May. 22, 2006 - 20:14 MDT

MAY IT BE SO

I guess my title would in the olden days be, "The Gleaner," I'm always looking for the golden grains in the field's corners.

Every Monday in our Rocky Mountain News is a section (less than a 1/4 page) by Steve Newman. It has a world map and symbols for earthquakes (with Richter scale for each one), cyclones/tornados/hurricanes, very high temperatures and very low ones, volcanic eruptions, Health hazards or things relating.

Often printed below the map and its symbols are small items pertaining to one or more of the printed symbols.

Todays item of great interest to me is the following. Quoted in full here:

BIRD FLU VACCINE

"Two independent research groups from the United States and Europe said they have developed an efficient and cost-effective vaccine strategy to control avian influenza in poultry and prevent its spread to humans. They claim that through genetic engineering, they have created a combination vaccine to protect against both bird flu and another bird virus called Newcastle disease."

## Then in a paragraph below that is the following, "The World Health Organization confirmed five more human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia and that the disease has spread to the Horn of Africa."

++++++++++++

The second paragraph indicates that the bird flu is spreading. I would guess that as it spreads the number of victims will increase logarithmically.

The first paragraph if proven true and it really works holds great hope for us humans, a means to avoid the pandemic feared coming.

And along with all that, the possibility that the technology will be adapted for vaccines used for protection from any disease that already has a vaccine. Hopefully simple, cost effective and storable vaccine for perhaps years duration. And a framework solidified to warn against an epidemic in time to assure that enough vaccine is on hand to innoculate everyone.

Wishful dreams ? Perhaps, but MAY IT BE SO . . . . . . . . . .

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