Casandra Hendropriyono
🐝Individuals & Societies🐝
TERM 3 ASSESSMENT:
BIRD FLU
Introduction
Bird flu, also known as avian fluenza, is an infectious disease that infects birds, and sometimes, it also spreads in humans too. There are many strains of bird flu, but they all have the same cures, preventions, etc. Bird flu was a trend in 1997, and in 2012- 2013. Many species of birds were infected by bird flu, such as turkeys, chickens and ducks. Though birds don’t usually get infected, that means that the healthy birds has a dangerous risk for keeping contact with other birds or with other humans. In this website, I will give more specified information about bird flu that infects the humans, not birds. |
^This picture shows the map, the places marked red are the ones that mostly got infected, the ones that are marked black are the places that the disease could be deadly.
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The History of Bird flu
The disease, when it was first found was originally named Fowl Plague. It was first discovered and recorded in 1878, Italy. The disease especially had two huge explosive outbreaks in 1929 and 1924 in the United States of America. The scientists found out that the disease was actually an influenza virus in 1955. From 1997, the bacterial avian influenza H5-N1 was first discovered not in birds, but in humans in Hong Kong. The influenza virus received an unknown exposure. The virus outbreak since 2011 in December, spread among 15 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, which infected 573 people, and 336/573 of those unfortunately died. Though the amount of humans that were infected by the regular flu has more than the ones that got infected by bird flu, the approximated percentage of the people who died from the disease was 60 percent.
The disease outbreaks happen irregularly throughout the whole world, bird flu is very disturbing and really troublesome to the bird industry, millions of birds has been killed not from the disease, but to prevent the disease to spread further to the other birds that weren’t affected yet. Apparently, they have different types of the virus, type A, B and type C. Type A threatens domestic animals, such as pigs. And type B and C threatens us, humans only. Here is a fact: type A is the most common type of virus that affects the humans. The Public Health Officials worried that there was a sudden rumor that the H5N1 virus could mutate into forms that would spread from one person to another.
The disease, when it was first found was originally named Fowl Plague. It was first discovered and recorded in 1878, Italy. The disease especially had two huge explosive outbreaks in 1929 and 1924 in the United States of America. The scientists found out that the disease was actually an influenza virus in 1955. From 1997, the bacterial avian influenza H5-N1 was first discovered not in birds, but in humans in Hong Kong. The influenza virus received an unknown exposure. The virus outbreak since 2011 in December, spread among 15 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, which infected 573 people, and 336/573 of those unfortunately died. Though the amount of humans that were infected by the regular flu has more than the ones that got infected by bird flu, the approximated percentage of the people who died from the disease was 60 percent.
The disease outbreaks happen irregularly throughout the whole world, bird flu is very disturbing and really troublesome to the bird industry, millions of birds has been killed not from the disease, but to prevent the disease to spread further to the other birds that weren’t affected yet. Apparently, they have different types of the virus, type A, B and type C. Type A threatens domestic animals, such as pigs. And type B and C threatens us, humans only. Here is a fact: type A is the most common type of virus that affects the humans. The Public Health Officials worried that there was a sudden rumor that the H5N1 virus could mutate into forms that would spread from one person to another.
Symptoms
This is a list of what you will be experiencing or the signs when you have bird flu:
This is a list of what you will be experiencing or the signs when you have bird flu:
- Explosive diarrhea
- Coughing (until it affects the brain, for an example, every time you cough, your mead hurts)
- Normal headache (there is a difference between a normal headache than dehydration, so keep that in check)
- Runny nose, just like a regular flu, hence one of the reason it got its name
- Muscles aches
- Hard core sore throat
- Breathing issues
- And other diseases in general
This picture shows a man who is hospitalized from the disease.
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Causes of Bird Flu
As I mentioned earlier from above, the type H5N1 is the first disease to occur in the humans. Although this type naturally affects wild ducks, it can easily spread to domestic fowl. This disease spreads through the human by contact with the infected bird with the oozes fro the eyes and or the mouth. The human can also catch bird flu from its droppings. In rare cases, people got the disease cleaning out the birds, the infected ones it is. There is also another rare case, that is back in china, it is a concern that there were many reports of customers of infection via inhalation of strange materials in the live fowl markets. And sometimes they get infected from washing themselves, swimming or basically using the water all over the body may contain the bird droppings too. But here is the thing, it is impossible for the human to be infected from eating 100% cooked birds and eggs, the meat is safe when it is cooked at 165ºF and above. Some cases states that the infected person got infected from another that already has the disease, it onky happens with close contact. But so far, there is not a spread of bird flu within the type of H5N1. |
Prevention
When you first receive bird flu and then you visited the doctor, the first thing they may do is to give you flu shots. But make sure to keep this in check, that if you are having bird flu and regular human flu at the same time it could cause a deadly form of the flu. The CDC completely does not recommend you to travel to places especially in the plane, obviously because of the air circulation, it may spread easily to others and also will get you anxious and very air sick. Try avoiding the following as best as you can:
When you first receive bird flu and then you visited the doctor, the first thing they may do is to give you flu shots. But make sure to keep this in check, that if you are having bird flu and regular human flu at the same time it could cause a deadly form of the flu. The CDC completely does not recommend you to travel to places especially in the plane, obviously because of the air circulation, it may spread easily to others and also will get you anxious and very air sick. Try avoiding the following as best as you can:
- Under cooked birds and eggs, as I said earlier, under 165ºF
- Have contact with infected birds, and if you are unsure about that (since sometimes they wander of with no protection) then try to not have contact with them at all because you wont know whether the bird has the disease or not.
- And lastly, try to avoid open air markets
Cures and Treatment
In most of the bird influenza cases, they use “tamiflu” and “relenza” for curing parts of the disease by reducing the harshness of the disease. Nevertheless, this treatment must be given within forty- eight hours after the symptoms first appears, or you will face consequences. If you got the disease, you will be inserted into an isolation so that it would not spread to anyone you made contact with. And because you will get respiratory difficulties, the doctor will give you a breathing machine as well. And if anyone who is close with you, for an example, your family members, either took you to the hospital or lived with you when you already received the symptoms are not sick, they would be treated with antivirals so that they would have a lower chance of getting the disease.
In most of the bird influenza cases, they use “tamiflu” and “relenza” for curing parts of the disease by reducing the harshness of the disease. Nevertheless, this treatment must be given within forty- eight hours after the symptoms first appears, or you will face consequences. If you got the disease, you will be inserted into an isolation so that it would not spread to anyone you made contact with. And because you will get respiratory difficulties, the doctor will give you a breathing machine as well. And if anyone who is close with you, for an example, your family members, either took you to the hospital or lived with you when you already received the symptoms are not sick, they would be treated with antivirals so that they would have a lower chance of getting the disease.
Change
Since the 1800's bird flu has been going on up until now, that is why it is still considered a modern day disease. This picture below was the latest trend (in 2013 December) and shows the how many human cases were there on each day, and as you can see, 6th of December was the day that most of the cases and deaths occur.
Since the 1800's bird flu has been going on up until now, that is why it is still considered a modern day disease. This picture below was the latest trend (in 2013 December) and shows the how many human cases were there on each day, and as you can see, 6th of December was the day that most of the cases and deaths occur.
Campaign
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Nowadays, the world of science knows better about the diseases, we now have technological equipment for medical needs, such as microscope (for bacterial needs). And since the disease was going on since the 19th century, we get to know what to do and what not to do since we have learned a lot of things, and if you wonder why this year or the year before didn't have the trend of bird flu, well that is because we increased the level of medical treatments.
<This picture shows a scientist using technology equipment. |
Bibliography 👀
http://www.healthline.com/health/avian-influenza#RiskFactors4
http://www.news-medical.net/health/Bird-Flu-(H5N1)-Treatment.aspx
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AvianFlu/story?id=1170337
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/avian-flu/pages/prevention.aspx
http://www.techcrates.com/advances-in-healthcare-tech/
http://www.news-medical.net/health/Bird-Flu-(H5N1)-Treatment.aspx
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AvianFlu/story?id=1170337
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/avian-flu/pages/prevention.aspx
http://www.techcrates.com/advances-in-healthcare-tech/