For the Birds

If you travel, have a poultry farm, or just like to eat fried chicken, you may be concerned about catching the bird flu.  Here are some ways to prevent the disease from coming home with you. First, it is important to know how people become infected.  As of yet, there is no person-to-person transmission of [...]

With the bird flu/avian flu becoming more and more of a global concern, it is of ever increasing importance for people to have an understanding of what the bird flu is.  Here is a brief description to help you out. The term “avian flu” literally means “flu from viruses adapted to birds”.  However, it is [...]

When something as potentially deadly as the bird flu shows up on the health scene, it is cause for concern for many people.  No one wants to get sick, let alone with a virus that is potentially fatal.  The biggest concern is how they could catch it from an infected person. There are several reasons [...]

Contrary to popular belief, the bird flu is not a new occurrence in humans. The bird flu has been around for centuries, and has been affecting humans for centuries. However, there has been a surge of bird flu occurrences in the past few years. The time line of the bird flu begins in 1918 with [...]

The bird flu has become a problem for Americans in the past few years. There is a common fear that the bird flu may become a pandemic, as it spreads to major cities such as New York City. New York City has taken the initiative of developing a bird flu contingency plan. The officials of [...]

While currently there have been no cases of the bird flu found in the United States, some scientists believe that it is sure to happen sometime in our future.  Besides being concerned for their own well-being, many Americans wonder about the health of their extended family members – their pets.  Here are some things that [...]

Avian influenza, or bird flu, is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. All birds appear to be susceptible, though some species are more resistant to infection than others. Wild waterfowl can then be responsible for the primary introduction of the infection into domestic poultry. In farms where [...]

There is several risk groups associated with the avian influenza virus that should be extra cautious in the case of an outbreak or bird flu pandemic.  These groups cannot be determined for certain, but are predicted to include infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with chronic medical conditions. While the susceptibility to the pandemic [...]

The World Health Organization has said that “it is extremely worried” about a cluster of H5N1 avian influenza, related human deaths in Indonesia. The reason Indonesia is causing such concern is because was no sign of diseased poultry in the immediate area raising the possibility that the infection spread from human to human contact. Indonesia, [...]

The bird flu has technically been around for a very long time in aquatic bird species; however, the first H5N1 outbreak was first seen in geese in China in 1996. Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by a type A strain of the influenza virus.  Most species of wild birds that carry [...]