H5N1 spreads to mammals

H5N1 spreads to mammals

Subject: Science and tech

Context: Uncontrolled spread of the virus can be catastrophic to the already endangered bird species globally, leading to the mass extinction of several species.

More on the News:

• Since 2022, the virus has infected over 100 million birds across the globe, resulting in the deaths of over 50 million and culling of millions of poultry.
• This year, the world has been witnessing one of the worst-ever documented outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 killing millions of birds. The virus, which is known to cause severe disease and death in birds, has also been detected in mammalian species and also in humans.
• This has put health authorities on high alert regarding the implications of the large outbreak on public health.
• The transmission of H5N1 from birds to mammals is rare, but when it does occur, it can be a cause for concern, as the virus could accumulate mutations and acquire the ability to potentially initiate human outbreaks.
• H5N1 has a high mortality rate of over 60% in humans and is primarily transmitted to humans through close contact with infected birds or animals, either through handling infected poultry or exposure to contaminated environments.
• In the recent months, a few sporadic cases of human H5N1 infections have also been reported from Ecuador, Cambodia, and more recently in Chile.
• Given the ongoing threat of an influenza pandemic, monitoring the spread in mammalian populations is important in areas of close contact between humans and animals. However, since the virus does not yet transmit efficiently among humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed the risk of H5N1 to humans to be low.
• However, the large and unabated outbreak in avian species and not so rare mammalian spillovers could potentially provide the virus a chance to adapt for mammalian transmission.

Avian Flu https://optimizeias.com/avian-flu/