Avian Influenza and the Pandemic Threat

The World Health Organization (WHO) informs about the total number of H5N1 cases in humans, including the number of deaths. WHO reports only laboratory-confirmed cases. WHO also tracks the evolving situation and provides access to both technical guidelines and information useful for the general public.

Data can be seen here:

• Bird flu in humans and poultry by country

• Bird flu by country over time
  

Effective communication informs and empowers people to respond appropriately to a crisis.

The rapidly spreading outbreaks of avian influenza among wild and domestic birds and the rare but increasing cases of bird flu among people are alarming.

If the H5N1 virus changes into a human strain, it would make it possible for person-to-person transmission and trigger a human flu pandemic. The world must prepare for such a pandemic.

Risky behavior

People are becoming infected because they do not know how to protect themselves and how to avoid risky behaviour.

The outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza between 2003-2006 have had considerable impacts on people’s livelihoods, international commerce of poultry and poultry products, and have killed an unprecedented number of wilds birds ranging from Bar-headed Geese in Asia to Mute Swans in Europe.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) under current conditions poses a major risk to human and animal health. Efforts to contain the disease are therefore in national and global interest.

As the most widely practiced control methods for poultry involve culling birds that are infected or in regions immediately around infected animals, the most common practice to ensure the cooperation of owners of birds is to compensate them for the culling of their animals to achieve this public goal.

Subsistence poultry production is widespread. A large share of the South East Asian population lives in rural areas with low incomes and widespread ownership of poultry. In Africa, subsistence poultry production (backyard and scavenging systems) accounts for 70 percent of the continent’s poultry production.

Vaccination can be used either as a tool to support eradication or as a tool to control the disease and reduce the viral load in the environment.

In countries where the virus has become endemic, vaccination is an appropriate mechanism for reducing its spread, but  vaccination may be the answer in one country and not in another.

The H5N1 virus has affected poultry production and had severe negative consequences on consumption of poultry and on employment in industries processing and retailing poultry products.

The regional impact has been uneven, with some areas losing more than 50 percent of their poultry. Various levels of assistance, in the form of compensation and credit, have been provided.

Avian influenza is easily carried across national boundaries through the trade, transport and travel routes that criss-cross the globe, and the natural flight paths of wild birds.

Since the outbreaks of the disease in 2003, more than 250 million birds have died or have been killed in an attempt to halt its spread. This has caused an immediate loss of income for hundreds of thousands of poultry smallholders, mostly in a number of Asian countries, but also in Africa and parts of Europe.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris publishes updates on H5N1 avian influenza in animals.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publishes a regular newsletter about the H5N1 situation in countries.

Avian influenza, or “bird flu”, is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions, crossed the species barrier to infect humans.

In domestic poultry, infection with avian influenza viruses causes two main forms of disease, distinguished by low and high extremes of virulence.