bird flu (Page 5)

We recently gave you an update on the latest information about bird flu. There’s some good news from researchers who are working hard to create a vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is the kind that attacks humans: It turns out that combining genes from H5N1 with genes from a common flu virus DOES NOT seem to create a deadly strain of flu.

Peter Aldhous reports in New Scientist that by itself, H5N1 meets two of three requirements for a virus that could lead to an epidemic, because it is easy to catch (but only directly from poultry, so far) and most human immune systems are unfamiliar with it and therefore have no defenses against it.
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Indonesia is currently the country that is the most affected by bird flu. So far, there is no concrete evidence that the virus is passing from person to person, but poultry infected with the disease have been found in almost every one of the country?s provinces and the 44 human deaths from the disease are spread evenly across the country. Has it arrived in the US? Two wild swans found in Michigan are reported to have it, but scientists don’t think it’s the dangerous Asian strain that has killed almost 140 people around the world, so far.
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Three years ago, China officially denied that the SARS epidemic existed there?until it eventually spread around the world. China finally admitted that SARS began in their country, but they still haven’t acknowledged that bird flu exists there. But forensic detectives there have just discovered evidence that a man died of H5N1 in 2003.
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Scientists have now announced that migrating birds DO NOT spread avian flu, but the birds you buy in the supermarket DO spread the food poisoning known as salmonella, so wash your hands (and all surfaces) after handling them. Like beef cattle, chickens are given antibiotics in their feed, which can promote antibiotic-resistant superbugs in human beings. But there IS a way in which we can keep chickens healthy and protect ourselves at the same time: give them beer.
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