Why is bird flu of such concern?

Bird flu had become a very popular topic of lately. However, a lot of people are wondering why that is such a concern. The situation is bad in Asia since that is the place where the outbreak of the virus happened. There are people who think that it does not influence their lives since it is in Asia but there are some who are becoming quite obsessed with the virus. These people are thinking that there is more to the disease than the news are telling.

Avian influenza

This virus is not at all new since people are aware of it since the 1900s. However, nowadays people are more concerned about because of some reason. A particular strand of the virus known as H5N1 has been contracted by over a hundred people and more than half of that number died because of the infection. Most viruses of this type do not affect humans, only birds and several other animals are affected by it. This is why it was strange when people got infected with it. That became quite a concern. When all those people died because of the virus, people were no longer concerned, they became dreaded.

The case is even more serious now. Lots of people fear that the virus will spread all over the world and it will become some sort of a global plague. People fear a pandemic. When this concern started to grow, some books were written on the subject and people can read them and see what they can do in order to avoid being infected with bird flu. However, in order for a pandemic to occur, three things need to happen. The first one is that a new virus must show up. The second is that that virus causes serious illness in humans and the third is that the virus can be easily spread among humans. The first two things have already happened. However, the third condition has not yet happened since people did not get the virus from other people but from the birds.

The concern

A lot of people fear that the virus will eventually mutate so that it can be transmitted among humans. The chance is that the virus will mutate more as more people are affected. If that happens, it will be very hard to contain the disease and a lot of people will die because there are not many ways of treatment.