Why bird flu could be the biggest health problem in 2025 – Firstpost

Covid appeared suddenly, spread quickly and killed millions of people around the world. Since then, it’s fair to say that most people have been nervous about the emergence of the next big infectious disease – be that a virus, a bacteria, a fungus or a parasite.

With Covid On the decline (thanks to highly effective vaccines), the three infectious diseases of greatest concern to health authorities are malaria (a parasite), HIV (a virus) and tuberculosis (a bacterium). They kill together
about two million people per year.

And then there are the watch lists of priority pathogens – particularly those that have become resistant to the drugs commonly used to treat them, such as:
Antibiotics and antivirals.

Scientists also need to constantly scan the horizon for the next potential problem. Although this can occur with any form of pathogen, certain groups are more likely to cause more rapid outbreaks than others and that includes Influenza viruses.

An influenza virus is a major concern at the moment and is poised to become a serious problem in 2025. This is sometimes influenza A subtype H5N1 referred to as “Bird flu”. This virus is widespread both Wild and domestic birds such as poultry. Recently it has also been affecting dairy cattle
in several US states and is found in
Horses in Mongolia.

In flu cases start to increase With animals like birds, there is always a concern that it could spread to humans. In fact, bird flu can infect humans
61 cases in the USA this year alreadywhich is usually due to farm workers coming into contact with infected cattle and people
Drink raw milk.

Compared with only two cases in America in the last two yearsThat’s a pretty big increase. If you combine this with a
30 percent Mortality rate from human infectionsBird flu is quickly moving up the health authorities’ priority list.

Fortunately, H5N1 bird flu does not appear to be transmittable from person to person. which greatly reduced its likelihood of causing a pandemic in humans. Influenza viruses must attach to molecular structures called sialin receptors on the outside of cells in order to Go in and start replicating.

Influenza viruses, which are highly adapted to humans, recognize these sialin receptors very well and can thus easily enter our cells, which contributes to their spread between people. Avian influenza, on the other hand, is highly adapted to the sialin receptors of birds and has some mismatches in “binding” (attachment) to the human receptors. In its current form, H5N1 cannot easily spread to humans.

However, a recent study showed that a single mutation in the flu genome could cause H5N1 to spread further
from person to personwhich could trigger a pandemic.

If this strain of bird flu makes this switch and can begin transmitting between people, governments will need to act quickly to contain the spread. Disease control centers around the world have created these
Pandemic preparedness plans against bird flu and other threatening diseases.

For example, the UK has purchased 5 million doses of the H5 vaccine The may
protect against bird fluin preparation for this risk in 2025.

Even without the possibility of spread between humans, bird flu is likely to have an even greater impact on animal health in 2025. The not only has a major impact on animal welfare, but also the potential to disrupt food supplies and also have economic impacts.

Everything is connected

This work all falls under the umbrella of
“One Health”: Look at Human, animal and environmental health as interconnected entitiesall with the same meaning and the same effect on each other.

By understanding and preventing diseases in our environment and the animals around us, we can better prepare and combat them these diseases invade People. Likewise, by monitoring and combating infectious diseases in humans, we can protect our animals and the environment also the health of the environment.

However, we must not forget the ongoing “slow pandemics” in humans such as malaria, HIV, tuberculosis and other pathogens. Fighting them is of utmost importance, as is searching for possible new diseases.

Conor Meehan, Associate Professor of Microbial Bioinformatics, Nottingham Trent University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.