Infection Protection: Pandemic
by Ronald Klatz, M.D., D.O. and Robert Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., D.O., FAASP
ISBN 0-9668937-8-6
Copyright © 2006; 176 pages, softcover
A4M American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, US $27.95
JUNE 30, 2006 Chicago , IL USA Historians estimate that, at one point, over half of the 1.6 billion people in the world in 1918 were infected with the Spanish Flu. Millions of young, healthy adults fell ill to the disease and died from the suffocation it caused. Experts now estimate that approximately 80 to 100 million people perished worldwide. Not only reducing the global population by one-sixteenth, the 1918 flu pandemic caused brain damage in many of its survivors. The 1918 flu pandemic caused the largest one-year decline in the average lifespan in the United States in modern history, slashing it by a full twelve years.
Sometimes referred to as ” America ‘s forgotten pandemic,” the 1918 flu pandemic continues to haunt medical experts and scientists around the globe. We are on the verge of experiencing another worldwide infectious disease outbreak, this time perhaps caused by the bird flu virus known as H5N1. In a worst-case scenario:
• Worldwide, the United Nations estimates that from 5 to 150 million people may die should an H5N1 pandemic occur. The World Health Organization projects from 2 million to 7.4 million deaths, which it concedes is a “relatively conservative estimate” for purposes of providing a plausible planning target. The World Bank cites sources suggesting that a more virulent form (similar to the 1918-1919 strain) of pandemic flu may kill as many as 180–260 million in a worst-case scenario.
• In preparing its Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, the U.S. federal government assumes that 30% of the population 100 million would be infected, and that as many as 1.9 million would die greater than the total deaths caused in a single year by heart disease, cancers, strokes, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s Disease combined. One disease model projects that if the U.S. population (standing at 295 million at the time of the projection) is exposed to the H5N1 flu strain, 33% would be infected (97.3 million) with a resulting death rate of 0.58% (5.6 million deaths) more than twice the number of deaths from all the ten leading causes of death combined. So far, however, H5N1 has been 57% lethal in humans, meaning that in the very-worst case, possibly upwards of 50 million Americans may die.
In the best-case scenario: An H5N1 pandemic strikes but is no more lethal than seasonal influenza. Be mindful, however, that even this scenario has a sizeable death toll 200,000 to 1.5 million deaths worldwide and 36,000 in the U.S. alone. That’s the “good news.”
Infectious disease experts agree that it’s not “if” bird flu will enter the United States , but “when.” The resulting H5N1 pandemic will cripple the US economy, halting most commerce for a period of 12 to 24 months and bankrupting the federal government and most American citizens. The pandemic will also cause grave panic among the nation’s residents, as sources of food, medicine, and the necessities of daily living will ultimately become unavailable. Presently, there is little effective, unified worldwide or national leadership in the arena of discovering real prevention and/or treatment protocols for H5N1. Consequently, it is up to each of us as individuals, to mount our own personal preparedness and protection program. Infection Protection: Pandemic provides an introductory backdrop of information about influenza in-general and bird flu in-specific, and the current and potentially fatal future ramifications of the H5N1 virus. Readers are then provided a set of Top Ten Preventive Strategies that aim to help optimize the performance of an individual’s immune system, as well as enhance an individual’s overall immune resistance to a wide variety of infectious diseases. Some of the specific tips offered in Infection Protection: Pandemic include:
• The simplest, cheapest ways to ward off pathogens from invading the body
• The “Immunity Desk Reference,” offering 70 natural, non-toxic approaches to immune enhancement, and highlighting the Top Ten Immune Enhancers
• Inexpensive yet critical ways to boost an individual’s resistance to infectious disease by using readily available materials from the supermarket and drug store
• Do-it-yourself barriers and personal safety practices
• No-cost ways to minimize the germ load on the body
• How to safely handle food (particularly, chicken and eggs) in the kitchen
• How to travel smartly and safely given today’s infectious disease threats
• The latest news on anti-viral medications, including novel uses of existing Rxs
• Checklists for individuals and families to be properly prepared in advance of a pandemic
Infection Protection: Pandemic was written by Ronald Klatz, M.D., D.O., and Dr. Robert Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., D.O., FAASP. Dr. Klatz is a long-time scientific pioneer and innovator. As the originator of the the term “anti-aging” and regarded as the movement’s first physician and chief champion, Dr. Klatz serves as President of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net), the world’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to advancing research and clinical pursuits that enhance the quality, and extend the quantity, of the human lifespan. In an Online Extra to the BusinessWeek March 2006 issue, the magazine refers to Dr. Klatz as the “Guru of anti-aging” and is hailed as a ” leading light in the anti-aging medical movement.” Dr. Klatz is considered a futurist in the field of advanced biotechnology, having overseen a patent portfolio of over 100 scientific patents and with more than 32 medical/health book titles in print. Dr. Goldman, physician, research scientist, and surgeon, serves as Chairman of the A4M, as well as Chairman of the International Medical Commission, which oversees sports medicine programs in over 170 nations.
Drs. Klatz and Goldman wrote Infection Protection: Pandemic because succumbing to infectious disease can dramatically and negatively impact how long and how well each of us lives. The physician authors of Infection Protection: Pandemic remind readers of a recent upward trend in deaths due to respiratory diseases. In the U.S. , influenza and pneumonia are now the 7 th leading cause of death (responsible for 2.7% of all deaths in the nation), and chronic lower respiratory diseases are now are the 4 th leading cause of death (5.1% of all U.S. deaths). All totaled these diseases kill more than 190,000 Americans each year. A direct threat to how long and well you live, respiratory diseases are largely avoidable and preventable.
To write Infection Protection: Pandemic , Drs. Klatz and Goldman distilled thousands of pages of information, from unbiased expert sources including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. White House. This book is your single source of the essential personal knowledge you need to survive the H5N1 threat and the many other emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats that plague our modern world.
Infection Protection: Pandemic will be available to the general public 10 July 2006 . It can be ordered by calling the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) at tel. 800.558.1267 or by visiting the A4M’s Online Bookstore at www.worldhealth.net.
