Medical scientists are predicting that avian flu (bird flu H5H1) may be be next year major pandemic to occur on our planet. This flu is a very infectious disease of birds caused by the Influenza A virus.
All birds are susceptible to the flu but wild ducks, domestic chickens and turkeys are particularly at risk to a very fatal type of the virus. Control of the outbreak means quarantining infected farms and the destruction of domestic poultry flocks, resulting in a great economic loss to farmers and governments.
The major concern for world health authorities is that the bird flu will mix with a human flu virus and mutate rapidly, forming a new viral strain deadly to humans by human-to-human contact.
Population will not have immunity to the new virus and will be susceptible to severe illness and death before a vaccine can be developed to protect them.
They have been recent alarms of bird flu being transmitted directly to humans in Indonesia, Vietnam, HongKong and Egypt in 2008; internationally 238 people have now died from avian flu, with most of these deaths being in Indonesia and Vietnam. Almost all of these cases have been caught from birds flu in Australia. Health authorities here closely monitor the situation in neighbouring countries and are well prepared for any Australian outbreak of this flu.