by Pauline Abreu

Created on: January 31, 2009

Bird flu is very dangerous when passed on to humans. Influenza is not deadly to wild birds, however, if it is passed on to domestic poultry and humans, the results can be fatal. The first incident of the disease being present in humans was in 1997 when it was discovered in Hong Kong. People who were in close range of the animals carrying the avian flu suffered from severe respiratory illness, and eventually died from the disease.

The symptoms are as follows:

* Sore Throat *

* Muscle Pain *

* Conjunctivitis *

* Breathing Problems *

* Chest Pain *

* Fever *

* Headache *

* Lethargy *

People are at risk of catching bird flu when they come into contact with infected birds, or if they are in contact with the secretions or excretions from the infected bird. The symptoms may vary depending on what subtype of the disease has been contracted. The symptoms could take the form of regular flu, such as, fever, muscle ache, cough, and a sore throat. On a larger scale a certain subtype can produce more severe symptoms, like, pneumonia, eye infections, and severe respiratory diseases . The symptoms will depend upon which subtype has been passed on to the human.

Some people may have had bird flu, but it hasn't been a strong enough dose of the illness for them to report the sypmtoms. The reported cases to date are of those people who have suffered severe symtoms, and have even died from bird flu symptoms. There have also been reported cases of humans getting infected from other humans. One reported case was in Thailand, in 2004, when a mother was in contact with infected poultry, she got the bird flu, then passed it on to her child. Another such case, was in Indonesia, in 2006, when one family member passed on bird flu to eight other family members. There were no reported cases outside of the family.

The spreading of the virus to other humans have been very rare. The disease is also not that common amongst humans, but scientists are worried that one day it may be more commonly spread from human to human. Therefore, there are still a lot of tests and investigations into ways of preventing humans from getting bird flu. It has been said that vaccines used to fight standard flu will also be beneficial to people who have bird flu, but this various from patient to patient, depending on the severity of the disease contraction. For example, oseltamivir and zanamavir may be used to treat H5N1 virus (subtype of influenza), but more studies are being conducted as to the long term benefits of this treatment.

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