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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.
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.
Mammalian influenza viruses tend to be labile, but they can survive several hours in a host’s mucus. [57] Avian influenza virus can survive for 100 days in distilled water at room temperature and for 200 days at 17 °C (63 °F). The avian virus is inactivated more quickly in manure but can survive for up to two weeks in feces on cages.
Amid an ongoing outbreak of bird flu among poultry and dairy cows, the United States has recorded its first human death due the virus known as avian influenza A or H5N1.
Avian influenza HA preferentially binds to alpha-2,3 sialic acid receptors, while human influenza HA preferentially binds to alpha-2,6 sialic acid receptors. [40] Usually other differences also exist. Currently, there is no human-adapted form of H5N1 influenza, so all humans who have caught it so far have caught avian H5N1.
Avian flu has been around and infecting wild birds and poultry since 1996. There have been nearly 1,000 known cases of bird flu in humans (889 between 2003 and May 3, 2024, according to the World ...
Influenza A virus (Alphainfluenzavirus influenzae) [1] or IAV is the only species of the genus Alphainfluenzavirus of the virus family Orthomyxoviridae. [2] It is a pathogen with strains that infect birds and some mammals, as well as causing seasonal flu in humans. [3]
According to a new study published in the journal Science by Scripps Research Institute biologists, the avian H5N1 virus has the potential to quickly shift from a bird flu to a human flu. The ...