Are avian (bird) flu and pandemic influenza the same?
• NO! There is a big difference between avian influenza and pandemic influenza. Avian influenza infects mainly birds and poultry. It can also infect people or animals who have very close contact with sick birds or poultry. But bird flu is not easily spread from person to person, so it cannot cause a pandemic. A pandemic influenza could only happen if the virus changes so that it is passed easily from one person to another person. This kind of change has not happened with the avian H5N1 flu virus. THERE IS NO PANDEMIC INFLUENZA NOW. We expect that birds in California will get avian flu later this year. But that will still not mean that there is a pandemic.
