Global Bird Flu Threat is Growing
Mar 8th 2008adminUncategorized
Bird flu continues to spread across Asia, Africa and Europe. Although it’s been out of the news lately, scientists say that avian influenza, as it’s also known, remains a serious threat.The lethal H5N1 virus is mutating quickly and rampaging through bird flocks throughout those continents, infecting and often killing people who come in contact with them.
The fear is that the virus will change into a form that makes human-to-human transmission quick and easy. At least seven different subtypes have been identified.
“New genes are being formed all the time,” said Henry Niman, a molecular geneticist who tracks bird flu outbreaks around the world.
Although H5N1 hasn’t reached the Western Hemisphere, Joseph Domenech, the chief veterinary officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, warned last month that it “could still trigger a human influenza pandemic.” A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak.
The bird flu has already infected 362 people and killed 228 in 14 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. In the last year, the WHO confirmed 98 new human cases, including 69 deaths, that’s a 70 percent death rate. It was the second-worst year for bird flu, topped only by 2006, when 115 cases and 79 deaths (69 percent) were reported. You can learn more about the Bird Flu at BirdFluResearch.com