Guide Easy For Health

Avian Flu: The bad news first

Well, it’s flu season again. Only this time, we hear everyone talking about avian flu The Super flu which is expected to wreck havoc across our land in the not so distant months.

So what is avian flu? Avian flu is bird flu. Yes, you read that right, “Avian flu is bird flu.” And why might that be such bad news?

If you pursue the news much, you will read that the deadliest disease in history is widely regarded as the Spanish Flu epidemic which killed 40 million people in just months. Scientists now believe the epidemic was an avian flu pandemic. In other words, the virus came from birds – it is believed – and a virus similar to this one -called the “H5N1″ (a form of avian flu virus). Its origins? Most scientists agree it originated in Asia, as this one.

Flu comes every season. It comes in one of two forms, Type A or Type B influenza. Type A is the more potent of these kinds of flu, and avian flu is Type A. These strains kill. Read more…

Bird flu is a disease caused by a specific type of avian (bird) influenza virus, the so-called H5N1 virus. This virus was first discovered in birds in China in 1997 and since then has infected 125 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia, killing 64 of them. It is spread by infected migratory birds (including wild ducks and geese) to domestic poultry (primarily chickens, ducks, and turkeys), and then to humans.

Since 1997, and especially since the beginning of 2004, approximately 150 million birds have either died from the disease or been killed to prevent further spread. Nevertheless, this very infectious and deadly virus has spread relentlessly to China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Laos, Russia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, Romania, England, Croatia, Macedonia, and other countries. This ongoing geographic extension of the virus is of great concern around the world. It is feared that it will continue to spread to all continents, including the Western Hemispheresnd it no doubt will. Read more…

Before you become overly concerned about “bird flu,” there are a few important facts you need to know about this disease.

“Bird flu” is not the same thing as human pandemic flu. “Bird flu”-H5N1 highly pathogenic Asian avian influenza-is a severe disease of birds. All the people known to have gotten it had close contact with infected birds, mostly in rural villages in Asia. Where there is no close contact with infected birds, there’s no human disease.

More good news: The food supply is protected. The poultry industry and the U.S. government take Asian avian influenza very seriously because it can threaten commercial poultry. It’s spread by migratory birds, so the federal government monitors wild birds in areas where there could be contact with Asian birds.

In addition, security on poultry farms is very tight. Poultry are kept away from wild birds. Strict procedures keep the virus from being tracked into the birds’ living space. Poultry farmers’ number one priority is to protect their flocks. Read more…