H5N1 bird flu not like H1N1 swine flu virus

November 22, 11:44 AMTampa Health Care ExaminerCarolyn Chambers Clark

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The H5N1 bird flu virus is nothing like the H1N1 swine flu virus and is unlikely to cause much problem.

That's because the bird flu viruses would have to make at least two simultaneous genetic mutations before they could be transmitted readily from human to human, according to a new study
 

Earlier this year the same researchers showed that bird flu wouldn't create much trouble in humans because, at 32 degrees Celsius, the temperature inside a person's nose is too low.

H5 strains of influenza are widespread in bird populations around the world. The viruses occasionally infect humans and the H5N1 strain has infected more than 400 people since 2003.

H5N1 has a high mortality rate in humans, at around 60 per cent, but to date there has been no sustained human to human transmission of the virus, which would need to happen in order for a pandemic to occur.

Professor Wendy Barclay, corresponding author of the study from the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College London, said: "H5N1 is a particularly nasty virus, so when humans started to get infected with bird flu, people started to panic. An H5N1 pandemic would be devastating for global health. Thankfully, we haven't yet had a major outbreak, and this has led some people to ask, what happened to bird flu? We wanted to know why the virus hasn't been able to jump from human to human easily.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/11/091119085216.htm

photo: morguefile