According to WHO, the virus H5 NI has promoted the slaughter of millions of birds throughout the world. the virus has also acquired the ability to infect cats and other mammals. Large -scale infection in mammals may result in the virus adapting itself to mammals and also help it acquire the ability to spread to humans and from one human to another. Human to human transmission of this virus has been confirmed with the deaths of families in Thailand, Indonesia and China. Further, the big fear is that the more virus is circulated in poultry, the greater is the chance that it might acquire the ability to easily infect human and thus set off a dangerous global pandemic.
According to WHO sources the South -east Asian countries are considered the hotbeds for the avian flu virus for the latest outbreak. Compulsory vaccination of all poultry, in the absence of other biosecurity measures, appears to have had little effect in keeping the infections under check.
The H5NI subtype unlike other strains of the AI virus, is known to cause mortality not just to poultry, but even to human being having physical contact with the infected birds.
Migratory birds heave been found to be responsible for long distance transmission of the virus.
Moreover, the continuing trade in birds across the international border appear to have provided the transmission route.
Costs of bird flu
Some of the costs of bird flu are as follows:-
Huge loss of poultry bird population
Cost of suffer among human population due to H5NI virus
Increase in unemployment in poultry industry
Heavy loss in bird trade and meat industry
Measures to curb ill- effects of bird flu
as long as poultry remains an intrinsic part of Asian households, bird flu will be a threat. It is better to adopt the best practices to curb the ill- effects of bird flu.
Simple public health measures such as washing hands and maintaining cough etiquette are not enough. Moreover banning public gatherings near the site of bird flu may be the most important tools to limit opportunities for human spread.
Targeted vaccination is one of the several measures for reducing opportunities for the simultaneous infection of humans with bird flu and human influenza viruses. in other words, vaccination of persons at high risk -group and population exposed to/ expected to be exposed to bird flu virus, will help in reducing the risk for a concurrent infections with human as well as birds.
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