Hawaii Prepares for Flu Pandemic

One of the most popular tourist spots in the world is preparing for a possible global flu epidemic. The islands history is plastered with diseases ranging from smallpox to measles and syphilis, and with the bird flu just off the northwestern coast, Hawaii is worried.

In Hawaii, which has 1.3 million residents, there are an average of 171,000 travelers at any given time. About 20,000 people fly in each day, and many of them are from Asia, which is why airports have started a flu monitoring program.

"We are very concerned in Hawaii about the fact we are the western doorway to the United States," said Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the state Department of Health. "We see a large number of visitors ... and a good proportion of them are from the Far East where we know a good number of emerging diseases are originating."

In Honolulu, their airport's program to examine incoming passengers was announced in November of 2005, as a response to the bird flu threat. It also made the airport the first to monitorfor signs of humans infected with a mutation of the bird flu, or really any other flu viruses.

Plans have been created for limitted quarantines and have stockpiled a limited supply of protective gear for doctors and nurses.

What everyone is worried about is a deadly form of the H5N1 flu that has killed millions of birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. Currently, the disease does not easily transmit to people, but the mortality rate is currently around 50%, with almost half of the nearly 200 people who have caught it having died.

The numbers say that if a human strain of bird flu occurs, and is as virulent and deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu, the government estimates that upwards of 90 million people will contract the disease, and 1.9 million will die from it in the US alone.

[CNN]

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Hawaii Prepares for Flu Pandemic

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