In Turkey, experts have said that samples from infected animals tested positive for the H5 virus, but it is not yet known whether it is the H5N1 strain, seen as particularly dangerous. The H5N1 virus has mainly been found in 10 southeast Asian countries and has so far infected 112 people, of whom more than 60 have died, according to the World Health Organization.
Scientists have warned that millions of people around the world could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become a lethal and highly contagious new disease.
Let's hope the H5N1 virus doesn't mutate into a human vector.
7 comments:
With air travel, a virus could spread quickly.
I hope we are adequately prepared should the worst happen.
i heard on the news two nights ago that the US manufactureers of vaccines do not want to make a vaccine for the avian flu, regardless of the fact that if it mutated it could and would kill millions. Their reason? the vaccine for avian flu has a shelf life of 12 months. if all of them arent sold, they get thrown away, so there is no profit in it. is that for real!?!
Bird flu... in Turkey? Oh, come on now... I can't be the only one who noticed it...
LOL tlm!
It's actually pretty creepy stuff. If you pop over to the WHO website, they are saying now that they believe it can spread from human to human, at least in some cases. Super.
What's next, oily skin outbreaks in Greece?
Seriously, there is so much misinformation about this that I don't know what to believe.
All vaccines have a limited shelf life. For a vaccine to be effective, scientists would have to have an idea what the mutated organism would be like in order to know how to combat it. I don't think H5N1 has mutated yet, so whatever vaccine they come up with, at this point, would be an educated guess (like the flu vaccine is arrived at every year).
Perhaps anti-virals could attentuate the disease & would be better than nothing.
I simply don't have enough information that I trust. I hope medical officials throughout the world do.
I'm not much of a science type, but I know that birds scare me, and the picture accompanying this post will give me fits tonight.
Sorry it bothered you, Jessey, but I thought this photo was illustrative of the H5N1 virus crossing over to the human vector & just couldn't pass it up.
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