The possibility of a bird flu pandemic has alarmed experts, who have warned that it may be “100 times worse than Covid” and that up to half of those sick could die.
These worries were brought up at a recent briefing where scientists talked about the H5N1 type of avian flu. They voiced concerns that the virus might be getting close to a tipping point that might start a worldwide pandemic, a UK tabloid reported.
A well-known bird flu researcher from Pittsburgh, Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, cautioned during the briefing that H5N1 could start a pandemic because it can infect a variety of mammals, including humans. He said, “We are getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic.”
‘We are not really talking about a virus that is yet to make a jump, we are talking about a virus that is globally present, already infecting a range of mammals and is circulating… It is really high time that we are prepared,” he added.
Consultant to the pharmaceutical business and founder of BioNiagara, a Canadian pharmaceutical company, John Fulton, reiterated these worries, highlighting the seriousness of a potential H5N1 pandemic and speculating that it would be far deadlier than Covid-19.
“This appears to be 100 times worse than Covid, or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate. Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops,” Fulton stated.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that since 2003, 462 deaths out of 887 instances of H5N1 bird flu have occurred, or 52 deaths out of every 100 cases. On the other hand, the current Covid fatality rate is less than 0.1 percent. That was, however, about 20 percent during the beginning of the pandemic.
The most recent event follows this week’s reports of avian flu outbreaks from a Michigan poultry factory and a Texas egg producer. Furthermore, there have been reports of sick dairy cows as well as the first instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal.
Following the confirmation of an H5N1 virus in a dairy farm worker in Texas by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the White House ordered “close monitoring.”
Unlike a prior incidence in Colorado in 2022 where a person tested positive for bird flu following direct exposure to chickens and subsequent bird culling, this is the first time that a person has contracted bird flu from dairy cattle.
Millions of animals on land and in the sea have been impacted by the virus, which has spread quickly among dairy herds in five states: Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, and Texas.
There is growing alarm despite US health officials’ assertion that there is still little risk to the public, in part because of reports of an outbreak from the nation’s biggest supplier of fresh eggs.
H5N1 is a subtype of avian influenza A, a family of closely related bird flu viruses, according to a report. It is regarded as very harmful because it makes birds sick, sometimes fatally. H5N1 primarily affects birds, although it can infrequently infect people as well as wild birds. The disease can be lethal in non-avian species, yet some cases may be minor or exhibit no symptoms.
In 1996, the H5N1 virus was discovered for the first time in birds in China. After a year, there was an outbreak in Hong Kong that led to six human deaths and 18 human cases via direct bird-to-human transmission.
