Avian Flu

  • 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00I don't see how chasing this chicken will make me better at soccer.
00:17Dear Tim and Moby, what's this avian flu thing that's all over the news?
00:22From Vincent.
00:24Avian influenza is a contagious disease that usually only affects birds and sometimes pigs.
00:29It's commonly known as the bird flu.
00:36The virus that causes bird flu is carried around the intestines of wild birds all over
00:40the world.
00:41It usually doesn't do them any harm.
00:45But when domesticated birds like chickens, ducks, and turkeys catch the virus, it can
00:49be extremely deadly.
00:54A domesticated animal is just one that humans have tamed as pets or livestock.
00:59A bad case of the bird flu can kill close to 100% of the domesticated animals it infects.
01:08In recent years, there have been outbreaks of bird flu in China, Japan, Southeast Asia,
01:14the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
01:20An outbreak is when a disease suddenly spreads across a population.
01:24In 2003 and 2004, an Asian outbreak caused over 100 million domestic birds to be killed.
01:31Some of those birds died from the disease, and many more were culled.
01:35That's when farmers kill their animals to prevent the disease from spreading.
01:40Starting in the mid-2000s, some people have caught the virus, mostly in places like Southeast
01:44Asia, China, and Egypt.
01:47Only a very small number of people have contracted avian flu, but unfortunately, many of the
01:52people who get the disease die from it.
01:55You're right, normally viruses stick with a certain kind of animal.
02:02Like when your dog has a cold, the virus isn't going to make you sick, too.
02:06But sometimes a certain type or strain of bird flu virus can be really contagious.
02:11It can cross the species barrier.
02:14The human symptoms for the bird flu are just like for other flus, fever, body aches, sneezing,
02:18and a runny nose.
02:20Health officials think that farmers and food processors probably got the virus from working
02:24without protection, like gloves and masks.
02:29And most infections have occurred in rural regions where people have free-roaming poultry
02:33flocks that can enter areas where children play.
02:37So far, bird flu has only spread from animals to humans.
02:41But it's possible that the virus could change, or mutate, and gain the ability to spread
02:45from human to human.
02:47At that point, it could become a pandemic.
02:49That's when a sickness spreads around the world.
02:53Like in 1918, a bird flu outbreak led to the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed as many
02:58as 100 million people.
03:03Some medications do work with avian flu, but right now there's no vaccine.
03:07That means there's no way to prevent it.
03:09Instead, a lot of countries, including the United States, have embargoed poultry from
03:14Southeast Asia.
03:16That means they won't import it.
03:20There have been outbreaks of avian flu in the U.S., but they've been pretty small.
03:25And the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, handles those cases pretty aggressively.
03:31You can protect yourself from bird flu by following ordinary food safety rules.
03:35Always wash your hands after handling raw poultry and eggs, and make sure they're cooked
03:39well before you eat them.
03:42There's no reason to freak out about the bird flu.
03:45The last thing that'll help is for everyone to panic.
03:47Whoa!