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Bush to involve military forces in the event of bird flu
President Bush said on Tuesday that he was weighing the military option for enforcing quarantine should an outbreak of avian flu occur in the US. In the event that the bird flu strikes, the state and local authorities might not have the resources to keep the situation under control.
When it first struck in Southeast Asia in the year 2003, 65 people had lost their lives. Though the virus has not been proved to be contagious as yet, President is said to be taking no chances after having read a book on the 1918 pandemic. He was also briefed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Health regarding avian-flu. More people had lost their lives than in World War I when the Spanish-flu struck in 1918-19.
This is also seen as a move by Mr. Bush to give a longer rope to the military forces in tackling internal disasters. The Senate has also given a go-ahead to provide emergency funds of $3.9 billion to plan and act in case of a bird-flu pandemic.
The former U.S. secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, who resigned in December is quoted having said, "This is a really huge bomb", referring to the avian flu outbreak.
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Written
by :
Archibald Freeman | Published on :
02:45:00
EST
Wed, 05 Oct 2005 |
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