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Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. [1] Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A virus, which is enzootic (continually present) in many bird populations.
67-year-old Indonesian woman died of bird flu after being treated at a hospital for more than a week, marking the country's 54th death from the virus, an official at the health ministry said. [118] October 31, 2006 A 39-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird flu a month after symptoms first appeared. This was the first case in Egypt since May, 2006.
In September, Egypt and Sudan joined the list of nations seeing a resurgence of bird deaths due to H5N1. [citation needed] In November and December, South Korea and Vietnam joined the list of nations seeing a resurgence of bird deaths due to H5N1; February/March 2006 - A dead cat infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus was found in Germany. [26]
This is a timeline of influenza, briefly describing major events such as outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics, discoveries and developments of vaccines.In addition to specific year/period-related events, there is the seasonal flu that kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year and has claimed between 340 million and 1 billion human lives throughout history.
From 1918 to 1920, the Spanish flu pandemic became the most devastating influenza pandemic and one of the deadliest pandemics in history. The pandemic, caused by an H1N1 strain of influenza A, [ 80 ] likely began in the United States before spreading worldwide via soldiers during and after the First World War .
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes the disease avian influenza (often referred to as "bird flu"). It is enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzootic (affecting animals of many species over a wide area). [1]
H5N1 influenza virus is a type of influenza A virus which mostly infects birds. H5N1 flu is a concern because its global spread may constitute a pandemic threat. The yardstick for human mortality from H5N1 is the case-fatality rate (CFR); the ratio of the number of confirmed human deaths resulting from infection of H5N1 to the number of those confirmed cases of infection with the virus.
Thousands of birds and animals were being culled in Germany to stop the spread. [11] In the United Kingdom the flu was found in a wild duck at a turkey farm in Lincolnshire. [12] In South Korea, a record total of 18.4 million birds had been killed by December since the first outbreak of avian flu was reported at a farm on Nov. 18. [13]