Despite its name, bird flu affects more than just birds. Humans can also suffer greatly from a disease that has become more common in recent months. Time will tell just how great of a menace bird flu will become.
According to Wikipedia, bird flu (or avian influenza, as it is technically known) is a diseasecaused by the virus, “influenzavirus A,” generally found in birds, but one that can also affect humans as well as other species of animals.
The symptoms may include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and conjunctivitis as well as severe pneumonia that may be fatal.
But there are many diseases which contain symptoms such as these. The question then becomes why bird flu would be any different.
Kelly M. Pyrek, who writes for www.infectioncontroltoday.com answers this important question. She states that “World health officials have been watching this growing threat, pondering the eventuality of an antigenic shift from animal to human, resulting in a recombinant strain of influenza to which no one is immune. This global disaster
waiting to happen has many public health experts asking not ‘if,’ but ‘when.'”
Scientific observation has not seen the ability of the virus to spread from human to human so far, but Pyrek also feels it was important to note that “because influenza viruses have the potential to change and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for human infection
and person-to-person transmission is important.”
This is the main reason why scientists know they must keep this virus contained, for further mutation of the virus into one that can spread between people directly could produce horrific results.
For more information on bird flu, you can log onto http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com.