Flu pandemic will come, official says

By the Associated Press - 10/10/2005

HELENA (AP) — It’s only a matter of time before a flu pandemic hits, and the world is not prepared, Montana’s epidemiologist said Friday. ‘‘Pandemic flu scares me more than any pathogen on this plant,’’ State Epidemiologist Todd Damrow told attendees at the Montana Nurses Association annual conference in Helena.

The Spanish flu killed more people than World War I, he said. And that was before modern travel opportunities. ‘‘We’re no further than a place trip or two away from any virus on the planet,’’ he said.

Damrow said pandemics generally run on 50-year cycles, and it’s been nearly 80 years since the Spanish flu pandemic. He said he fears the ‘‘ingredients’’ for a pandemic may be in place, given the recent outbreak of bird flu in Asia. Its current form is not alarming, but Damrow worried the disease will only become more contagious to humans.

‘‘We’ve got our fingers crossed,’’ he said. ‘‘(But if it develops), there ain’t much we can do.’’

——— HELENA (AP) — Malt-makers and brewers bought 19.7 million bushels of Montana’s 2004 barley crop for malt, up 33 percent from 2003, a recent survey by the Montana field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service shows.

The survey was requested and funded by the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee.

Montana growers seeded 1 million acres of barley in 2004, down 150,000 acres from 2003. Of that total, more than 700,000 acres were seeded to malting type varieties, the survey states.

Barley used for malt comprised about 40 percent of the 2004 barley crop, compared with 43 and 24 percent in 2003 and 2002, respectively.

Harrington was the most frequently bought variety of barley by malt-makers and brewers, representing 35 percent of total purchases. Anheuser-Busch varieties were second at 27 percent.

In 2004, 52 percent of all malt barley purchased was grown in north-central Montana, compared with 60 percent in 2003. South-central Montana growers produced 18 percent of the total crop in 2004.

——— WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved a $445 billion military spending bill Friday that contains $95 million for Montana projects.

About $18.3 million of the money would be used for a new Northern Border Air Wing in Great Falls.

Similar bases opened last year in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Bellingham, Wash. Two others are set to open within the next two years in Michigan and North Dakota. Employees fly planes along the border looking for illegal aliens and drug runners. The Great Falls base will employ up to 70 people.

Most of Montana’s funding will go toward smaller research and development projects, such bioadhesion research in Bozeman to combat biological warfare.

‘‘We’re doing some amazing work here in the state, and a lot of folks don’t realize it because there aren’t smokestacks and huge factories,’’ said Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The GOP-controlled Senate approved the measure 97-0. The bill’s passage comes at a time when public support for Bush and the Iraq fighting has slipped, and Congress has grown increasingly frustrated with the direction of the conflict.