![]() ![]() The seasonal flu vaccine must be remade every year, even though the general types of flu viruses that it protects against are the same, because the specific genetic variants that affect humans change from year to year. With avian influenza viruses, it is not possible to make effective human vaccines in advance, because it is not known exactly what the genetics of the virus will be if it starts to spread in humans. Why don’t we make a vaccine just in case? However, scientists have warned they have seen changes in the virus from samples from a mink farm in Spain which could more easily replicate in mammalian tissue. Her father tested positive for the virus the day after her death, but did not develop serious symptoms and was eventually released from hospital. Since the outbreak began a year ago, a small number of cases have been detected in people.Īn 11-year-old Cambodian girl died on February 22 at a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, shortly after tests confirmed she had Type A H5N1 bird flu. It currently does not spread well between people and most of those who have contracted H5N1 have got it directly from interacting with infected poultry - specifically chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, which often are raised in close quarters on large commercial farms. Hundreds of cases have been confirmed at commercial premises, smallholdings and in pet birds since October last year.Īnd earlier this year a pet cat was euthanised after suffering from severe neurological symptoms due to a case of bird flu it picked up from a nearby poultry farm that raised ducks.Įxperts have stressed the risk to humans is low, but acknowledge there is a possibility it could one day jump to humans. In November, officials in the UK instructed all poultry and captive birds in England to be kept indoors in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. ![]() Technicians in Peru analysing the remains of dead sea lions washed ashore in the Paracas National Reserve. Since then officials have been carrying out targeted testing and surveillance in animals and humans exposed to the virus. Nine otters and foxes were found to be infected. ![]() The discovery was made after employees at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency tested 66 mammals for avian flu. The UK government recently stepped up monitoring for the virus after it was discovered in otters and foxes. There have been relatively few human infections detected - fewer than 900 documented globally over several decades - but about half of those infected individuals have died. The virus is highly pathogenic to birds, meaning infections often cause extreme symptoms, including death. H5N1 is a type of influenza virus, predominantly harboured by birds, that was first detected on a goose farm in China in 1996. It is believed other species become infected after scavenging on infected wild birds. The disease has also been discovered in other animals, including badgers, black bears, bobcats, coyotes, ferrets, fisher cats, foxes, leopards, opossums, pigs, skunks and sea lions. Many were slaughtered to stop the disease from spreading, but there have been tens of millions of bird deaths in the wild. They come amid the largest ever H5N1 pandemic in birds, which has killed millions worldwide over the past 18 months. Five foxes and four otters found with bird flu as UK says disease leaps species barrier ![]()
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