Micrograph of avian influenza, also known as bird flu (Credit: CDC/F.A. Murphy)
The Guardian: ‘Pandemic potential’: bird flu outbreaks fuelling chance of human spillover
Experts say record waves of avian influenza have been setting off alarms, with fears virus could adapt to spread among people
Multiple waves of avian influenza have left a trail of devastation across the globe, leading to the deaths and culling of more than 300 million chickens, ducks and geese and an unknown number of wild birds between 2005 and 2021.
Today, with parts of Europe and North America in the midst of the worst outbreak on record, a global cohort of researchers is keeping cautious watch amid concerns about the impact the disease could have on humans.
“There is concern about it having pandemic potential,” says Wendy Blay Puryear, a molecular virologist at Tufts University. “Before Covid was on anybody’s radar, this was the one that we were all watching very closely.”
Read more ….
WNU Editor: This avian flu spread is getting more and more frightening and it is being under-reported. Cases of bird flu transmission to humans are already being reported in China …. China Confirms Another Bird Flu Case (Precision Vaccinations), and in Ecuador …. Ecuador confirms first human bird flu infection in 9-year-old girl (Reuters). More here …. Ecuador reports South America’s 1st human case of bird flu (BNO News).