Word: h5n1
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Dates: during 1997-1997
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From two deaths to millions may seem like a big leap. But this strain of influenza, called H5N1, though highly virulent in birds, has never before been known to attack humans. Since no human can count on having a natural immunity to what is essentially a bird virus, we could prove especially vulnerable to infection. First discovered in South African terns in 1961, H5N1 has already raced through poultry farms in southern China, killing caged fowl by the thousands...
...health officials can tell, every patient with H5N1 flu was infected directly by a chicken or some other feathered creature. As long as the virus is being passed bird to person, rather than person to person, it is not likely to spread beyond a few isolated cases...
Rather than wait to see what the H5N1 virus does next, U.S. scientists are racing to develop an effective vaccine, working in conjunction with doctors in Hong Kong and the pharmaceutical industry. It is not going to be easy. Influenza vaccines are usually grown in a chicken-egg medium, and H5N1 virus kills chicken eggs. "We've never been faced with this situation," says Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Even if scientists succeed in genetically engineering a form of the virus that does not kill the eggs, says Fauci, it will still...
HONG KONG: First it was mad cow disease; now it?s a deadly flu virus contracted from poultry. The death of three people in Hong Kong from the H5N1 virus may be a further sign that our eating habits are biting back at us, but authorities fear that the virus caught from handling live chickens may spark a killer global pandemic...
...Thus far, doctors believe that all H5N1 patients contracted the virus from direct contact with poultry. However, the major fear that has scientists anxiously poring over petri dishes is that the virus might have mutated into form that can be transmitted from human to human, creating a pandemic that could kill millions of people. Results of U.S. Centers for Disease Control tests on H5N1 samples are expected later this week...