Archive for the ‘Guidelines’ Category
As doctors have been saying all along, bird flu much like any other viral pathogens can easily be dealt with through simple and proper hygiene such as hand washing even with the most ordinary of soaps. Studies and general observation has shown that simple washing of your hands quickly and effectively removes the virus as with the many other types of flu that can be transmitted easy through physical contact with infected people.
Swine flu has all but overtaken the bird-flu epidemic that still lurks in the background taking it’s toll against the other forms of flu and this time being the prime time for spread it is necessary to emphasize the importance of such simple yet effective tasks.
With the convenience of modern travel, planes flying off to distant countries in a few hours, the new scourge of flu more commonly referred to as the “Swine Flu” has reached full spread with cases reported in almost all corners of the world. Mexico is ground zero and from its famous beaches, whole flights have been infected taking the virus all over the globe. From New Zealand, Australia, China and many other continents the virus has spread with some deaths reported. The severity of the cases have been quite blown out of proportion, maybe a result of the H5N1 strain which scared the hell out of everyone but as with any flu strain simple precautions go along way to help protect people from the spread of the disease. Read the rest of this entry »
Avian flu or the H5N1 virus that causes it has been known for a long time and is one of the nastiest types of viruses around. They are a rare form of virus that exists in birds but have a nasty ability to jump species and mutating as needed to adapt to a new host. The disease has claimed hundreds of lives(not counting the ones that go undocumented) and total cure still has to be developed or some wonder vaccine that would eradicate it at its source, the birds. The fact that some species of birds migrate makes tracking and monitoring ever so difficult but vaccines are now available to battle the several variants of the disease, the problem is getting it in enough quantities to inoculate everybody and guess what the next question is, cost!
Experts suggest a cheap alternative if the vaccine is out of reach, the lowly face mask!
Image Source: www.ilri.org
The strain of bird flu that has infected people in Asia and the Middle East recently is called H5N1. H5N1 is one of the
strains that are dangerous to birds.
The people who became infected with the H5N1 strain of avian flu caught it directly from birds. H5N1 cannot be spread from
person to person. Experts are concerned that the H5N1 strain of bird flu could mutate (change) into a new form that can
spread from person to person. This has happened in past flu outbreaks and has caused what is known as a pandemic. The
symptoms of bird flu in people tend to be similar to the typical flu: fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches. But this flu
can also lead to eye infections, pneumonia, and severe coughing and breathing problems. Doctors hope that certain antiviral
medications will help keep the flu from spreading if it becomes contagious to humans. These medications can’t cure bird flu,
but they can make the symptoms less severe.
H5N1 is easily transmissible between birds facilitating a potential global spread of H5N1. While H5N1 undergoes mutation and reassortment, creating variations which can infect species not previously known to carry the virus, not all of these variant forms can infect humans. H5N1 as an avian virus preferentially binds to a type of galactose receptors that populate the avian respiratory tract from the nose to the lungs and are virtually absent in humans, occurring only in and around the alveoli, structures deep in the lungs where oxygen is passed to the blood. Therefore, the virus is not easily expelled by coughing and sneezing, the usual route of transmission.[19