Bird Flu - should you be worried?

Over 30,000 have been culled at the Central Poultry Development Organisation at Hesaraghatta near Bangalore due to them being affected by bird flu. Before you start hitting the panic button, here are some things you should know about bird flu also known as avian influenza:

Key facts:

• Bird flu doesn't normally affect humans except for the H5N1 strain.
• No cases of bird flu in humans have been detected in India yet. In fact worldwide, since 2003 there have been a total of 608 positive cases.
• Unlike seasonal flu, the disease has a very high fatality rate (almost 60%).
• Bird flu cannot spread from one human to another like swine flu. It can only spread from infected birds to humans.
• You can't get bird flu from eating eggs or chicken if it has been properly cleaned and cooked.
• Some experts believe that the H5N1 strain has the potential to cause a global pandemic if it evolves and starts spreading from human to human.

So what is bird flu? How dangerous is it for humans?

Bird flu or avian influenza is an infectious viral disease which normally affects wild birds but can sometimes spread to domestic poultry. Often when this happens, affected birds have to be culled to prevent the virus from spreading. One of the bird flu strains, H5N1 can affect various other species including mammals like humans. It's not particularly dangerous for humans yet. There are some researchers who believe that if this strain mutates and starts spreading between humans it could cause a large scale pandemic.

How can I get bird flu?

You can get bird flu by coming in close contact with infected poultry. This makes people who work with poultry particularly vulnerable although we should note that not a single human case has been reported from Hesaraghatta yet. Bird flu can spread from the bird's skin, excreta and blood. Also eating, uncooked or under-cooked birds infected with the virus could cause bird flu. However, if thoroughly cooked there's no way the flu virus can survive or transmit to humans.

What are the symptoms I should watch out for?

Some of the typical symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. More severe symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, eye infections and could ultimately lead to pneumonia and respiratory failure. One symptom which is seen in many patients is the infection of the lower respiratory tract. On present evidence, experts believe that difficulty in breathing develops around five days after the first symptoms.

Editor's Note: It should be noted that till now August 2012, only about 608 people have been affected by the H5N1 virus, so there's not enough data to really pin down the complete range of symptoms of bird flu.

Is there any medicine or vaccine to prevent bird flu?

There is no publicly-available vaccine against H5N1 yet. The most commonly used medicine to treat H5N1 in humans is Oseltamivir (also known as Tamiflu) which is an anti-viral that prevents the spread of flu in the body.

What are the precautions one should take to guard against bird flu?

Always wash your hands properly before and after handling meat. It's also important to make sure that you wash and clean the meat and eggs properly and cook it so that the virus can't survive. If you've flu-like symptoms you should immediately contact a physician because unlike seasonal flu the disease has a much higher fatality rate.

Basically, most experts feel that there is nothing to worry about for humans yet and basic hygiene levels should be enough to keep the virus away - for now.

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