H5N1 the Bird Flu 2009

Asia has been hit hard with the Bird Flu, the past few years, with 251 deaths out of 399 cases. China, which has been hit with SARS in the past, is looking especially closely at the H5N1 flu. China faces a "grim" situation in preventing and controlling human cases of bird flu, Health Minister Chen Zhu said, after announcing four human infections in the last two weeks and three deaths. Zhu called for hospitals to spare more resources in diagnosing and treating bird flu and more open communications and agreements between agriculture authorities and his ministry, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China has started a daily bird flu reporting system for poultry and human cases after four people were infected with the H5N1 virus this month, three fatally. The Health Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce are requiring rural departments to report every day on if there have been infections in their areas. During previous outbreaks of bird flu and SARS, daily reporting has been implemented, and it underscores the China's worries over potential epidemics.

East China's Shandong Province has banned raising birds, such as poultry, in urban areas, protected water areas and started a rural the provincial health campaign was triggered by the death of the woman surnamed Zhang, 27-year-old woman, on Saturday, which was the second death from bird flu in China this year.

The H5N1 strain of flu remains largely a virus among birds, but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted among humans and could spark a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide. History shows that pandemics and plagues, such as the renowned Black Plague, started in rats that had fleas with the virus. Recently, researchers involved in a study at the University of Wisconsin have discovered that the H5N1 Avian Flu virus has mutated into a strain that may make humans more vulnerable to the disease.

Prior to the study, according to scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the researcher in charge of the study, it was known that the virus could only thrive or live in a body which has temperatures of 106F (41C). A human's normal body temperature is 98.6F (37C). This difference in the temperatures of bodies makes the virus less likely to infect a human, but the recent study suggests the virus has adapted to survive in bodies with temperatures lower than 106F.

"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," said Kawaoka.

Kawaoka also stated that the "viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," but also stated that the H5N1 virus must undergo several mutations before it can infect a human, who can then spread the virus to other humans.
"Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains," added Kawaoka.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that despite the study, influenza viruses are constantly mutating from season to season, but that the H5N1 virus is not anymore deadly to humans than before the study.

"Mutations occur in influenza viruses. Separately from that, the (bird flu) virus continues to be deadly. But there is no new jump in deadliness," said Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the WHO.