Anyone Believe The Bird Flu Will Infect Humans?
141276
It has already infected humans.  Even though there have been a few fatal cases, after reading what the center for disease control has to say about it, I don't believe an epicemic is likely, considering the percentage of infections and deaths (like billions to one).  I think it's more of a scar tatic like Nile virus, Sars, and Mad Cow Desease are.  All disease are sad, wide spread or not.\n\nI think we should be more concerned with the quality of our drinking water.
859308
Yes, its been blown out of proportion by the media.  It really isnt such a big deal!  More people die from the common cold in a year than from bird flu
222374
What's spooking the government, the scientists, and the media is that the bird flu is spreading very quickly, is very lethal, and has a very strong potential to mutate into a form that's transmissible from human to human. A good source of information about the bird flu is www.fluwikie.com.
1119867
Europe set to announce task force on bird flu\nEU - Europe will shortly unveil a task force for coordinating the continent's fight against bird flu, a leading European virologist said at a conference on H5N1 avian influenza.  Reuters - Thursday, June 29, 2006\nEconomic impact of bird flu hinges on panic - experts\nWASHINGTON - The severity of a global economic slowdown caused by a bird flu pandemic, estimated to slash 1 to 12 percent off world output, largely depends on how people and governments react, economists said on Wednesday. Bloomberg - Thursday, June 29, 2006\nSevere Flu Pandemic May Cost Up to $2 Trillion, World Bank Says\nA flu outbreak killing 70 million people worldwide may cause global economic losses of as much as $2 trillion, a World Bank official said. \nA slump in tourism, transportation and retail sales, as well as workplace absenteeism and lower productivity, may cause the world economy to shrink by 3.1 percent, said Milan Brahmbhatt, a lead adviser in the East Asia region, citing a study by the Washington-based World Bank. The study predicted a surge in corporate bankruptcies in companies with a high level of debt to equity, such as airlines.  Reuters - Thursday, June 29, 2006\nSingapore lifts ban on Malaysian poultry imports\nSINGAPORE - Singapore will lift a ban on imports of poultry and poultry products from neighbouring Malaysia after Malaysia declared that it is free from bird flu, officials said on Wednesday. \nAfter a three-month suspension, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it will lift the poultry import ban on the northern states of Perak and Selangor with effect from June 30.  The China Post - Wednesday, June 28, 2006\nClosing borders would be last bird flu option, U.S. official says\nUS - Closing U.S. borders would be the last option to combat the spread of bird flu, a senior State Department official said Monday. \nIt is far down the list of remedies because it would be unlikely to decrease the number of cases, would interrupt essential services and disrupt lawful border crossings, said Paula J. Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs. Bloomberg - Wednesday, June 28, 2006\nBird Flu Fatalities Almost Triple, Spurring Need for Treatments\nBird flu fatalities have almost tripled this year as the lethal virus spread across Asia, Europe and Africa, prompting calls for increased supplies of medicines to fight the virus and any pandemic it might spawn.  AND - Tuesday, June 27, 2006\nFear of bird flu panics Zambians\nZAMBIA - The mysterious death of wild birds this week has panicked Zambians, fearing the arrival of avian influenza in Zambia long-recognised as vulnerable to the deadly H5N1 virus. \nPoultry Association of Zambia executive director Mathews Ngosa said a delay by the government in confirming whether Zambia had become the seventh African country to suffer an outbreak has "killed our industry as people are now avoiding eating chickens".  People's Daily Online - Tuesday, June 27, 2006\nBangladesh takes emergency program to prevent avian influenza\nBANGLADESH - Bangladeshi government has taken up an emergency program to prevent spreading of avian influenza, widely known as bird flu virus, in Bangladesh, private news agency UNB reported Monday.  Food Production Daily - Monday, June 26, 2006\nScientists issue caution against mass poultry vaccination\nEU - With confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the avian influenza virus, scientists are now warning that mass vaccination of domestic poultry may hinder detection of the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease.  The Guardian - Sunday, June 25, 2006\nFirst cases found of avian flu caught from wild \nAZERBAIJAN - Four people have died after catching avian flu from infected swans, in the first confirmed cases of the disease being passed from wild birds, scientists have revealed.  Cidrap - Saturday, June 24, 2006\nH5N1 mutation allegedly showed human transmission in Indonesia\nINDONE
142970
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.
269756
As of now, several answers to your questions are unknown. While this disease has been in the news for quite a while, it is still a new disease, and we don't know much about it yet. Only time will tell what is going to happen, and what the effects of this disease are.\n\nHere is what is known about it:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_flu
123230
So far as we know, the avian (bird) is not in North or South America.  We don't know when it will arrive nor do we know if it will easily spread between humans.  We do need to be vigilant & watch the news.  In general, good hygiene practices go a long way in helping to prevent the spread of flu.  If you're interested in more information check the Centers for Disease Control Web Site (www.cdc.gov).
679126
right now, you have very little to fear.  the avian flu rarely infects humans and even in the rare instances that it does, it can not be transmitted from human to human.  however, the virus that is currently infecting birds (H5N1) can also infect pigs and while in the pigs it can transform into a strain that can infect humans (do to surface protein affinity--very long story).  that's when you need to worry.  but it hasn't happened yet.
659818
I m neither a politician nor american.this is what the science is so read carefully.\n\nBird flu can be transmitted from infected birds to humans but not from human to human.\n\nH5N1 , the whole world is a potential target except any who have survived the infection(become immune)\n\nIf unfortunately, the genetic deal with flu viruses that can spread human to human ( God Help Us all), this would be a Pandemic.For reference all the previous flu pandemics were the result of this gene trade.So theratical risk is there.
81722
Bird flu is spread by migratory birds and traveling people.
521591
UPDATED The H5N1 strain of influenza - often referred to as bird flu - is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans\n\nin 1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected. Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the potential to kill billions.\n\nFlu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks. The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to persist.\n\nBut sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to. In chickens - originally a forest bird and not a natural host - it causes a moderate disease but can readily mutate to a more severe, highly pathogenic strain. Just such a strain of H5N1 flu, named after its surface proteins, began rampaging through large chicken farms in east Asia sometime before 2003.\n\nThat was of concern because, in 1997, scientists found for the first time that H5 flu could infect humans. It was found in 18 people, six of whom died. All the poultry in Hong Kong were destroyed to stop the threat. But it continued to circulate, especially in China.\n\nThere were further human cases in China in 2003. Then in early 2004 Vietnam reported widespread poultry outbreaks and some human cases. After initial denials, Cambodia and Thailand admitted they had outbreaks too, followed by Indonesia, then China. That was immediately after China had denied a New Scientist report that scientists strongly suspected Chinese outbreaks.\n\nThe infection also reached Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, but mass culling stopped it spreading there. But outbreaks continued in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, where the virus persisted, most probably in ducks. In 2005, China and Indonesia reported their first human cases.\n\nEuropean invasion\nIn summer 2005 the virus swept across birds in Russia and Kazakhstan, reaching the Ukraine by January 2006. However, there were no reported human c ases outside East Asia until December 2005. Then, the virus suddenly appeared in poultry all over Turkey accompanied by the fastest upsurge in human cases yet seen.\n\nBut scientists insisted that the virus’s arrival in Europe did not pose a greater threat of a pandemic than its continued spread in Asia.\n\nAttempts to blame the rapid spread of the virus in the Far East on wild birds were discounted early on, so efforts to explain its spread across Eurasia in that way were greeted with suspicion. But in May 2005, thousands of geese died of H5N1 at Qinghai Lake in north-central China. The virus was very similar to isolated samples from southeast China, showing, despite official denials, that it originated there. But it had distinctive differences. This same strain then turned up in H5N1 isolates from poultry and wild birds across Russia, Turkey and Romania, suggesting that this time it probably was being carried by wild birds.\n\nMeanwhile east Asian H5N1 turned up in imported Taiwanese birds in quarantine in Britain. This, combined with a near-miss with infected eagles smuggled into Belgium, led to a European clamp-down on wild bird imports.\n\nThe virulent strain could to revert to a relatively harmless wild type in wild birds. However, while it is there, it could be carried to poultry far and wide. It has now reached Africa - where it is feared it could run riot. Wild birds are also implicated in its spread across Europe.\n\nYet governments resisted repeated UN calls for money to eradicate the poultry infection in poor countries. The World Bank renewed calls for such aid in early 2006, while all afflicted countries struggled to s
120947
humans, whose blame is the bird flu ...
102622
I read that the only people that are really in danger of getting the bird flu, are people that handle chickens on a regular basis, i.e. those people that raise them, and are in close contact with them all the time.  I really don't think it will reach this side of the globe.\n\nOh sorry, I thought you said South America.
38619
The bird flu is of the type H5N1.  This refers to the protein structure of the virus.  The virus can currently pass from bird to bird and from bird to human.  Bird to human spread is difficult.  Close contact with infected birds is needed, which is why it has been mainly poultry workers who have been infected.\n\nThere is a very high mortality rate in humans who contract H5N1.  However once the virus has infected a human it is unable to spread human to human and is therefore contained.  The worry is that the virus is able to mutate to allow human to human spread.  Humans have no natural immunity to H5N1 so if the virus does mutate there would be a Pandemic.\n\nAuthorities are  now trying to contain the virus to prevent the spread in bird  populations.  If they are successful the virus will be unable  to mutate and unnable to jump  the species barrier.\n\nGood web resources are the WHO and CDC websites and also the UK's Health Protection Agency.
399351
if you are refering to the avian bird flu in the news, only about 100 ppl have died of this in the last 3 years. i think we have more to worry about such as the effects of drugs, alcohol and sexually transmitted dieases than birds killing us.
274567
It's an AVIAN flu virus. We already have it here (~10-15 BIRDS with it and maybe 1-2 people) and it's no big deal right now. IF it manages to acquire the ability for human to human transmission THEN we are all in big trouble. \n\nRight now I would only worry for people that go hunting or people that keep lots of birds. You can only get it from birds...
172490
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.