The Avian Influenza: Dying to Kill

"The reality is...pandemics happen. When it comes to a pandemic, we are overdue and we are under-prepared," the Secretary of United States Department of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, solemnly addresses to the press in Nashville on April 11, 2006. He later adds, "The H5N1 virus we are concerned about currently resembles the triggering virus in 1918." He is referring to the Spanish influenza pandemic that occurred right at the end of WWI and killed more than half a million people in the United States, as well as more than twenty million people worldwide.

Countless post-mortem exams reveal lungs full of fluid and blood. Scientists first foresaw that there may be cause for concern when wild birds in Hong Kong were documented to be dying of pneumonia back in 1997. Starting again in 2003, cases of tens of millions of diseased birds have been found for the past five years. These dead birds are being found in an increasing amount of territory, spreading throughout Asian countries, Eastern Europe and most recently, Africa. The numbers of dead geese and swans are continuing to rise. In some instances of severe disease outbreak, entire flocks of chicken are being wiped out in less than 48 hours. Currently, over 100 billion birds have been killed.

The ducks effortlessly flying above do not appear to be affected by any of the lethal avian disease that looms below. However, worried biologists and lab scientists know that these ducks represent their primary cause for concern. This is because they have discovered that both wild and domestic ducks are now acting as a silent reservoir for a highly pathogenic virus known as H5N1 Influenza type A, or more commonly known as the avian flu. This virus is the culprit behind the severe illness affecting all the birds. Infected birds are leaving behind highly contagious trails of the flu virus in their saliva, nasal secretions and feces. This H51 virus enters the ducks without causing any apparent symptoms and is then able to use the ducks as a natural passenger.