• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Republica Press

Your Business & Political News Source

REPUBLICA PRESS
Your Business & Political News Source

  • Home
  • BUSINESS
  • MONEY
  • POLITICS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • SCIENCE/TECH
  • US
  • WORLD
  • VIDEOS

A New Bird Flu Jumps to Humans. So Far, It’s Not a Problem

by

To Dr. Lucey, no one else seemed to be taking the infection of humans with H5N8 as “of any concern.” He added, “I think it’s of concern.”

Updated 

April 21, 2021, 5:57 a.m. ET

Other scientists said they were not as worried.

Dr. Florian Krammer, a flu researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, said he was more concerned about other avian flu viruses like H5N1 that have already shown themselves to be dangerous to people. Another avian influenza virus, H7N9, infected people for the first time in 2013. There have been more than 1,500 confirmed cases and more than 600 deaths since then. Since 2017 there have been only three confirmed cases and the virus does not jump easily from person to person.

It is always possible that any virus can evolve human-to-human transmission, as well as become more dangerous. But H5N8 would have both hurdles to jump. Compared to other viral threats, Dr. Krammer said, “I’m not worried.”

Dr. Richard J. Webby, a flu specialist at the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and director of the W.H.O.’s Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, said that all of the H5 viruses are of concern because some of them have infected and killed people. But, he said, “They all have the same sort of binding capacity to human cells, which is limited,” he said. Flu viruses use a slightly different way to attach to cells in birds than to cells in humans and being good at one usually means not being good at the other.

Dr. Webby also said that while seven infections would certainly be of concern, only one infection has been confirmed. The tests of the other six involved nasal swabs and blood antibody tests. In people with no symptoms, he said, nasal swabs can simply indicate that they had breathed in virus. That would not mean it had infected them.

Blood antibody tests also have a potential for error, he said, and may not be able to distinguish exposure to one flu virus from another.

Nor did he see any scientific basis for suggesting that H5N8 is more likely than any other bird flu to evolve human-to-human transmission. But any virus could evolve that ability.

View Source

Filed Under: WORLD Tagged With: Agriculture and Farming, Animals, Astrakhan (Russia), Avian Influenza, Birds, Blood, Chickens, Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Infections, Influenza, Lucey, Daniel R, World Health Organization, your-feed-healthcare

Primary Sidebar

More to See

RPM Living’s Marketing Team Named Department of the Year for Superior Performance and Talent

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the first multifamily management company to be recognized in the Public Relations and Marketing Excellence Awards, … [Read More...] about RPM Living’s Marketing Team Named Department of the Year for Superior Performance and Talent

These San Francisco homes sold for less than $1 million in October

There have been whispers of cooling housing and rental prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, but that hasn't yet translated into practical, noticeable … [Read More...] about These San Francisco homes sold for less than $1 million in October

Tuesday, November 1. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine

Cars pass in Independence Square at twilight in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Rolling ... [+] blackouts are increasing across Ukraine as the … [Read More...] about Tuesday, November 1. Russia’s War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine

Copyright © 2023 · Republica Press · Log in · As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy