Avian influenza is a disease that has no cure or treatment, and causes high mortality in wild and domestic birds such as ducks, chickens, chickens, turkeys, among others.
By: Valentina Diaz Ospina
The World Health Organization warned that humanity must prepare for a possible pandemic of bird flu because there is a risk that the circulating strain will jump from the aves domestic and wild to more populations of mammals, including humans.
“The recent contagion to mammals should be closely monitored,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, stressing that “for now, the risk to humans is assessed by WHO as low.”
What is bird flu or H5N1?
It is an infectious disease that mainly affects aves. It is caused by a virus from the Orthomyxoviridae family, and has two highly pathogenic subtypes (H5 and H7) of type A.
Severe infection can spread rapidly and has a high mortality rate in different species of avesaccording to the WHO.
“Most influenza viruses circulating in aves they are not zoonotic. However, some strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza have the ability to infect humans, posing a threat to public health.”
outbreak status
Since the end of 2021, Europe has been affected by the worst outbreak of bird flu In its history, likewise, North and South America have also experienced severe outbreaks.
A highly pathogenic subtype of the virus bird flu H5N1has led to the sacrifice of tens of millions of aves households around the world and is currently causing the worst outbreak of the disease among aves since it was first identified in China in 1996.
Europe is immersed in its second commercial season of widespread contagion in avesthe United States is recording the deadliest year in its history for aves farmyard, with 58 million animals affected so far, Japan registers records, due to the fact that in mid-January a culling plan of 10 million animals was announced aves free-range due to the appearance of a different but similar subtype, H5N2.
Attention to spread in humans
In the last two decades, 868 cases of H5N1 in humans with 457 deaths, according to the WHO and last year there were four confirmed human cases and one death.
Last month, Ecuador reported the first South American case of the virus bird flu in a human being: a nine-year-old girl who was in contact with aves farmyard
The girl’s condition was “improving”, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan explained, adding that so far there was no indication that other people had been infected.
This reflects the usual pattern when people are infected, said Sylvie Briand, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention. “Transmission from animals to humans is rare, and when it infects humans, human-to-human transmission is not easy, because the virus is not well adapted to the human population,” she said.
But, he warned, “we need to be vigilant to make sure we contain the spread in animals.”
“The more the virus circulates in animals, the greater the risk to humans as well,” adding that this is “because the virus circulating in animals can evolve into forms that are more transmissible.”
Cases in Latin America
So far, in the American continent, cases have been detected in at least 16 countries, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru , Uruguay and Venezuela.
Argentina: Since the first report of bird flu in an amphibian goose from the Pozuelos lagoon in Jujuy, another 8 cases have been reported in three additional provinces: Córdoba, Salta, Santa Fe. After learning of the first infection, the National Agrifood Health and Quality Service (SENASA) declared the health emergency across the country.
Guatemala: On February 14, a health alert was declared upon detecting cases of avian influenza in pelicans in the Caribbean of the country, specifically in the village of El Quetzalito, municipality of Puerto Barrios, located on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala and bordering with Honduras, country that a month ago declared a health emergency for 90 days after detecting avian influenza in pelicans.
Peru: The National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Control of Diseases of Peru, on February 7 confirmed the death of a lion from the Huancayo Municipal Zoo due to bird flu type A (H5N1).
The authorities explained that “the lion’s contagion is still a mystery”, but “this case makes it possible to explore the routes of transmission of the virus”.
In recent weeks, the disease has killed 585 sea lions and 55,000 aves in the country.