The most susceptible of Bird Flu are domestic poultry but all species of birds are believed to be sensitive to the disease. Wild birds though are more resistant to H5N1. Chickens and turkeys are most susceptible.
The infection caused by the Influenza triggers a large spectrum of symptoms in birds, leading from middle illness signs to a fatal ending. Bird flu is a very dangerous condition as it produces wide spreading epidemics in birds and the direct contact is highly contagious to human. The symptoms usually appear sudden and the mortality rate is almost in all cases 100%.
There are few known cases of illness transmission in man, in 1997 in Hong Kong 6 persons died of Bird Flu after a number of 16 got infected. Also susceptible to the disease are pigs. After those cases, the entire poultry population is Hong Kong was destroyed in order to prevent a catastrophic pandemic.
There are 15 species of Influenza virus known, but the most dangerous of all is H5N1 as it can trigger deadly diseases in human and can rapidly mutate producing uncontrollable new types. After they have survived the infection, birds still carry the active virus for 10 days and are able to transmit it on live poultry markets and by wild migratory birds. An increased number of sick human would trigger the risk of an infection with both bird and human infecting virus types. This would represent an opportunity for a pandemic flu transmitted also from human to human not only from sick birds to man.
The first occurring symptoms of the Bird Flu are fever, sore throat and cough. On an Influenza field, other dangerous complications like respiratory distress and multi-organ failure can appear causing a certain death. Different types of viral pneumonia have also been found complicating the Influenza infection.
Bird Flu can affect previously healthy children and adults, but the most susceptible are persons with different chronic conditions. All strains of the virus, of human and animal origin, can now be rapidly and surely be diagnosed with specifically testing. Today, very efficient antiviral drugs have been discovered; they can be used both in treatment and in the prevention of the infection with influenza virus type A. The antiviral grigs have their limitations, as they are expected to be more helpful in previous healthy persons.
The appearance of a new genetic mutation would require at least four months to detect an efficient vaccine for the entire affected area population.
Information On Bird Flu
Scientists believe that if H5N1 virus merges with a human flu virus, the new improved virus could transmit from human to human, leading to a global pandemic.
Wild birds are a natural reservoir of type A of flu virus, but they are not affected by it. They can infect domestic birds such as chicken and turkey that will get ill and then die.
There are many forms of avian flu viruses, some cause mild symptoms to the birds, but other forms are highly pathogenic and can lead to the extinction of the bird. This virulent form is responsible for what happened in Asia.
Until 1997, nobody knew that the virus can affect humans, but it has happened to those who have been in close contact with infected birds. Now, scientists are concerned about a possible mutation of the virus, making it more lethal and transmittable from human to human. This could lead to a global pandemic very much alike with the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919, when 40-50 million people died.
The pandemic can appear as a result of a combination between bird flu virus's genes and genes of a regular human flu, resulting a new virus that can rapidly infect a large number of people.
By now no cases were registered where an infected person transmitted the virus to another person, but the risk for this to happen soon is quite high.
Birds get infected by eating or inhaling the virus, and they shed the virus in their saliva, faeces and mucus. People that get in close contact with infected birds or with their faeces can also get infected. Eating cooked chicken or turkey is not a way of getting the disease.
Some of the symptoms of H5N1 flu are: fever, muscle pain, lethargy, sore throat conjunctivitis, breathing problems.
So far, doctors used anti-viral drugs to treat the infected people, and most of them proved to be of help.
In Asia, the bird flu made a lot of victims: in 1997, Hong Kong, 18 persons got infected and 6 died; in 2003, 2 persons were infected, one died; in the Far East 10 deaths were recorded.
As soon as the scientists develop an effective H5N1 vaccine the panic that people have been living in could come to an end, and life could regain its natural course.