival Tomorrow
"This is really an encylopedia and, like a good encyclopedia, the narrative is clear and complete, the illustrations are plentiful and the whole thing is thoroughly indexed. You can spend a fortune on a library of neo-pioneer books or you can buy "BACK TO BASICS" - Times & World News, Roanoke, Va.
"If you're going to go back to the good old days you'll need some the good old days didn't have...an instruction manual." - Cincinnati Enquirer
"Open the book at any page and there's something of interest." - Chicago Sun-Times
"...it would be an asset to anyone's personal library at home. We recommend it highly." - Kansas City TimesFrom the Introduction:
"'Back To Basics' is a book about the simple life. It is about old-fashioned ways of doing things, and old-fashioned craftsmanship, and old-fashioned food, and old-fashioned fun. It is also about independence - the kind of down-home self-reliance that our grandparents and great grandparents took for granted, and that we moderns often think has vanished forever, along with supermarket tomatoes that taste good, packaged bread that does not have additives, and holidays that are not commercialized.In a period of terrorism, war, and increasing oil and gasoline prices, with the disruptions, shortages, and inflation which are likely to result, that last paragraph reminds us that we may all have an increasing need for improved personal survival, budgetary, and independent-living skills over the next few years! This is an essential book that anyone concerned with saving money and with deveoping practical living-skills must have.At its heart 'Back To Basics' is a how-to book packed with hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, charts, tables, diagrams, and illustrations to help you and your family reestablish control over your day-to-day lives. The book is organized into six main sections. The first deals with shelter, the second with energy, the third with raising food, the forth with preserving food, the fifth with home crafts, and the sixth with recreation. The subjects presented lead in logical sequence along the way stations on the road to self-sufficiency. An added feature, "Sources and Resources," lists suggestions for further reading plus names of suppliers of hard-to-find equipment.
Practical, useful information is provided on just about every skill and handicraft under the sun. You will learn how to make your own cheese, raise your own chickens, harvest your own honey, generate your own electricity, and brew your own applejack. You will be able to try your hand at blacksmithing, broom-making, and stone masonry. You will discover how to make soap, tan a hide, build an igloo, heat with wood, smoke a salmon, and create your own cosmetics. Some projects are difficult and demanding - building a log cabin or installing a solar water heating system are tasks for someone with experience, skill, and a strong back. But most of the jobs are well within the capabilities of the average person, and many are suited for family participation, especially for the kids.
While 'Back To Basics' is a book for doing, it is also a book for dreaming. There is no need to run out and start baking adobe bricks in order to enjoy learning the ins and outs of adobe construction. [It might even set you thinking about putting up your own adobe home someday]. Similarly, your imagination is apt to be fired by the interviews with folks around the country who are already practicing the skills and crafts described in 'Back To Basics'. Among others, you will hear from a husband-and-wife team who built a log cabin in Alaska, some suburban kids who raise goats and pigs in their backyard, a city worker who specializes in urban gardening, and a New Hampshire artisan who is keeping alive the Indian art of building birchbark canoes. There are also descriptions of by-gone ways of doing things: the technique of pitsawing, the Indian way of smoking a deer hide and making jerky, the inner workings of a water-powered gristmill. These - along with the historical background of each skill and charming old prints that illustrate many of them - make for fascinating reading.
Americans are a contradictory people. No nation has ever moved further from the harsh realities of wilderness existence. Yet. paradoxically, no nation has clung more tenaciously to its early ideals - to the concept of personal independence, to the mystique of the frontier, to the early pioneers' sense of rugged self-reliance. It is as if somewhere, deep in the American spirit, there has always lurked a distrust of the very technology that we, more than any other people, have spawned. Perhaps this distrust was an accident, but perhaps it was fate; for in the light of recent events that have called into question our easy dependence on modern technology, it seems to have been prophetic. Americans have long yearned for a return to basics; now, suddenly, it has become a necessity. 'Back To Basics' can do much to guide the way."
