Bloggers???   Give me a break.  

There are 3 schools in Bhaktapur that have been suspended, though the article doesn't say why.  Bhaktapur is 35 km south east of Katmandu in Nepal, and is in the general area that we are looking at, but MAY OR MAY NOT BE the very same location.  I don't want to alarm anyone, as this may be due to panic/rumors circulating within the area, with parents keeping their children home from school as a precaution.  It may be totally unrelated, as well.  But we do need to check it out!!!!!!!!!!!

3 schools suspended

Sunday, August 20,2006

BHAKTAPUR: In the absence of students in schools, the District Education Office, Bhaktapur has suspended three schools. The suspended schools are Kopila Primary School, Jeti Primary School and Laxmi Devi Primary School, Bageswori, said Section Officer of the District Education Office Bir Singh Dhami. The physical property of the three suspended schools has been handed over to the local community and teachers have been transferred to other schools. THE HIMALAYAN TIMES |

http://www.southasianmedia.net/cnn.cfm?id=318630&category=Social%20Sectors&Country=NEPAL

Gettingready, nice job.  

I don't  know if this is helpful, but I thought it was interesting.     Pigs die of mysterious disease in eastern Nepal 5/3/2006 12:25 Over 2,000 pigs have died of an unidentified disease in some villages of Morang district in eastern Nepal in the past two months, an official said Sunday. The disease, first seen in Dangihat and Karanari village of Morang district, some 300 km east of Kathmandu, claimed the lives of over 1,000 pigs in Letang village alone, Shambhu Yadav, an official of the District Livestock Services Office (DLSO), said, adding that eight boars and four buffaloes also died of the disease. "The disease is believed to be air borne but we have not launched any investigation into it," Yadav noted. Earlier, it was suspected that swine fever was the cause of the deaths but outbreak of avian flu in India has terrified the farmers of Morang district located close to India. Farmers have been disposing the carcass of diseased animals in the nearby forest and the environment has been polluted there, according to Yadav. Fever, dysentery, yawning and lack of appetite are the symptoms of the disease, Yadav added.  Xinhua news

http://tinyurl.com/pc4ta

Muriel,

1. Instead of just smashing all kinds of questions or data into this thread, why don't SOME of you do a thread-search or a forum-search first? It's ridiculous imo to post a newsarticle in here about an unrelated geographical location where they closed schools due to lack of pupils (students), as the article clearly explained. Why the hype here? Why the random postings as if SOME of you are totally freaked out by the thought of a serious disease maybe occurring thousands of miles away from your homes? Is this the first time in your life you ever heard a little about avian influenza? Why is that short text of the few online newsarticles of this past weekend (maybe 3 or 4 sources, alltogether) posted in this thread meanwhile at least twenty times and by a variety of posters? Don't you guys READ previous replies here?


2. I don't own the place, so that is not the issue and please save everyone's time and thread-space here by refraining from telling me  I can't give you orders, because I know.


3. Using the board's searchfunction and going a year back (all forums), there are 84 thread-results now for the keyword "Nepal". So why do most of you know the least about that country? Please do your homework and research first before posting the most ridiculous ideas when it comes down to that country: NEPAL.
http://www.avianflutalk.com/search_results_posts.asp?SearchID=20060820183437&KW=Nepal


4. Here is the reaction I just received from a friend of mine, a western woman who has been living and working on Nepal's countryside and in its mountains for the past 15 years or so. We mainly know eachother in view of hiking in the Himalayas and foreign tourism in Nepal. I showed her the news re. Nuwakot, this is what she says:

~ ~ ~


5. Any of you aware that a civil war has been going on in all of Nepal ever since 1996? And that at least some "peace" was brought back only since May of this year? That large parts of the country have virtually no infrastructure? Did you ever hear of the "caste system" in Nepal and India, and what it means in daily life? The lack of health care? The lack of women's rights? The lack of schooleducation? The Maoists of Nepal (and India)? The cruel practises with child trafficking, or with selling your own wife, daughter or sister to the sex-trade in India or Thailand? The general illiteracy? The five thousand other nationwide problems there at least, that you've probably never encountered in the USofA?
BUT: there are a great many efforts tóó to improve the situation and the conditions under which Nepali citizens have to live. If you want to know some more about the problems in that country, I suggest you surf to the website of UNICEF and look up its data for Nepal as they're quite "telling".

As for the situation in Nuwakot: I believe that's being covered and investigated by people who are experts enough to deal with those problems. And trying to make Moriarty, the US ambassador, a marionet for your cause will probably nót work because if there's any embassy thoroughly informed about what's going on inside Nepal, it's the US Embassy in Kathmandu. Yes sir!


bye! going to sleep now; almost 04:10 am here meanwhile....

I am having a whole lotta trouble following this post.  Can someone sumarize it for me? 

    Hi guys hope everyone had had a great weekend.

After I posted the find I found on the 14 people dead, I have been thinking, The signs at death reminded me of Ebola? have been pondering on this and wondering, just a thought. I am sure no expert in the medical field,however, in college one time I had to do major research on Ebola and when people do die from ebola same symptoms??
    

Just to be clear about this, mostly for mieke, no one in the entire thread has said that this development in Nepal signifies that a pandemic has begun. I believe that at the outset what was said is that this warrants more investigation.

Mieke, what do you believe that we are talking about here? We are investigating and seeking confirmation of an "unprecedented outbreak" of a mystery illness.

After everything that could be done was completed for the day some gave background information on the area. Who here said anything about a concern re: poultry exports of Nuwakot? If there is a pandemic at any point in time it isn't going to come from poultry exports.

I am tired and I am going to bed.

"I think most would agree that if Nepal has all kinds of 'unknown' illnesses like this then NOBODY there has a hnadle on ANYTHING. IMHO."

Well said southern lady.

Ok, please everyone forgive me, for I am not a medical 'person'. Do not understand a lot of the things that the more medically inclined people have discussed here (I say this as a big pat on the back to them). So, on that note, in my efforts to try and figure out what the heck is going on in Nepal, I will post anything that seems relevant in regards to this report. Truly hope that what I post may help in some way or another.

mieke - I don't know of any "ridiculous" things (as you say) we have posted about Nepal.  Frankly, I believe all of these posts are relevant to the subject - the multiple news articles are necessary to verify a story that many of us weren't sure was legitimate.  The school closings aren't that far from the district where the deaths were reported, of which 7 were children.  As for events in Nepal's past, like the death of the pigs, I don't know if everyone has the time to do a search and read through 84 threads on the subject.  I don't see any "hype" or "freaking out" here, as you put it.  I appreciate your sharing the letter from your friend and any information you have on the situation would also be welcomed by everyone here.  But how much trouble is it to be pleasant about it?

  now they are showing they have one flight

---

argyll, Will you be on for awhile? Can I talk to you? My Email is in my profile... Thank you.

Albert "...Diseases don't usually jump from animals to humans."

edit

I was hoping to wake uptoday and see this thread long gone.  As far as the schools closing, I know the first sign of BF here my kids are staying home so perhaps they have done the same there.  To me this could be a major red flag.  Can we contact their school district official?

Cruiser,

mieke wrote: 5. Any of you aware that a civil war has been going on in all of Nepal ever since 1996? And that at least some "peace" was brought back only since May of this year? That large parts of the country have virtually no infrastructure? Did you ever hear of the "caste system" in Nepal and India, and what it means in daily life? The lack of health care? The lack of women's rights? The lack of schooleducation? The Maoists of Nepal (and India)? The cruel practises with child trafficking, or with selling your own wife, daughter or sister to the sex-trade in India or Thailand? The general illiteracy? The five thousand other nationwide problems there at least, that you've probably never encountered in the USofA? BUT: there are a great many efforts tóó to improve the situation and the conditions under which Nepali citizens have to live. If you want to know some more about the problems in that country, I suggest you surf to the website of UNICEF and look up its data for Nepal as they're quite "telling". As for the situation in Nuwakot: I believe that's being covered and investigated by people who are experts enough to deal with those problems. And trying to make Moriarty, the US ambassador, a marionet for your cause will probably nót work because if there's any embassy thoroughly informed about what's going on inside Nepal, it's the US Embassy in Kathmandu. Yes sir! bye! going to sleep now; almost 04:10 am here meanwhile....

Early here too and I decided to get some sleep and must tear myself away from this for awhile to get down to "the lab".  Also to ultrasound so I can say hi to our newcoming baby.

1) We most certainly appreciate the research and some background here. And this is opinion : but I knew very little about Nepal 48 hours ago. Jhetta has commented on water and sanitation and I did some research which shows that this area we are talking of is a nasty place.

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-29131-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

It is no surprise that "the big players" are going to step in as well as the ones who work for them, or monitor situations.  It is possible they may have missed this one and of course a chance they didnt. Embarassing. Yes, it could be for some and we are often told "the people who handle this type of thing are taking care of it. Already would have known about. Did know about it. Have decided it doesn't exist or is not worth of concern. Have been doing this forever and if it was anything serioius, would have caught it on their radar" The place is in civil chaos. This is the leadership "handling the situation." Considering the filth in the rivers, considering the sex traffic, the drugs, the legions of diseases, someone is not handling something.

There will be attacks on the site, the posters, and most of all an effort made to either deny or make the incident of no consequence.  Official people with the alphabet after their names will say - people die from unknown causes there all the time.

Ok. First, I have posted CIA database telling us we have a nasty insurgency going on here. I am sure that everyone is not killed by bullets. Second, I just posted a link concerning the the water and sanitation situation (prompted by Jhetta's post) and it is Nepal's worst santiation problem. Looks at the number of people with parasites and diseases. You have AIDS here, you had SARS, you have filth. So people are going to have a wide spectrum of disease.

And reports of thousands of birds dying (I believe). We live in a time of Avian spreading to people, and the people here are afraid eat poultry.

Now, to go to the extent of actually having someone step forward on the basis of a few line article where people have 1) fever 2) blood from nose and mouth and try to diagnose the illness as well as saying "I don't think we have a problem (letters after names) does not negate the fact 14 people (if this is a valid report 14 people died of something) in two weeks that there indeed may be a problem.

It is premature to form any conclusions at this point without data and more research. For one, if this is an outbreak, common sense, we are going to see more deaths if it is something for us to worry about.

Yet, the fact is, we have a cesspool situation which is the ideal breeding ground for something nasty, fond of humans, and contagious to develop.
And secondly, what will be different when the real deal pops up in some remote area?

It is good to see the users here teaming together and gathering data. Each person who is willing, and some are not professional network data gatherers or analysists are pitching in and that is impressive. Even if this incident is total vapor, can't you see that this same kind of teamwork will be here when the real deal, if it happens, occurs. People are going to make mistakes. They are going to make inappropriate remarks, and I would not expect everyone to have read 100 links and be informed before making a post.

I have noted, and will tread lightly here, that competition is keen in the world of information gathering. We have organizations with government contracts for 20 years looking at websites who on rare occasions may actually turn up something decent, despite the fact other groups have highly organized and highly funded companies doing the same things.

Although I am expressing opinions here, I think they are logical.

comment : You never know what is going to be relevant. Basic investigation common sense can often take something which seems irrelevant and it can be a key to solving a case or situation. We could have 14 people poisoned from the water in two weeks. Well, we know the % (see article of intestinal parasites in the population).

Yet, I also know, from a personal conversation that people were terrified of Avian and catching it. How solid are the two massive bird death stories?
Why are these people afraid?
 
So, in the interest of our survival, no one needs to win any prizes here, we are just trying to gather information. There is rivalry, politics, and as always money involved.

I admire Albert's handling of this forum and I don't say that just to make Albert feel good. The Internet is brutal, competitive, and when any one gets too much attention, others get less.

I truly admire people here in general. There are some quality research people. When someone comes through who is in the ozone, the data does not check out, there is some kind of selfish agenda which becomes more clearly obvious, then there are rules and standards which kick in which maintain the integrity of the site.

There is humanity here as well. This is not just a bulletin board to post facts. People care about each other. People are edgy and nervous and looking for more information than they can find on the media. And truly, the media is not alway correct. They completely make up stories at times, put spins on things which make no sense given the facts, and this has happened in main stream reporting. Events which never happened from big names such as CNN, MSNBC, and although some take shots at, Fox, as well.

In a battle, any battle, there is a time when we must take pause, take a breath, evaluate where we are, and what we have and do not have.
Feel free to express your opinions on this, but I still feel to believe we have a mystery here. People die from unknown causes all the time. That does not mean if someone goes to the police or FBI with a case that is odd, it should not be investigated.

Did this happen? Well, we have a fairly reliable local paper who published it did. Is it continuing to happen? Does the fact that local government state they are not aware of a problem mean it did not or there is no problem?

These people are in the middle of a civil war. It is also a breeding ground for disease. It is definitely the kind of place something could happen.

Now what are 14 people to anyone when thousands may die in other world events every day (earthquakes-natural disasters).  Whenever, and if ever you have 14 people (if verified) coughing and spurting blood and dying this counts.

Notice the "totals" all the deaths from Bird Flu in Indonesia? Now look at how many people have it and are dying from it right now? What are the percentages here? Do we have a pattern of increased infection?

Thank you Jhetta for the comment on the water. It is so wretched 14 people may have drunk from a single well and died. Did they?

How much data will be released formally on this? Will the media (main media touch it?). Could you start up a Loch Ness monster on the net by carefully submitting a story through the cracks and generate something like this? Sure, it's possible.

Data - and facts and deaths - if this is something gruesome then you will see airports shut down and more drastic measures happen. If its 14 people who died from well water, then not.

As I have posted and agree with Albert, always go to source if you can. Every news report has a spin. That, is at least that I, and quite a few others I think are trying to do.

medclinician wrote: ops144 wrote:   i am just courious i have access to some good anti terrisom alerts through my work so i was just wondering about your job.....   if ya cant say no biggie dont want ya to get in trouble.... No problem. I would check it out. I have avoided the T word on purpose. This may deserve a closer look.  If this can be verified, then someone local needs to go in and check it out. Makes sense.. right.

Muriel wrote: I don't  know if this is helpful, but I thought it was interesting.     Pigs die of mysterious disease in eastern Nepal 5/3/2006 12:25 Over 2,000 pigs have died of an unidentified disease in some villages of Morang district in eastern Nepal in the past two months, an official said Sunday. The disease, first seen in Dangihat and Karanari village of Morang district, some 300 km east of Kathmandu, claimed the lives of over 1,000 pigs in Letang village alone, Shambhu Yadav, an official of the District Livestock Services Office (DLSO), said, adding that eight boars and four buffaloes also died of the disease. "The disease is believed to be air borne but we have not launched any investigation into it," Yadav noted. Earlier, it was suspected that swine fever was the cause of the deaths but outbreak of avian flu in India has terrified the farmers of Morang district located close to India. Farmers have been disposing the carcass of diseased animals in the nearby forest and the environment has been polluted there, according to Yadav. Fever, dysentery, yawning and lack of appetite are the symptoms of the disease, Yadav added.  Xinhua news   http://tinyurl.com/pc4ta

The death of a thousand of anything is serious. When you look at some of the bird flu deaths, you get two birds dead in Michigan and we are boycotted by 3 countries.

Pigs are mixing vessels for the jump of a virus from animal to people. This is perhaps over simplified, but dying pigs can lead to dying people.