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Gory avian flu disease being debated in US Congress
In the latest avian flu developments in the US, the Center for Disease Control is asking airlines to submit passenger lists and both houses of Congress are holding hearings on what measures to take.
One of the witnesses on Capitol Hill was John Berry, who spent seven years researching his book on the horrors of the deadly 1918 flu pandemic.
“People turned so dark blue from lack of oxygen a physician reported he had difficulty distinguishing between black and white patients. Victims could bleed from their mouth, nose, ears and eyes,” he told a Senate subcommittee.
Mr Berry’s book obviously had an impact on President Bush who recommended it to the general public.
Berry praised the president’s proposed $7.1 billion pandemic preparedness plan as “sound.”
The plan calls for new vaccine technology, the stockpiling of antiviral drugs and help for the states to formulate their own plans to prepare for a possible outbreak of the flu.
Barry says he has no idea whether the current strain of avian flu could resemble the deadly 1918 version. But he said another flu outbreak of some kind is a virtual certainty.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) proposes requiring airlines to submit passenger lists “upon request” to avoid the center’s frustrations in trying to alert American travelers exposed to the SARS outbreak in 2003.
“We found we were in some cases incapable of contacting people,” said a CDC spokeswoman.
The agency estimates the regulations will cost the airline industry up to $386 million a year to build and maintain a database.
“Airlines are already bracing for the financial impact and privacy questions that will hit when the Transportation Security Administration develops an acceptable methodology for transmitting passenger data to the TSA for matching against an FBI terrorist watch list,” said InformationWeek.
The proposed CDC rulings will have another month for public comments.
The airline industry is expected to come up with a cost analysis.
They will not be the only one impacted by the requirements, however. Travel agents and cruise lines will also have millions more in added costs.
Report by David Wilkening
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