Why Public Health Officials Are Not Panicked About Bird Flu? An Analysis
News 18A new strain of bird flu that transmits easily among wild birds has triggered an explosive spread into new corners of the globe, infecting and killing a variety of mammals species and raising fears of a pandemic more lethal than COVID-19. But the very changes that have allowed the virus to infect wild birds so efficiently likely made it harder to infect human cells, leading disease experts told Reuters. Although the exact changes required for a bird flu virus to become easily transmissible in people are not known, a pair of landmark studies done a decade ago offer some clues. According to the CDC’s Uyeki, studies of the H5N1 genetic sequences in the mink outbreak “do not indicate any changes that suggest increased ability to infect the upper respiratory tract of humans.” That change is a must if a bird flu virus is to spread easily in people. None of the experts discounted the possibility that H5N1 or another avian flu virus could mutate and spark a pandemic, and many believe the world has not seen its last flu pandemic.