The History and Impact of the H5N1 Virus: Epidemiology, Outbreaks, and Global Response

2024-01-20 09:02:56

Epidemiology

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Since its detection in Hong Kong in 1997, “bird plague” has decimated entire populations of birds, as they move around and due to human activities. If the strain has evolved to become more virulent, human-to-human transmission remains impossible.

Like an air of déjà vu, it is the story of a virus spotted in China which is spreading across the planet. In 1997, a “bird plague” infected thousands of poultry and 18 people, including children, in Hong Kong. In total, there will be six human deaths and a million and a half chickens will be slaughtered. The disease is caused by a type A influenza virus identified in a goose farm. Very quickly, it was named H5N1, following the name of two proteins present on its surface: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). At the time the World Health Organization (WHO) explained that “before May 1997, the H5N1 virus was thought to only infect various species of birds, including chickens and ducks.”

The first human victims observed alert specialists around the world. “The matter is taken very seriously. The majority of infected people were young and in good health, remembers Sylvie Van der Werf, professor of virology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Massive animal slaughters are decided in Hong Kong.” A measure decreed to prevent the virus from spreading too quickly. This will slow the spread of the virus by six years.

“Along the Trans-Siberian Railway”

In 2003, H5N1 – enf

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