Avian Flu Pandemic

Art Bell spoke with practicing internist Dr. Gary Ridenour about why he believes that avian flu represents the greatest health threat to mankind in the history of the world.

The current strain of avian flu kills about 60% of the people who contract it in as little as eight hours, Ridenour said. In order for it to become a pandemic, he explained, the virus must mutate down to a less lethal but far more infectious form that can be spread from one person to another. Ridenour estimates a one in three chance of an avian flu pandemic in the near future.

Though seemingly counterintuitive, Ridenour said the death rate will be highest among 20 to 40 year olds because they have the best immune systems. This is because the avian flu harnesses the immune system to attack and dissolve the tissue in the lungs. According to health experts, this "cytokine storm" is one of the main reasons so many young and healthy people died during the 1918 flu pandemic -- an outbreak that killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people, Ridenour noted.

He estimates this time up to one billion people could perish during the pandemic, but not solely from the virus' lethal effects. Instead, Ridenour believes many will not survive because of a disastrous infrastructure meltdown caused by the pandemic.

Ridenour noted that Tamiflu and other flu treatment drugs will likely not be an effective defense against the virus. If people can stay secluded indoors for the first 8-10 days of the outbreak, he recommended, there is a good chance they will survive the first wave.

Bio
Gary Ridenour attended Hiram College and was at Woodstock and the Kent State Shootings. He interviewed at numerous medical schools that refused his application because they didn’t like people that,"rock the boat." Gary attended medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico and was one of the main characters in the movie, "Bad Medicine," written by a classmate. He ran his own clinic for the poor out of a Catholic Church clinic and sometimes sat and read up on a problem with the patient in the room. Doctor Ridenour did his Internship in Regina, Sakatchewan, and then moved to St. Louis for his residency in Internal Medicine.

Later he set up the Critical Care Fellowship Program and was the first fellow. After training Dr. Ridenour ran the emergency room at St. Louis City Hospital, where he saw a murder a day, a rape a day and two gunshots to the chest a day. In 1975 he set up the first free-standing rape treatment center at City Hospital and was, "Citizen of the Year," in 1980. He decided to go West and arrived in Fallon, Nevada in 1981. During the Reagan years, Naval Air Station Fallon grew into the premier fighter weapon school in the world and boasts of being the home to, “Top Gun.” Dr. Ridneour has been heavily engaged in the leukemia cluster in Fallon and has co-authored four papers on the subject. He probably is the only citizen in the U.S., who can say he turned an aircraft carrier around toward home and made sure everyone received antiviral medications on the way. His current interest is in educating everyone on the threat of the, "Avian Flu