Bird flu cases are increasing continuously in the world, can the epidemic spread?
Feb 19, 2023 at 09:30 pm
Bird flu cases are increasing rapidly in many countries including America, Japan, due to which lakhs of birds have lost their lives in the last one year.
According to experts, other animals are also getting infected with bird flu in large numbers, while the World Health Organization (WHO) had told that cases of bird flu have also been found in humans.
Let us know how dangerous this infection is and whether it can spread an epidemic in the world.
What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?
According to America's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), if a person becomes infected with bird flu, he may show many other symptoms including cough, fever, headache, muscle pain. However, in case of severe symptoms, a person infected with bird flu may have to be admitted to the hospital.
Bird flu infected person can also have pneumonia, kidney and heart related problems.
Can bird flu spread pandemic?
Experts have said that bird flu has the potential to spread among mammals.
In October, an outbreak of H5N1 virus with a mutation at a farm in Spain killed more than 50,000 minks, while about 2,500 seals were found dead on Russia's Caspian Sea coast last month.
Experts had said that if the infection was spread among the seals, then it could spread the epidemic among humans as well.
The risk of bird flu in humans is low – WHO
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said that the risk of bird flu spreading to humans is very low. However, he added that humans should not touch sick and dead birds as a precautionary measure.
The WHO reported that infection spread to humans usually occurs through direct or indirect contact with live or dead infected poultry or contaminated environment.
How many cases have been found in humans so far?
According to WHO, so far 868 people have been infected with H5N1 avian influenza globally.
Let us inform that from January, 2003 to November, 2022, it had spread in 21 countries of the whole world and due to this about 457 people have died i.e. the death rate of bird flu is 53 percent.
Significantly, last year only five cases of bird flu were reported in humans.
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