is bird flu still a threat to mankind?

Question

it was meant to be the biggest killer since smallpox.it had alot of press coverage .where did it go?

Answer 1

Bird flu is still a threat to mankind but as it is yet to mutate to a strain that can pass from human to human. However, when and i mean "when" this happens, its estimated a third of the worlds population will die. We should be safe by then as the US has developed an anti-virus that is currently being tested.

Answer 2

It is a major threat still there is a reservoir of infection of millions of infected birds. There are some indicatons that some species of waterfowl are resistant but can carry the virus. There have been recent outbreaks in Asia and people have died. The real threat will be when someone who has a conventional flu gets infected with it too and the 2 forms combine into a virulent hybrid that will spread easily through humanity. This is what happened in the 1917 pandemic which killed more people then World War 1 & was a bird flu hybrid. Except for a few unexplained cases everyone who has had bird flu caught it from close contact with an infected bird, but due to the huge reservoir of infected birds it is extremely likely that eventually a virulant mutant hybrid will form and kill millions of humans. The German government recently made it law that all domestic poultry must be housed permanently under roofs to prevent infection by wild birds. This is a very expensive program and they would not be doing it if the risk was not very great.

Answer 3

Influenza is a virus made up of two subtypes, haemaglutinin and neuraminidase. Most current influenza viruses are made up of two or three types of haemaglutinin, and these are the ones which we have vaccinations against.

The problem with the flu virus is that the bird population has many other types of haemaglutinin subunits, that human bodies have never been exposed to.

This was the case with bird flu, it was a new type of flu with a new type of haemaglutinin subunit, which had mutated to the point where it was able to infect humans. That was why so many people died from it, because we didn't have any previous immunity. Scientists were able to come up with a vaccine for it, before it killed any more people.

It may still make a reoccurrence but at the moment it can be controlled.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Bird flu is still an issue. Although it doesn't make the front page anymore, as other headlines are more appealing, parts of Asia are still ravished by the disease. Countries like Indonesia are finding it very hard to cope with the virus. Read the latest story here:
http://www.bird-flu-center.com/2006/08/latest-human-case-in-indonesia/

Although apparently the virus has not yet found a way to be transmitted from person to person, it is a very deadly disease among birds. However, aggressive measures to contain any outbreaks prove effective in countries which can afford them (it is said, for example, that one of the reasons Indonesia si so heavily struck by the disease is that it cannot afford to kill all the chickens in the affected areas, to stop the spread of the virus, because they would have to reimburse the villagers for the birds). The virus has even spread to European country, but so far the cases are scarce and governments deal with them swiftly, as the Dutch one did:

http://www.bird-flu-center.com/2006/08/virus-confirmed-in-netherlands/

Another reason why you don't see bird flu in the news anymore is that, compared to autumn, summer is a quiet time for the disease. Birds will be on the move once again in autumn and countries which lie on migratory paths of wild fowl fear the virus might be spread this way. Wild birds are natural carriers of the virus and ironically seem to be quite immune to the disease. This way, they can fly for thousands of miles and spread the disease anywhere along their path. Expert predictions say that a worst case scenario could see the virus cause a pandemic and claim the lives of up to 300 million people world wide (it is a great exaggeration one opinion stated here that a third of the world population could be killed...that's just huge and impossible actually).

Prevention measures are taken in countries all around the world, so until the issue becomes serious in your region too, you have little to worry about. If you need any information on he disease, its symptoms, oigins, treatment or just daily updated news, just visit this website:
http://www.bird-flu-center.com

Answer 5

Bird flu has only been contagious from bird to man and so far is not contagious from man to man. If this virus mutates and becomes contagious from man to man then it could indeed cause a world-wide epidemic. It is possible also that if it mutates it could become non-infectious and become no threat at all. Viruses are like that. Look at how horrible the Ebola virus is - it is soo deadly that the host dies too soon to spread it to large communities. I would hate to see what would happen if this virus mutated and became more dangerous.

Answer 6

Its still there...there's just nothing new to tell. Apparently it still hasn't mutated into a form that can be transmitted from person to person...so its just the same old story: somebody in asia gets it from their chickens.

And besides, all the news orgs have figured out that bird flu isn't scary enough anymore. Terrorists, serial killers, and Hezbollah are better stories now.

Answer 7

People who are not concerned about Avian flu seem to be stuck in a world where antibiotics always work for everything. There was a news release on August 10, 2006 which stated:

STORIES BACKGROUND
•Wild Birds Can Spread Benign Avian Flu Strain to Humans
WASHINGTON — Monitoring of wild migratory birds to prevent a deadly bird flu virus is expanding to cover the entire nation and U.S. territories in the Pacific.

The stepped-up testing will be done by scientists in the continental United States and Hawaii and other Pacific islands. They will begin keeping an eye out for the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu that has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia.

In Alaska, where the first migratory birds began arriving, monitoring started just before summer.

"This move to test thousands more wild birds throughout the country will help us to quickly identify, respond and control the virus if it arrives in the United States," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday. "Because we cannot control wild birds, our best protection is an early warning system."

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said more coordinated monitoring by federal agencies, states and universities "will be important this fall as birds now nesting in Alaska and Canada begin their migration south through the continental United States."

The Agriculture and Interior departments are providing $4 million (euro3.1 million) to state agencies to collect samples from specific species of migratory birds winging along four major U.S. migratory bird flyways. Congress budgeted $29 million (euro22.5 million) for monitoring for the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu.

Feces or tissue samples from 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds will be collected, along with 50,000 samples of the water and ground that birds come into contact with. Locations where the samples will be collected will vary depending on weather and habitat conditions.

Likely sites include national and state wildlife refuges and parks, city ponds and parks, and private lands where owners have given approval.

Typically, the virus is spread by direct contact with contaminated birds. Scientists fear the virus could mutate and pass from person to person, leading to a pandemic.

Answer 8

It's never BEEN a threat. It's just a possible threat. There are bigger problems to worry about.

Answer 9

It's still there but it's just not good headline stuff anymore. I think there are more things out there trying to kill us all than a deranged chicken.

Answer 10

its a threat if it spreads far enough it will take out 2/3 of americas population and 1/3 will me immune since the disease started at the west nile people of african descent r less likely 2 catch the disease then other diseases