TAG: GS 3: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
THE CONTEXT: The ongoing bird flu outbreak, which began in 2020, has sparked significant concern due to its spread to various species, including humans.
EXPLANATION:
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the gravity of the situation, emphasizing the extraordinarily high mortality rate associated with human infections.
- The outbreak has resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of poultry worldwide, with wild birds, as well as land and marine mammals, also being affected.
- The spread of the H5N1 strain to new species, including humans, raises serious alarm within the global health community.
Concerns Raised by WHO:
- The A(H5N1) strain of bird flu has become a global zoonotic pandemic, infecting not only ducks and chickens but also various mammals.
- Of particular concern is the potential for the virus to evolve and gain the ability to infect humans, leading to human-to-human transmission.
- While human-to-human transmission has not been observed, individuals who have been infected through contact with animals face an extraordinarily high mortality rate.
- WHO reports a case fatality rate of 52% from 2003 to April 1, 2024, across 23 countries.
- The recent infection of cows and goats by the H5N1 virus is a surprising development, as these animals were not previously thought to be susceptible to this type of influenza.
- This expansion of the host range brings the virus closer to humans, increasing the risk of spillover.
- A person in Texas recently tested positive for bird flu after exposure to dairy cattle, marking only the second case of human infection in the United States.
- This incident highlights the potential for transmission from infected mammals to humans, posing a significant public health threat.
Need for Vigilance and Preparedness:
- WHO emphasizes the importance of enhancing monitoring efforts to track human infections and detect any signs of adaptation in the virus.
- Rapid diagnosis and response capabilities at regional and national levels are crucial for containing potential outbreaks and preventing human-to-human transmission.
Research and Development Efforts:
- Efforts are underway to develop vaccines and therapeutics specifically targeting the H5N1 virus.
- Ensuring equitable access to these medical interventions is essential for effective response and containment measures globally.
Bird flu and H5N1:
- Bird flu, also known as avian flu, refers to an infectious viral illness that mainly infects and spreads among poultry and some wild birds.
- There are different strains of bird flu virus, which have been circulating for a very long time among at least 100 bird species, including wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, without much harming them.
- From time to time, a form of the flu virus jumps from wild birds to poultry farms, and replicates in cramped warehouses of farmed birds.
- It then quickly evolves into a highly pathogenic flu virus that causes a larger wave of illness and death than usual among birds.
- The currently circulating type of H5N1 is one such highly pathogenic flu virus.
- It has “descended from a virus that caused an outbreak on a goose farm in Guangdong, China, in 1996.
- That virus — one of a type of virus known as H5N1 — was highly pathogenic and killed more than 40 per cent of the farm birds it infected.
- The new version of H5N1 first emerged in Europe in 2020 and then rapidly reached Europe, Africa, and Asia.
- By late 2021, it had spread to North America and in the fall of 2022, it appeared in South America.
- In February 2024, the virus stormed through mainland Antarctica.