至尊英语阅读资料之健康与卫生专题第266集.pdfVIP

health articles 266 [6626]Current Situation of the Avian Flu Avian Influenza is known to affect especially wild and domestic birds as well as pigs but rare cases of human infection are updated. Since 2004 though, more than 200 confirmed cases of the avian virus in humans have been detected and analyzed by the World Health Organization. The infection with the A influenza virus is thought to have been done by direct contact with sick birds or their secretions. Scientists are still searching for the method how low and highly pathogenic viral strains might affect humans. Health organizations all over the world continuously monitor human cases of avian flu outbreaks although no actual man to man transmission of the disease has been registered. The bird flu virus represents a real danger for humans as it is able to perform mutations by combining with human types of Influenza; this would lead to disastrous epidemics if the disease could spread between humans. Since 1997 all suspicions of avian flu in humans have been closely observed. The first cases of bird to human transmission occurred in Hong Kong in 1997 resulting in 6 deaths after 18 persons have been infected. About 1.5 million birds have been destroyed to annihilate the infection source. The H5N1 type of influenza showed no direct transmission from human to human. In 1999 in China two more cases of infection were noted when two children became ill though the real source has not been discovered. Both patients recovered after the infection with the low pathogenic virus H9N2. In the State of Virginia in 2002 one person showed serological marks of infection, after poultry farm was contaminated with the H7N2. Another situation of H5N1 infestation occurred in 2003 in Hong Kong when two members of one family became ill and one of them died. They are believed to have contacted the virus during a visit in China but the exact source has not been established. A second family member died of a respira