Racheal Alvstad / Scroll

Avian Flu worries world health officials

Kristin Morgan MOO05002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

It has already killed at least 54 people and is capable of killing a billion more. The Avian Flu, or H5N1 Virus, has the attention of the World Health Organization as it continues to spread from common and domestic birds to humans.

The virus has gained strength since first being identified in Italy over 100 years ago. An outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 killed 6 people, and Health officials worry this could be the next big pandemic, the first of the 21st century, having the ability to be a greater threat than anthrax, AIDS, or smallpox.

“If more humans become infected over time, the likelihood also increases that humans could serve as the ‘mixing vessel’ for the emergence of a novel subtype, with human genes, to be easily transmitted from person to person. Such an event would mark the start of an influenza epidemic,” said The World Health Organization.

Last month the U.S. government decided to supply $100 million to a still-experimental vaccine. “We must also remain on the offensive against new threats to public health, such as the avian influenza,” President Bush said. He met Friday with the world’s leading vaccine companies to discuss the government’s options for halting a pandemic from the flu.

Health officials are worried most people won’t understand how overwhelmed the health-care system would be if there were a flu pandemic.

“What worries me most is the ignorance of people in the public who assume that if they get sick there’ll be something there for them, and they don’t realize the devastation this could be,” said Alberta’s health minister, Iris Evans.

Nobody has immunity from this disease. Usually our bodies produce antibodies to ward off diseases such as this, but the avian flu virus is constantly altering itself, and is spreading to more animals besides birds, according to the World Health Organization. It has already been seen in pigs.

“The tipping point, the place where it becomes something of an immediate concern, is where that virus changes, we call it mutates, to something that is able to go from human to human,” said Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

The best defense against the avian flu is to stop the further spreading of it in poultry. That will limit the number of birds infecting humans.

Shaun Orr from the BYU-Idaho Student Health Center said they are preparing in case of a possible outbreak. A meeting was held Wednesday to give employees more information on the Avian Flu, and a vaccine has been ordered.