Can Humans Pass the Bird Flu to Another Human
When something as potentially deadly as the bird flu shows up on the health scene, it is cause for concern for many people. No one wants to get sick, let alone with a virus that is potentially fatal. The biggest concern is how they could catch it from an infected person. There are several reasons why people are concerned with the bird flu. The bird flu has been known to cause very serious illness and even death in humans with about a 50% mortality rate. The concern is that it could recombine with a regular flu bug to create a new version of the bird flu that is capable of being spread from person to person. If it were to do so, there is no known vaccine or medication that would stop it, and the death toll could be in the millions. Even in birds, the bird flu is very severe, spreading rapidly and causing epidemics and mass deaths of infected birds. This is particularly a concern for those who work in the poultry industry, as it could mean the loss of much needed revenue. At the moment, though, bird flu can only be transmitted to human via infected birds. The person has to come in contact either with the infected bird itself, or through handling contaminated surfaces. The people most at risk are those who work in the poultry industry and come in direct contact with the animals, or where they can inhale particles of dried discharges and feces that are contaminated with the virus. This includes positions such as slaughtering, removing feathers, butchering and other preparation of infected birds for consumption. In some instance, infection has been linked to exposure to feces from infected birds, free ranging domestic or wild, in school yards and bodies of water. However, while the disease spreads easily from one bird to another, it is slow to spread to the human population despite tens of millions of domestic poultry birds becoming infected, there are fewer than 200 documented human cases with laboratory confirmation. The biggest fear of scientists and health professionals is that the bird flu virus will eventually make the leap to human to human transmission, similar to what the SARS virus did. This could occur gradually over time, where each new strain of the virus is gradually stronger and more transmittable. Or it could be a single event, where a person or an animal that has a regular flu virus comes down with the bird flu virus and the two merge and mutate. Should this occur a fast moving pandemic is a possibility. This could have dire consequences on the economy of the areas that it infects, as the potential numbers of ill persons could overwhelm local hospitals and shut down business and commerce. Following basic health practices will help to protect you should a pandemic situation occur. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, particularly before you eat and after close contact with strangers or animals. If soap and water are not readily available, consider carrying a bottle of waterless, alcohol-based hand sanitizer for in between washings. Cover your nose and mouth whenever you need to cough or sneeze. Avoid crowds as much as possible, particularly those in close confines such as a plane or subway. Get all illnesses looked at by a doctor, and if you are sick, do everyone else the courtesy of staying home. Follow all vaccination schedules as recommended by your local health department. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so taking precautions now will help to ensure that the bird flu never makes the jump to person to person transmit ion, and if it does, to limit the spread as much as possible.
Latest News About Bird Flu:
FDA Finalizes Guidances For Pandemic And Seasonal Influenza Vaccines
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued final recommendations to increase the supply of safe and effective influenza vaccines for both seasonal and pandemic use. FDA's goal with the guidances is to outline the regulatory pathways for the rapid development and approval of these products. "FDA continues its commitment to help increase the supply of influenza vaccines and support the development of new approaches to vaccine production," said Jesse L. [click link for full article] Public Health Emergencies Require Urgent Advice From The WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a new mechanism, described in this week's PLoS Medicine, for issuing urgent guidelines to health professionals in a public health emergency such as an infectious disease outbreak. The first rapidly issued guideline was developed by the WHO in order to advise countries that were dealing with avian influenza A (H5N1) infection. [click link for full article] Indonesia Reports Experiencing Human H5N1 Mortality Increase, As Predicted Last Year By Replikins' FluForecast(R) Quantitative Virus Analysis
The results published in 2006 by Replikins, Ltd. showed that 2005-2006 FluForecast(R) virus data indicated clearly that 1) the mortality rate of human H5N1 was increasing markedly, and that 2) the first country in which this would be clinically realized would be Indonesia. Two days ago, Bayu Krisnamurthi, the head of Indonesia's avian flu control commission, reported the clinical realization of both of these two predictions (Canadian Press, June 6, 2007). [click link for full article] Avian Influenza On People's Minds
Researchers at the Food Policy Institute at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station have conducted a nationwide survey of public knowledge, attitudes, intentions and behaviors related to the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The researchers conducted a total of 1200 telephone interviews on the topic between May 3 and June 5, 2006.The results suggest that avian influenza is on the national agenda. [click link for full article] Engineer Who Survived Pandemic Of '68 Creates Model To Track Outbreak
Nearly 40 years ago, MIT Professor Richard Larson spent a week sick in bed with the worst illness he'd ever had-the particularly virulent strain of flu that swept the globe in 1968. "That was the sickest I'd ever been," Larson recalled. "I really thought that was the end." It took him two or three months to recover fully from the illness. [click link for full article]
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