Bird flu

[Dianne]

Bird flu is a viral infection with strains of influenza virus that normally occur in wild birds and domestic poultry.

The bird flu virus, which rarely spreads from animals to people, spreads to people mainly when the genetic material of the virus mutates.
Nearly all people who have been infected with bird flu have had close contact with an infected bird (it almost never spreads from one person to another).
People may have extreme difficulty breathing and flu-like symptoms.
To diagnose bird flu, doctors test a sample of secretions from the nose or throat.
Bird flu is treated with antiviral drugs.

(See also Influenza.)
Bird flu is caused by several strains of influenza A virus that normally infect wild birds. The infection can be easily spread to domestic birds. However, it rarely spreads from animals to people. It spreads to people mainly when the genetic material of the virus changes (mutates), enabling the virus to attach to cells in the human respiratory tract. Nearly all people who have been infected with bird flu have had close contact with an infected bird. Bird flu almost never spreads from person to person. However, experts are concerned that additional mutations could enable the virus to spread more easily from person to person. Then, bird flu could spread rapidly and widely, causing a major worldwide epidemic (a pandemic).
Human infection with the avian influenza H5N1 (see influenza types and strains) first occurred in Hong Kong in 1997 and then spread to Vietnam, then to Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Egypt, and Iraq. Since 2003, more than 860 cases of human H5N1 infection with 454 deaths have been reported in 16 countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Europe, and the Near East. One human infection was confirmed in 2019, and it was in Nepal.
In 2013, an outbreak began in southeastern China. It involved the avian flu strain H7N9. Worldwide, over 1500 human cases and at least 615 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization since 2013. The infection has occurred mainly in communities that consume poultry from live poultry markets. There was 1 case confirmed in mainland China in 2019.
China is vaccinating poultry with a vaccine to prevent H5 and H7 flu viruses. This vaccination program can help prevent the bird flu virus from spreading from wild birds to domestic birds. Domestic birds are more likely to come in contact with people and spread the virus to them.
Other strains of the avian flu virus have also caused sporadic outbreaks of infection in people. However, in these outbreaks, the virus has not spread from person to person.

[Oralee]

an illness that kills birds and can sometimes pass from birds to people