A new outbreak of bird flu cases in humans has emerged in Cambodia, leading to fears that a new Covid-like pandemic is on the horizon.
The father of an 11-year-old girl who died this week from bird flu has also tested positive for the H5N1 strain. Eleven others are being tested for the virus, four of whom are symptomatic.
It’s still unclear if the parent contracted the virus from their daughter or if they were both exposed to the same reservoir – likely an infected bird. But it could be the first example of human-to-human spread since an outbreak in Hong Kong in the late 1990s.
However, that outbreak fizzled out, so even if the virus starts spreading between people again, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will cause an epidemic in humans.
There’s also a question about how efficient the terrifyingly deadly H5N1 strain really is as a pandemic virus. It kills about half of the people it infects, greatly limiting its spread. Dead people are not good hosts for a pathogen whose sole purpose is to spread and multiply.
Here’s everything you need to know about the bird flu strain:
Like all flu, the virus is primarily spread through airborne droplets that are inhaled or enter a person’s mouth, eyes, or nose
Cambodia health experts work during sanitizer in a village in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province – where a father has been diagnosed with bird flu
What is H5N1?
H5N1 is a highly contagious flu strain that causes severe respiratory illness in birds and humans.
It is highly contagious among birds and poultry and has a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent.
There are fewer than 1,000 human cases, but it has killed about 53 percent of people with the disease.
The H5N1 strain was first discovered in Scotland in 1959, but this outbreak was confined to chickens.
The virus was first discovered in humans in 1997 in Hong Kong, believed to have been contracted from chickens at a live poultry market, more commonly known as a “wet market,” where live and dead animals are often kept in squalid conditions and slaughtered to order.
Wet markets have also been linked to the origins of Covid, with the first cluster of cases in 2019 traced to a small radius near Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market.
Infected birds can spread H5N1 to other birds through their saliva, nasal secretions and feces.
They can also contract it through contact with surfaces contaminated with the virus.
Before the cases in Cambodia, only one case of H5N1 had been detected in humans this year. Cases in humans have been rare in recent years
A worker catches chickens at a market in Phnom Penh on Feb. 24, 2023. The father of an 11-year-old Cambodian girl who died of bird flu earlier this week tested positive for the virus, health officials said
Bird flu infections in humans are rare, but they can occur when enough virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled.
People who have close or prolonged unprotected contact (not wearing respiratory and eye protection) with infected birds or places where sick birds or their mucus, saliva, or faeces are contaminated may be at greater risk of infection with the avian flu virus.
It is unlikely that a human can contract the virus by eating fowl and fowl because it is heat sensitive. This means that the meat will not contain the virus as long as it is cooked properly.
An infected bird may appear lethargic, stop eating, have swollen body parts, and cough and sneeze. Other birds may die suddenly without any symptoms.
The symptoms in humans are a high fever (often over 100 F), cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and a general feeling of malaise.
Additional early symptoms may include abdominal and chest pain and diarrhea.
It can quickly develop into a serious respiratory illness, including shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, and pneumonia. People can also suffer from altered mental status or seizures.
Do I have to worry?
There has been mounting fear over the past year as tension ripped through world populations of domesticated birds and poultry.
More than 15 million animals have been killed by the virus itself, while governments have collectively culled more than 200 million animals worldwide to contain the spread of the virus, including 58 million in the US alone.
But those fears reached new heights today when the father of a girl who died from the virus was also diagnosed with the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described the situation in Cambodia as ‘worrying’, with a noticeable shift in rhetoric.
Earlier this month, the global health organization had assessed the threat of avian flu to humans as ‘low’. But the WHO says it may reconsider that status based on the latest update.
Prior to Cambodia’s recent cases, there were only about 870 worldwide, but about half resulted in death.
Human-to-human transmission of H5N1 is incredibly rare, but not impossible. In 1997, officials confirmed 18 H5N1 cases in Hong Kong, some of which were acquired through human-to-human transmission.
However, the outbreak subsided and did not lead to a major local or global problem.
Concerns have also increased in recent weeks when it emerged that the virus had also begun to infect mammals, including minks, sea lions and foxes.
Two weeks ago, an article in the journal Eurosurveillance reported that the virus found in the Spanish mink carried a mutation in the PB2 gene, not unlike the one found when bird flu made its way more than a decade ago. liked pigs.
The more the virus spreads between different animals, the more likely it is to mutate.
So far, only eight cases in humans have been seen in this outbreak, all of which were traced to close contact with infected birds.
More than 15 million domestic birds and countless wild animals have been affected by the virus.
There is nothing that can be done to prevent the spread among wild birds, but officials are working to keep domesticated populations away from them.
For example, in the UK all raised chickens are now required to stay indoors.
In just over a year, more than 58 million birds in the US and 200 million worldwide have been culled to prevent spread.
If the cases in Cambodia are confirmed to be human-to-human transmission, there may be more cause for panic.
But the virus has a harder time spreading in people because the mortality rate is so high and the infection can kill so quickly, meaning people are dead before they have a chance to pass it on.
There has only been one case of human avian flu in America, which occurred in April last year. The patient’s only symptoms were fatigue for a few days. They were treated with the flu antiviral oseltamivir and made a full recovery.
Cambodia has become a tourist trap in recent years with large numbers of Americans flocking to Southeast Asia for their gap years. Every year a quarter of a million people from the US visit Cambodia, as well as about 160,000 Britons.
It is estimated that more than 100,000 expatriates now live in Cambodia, of which about 2,500 are Americans.
Professor François Balloux wrote on Twitter today that bird flu is a ‘serious problem’.
But he said that while human-to-human transmission is happening, it’s not happening any more than before at the moment, and “by far the most likely scenario for H5N1 is nothing happening at this point.”
Is it the new Covid?
Even though it is deadly, it is not Covid-19 at this point. With few limited exceptions, the virus never managed to make the leap to humans on a scale large enough to cause an outbreak.
Flu viruses are constantly mutating. In birds, H5N1 has split into more than 30 genetic variants and caused widespread deaths among bird populations and bird-eating mammals.
New outbreak of human bird flu cases in Cambodia has sparked fears a new Covid-like pandemic is on the way
Scientists have yet to find any evidence that different variants are transmitted between mammals.
Can it become the next pandemic? Time will tell.
Is there a vaccine/treatment?
There are animal vaccines for bird flu, but they are not widely used on bird farms because it reduces the ability to monitor outbreaks of the disease.
In addition, vaccinated birds can still contract and pass on the disease.
No vaccines have yet been developed for bird flu in humans, but only because there is no need for them yet.
To create an effective vaccine in humans, scientists would need to know which specific variant is causing the human spread so that treatment can be tailored.
The WHO has sent samples of H5N1 viruses to vaccine manufacturers, but mass production will not take place until they know the strain.
However, there are some easy antivirals that can treat severe flu, such as oseltamivir.
Hopefully these will work with any pandemic avian flu virus, but viruses can become resistant.
