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Posts with tag: birdflu | Return to ScienceNewsBlog.com Homepage
1918 Flu Pandemic Was Avain Flu Strain
Scientists studying the deadly 1918 flu strain that killed approximately 50 million people worldwide have discovered that the 1918 flu also came from birds. This makes it similar to H5N1, the deadly bird flu virus that infectious disease experts are concerned could create a modern pandemic killing tens or hundreds of millions of people. H5N1 has killed 65 people so far according to the BBC article. H5N1 has not yet acquired the ability to transmit easily from person to person -- it is this step that could lead to the global pandemic.
Working on virus samples from the remains of victims of the 1918 pandemic, the researchers were able to piece together the entire genetic sequence of the virus.
They found the virus contained elements that were new to humans of the time - making it highly virulent.
And analysis of the final three pieces of the virus' genetic code has revealed mutations that have striking similarities to those found in flu viruses found only in birds, such as the H5N1 strain currently found in south east Asia.
NBC5.com's Dr. Malloy also has a helpful Question and Answer article that answers some basic questions about bird flu that he has received.
What exactly is bird flu?
Bird flu is a viral infection carried by wild birds. It has now spread to domesticated birds and has killed over 100 million of them. Now the bird flu virus has shown it can easily mutate and in some instances make a direct jump from birds to people. Thee have been at least 100 human cases mainly in the far east with the most case occurring in Vietnam.
When did the first human case occur?
1997
Why is bird flu different from regular flu?
Bird flu is genetically different and much more lethal with over half the victims dying. The most deadly type of bird flu virus is H5N1 and it is very similar genetically to the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 59 million worldwide.
The BBC also offers a Q and A page. More resources can be found on the CDC's Avian flu page. Past bird flu coverage in the Science News Blog can be found here
Posted on October 9, 2005
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Bird Flu Could Kill 150 Million. U.S. Unprepared.
The BBC reports taht Dr. David Nabarro, a UN health official, has warned that bird flu outbreak could kill 5 to 150 million people worldwide.
Dr Nabarro stressed he would be working hard to control bird flu through contact with farming communities and markets where birds are sold and looking at the migration of wild birds.
He said the number of deaths from any future influenza pandemic would depend on where it started, how quickly it was discovered and the kind of response they got from governments.
"The range of deaths could be anything between 5m and 150m," said Dr Nabarro.
"I believe that the work we're doing over the next few months will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 or in the direction of five. "So our effectiveness will be directly measured in lives saved and the consequences for the world."
The warnings are everywhere about the risk of bird flu and many experts believe we are not prepared for what could happen. Senator Bill Frist has also warned that the U.S. is unprepared for a bird flu outbreak. This sounds like something that should be urgently looked into given how unprepared the U.S. was for Hurricane Katrina.
Posted on September 29, 2005
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WHO Nearly Raises Bird Flu Threat Level
The World Health Organizaton (WHO) and experts on bird flu remain very concerned about a potential bird flu pandemic. Warnings have been raised by infectious disease experts
over the past few months that bird flu could start to show signs of spreading from human to human and then explode into a worldwide pandemic killing tens of
millions of people around the world. Nature reports that recently in Vietnam scientists were concerned when many influenza patients were testing positive for exposure to H5N1. This caused WHO to consider raising the threat level of a global pandemic from its current level
of 3 to a 4 or even a 5. Later studies indicated that the H5N1 exposure
data may have been false so WHO decided not the raise the alert.
However, confusion remains about the "false positive" test results for H5N1 exposure in multiple influenza patients.
The scare was triggered a few weeks ago when several research groups visiting
Vietnam filed preliminary reports that many people with mild cases of influenza - and those in contact with them - were testing positive for the deadly avian flu strain H5N1. This suggested that there was widespread human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Subsequent tests have so far failed to confirm this, and WHO spokesman Dick
Thompson is keen to play down the incident. "It was just unpublished information provided to us in preliminary form that spurred an investigation," he says. "We thought about upgrading the alert. We looked at it fast and strongly, and based on that decided not to upgrade."
Posted on July 18, 2005
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Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed in Indonesia
A human case of bird flu has been confirmed in Indonesia. The man tested positive for antibodies but has no symptoms. Infectious disease experts are very concerned that the bird flu could mutate into a more virulent form that could spread easily from human to human. So far the majority of the cases have involved humans catching the virus directly from poultry and there have only been a couple isolated unconfirmed cases where a human caught the virus from close contact with a sick human. Scientists also recently confirmed the virus in pigs which is alarming because pigs are believed to transfer flu viruses to human more easily than birds. The BBC reports that 53 people have now died in Southeast Asia as a result of bird flu.
A farm worker in South Sulawesi has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, although he has shown no outward symptoms of the disease.
In the past 18 months at least 53 people across Asia are known to have died of bird flu - all of them in Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand.
Posted on June 17, 2005
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Bird Flu Claims 50th Life
The BBC reports that fifty people are now dead from the bird flu outbreak that has plagued Southeast Asia since January, 2004. The bird flu is of special concern to CDC and WHO scientists who feel that the disease has the potential to adapt and gain the ability to pass easily from human to human. Should this occur the world could see a dangeous flu outbreak similar to the Influenza pandemic of 1918 which killed tens of millions. This entry from last month has more details about the potential threat from Bird Flu.
Posted on April 6, 2005
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