Genova. The world should prepare for one possible new pandemic, much more lethal than Covid: bird flu. The warning came in the past few hours fromWorld Health Organizationthe official agency of the UN, and was promptly relaunched via social media by Matthew Bassettidirector of the infectious disease clinic of San Martino in Genoa.
“A pandemic far more deadly than Covid could come soon – he wrote Bassetti, sharing an article from the New York Times -. It’s about the bird flu that one has mortality of more than 50%. We must all work together to prevent it from happening and to mitigate its consequences if it happens”.
“Since when the virus H5N1 it first emerged in 1996,” he said Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusWHO director general, during the periodic meeting with the press – we have only witnessed a rare and non-prolonged transmissions of H5N1 from and between humans. Ma we cannot assume it will stay that way and we need to prepare for any change in the status quo. As always, it is recommended not to touch or pick up dead or sick wild animals, but to report them to local authorities”.
To further raise the threshold of attention was aepidemic found in mink of some farms in Galicia, in northwestern Spain. In the UK, nine cases have been reported among otters, mink and foxes in the last two years. In previous years, as reported by the Italian Ministry of Health, several European countries have been affected by an epidemic of bird flu caused by subtypes H5N1 and H5N8. The 2020-2021 epidemic wave was one of the largest and most long-lasting epidemics ever to occur in Europe and practically affected almost all European countries including Italy.
Bird flu is one highly contagious disease of birds. Although human and avian influenza viruses belong to the same family and type, avian viruses they are not able to be transmitted efficiently to humans, but they can do so sporadically and under certain conditions, involving exposure through direct contact with dead or sick birds, with surfaces or materials contaminated by infected excreta and secretions (such as faeces) or through mucous membranes (oral, ocular, nasal), with infected aerosols, or possibly through the consumption of undercooked meat from infected birds. Personnel exposed to risk must adopt individual protection measures.
The concern, however, is that the increased spread among animals could lead to mutations that would make the virus able to pass from one human to another. WHO has therefore recommended that “strengthen surveillance in environments where humans and farmed or wild animals interactcontinuing to work with manufacturers to make sure supplies of vaccines and antivirals are available for global use as needed.”