UK government urges calm over bird flu in Turkey

Featured Article
Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 14 Oct 2005 - 15:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

In order to maintain calm in the UK after the news that the deadly strain of the bird flu virus, H5N1, has reached Turkey, the UK government has urged people to remain calm.

Vulnerable people need to be vaccinated against the flu, said the Dept of Health. The more people that are vaccinated, the less likely it is that the bird flu virus will mutate. A bird flu virus could mutate within a person who has normal flu. The two viruses could exchange genes resulting in a new flu strain that could then transmit from human-to-human. By keeping the number of people with normal flu down to a minimum the chances of a mutation taking place would be reduced greatly.

Vulnerable groups for normal flu vaccine include the elderly, some children, people with asthma or diabetics, and people with weakened immune systems.

An emergency meeting of EU veterinary officers is taking place in Brussels.

There is great anxiety in the UK, as in the rest of Europe, about the country's preparedness for a possible new flu pandemic.

Turkey has the dangerous bird flu strain and Romania might have (awaiting results of lab tests). Most likely, say experts, the Romanian cases are also of the H5N1 strain. They are being tested in laboratories in Great Britain.

Experts are warning that the current (normal) flu vaccine will protect you from flu, but probably not from a mutated bird flu virus. However, as mentioned above, keeping down the number of people with flu can slow down the chances of a virus mutating.

The UK has 60 million people and flu vaccine stocks of 14 million. The number of people wanting the flu jab this year is expected to be much higher than usual.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today.
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations