Read About Bird Flu Pandemic

Bird flu pandemics have occurred before and could occur again, but we know more about what causes a birdflu pandemic than we've ever known before. Here's all you need to know about a bird flu pandemic.

What is a bird flu pandemic?

A bird flu pandemic would occur if the bird flu virus spread rapidly to various regions and killed a bunch of people. A pandemic by definition is a sickness that spreads to a several large populations.

A bird flu pandemic would mean that the bird flu strand, which is fairly crafty at mutating and reinventing itself, adopted a form that we don't have a defense for and then spread to people all over the world. For this to happen, the bird flu virus would have to mutate to a form that spreads from person to person. Right now the bird flu virus spreads from animal to animal or animal to human. Scientists are working hard to stop the virus from mutating into a form that would spread from human to human.

When have we seen a bird flu pandemic?

We've actually seen more than one bird flu pandemic. It's been estimated that a bird flu pandemic has occurred about three or four times every 100 years or so. Perhaps the single largest flu pandemic in the past 100 years occurred in the early 20th Century. This particular bird flu pandemic caused about 40-50 million deaths world wide. Other bird flu pandemics were reported in during the 20th Century, but nothing to this magnitude.

How do we prevent a bird flu pandemic?

First of all, it should be noted that we are capable of preventing a bird flu pandemic. In 1997 there was a bird flu outbreak in China. It could have become a bird flu pandemic, but it was nipped in the bud. As soon as the strand was discovered, the poultry that was infected with the virus or had the potential to be infected with the virus, was destroyed. Other countries including the U.S. stopped importing poultry from China, which helped prevent the strand from spreading to the states. Preventing the host of the pandemic from traveling and infecting other parts of the world is a great way to prevent any pandemic.

When there is a risk of a bird flu pandemic, those who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus, such as old people and infants, should receive vaccinations. However, the first step to getting bird flu vaccinations to weaker citizens is creating one that works for human, which hadn't been done yet. When this happens, it will be wise to provide vaccinations to those who work with poultry as their exposure to a bird flu pandemic is greater.