Has Bird Flu been contained in Asia?

Question

I'm doing a speech on it in my speech class and my professor thinks that it may be a dead issue.

Answer 1

There is no BIRD Flu. It is a hoax for the pharceutical companies to sell their products. Do some research on that, you will find out the truth.

Answer 2

It is definitely not a dead issue and would be a great, although easily complicated, topic for a speech.

"Bird flu" is a media coined term for Avian Influenza; from which we have seen the rise of multiple versions of Influenza (A, B, and C). The reason for Influenza's disposition to mutate is the fact that it is an RNA based virus, enabling a higher mutation rate (due to lower proof reading abilities) and a process called antigenic shift.

In the 20th century we have had 4 large outbreaks of the most problematic version Influenza A. In 1918 Influenza A H1N1 (killing more than 20 million people world wide), 1957 Influenza A H2N2, 1968 Influenza H3N2, and circulating in 1977 Influenza H1N1. The reason for the multiple occurrences of Influenza A is the changes in the H and N's. The Influenza virus has a segmented genome which is able to recombine and mix into new daughter viruses. For example, if you were infected with Influenza A H1N1 and Influenza A H3N2 these two may eventually produce Influenza A H1N2 by combining the components of it's parents. To further the problem, the low proof reading ability of the virus allows high mutations in these genes; therefore, you may be infected with H1N1 and H3N2, but with a mutation in N2 creating N5 a H1N5 could arise.

Since we have seen that these human viruses arise from an avian source, the "bird flu" is of huge concern. The proper name for the "bird flu" is Avian Influenza Virus H5N1. If you notice, this is very similar to past Influenza viruses; however, we have the novel H5N1. This H5N1 is the limiting component of Avian Influenza because it only allows attachment to alpha-2,3 receptors. alpha-2,3 receptors are the major avian Sialic acid receptors; in humans it is alpha-2,6.

The reason why humans are currently able to contract Avian Influenza H5N1 is due to the small amount of alpha-2,3 receptors we have in our alveoli; thus greatly limiting its current infectious potential.

The concern is valid when the death toles for previous Influenza pandemics are analyzed. If an infected human produces a slight, and highly possible mutated Influenza H5N1 a new, potent virus will be introduced to the human species. To prevent another 20 million deaths (like the 1918 pandemic) efforts are going into preventing human infection and vaccine development.

Answer 3

I think so. I haven't heard about it in so long. I know it's definitely not wide-spread in America, but I think it's dead or dying off.

=)

Answer 4

It cannot be contained due to the nature of the carriers.

Answer 5

no

Answer 6

Nope ome cases in UK

Heres a map by the BBC showing the spread

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/wo...