Sydney- Body Bags Ready

November 12th, 2006.

The Sunday Telegraph, a major Newspaper in Sydney, Australia had the following story.
********************************************
BODY BAGS READY

The Federal Government is stockpiling thousands of body-bags at secret locations across the country in readiness for a bird flu outbreak,

It is understood health authorities are planning on up to 5000 casualties in the event of avian influenza occuring in Australia.

Five-thousand body-bags were purchased last week by the government agency responsible for an avian influenza outbreak, Emergency Management Australia. They are of the highest quality to ensure there are no leakages of infected body fluid, unlike standard body-bags.
*********************************************

I just though this was a very strange story. That was the story in it's entirety, hidden away in the back pages that not many people get to on a Sunday morning.
As an undertaker I find it strange that I haven't heard about this yet. We get filled in on all the latest viruses and how to combat them. The company I work for has the government contract for removing dead bodies in Sydney, and yet this story is news to me.

It's just funny because we haven't heard anything on the bird flu in Australia for some time, and now they tell us they are stockpiling body-bags.

Is it a case of better safe than sorry? Or is is something more?

I though our country had one of the best and highly secured Customs Systems in the world. Those damned, evil Chickens are out to get us.

Send us no more Chickens.

Yeah I read the article too and I think using Bird Flu is just a cover for something else. What that could be I have no idea.


I smell a rat...I always smell a rat


In Peace Always
resi

ware I work during the first gulf war thay maid bodybags and droped them off at secret locations.but I havent heard them making any sensce.if I here anything I will update this post.I belive this is something to watch thow.

Interesting post Unrealised,

Perhaps its a WHO recommendation, because the British have just announced a similar
proposal..

British proposal for body bags

Let us know if anything comes through via undertaking circles.....

I found some more links on this subject.

Immediate steps of outbreak tracking, stockpiling medical supplies, and developing emergency communications plans;
healthyamericans.org...

Improving vaccines, stockpiling antiviral drugs part of strategy
edition.cnn.com...

US warns of impending flu pandemic
www.theage.com.au...

What you need to know now to protect your family from a bird flu pandemic
www.survivetheflu.com...

This is all strange considering the fact that I have not heard nor read anything about the bird flu for a while now. I thought it has mitigated.

A bit of odd timing:

Bird Flu Battler Chan to Head WHO Nov. 9, 2006.

Margaret Chan…from the above link:

Chan gained international renown when she led Hong Kong's public health department at a time it faced the world's first known human outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in 1997. Her swift reaction, ordering the slaughter of the province's entire poultry population about 1.5 million birds in just three days was applauded and is said to have prevented a major human health crisis

and on China’s recent cooperation (or lack of)….

Last week World Health Organization (WHO) officials in Beijing charged that the ministry was withholding information on bird flu and had not shared virus samples with the UN body.
[Jia]…said that there had been a delay in transmitting the samples, which he ascribed to Beijing's scrupulous attention to safety regulations.
"I want the journalists to understand that those viruses are highly virulent," he said.
"It is difficult to transport them. If anything happens during the course of the transportation, the consequences would be very serious."
[…snip...]
"We are very encouraged because actually today the viruses have been shipped to our WHO collaborating center," said Hank Bekedam, the WHO's chief representative in China. "We are very encouraged and we are now looking for the next phase."
Jia said that the Chinese government intended to step up its cooperation with multilateral health organizations.

China Rejects Bird Flu Accusations Nov. 10, 2006.

Chan beat out some very good people up for the position…the vote was unanimous.

She probably will be a solid source for some knowledge which has been suppressed within China about this topic.

Originally posted by RetinoidReceptor
This is all strange considering the fact that I have not heard nor read anything about the bird flu for a while now. I thought it has mitigated.

Who knows?...

Despite mass vaccinations of poultry in China, the bird flu virus continues to evolve. Samples collected from poultry markets in southern China over the last year show that a variant of the virus has spread outward from a single province and supplanted strains in the rest of the region, researchers report. The result calls into question the steps taken so far to contain the virus, which public health officials fear could give rise to a deadly worldwide flu pandemic

Scientific American Oct. 30, 2006.

mg

I'm glad you guys found some interest in this little story.

Let's keep up the good work eh?

On another note, did you guys hear about that train in Newcastle, just north of Sydney gettin robbed? Apparently it had tonnes of fertilizer on board.

As it is, the common practice for stopping contamination from a cadaver is to place it in 2 body bags and mark it with an "Infectious" sticker.

I've picked up truck accident victims that were so torn apart that they needed to be placed in 2 body bags, and yet you still get blood seeping through the zippers.

The gloves that we (undertakers) use are standard medical examination gloves, and do NOT stop the AIDS virus and other such nasties from getting into our system. That's when the boss says "double glove", but I can't help but wonder if this is enough.

There is a brand of gloves that are purple, I can't recall the name, but they are supposed to be a strong and tightly packed latex that stops infection, but even us government contractors can't have them on board because they are "too expensive".

We do use anti-splatter body suits, but again, they don't guarantee safety from diseases. They just stop blood and other body fluids getting on our uniform. Not to mention when you pick up a decomposed body, it leeches all sorts of gases and such. We use respirators for these bodies but they don't stop the smell, hence they are fallible and not completely air tight.

There needs to be a MAJOR change in the removal and transportation of dead bodies in this and every country. The work pays well but it is EXTREMELY dangerous. Who knows what we are exposed to?

If this bird flu becomes a major player in the months or years to come, even in my professional field we are ill prepared.

Seriously, we are disgustingly ILL PREPARED.

Honestly I think this is one of those times where the governments
want to be prepared, like a better safe than sorry thing.

In my opinion, should such an outbreak occur, the best thing to
do would be to just incinerate the infected dead in closed high
temperature ovens.

Originally posted by iori_komei
In my opinion, should such an outbreak occur, the best thing to
do would be to just incinerate the infected dead in closed high
temperature ovens.

Damned straight. I'd hate to think that they'd be storing those bodies, waiting for them to be buried, all the while they are leeching a deadly virus into the hospital and into the general community.

That's another thing. Most bodies are stored at hospitals. What a dumb idea. Let's just put these highly infectious pieces of dead meat into a cool room only 100 metres from the next stage of the hospital.

Maybe we'll have an outbreak if a few orderlies don't follow procedure to the book. YAY!

If anyone is interested in keeping abreast of current events around the world with the bird flu, this site updates every 5 minutes and is very informative.

www.newsnow.co.uk...

hmmmmmmm seems like we are not the only ones stocking up on better / more infectiouse disease equipment then... good to see.

Heres a little known fact about face masks. Unless they are the very high quality products, the standard surgical face mask (as used in operating theatres) are useless after 10 minutes due to the fact that they become saturated and then leak like any thing - hence their use in theatres is non -existant apart from a splash barrier for the wearer.

Now, here in the UK we have single ply body bags(cheap, and lots of them), double yellow infectiouse disease bags (Thicker, two ply and bright yellow) and the third thats been rolling into the stores at the minute. They are orange in colour, made of what looks like a vulcanised / rubberised plastic, have a chest zip not a side zip like the other two bags, and carry handles at each corner. These bags are being stored in the hospital basement by the box load along with all the over clothes and such like in case of an out break along with some funky looking respirators in a lurid green colour...

Guess its a case of better safe than sorry really isn't it?

Damned disturbing news Unrealised.
If you are in Aus,Heres hoping nothing bad happens there.
I`m in the UK so I am worried too.
For us here,the timing is odd,as birds only fly here in the spring,and now is the start of our winter,so ???
I guess as Aus is starting summer about now more birds will migrate there.
Well we just got through our summer OK,I hope the same happens with you guys in Australia.

Interesting.

Feeds my suspicion that we're already in

Stage 5 or early Stage 6 of a pandemic.

You know I was just reading an article about DU Depleted Uranium. Until now I hadn't much given it thought until this article provoked a red flag about this thread and the mention of large quantities of body bags.

In one of the above posts it mentions heavy duty body bags to prevent leakage. But why would that be important? The bird flu virus would die with the host and leakage into the ground would not pose a threat directly.
But this article made better sense about DU and why these heavy duty bags are needed.

Take a read. It's very interesting and scary and the public would never suspect.

www.rumormillnews.com...

Now I'm not sure how reputable this site is but I'm sure someone will let me know.