What is the current situation regarding avian influenza?
Visit the Consular Affairs Bureau’s website for the most recent update provided from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The WHO provides the most recent information on the cumulative number of confirmed human cases and deaths. Please refer to the WHO website for this detailed data. C. What is the World Health Organization’s current risk assessment of the situation? The risk of pandemic influenza is serious. With the H5N1 virus now firmly entrenched in large parts of Asia, the risk that more human cases will occur persists. Each additional human case gives the virus an opportunity to improve its transmissibility in humans, and thus to develop into a pandemic strain. The recent spread of the virus to poultry and wild birds in new areas further broadens opportunities for human cases to occur. While neither the timing nor the severity of the next pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a pandemic will occur has increased. (Source: World Health Organization) For more detailed infor
