H5N1 Already in Washinbgton State?

Please keep us posted!

I am sorry about your friend. That is terrible. Please keep us informed and thanks for posting the info!

Is the CDC there asking questions or any other weird activity going on at the hospital? What is his room like and how are the people treating him dressed? Are visitors allowed in at all? Have they closed the casino where he works for cleaning? Any other ideas of observations to make to help us gain an understanding?

I will keep your friend in my prayers.

Alexa...thanks for your post...please keep is informed.

I would also like to know more info about this suspected case. Has this person been overseas recently? What "experts" are being called in to investigate this? 

This is strange. If someone hasnt been out of the country nor in contact with poultry why would they suspect AF???  Pneumonia happens everyday, they dont automaticly suspect AF with pneumonia

Sorry for the lack of tact. It's late, I'm cranky, and I'm sorry.

However, I've been on the internet a loooooong time and I've learned to question EVERYTHING. Some of the hoaxes I've seen ...

It may indeed be that her friend is sick, and if that's the case, I doubly apologize.

Leva

The hospitals are on standby with this flu and not taking chances

As I went to sleep last night I thought the same thing. First it was, oh no, I may have to start my last minute list alot earlier than I thought, then I thought , how do I know this is really true. A person could be making this up just for laughs. (It's not funny). If this is true and a person is sick, then, I hope he is ok. I am not touching my last minute list on this until I hear more.

What jumped out at me is, "he works at the Casino, casinos are frequented by out of state, or out of country travelors. That is where his exposure could have come from. Or handling the chips etc. We do need to verify so our board is not turned into a paranoia and urban legend stories. On the other hand, we dont want to make people reporting suspicious things, as the authorities will be slow, and this is our first alert system.

First I would like to say I hope the friend dose ok. I think that they didn't want to take any chances. Plus they might have been checking out the system. Ironing out known bugs before it gets bigger.

sapphire,

A list of questions for the person making the claim to observe and report back may be helpful in classifying reports if there is no media coverage.

Alexa wrote: A friend is in the hospital with double pnemonia and they think it could be avian flu.  The hospital has him in querentine and they have called in some experts on the bird flu.  I will keep everyone informed.  He works in the Casino here and has had no contact with chickens.

DAX COM wrote: Alexa wrote: A friend is in the hospital with double pnemonia and they think it could be avian flu.  The hospital has him in querentine and they have called in some experts on the bird flu.  I will keep everyone informed.  He works in the Casino here and has had no contact with chickens.  No real reason to doubt Alexa.   She is new here and has six posts.  She'll be back with some answers for us.   We should all get used to such reports as this, with increasing frequency.  We have been expecting them, have we not?

DAX, if a search is done by username, would all the posts that person has written come up on the search? The reason I ask is that I did a search on Alexa last night. The info says she joined 12/14/05 and had 6 posts. In the search only one came up. However, I hadn't clicked on exact term, so I also brought up another post by Alexanova (new ALexa?) who joined on 3/27/06, made one innocuous post, and has never been on the forum since (at least not signed in).

I just like mysteries, so when some questions were asked last night, I thought I would do a little digging.
    

Trying this again ... it ate my first post.

I think we need a report form that's fowarded to a moderator or point contact person who then verifies the info and makes a post if necessary. The report form might ask for information along these lines:

1. Name of the patient
2. Location of their hospital
3. Their city of residence
4. What they do for a living
5. Likely source of infection, if known
6. Symptoms
7. How they're being treated -- are they being kept in isolation, or an open ward?
8. Have they traveled recently, and if so, where?
9. Who believes it may be bird flu -- the doctors or the person reporting?
10. How long were they sick before being admitted?

In the US, information that a hospital can release is limited. However, simple confirmation that the person is THERE lends credibility to the report and the hospital should be able to say yes/no if a person has been admitted.

This information would let us make a better assessment of the problem. Note that a person reporting a possible H5N1 case might not have ALL this info, but they should have some of it ...

If the mods confirm the information, THEN post a general report (minus the person's identifying info).

The problem with an unsubstantiated report like this is that we don't KNOW if it's true or not. And it would be a Bad Thing if people decided a rumor was true -- and we all know how rumors grow legs and expand in the telling -- and decided that bird flu HAD come here, and quit their job, or spent tons of $$$ on final preps with the assumption that buying a half ton of beans was more important than paying the mortgage that month ... and it was a false rumor.

Alternately, if someone really does have community-acquired H5N1 we also need to know that, so that we can take appropriate action.

Leva

The report idea is one of the best ideas I have seen here!! implement it....

As far as personal experience goes, the govt sat on athrax info for a bit during that problem.... I am not going to debate conspiracies vs bribes vs foolishness, or whatever the reasons for this (maybe a little of "all of the above"?) just stating what I know thusfar and could logically apply to H5N1 pandemic.

    I keep telling myself to stay calm! We all have to regardless... Avian related or not this post is important in many more ways then one... 1) First prayers are being said for this person! 2) You can see everyones reaction went from sane to denial... true or not true look at our response patterns... I THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST, AND YOUR COURAGE TO DO SO...MAY GOD'S WILL BE DONE, AND I PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS THAT HE/SHE BE HEALTHY AND STRONG AND THAT THE H5N1 IS NOT HERE IN THE US...AND I THANK YOU FATHER THAT IT IS SO!- MAY YOUR WILL BE DONE AND NOT OUR OWN! ( I had to let it out, Guys! ) Please, don't discourage others and the original poster from posting such info ... this forum is so important to all us.. I KNOW THAT I WAS LEAD HERE... My child who is immune compromised was not able to get a pn vax? Tell me why? Because the doctors know more than we do... I feel they are saving them... and rightly so I suppose if H5 could be here already...they know and its cases like this person's friend that are reported to the CDC if we are lucky! REALITY CHECK PEOPLE, IT COULD HAPPEN LIKE THAT AND THAT FAST...THANK YOU, PLEASE KEEP US POSTED!!!!

hope to see Alexa agian... so we know.

Give me a microphone. 

Thousands of patients are diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia every day.
The pathophysiology : parasites, fungi, bacteria and viruses.
I would imagine under these circumstances everyone is a potenial "first carrier" and extraordinary isolation measures/precautions are taken.
My prayers go out to your friend.
MK

I think we need to give the OP the benefit of the doubt. If you notice her membership date is Dec.14, 2005 so she was one of the original people when the forum opened. Just because she has not posted alot (6 posts if you look at the memberlist) does not mean she has not been reading the boards, there are alot of people who read but don't post. I might feel differently if it was someone who had just signed up, but maybe she is for real.