Bird Flu Facts

Bird Flu Facts

The influenza virus has always claimed lots of lives throughout time. There was a time during the early 1900’s where lots of people died from the simple flu. That’s why currently, health organizations around the world tries to prevent outbreaks happening all over again.

The current virus that all the world health organizations are worrying about is the avian flu virus most commonly known as the bird flu virus. This virus has not affected a whole lot of persons yet, but why takes the chance?

We have always heard lots of birds getting killed and burned to prevent the avian flu virus from spreading. But what are its symptoms really? How will we know if we have been afflicted or not? This article aims to give a brief overview of the bird flu.

Scientists haven’t been able to know exactly the exact effects of bird flu virus on humans. However what is sure is that the highly pathogenic virus that can cause the most serious problems, such as deaths to humans.

The incubation period of the virus on humans is also not yet clear. In most case of people who have been affected by Bird Flu, the illness developed within one to five days after being exposed to the virus.

It is hard to know if the person already has bird flu because sometimes it is only conductivities or eye infection that appears. Often though, the signs of bird flu’s often resemble the signs of common flues. That makes it harder to identify because you will not know if you have bird flu. The common symptoms are muscle aches, fever, sore throat and coughing.

In worst cases that cause deaths, the person infected will develop acute respiratory diseases and viral pneumonia.

One of the main reasons that bird flu will seem to spread to humans is due to contact to a bird that has been infected. That’s why people who handle a lot of birds should learn to avoid birds that are sick or the places those sick birds have contaminated.

Currently, the only cure for bird flu is a vaccine called TamiFlu. TamiFlu is a neuraminidase inhibitor that prevents the virus to escape the host cell. TamiFlu has really not yet been tested fully to find out how effective it has been. Relenza may also be considered as an alternative.

The drugs should be taken immediately two days after the symptoms have developed.