TL:DR – Scientists are worried that we might soon see the emergence of another pandemic, this one originating in avian influenza.
A bird flu pandemic has killed thousands of wild birds over the last couple of years. Scientists have now seen infection in mammals, and very recently a person died from avian influenza and several close contacts show signs of infection. The concern is that we might be headed for another H5N1 pandemic. Previous strains of H5N1 that infected people had a mortality rate of 60 percent.
Avian influenza, bird flu, H5N1
There are fifteen known variants of avian influenza. The most virulent, and usually fatal in birds, are the H5 and H7 strains. There are then nine variants of the H5 strain and the type of most concern because of the risk to human health is H5N1.
Up to May 2020, the World Health Organisation had reported a total of 861 human cases of bird flu, which killed 455 people since 2003. However, in February 2003, an 11-year-old Cambodian girl died of H5N1, her father tested positive and several close contacts had symptoms. At the time of writing, the WHO believes this strain of H5N1 is spreading among people and is pushing for a new human vaccine against the disease to be produced urgently.