There has been a lot of talk about a possible pandemic of the Bird Flu. With all of modern technology and medical advancements, hypothesize how a disease like the Bird Flu could affect the entire globe.
2007-02-01 04:10:01 · 4 answers · asked by Kasumi-san 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Avian flu is a variety of the influenza virus. Influenza outbreaks occur every year. The virus is highly varible, and recombines frequently, rendering vaccines obsolete and producing the need for new influenza vaccines every year. The virus is very transmissible from human to human, and major pandemics have occurred in the past.
Avian flu is a strain of influenza that primarily affects birds. Occasionally this strain will jump hosts to nearby humans, often with deadly results (the mortality rate is something like 63%). The single factor that keeps avian flu from being a major human health problem is the fact that it is not transmitted from human to human.
So all of the pieces are in place...
1. A virus with deadly human health effects
2. The virus is prone to rapid evolution by recombination
3. There are related strains of the virus that are transmissible human to human.
The emergence of a human to human transmissible avian flu strain would follow the same sorts of infection patterns that yearly flu outbreaks follow.
2007-02-01 04:38:12 · answer #1 · answered by floundering penguins 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Consider the following scenario
A pathogen infects a person, the symptoms do not become apparent until the infections has taken hold.
This pathogen takes hold in the lungs and is spread through the air.
This person then gets on an airplane, an enclosed space with recycled air. This maximises the chances of other people becoming infected with the pathogen.
Then if every person on that plane becomes infected, they then board another plane. That exponentially increases the infection rate.
Thus the disease spreads as far as people travel
Hope this helps
2007-02-01 04:22:08 · answer #2 · answered by boobboo77 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Viruses are tricky because they mutate so quickly so even with technology and advancements a fast working virus could be devistating. Personally I think the bird flu thing is blown out of proportion in an effort to make scary news
2007-02-01 04:16:04 · answer #3 · answered by hot carl sagan: ninja for hire 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it is through anitgenic shift
what this is genes for disease can switch species that have no built in immuntiy
this does not happen alot with disease states but this can happen
2007-02-01 06:47:53 · answer #4 · answered by Andrea W 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋