# 400
Not surprisingly, news of the outbreak of the H5N1 virus at a turkey farm in Suffolk has essentially crowded out all other bird flu news right now. Even here in the States, it is receiving heavy coverage on the cable news stations like CNN.
Despite much in the way of details, we are getting a lot of speculation in the news regarding how this infection could have occurred. This is a large, and sophisticated facility, with reportedly state of the art biosecurity. The concern is, if it can happen at the Bernard Matthews factory at Holton, it can happen just about anywhere.
Authorities have been quick to point out that the public is not endangered by this outbreak. And that is largely true, although some liberties have been taken with the facts, as evidenced by this report from the BBC.
Experts play down risk to humans
Experts have stressed the outbreak of bird flu at a farm in Suffolk poses no immediate risk to human health.
The outbreak has been confirmed as the H5N1 strain of the virus which has infected 270 people, and killed 164 - most in south east Asia - since 2003.
However, the virus cannot pass from human to human at present.
So far, all those who have been infected have been poultry workers who have come into intimate contact with infected birds.
Really?
It has been widely acknowledged by the WHO (World Health Organization) and other health authorities, that limited H2H (Human to Human) transmission has likely occurred in the past, with the most prominent example being the Karo cluster in Indonesia last year.
In the wake of the Indonesian outbreaks last May, the New York Times did a major article on the subject, and interviewed a number of health authorities on the subject of human-to-human transmission. This from June of 2006.
Human Flu Transfers May Exceed Reports
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: June 4, 2006 (Excerpt)
Until recently, World Health Organization representatives have said there were only two or three such cases. On May 24 Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, estimated that there had been "at least three." Then, last Tuesday, Maria Cheng, a W.H.O. spokeswoman, said there were "probably about half a dozen." She added, "I don't think anybody's got a solid number."
And Dr. Angus Nicoll, chief of flu activities at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, acknowledged that "we are probably underestimating the extent of person-to-person transmission."
The handful of cases usually cited, he said, are "just the open-and-shut ones," like the infections of nurses in the 1997 Hong Kong outbreak and of a Bangkok office worker who died in 2004 after tending her daughter who fell sick on an aunt's farm.
So saying that it cannot pass from human to human, and that all those who have been infected have been poultry workers who have come into intimate contact with birds isn’t precisely correct. It’s rare, but the general consensus is that it has happened.
Still, it is likely true that there is no real danger to the public from this outbreak. The workers at this facility will be monitored. They will probably receive prophylactic antivirals, although I’ve not seen that confirmed.
The H5N1 virus is obviously here to stay. It has struck in the heart of England, is endemic in many parts of Asia and Africa, and will no doubt make an appearance on American shores before long. Outbreaks in poultry are something we are simply going to have to get used to.
The arrival of the virus in the UK doesn’t herald the arrival of a pandemic. It likely isn’t a harbinger of a threat to the public’s health and safety.
It is simply a reminder that the virus is spreading geographically and infecting more hosts, and as it does, it increases its opportunities to mutate.
And that, someday, might unleash a pandemic.
In the meantime authorities owe it to the public to be honest about the facts, not simply issue comforting press releases designed to placate their fears.
The public aren't children. They can handle the truth.
