Bird Flu Supplement 1 – The Bird Flu Threat

Avian Influenza, which you may know by it’s more common moniker, Bird Flu, is a strain of the influenza virus found in birds and poultry. This Bird Flu supplement is a brief rundown of the threat and history of the Bird Flu.

This flu first became a concern when Asian poultry workers became infected in the late nineties, and the virus was found to be highly pathogenic in humans, with a mortality rate of around 65% in those infected.

Since then, the virus has popped up in over 14 countries, with hundreds of people who were exposed to infected poultry and birds dying from the disease.

There has been some coverage in the press saying the threat of infection has been greatly exaggerated, and those of us living in western countries need not concern ourselves due to our stringent hygiene standards for poultry and birds. There is some basis to this, and the fact that the virus is not prevalent over here could be attributed to just those standards.

Being that the virus has only affected those in close contact with infected birds, you might be asking yourself: Why should I be concerned about the Bird Flu?

The reason we should all be taking this threat very seriously, is as follows. The Bird Flu, while so far only infecting those in close contact with infected poultry and birds, is a virus that has been shown to mutate at an incredible rate, with several new strains appearing since the late nineties.

It is resistant to common flu treatments, and to seasonal flu vaccinations. It has an incredibly high mortality rate in humans. All of these factors, especially the speed and ease that the virus mutates, means that should the virus change into form that is highly infectious to humans and facilitates human to human transmission, we will have a global pandemic on our hands.

However, now is not the time to panic. The purpose of these Bird Flu supplement articles is to keep people informed, and having the right information is halfway to winning the battle. With the right tools, knowledge and practices we can be ready to protect ourselves and our families should the virus ever come to our shores, or should we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic.