BBC: "11 ill as bird flu tests continue"
(BTW: If these 26 people got flu from the infected birds, then it might indicate that bird flu is not so difficult to catch from an infected bird BUT that it is also not as deadly as once believed. In Asia, most people who go to the hospital with it die, but MANY more MIGHT get it and not go to hospital at all because it effects them in a much much milder way. If these 26 Brits have Bird Flue - but a milder reaction to it - then might prove that this is the case in some instances, and explain why...)
Officials investigating two possible cases of bird flu in north Wales have traced 26 people who may have been in contact with the disease.I DON'T THINK THERE'S BEEN A HUMAN CASE OF BORD FLU IN EUROPE... YET... STAY TUNED...
Eleven of these people have shown flu-like symptoms, but none has been seriously ill.
Officials said there was not a "significant risk" to public health. One mild form of bird flu has been confirmed at a smallholding in Conwy, and tests should reveal if there is a second case on a Llyn Peninsula farm. The National Public Health Service for Wales defined possible contacts of bird flu as people who had been in contact with affected premises, or have either handled or come very close to known infected poultry.
(BTW: If these 26 people got flu from the infected birds, then it might indicate that bird flu is not so difficult to catch from an infected bird BUT that it is also not as deadly as once believed. In Asia, most people who go to the hospital with it die, but MANY more MIGHT get it and not go to hospital at all because it effects them in a much much milder way. If these 26 Brits have Bird Flue - but a milder reaction to it - then might prove that this is the case in some instances, and explain why...)
This isn’t the H5N1 avian flu that has infected birds and people in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and birds in Europe. That virus has been killing 78% of the people who have become infected over the past six months.
ReplyDeleteThe virus that's in Wales is a different virus – H7N2.
It is good that the H7N2 virus in Wales has a low mortality rate, but there is still a problem.
The H5N1 virus picks up genetic material from other viruses. So if a bird or a person has both viruses, the dangerous H5N1 could pick up H7N2’s ability to transmit easily from person to person.
This would cause a pandemic. No one has immunity to H5N1 so it’s expected that many, many people would be infected.