How does the avian influenza virus commonly found in wild birds relate to pandemic influenza?
Pandemic strains of avian influenza are so named because they readily spread among humans and often cause fatal infections. Pandemic strains are extremely rare and currently none exist anywhere in the world. The World Health Organization and many other health agencies are concerned that high path Eurasian H5N1 in people could evolve into a pandemic strain that passes freely from person to person and could pose serious risk to human populations. Note that the source of pandemic strains occurs within people and not within wild birds.
