What Is Bird Flu? Should We Be Concerned? (cont.)

Medical Author:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Medical Editor:

Dennis Lee, MD

Dennis Lee, MD

Dr. Lee was born in Shanghai, China, and received his college and medical training in the United States. He is fluent in English and three Chinese dialects. He graduated with chemistry departmental honors from Harvey Mudd College. He was appointed president of AOA society at UCLA School of Medicine. He underwent internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

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Another issue of concern involves transmission of bird flu viruses among humans. While no one knows if this will be an imminent threat in the U.S., the potential is there. Human-to-human spread is currently very rare; the CDC has only documented it a few times, and these rare instances have only involved spread to one other person by an affected individual. This means that those humans who have been infected in the outbreaks in other countries have been poultry workers or others who have had contact with birds or surfaces contaminated by infected birds. The fear is that mutation of the virus will cause it to take on a form that will be easily spread from person to person, since flu viruses can change relatively rapidly. Should this happen, the danger for widespread infection of human beings (pandemic) would be significant.

Research studies to develop vaccines to the H5N1 bird flu virus are also under way.

For additional information about bird flu, please read the following articles:

• Tamiflu for Bird Flu (Doctor's View)
• Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) (drug information)
• Bird Flu FAQ (Health Feature)
• Bird Flu: 10 Questions, 10 Answers (Health Feature)

REFERENCES:

Switzerland. World Health Organization (WHO). "Avian Influenza." <http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/>.

United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Questions and Answers About Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus." May 28, 2008. <http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/>.