What is Influenza and Pandemic?
Influenza is an infectious disease caused by a virus. Some strains of influenza affect humans exclusively, while others occur naturally in birds or other mammal species. Some flu viruses infect multiple species. Unfortunately, new influenza viruses are constantly being produced by genetic mutation. The well publicized “bird flu”, for example, is an avian influenza caused by a virus that occurs naturally in birds. In 1997, an influenza outbreak occurred in Hong Kong when a strain of bird flu infected 18 people, raising concerns about the virus’s spread from birds to humans. About half the people who caught this strain of influenza died. Scientists worry about viruses like this one that could spread very quickly and have a high mortality rate. Fortunately, in the Hong Kong outbreak, the virus was not easily transmitted from human to human through something as simple as a sneeze, for example, and transmission from birds to people was rare.
