What is the Risk of Bird Flu Mutating into a Form Communicable Between Humans?
Historically, the deadliest influenza pandemics begin as viruses that just infect animals, like birds or swine, and progressively build to a point where they infect and be transmitted between humans. At this time, all we really know is that the risk of bird flu turning into an influenza pandemic is significant, at least as great as it has been since 1968, when the last flu pandemic emerged. That is why world leaders have been discussing the risk of flu pandemics and stockpiling tens of millions of doses of flu vaccine. Very often, pandemic flu viruses have both bird flu genes and human flu genes. An alternative name for bird flu is avian flu. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are six levels of alert for flu pandemics: 1. Level 1, code green, low risk of human cases. Inter-pandemic phase. 2. Level 2, code green, higher risk of human cases. Inter-pandemic phase. 3. Level 3, code yellow, pandemic alert, no or very limited human-to-human transmission. 4. Level 4, code
Related Questions
- Why does the current bird flu outbreak in Southeast Asia pose a risk of causing a pandemic influenza A outbreak in humans?
- Why does the current bird flu outbreak in Southeast Asia pose a risk of causing a pandemic influenza outbreak in humans?
- What is the Risk of Bird Flu Mutating into a Form Communicable Between Humans?
