According to the CDC and WHO, more than 700 human infections with H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus (AIV aka bird flu) have been reported around the world since 2003. A recent outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Asia resulted in more than 20 million of the animals being infected.
While bird flu does not yet easily jump to humans, we need to remember that H5N8 is an influenza virus that already figured out how to become a human viral vector a millennium ago. Approximately 60% of patients infected with bird flu die from pneumonia, compared to a fatality rate of approximately 1% for COVID-19.
To put this into perspective, a viral pandemic with a 60% mortality rate would be a global extinction event. H5N8 infections in both wildfowl and poultry have been identified in at least 46 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. While these outbreaks have led to the death or slaughter of many millions of birds worldwide, they have also notably resulted in at least one spillover event in Russia, where seven poultry farm workers tested positive for H5N8 virus.
Surveillance of highly pathogenic AIVs in poultry farms, live markets, and wild birds must become a global priority and we need to re-establish the U.S. Office of Pandemic Preparedness to build a rapid mobilization vaccine R&D infrastructure
David Segarnick Ph.D., is senior vice president, Medical and Scientific Services, Evolution Health Group, Pearl River, N.Y. and assistant professor of pharmacology, physiology and Neuroscience, Rutgers NJ Medical School, Newark. He lives in Upper Black Eddy.
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