Bird Flu – Causes and Symptoms
The bird flu virus is dangerous because it is so ever changing in its nature – often mutating within a very short period of time. Originating in Asia, the bird flu virus has spread throughout the world but still remains confined to areas other than the United States. But, it is only a matter of time. Whether you are watching the latest story on Oprah or MSNBC regarding bird flu it will scare you – guaranteed!
So what are you to do? How are you going to prepare you and your family for the bird flu virus pandemic? Americans, including the president are worried about the possibility that we could not be prepared for a stronger, ever changing bird flu virus. It is estimated that anywhere from 2 million to over 50 million could perish if this virus becomes a reality. The only thing you can do now is prepare.
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a contagious disease that affects chickens, ducks, turkeys, and other birds. Bird flu was first detected over 100 years ago and nowadays comes in a variety of about 20 strains. Most recently, outbreaks of the viral disease have been caused by the H5N1 strain, which is a particularly deadly strain of the virus.
Causes
The virus that causes bird flu appears to be versatile and resilient. Scientists are working on a new vaccine that would be effective against the new strain of the virus that causes Bird flu. There are different subtypes and strains of the virus that causes bird flu, and some cause more severe disease than others. Results of the examinations for the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu are be announced later on Sunday, officials said.
Bird flu (or Avian flu) is currently being used to describe the influenza virus, H5N1, which is producing a highly contagious and rapidly fatal disease, leading to severe epidemics in birds. Bird flu is caused by different subtypes of influenza A virus affecting chickens, ducks and other birds Viruses which cause mild disease can mutate into viruses that can cause serious disease (highly pathogenic).
Symptoms
Doctor’s offices are flooded with visitors all over the world these days from people wondering if they have a bird flu symptom. We are all so terrified of any kind of bird flu symptom that some people have even stopped going out where there might be other people. This is a little extreme since the bird flu symptom has not yet had many cases of moving from one person to another and most of the world is not even affected with bird flu yet but it is still a good idea to have a good grasp about each bird flu symptom and what you can expect from them.
Each flu will have symptoms and a bird flu symptom is not really any different, they can just get worse. If you have the bird flu you will be looking at the same types of symptoms, there will be the sore throat, a cough, perhaps some sneezing, a fever but you may also suffer from a more serious bird flu symptom like respiratory distress or even failure. This type of bird flu symptom could cause death.
Source by Sam Michel
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