Swine Flu – A Global Pandemic?

3 Responses to “Will we all die because of the h5n1 strain of bird flu?”

1. admin Says:
   June 6th, 2009 at 9:17 am
   In humans YAH!!
   that's like typhoid w/out shots!
2. admin Says:
   June 6th, 2009 at 9:17 am
   Only if u like touching or eating the raw carcasses of wild dead birds!. People in the UK have almost no close physical contact with birds (domestic and wild) unlike in China and the Far East. I really doubt that we'll see many fatalities.

   Btw it has been found today in the UK.

3. admin Says:
   June 6th, 2009 at 9:17 am
   No.

   the h5n1 strain of influenza is virulent in birds and the animals who eat them. To my knowledge, the only humans who have died from it have been sick, elderly, or very young.

   The current worry is not about this strain in particular, but about the not-unlikely possibilty of this strain of virus MUTATING into a form that is EASILY communicable between humans (i.e. spread via human to human contact, either airborne, or bodily fluids). The influenza pandemic of 1918 and of 1935(methinks) were caused by earlier strains of bird flu viruses mutating in this way.

   Just so long as the h5n1 strain does not mutate into a human-to-human pathogen, the only people who will get the virus and possibly die from it are ones who have come into DIRECT contact with an infected bird (either by handling it or eating it).