2024-07-08 13:04:00
More and more experts are expressing concern about the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Is a new pandemic looming?
Last week, the chief virologist at Berlin’s Charité hospital warned that the spread of the current bird flu virus in the USA could potentially trigger a new pandemic. The pathogen has recently appeared in dairy herds in the USA and “has even appeared in dairy products sold there,” Drosten told the German editorial network. “There has never been anything like this before, such extremely large outbreaks in cows – all experts are worried.”
The spread of bird flu among mammals could also be “mild, the virus needs several steps to adapt, and perhaps it will already be under control before then,” Drosten continued. “But it could also be the start of the next pandemic, which we are following live here.” Read more about it here.
His colleague, the Bonn virologist Hendrick Streeck, is also now warning that the pathogen should be taken seriously. “What is new now is that the virus can infect cattle. So it is getting closer to humans. On the one hand, mammals are affected, and on the other hand, these are animals with which humans have frequent contact – for example on farms. And the closer a virus gets to humans, the more likely it is that it will be transmitted to humans,” he explained in an interview with the “Frankfurter Rundschau”.
However, he adds that only if there is easy transmission from person to person would there be “the possibility of a pandemic”. However, this could be far more dangerous than the global corona outbreak.
Hendrick Streeck: “This is a pathogen that must be taken very seriously. For comparison: The mortality rate for corona is around 0.5 percent. According to current data, bird flu is a hundred times more deadly. These are estimates that are probably far too high, since the number of unreported cases is not known, for example.”
Nevertheless, the virologist does not expect a scenario similar to that of Corona. “We are in a completely different situation than with Corona. There are already effective vaccines. The European Union has already ordered vaccine doses.” If there were an outbreak now, i.e. a person-to-person transmission, this outbreak would be contained immediately by vaccinating all contact persons.
In the US, however, experts are much more concerned. They are calling for testing for bird flu to be intensified. Otherwise, a new pandemic threatens. “We are making the same mistakes today that we made with Covid,” said Deborah Birx, former Corona advisor to former President Donald Trump, on CNN on June 4.
For the virus to become a pandemic, it would have to be transmitted from person to person. The best way to keep an eye on this possibility is to test people.
The former head of the US Public Health Service, Jerome Adams, has made a similar demand. He even calls for dairy cattle to be tested. He is concerned that we keep making the same mistakes. “Because we keep focusing on the wrong things instead of focusing on the essential things.” In order to contain outbreaks in livestock, they would have to be tested, which would cause food prices to rise. Adams called for public health to be given priority – and not focusing on possible profit losses.
So far, four people have been reported infected with the bird flu virus in the USA. All of them are believed to have been infected through direct contact with infected birds. This week, Finland became the first country in the world to start vaccinating people against the virus.