Bird flu - the next pandemic?

Описание: A strain of avian influenza has been circulating among farmed and wild bird species and a number of mammal species at an unprecedented rate. This particular strain of ‘bird flu’ known as H5N1 - keeps on doing the unexpected. And now experts are concerned it could become a human pandemic. RAZOR’s Neil Cairns finds out more about the ongoing situation.

So far more than 500 wild bird species and almost 50 mammal species have been affected and the unstoppable virus has now reached nearly every corner of the globe. Dr Lineke Begeman was part of an expedition to Antarctica where they recorded the first outbreak of ‘bird flu’ on the pristine continent, home to many iconic species.

In the UK, Professor James Wood is part of a consortium of experts studying the virus. They found that wild birds are now the primary route of infection into poultry farms, overtaking the movement of infected poultry between farms as the main transmission pathway. The virus has now also jumped to dairy cattle in the US. To date, 1020 herds in 17 states have been affected. There have been 70 confirmed human cases resulting in only mild illness, but there has been one reported death.

Former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, joins us to discuss the virus's recent jump to dairy cattle and if there is a risk of the virus spilling over to humans. At the moment H5N1 is not transmitted from human to human. However, research is underway to track the virus's natural mutations which could be making it more transmissible.

Professor Debby van Riel, at the Erasmus Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, has found recent variants of H5N1 are better at infecting the upper respiratory tract than previous strains. In the US Professor Jim Paulson and his team at Scripps Research have had some worrying results. H5N1 may now only need one further mutation to become transmissible between humans.

The good news is that today we’re far better prepared than in 1918. A vaccine targeting the H5N1 strain already exists, offering a critical line of defense. The risk of bird flu to the general public is currently considered low and the situation continues to be closely monitored by health organisations.

Prof. Paulson's paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Prof. van Riel's paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...