Bird flu could be returning, U.N. warns

[The Northerner]

(CBS/AP) Is bird flu mounting a comeback? The United Nations has issued a warning, saying wild bird migrations have brought the deadly influenza virus back to previously virus-free countries and that a mutant strain of H5N1 was spreading in Asia.

The strain, which can apparently sidestep defenses of existing vaccines, is spreading in China and Vietnam, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement on Monday. It urged greater surveillance to ensure that any outbreaks are contained.

Last week, the World Health Organization reported that a 6-year-old Cambodian girl died Aug. 14 from bird flu, the eighth person to die from H5N1 avian influenza this year in Cambodia.

Vietnam suspended its springtime poultry vaccination this year, the U.N. said. Most of the northern and central parts of the country - where the virus is endemic - have been invaded by the new strain.

Elsewhere, the U.N. says bird migrations over the past two years have brought H5N1 to countries that for years had been virus-free, including Israel, the Palestinian territories, Bulgaria, Romania, Nepal and Mongolia.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20098647-10391704.html

[NeedleCast]

1. And it was so deadly last time!

And by deadly, I mean not deadly at all.

Seems the media has found their yearly SARS/West Nile Virus/Swine Flu/Bird Flu scare for the year though...sooooooooo, lets ramp up the hysteria machine!

[snagglepuss]

2. My sister's 17 year old god daughter died within days of contracting H1N1.

She was but one of hundreds victims world wide. Dismissing fears of new strains of H1N1 is ludicrous.

[NeedleCast]

3. I am very sorry to hear that

However, if a strain of flu accounts for "hundreds of victims worldwide" then it ranks so low on the the list of stuff that can kill you then mathematically the chance is practically zero.

This will not stop flu related scares from dominating the media for weeks or days as we approach flu season.

[gkhouston]

4. This is H5N1, not H1N1. It's the virus they were worried about

before H1N1 popped up. It's deadly, but nowhere near as transmissible as H1N1:

Of the human cases associated with the ongoing HPAI H5N1 outbreaks in poultry and wild birds in Asia and parts of Europe, the Near East and Africa, about 60% of those people reported infected with the virus have died. Most cases have occurred in previously healthy children and young adults and have resulted from direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces. In general, HPAI H5N1 remains a very rare disease in people. The HPAI H5N1 virus does not infect humans easily, and if a person is infected, it is very difficult for the virus to spread to another person.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm


As you can imagine, the nightmare scenario is that H5N1 will mutate into a strain that's more easily transmissible.

[phantom power]

5. There is no real end to this story. There's always the next mutation.

And every so often, one of those mutations will hit the deadly/contagious sweet spot for humans.