Avian Influenza

Paper Summary:

Avian influenza, which is commonly referred to in the media as bird flu, is a strain of the flu virus that is highly infectious and can be fatal. This paper discusses how the spread of avian flu among wild bird populations concerns health care officials due to the high communicability of the disease and its record of moving from domestic livestock to humans. The paper also discusses how, although viral strain H5N1 has thus far not mutated into a form that is directly communicable among humans and can be passed without an avian host as a carrier, the possibility that this mutation could occur suggests to health care officials that H5N1 could potentially become a global pandemic.

From the Paper:

"The first documented incidences of H5N1 occurred in 1997 in Asia. The disease was recognized as able to cross the species barrier when handlers of poultry manifested symptoms similar to those in their livestock, which included damage to internal organs and aggressive vomiting, coughing, and physical weakness. Typically, once passed from a bird to a human, H5N1 is extinguished when the afflicted person recovers or succumbs to the disease. Yet there have been cases in which H5N1 has been transmitted from a human to another human, suggesting that the H5N1 virus has the potential to move within humans as well as birds. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Barclay, W. S. & Zambon, M. (2004). Pandemic risks from bird flu. British Medical Association. 328. 238 - 239.
• Chanyapate, C. & Delforge, I. (2003). The politics of bird flu in Thailand. Solidarities. Retrieved 6 January 2007 from http://www.solidarites.ch/journal/docs/bird_flu.pdf
• Crosby, A. W. (2003). America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.
• Davis, M. (2006). The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu. New York: Owl Books.
• Enserink, M. (2004). Avian influenza: catastrophe waiting in the wings? Science. 306 (5704) 2016.

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