Bird flu

  • After bird flu (avian influenza) was confirmed in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, high alert has been sounded in Maharashtra. 
  • Several states, which have been reporting deaths of birds, including crows and migratory species, are scrambling to have samples tested for the virus.
THE INFECTION
  • Bird flu or avian influenza is the name used to describe a viral infection that is reported mostly in birds.
  • However, it has the potential to affect humans and other animals. 
  • The most common strain of the virus that causes severe respiratory disease in birds is H5N1. 
  • Various other strains like H7, H8 too, cause infection.
  • The virus was first reported in geese in China in 1996. 
  • Since then, outbreaks have been reported periodically across the world. 
  • India reported the presence of the virus in Nandurbar, Maharashtra, in 2006, which led to large-scale culling of poultry birds.
HUMAN TRANSMISSION
  • The H5N1 virus can jump species and infect humans from the infected bird. 
  • The first case of H5N1 infection in humans was reported in Hong Kong in 1997, when a poultry farm worker caught the infection from infected birds.
  • The high mortality rate in humans — almost 60 per cent — is the main cause of concern about the spread of bird flu. 
  • In its present form, human-to-human infection is not known. 

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