Bird Flu Killed More Than 2,000 Birds In Ukraine

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 05 Dec 2005 - 12:00 PDT

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Officials from the Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed that over 2,000 birds died as a result of an H5 strain of bird flu infection. All the birds were located in the Crimea peninsula, in the Sovetskiy, Nizhnegirsky and Dzhankoysky regions - in a total of six villages.

Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's President, has declared a state of emergeny in the area. All poultry in the area are being culled. The sale of poultry in the region is now prohibited.

Whether or not it is the virulent H5N1 strain remains to be seen. Samples have been sent to the UK and Italy for further tests. Officials say they will know the results later on in the week.

As the incidence of bird flu infection (among birds) spreads, experts are concerned about when the virus will mutate - and spread rapidly among humans. This has not happened yet, but it will (say nearly all experts).

At the moment, the bird flu virus (H5N1) spreads easily among birds. Over 100 million birds have died globally as a result of bird flu since 2003. Only about 164 humans have been infected during the same period - of those, about half have died.

The most likely way the H5N1 virus could mutate, and become a human-to-human transmitter, is by infecting a person who is carrying a normal human flu virus. The two viruses could then exchange genetic information. The H5N1 bird flu strain (the dangerous one) could then learn how to spread among human beings. When this happens, there is a chance we would be facing a serious global flu pandemic.

In 1918 there was a global flu pandemic (Spanish Flu). The virus then was a mutated bird flu virus. Over 40 million people died around the world. The world population is now about five times what it was in 1918, people travel by plane in much larger numbers (plane travel was virtually non-existent in 1918). In 1918 the pandemic spread around the world in 11 months. A pandemic today would spread much faster.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

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