Bird Flu Hits Nigeria H5N1 Strain

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 08 Feb 2006 - 19:00 PDT

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According to the World Organization for Animal Health, northern Nigeria has seen Africa's first cases of Bird Flu (Avian Flu). A laboratory in Italy has confirmed it is the highly virulent (potent, powerful) H5N1 virus strain.

The outbreak is among chickens, not humans. It is located at a chicken farm in Jaji, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria.

The World Health Organisation says it is sending a team of experts to the area. The WHO also added that Nigerian authorities are cooperating fully.

The infected farm, as well as surrounding farms, are now quarantined and 50,000 birds have been culled (destroyed). The area is also being disinfected.

Nigerian authorities have taken action quickly, restricting the movement of animals within the country.

Since 2003 Bird Flu has spread half way around the world, from Vietnam (south east Asia) to Siberia, then to Rumania, Turkey, Iraq and now Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the pandemic situation has not changed as a result of bird flu appearing in Africa.

Over 140 million birds have been culled since 2003. 160 people have been infected with bird flu, of which about 80 have died.

The European Union is bracing itself for the coming of the Spring/Summer when millions of birds migrate to Europe from Africa. The more countries cooperate with outbreaks the better we can stem the spread of bird flu and delay its mutation into a human transmissible virus, say experts.

For the moment, it is still difficult for humans to catch bird flu from birds. It is extremely rare for one human to infect another - there have been a couple of cases in south east Asia where a carer (of an infected person) also got infected - but for that to happen the person needs to be in constant physical contact with the patients, and even then it is rare.

When the H5N1 virus mutates there is a good chance it may lose some of its virulence. If this happens, we will still have a flu pandemic, but it won't be as deadly as the present virus. For a virus to mutate it has to exchange genetic information with another virus. If the H5N1 virus strain exchanges genes with the normal flu virus it may pick up its ability to spread from human-to-human. However, there is also a good chance its genetic make up will change such that its virulence (potency) will be less.

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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