Pandemic of the Future: Avian Flu
What is the pandemic flu?
Recently, media reports have been informing the world of the pandemic flu and the horrific possibilities of it spreading. But what is the pandemic flu? What really will happen if it spreads? The World Health Organization states that “an influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illnesses” (World Health Organization, 2009).
The specific type of influenza health officials are concerned with is the avian flu. This type of flu travels by bird and the CDC states that infection results from “contact with infected poultry or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from those infected birds” (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2007). An example would be contact with contaminated domesticated chicken or ducks.
Symptoms
The avian flu is just as contagious as the regular flu. Regular flu symptoms usually involve respiratory illness such as sore throat, cough, fever, and muscle aches. The CDC states that “Symptoms of avian influenza in humans have ranged from typical human influenza symptoms to eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases, and other severe and life-threatening complications” (CDC, 2007).
As with the regular flu, the avian flu will spread when individuals who are infected cough or sneeze on others. Also, if those particles are spread onto surfaces and other susceptible individuals touch those surfaces they may become infected. With worldwide travels being more common today than in the past, it puts the world at a greater risk because it can easily be carried across countries. Thus, the importance of hand washing cannot be stressed enough.
The reason why pandemic flu is worse than the regular flu is because the regular flu comes in seasons, making everyone partially immune to it. The pandemic flu, or avian virus, undergoes mutations rapidly so that the body has never encountered such virus and no person can be prepared. Because of the rapid mutation the vaccinations towards the avian flu may not work because the strain of the virus may have mutated, leaving the vaccine ineffective.
SOURCES:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Avian Influenza. Retrieved February 9, 2009 http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm.
World Health Organization. (2009). Epidemic and pandemic alert and response. Retrieved February 9, 2009, from http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en/.
posted by carol cox @ 10:28 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
This blog is considerably less ominous than other discussions of the avian flu. One of the important differenced between this and regular flu is the fatality rate -- 50-90% among humans (if medical services overwhelmed, the mortality rate increases). It is precisely this high mortality rate which has provided us with some protection until now; people are not walking around with it infecting others. Other reasons it has not spread it it has not quite mutated enough.
I hope your version of the avian flu is correct, but I suspect it is far more dangerous.
Avian flu is one of those diseases that is so scary, with such a high fatality rate even in healthy adults. If you're prepared, like with the Ready in 3 kit described in another post, you can feel better about it. I'm glad you brought attention to the threat of pan flu so maybe people can take advantage of the program and prepare themselves.
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