Avian Influenza

Throughout the history, influenza viruses have caused several pandemics or global epidemics, killing many people. For example, the influenza strike in 1918 to 1919 infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide, which is one-third of the planet’s population at the time and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people. More than 25 percentage of the U.S. population were affected, and caused 675,000 deaths in U.S during the pandemic.(History, 2015). There were no effective treatments for this type of influenza and no available vaccines can prevent its spread during the period. (History, 2015) U.S government required general population to wear masks and other protective equipments in public areas, and many public places also closed due to the influenza strike. Health care providers tried everything they knew to save people, but none shows any evidence of effects. (National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI], 2015). Scientists found out that the influenza virus had invaded their lungs and caused pneumonia, which made so many people died from the pandemic (History,2015). Another influenza strike happened

Wild aquatic fowl, ducks in particular, serve as a reservoir for the Influenza virus to transmit into poultry and then to humans. Infected birds shed flu viruses in their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces (CDC, 2004). The current virus seen in Asia is denoted as H5N1 and was first seen in terns in South Africa in 1961 (CDC, 2004). The first human seen infection of the avian H5N1 viruses was in 1997 in Hong Kong in a three- year old boy (Ruben, 2005). The outbreak involved 18 cases and killed 6, one third of the confirmed infected population (Rueben, 2005). In three days 1.5 million birds were killed in order to prevent further spread. A new pandemic is now on the horizon with recent outbreaks in poultry in the eight Asian countries of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam since 2004 (CDC, 2005). As of July 5, 2005, there have been 108 reported human cases of the H5N1 virus with 54 deaths (CDC, 2004). In wake of a

A virus that spreads to over three million Americans per year is Influenza, commonly known as the flu. Influenza is a contagious infection of the respiratory tract causing fever, severe aches and pains, and often occurs in epidemics. This virus is one of the ten leading causes of death in the United States. For people with a normal immune system, the disease usually lasts about a week. Usually the only people who have a higher risk of being severely affected by the flu are babies, young children, pregnant women, or people over the age of 65.

Influenza also known as the “Flu” is an ongoing health concern each year. It is most prevalent during the fall and winter seasons. Influenza is highly contagious and can spread rapidly when precautions are ignored. Every year numerous cases erupt despite education, health promotion and vaccinations. Flu related complications result in hospitalizations and even death each year, costing billions of dollars to be used in treatment and income lost due to sick days and unproductivity on the infected person’s behalf. Zimmerman et al. 2010 concurs stating, “Seasonal influenza leads to about 36,000 deaths annually in the United States and more than 226,000 hospitalizations.” (Zimmerman et al. 2010). Loerbroks et al. 2012 also states “Influenza and

To establish control of influenza pandemic it remains essential to determine the extent of a possible situation. Only sustained planning, training and exercise of contingency operations across public, private and volunteer sectors will help to reduce the potential of a catastrophic pandemic disaster (NJDHSS, 2008). With thousands of lives at risk the plan to reduce an incidence of influenza pandemic maintains stages governed by a federal and state plan. The plan includes ten NJ Situations to index an estimation of the severity of a pandemic incidence on a population and to allow better forecasting of the impact of a pandemic with recommendations on the use of mitigation intervention (NJDHSS, 2008). Several assumptions have been identified by the federal government which can additionally be assumed at the state level to include; infectious transmission from person to person from a global network, signaling an immediate pandemic possibility, 30 percent or higher incidence of illness, illness higher amongst school age children are primary

In my Duke Tip camp, I learned what a virus is, how it looks, how it spreads, and how we prevent it. Mainly, I learned about a specific virus: the influenza virus, also called the flu. For example, the Spanish flu in 1918 was an H1N1 virus, just like the swine flu in 2009. The students in my class understood that airports and planes are one of the main causes of a pandemic. Pandemics occur when viruses destroy humans worldwide. Highly populated viruses in countries, states, regions, and cities are classified as epidemics. Most epidemics form into pandemics. You can stop airborne viruses by sneezing into your elbow and then immediately washing it. With this knowledge we, as students were given, I hope to shape my future.The Influenza virus,

This disease is something you never want to face. We learned in “Silent Killer,” “In a single month, the flu killed 11,000 people in Philadelphia alone.” This caused the population of Philadelphia to drop a lot and it was all because of pandemics. In the text, “International Outbreak” it said, “It killed 280 of 318 people stricken.” The odds were not in people’s favor who caught the

Avian influenza is a severe, often fatal flu virus of birds, especially poultry, that is transmissible from them to humans. Avian influenza A viruses are continuously detected in wild birds. From time to time, outbreaks of the influenza in poultry have occurred all around the world, causing illness and death in humans in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Near East. On rare occasions, some avian influenza A viruses have also caused illness in humans in North America. Outbreaks of Avian flu in poultry may raise global public health concerns due to their effect on poultry populations, their potential to cause serious disease in people, and their pandemic potential. Most avian influenza viruses do not infect humans; however some, such as A(H5N1) and A(H7N9), have caused serious infections in people and can seriously impact local and global economies and international trade. The majority of human cases of A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) infection have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry.

The virus, known as bird flu or avian flu, is not necessarily a danger to humans or even a safety concern, but it is a fatal disease that affects birds and is highly contagious. It has especially wreaked havoc on bird farming because of the tight living quarters that allow the virus to easily spread. Farmer’s solution to destroying the virus and preventing its spread is to destroy the

It appears that zoonosis has added another means of infecting humans to its arsenal. A veterinarian at a New York City animal shelter where cats were infected with a strain of bird flu was also infected by the strain of flu that the cats had. As we all know zoonosis is a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals. In this case it was the cats housed in the shelter. Fortunately, as reported by the New York City health department, only the veterinarian was infected. The vet only had a mild illness from the virus, called H7N2. "More than 160 Animal Care Centers of NYC employees and volunteers, including several people who had similar exposure to sick cats, were screened by the Health Department and not found to have an infection with the H7N2 virus,"

It has been proved that no vaccine specifically for this avian influenza virus. Even though there is no specific route for the transmission and infection of the virus but it is still have to practice and follow good hygiene to prevent infection. In order to prevent infection, do not have contact with infected animals and make sure the food is safe enough to eat. However prevention and control of the virus transmission does not sustained human to human of this virus transmission.

[12] Birds imported illegally from Mexico to California are suspected to have been the source of the outbreak . [11] The best way to protect birds against the disease is to vaccinate them, and there are several types of commercial vaccines available. According to the Center for Food Security and Public Health, exotic Newcastle disease is still endemic in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and countries in Central and South America4. [9] More research is needed to fully understand NDV’s presence in wild birds, such as understanding if and what wild birds serve as a reservoir host for the virus4. There is always the chance of wild birds infecting commercial poultry and causing an outbreak, so it is wise to vaccinate poultry to protect against another devastating

As it is known to everyone, the influenza is a worldwide infectious disease and very familiar to those people who are living in small villages or in very big cities. The influenza or the flu as it usually referred is caused by RNA viruses which belong to Orthomyxoviridae family. These viruses affect mammals and birds as well. The influenza is typically transmitted through the air by sneezes or coughs creating virus containing aerosols. This is not the only way for influenza transmission but it could be also transmitted by nasal secretions or bird droppings if directly contact (Collier et al., 2006).

“Transmission of pathogens can occur directly from animals, birds and insects. Many animals can act as reservoirs for human pathogens and if these animals come into contact with fresh produce, contamination can occur. Animals should be prevented from

We all know that the Flu season brings up a lot of queries about the disease prevention. The next question is where we can find a reliable source of information. This will then lead us to look for a website that is credible. While there are several accurate and reliable information, I chose Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as CDC. This is one of the operating bodies of the Department of Health that deals mainly on the identification, prevention, control of diseases and promotion of health education to improve the health of the citizens of the United States of America. Numerous search engines in the web world can be utilized to access the website, URL “http://www.cdc.gov.” Based on my knowledge and experience, the CDC website has been proven to be a trusted website because of its reputation of providing factual health information about disease control and prevention. CDC is one of the government agency that provides guidelines in terms of disease control and prevention.