A Word on the Avian Flu

A brief overview of the Avian/Bird Flu that’s been on the news nonstop the past few months and what it boils down to in terms of food:

• Bird flu is an infection caused by the avian influenza virus. The particular subtype that’s been making the news is H5N1.
• Wild birds have the virus naturally, but it doesn’t make them sick. However, it’s very contagious among domesticated birds, i.e., those raised for consumption.
• Though it’s been said that it “usually doesn’t affect humans”, cases have been reported since 1997. Most of these are believed to have been caused by contact with an infected bird or its feces or contaminated surfaces. The CDC also says that human-to-human contamination has been rare, but it HAS happened. This is the biggest fear that most people have — that the virus will mutate into something that can be easily passed on from human to human. If that happens, we could have a pandemic (worldwide outbreak) on our hands.
• Symptoms are described as being similar to those of the regular flu, but in some cases may be severe or even life-threatening.
• The same types of drugs that prevent flu in humans can supposedly also be used to prevent the bird flu. However, since viruses mutate, there is no guarantee that the ones we have now will be effective. But we also need to remember that avian flu viruses have been around a LOOONG time, with an avian bird flu killing 25-50M people in 1918.
• The WHO reports that there have been outbreaks among poultry in Asia and Europe in 2003 and 2004. Since 2003, about 120 people in Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia) have gotten infected and half of them died.
• There is currently no vaccine for H5N1, so countries are scrambling right now to get it made, including the US, where the Senate just approved a $8B budget for this.
• There are currently no documented cases in the US, though people who like worst case scenarios say there is always the possibility of infected people coming into the country.
• News about acquiring and developing a vaccine is all over the place — along with political and economic analyses of all kinds. Since this is a food blog, I’ll end with
• The authorities say you cannot get the virus from eating fully cooked poultry or eggs.

My personal suggestion is to take all this with a grain of salt. There is no reason to panic, but you could also prepare yourself to whatever degree with which you’re comfortable. When cooking, follow the necessary precautions: the ones you should be doing ANYWAY regardless of whether there is an avian flu risk or not, like washing your hands, disinfecting surfaces, avoiding cross-contamination by keeping meat and poultry away from foods that will be consumed without cooking (like fruit and salad greens), etc. If you feel the need to “stockpile”, do so wisely — canned goods, water, over-the-counter meds for fevers, etc. The most important things is to keep yourself and your family healthy by eating well-balanced meals, taking your vitamins, getting exercise and getting adequate rest — in other words, for those of you that are already taking care of yourself, keep doing what you’re doing.
There are blogs and newspapers and world organization sites that you could go to if you want more information. Here are three sites that may be helpful:

• Prepare-for-Bird-Flu.com
• Wiki on Avian Influenza
• an alternative viewpoint from the Rock River Times

Now here’s something I learned as I was sorting out all the info I found:
Strains are expressed in this way: strain/origin (the animal affected)/isolate year. This is a strain: A/Eq (for Horse, or Equine)/Ontario/68.
Subtypes are expressed using a combination of letter-number-letter-number. This is a subtype: H8N5.
So you could have similar strains, but different subtypes.