Stop worrying and start getting your
facts rights about Bird Flu
Avian
influenza, or commonly called as bird flu, is an infectious
disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza
virus. It was first identified in Italy more than 100 years
ago. Domestic poultry such as chickens or turkeys are particularly
vulnerable to the disease. Common symptoms in birds range
from mild illness to a highly contagious and rapidly fatal
disease resulting in severe epidemics. Severe cases are often
characterized by a sudden onset of severe illness, and rapid
death, with a mortality that can approach 100 percent.
Although
the bird flu does not normally infect other animals aside
from birds and pigs, there have been confirmed infections
of people coming down with the virus before. In Hong Kong
in 1997, 18 people were infected with the H5N1 strain of the
virus, 6 of whom died. Patients developed symptoms of fever,
sore throat, cough, and in several of the fatal cases, severe
respiratory distress secondary to viral pneumonia.
Studies show that coming in close contact
with live infected poultry may allow the virus to jump directly
from birds to humans. The World Health Organization has said
that the H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for a number of
deaths in Vietnam. Worldwide health officials are particularly
concerned that if the spread of the virus is not immediately
contained, a new type of bird flu virus might come out that
will allow the virus to pass from one person to another. Currently,
the bird flu can only be passed from infected poultry to person.
At present, Vietnam and Thailand are the only two countries
in which human cases of H5N1 avian influenza are known to
have occurred in the current outbreak.
Since 30 December 2003, six people so far
have been confirmed of dying from the disease—all of
them in Vietnam. Cases of the disease have also been detected
in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
At least two cases of bird flu in humans has been detected
in Thailand.
WHO has determined that the immediate quarantine
and destruction of H5N1 infected or exposed poultry as the
most effective way of preventing further human cases and possibly
avoiding the emergence of a new influenza virus capable of
causing an influenza pandemic. Health officials fear that
if the disease mutates enough to allow transmission among
humans, the virus could become a health crisis bigger than
SARS. That disease, also a virus, killed nearly 800 people
worldwide last year.
“The more widespread it becomes the
more chance there is that it could alter its form,”
said WHO spokesman Bob Dietz.
Influenza viruses are killed by adequate
heat. WHO continuously emphasizes, and in this particular
situation reiterates, the importance of good hygiene practices
during handling of poultry products, including hand washing,
prevention of cross-contamination and thorough cooking (70°C).
The World Health Organization says a vaccine
for the disease is at least six months away.
Although
the bird flu does not normally infect other animals aside
from birds and pigs, there have been confirmed infections
of people coming down with the virus before. In Hong Kong
in 1997, 18 people were infected with the H5N1 strain of the
virus, 6 of whom died. Patients developed symptoms of fever,
sore throat, cough, and in several of the fatal cases, severe
respiratory distress secondary to viral pneumonia.
