| To: donpat who wrote (311) | 9/17/2006 9:42:56 PM | | From: Tadsamillionaire | | | | Bird Flu Fight Will Cost More Than $1.9 Billion, UN Envoy Says
By Jason Gale and Damien Ryan
Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The global effort to fight bird flu and prepare for a threatened pandemic will cost more than the $1.9 billion already pledged, and more support is needed in Indonesia, which is ``seriously affected'' by the virus, a United Nations envoy said.
David Nabarro, the UN's senior coordinator for avian and pandemic flu, said the money promised by donor countries and organizations at a conference in Beijing in January won't be enough to sustain programs aimed at identifying and controlling the virus in poultry, and upgrading laboratories and hospitals.
``We are just at the beginning,'' Nabarro, 57, said yesterday in an interview in Singapore, where he was attending the annual meetings of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. ``We are going to need to have a pipeline of funding for further work in the next few years both in the animal sector and also in the human sector.''
Human fatalities from the H5N1 avian influenza strain have almost tripled this year, providing more chances for the virus to mutate into a lethal pandemic form. A severe pandemic similar to the one that killed 50 million people in 1918 may cause global economic losses of as much as $2 trillion, Jim Adams, head of the World Bank's avian flu taskforce, told reporters in Singapore yesterday.
The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 246 people in 10 countries, killing 144, since 2003, the World Health Organization said on Sept. 14. Millions could die if it becomes easily transmissible between people, causing a global outbreak.
``We cannot predict how it will happen, and so we encourage communities, governments, and private entities to get prepared for a pandemic that might start anytime,'' Nabarro told reporters in Singapore yesterday.
Virus Hotbed
More than half the 66 fatalities reported this year have occurred in Indonesia, where the virus is reported to have infected at least two people a month during the past year.
Indonesian authorities have intensified efforts to control the virus during the past few months, Nabarro said. ``I am very impressed with the progress that I have seen, but I want to see greater investment not only by government but also by the international community in Indonesia.''
The World Bank is finalizing an agreement with the Indonesian government on a $15 million grant, Adams said. About $1.2 billion of the $1.9 billion promised in January has been committed, he said. At least part of the $700 million that's not yet committed may be directed at programs in Africa.
Representatives of about 100 countries will meet in Mali's capital, Bamako, later this year to discuss funding needs.
Funds for Africa
``There will be on the table a request for some increases in dedicated funds to Africa,'' Adams said in an interview. ``What we will be looking for from Bamako are some incremental commitments from donors, either from unallocated or additional funds, to fund the specific African programs that are going to emerge.''
In Africa, where H5N1 was first reported in Nigeria in February, the virus has spread to Niger, Egypt, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Djibouti.
The continent will require $760 million over the next three years to help prevent avian flu, according to a report released in June by a coalition of international governmental organizations known as the ALive initiative.
Avian flu in Africa could spread rapidly because of insufficient financial and logistical resources, weak veterinary services, lax border controls and government conflicts, the coalition said in its report.
``There is a shortage of funds in some of the countries that really are fighting an uphill struggle to control avian influenza and also to prepare for the pandemic,'' Nabarro said. ``Please make sure that Africa, that Indonesia, and that countries with great needs do manage to access the resources they require.''
bloomberg.com |
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| From: Tadsamillionaire | 9/20/2006 5:46:03 PM | | | | | | A severe bird flu pandemic among humans could cost the global economy up to $2 trillion, the World Bank said on Sunday, sharply raising earlier estimates.
The comments came as a senior World Health Organization official said the threat from the H5N1 avian flu virus was just as real today as it was six months ago, even if the headlines were not as scary.
Jim Adams, vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific and head of the Bank's avian flu taskforce, said a severe pandemic could cost more than three percent of the global economy's gross national product.
"We estimate this could cost certainly over $1 trillion and perhaps as high as $2 trillion in a worst-case scenario. So the threat, the economic threat, remains real and substantial," he told reporters at the annual IMF-World Bank meetings in Singapore.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com |
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| From: Tadsamillionaire | 9/29/2006 4:58:01 PM | | | | | | Bird flu deaths hit 52 after man dies in Bandung
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A 20-year-old man hospitalized here over the past week for infection with the deadly bird flu virus died Thursday, raising the nationwide death toll to 52, or roughly a third of the total deaths worldwide.
"The virus crushed his lungs and caused the creation of progressive pneumonia which led to breathing problems," Cissy Rachiana Prawira, director of Hasan Sadikin Hospital, said.
The government confirmed the 20-year-old was positive for H5N1 earlier this week. The man's 23-year-old brother died with bird flu symptoms on Sunday just before being admitted to the hospital.
A third sibling, a 15-year-old female, is currently being treated at the same hospital even though she has been declared negative for the virus.
The younger brother was in critical condition since his admittance to the hospital Sunday from Santo Yusuf hospital in Bandung. Although he showed signs of improvement after he was put on a ventilator and administered high doses of Tamiflu, he remained in an unstable condition.
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| To: Tadsamillionaire who wrote (314) | 9/29/2006 4:58:48 PM | | From: Tadsamillionaire | | | | GenoMed: Cure for Sickle Cell Pain
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GenoMed (Pink Sheets: GMED), the Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health(TM), announced today that it has submitted a case report of a sickle cell patient whose pain disappeared with GenoMed's treatment approach, only to recur when it was stopped.
The patient is a middle-aged African American woman who for years required multiple pain pills every day to tolerate the pain of her sickle cell disease. Since beginning GenoMed's trial on Dec. 22, 2005, she experienced no pain until her trial medication ran out on February 6, 2006. Said her physician, who is lead author on the case report, 'Prior to this experiment, for over two years, there has not been more than a day, at least during the winter months, when she has not required some Vicodin.'
Her pain ceased within a few days of resuming GenoMed's treatment in February. In June, her physician intentionally stopped GenoMed's treatment. Off GenoMed's treatment, the patient's pain recurred within a week. When she again resumed GenoMed's treatment, her pain again stopped within a few days. She has been pain-free on GenoMed's treatment for three months now, since June.
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, 'Although only a single patient, she satisfied Koch's postulates, which constitute a rigorous clinical test. As long as the patient was using our treatment, her pain was gone. On two occasions, one accidental and one deliberate, our treatment was stopped. On both occasions her pain recurred promptly, only to disappear quickly after treatment was resumed. It doesn't get much more convincing than this.'
Added Dr. Moskowitz, 'Ever since Max Perutz showed the molecular defect in sickle cell hemoglobin in 1946, for which he won the Nobel Prize, sickle cell disease has been a sober reminder that knowing the molecular cause of a disease is still a far cry from curing it.'
Dr. Moskowitz ended by saying, 'We're eager to acquire more sickle cell patients to see if what has cured this patient's pain will work for every patient. It's fitting that our potential cure comes during America's Sickle Cell Awareness and Pain Awareness Month.' |
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| From: jmhollen | 10/10/2006 9:32:22 AM | | | | | | Nature Medicine Articles Support GenoMed's Pending Patent on Bird Flu
Contact: David W. Moskowitz MD CEO, GenoMed tel. 314.983.9933 dwmoskowitz@genomed.com
ST. LOUIS—October 10, 2006—GenoMed™ (OTC Pink Sheets GMED), the Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health™, announced today that its approach to avian influenza ("bird flu") is now supported by the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.
Click here for Nature Medicine article of September 10, 2006 nature.com
Click here for Nature Medicine article of September 8, 2006 nature.com
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "It has taken the virology community a long time to recognize the lethality of high cytokine levels. We realized it four years ago. Two years ago, we published that our anti-inflammatory approach works for another lethal viral disease, West Nile virus encephalitis."
Dr. Moskowitz continued, "Unfortunately, the current Nature Medicine articles still point to the danger of a high viral load and call for anti-viral drugs. We believe that cytokines kill the patient, not the virus. GenoMed's approach is to convert patients to asymptomatic viral shedders, which is what happens naturally whenever a patient recovers from any viral illness. Our approach should make antiviral drugs unnecessary for the general population. For this reason GenoMed's general viral antidote was included in BioShield II (Section 2151)"
Added Dr. Moskowitz, "At this point, as with the rest of our treatments (Daily Newstown article), the crucial element missing is public awareness. We're reminded every day that if people had only known about us earlier, we could have saved their lives."
About GenoMed
GenoMed owns "use" patents (which are pending) for the use of already existing, safe blood pressure pills to treat many diseases besides high blood pressure, including avian influenza. GenoMed estimates that it can already save 25% of healthcare costs and extend life by 5 years. The company is trying to get the world to realize this sooner rather than later.
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| To: jmhollen who wrote (318) | 11/5/2006 1:36:11 PM | | From: Tadsamillionaire | | | | Annals Publishes GenoMed's Approach to Avian Influenza
GenoMed(TM) (OTC Pink Sheets:GMED), the Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health(TM), announced today that its approach to avian influenza ("bird flu") has been published by the prestigious journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
October 24, 2006 - 10:12 AM EST
(http://www.annals.org/cgi/eletters/145/8/631#3964).
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "GenoMed is honored to have created a debate within the virology community about whether it's the viral load or the 'cytokine storm' which kills a patient with a lethal viral disease like avian influenza. Three years ago we applied for a patent saying that the 'cytokine storm' alone was lethal, and that the viral load could essentially be ignored. Two years ago, we published that our purely anti-inflammatory approach appears to work for another lethal viral disease, West Nile virus encephalitis."
Dr. Moskowitz continued, "We're eager to keep testing this hypothesis. If we're right, it will transform the way viral diseases are treated in the general population."
Added Dr. Moskowitz, "At this point, as with the rest of our treatments, the only element missing is public awareness. We're reminded every day that if people with viral disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, or emphysema only knew about us, we might be able to help save their lives."
About GenoMed
GenoMed owns "use" patents (which are pending) for the use of already existing, safe blood pressure pills to treat many diseases besides high blood pressure, including avian influenza. GenoMed estimates that it can already save 10% of healthcare costs and extend life by several years. The company is currently trying to publicize its intellectual property, since having cures is useless if nobody knows about them. |
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