The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged travelers to Asia to avoid wet markets over growing fears of bird flu.
Virologists have repeatedly warned about the threat posed by markets, calling them ideal breeding grounds for pathogens.
An infamous site in the Chinese city of Wuhan is believed to have played a role in the murky origin of Covid.
In a new statement to coincide with the Lunar New Year, the WHO said higher levels of trade and travel “will lead to an increased risk of exposure” in humans.
It comes just days after Beijing revealed the world’s first case of a new type of bird flu. A farmer in her 60s died after a two-week battle with the H10N5 strain.
Wet markets are large collections of open-air stalls where vendors flog live animals, raw meat and fish, as well as fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices. Experts have long warned about the growing disease threat posed by these markets, calling them ideal breeding ground for pathogen transmission.
According to the UKHSA, more than 700 confirmed cases of H5N1 have been detected among wild birds in England since September 2022. Pictured above, an outbreak of bird flu last February in Queens Park, Heywood, Rochdale.
UK scientists tasked with developing “early human transmission scenarios” for bird flu have warned that 5 per cent of infected people could die if the virus spreads among humans (as shown in scenario three). In another scenario, scientists assumed that 1 percent of those infected would be hospitalized and 0.25 percent would die, similar to how deadly Covid was in the fall of 2021 (scenario one). In the other, a mortality rate of 2.5 percent was recorded (scenario two).
And last year, a Chinese woman became the first person to die from the H3N8 strain.
Health officials believe he contracted the virus at a wet market, where live animals such as pangolins and bats are bought and sold.
A separate strain called H5N1, which experts have identified as having pandemic potential in humans, has already caused the world’s largest outbreak of bird flu ever recorded.
It has affected more than 200 million domestic birds worldwide, as well as countless wild birds, and has affected mammals such as mink, foxes, raccoons and bears.
In the alert, WHO officials said ‘Most human infections to date have been sporadic following contact with infected poultry and/or their environment.
However, they added that “vigilance remains crucial.”
Recommended measures include avoiding contact with animals in live bird markets and with sick or dead animals.
People should also stay away from any surfaces that appear to be contaminated with poultry or other animal feces.
“Good hand hygiene” and “good food safety habits,” such as separating raw meat from cooked meat, were two final measures advised by officials.
It is unlikely that a human will contract the virus from eating poultry and game birds because they are sensitive to heat, and properly cooking poultry will kill the virus.
Common symptoms in humans are high fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and general feeling of malaise.
Like the common flu, it can quickly turn into severe respiratory illness and pneumonia.
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the mortality rate from bird flu is believed to be around 50 percent worldwide.
Scientists have largely pointed to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan (pictured), where numerous species of live animals were kept and sold, as the potential site where Covid spread naturally from animals to people.
The initial WHO investigation in January 2021, in which a group of scientists traveled to Wuhan, concluded that “all hypotheses remain on the table.” In its March 2021 report, it ranked the likelihood of four theories and considered the natural origins theory to be the most likely. But he placed the lab leak as an “extremely unlikely avenue” behind the frozen food origin story.
It has been suggested that Covid was created through bioengineering at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) in central China, which specialized in the study of coronaviruses.
The Lunar New Year began on February 10 and lasts 15 days.
It comes as China has repeatedly insisted that one of its wet markets, at Covid ground zero in Wuhan, was the source of the pandemic.
Scientists have largely pointed to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where numerous species of live animals were kept and sold, as the potential site where the virus spread naturally from animals to people.
Many of the first cases, which occurred in December 2019 and January 2020, had visited the site where live animals were sold.
But Beijing He has also been repeatedly accused of a cover-up, stifling attempts to investigate a laboratory in Wuhan who was experimenting with similar viruses months before the disease emerged in the city.
No concrete evidence has been found to support any of the arguments about the origin of Covid, making experts fear that the truth behind the origins of the virus will never be discovered.