Bird Flu

The bird flu also known as avian flu oravian influenza is a threat that many of us have become aware of with the media warning us that a pandemic may be emerging. 

Bird flu is a type A influenza, which is fundamentally a respiratory virus which causes coughing, sore throat, fatigue, fever, muscle aches and congestion.  This strain of influenza virus, also known asH5N1 virus appeared in Asia approximately eight years ago affecting particularly their poultry.  H5N1 is a classification type of code that refers to the proteins on the surface of the virus.

Quick Stats:

Identified:  1997
Where: Southern China
Virus family: Influenza viruses
Number of victims: 205 by spring 2006
Number of deaths: 113 by spring 2006

Throughout history, the flu virus has mutated significantly and developed into different versions of itself.  The H1N1 virus was accountable for the Spanish Flu in 1918which was the deadliest influenza outbreak in history.  The number of people killed from the flu outnumbered those who died in battle during all of World War I. 

The H2N2 virus was responsible for the Asian Flu in 1957, killing over 1 million people all over the world, with almost 70,000 deaths in the United States. 

The H3N2 strain appeared a decade later in Hong Kong in 1968.  The Hong Kong flu virus was responsible for over 33,000 deaths in the United States.  This is an example of how the virus has mutated and found its way to spread, infect and resist the factors that could obstruct its spread. 

The H5N1 virus, a new strain of avian flu appeared in Hong Kong in 1997.  Approximately 1.5 million birds were slaughtered in Hong Kong.  And because this disease spreads uncontrollably among birds, it was named bird flu.  Eighteen cases of human infection were reported at that time, of which six had died.  It was reassuring to learn that these victims became infected from direct contact with an infected bird, rather than from an infected person. 

The medical and scientific community, begun to treat avian influenza with more interest after the discovery of the H5N1 virus.  Until then, the virus would only attack birds at a lower rate and even in those cases where humans became infected, the virus would generate minor effects.  Although the chances  for humans to contract the H5N1 bird flu are very slim, the H5N1 bird flu is highly dangerous, especially through SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and complicated cases of flu pneumonia.

Birds transmit the virus to each other through their feces, touching one another, sneezing and coughing, but chances are very small for humans to get infected by the virus straight from a bird.  In 2004 scientists discovered that ducks were silent carriers of the virus.  While ducks were not affected by the virus, they contributed to spread the virus through their feces. 

Flu viruses are mutating in small ways all the time.  When big changes take place, which are less common, the entire world population would be at great risk leading to a pandemic. 

This mutation, known as antigenic shift, happens when different type of viruses mix in a host, be it an animal or human being and exchange their genetic material to create a new virus.  When this new virus is virulent, meaning that it can make people sick, and it spreads easily among people, a large population will catch it and become very ill.  The rates of sick people and death will be considerably higher than with an ordinary flu.  A pandemic is possible but not inevitable. 

Based on history and timing alone, the scientific community believes that the world is overdue for another pandemic, whether it is H5N1 or another virus.  The frightening factor about this virus begun when suddenly it was transmitted from birds into people resulting in a deadly virus in humans. 

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