WHat exactly is bird flu and how does it affect???
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Key Facts About Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus\nE-mail this page\nPrinter-friendly version\nWhat You Should Know About Avian Flu\nKey Facts\nInfections in Humans\nQuestions & Answers\nCurrent Situation\nThis fact sheet provides general information about avian influenza (bird flu) and information about one type of bird flu, called avian influenza A (H5N1), that has caused infections in birds in Asia and Europe and in humans in Asia. Also see Questions and Answers on the CDC website and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the World Health Organization (WHO) website.\n\nAvian Influenza (Bird Flu)\nAvian influenza in birds\nAvian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. These influenza viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds worldwide carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. However, avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them.\n\nInfected birds shed influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Susceptible birds become infected when they have contact with contaminated secretions or excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds. Domesticated birds may become infected with avian influenza virus through direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, or through contact with surfaces (such as dirt or cages) or materials (such as water or feed) that have been contaminated with the virus.\n\nInfection with avian influenza viruses in domestic poultry causes two main forms of disease that are distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence. The “low pathogenic” form may go undetected and usually causes only mild symptoms (such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production). However, the highly pathogenic form spreads more rapidly through flocks of poultry. This form may cause disease that affects multiple internal organs and has a mortality rate that can reach 90-100% often within 48 hours.\n\nHuman infection with avian influenza viruses\nThere are many different subtypes of type A influenza viruses. These subtypes differ because of changes in certain proteins on the surface of the influenza A virus (hemagglutinin [HA] and neuraminidase [NA] proteins). There are 16 known HA subtypes and 9 known NA subtypes of influenza A viruses. Many different combinations of HA and NA proteins are possible. Each combination represents a different subtype. All known subtypes of influenza A viruses can be found in birds.\n\nUsually, “avian influenza virus” refers to influenza A viruses found chiefly in birds, but infections with these viruses can occur in humans. The risk from avian influenza is generally low to most people, because the viruses do not usually infect humans. However, confirmed cases of human infection from several subtypes of avian influenza infection have been reported since 1997. Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans have resulted from contact with infected poultry (e.g., domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from infected birds. The spread of avian influenza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely, and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond one person.\n\n“Human influenza virus” usually refers to those subtypes that spread widely among humans. There are only three known A subtypes of influenza viruses (H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2) currently circulating among humans. It is likely that some genetic parts of current human influenza A viruses came from birds originally. Influenza A viruses are constantly changing, and they might adapt over time to infect and spread among humans.\n\nDuring an outbreak of avian influenza among poultry, there is a possible risk to people who have contact with infected birds or surfaces that
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Bird flu is a viral infection that infect avain species. At the moment it cannot be passed onto humans. But obviously the major concern is to poultry farmers who have alrge stocks of chickens. \n\nIt may also be able to mutate so that the virus can pass onto humans and it has a chance to do so the more birds it infects. So preventing the spread is the best thing we can do just now.
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No, I don't think so. My understanding is you would have to be living in very close surroundings with poultry that have the virus, or in close contact with live birds.\n\nHowever, I guess we'll be discovering new stuff about bird flu for years to come.
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Most of our info is very speculative as of now, as when it comes to future mutations of the bird flue, all we have are our fears. Really, we're worried about a recurrance of the Spanish Flue, which killed millions in the early twentieth century. As of now however, there has been only one case of bird flue transmitted between people, the rest has been from bird to poultry worker (total infected is around 100 people I believe). The big deal is, from the infected we've seen, it has a 50% mortality rate, and this is before it's even fully evolved to attack humans.\n\nHowever, a good deal of this is speculation, as it is easily possible that many more have been infected and fealt no adverse effects, or nothing more than a cold. All the cases we now know about were severe enough to warrant hospitalization, but what if there are many more that never had to go to the hospital, and so we never learned about them?\n\nBut, with 2 mutations left to go to be fully suited to attack humans, the avian flue (H1N1) it can't be long until we know for sure.\n\nTo prevent this, people are attempting to quarentine and kill ay infected birds nd poultry, but as you can imagine, this is easier said than done. We're also stocking up on Tamiflu, which some say is our best shot at an antiviral for fighting this thing.\n\nThe Spanish Flu ended when it burned itself out. It moved so quickly that it killed off the more suceptable humans, and the tougher ones became immune. It had nowhere left to go, and died off. If the avian flu is anything like it, the same will happen, though our use of antivirals may hamper this.\n\nThese pandemics are a natural part of population control and evolution. Who can say what we do to our species when we do all we can to fight it, and keep it from having an impact upon us?
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Influenza is a real threat only when it crosses the species barrier i.e. can be transmitted from pigs to birds to humans.  So far this Avian flu has not crossed the species barrier to humans, staying within the confines of the bird community.  Once humans start displaying the symptoms of the Avian flu, then we will have something to worry about.  Best course of action: make sure your immune system is up to scratch and don't worry because itll take some time to mutate, unless we fight it with antibiotics which will make it mutate faster and then.........
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Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. These influenza viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds worldwide carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. However, avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them.\n\nInfected birds shed influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Susceptible birds become infected when they have contact with contaminated secretions or excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds. Domesticated birds may become infected with avian influenza virus through direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, or through contact with surfaces (such as dirt or cages) or materials (such as water or feed) that have been contaminated with the virus.\n\nInfection with avian influenza viruses in domestic poultry causes two main forms of disease that are distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence. The “low pathogenic” form may go undetected and usually causes only mild symptoms (such as ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production). However, the highly pathogenic form spreads more rapidly through flocks of poultry. This form may cause disease that affects multiple internal organs and has a mortality rate that can reach 90-100% often within 48 hours.\n\nHuman infection with avian influenza viruses\nThere are many different subtypes of type A influenza viruses. These subtypes differ because of changes in certain proteins on the surface of the influenza A virus (hemagglutinin [HA] and neuraminidase [NA] proteins). There are 16 known HA subtypes and 9 known NA subtypes of influenza A viruses. Many different combinations of HA and NA proteins are possible. Each combination represents a different subtype. All known subtypes of influenza A viruses can be found in birds.\n\nUsually, “avian influenza virus” refers to influenza A viruses found chiefly in birds, but infections with these viruses can occur in humans. The risk from avian influenza is generally low to most people, because the viruses do not usually infect humans. However, confirmed cases of human infection from several subtypes of avian influenza infection have been reported since 1997. Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans have resulted from contact with infected poultry (e.g., domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from infected birds. The spread of avian influenza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely, and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond one person.\n\n“Human influenza virus” usually refers to those subtypes that spread widely among humans. There are only three known A subtypes of influenza viruses (H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2) currently circulating among humans. It is likely that some genetic parts of current human influenza A viruses came from birds originally. Influenza A viruses are constantly changing, and they might adapt over time to infect and spread among humans.\n\nDuring an outbreak of avian influenza among poultry, there is a possible risk to people who have contact with infected birds or surfaces that have been contaminated with secretions or excretions from infected birds.\n\nSymptoms of avian influenza in humans have ranged from typical human influenza-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches) to eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases (such as acute respiratory distress), and other severe and life-threatening complications. The symptoms of avian influenza may depend on which virus caused the infection.\n\nStudies done in laboratories suggest that some of the prescription medicines approved in the United States for human influenza viruses should work in treating avian influenza infection in humans. However, i
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Human flu symptoms are:\n\n    * fever\n    * cough\n    * sore throat\n    * muscle aches\n    * conjunctivitis\n\nCases of bird flu are more likely to cause breathing problems and pneumonia, and can be fatal.
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Viruses mutate.  What is a harmless virus today could change a gene-pair on its DNA and be a real killer tomorrow...  Same reason some diseases go away - like the flu pandemic that killed millions in 1918 or so - we haven't seen it since.\n\nThis is what is scary about the bird flu - right now humans only get it from direct contact with infected birds - that would mena that since most of us do not raise our own fowl anymore most of us were safe, right?  Wrong... If a person has it, and it mutates in that person's body to allow person-to-person transmission, the human population is at risk from other humans... and if it is spread easily, it could be huge.
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The bird flu isn't really dangerous now, but it has potential to become a serious threat. The main problem with bird flu is its high resistance to antibiotics. And everytime one of those few people with it are treated, there is the chance that new strains resistant to that treatment will develop. \n\nThe main difference between bird flu and malaria is that we generally have malaria isolated in africa, with few exceptions, where as we dont really know how far bird flu has spread. There's also vaccines to prevent malaria and drugs to treat it.\n\nAlso, bird flu hits and kills a person very fast.. typically wthin 3-4 days. The potential of the bird flu has been compared The spanish flu back in 1919 that killed 50-100 million people in a 1 year time span. In comparison, 1-2 million people die from malaria every year.
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Doesn't much matter what I think, or what you think. There will, or won't be a mutation in the current avian flu which will make it contagious in humans. But learing something about it will probably help with worrying. If you eat poultry, make certain it is fully cooked, both to prevent salmonella infection and to lessen any chance of passing on the avian flu. \n\n=======\nflu viruses\n\nFirst some background on flu viruses. It's a large family.  There are flus which infect birds (we're looking at a really strong one now -- it's killing essentially all of some species, eg chickens), which infect pigs (there was a swine flu panic during Gerald Ford's Presidency), which infect humans, and ... Usually, bird flus infect only birds, as in this case. There are only about two hundred people, and a few cats, known to have been infected with this avian flu. it's ot very good at infecting us -- so far. The really scary thing is that about 1/2 of them have died. Very few diseases have a mortality rate that high.\n\nFlu viruses sometimes swap bits with each other and acquire the ability to do new things, like infect another species. A pig flu infects a bird and the two flus 'mix and match' and produce a new flu capable of infecting a human, perhaps. Or some other combination. Most of this seems to go on in SE Asia, where duck ponds, a few pigs, and the humans family live in very close quarters. This cross species stuff doesn't seem to be all that common. Human flus have undergone major changes only every few years (2 or 3 since WWII) for instance, and if those changes are the result of this shuffling business, there's an indication of the chances of thsi one branching out to people. Perhaps.\n\n=======\nprior bird flus in humans\n\nIn fact, we know of only one large pandemic caused by a bird flu, or at least by a flu which had bird characteristics. That's the one in 1918, which has only recently been pinned down as a bird flu. Some researchers went looking for bodies which had been buried in the Arctic and remained frozen since 1918. After a decade's work digging in the permafrost, samples from them finally yielded enough information to reconstruct the 1918 virus, and it was a characteristically bird sort. It's still not clear what made it so deadly, but at least we're pretty sure what it was now. It popped up, killed something like 50 million folks around the world in 18 months or 2 years, and vanished.\n\n===========\nfuture possibilities\n\nIf the present bird flu changes enough to infect humans, and stays very contagious as it is now in birds and as nearly all flu viruses are, it may be a rerun of 1918 for humans. And if it retains its current lethality in humans (50+% so far, in a very small sample), it will probably be a good deal worse than the 1918 experience. We have more people, packed more closely, and with little margin (extra food capacity, medical capacity, sewerage and water capacity, ...), so things should be worse, all things being equal -- as they obviously are not.\n\nThere are a few things this bird flu does which appear to be new. When infecting humans, it seems to be able to spread by food. Most flus, human flus anyway, don't. This is new. And, it attacks nearly all tissues, while most human flus have largely been respiratory diseases. This is also new. Finally, it is essentially 100% lethal for chickens, also new behavior. Whether a changed avian flu which readily infects humans will contiue to behave these ways, or whether there is something specially vulnerable about the 200 some folks known to have been infected with it, is not known. It may be that lots of people have been infected, shock it off as a cold or something, and never saw a doctor. We don't know.\n\n==========\ndefenses\n\nUnlike 1918, we understand what we can do to beat any new flu variant. Vaccines work pretty well on all the flus we've encountered so far. The problem with deve
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Yes...\n\nMy job requires looking at hundreds of avian influenza articles per week. It influences me as a form of torture.\n\nEventually, however, avian influenza will influence all of us. There is the possibility it will mutate into a form that infects upper respiratory tract cells, and thus spreads from person to person. The probability of that happening is undetermined. \n\nEven if that doesn't happen, avian influenza has had a profound affect upon the poultry industry of every country in which it has been found. The U.S. pountry industry (if you are in the U.S.) will be less affected than many other countries, because so many of our chicken's are raised indoors. Nevertheless, the U.S. pountry industry will have to undergo many regional culls. This will actually drive the price of poultry down, as we have seen in other countries, because people will be scared to buy chickens. The economic ripple effect will be felt by everyone, in one form or another.\n\nBut, we will survive. All chickens will be raised indoors, in time.\n\nThe U.S. might experience less regional outbreaks of avian influenza than other countries, because West Nile Virus has devastated local wild bird populations - meaning there is less of a vector for avian influenza to use. However, migratory bird populations, such as ducks, will still spread it to farms where chicken's and other poultry are exposed to the outdoors.
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I am afraid that the virus that causes bird flu will mutate and become airborne. That would be like the black plague. However, as of now, there is no need to panic. Even when the disease enters the US, for as long as there is no human to human transfer, just fowl to human, there is no need to panic. Just like any virus, the disease is self-limiting. What we have to do to prevent it is to boost our immune system and keep our bodies healthy
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In humans, as of 19th April: 196 cases, 110 deaths\nOutbreaks in bird populations: well in the thousands-vietnam has at least 2000 known outbreaks.\n\ncheck out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2005/bird_flu/default.stm\n\nVery good website with accurate detail.
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The influenza virus has been around for a very long time. Various types of influenza occur in birds, pigs and cows. The closer the contact between humans and animals carrying their form of this virus, the greater the chance a human will be infected with a form of influenza.\n\nYou want to know the "reason" for the disease, I am afraid only someone who is omniscient could answer that question. This is like most diseases. Why is there a cold virus? I certainly don't know. What I do know is how it is transmitted.\n\nIf you wish to know everything known about avian influenza, its history and everything else, I will undertake a consulting contract and still not be able to answer all those questions as the answers are not know to medical science.\n\nWhat is your assignment? How many pages does your teacher wish and at what level? Please frame your question in somewhat specific terms. This is very much like asking what is the meaning of life.I can only answer parts of the question. Break it into parts and I will try to help you.
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All of the published medical journals I've read, report that after previous years, a vaccine, I believe, has been found to help control the illness. It's unfortunate about the individuals who became ill while working with domestic poultry, however research, particularly in Hong Kong, and other research facilities have made great headway. I hope that you are not someone who is at risk for illness. If you feel you're at risk, then go to your nearest public health facility in your country for help, and/or treatment. Best wishes!
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Keep up to date on bird flu (don't rely on a WIKI!)\n\nSee the World Health Organisation site:\n\nhttp://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/\n\nIf you prefer an American site, see the Centers for Disease Control:\n\nhttp://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/index.htm
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While prior H5N1 strains have been known, they were significantly different from the current H5N1 strain on a genetic level, making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented. The current H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) found in multiple bird species.\n\nCountries that have reported one or more major H5N1 outbreaks in birds (causing at least thousands but in some cases millions of dead birds) are (in order of first outbreak occurrence): Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkey, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Iraq, Nigeria, Egypt, India, France, Niger, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Cameroon, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Germany, Sudan. H5N1 has been found in birds in the wild in numerous other countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Kuwait, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. Countries with massive bird die offs that do not confirm H5N1 include: Ethiopia.\n\nBird flu is any flu caused by a virus adapted to birds.\n\nIt is also called avian flu, avian influenza and bird influenza.\n\nThe only known such viruses are Influenza A viruses. All subtypes (but not all strains of all subtypes) of this species are adapted to birds, so for many purposes avian flu virus is Influenza A virus (the "A" does not stand for "avian").\n\nHowever most people use "avian flu" to mean H5N1 which is the subtype of the species Influenza A virus that is the world's major flu pandemic threat.\n\nSo "avian flu", "bird flu", "avian influenza", and "bird influenza" all mean the same thing; but are all used to mean these very different things:\n\n    * flu:\n          o flu from Influenza A viruses which are adapted to birds (the technically correct meaning)\n          o the flu acquired from any Influenza A viruses\n          o the H5N1 flu (flu acquired from H5N1)\n    * virus:\n          o Influenza A viruses which are adapted to birds\n          o the Influenza A viruses\n          o the H5N1 subtype of the Influenza A virus.