New Bird Flu

As we learned throughout this semester, when a pandemic or virus hits China, it tends to hit the country hard.  Although the country is very well up to date on its health resources and facilities, there are a few reasons why the viruses are able to multiply so fast.  One of the main reasons is that the main cities in China tend to be extremely populated, which makes the spread of communicable diseases that much easier for the viruses.  The latest virus to hit China is called H7N9 or better known as the bird flu.  So far the reported number of cases is 44, with 11 of those cases being lethal.  One of the dangerous elements of this virus is that it is relatively new to humans, so scientists can not accurately predict the side effects of it.  “The strain is normally found in birds, and until last month was never known to infect people."The H7N9 situation is evolving very quickly," said Nancy Cox, director of the Influenza Division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "One thing of concern is the pace at which we are seeing the identification of cases."  So far scientists have been able attribute most of the blame on poultry as most of the people who have become infected have had some sort of contact with it.  The fact that humans are likely to have picked the virus up from poultry is reassuring to scientists as they hope that the H7N9 cannot be passed from person to person.  “On a more reassuring note, investigators have found no evidence that the virus has passed directly from person to person. More than a thousand "close contacts" of the patients are being monitored by Chinese health officials, according to the World Health Organization”.  Currently experts are not worried about the spread of this virus becoming an epidemic mainly because it has only effected such as small percent of the population but they are still working on a shot and vaccine just in the case the virus does break out into a pandemic.