Next Pandemic: fear of bird flu increased worldwide, evidence of spread in humans, mortality rate over 50%

Tokyo, A record nearly 15 million birds have been killed after a deadly outbreak of bird flu cases in Japan. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday that about 15 million birds had been killed in Japan, a record for a single season, amid an unprecedented spread of bird flu across the country, the report reported. Xinhua news agency. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the number of birds killed now stands at 14.78 million, an increase of almost 50% from the record 9.87 million of cases recorded during the 2020-2021 season.

Significantly, this virus has also spread to North America (bird flu in North America). Meanwhile, the bird flu virus moved from Europe and Asia to North America, where it quickly spread through bird populations in South America and Central America, according to an Al Jazeera report. . It was said in the report that the flu is no longer limited to birds. This increases the list of wild mammals killed in the United States. Including grizzly bears in Nebraska and Montana, a red fox in Montana, six skunks and raccoons in Oregon, and a Kodiak bear in Alaska.

In January, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported bird flu in a little girl in Ecuador, the first human case of bird flu in South America. Only five human cases of bird flu were reported last year. According to the WHO, previous human cases of H5N1 avian influenza had a mortality rate of 53% (human mortality rate in avian influenza).

Experts have warned that the recent detection of bird flu in mammals including foxes, otters, mink, seals and even brown bears is worrying, an AFP report said, but stressed that ‘it has been suggested that the virus must mutate significantly in order to spread among humans. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, told AFP it was a “panzootic” (an epidemic in animals). He said he wasn’t sure why it was happening now, but we think it could be due to a slightly different strain of H5N1 that spreads more efficiently among wild migratory birds.

Could this cause an epidemic?
Two recent large-scale infections have raised fears that bird flu could spread among mammals. In October, a Spanish farm had an outbreak of H5N1 with the PB2 mutation, which killed more than 50,000 mink. The death of some 2,500 seals found on Russia’s Caspian Sea coast last month has also raised concerns. Scientists believe that if seals passed bird flu to each other, it would be “another very worrying development”. There is a risk of epidemics in humans.

Read the latest news in America for the first time News84Media America | Read today’s latest news, live updates, the most trusted America news website, News84Media America.

Keywords: America, bird flu, global pandemic, Japan, New study, Russia, Spain