Frankly, the only 100% way is to have body secretions tested by a World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia. There are also such laboratories in Melbourne Australia and London England.
Obviously, they are not available to just any and every household and clinic with a flu patient. Right now there're probably overwhelmed with testing new and suspected cases in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.
If you have good reason to believe that you have been exposed to bird flu, then you should go right away to a clinic or hospital to be tested and get the care you'll need if your case becomes severe.
You have good reason to believe you have been exposed to bird flu if you live in or have travelled recently in SouthEast/South Asia, the Mid-East, Europe or Africa. Especially if you work with or around chickens or you have been around chickens. That is, to a chicken market or to a cock fight (where chicken blood and other fluids and sprayed through the air and onto the audience.) And also if you've eaten any undercooked chicken or eggs from those areas.
If you are in those areas and feeling very sick, get medical attention immediately even if you have not been exposed to chickens. You never know -- when bird flu becomes highly contagious, somebody is going to be the first victim to have no exposure to chickens. I hope it's not you, but I don't know that.
Right now, those of us who live in North or South America have no direct exposure to bird flu. But of course that will eventually change. And it's possible somebody could catch it from a migrating duck.
For example, near my apartment there's a small municipal park with a nice pond stocked with fish . . . and ducks love it! In nice weather hundreds of people especially children are exposed to ducks and their manure.
The difficult thing is that bird flu is, first of all, influenza. It infects the cells lining your respiratory tract and therefore causes symptoms that are much the same as ordinary flu:
Fatigue
Coughing
Sneezing
Muscle pain
High fever
Sore throat
Conjunctivitis -- pink eye
Bird flu can also cause:
Stomach ache
Vomiting - including blood
Severe headaches
Bone aches
Severe fatigue lasting longer than ordinary flu
Stuffy nose
Dizziness
Diarrhea
During the first one or two days, bird flu will look exactly like ordinary flu.
The big difference -- and danger -- from its development. Bird flu tends to cause much more severe breathing problems than ordinary flu, plus triggers a much more severe counteraction by your body's immune system.
This can result in a fever that's high enough to be dangerous in itself.
If you or your loved one develops a high fever and/or difficulty breathing, definately see a doctor as soon as possible. Or any of the other symptoms associated with just bird flu. Whether you've got bird flu or not, you need professional medical care.
Last November 2005, a biotech company in Singapore named Rockeby announced that they'd come up with a quick test for bird flu.
According to WHO, their test is not proven yet. You can get more information on it from searching Google for Rockeby.
WHO has said they are working on a standard test for bird flu, but that has not come out yet. Until it does, they say the only recognized tests for bird flu must be done by their laboratories.
And of course, my final piece of advice should be obvious.
When there's an all-out pandemic of contagious bird flu anywhere in the world and you start feeling sick with the flu -- assume it is bird flu.
Treat yourself or your loved one accordingly. Get professional medical care.
Even if bird flu has not been reported in your country or your area, assume you've got it. A pandemic of contagious bird flu will make people ill in new areas before you hear about them on the news.
Besides, while ordinary flu is not dangerous for ordinary adults, it still kills 30-50,000 Americans every year and tens of thousands more people around the world -- so it's still a serious disease.
Whether you have bird flu or ordinary flu, treat yourself well, get proper medical care -- and do not attempt to go to work or anyplace besides a doctor.
Whatever virus you've got, do us all a favor and don't spread it around.
Symptoms Of Bird Flu
It consists of every over the counter and prescription drug whose sole purpose is to hide the symptoms of a disease.
Decongestants, cough syrups and tablets, loperamide (Imodium) to stop diarrhea -- the list is long one.
Too many people think that diseases are their symptoms. Get rid of the symptoms and you're disease-free, they want to believe. Never mind that the cause of the disease has simply been covered up.
Yet I can't really blame people. Symptoms are uncomfortable, often painful.
In fact, pain itself is not a disease or injury -- it's nature's way of telling you that you have a disease or injury so you take care of it.
And usually can't see the actual causes of our diseases -- they're tiny bacteria and viruses.
We don't feel them infect us -- what we feel is the scratchy feeling in the back of our throats and deep desire to lie down before we throw up.
Same with H5N1. None of its victims have yet seen those pesky sub-microscopic critters jump from a chicken into their own mouths or noses.
None of its victims know they're sick until they feel a symptom:
High fever
Diarrhea
Muscle ache and Fatigue
Nausea and vomiting
Sneezing and Coughing
Yes, oh what fun these symptoms are. Yes, I cannot blame you for wanting them to be over and done with.
However, they're all mechanisms our bodies have developed over countless years of evolution to fight infections. They work, or the human race would have died out hundreds of thousands of years ago.
No, they don't replace medicines that actually fight diseases, such as antibiotics. But the only medications for bird flu are Tamiflu and Relenza, and they would be in short supply during a pandemic.
However, it's also true that some of these symptoms are dangerous if taken to an extreme.
High fever -- a temperature over normal body heat helps kill bacteria and viruses. With bird flu, there is danger if the fever goes too high for too long.
Diarrhea -- removes a lot of viruses from your body. There is the danger of dehydration if you lose too much water. Drink water with a pinch of salt, chicken soup and Gatorade or other sport/electrolite replacement drink. Small children should be given pediatric electrolite preparations.
Muscle aches -- Your body is marshalling its strength to fight the infection. It wants you to lie down and rest. Do so. Right now.
Nausea and vomiting -- another way of ejecting the virus from your body. Don't fight it -- let it out.
Sneezing and Coughing -- These are obviously ways that your body expels viruses out of your respiratory tract. These symptoms are not as applicable to bird flu, since it likes to infect us deep inside our lungs, unlike ordinary colds and flu.
This is good in terms of limiting bird flu contagion. Since avian flu victims don't cough or sneeze much, it's difficult for them to spread the virus to other people. This has undoubtedly helped to limit the spread of the disease.
However, it makes the infection more likely to be deadly to the victim who does get it, because they cannot get the deep-seated viruses out of their lungs.
It's possible that if a pandemic avian influenza does appear, it will be adapted to infecting our upper respiratory tracts. This will make it less deadly, but more contagious.
Whatever your disease -- Don't cover up the symptoms, fight the disease.
That means, if you're tired, nauseated and sneezing . . . don't take some over the counter medication that allows you to go to work and spread your germs to the rest of us.
Stay home in bed, drink plenty of fluids, sneeze and cough, vomit and let the diarrhea out of you whenever it wants to come.
It's not any fun, but you'll let your body defeat the infection.
You'll be healthier -- and so will the rest of us.
Richard Stooker has sinced written about articles on various topics from Bird Flu, Chess and Bird Flu. c 2006 by Richard StookerRichard discusses how to avoid bird flu in his book How to Protect Yourself and Your Family From Bird Flu --And check out his. Richard Stooker's top article generates over 12100 views. Bookmark Richard Stooker to your Favourites.
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