An avian influenza - bird flu - outbreak with the H5N1 strain that began in 2020 has hit record levels, affecting millions of animals. As the virus mutates genetically and spreads geographically, the normal ebb and flow of infection has given way to a persistently elevated level in wild birds. Th
An expert report published by the European Food Safety Authority in January put the risk for the general population at low, as has the WHO, while urging continued close monitoring.The fear is the flu strain found in poultry could recombine with one that circulates in humans, resulting in a new version that transmits easily from person-to-person.
While human cases are still rare today, the death rate among those who had it in the past is sobering. Of the 868 people infected from 2003 through 2019, 457 of them died. Because infections often are not caught until the patient is clearly sick, however, milder cases may be missed - skewing the overall mortality rate.In birds, they can range from no discernible illness in ducks to multiple-organ failure and 100 per cent mortality within days for chickens.
In humans, H5N1 has caused symptoms ranging from mild eye and respiratory infections to severe pneumonia.Avian influenza has been circulating for more than a century - it was first described as “fowl plague” in northern Italy in 1878. But it was the discovery in 1996 of a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain among geese being bred on a farm in southern China that created serious, sustained alarm.
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