Duck in Sweden had bird flu

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 23 Oct 2005 - 6:00 PDT

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Sweden's National Veterinary Institute confirmed that a wild duck which had been found dead in the Swedish countryside (Eskilstuna) had bird flu (avian influenza). Seven dead ducks were found, four were tested and one came up positive for bird flu. It will be a few days before we know whether the duck died from the more virulent bird flu strain H5N1.

Several European countries have now reported cases of bird flu: The United Kingdom (a quarantined parrot from Surinam), Romania, Greece, Croatia (six swans), Russia and Turkey.

The infected birds in Russia, Turkey, Greece and Romania were carrying the H5N1 strain. Lab tests have not been completed on the other countries to see if their birds had the lethal strain.

The United Kingdom government is calling for a ban on all wild bird imports into the EU. The EU only bans the imports of live birds from countries that have had cases of bird flu.

Many countries around the world are banning the imports of live birds from infected countries.

If a person who has normal flu is infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, there is a chance the two viruses could exchange genes. With new genes, the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus would be a mutated one with the ability to transmit from human-to-human. If this happened, a new lethal flu virus would quickly spread around the world - there would be a flu pandemic. There are no vaccines for a mutated H5N1 bird flu virus, humans have no immunity against such a virus. The consequences for global human health could be devastating.

At the moment, the H5N1 bird flu virus strain is the most dangerous one. Humans are infected by being in contact with sick birds. It is difficult for a human to catch the infection from another human. Only with close, continuous contact with an infected patient might a human become infected. Even if he/she does, the infected person does not easily infect other people. A mutated H5N1 virus, on the other hand, would spread among humans like wildfire.

In 1918 a bird flu virus mutated and quickly spread around the world. About 50 million people died - half of them healthy, young adults. At that time people traveled much less than they do today, the world population was much smaller. A flu pandemic today would spread much faster and many more people may die.

If nobody caught flu, the chances of the virus mutating would be tiny as it would not have the chance of meeting with an normal flu virus. Demand for the flu vaccine this autumn (fall) has rocketed.

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

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